More low level quests for now

On my second day I manage to get Ryul and Shalia to join me. Darx instead decides to spend time with his mom’s old friends. I guess they have a lot of stories to tell about both her and his dad. It would be good for him.

The quest I and the others do is helping someone move. Apparently, a family is moving into the Dark Dragon region from another part of the city. We need to travel to their old home, help their furniture into the cart and once at their new home, help them unload again. Two months ago, before we got our awakening ceremony, this would have been hard work. But now that we are A ranks, this furniture feels rather on the lighter side.

Doing this job with low-ranks or non-adventurers would probably require more than twice of us and would also take much longer. With just us three, I am sure this family saves up on quite a cost. In the end we get paid 60 copper coins. That’s 20 for each of us. Low pay again, but it's better than nothing.

After dinner in the guild hall, I discover what Darx has been doing all day. He’s been doing combat training in the Dark Dragon arena!!! Dang it, Merlara. You should have told me! I could have had a fight yesterday! I quickly demand Jason to face me in a duel. I feel the need to prove myself against him. And gosh darn it, this guy has a strong defense. Jason is quite simply the definition of a tank. He isn’t able to defeat me, but I am also not capable of defeating him. I quite enjoyed that challenge. Can’t wait to face him again.

On the third day the rat killing quest is back, at the same warehouse too. This time I am dragging Ari and Darx along. The warehouse owner tells me that yesterday nobody noticed any rats, so I did my job well. But this morning another mass of rats was scurrying everywhere, hence the new quest. Odd, but a quest is a quest. Let’s do it.

I make use of my [Divine Chains] like usual, Darx gets his water elemental to flush out the rats and drown them, and Ari uses her [True Aim] skill in combination with those throwing knives she keeps insisting are called kunai. We are done much faster now, and this time we kill more than 40 rats. I know because I line them up like last time. Ari and Darx find it weird for some reason, but the warehouse owner is quite pleased that we got rid of the rats so quickly. 40 copper coins again. So, that is 13 for each and Darx and Ari is fine with letting me have the last coin.

The rest of the day I spend in the arena and spar against several Dark Dragon adventurers. Man, these people are skilled. Especially the magic users got some really neat tricks. I manage to stand my ground against a lot of them and even defeat a few. But I often get defeated as well, mostly by the veteran adventurers.

I am not even irritated that I lose to them. Losing against experienced people who have already proven their worth is never shameful. I also tend to learn some new tricks every time I lose, so losing actually makes me stronger. But most importantly, win or lose, my opponents are always respectful to me and nobody treats me with any bigotry because of my ears. That is such a gift. At times, I even forget that most of my guild members are humans.

When in-between fights, I make certain to study the other Dark Dragons fight. The fights that interest me most are the ones between Darx and Jason. I keep trying to find a hole in Jason’s defense but short of an arrow coming in at the right angle, I just can’t. The pole of his halberd acts like a shield, blocking Darx’s sword every time. Part of me is actually thinking of switching to a halberd too now.

On day 4 I did a solo quest in the city and earned 30 copper this time. That brings my total to 104 copper coins. At the rate this is going, it should take me another 4 days to get the 2 silver I need to pay my monthly fee at the Dark Dragon guildhall. Hmm, 8 days of questing just to pay my upkeep is not a good system. I need to make money faster. I should start looking for something a step higher.

Day 5 has the rat quest again. This is no longer a coincidence. Something is going on there. I head over there together with Ari. With just us 2 we can take care of it easily and we get 20 copper each. But after we finish, I make sure to have a chat with the owner.

“Don’t you think it’s strange to get so many rats 3 times in a row?” I ask him.

“I’ve been thinking that myself.” The owner replies. “At first I thought that maybe someone could be releasing rats into my warehouse, but I can’t for the life of me think of anyone who would do that.”

“I’ve got a suggestion for you.” I tell him. “Why don’t you write out a quest to the Dark Dragons to guard over your warehouse at night. When you hand the quest over to the guild, tell them to send it straight to me, since I’ve already been here before and already know the details. Then I can make a party with some of my friends and we can keep an eye on your warehouse and discover how the rats keep coming in.”

The warehouse owner listens carefully and at the end asks me how much he expects me to pay for it.

“How about 2 silver?”

“2 full silver?” He asks surprised.

“If we don’t find out the cause, you will keep getting rats every 2 days. That is a rough 160 copper coins per week? I honestly feel rooting out the problem is going to save you money in the long run.” I reply. “And if we don’t find anything, then the quest is a failure and you don’t have to pay us.”

The guy thinks it over for a while, then agrees with me.

“Alright, I’ll go and write down the quest. You just make sure you and your friends get some rest this afternoon. I am expecting you to not fall asleep while on guard duty.”

Wonderful. That should get me to my monthly guild fee a lot quicker. Then again, I’m going to need some help with this. I know I’m not very fond of rogues, but with her speed and agility, Ari might actually be great for something like this.

Once at the guildhall, I have lunch with my friends and inform Ari about my plans. She agrees and also suggests me to sleep a bit in the afternoon. I’ll be sure to do that, but first I want to test myself in the arena again.

When I get there, Darx is dueling Jason again. He is doing quite a bit better this time. But eventually Jason creates a false opening and Darx goes for it. As Darx comes in aggressively, Jason sticks the butt of his halberd in between Darx’s legs and then pulls Darx’s foot off the ground. Darx actually doesn’t fall immediately. Even while dancing on one foot, he is trying to find his balance. But then Jason comes in with his shoulder and bam, Darx is on the ground.

Darx tries again, but this time Jason hooks his halberd behind Darx’s sword and yanks it out of his hands. No wait, Darx refuses to let go of his sword. But that only results in Darx getting pulled to the arena floor. Yip, that’s another loss.

After this, Darx takes a break from dueling. I quickly rush over to Jason and challenge him.

“Ready to lose this time, newbie?” Jason asks with a smile on his face.

“You will be the one who’s losing today, old man!” I reply with a similar smile.

We get into positions and we start our duel. I come out aggressively with my shield first, forcing Jason to block me. Then I strike with my sword, except he blocks it with the butt of his halberd. That’s fine, it **** him to remove the axe head from my shield. This leaves me a chance to try and shield bash him again. I keep up the **** with both my shield and sword, constantly forcing him to move back. Eventually, he will come at the end of the arena and stand there with a wall at his back.

But all of a sudden, immediately after blocking my shield, he steps aside and my sword strikes at empty space. I quickly turn to face him, but this time it is me getting attacked. It is now my turn to defend, and I only have such little space to fall back. This isn’t good. If I’m going to hit him, I’m going to have to let an attack go through. I activate [Endure] to prepare myself for the incoming pain and then I attack Jason with my sword. The lower end of his halberd hits my side. It is protected by metal armor but I still feel the vibration. My sword gets past Jason’s defense and the metal twang of sword on armor is heard. Then Jason brings the butt of his halberd under my right knee and tries to pull me off balance. I have seen him use this trick often, so I was prepared. I shift my weight to my left leg and then just lift my right leg and let his halberd go underneath. This now leaves Jason without a good defense. Finally, a real opening. So, I strike with my sword and give him a good whack on the helmet, causing it to shift a little to the right.

Jason takes a few steps back and pushes his helmet back. “Nice one, Leona.” He compliments me. “A shame you had to take a blow to make it happen, but you were well armored enough. Good call.”

“Yeah, I finally beat you.” I gloat.

“Beat me?” Jason asks. “Nah girl. Next time, I will merely stop playing.”

I raise my sword and shield and say, “I can take anything you’ve got.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Jason says. “Why don’t you beat her first, then you get to see me at my finest.”

I look over to see who Jason pointed at and I see it is that helmeted bitch, Merlara. Sure, I’ll take her. Maybe after I beat her, she will learn I’m good enough for a real quest.

Merlara takes Jason’s place in the arena. Even before she pulls her weapons, I start eyeing her for any weak spots. Her armor seems to have 2 layers to it. The first one is a layer of grey scale armor which covers most of her body, the second is a layer of black plate armor which covers the important parts of her body. That means that if I want to have any critical hits, I’m going to have to aim for the spots in between her armor.

When she raises her weapons, I see her pull out a sword and shield, both made from black metal. So, she has a fighting style similar to my own, huh. Except her gear is of higher quality than mine. I wonder if the difference in gear really is going to make the difference or not.