Quest time

The next week I feel it is high time for me to go on a quest. Last week’s training with the other Dark Dragons was good practice and I learned a lot, but I’m going to need to make some money if I want to stay.

I head for the quest board to find something interesting and I notice Merlara is there too. She is in full armor, including helmet, like always. I think it’s a bit silly for her to wear her helmet inside the guildhall. It feels kinda like she’s hiding her face for some reason.

I stand next to her and say, “Good morning, Merlara.”

“Morning.” She responds casually.

“Are there any good quests up for beginners?”

“Sewer quest.” Merlara responds coldly.

The sewer? I’m not exactly fond of going into the sewers. Besides, Dark Dragons are respected adventurers. Surely, we are not expected to go into the sewers.

“Aren’t there any quests above ground? I kinda wouldn’t mind exploring the city a bit.”

I hear Merlara sigh behind her helmet and I’m pretty sure she rolled her eyes too.

“There’s a blockage in the sewer. It’s in Dark Dragon controlled territory. That means it’s in our jurisdiction and our duty to take care of it. Start with it.”

Then Merlara grabs a paper describing a different quest and walks off. What a weird woman.

Fortunately, Kiara walks in and takes Merlara’s spot.

“Good morning, Darx.” Kiara greets me. “Not training in the arena today?”

“Nah, I’m thinking of taking on a quest today. I got to make some money after all.” I tell my former mentor.

I then see a quest form with a perculiar name. I point at it and ask Kiara, "Hey, what does 'fund quest' mean?"

"That is a quest meant to collect money for the guild." Kiara explains. "You still get some good money out of it, but the main purpose of this quest is to fund the guild's treasury. Aelbrecht spends a lot of the guild's own money to repair roads, pay for talent shows, and even funds a few schools around here. These quests are usually quite hard and not advised for new guild members. You are still lacking in experience and you also need time building your own funds."

I see. So that is how the guild gets its reputation. They are not just strong or don't just push guild pride, they actively put an effort in improving the city and the lives of those in it.

“Hey, do you know of any good starter quests?” I ask.

Kiara looks over the board and reads a few quests. Then she grabs a paper from the board and says, “This should be a good one.”

An hour later, I am in the sewers clearing some pests. The giant rats here are bigger, more dangerous and far more numerous than the ones I’ve seen before. Fortunately, Kiara is with me as supervisor. She told me to go in front and take on all the giant rats by myself.

“Are you sure it is a good idea to come alone?” I ask when I get a break from being attacked by vermin. “I could really use Ryul and Shalia here.”

“This is a low-level quest, you can do this by yourself.” Kiara explains. “Besides, it’s a low paying quest. The more people in your party, the more people you have to share your earnings with. You should be happy that I’m just tagging along and not participating. If I did, I might demand my cut.”

I sigh and say,” Fine, but why the sewers? It smells down here.”

“Before this city had sewers plague outbreaks happened often. Sewers make it so diseases have a more difficult time to spread. Cleaning the sewers regularly is part of keeping our territory in the safe. We also don’t want the wererats to get a foothold in here.”

I was about to ask Kiara what a wererat is, but just at that moment, I turn a corner and come across two of them. They were similar to a giant rat, except they walked on two legs and carried large wooden sticks for weapons. They were quick to attack me, but I first used my ring and water magic to blast one of them into the sewage. No way I am going to use my magic to manipulate sewage, that’s just yuck.

While the second wererat is distracted about his friend in the sewage, I rush at him and take him down with my sword. Then I use [Water Spear] on the one in the sewage and take him down too.

After a few more wererats we finally come across the obstruction. Apparently the wererats had built a dam in one of the tunnels to cross over from one side to the other without having to go through the sewage. I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to get in there either. Bet their dam blocks the flow of sewage water and causes toe water levels to rise, especially if they build multiple dams all over the place.

In order to take out this dam, I cast a few [Water Spear] spells at it. It needs a good couple of them, but I succeed. Man, I will need to find a better spell to take care of large solid objects like this. Maybe I should ask Aelbrecht if I can spend some time in that same library Kiara stumbled into.

“Looks like you had little difficulty taking care of all that.” Kiara says. “I guess it’s safe enough for you to take on a more difficult dungeon next time.”

Though, on the way back, suddenly a crocodile jumped out of the sewer-water. I have only ever read about these creatures. I have never seen one of them before. So many scales. It looked to me like an armored fish.

While I was stunned by the sight of the creature, all of a sudden, a black tendril shot towards it from behind me and wrapped itself around the crocodile’s mouth. I checked to see where the tendril came from and I see Kiara. She is standing there, her hand pointed at the crocodile while a black tendril came from her shadow on the ground. Then she moved her arm to her right, and the tendril dragged the crocodile in the same direction, causing it to roll on its back.

Once the crocodile was struggling on its back, Kiara told me to stick my sword in his belly. Her command made me wake up from my daze and helped me react. I unsheathe my sword and cut open the crocodile’s belly. He twitches a bit after that, but then he stops moving.

Kiara then ends her shadow manipulation and raises her hands above the now defeated crocodile. From her hands, shadows appear again, which crawl into the crocodile’s wound and start slithering under its skin. Seeing that skin shift and ripple is making me a bit uneasy.

“What are you doing?” I ask a bit nervously.

“I am skinning it. Craftsmen tend to pay decent for crocodile leather.” Kiara says. “By the way, you better keep your sword up. I can’t defend myself in case a wererat shows up.”

I then stand guard over Kiara. After a few minutes, Kiara’s shadows have separated the crocodile from its skin and she has it all wrapped up.

After that we leave the sewers. I get paid for the quest and then I accompany Kiara to an armor smith she knows. While she haggles, I peruse the shop a bit. There was a nice-looking armor that I became quite interested in. It had metal plates on the inside, but was covered with leather on the outside. Quite similar to the armor Wendy switched to before defeating Dante.

“It’s a brigandine.” I hear Kiara as she sneaks up behind me. “Do you like it?”

“I kinda do.” I say. “Since it is made of metal, it should give me better protection than what I have now. And the leather makes it look fashionable.”

“You’re right, it would be a good upgrade.” Kiara agrees. “But do you have enough money to pay for it?”

I take out my pouch and check the money I have. There is the silver I made at home myself, some silver coins my mother gave to me when I left home, also the ones I made with my friends from the pirate cave, now also a few coppers from the sewer quest. Suddenly I notice a golden coin in between there. Oh, yeah. That’s right. It’s from that bandit attack some 7 months ago. When Mia and I returned Mr. Enzo’s sword. She managed to get two golden coins out of him for that. One for her and one for me. Thanks to her I should be able to afford this brigandine.

I smile as I take out the golden coin and recall the memories on how I got it and how grateful I am to Mia. Then I remember how Mia couldn’t remain faithful in the 6 months we were apart and my smile turns to sadness. You know, if I don’t spend this golden coin, I will just keep getting reminded of Mia over and over again. I should spend it on this brigandine. At least then some good came out of it.

I turn to the shop owner and tell him I am interested in buying the brigandine. He helps me put it on and, though it is heavier than the leather armor I am used to, it feels weirdly comfortable. I would buy the accompanying pauldrons as well, but Kiara warns me that I need to keep some money saved up to pay my monthly guild fees and unexpected repairs for my new armor.

As I finish paying the shop keeper, I hear the shop’s door behind me open and close. Just another customer. No need to pay attention. But then I hear the new customer call out my name. Is it somebody who knows me? I turn around to see who it is.