“We need to have a guild employee with you to monitor your party.” Was what we were told at the adventurer’s guild.
We had gotten there, Paulina had explained the direct request quests and handed them over. Then as we were accepting the first one of them, we got that little bit of news from the guild.
“Why is that necessary? Brian hasn’t failed any of his guild quests, has he?” Paulina asked. Do they send out someone with the party if the party fails a lot of quests?
“I understand that, but you also have to consider our view on this matter. He, and the rest of you, have been completing quests so fast that it should be impossible. We simply must know what you are doing differently, so other adventurers can also use similar techniques.” The employee explained.
Yeah, good luck with that. Just buy an airship and use that. I’m sure every adventurer will have the money for one.
“Brian, what do you think?” Paulina turned to me and asked. Then she added in a quieter voice. “This is your quest, so you do have the right to just say you won’t do it under that condition if you don’t want to.”
“Will that reflect badly on us?” I asked quietly.
“No. It will actually look bad on the guild, as the quest giver, my father, clearly trusts your report and wants more of them from you. So for the guild to set a condition that you don’t agree with, causing the quest to be left undone, or having to be given to someone else will reflect on the guild. Remember that as an adventurer, outside of emergencies, you are allowed to refuse a quest for any reason, including no reason.”
“... maybe I should …” I pondered my options.
If I refuse, the guild might panic and allow us to go without someone spying on us, considering the quest giver. Or they might just say “The named adventurer didn’t accept the quest.” or something like that. But they should realize that Paulina will tell the real reason to her father. And even if the quest actually fails, the Earl can just ask me to do the quest outside of the guild's influence. There is nothing strange about a lord sending someone out to check the safety on the roads in their territory. And while usually those missions are given to adventurers, sometimes the knight order does them instead. Or so I’ve been told.
But at the same time, refusing the guild’s auditor would look bad on me. Like I want to keep secrets. Which I of course do, but that’s a different matter. They might ask for something more next time, like me showing my status or something. But at that point I could just say F them and quit being an adventurer. I don’t need the money and while sure it would be cool to get to be an S-rank adventurer, it might not be worth it.
“Paulina, say I accidentally happened to travel up and down the road we were supposed to check today, then I just happened to write a report about it and deliver it to your father, do you think he would still pay me for it?” I asked so that the adventurer’s guild employee definitely heard all of it.
“Of course he would. And he would cancel the guild quest right after that. He might even stop sending jobs to the guild as a whole, considering how much they seem to doubt people he trusts.” Paulina answered, keeping up my not at all subtle hint that I really didn’t want anyone from the guild to come with us.
“Well, I guess that will make this simple.” I said before turning back to the guild employee. “I’d like to ref…”
“Please don’t!” She panicked a bit and interrupted me. “Please just wait a moment. I’ll call the guild master. I’m sure he will approve you doing this quest without anyone from the guild having to monitor you.”
“... sure. Go call him then.” I said. “But please do hurry. I don’t have all day.” I added, just to add a bit more pressure to the guild.
It’s not that I want to do this, but come on. You have no reason to send someone with us. Overdrive is one thing, but having to explain B.E.S. Big Core to the guild. Yeah, I’d rather not.
“I already said that he needs an observer, so make sure he has one.” I heard someone speaking in a loud voice, as he was approaching the front counter.
“But…” The employee likely tried to tell him something.
“No buts. Either he is observed, or he doesn’t take the job.” The loud male said, as they finally made it to the main room of the guild.
He was probably in his early thirties, by my estimation. Not too muscular, but still decently well built and his hair was lime green in color.
I guess I never talked about hair colors in this world, so I’ll mention it now. Most people, about 85%, have what I would call ‘normal’ hair colors. You know, brown, black, blond, ginger. Things you see on earth, outside of someone visiting a hair salon. But there are also some with colors that are completely wild, like his lime green. Assuming that his hair is a natural color, not the result of some magic hair dye.
On the other hand, dhampirs seem to have a much higher chance for rare hair colors. Putting Lua’s crimson and Ria’s silver aside, all of them have some more rare color. Red and blue were the most common in the village, but there was also silver and even the indigo hair of Rosemary. I originally thought that the color of the hair came from magic attributes or something, but that clearly isn’t the case, as shown by Lua and Ria.
Humans are probably just a boring race. Maybe the unnatural hair colors are caused by interbreeding with other races. … or maybe not. I don’t know. I think Tahlia would be better at calculating genetics than I am. But then again, I feel like she would rather invent a time machine or some sort of teleportation device than work out how genetics work.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand.
“Is that the guild master?” I asked Paulina. I know the last time I interacted with a GM for the first time, it didn’t go so well, so if he is the GM, I’ll try to accommodate him a bit better. I still won’t allow an observer, but maybe I won’t threaten his job or something like that.
“No. He is the assistant guild master. He is also the third son of baron Hari Bloggs.” Paulina answered.
“Oh. Alright.” So he is just an assistant GM. I guess going for his job is fair game then. … Okay, I’ll try not to do it.
“So, are you the kid who cheats on his quests?” The assistant GM asked.
“Cheats? Hardly. I can understand your suspicions about the safety check, but how do you cheat an escort quest or a monster hunt?” I asked.
“So you admitted it. And it is quite easy. You just buy the monster corpses from other adventurers and have the quest giver fake the paperwork.” The AGM answered.
“... alright. Well, I guess you could.” I agreed.
“And another admission. Because of your less than normal speed at completing quests, we have decided to send an observer with you on your next mission. I believe you will have no problem with that.”
“Well, actually I do. And I won’t go on a quest with an observer.” I answered.
“... I see. Well, if that is how you want it, so be it. Leila, cancel the quest.” He said to the employee.
“But sir…” She began.
“Cancel it. He is a cheater and until he is willing to go out with an observer, he won’t be taking a single quest from this guild.”
“But sir, the quest he was about to take is nominated for him. And it comes from the Earl’s house.” Leila finally was able to say what she wanted.
“... wa? Show me the quest form!”
“Sir, please don’t yell. Lady Paulina from the Sawyer house is also present and she would be going on the quest with Mr. Brian.” Leila added, as she handed the form over to the AGM.
The AGM quickly confirmed that statement, by making eye contact with Paulina. Paulina just waved back playfully. The AGM then read through the quest form.
“... fine. Because it comes from the Earl and a member of his family is here to make sure it is done right.” He muttered, before talking to us. “But don’t think this is it. Just because you have contact with the nobility, doesn’t mean that you can cheat your rank.”
“I don’t cheat.” I told him. Well, I do, but not with these quests. I cheat in all the other places. I cheat the system, not the guild. “I’ll be accepting an apology from you when you realize that.” I added.
“Then just take an observer with you.” He said. “If you can show them that you don’t do anything wrong, I’ll gladly apologize for my words.”
“Sorry, but not to this quest. I have to use some quite secretive techniques to get this quest done in a day, which I don’t want to share. I hope you understand that.”
“Just because it is the adventurer’s right to keep their status secret outside of their registration, doesn’t mean that the guild likes it. But do as you wish.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Leila. “So we are good to go?”
“Yes. I apologize for all the issues and the delay.”
“Paulina, are you sure this won’t cause any problems?” I asked as we rode Overdrive towards the north gate. Today’s check was going to be on the road heading north. Ironically enough, we would actually pass the town of Bloggs, where the AGM is from. We would also go a bit beyond it, all the way to a larger town ruled by a viscount, who would be attending the birthday party.
“As the guild gave in, I think it will be fine. But if they cause more troubles, we will help you with them. But at the same time, the guild master should know your situation … with the system, so I don’t think he will allow anything more than that.”
“... oh. But the assistant GM doesn’t know?”
“I believe the info was limited just to guild masters, if I recall correctly.”
“Then how do you know about it? Well, I know I told you, but how do you know info about the guild?”
“I have my ways.”
“Of course you do.”
Once we were outside, we swapped to Big Core.
Other than that, the mission went basically the same as it did last time. First, we flew up, north, all the way, marking all of the problem monsters and otherwise completing the report.
Then we had a small lunch break.
“Mystik Wok. Cook up my Hungry Burger.”
Spoiler
[collapse]
This was going to be today's lunch. I really was craving for a burger. And admittedly, I had eaten all of the bento that I was given by the kitchen staff at the manor already, because I had been hungry for the entire day. So I had to Wok something up. And when you are super hungry, what is better than a huge burger? Well, maybe pizza. Or a kebab roll.
But a burger might still be the best because the excessive carbs will make you feel full faster.
“Brian? Want to explain that?” Paulina asked.
“I can, but what about it? It's just a card that makes me food.”
“It cooked up your monster, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you use it to cook up any of your monsters?”
“Pretty much yeah. But some of my monsters are … metallic, so I don’t think they would taste that good.”
“But you can cook a dragon with it?”
“Yeah.”
“... I see. How much would something like that cost? Say I wanted to buy a cooked dragon for a party.”
“Like for a birthday party? We can come up with a price both of us can agree to. Depending on the dragon.” I answered. Admittedly, I have been wanting to taste dragon as well, so I’m more than willing to go along with this. Sure I could do it in the dhampir village, but I think a dragon deserves a more fitting place to be served than that, no offense. And I can serve them dragon blood instead.
“But that burger, it is way too large. The ones in the capital are small enough that you can hold them in your hand.” Paulina said.
“... there are burgers in the capital?”
“Yes. They come from a tiny dungeon, turned restaurant, which only makes burgers. They are quite tasty.”
“... okay. Well, that’s cool. But don’t worry about the part where the burger is too big. I’ll just use this. Micro Ray.”
Spoiler
span>
nro_8 I would use Shrink for this, but as Shrink is structure deck only (until later sets) Brian doesn’t have it.
[collapse]
A strange device appeared and beamed the cooked burger. As it did, the burger shrunk down to a size where it was no larger than a regular burger you can get at a standard fast food place.
After the device disappeared, I picked up the burger and bit into it.
“... alright I guess.” It wasn’t the best burger by any means. It was fine, but I’m not the biggest fan of tomato in my burgers and it needed some sauce. So remove the tomato, add some ketchup and mayo, maybe some pickles and the burger would likely be better. But that is just my opinion.
“Brian, can you make me one?” Alice asked.
“Sure. What about you two? Do you want one as well?” I asked Paulina and Ria.
“Yes please.”
“If you would be so kind.”
With the positive answers, I cooked up four more burgers, shrunk them down and we all enjoyed them. Yes, I wanted a second for myself. I’m hungry.
There was one problem with using Micro Ray though. It removed the healing effect of the food. It was still good food and did fill your stomach, but it wouldn’t heal you.
I guess I need to get Shrink instead. At least with that, I should get half of the healing. Hopefully. Also, in case you were wondering, Ria really liked the burger, but Alice and Paulina just found it … fine. Like I did. But then again, Ria likes basically anything. I guess after a lifetime of just blood, anything will taste good. I even asked Ria what her favorite this far has been and she gave an immediate answer.
“The black pudding stuff Agatha made.”
Well, a dhampir is a dhampir. Now I really need to make some blood sausages. Then I can make bloody hot dogs. … wow that sounded wrong. But still, I think it would be good. Maybe make a blood sauce for it as well. I think you can do that at least. And as I can now freeze time in my inventory, excuse me, in my storage, I can make a big batch of stuff and just hold the rest of it there. Convenience. Also, we need to look into that DDF kitchen and smithy project.
After we finished our burgers, we got into a freshly summoned Big Core for our return trip. We also had a monster to kill. Alice and Ria will have to deal with it as I’m still under the exp ban from Laura. But I’m sure they will manage, even though it is a B-rank monster.
nro_8 Next time, some Alice POV as she fights a B-rank monster in the wild.
“We need to have a guild employee with you to monitor your party.” Was what we were told at the adventurer’s guild.
We had gotten there, Paulina had explained the direct request quests and handed them over. Then as we were accepting the first one of them, we got that little bit of news from the guild.
“Why is that necessary? Brian hasn’t failed any of his guild quests, has he?” Paulina asked. Do they send out someone with the party if the party fails a lot of quests?
“I understand that, but you also have to consider our view on this matter. He, and the rest of you, have been completing quests so fast that it should be impossible. We simply must know what you are doing differently, so other adventurers can also use similar techniques.” The employee explained.
Yeah, good luck with that. Just buy an airship and use that. I’m sure every adventurer will have the money for one.
“Brian, what do you think?” Paulina turned to me and asked. Then she added in a quieter voice. “This is your quest, so you do have the right to just say you won’t do it under that condition if you don’t want to.”
“Will that reflect badly on us?” I asked quietly.
“No. It will actually look bad on the guild, as the quest giver, my father, clearly trusts your report and wants more of them from you. So for the guild to set a condition that you don’t agree with, causing the quest to be left undone, or having to be given to someone else will reflect on the guild. Remember that as an adventurer, outside of emergencies, you are allowed to refuse a quest for any reason, including no reason.”
“... maybe I should …” I pondered my options.
If I refuse, the guild might panic and allow us to go without someone spying on us, considering the quest giver. Or they might just say “The named adventurer didn’t accept the quest.” or something like that. But they should realize that Paulina will tell the real reason to her father. And even if the quest actually fails, the Earl can just ask me to do the quest outside of the guild's influence. There is nothing strange about a lord sending someone out to check the safety on the roads in their territory. And while usually those missions are given to adventurers, sometimes the knight order does them instead. Or so I’ve been told.
But at the same time, refusing the guild’s auditor would look bad on me. Like I want to keep secrets. Which I of course do, but that’s a different matter. They might ask for something more next time, like me showing my status or something. But at that point I could just say F them and quit being an adventurer. I don’t need the money and while sure it would be cool to get to be an S-rank adventurer, it might not be worth it.
“Paulina, say I accidentally happened to travel up and down the road we were supposed to check today, then I just happened to write a report about it and deliver it to your father, do you think he would still pay me for it?” I asked so that the adventurer’s guild employee definitely heard all of it.
“Of course he would. And he would cancel the guild quest right after that. He might even stop sending jobs to the guild as a whole, considering how much they seem to doubt people he trusts.” Paulina answered, keeping up my not at all subtle hint that I really didn’t want anyone from the guild to come with us.
“Well, I guess that will make this simple.” I said before turning back to the guild employee. “I’d like to ref…”
“Please don’t!” She panicked a bit and interrupted me. “Please just wait a moment. I’ll call the guild master. I’m sure he will approve you doing this quest without anyone from the guild having to monitor you.”
“... sure. Go call him then.” I said. “But please do hurry. I don’t have all day.” I added, just to add a bit more pressure to the guild.
It’s not that I want to do this, but come on. You have no reason to send someone with us. Overdrive is one thing, but having to explain B.E.S. Big Core to the guild. Yeah, I’d rather not.
“I already said that he needs an observer, so make sure he has one.” I heard someone speaking in a loud voice, as he was approaching the front counter.
“But…” The employee likely tried to tell him something.
“No buts. Either he is observed, or he doesn’t take the job.” The loud male said, as they finally made it to the main room of the guild.
He was probably in his early thirties, by my estimation. Not too muscular, but still decently well built and his hair was lime green in color.
I guess I never talked about hair colors in this world, so I’ll mention it now. Most people, about 85%, have what I would call ‘normal’ hair colors. You know, brown, black, blond, ginger. Things you see on earth, outside of someone visiting a hair salon. But there are also some with colors that are completely wild, like his lime green. Assuming that his hair is a natural color, not the result of some magic hair dye.
On the other hand, dhampirs seem to have a much higher chance for rare hair colors. Putting Lua’s crimson and Ria’s silver aside, all of them have some more rare color. Red and blue were the most common in the village, but there was also silver and even the indigo hair of Rosemary. I originally thought that the color of the hair came from magic attributes or something, but that clearly isn’t the case, as shown by Lua and Ria.
Humans are probably just a boring race. Maybe the unnatural hair colors are caused by interbreeding with other races. … or maybe not. I don’t know. I think Tahlia would be better at calculating genetics than I am. But then again, I feel like she would rather invent a time machine or some sort of teleportation device than work out how genetics work.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand.
“Is that the guild master?” I asked Paulina. I know the last time I interacted with a GM for the first time, it didn’t go so well, so if he is the GM, I’ll try to accommodate him a bit better. I still won’t allow an observer, but maybe I won’t threaten his job or something like that.
“No. He is the assistant guild master. He is also the third son of baron Hari Bloggs.” Paulina answered.
“Oh. Alright.” So he is just an assistant GM. I guess going for his job is fair game then. … Okay, I’ll try not to do it.
“So, are you the kid who cheats on his quests?” The assistant GM asked.
“Cheats? Hardly. I can understand your suspicions about the safety check, but how do you cheat an escort quest or a monster hunt?” I asked.
“So you admitted it. And it is quite easy. You just buy the monster corpses from other adventurers and have the quest giver fake the paperwork.” The AGM answered.
“... alright. Well, I guess you could.” I agreed.
“And another admission. Because of your less than normal speed at completing quests, we have decided to send an observer with you on your next mission. I believe you will have no problem with that.”
“Well, actually I do. And I won’t go on a quest with an observer.” I answered.
“... I see. Well, if that is how you want it, so be it. Leila, cancel the quest.” He said to the employee.
“But sir…” She began.
“Cancel it. He is a cheater and until he is willing to go out with an observer, he won’t be taking a single quest from this guild.”
“But sir, the quest he was about to take is nominated for him. And it comes from the Earl’s house.” Leila finally was able to say what she wanted.
“... wa? Show me the quest form!”
“Sir, please don’t yell. Lady Paulina from the Sawyer house is also present and she would be going on the quest with Mr. Brian.” Leila added, as she handed the form over to the AGM.
The AGM quickly confirmed that statement, by making eye contact with Paulina. Paulina just waved back playfully. The AGM then read through the quest form.
“... fine. Because it comes from the Earl and a member of his family is here to make sure it is done right.” He muttered, before talking to us. “But don’t think this is it. Just because you have contact with the nobility, doesn’t mean that you can cheat your rank.”
“I don’t cheat.” I told him. Well, I do, but not with these quests. I cheat in all the other places. I cheat the system, not the guild. “I’ll be accepting an apology from you when you realize that.” I added.
“Then just take an observer with you.” He said. “If you can show them that you don’t do anything wrong, I’ll gladly apologize for my words.”
“Sorry, but not to this quest. I have to use some quite secretive techniques to get this quest done in a day, which I don’t want to share. I hope you understand that.”
“Just because it is the adventurer’s right to keep their status secret outside of their registration, doesn’t mean that the guild likes it. But do as you wish.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Leila. “So we are good to go?”
“Yes. I apologize for all the issues and the delay.”
“Paulina, are you sure this won’t cause any problems?” I asked as we rode Overdrive towards the north gate. Today’s check was going to be on the road heading north. Ironically enough, we would actually pass the town of Bloggs, where the AGM is from. We would also go a bit beyond it, all the way to a larger town ruled by a viscount, who would be attending the birthday party.
“As the guild gave in, I think it will be fine. But if they cause more troubles, we will help you with them. But at the same time, the guild master should know your situation … with the system, so I don’t think he will allow anything more than that.”
“... oh. But the assistant GM doesn’t know?”
“I believe the info was limited just to guild masters, if I recall correctly.”
“Then how do you know about it? Well, I know I told you, but how do you know info about the guild?”
“I have my ways.”
“Of course you do.”
Once we were outside, we swapped to Big Core.
Other than that, the mission went basically the same as it did last time. First, we flew up, north, all the way, marking all of the problem monsters and otherwise completing the report.
Then we had a small lunch break.
“Mystik Wok. Cook up my Hungry Burger.”
Spoiler
[collapse]
This was going to be today's lunch. I really was craving for a burger. And admittedly, I had eaten all of the bento that I was given by the kitchen staff at the manor already, because I had been hungry for the entire day. So I had to Wok something up. And when you are super hungry, what is better than a huge burger? Well, maybe pizza. Or a kebab roll.
But a burger might still be the best because the excessive carbs will make you feel full faster.
“Brian? Want to explain that?” Paulina asked.
“I can, but what about it? It's just a card that makes me food.”
“It cooked up your monster, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you use it to cook up any of your monsters?”
“Pretty much yeah. But some of my monsters are … metallic, so I don’t think they would taste that good.”
“But you can cook a dragon with it?”
“Yeah.”
“... I see. How much would something like that cost? Say I wanted to buy a cooked dragon for a party.”
“Like for a birthday party? We can come up with a price both of us can agree to. Depending on the dragon.” I answered. Admittedly, I have been wanting to taste dragon as well, so I’m more than willing to go along with this. Sure I could do it in the dhampir village, but I think a dragon deserves a more fitting place to be served than that, no offense. And I can serve them dragon blood instead.
“But that burger, it is way too large. The ones in the capital are small enough that you can hold them in your hand.” Paulina said.
“... there are burgers in the capital?”
“Yes. They come from a tiny dungeon, turned restaurant, which only makes burgers. They are quite tasty.”
“... okay. Well, that’s cool. But don’t worry about the part where the burger is too big. I’ll just use this. Micro Ray.”
Spoiler
span>
nro_8 I would use Shrink for this, but as Shrink is structure deck only (until later sets) Brian doesn’t have it.
[collapse]
A strange device appeared and beamed the cooked burger. As it did, the burger shrunk down to a size where it was no larger than a regular burger you can get at a standard fast food place.
After the device disappeared, I picked up the burger and bit into it.
“... alright I guess.” It wasn’t the best burger by any means. It was fine, but I’m not the biggest fan of tomato in my burgers and it needed some sauce. So remove the tomato, add some ketchup and mayo, maybe some pickles and the burger would likely be better. But that is just my opinion.
“Brian, can you make me one?” Alice asked.
“Sure. What about you two? Do you want one as well?” I asked Paulina and Ria.
“Yes please.”
“If you would be so kind.”
With the positive answers, I cooked up four more burgers, shrunk them down and we all enjoyed them. Yes, I wanted a second for myself. I’m hungry.
There was one problem with using Micro Ray though. It removed the healing effect of the food. It was still good food and did fill your stomach, but it wouldn’t heal you.
I guess I need to get Shrink instead. At least with that, I should get half of the healing. Hopefully. Also, in case you were wondering, Ria really liked the burger, but Alice and Paulina just found it … fine. Like I did. But then again, Ria likes basically anything. I guess after a lifetime of just blood, anything will taste good. I even asked Ria what her favorite this far has been and she gave an immediate answer.
“The black pudding stuff Agatha made.”
Well, a dhampir is a dhampir. Now I really need to make some blood sausages. Then I can make bloody hot dogs. … wow that sounded wrong. But still, I think it would be good. Maybe make a blood sauce for it as well. I think you can do that at least. And as I can now freeze time in my inventory, excuse me, in my storage, I can make a big batch of stuff and just hold the rest of it there. Convenience. Also, we need to look into that DDF kitchen and smithy project.
After we finished our burgers, we got into a freshly summoned Big Core for our return trip. We also had a monster to kill. Alice and Ria will have to deal with it as I’m still under the exp ban from Laura. But I’m sure they will manage, even though it is a B-rank monster.
nro_8 Next time, some Alice POV as she fights a B-rank monster in the wild.
