After a long walk/climb/run I come back to the adventurers’ guild.

‘By the way Lizz, do you have any idea if there’s anything I can disguise the books storage skill?’

‘But then if the pickits hear about it they’ll know something's up…’

‘That… Could work…’

I then enter the door and see Cathy on booth duty.

“Hey, I’m here to hand in some monster material for quests, however the amount is pretty large so I was wondering if I could do it where I handed in the stuff for the provisional quests?”

“Sure, but since it has to do with monster materials I’ll call down Hugh instead, why don’t you go down first then?”

“Sure, later.” ‘Guess I didn’t even have to worry about coming up with an excuse then, but I suppose it’ll be good to have in the future.’

I then walk down to the basement and open the book about the table, letting it spew out a large pile of goblin ears, I then move it a bit and it spews out another pile, thisone of hobgoblin ears, I then grab the three high goblin ears and keep them in my hand instead.

“Alright Plush, show me what’cha go-” Hugh comes down the stairs but freezes when he sees the table.

“This… is that other pile hobgoblin ears...?”

Feeling a bit mischievous I then hold out the hand with the high goblin ears.

He just sighs and covers his face with his hand

He sighs again and sits down on the chair next to the table

*Sigh* And again.

He sighs a fourth time, then turns on the lamp above the tables and starts inspecting the large pile of goblin ears one by one while writing down some things on a piece of paper every so often.

“This is going to take a while so you might as well just come back tomorrow, also would it be possible for you not to take any more requests for a while? No way is the quest numbers going to fit on your card like this, the one we gave you was an extra cheap one since we needed to make it fast, come back tomorrow and you’ll get your reward for all of these, come back another few days later and we'll have you your new guild card.”

I look at Hugh and see him using the same kind of loupe as Rico was using to inspect the plants I brought in before.

“Weren’t you the one who said you didn’t need a loupe before?”

Hugh looks up from the pile and gives me the evil eye.

“That was when I didn’t need to see as minute differences t´between the things as I need to do now.”

“How DO you see the difference between them? They all look the same to me.”

*tap* *tap*

“This thing lets me see the energy veins of objects held close to it, hobgoblins have more energy veins throughout their bodies than normal ones.”

‘That actually gives me an idea.’ “Well I’ll see you later then.”

He just *grunt*s in response and looks back to the pile.

I walk back to the quartets’ inn and look for Hannah, when I find her I ask:

“Hey Ha-”

*Stumble*

*Crash*

“Who the fuck!”

Hannah seems to have been a bit to surprised by my sudden telepathy to have realized it was me, however when she turns around she releases a breath of relief while holding her hand in front of her chest.

“... Please… Don’t suddenly talk to me using a voice you’ve never used before…”

“... I’ll keep it in mind in the future… But Hannah, I was wondering if you could bring that thing you used to see energy veins to the guild?”

“Sure, but why?”

“I kind of brought in a very large pile of goblin ears and the people working at the guild only have enough of those magic vein loupes for one person.”

“Well I suppose I could let them borrow it… But only if I can stay there and keep track of it so they don’t steal it!”

“I doubt they’d steal it, but that’s probably fine.”

“Then let me just go get it, you can go to the guild before me and I’ll be there soon.”

Having finished the conversation I then walk back to the guild.

When I get there I see that it’s unexpectedly empty even though it’s already gotten dark outside, so I ask Cathy who’s still in the booth what’s going on.

“Well Hugh came back up for a moment to get something from his office, anyone who’s been here for a while knows that they should avoid him at all costs when he looks the way he did now.”

“And?”

“And what? They all ran away when they saw him. Wouldn’t recommend going down there for a bit.”

We then hear the door open, but rather than Hannah who I was expecting the pickit trio comes in.

“Hey Plush, feeling any better?”

“Lots, thanks for letting me stay at your place and rest.”

“Dad probably already said this, but that’s nonsense, if you ever need a place to stay feel free to hit us up.”

“Sure thing then, by the way, how far did you guys get on your quests?”

“We got three of the subjugation quests and four of the gathering quests, we also did two delivery quests on the way back to the guild.”

“Sounds like it’s going well then.”

The door then opens again, this time Hannah comes in while pulling a small cart behind her.

“Heya Plush, and you guys to! Now where were we supposed to bring this thing again?”

“Down in the basement.”

“Hey Plush, didn’t you hear what I said earlier?” Asks Cathy. “You guys really shouldn’t go down there.”

Hannah then looks to Cathy and whispers “Adorable…” with gleaming eyes, causing Cathy to start blushing, though it can only been seen on her nose and the insides of her ears.

Hannah then shakes her head and starts speaking.

“Actually I brought something that Plush thought might be able to help.”

“Really? Well… Alright, you seem like a good person so sure, go ahead.” Says Cathy while still blushing slightly.

We then walk down the stairs while being followed by both the pickits and Cathy.

“Cathy, are you sure you can come too?”

“Sure, I rang Rico’s bell before I left.”

When we get downstairs Hugh looks up at us, he’s already managed to build up impressive dark circles even though he’s only been doing this for about fifteen minutes.

“WHAT!?” He practically shouts at us.

“We brought something that might be able to help, Hannah.”

Hannah then pulls the energy energy x-ray to the front of our group.

“This thing’s basically a giant version of the thing you’re holding next to your eye, Plush here thought it might let some other people help you with sorting all of these.”

Hugh drops his loupe and stares at us in disbelief.

“Also one of my sisters made this when she heard we were going to help you work.”

Hannah Then pulls out an incredibly large picnic basket, surely one cubic meter large, and opens it, revealing it’s filled to the brim with foor.

“Cathy! Go get Grizz and the new guy! We’re pulling an all-nighter!”

“Yes sir!” Cathy bolts up the stairs and for whatever reason Hannah follows.

“Plush, I really appreciate you deciding to ask your friend to help us, however this sorting business is something only staff members are allowed to do, so scram.”

“Is that true o do you just not want to share your food with these three?”

“Probably both.” Says Charlie.

“Definitely both.” Says Grizz as he comes down the stairs with Rupe.

“Where’d Cathy go?” Asks Hugh.

“The red haired chick whispered something to her and then they both went to her room, I’d wager they ain’t coming down until tomorrow.” Responds Grizz while Rupe smiles wryly at the way Grizz revealed such private information without a care.

“Oh well, more food for us. Ah, wait Plush! That red haired girl left before explaining how this thing works, any idea?”

‘Do you have any idea Lizz?’

I explain what Lizz told me to Hugh, but before I leave-

“Hey Rupe, does your shop stock any of those blue energy jellies?”

“Hm? Yeah, but we haven’t moved them here from the old place, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow if you want them, you might as well come over when you pick up your reward.”

“Sure thing then, see you guys tomorrow.”

The pickits and I then leave the guild and walk back to the inn and go to bed immediately, however before I go to sleep I take the crystal out of my torso while I’m under the blanket and look at it for a while.