On their way to the guild, Damian and Emilia had to pass by the marketplace.

"Emilia!" One of the vendors exclaimed. "Are you here to trade with us?"

"Oh, not today Mr. Yuu. I have to make a request at the guild down the road."

"I see." Mr. Yuu scratched his chin, obviously unpleased that he wouldn't be able to trade with Emilia. "Well then I won't take anymore of your time. Come back with goods next time!"

"Will do" Emilia smiled as she waved goodbye.

This scenario played out a few times with other vendors as they treaded through the semi-crowded marketplace.

"You're not supposed to be here." a raspy voice called out.

"Ah!"

Damian jumped as a grey bearded old man robed in black ambushed him on his way to the guild; his wrinkly and crooked finger pointed at Damian.

"What do you-" Damian attempted to ask before he was interrupted by Emilia who was besides him.

"Just ignore him Damian. There are some...unwell... people in this town. It's best if you just keep walking. And anyways we were tasked to do something important. We can't get sidetracked here!"

Emilia began pushing Damian from behind to get him moving.

[She's right. I want to ask this old man what he's talking about but that comes after. First we've got to put in a request at the guild]

"Alright, alright! I get it! Stop shoving!" Damian protested.

He took one last look at the mysterious old man, who was eerily staring right at him, as the crowd engulfed his hunched figure.

******

At the entrance of the guild stood Damian and Emilia. The guild building was an average one. The size was average. The brick material of the walls were average. The wooden doors were average. Hung near the wall was a sign that announced "Jackson Town Guild" in bold, red letters. Damian and Emilia glanced at each other.

"Let's go in." Damian stated.

Emilia nodded in response and the two entered the building. Damian had been in the guild building before when he gawked at the dope armor and weapons that the adventurers had equipped but this time he was here for more serious matters. The adventurers stared at his unusual clothing like the last time and a few even recalled seeing him and gossiped to their fellow guild members. Damian and Emilia made their way to the receptionist desk where a lady with tied-up light brown hair that wore clothing surprisingly similar to a flight attendant greeted them. On her right breast was a pin that read "Jessica".

"Hello you two." Jessica cheerfully greeted. "Are you looking to sign up to become guild members or would you like to file a request?"

"We'd like to file a request please." Damian responded.

"Alright." She opened a drawer on her side of the desk and removed a single sheet of paper. "Please fill this form out on the table down there."

Damian's eyes followed the direction where her finger was pointing. They were met with a table at the side of the room. A box filled with pens rested on it. Damian accepted the paper and took a seat at the table, followed by Emilia. He grabbed a pen and began filling out the form with Emilia's help. After completing it, the two returned to Jessica the desk lady and handed in their now complete form. Jessica scanned over the form smoothly until her right eyebrow became raised, to which Damian realized that there must have been a mistake.

"It says here that you are requesting for at least a group of B-rank adventurers," Jessica explained while still eyeing the paper, "But the reward is only $50."

"Is that not enough money?" Damian questioned.

"Well, not exactly. Although you could turn this in, I would advise against it as you most likely wouldn't get a single acceptor."

"What do you mean?"

"While there is technically no reward minimum or limit, you should at least pay $100 for B-Ranked Adventurers. Other quests that request the same rank are offering rewards of up to $170. As a result if you were to put up your quest next to those, it is obvious that the adventurers would go for the quests that pay better. Only C and D Ranks would settle for $50. So either you need to increase the reward or decrease the rank minimum."

"Damian, we should lower the rank limit," Emilia whispered. "Remember Frank said to make the reward $50."

"I know but I'm not sure if C-Rank adventurers will be able to take down that beast." Damian murmured. "B-based on what Rose said of course."

Damian caught himself after catching a raised eyebrow from Emilia who almost caught on that Damian knew more than he should have.

"So what are we gonna do then? I would lower the rank minimum but I'll let you decide since you thought of making a request."

[If I go over the reward limit Frank will kill me. But are C-Rank Adventurers really enough to fight the beast? No. Even if they can, it's cutting it too close. If the C-Rank Adventurers fail, everyone dies again. I can't risk it.]

After a few seconds of thought Damian came to his conclusion.

"We'll raise the reward to $100." He declared.

"Ok." Jessica mumbled while she corrected the form. "The fee for a request is $5."

"Ah, that's right."

Damian handed Jessica the $5 given to him by Frank.

"Your quest is now up on the quest board. If accepted, the adventurers will head to your village. Have a great day!"

Damian and Emilia thanked Jessica and exited the guild.

"So is there anything else we have to do here?" Emilia asked Damian.

"Nothing that I can think of. Let's head back to the village."

"Wait! Before we go I'd like to meet with Jennifer and Lia."

"They're the two friends you introduced to me the last time we came here right? Well, I guess I don't mind. Let's go."

[The attack doesn't happen until about 5 hours and 30 minutes from now. We can shave an hour or two here. Besides, those sisters were real beauties. Jennifer is the hot big sister type and Lia is the innocent maiden type. Maybe I can try to get closer to them hehe.]

"You're not coming, no way!" Emilia objected while positioning her arms into an X.

"What? Why not?" Damian complained, confused by Emilia's passionate objection.

Emilia crossed her arms, clearly annoyed.

"You're just gonna make things awkward which is why I couldn't talk with them last time!"

"How did I make things awkward?"

"For one, that stupid grin on your face!"

"Ah."

Damian's face muscles had unconsciously contorted to a creepy smile while thinking of the sisters.

[Now that I think back on it they were giving me weird looks back then. Did I look like this when I first met them? That's so embarrassing!]

"I don't want your weird thoughts anywhere near them. And two, we are gonna have a girl talk so no boys allowed."

"Fine. We'll meet up at the entrance to the town in an hour."

"Ok see you later!" Emilia gleefully waved goodbye.

She hurriedly sprinted off, leaving a red faced Damian by himself in front of the average building.