Dinner was a soup made of a potato analog and some kind of meat with a side of buttered bread. Overall, a decent meal. Fern even provided a few leafy greens for Lily to munch on. Though she ignored them until Jason had fed her one of the Energy herb berries. Both now full went to their room and Jason settles down for his first full night of sleep in a long while.

Next morning after a quick breakfast salad Jason heads back over to the Adventurers Guild. Not on a time limit Jason takes a look around the place. With how the Guild works, there isn’t much difference from the one in Shinefish village. In fact, being so close the floor probably was the next slice off of whatever giant tree provided it. Jason pauses for a moment before he heads over to the message center. Being far enough away he can no longer contact the others through team chat. However the Guild’s message center will get a letter to them and will receive it the next time they visit a Guild building. It frustrates him to have to do this as you actually need to write the letter. No typing it out or letting the System transcribe what you say. With a sigh Jason gets down to writing a couple of letters.

Hey James,

We haven’t talked since separating. I did well in the meantime and I hope you did too. Just finished traveling through a stretch of wasteland. Almost gotten to level 10. I just need a few more mobs and a boss. Luckily I found a contact in the town I got to who pointed me towards what I need. How are you been doing?

Good Luck,

Jason

Hello Rosha,

Sorry for not contacting you sooner. I am close to reaching level 10. The inn I found in Wasteland’s Edge had a knowledgeable owner who pointed me to a few monsters to kill and a boss to finish it with. Besides that I actually got a cute animal companion. A rabbit, I named her Lily. Attached is a picture of her munching on a berry. Anyway, I picked her up while traveling along the edge of the Wasteland and rabbit plains. Though I got lucky. The innkeeper was leary of me having a rabbit with me until she used magic to detect “Her mark” on Lily. Sounds mysterious doesn’t it? Anyway, how have you been doing?

Good Luck,

Jason

Satisfied with the two letters, Jason sends them out. “Maybe by the time I am finished here they will get in contact with me. It would be nice to get back together again. Though this kingdom isn’t rich enough to own a gate network. Well, with my speed I could get back to Shinefish in next to no time. Actually, we might want to just head towards a similar end point instead. I can’t leave the kingdom anytime soon after that stupid wolf caused me problems. With that in mind we should head towards a nice hub city in this kingdom. We would get our choice of where to go from there. Oh well, can’t plan anything till they contact me back. I do have their irl contact info but it would be rude to call them out of nowhere. It was fun to group up with them but I don’t know them well enough out of game.”

Done with his messages Jason heads over to the quest board. As an E rank adventurer he can take quests for monsters of level ten or higher and the + on it will let him go up to 24. While unnecessary to hunt the monsters it is always nice to get some extra income from what you already plan to do. Not every monster has a quest but Jason has a hunch. Fern didn’t just give an appropriate monster level wise to hunt and after a short search it proves out. Both the Snarltails and Jarr have quests out for them. From the info on the board Jason now knows that the tail of the Snarltail is more special than just having a mouth. When treated and enchanted the tail makes for a high quality quiver. If you want to spend enough money, it can even become a quiver of holding so you never seem to run out of arrows. The quest is only for 15 tails but Jason figures he can offload the extras. Though after he thinks about it for a moment, he might keep one for Rosha. After Jason thinks on it though that likely won’t work. As he has taken the quest then the tails will probably drop for that at a decent quality. However any extra tails will be a pre-10 item. However even if he can’t offload the extras getting a gold and 20 silver from the quest is good enough at this point.

Jarr’s quest on the other hand is much more straightforward. Just a simple elimination quest. The goblin had been causing troubles for the lower level groups. Because he wanders around alone Jarr trips up people. A goblin warboss should be surrounded by at least a few regular goblins and that is just a new one. Any warboss that has reached Jarr’s level should have his own village worth of goblin followers at this point. This quality makes him perfect for Jason to fight. Even better, the reward is not only 3 gold but the System has tacked on an extra mystery reward because no one has been bothering with it. After all, anyone who is here to fight a warboss are targeting those past the level 25 bottleneck with a large group of followers. Without followers a warboss doesn’t have any worthwhile loot.

Jason finishes and takes them to the reception desk. After a short minute or two wait, he is able to sign up for the quests and can even reserve Jarr’s quest. By reserving it, the quest won’t go back up onto the board until a week passes without him completing it. After that week while he won’t lose the quest others might pick it up. As luck would have it, the quest had no one with it still recorded. Jason doesn’t know if anyone had tried it yet but at least any that did had dropped it.