Omen: 14, 15

The trio spent the next morning revealing their abilities to Paul, the abilities they were happy to reveal.

‘Now that I think about it, I shouldn’t have used Third Gate spells back then. Even if I did, I probably shouldn’t have revealed how I could attack twice…’

Adam shook his head. ‘Oh well.’

Paul sighed, marking a few matters off on his paper.

“How is it that you astonish me, Adam?” Paul asked.

Adam smiled. “What?”

“An Expert in both martial and magical capabilities,” he said. “Not only that, Jurot becoming an Expert so quickly, I can’t imagine it wasn’t without your help.”

“He did it by himself,” Adam said. “Don’t put that on me.”

“Then there’s that… Devilkin,” Paul said, as though he knew. “She’s quite strong too.”

“Yeah,” Adam said. “So?”

“Are you going to tell me the story of how you beat the Blue Dragon?”

“Jurot’s much better at that.”

Paul nodded. “I’ll hear it from him. Is Lucy joining Fate’s Golden?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I need to speak to you all at noon if you don’t mind.”

“Sure.”

Jurot told Paul of the tale, and Adam spent his time relaxing at the Guild, ignoring some dark looks, though most Adventurers didn’t seem to care.

“So, what do you need?” Adam asked once noon had rolled around. He sipped the tea which Paul had provided him.

“There is a Noble from East Fort who wished to go hunting,” Paul explained. “He specifically wanted to hunt an Elder Wolf. The problem is, there is a chance he would be overwhelmed by an Elder Wolf even with those Knights of his. I was hoping that the rest of your party would be with you, Dunes would have been useful, but I can find a Priest from somewhere else.”

“I can heal pretty well,” Adam said.

Paul nodded, sighing. “Yeah. I told Sir Landon that I would have a party ready for him by the fourteenth of the month. You’ll be free to do as you please until then. The quest starts on the fifteenth, and should take no more than a week to complete. The reward is ten gold per day per person, plus one hundred gold flat. There’s one hundred gold for making sure he’s unharmed, and another one hundred gold if you allow him to get the kill.”

“That’s a lot of money,” Adam said, whistling. “Three hundred gold is no joke, just for doing a good job? Is there something else you aren’t telling us?”

“No,” Paul said.

“It’s not like we’re hurting for gold, but it would be nice to have some spending money,” Adam said.

“Speak for yourself,” Lucy said. “I don’t have much gold. Do you know how much I need for my conquest?”

“Lucy, you can’t say that kind of thing outside the Iyr,” Adam said. “Are you crazy? If you want to get yourself killed, do it when I’m not near you.”

Lucy scoffed. “How can you be so weak?”

“Anyway, how many people will be on this quest? You mentioned Knights?”

“Sir Landon and two Knights,” Paul said. “Plus you three, and probably a Priest, if I can find one.”

“Right,” Adam said, thinking. “Could we hire some of our own people to come with us?”

“Sure?” Paul said. “You mean those Porters?”

Adam nodded. “The three of them are our trusted Porters. I think Nobby would do well especially.”

“We forgot him last time,” Jurot said.

“We did,” Adam said, glancing to the side. “I won’t this time.”

“I could speak with the Noble. I’m sure I could convince him to bring along three Porters on your recommendation.”

“Sounds great. I’ll let them know the good news.” Adam smiled.

“I should warn you that Sir Landon has chosen an Elder Wolf on purpose. He despises them due to what they did to him. When he was young, he was mauled by an Elder Wolf pup. Don’t stare too overtly at his face.”

“Thanks for the heads up.”

“Now with that out of the way, do you wish to be promoted to Bronze Rank?” Paul asked.

“Sounds good.”

“You’ll need to start at Iron,” Paul said.

“Iron?” Lucy frowned. “Come on.”

“You still need to complete quests to Rank Up, so we can’t allow you to start at Bronze Rank.”

“Fine.”

“Will Sir Landon be okay with Lucy?” Adam asked. “You know, cause of the horns?”

“East Aldland receives all kinds of visitors,” Paul informed. “He may be apprehensive, but not outright hostile. Even to you, Adam.”

“Me?” Adam asked. “Oh, right.” He twitched his ears.

“If he is hostile, I’ll beat him up.”

Adam and Paul stared at her.

“You should be careful,” Paul said. “That will get you killed.”

“I’d like to see him try.”

“Lucy. If you don’t start behaving, I’ll send you back to the Iyr.”

“As if you could.”

“You wanna try me?”

“I’ll allow you to think you can.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t invite you into the Iyr as a guest,” Adam said, firmly.

“Well, hold on! You can’t just do that!”

“He can,” Jurot said.

“Won’t you invite me?” Lucy asked Jurot, rubbing his strong arm.

“No.”

“You two are so… so… so!” Lucy crossed her arms.

“Good thing you told me about the Wolf thing,” Adam said. “I was thinking about changing Zeus into a Wolf.”

“Zeus?”

“The Elk.”

“Right. He’s around back, by the way. He’s your Steed, isn’t he?” Paul gave Adam a knowing look.

“Yep.” Adam smiled, innocently.

Paul sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be used to you.”

“Yeah.”

Rank Up!

Rank: Iron -> Bronze

XP Gained: +200

XP: 2425 -> 2925

“Since we’ve Ranked Up, why don’t we grab ourselves some food?” Adam asked.

“Bread?” Jurot asked, his eyebrow twitching up slightly.

“Bread,” Adam replied, with a small smile.

“Bread?” Lucy said. “That’s it?”

Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not the bread we’ll be eating, Lucy.”

Lucy stared at him curiously. “You always say weird things, Adam.”

“Aren’t you used to it?”

“A little.”

The group made their way around to find the bakery, Jurot leading the way.

Jurot opened the door to see Pam at the counter, with her brow full of sweat from the heat of the ovens in the nearby room.

“Oh!” she said, staring up at them. Her eyes flashed to the Devilkin, her eyes filling with worry, before it dissipated seeing her heavy spenders. “Welcome back!”

“How’s it going?” Adam asked. “Making money, I hope?”

“Never enough,” Pam replied, smiling. “Are you hear for some jam buns?”

“Jam buns. Tarts. Load us up.” Adam flicked an obsidian gem towards her. “I’m hungry today.”

“You don’t have change?” Pam asked.

“I’m spending all of it today,” Adam said. “I want three baskets, some which I can share around the place, and the best stuff you have on offer.”

“Got it!”

“So that’s why you wanted to come here,” Lucy said, eyeing up the bread.

“You’re looking at the wrong thing,” Adam said, motioning his head to Jurot, whose ears were slightly red.

Adam stepped back, letting Lucy stand beside him, as they watched Jurot work up the courage to speak.

They bit into their jam buns as they watched the pair chat away.

“To be young again,” Lucy said, swallowing the sweet bun, though there was something so much sweeter she was eating.

“Our boy is growing up,” Adam whispered, sniffling, taking another bite of his jam bun.

The pair ate their jam buns, and filled their second stomach with the sight of young love.

Once they were out, carrying several baskets, Adam noted the urchins about. He didn’t worry too much about them, as he placed down bread around the place, allowing them to grab some.

“Should we go on an adventure?” Adam asked.

“I don’t mind,” Lucy said.

“I want to hire a small crew,” Adam admitted. “The Porters, but also some Guards.”

“Don’t you have that boy you want to train? Nobby was it?” Lucy asked, eating a lemon tart.

“That’s true.” Adam nodded. “What do you think, Jurot?”

“He has a great body,” Jurot admitted. “He would become a great Rage Dancer.”

“Right,” Adam said, assuming what it meant. “I should probably speak with his parents. How could we send them a message?”

“The Adventurer’s Guild should be able to,” Jurot said.

“Yeah? Alright, then I’ll do that.”

He arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, where Emma was currently working. She looked up to Adam and smiled at the group.

“If it isn’t our latest Bronze Ranks,” she said, smiling at him. “How may I assist you?”

“Your smile is too bright,” Adam said, covering his face. “Is being an Expert that good for the Guild?”

Emma calmed her smile, but it turned into a half smirk. “Oh, dear. Do you not know the significance of an Expert?”

“It means I’m strong, right?”

Emma raised her brows. “Yes. Very.”

“Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?” Adam asked.

“Experts are valued highly, and well paid,” she said. “The amount of respect you’ll gain from most people is astounding.”

“That’s cool,” Adam replied, not at all enthused. “I actually need something from the Guild. Could you send a letter to Nobby’s parents? He’s a Porter I’ve worked with before.”

“Jeremy’s nephew?”

“That’s the one,” Adam said.

“I will send a message.”

“Thanks.” Adam spent a few moments figuring out what it should entail, before paying the price of sending the message.

“If you’d like it sent quickly, five copper and I’ll send it right away,” Emma offered.

“Done,” Adam said. “You’ll bring a message back?”

“Yes,” she replied.

Adam shared the bread and desserts with the rest of the Adventurers, once the Guild made sure it was safe.

It wasn’t long that they received word back from Nobby’s family to meet.