~ Chapter 34: The first quest ~

[Alkelios’ point of view]

 Today, we decided to accept a request from the Adventurers Guild. It was a simple one which required us to do a little bit of gathering of special flowers in the nearby forest. If by chance we encountered some monsters along the way, we were free to subjugate them and collect any of the parts that could be sold at the guild or which we believed we could use. Disposing of the remains was usually done by either our party’s mage or by piling up the bodies and then submitting a report to the guild on their location. Afterwards, a new request would appear on the board available to all adventurers with the required skill. Being on the Dragon Continent didn’t automatically mean that everyone here could breathe fire. It all depended on their respective element, although, when it came to spells, everyone could cast at least Beginner Rank ones.

“Are we there yet?” I asked while following behind Seryanna.

“We’re not that far now. I believe the clearing mentioned in the request should be somewhere up ahead.” she replied as she checked a small hand-drawn map of the area.

Among the many things the one who put up a request had to do was to offer a simple map the adventurers could copy with ease or use with their existing ones. In case the exact location wasn’t know, they had to specify the general area in which the adventurers could find their assigned target.

Just as Seryanna mentioned, we were looking for a small clearing located to the west of Marook. The plants we were told to gather were called Sunflower Lili and were used as food spices. To be specific, the petals were dried and then ground into a fine powder. It offered a spicy flavor similar to chili, but not as hot. It was somewhere between pepper and chilly.

At least, this was what my [Identificus Processus Juridicus] skill told me, but according to Seryanna, we did eat food that used this spice back at her grandfather’s place. Initially, I thought it was pepper or chilly, so I couldn’t tell the difference.

“Still, if this flower is so important, why don’t they grow it closer to the city?” I asked as I jumped over a large tree trunk.

I was doing far better with controlling my body than I did back when I received my first ever stats bonus from my [Dragon Tamer] skill, but the trees on the Dragon Continent were certainly of the giant category even if they only made up a small patch of woods in the middle of the plains.

In this world, I had yet to see a Norway Maple tree or Arțar as it was called in Romania. It was one of the most widespread species in Europe, while its cousins were widespread throughout the entire planet. Canada actually had the leaf shape on its flag. Good ol’ maple syrup, I knew thee well... It appeared as though I had very low chances of stumbling upon it in this world.

“It’s a spice of the nobles. Only certain merchants from the common bloodlines are allowed to cultivate it.” Seryanna explained.

“Come again?” I blinked surprised.

“What’s wrong?” she stopped.

Furrowing her brow, she looked back at me.

“What do you mean ‘spice of the nobles’?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

“Hm... You know how in your country certain people aren’t allowed to cultivate or breed certain animals and plants? It’s similar to that. There are plants and beasts that only the nobles are allowed to breed.” she explained, but we had a little problem there...

“Erm, in my country there’s no such thing. As long as you have the funds, land, and knowledge to cultivate or breed any livestock or plants, you are free to do so. The law is only against cultivating a certain type of plants that can be used as drugs or poisons and their owners are intent on using them for that.” I explained.

“There’s no ban on spices?” she asked surprised. “Then how do you know which are for nobles and which are for commoners?” she asked another weird thing.

“Because we don’t really care about the noble or commoner bloodline to begin with?” I told her.

“It must be anarchy over there.” commented Kataryna.

“Only when there’s an important soccer match on. But leaving jokes aside, we simply have a different governing system than the one used here. As such, there are not that many bans on wares and products as long as they aren’t harmful or could be used in a harmful way against the general populace. I honestly find it weird that you do... Wouldn’t a kingdom without such ridiculous bans prosper through commerce?” I asked her.

“Hm, now that you mention it...” Kataryna was the one who said this.

“Even if that was true, there’s nothing WE can do about it. Only the King and the High Nobles can request a change.” Kleo shrugged.

“Indeed, so let us not waste any more of our precious time on politics and find those flowers quickly.” said Seryanna.

To this, we all agreed and continued to cross the small patch of woods.

When we arrived at the clearing, it wasn’t the flowers which we encountered but two nasty looking dragons. They were wearing bandit clothing, had bandit faces, smelled so bad the flowers turned away from them, and they were definitely there with a cliché thought in mind.

“Oi! Are you the group who accepted the request to gather the Sunflower Lilies?” asked the one on the left with a club in his hands.

I am technically in a high-level area, so why am I meeting a thug with a club? I wondered.

“Indeed, we are. Who may you be?” asked Seryanna as she placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

“The name is Tennant Patraku. I’m an adventurer who accepted a subjugation quest for the local Dayuks. We two, we’ve been trying to lure them away from the flower field, but no such luck. They took down a Stone Horned Deer and are feasting on it as we speak.” he said and then let out a sigh.

“It’s as me brother said... Since we knew somebody accepted the quest for the flowers, we thought messing up the field with a battle would be a bad idea.” said the other.

Brother? You two are? WHAT?! I was a bit surprised seeing that the only thing in common between them appeared to be their armor type and stench.

“I understand, so what do you require of us?” Seryanna questioned.

“Well... we’re stuck with this problem, you see... Me and me brother here aren’t very smart in the head, but we be good fellas, so we were pondering if maybe you bunch have an idea on how to lure the Dayuks out of there?” he asked rubbing the back of his head... with his club.

As he said this, I took a look at the field and used [Identificus Processus Juridicus] on the monsters that gathered there.

[Name]: Black Dayuk

[Species]: Elemental Elite (Fire)

[Level]: 84

[Special Attacks]: Fire-breath; Fire Spike; Paralyzing Roar; Venomous Bite; Dash;

Wait a second! What’s with this ridiculous monster?! Are you telling me these guys were planning on taking on that thing while wearing that sort of armor and wielding clubs as weapons?! I shouted in my mind after I read the details displayed to me.

Without hesitation, I used [Identificus Processus Juridicus] on the first guy’s club.

(Great Sturdy Club): Made out of leyas bark, this sturdy club was enchanted to resist elemental attacks and increase its user’s strength. Special Stats: Resistance to all elemental attacks 40%. Increases Strength by 100 points.

What is this? A rare item? No, is it a legendary? Seriously... what? 40% resistance to all elements? Are you kidding me? It’s stronger than my sword! I felt like the gears in my head were coming to a halt.

Leaving aside Seryanna’s Great Knight Draconian Armor, this thing here was quite a ridiculous item for a character that looked no different than the typical trash mobs you kill off at every corner of a low-level area in an RPG and usually drop such cheap and broken items, you can’t help but wonder why you even bother looting them in the first place?

I let out a sigh and rubbed my temples, trying to get rid of the sudden spike of stress resulted by the nonsense I just witnessed.

“Are you alright?” Kleo asked.

“Yes... Just a bit of a headache.” I replied.

“How do you propose we get rid of the monsters?” asked Seryanna.

“Can we snipe them?” I asked.

“Snipe?” she furrowed her brow and showed me a confused look on her face.

“Erm... Kill them with a headshot from afar?” I kindly explained the term.

“Oh! I can do that!” Kataryna said with a smile.

“Very well, then we’ll leave it to you. As for these guys...” I looked at the two ‘mob’ characters.

“We are fine to take just what we need to complete our quest.” Tennant said.

“It’s fine to take the whole corpse. We’re here just for the flowers.” I told him.

“Thank you!” the two made a quick bow and showed us a big smile.

The silver-scaled dragoness stepped forward and took aim at the pack of horned wolves who were munching on a corpse in the middle of the flower field. The beauty of the scenery was completely ruined by the blood-drenched muzzles of the canine monsters. With armor plates sticking out from under their black fur and a sharp horn on top of their heads, they were not to be taken lightly. As such, Kataryna put a bit of power in her spell.

What she used was a targeted version of an [Ice Spike] spell, but since I had yet to obtain it, I had no idea just how much Magic Energy it required or what were the specific details of it. I never asked her about it either, but from what I could tell, it was a frightening attack that was no weaker than a remote-controlled bullet.

When she launched them, the Dayuks took notice of the attack a bit too late. Yelps of pain could be heard spreading in all directions as the monsters announced their unsuspected demise. The spears were impaled through their thick hides and pierced vital points, killing them swiftly and striking fear in the remaining ones, but alas, it was highly unlikely for there to be any survivors left.

“A-amazing...” Tennant said as he and his brother were staring at Kataryna with their jaws dropped to the ground.

“Hmph! This is nothing!” she declared proudly.

True, this cunning dragoness knew a thing or two about powerful ice attacks, she was a Superior Draconian of the Ice Spark after all.

“Let’s proceed, shall we?” I said and calmly approached the massacre zone.

To be honest, I found myself having obtained a certain resistance towards seeing gore of any kind. With the recent events of monster attacks, dungeon crawling, and what not, my instinct to cringe upon seeing a dead body had numbed down considerably. I had no idea if this was a good thing or a bad thing though, but for now it helped me get through without showing my pathetic side to my friends.

“I’ll start gathering the flowers.” Kleo announced and took out a bag.

With a skillful hand, she began to gather the gentle flowers. Ten of these were worth ten copper coins. It wasn’t that much, but when thinking about the amount that could be seen here, we could easily bring back enough to gain several gold coins. Still, the rule imposed on gathering specified that if we happened to acquire more than it was requested, we wouldn’t get paid for them. This was placed in order to keep adventurers from hogging the good requests.

It was easy to guess why the two brothers didn’t bother to gather flowers with us and instead focused on the Dayuks. Even if they did gather them, once they returned to the guild, they wouldn’t have been paid for them even a single copper for the whole batch. As for us, we had to pick only 100 flowers, just enough to earn us one whole silver coin!

Considering our battle potential and individual skills, it was a complete waste of time, but we were neither interested in the money nor the challenge. What we were looking for was the experience and rise in our Adventurer Rank at the guild. At the moment, both me and Kataryna were at the Beginner level. As for Kleo... I didn’t get the chance to ask if she was registered as an Adventurer or not. Speaking of which, I felt as though she was completely ignored back at the guild.

“It’s a bit weird to ask now, but is Kleo part of the Adventurers Guild?” I secretly whispered to Seryanna.

“My sister? No, she has yet to join because she believes the other dragons will look at her with strange eyes. I can’t say it isn’t true.” she showed me a wry smile “You did see how they looked at her back there, didn’t you? They didn’t even ask if she was an Adventurer or not.” she shook her head.

Indeed, it was so. Back then, the receptionist and also the Guild Master didn’t mention anything about Kleo. Looking at it from another point of view, it was similar to seeing a group of strangers bringing their pet to a meeting or something like that.

“This discrimination is wrong...” I shook my head.

“It is, but officially, if she were to go to the guild and request to register, they would have no reason as to why they should reject her application, especially if she proved to be powerful enough. Even so, before anything else, Kleo herself has to be the one to ask to become a part of the Adventurers Guild. Even if most dragons don’t look at necromancers with kind eyes, as long as she doesn’t use her magic to break the kingdom’s laws, they have no reason to throw her in jail. Even if they tried to accuse her of anything, as long as I am here and Kataryna too, she should be safe.

“I see... It sounds like every species and kingdom have their own internal problems, right?” I asked as I looked down at the flowers in my hands.

“Indeed.” she confirmed.

Humans appeared to hate all the other species, but they were tolerant of the human-like ones such as elves. The dragons had a thing for their elements. Some they feared while others worshiped, but they saw no reason in hating other sapient species. Then there were the heroes like me who came from another world where discrimination of gender and race was illegal and even seen as the acts of a low person.

Although I had little to no information on how it really was back on Earth, the one thing that was certain was that I simply couldn’t understand why they would hate others for something as little as that? It was the same as hating your neighbor for having their hair 1 cm shorter than yours.

I let my head cool off from the complicated things and continued to gather the pretty flowers. Once we had 100 of them, we waited for the two brothers to finish gathering the materials from the Dayuks and then we all returned to Marook.

“Again, me and me brother thank all thee for helping me and me brother!” he said and bowed to us at the waist.

His brother did the same but remained quiet.

“Don’t worry about it.” I replied with a polite smile.

After they left, we all let out a sigh.

“I honestly thought they were some thugs or bandits, but they are actually good fellows.” said Kataryna.

“True... although they need to work more on their conversational skills.” I nodded.

“Indeed, the ‘me and me’ part was a tad bit annoying.” confessed Kleo.

“Let’s leave them be, as Kataryna said, they are good fellows.” I remarked.

With all of us in agreement, we made our way to a nearby skewered meat stall and had a bit of a snack before returning to the Guild.

It was going to be the first ever quest I did in this Fantasy-themed world. It took me a while to reach this point, and I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe by now the other earthlings who came to this world were actually quite far ahead of me in both level and ranks. My mind immediately went to those people who loved playing computer games more than anything.

Then again, this was real life, not a novel, a computer game, or a made-up fiction of some crazy author... I could be heavily mistaken about who truly held the advantage in this world.