"Young master, Barnabus. I see that you have joined the guards. You look quite dashing in the uniform. Women wouldn't be able to move their eyes of you," he said trying to appeal to the vanity of the young NPC. Sadly, his efforts did not work.
"Of course, women always find this young master pleasing to the eye. It has nothing to do with this ugly uniform," said Barnabus.
"What are you doing here?" asked Barnabus in a haughty manner.
"I came to take up forging quest for the guards," said Balthazar.
"No. You didn't. I forbid you to perform any quests or enter the coastal guard station," said Barnabus. Balthazar was flustered when he heard the NPC, but his fears were calmed as he noticed that there were no notifications. Usually if a player lost favourability with an organisation or was banished from it, there would be a proper notification.
This time there was none, and he still had the tag of being an honorary member of the coastal guard in his profile information. So, he was sure that he could continue. The receptionist also didn't say anything and was processing his request for thee forging quest.
"What are you still waiting here for? Do you want my men to throw you out?" asked Barnabus as the two guard on either side of him began to flex their arms menacingly. Balthazar began to take a step back as he didn't know what to do. The two guards were listening to Barnabus and started moving towards him. If he attacked them in the main hall to avoid capture, he might lose the little coastal guard favourability points that he gained. He was stuck with no idea of what he could do. This was a completely unexpected scenario for Balthazar.
"Oh, you are going to throw him out?" asked a voice from behind him suddenly. It was the lieutenant. Lieutenant Bloom had come to the room and was standing behind the receptionist. He was looking very angrily at Barnabus, who looked slightly frightened.
"Did you finish your work?" asked Bloom looking at Barnabus.
"Yes, I have arranged for the lookout posts to be built on the coasts," said Barnabus.
"I told you to supervise and help them in setting up the posts, not order my men to help you. Moreover, how do I find two of my men who are supposed to be working on your sides," snarled Bloom.
"Sir, I was.." started Barnabus.
"Shut up," said Bloom. "You are a trainee currently and so are most of the members who joined the guards. I have put their names as such as they still consider you their employee. You will only be given half the pay and that too if you put your own hands to work. Now, join the others in building the outposts. They have to be done by tonight. Else, it would be all in vain."
"And lastly, you don't get to give orders here, Barnabus. You need to earn that right yet. If I find you ordering adventurers or offering money for their services. I will have to punish you according to the laws of the coastal guard for illegal dealings. I hope you don't continue with this behaviour and the same goes for the pair of you and anyone else that joined today," continued Bloom.
"You come with me to my office," said Bloom pointing at Balthazar.
"Why is he calling me?" thought Balthazar as he followed Bloom to his office. He began to wonder if the lieutenant was going to suggest him to not come to avoid more conflict. As he went into the office, Bloom signalled him to take a seat.
"Your suggestion helped to avoid a fight between the town and the guards, but it also brought its own set of difficulties," said Bloom as he took a seat. "Though Theodore told his son and his men to follow my orders. It is hard to manage them. They are good fighters, but they have to consider Barnabus's words. They were actually employed by Theodore and he pays them. So, it is expected that they might be a bit hesitant to not follow Barnabus's orders."
"That is true, but you can avoid it by not letting him be with them. Let a couple of your own men whom you trust look over him and train him. Wouldn't that solve the problem?" asked Balthazar.
"I thought the same, but it is not so easy. Even they are bit afraid of him and it is hard to not consider their situation. They have not signed up to be babysitters and they are not qualified. They would consider him to be the same as a normal trainee and would rather beat him to get him in line. But Theodore specifically requested that we don't do so," said Bloom.
"Now that I had Barnabus as my apprentice and have reported my superiors of his mistake, I could use his name and kick him out of the guards," said Bloom.
"That does solve your problem and would put all this behind," said Balthazar.
"But I really am in need of more men which Theodore is happy to supply if I train his kid. He also wants his son to join the guards and learn a bit more discipline and become a man who can live on his own as any father would hope for his son. The beasts are becoming more restless for the past few day and I would also like to keep these extra soldiers," said Bloom.
"This brings me to the matter at hand. I need someone not in the guards to put in some fear in him. So, I thought of you," said Bloom. Balthazar felt like punching himself in his face when he heard that. He never had much tolerance towards the self-entitled snobbish rich kids, and he didn't want to take a quest in which he had to babysit one of those.
"I really don't think that I am capable of something like that," said Balthazar as fast as he could before any quest request popped up. "He wouldn't listen to me at all. It would be impossible for me to train him. He would just not care, and I would require to physically discipline him."
"Haha," laughed Bloom. "You are thinking too much. Neither me nor Theodore want you to mentor him. We discussed it and decided on a simple solution. We have a small quest in mind which would take you to the forest. You just need to guard him so that he doesn't get killed or any irrecoverable injuries. A bit of fear would set many a man straight."
"If you want to frighten him. I can attempt an assassination feint," said Balthazar as he felt it to be better instead.
"That would just make him cry and force him to beef up his own security. Assassinations though bring fear wouldn't make a person to work hard. Assassin only aim to kill, and they happen very fast. It wouldn't bring the right effect," said Bloom. "The quest will be like a competition and I will tell him that you would be reporting to me about his performance so that he doesn't attempt to cheat or claim you work for his."
"Would the town head agree?" asked Balthazar.
"I have already talked about the details with him. He was fine with it. The beasts in the forest are much less dangerous and, in the map, where I am sending you, there wouldn't be much danger. He also hired a few personnel to guard him. If things go south, the man will pull him out, escape and treat him. So, do you agree?" asked Bloom.
"Fine," said Balthazar. "I might need a bit of time to prepare. If it is to guard him and protect him, we will have a better chance of success if I get a few of my friend. With more adventurers we would have a better team and teamwork."
"Sure, that is definitely better," said Bloom. "I will let you have a couple of hours to prepare. Gather your friends and meet at the main hall after that so that you can take him to the quest. I will make sure he is ready and available in two hours."
Though he didn't like the nature of the quest. It was from the coastal guard where he wanted a bit of reputation and contribution points. This was a good option. As he agreed a notification popped up.
New quest: Escort Barnabus to search for star blade grass. (Can be shared with 4 more players.)
Description: Escort Barnabus on his quest to gather star blade grass and protect him from dangers. Make sure that Barnabus fights a beast and help him defeat a beast.
Note: The greater number of beasts you fight and more blades of grass you collect, the more rewards you get.
He went back to the main hall and let go of the forging quest. With him taking this new quest, he did have some preparations to do. He first let Agua Canalon and his team know of the new quest and convinced them that it would not be an issue as the quest will take place in the forest.
After that he needed to prepare some antivenom to protect against the venomous beasts of the Greybark marshlands. Though, he currently had no intentions to do any explorations till he levels up a couple of times, he needed them because he intended to help the guild that Agua and he are setting up in the town.
He first went to town to buy any venom and herbs that the players who fought in the marshlands were selling. Though the Raiders had spread their members in the marshland and were buying most of the items that players acquired, they couldn't consume all of it as the players attempting it increased. The players began to come back to the town and sell it.
There were a number of other adventure groups and player groups interested in them too. Venom was always a good option to help kill beasts. Meat of the beasts was a constant consumable. Some players began to stock and store herbs with the assumption that their price might soon raise as it was a common belief in games that almost all items which require effort to acquire in games would be worth more.
He had previously informed Agua to get these materials from such players, but now he had come to buy them personally. He quickly filled made enough purchases and went back to the tamer, Kiran's workplace where he started to inject pets with venom and also started using the other method to produce antidotes quickly.
He needed them to gather the attention of the crowd and not it was much more important as some player would definitely see him with Barnabus who was wearing the coastal guard uniform. Even though his description would identify him as the son of the town head, the Raiders would still be informed and might take action. So, the antidotes were needed urgently to prevent them from taking serious actions and gather influence. Based on the amount they are spending to complete the quest in the marsh, they would consider holding back from killing his team to get hands on the antidotes.
After a couple of hours, he made close to a hundred antidotes of different types and then went back to the coastal guard station to start the quest. As he entered the main hall, he found Barnabus with a pair of guards on his either side.
"You ready?" he asked Barnabus who looked irritated and angry.
"Yes," said Barnabus in a low tone. "Anyone else joining us?"
"They will join us at the town. Let us go back," said Balthazar as he took Barnabus back to the town. As they reached the town, there were quite a number of players who were looking at him oddly and talking about him. He knew that it was because of him interacting with NPCs wearing the uniform of the coastal guards.
As they reached the gate, he got a call form Agua Canalon. "Hi, are you back to the town. I got a good mission," said Balthazar as he lifted the call.
"Good mission, are you suicidal?" asked Agua from the other side. He looked a bit aggrieved and tensed. "Why are you walking around with members of the coastal guard? Do you want the Raiders to kill you?"
"Ah! It is not an issue. I got this from the mission from the town head. I am just helping this NPC to complete a mission. Join me it is no big deal. Let your people start with selling the antidotes that I have in the meantime. It will dissuade the Raiders from taking any action against us," said Shadow.
"That would have probably worked before, but with us openly defying their warning by going to the coast to take a quest, they would definitely be angered. It would take some time for them to believe that only we have the antidote and that only you have the method for now," said Agua still unconvinced.
"Let me send you a picture," said Balthazar as he sent screenshots of different types of antidotes. They were for poisons of different creatures and depending on the type of method used to create them, they had different duration for which they would be effective.
"You can put all different types on sale at once and announce that this is a special product made by an alchemist without a recipe. Looking at the types, they are bound to think so. If one had the recipe, he wouldn't waste on experimenting different types," said Balthazar.
"Fine, I will come, and my man will put this up for sale in the market," said Agua. "About the alchemist, should we tell them your name. It would be quite a deterrent if they learn that the Shadow is the one creating them."
"No, that would be bad. They would be trying to get the alchemist to join them if they think it is a normal alchemist. Tell them the name is fleet-footed rogue. As they try to negotiate with me, you will get enough time to build influence. If you end up tell that it is Shadow, they will try to kill me as they know that they can get me to join them," said Shadow.