One day later the trio enters an inn located far on the outskirts of the city of Albaron, the capital of Ceran.
"Adventurers huh? How can I help you?" The innkeeper asks politely, the three being one of his few current guests.
"We'd like something to eat and two rooms for the night." Ben says, placing a silver coin on the man's desk.
"I will get you your meals, please take a seat." He says, pointing them to an empty table while handing Ben some copper coins back.
About 5 minutes later the group is eating and have two keys lying on their table.
"So, what is our next move?" Dagonet asks, eating his stew hungrily.
"First we get our reward for the mission we did. And then we should see if there's a reward for that dragon and try to get that as well. I mean we do have proof." Ben tells them, having stored the dragon's hide in his magic storage which only holds the hide currently, since Ben can only hold onto one item with it due to it being on level 1.
"Sounds good. But what afterwards?" His black-haired paladin companion asks.
"We resupply. Money should be fine for a while." Ben answers.
"And after that we'll see what missions or opportunities arise." Ben says.
"Alright guys I'm beat. Have a good night." The leader then adds, gulfing down the last of his food before heading to his room.
Once there he takes off his bloodied cloak and the pants he borrowed from Dagonet before lying down on his bed and look at his left hand wonderingly.
"How can I get stronger Sir Berut?" He asks the empty room tiredly before falling asleep.
dream|
"Again. The shield needs to be bigger!" An older man with grey hair says, punching through Ben's small iron defense shield.
"But it's level one. Yours is level 40 how can you expect me to make mine bigger? I need to be able to increase the skill level somehow." An eight-year-old Ben says upset.
"You aren't ready yet. And my level one shield was able to cover my whole body when I was 16 years old."
Sir Berut tells him.
"How can I even level up the skills? Isn't my skill the skill of adaptation?" Ben asks.
"Yes. But there is a scroll in the royal archives which will explain how you can even level up your acquired skills. Just focus on mastering the adaptaion as far as possible and learn many different abilities." Sir Berut orders.
"Fine." Ben grumbles and creates a glowing shield in front of him.
The next day the adventurer trio meets up and eat breakfast together before they head out to the adventurer's guild.
"Do you really think we can get a reward for the dragon?" Dagonet asks.
"I don't see why not. We have fresh dragon scales to prove it and when has a dragon been sighted and not a reward placed on it?" Ben says.
"What kind of reward are we talking about?" Lina asks curiously.
"I've heard you can get rare equipment for defeating a dragon." Dagonet tells her.
"Sounds kind of weird, you get the advantage after the fight is over." Ben chuckles.
"What do you think it'll be?" Lina asks.
"Money. At least I'm hoping so. Anything else could be annoying and draw attention we don't need especially since we aren't strong enough to kill a dragon." Ben sighs.
"Alright, game faces on everybody." Ben says, stopping in front of large wooden doors leading into a large square building out of black rocks with a wooden roof.
The trio enters and walks through the main hall up to the reception on their right.
"We finished this mission." Ben says, showing the young woman at the reception the stamped mission request.
"I will get your reward." She says with a cute smile and winks at Dagonet, making Lina pout and hug herself to one of his large arms.
"Let's see. 5th grade... 1st grade ah special. Look through those missions." Ben says, pointing at the special class missions on the bulletin board. While he looks through the 1st grade missions.
"Here's your reward." The receptionist says, placing a bag with coins on the counter.
"Thanks. Uhm is there a mission for a red dragon by any chance?" Ben asks, accepting the payment.
"Actually... this one hasn't been posted yet." The girl says, showing them a mission request to kill a dragon in the area they ended up in after getting caught in the rockslide.
"Well you can save yourself the trouble of posting it." Ben says and retrieves the dragon scaled hide from his storage.
"Let me get the guild master to verify that for you." The girl says intrigued and heads upstairs to an office, returning with a black-haired man wearing a beige trench coat and black clothing underneath who has a flask dangling from his belt and looks like he had too much to drink.
"What do we have here? Benny boy and the wanted paladin Dagonet and who is this cute woman?" The guild master greets the group.
"Lina." Dagonet says, stepping in front of the elf.
"What's this I hear about a dragon?" The man asks.
"We were caught in a rockslide and a dragon was in it as well. So we finished it off and want to collect the reward." Ben says.
"Hmm. It is genuinely fresh dragon's hide. I will send someone to check it out. You can come back tomorrow to see what the result is." The guild master tells them.
"Until tomorrow then." Ben says nodding and leaves, taking the dragon's hide with him.
"Do you think we'll get a reward?" Lina asks, following her two male companions outside.
"I really don't know." Ben answers.
"But the quest payment alone is enough to resupply and take it easy for a while." Ben says walking through the streets until they come across a clothing store.
"All our clothes got crushed by the rockslide, right?" Ben asks, receiving a nod positive from Dagonet and Lina.
"Alright, let's get some clothes then." Ben says, giving some money to the two and the three get about two sets of clothes each before leaving the store.
"Alright. Looking good." Ben says, happy to have a shirt on and a new cape, wearing a blue dress shirt, a black cape and red cargo pants.
Dagonet sticks to his grey, metal plated pants, combat boot, blue jacket and a black shirt underneath.
Lina chose a red, loose skirt reaching to her knees and a tight-fitting white shirt over which she wears a red leather jacket with her quiver attached to the back of it.