"So where do you live?" Lily asked. She and the guy named Corey both warmed up to me pretty easily. We had just left class and were walking to the Adventurers Guild to take an easy F rank quest to get to know each other.
"I currently don't have a home. I just walked here from my village in the mountains. I was planning on paying to sleep in a tavern for a while." I replied while getting excited about the quest. "You don't have a home?! The Tavern is really expensive. How much money do you have?" She asked in a worried tone.
"I currently have exactly 1 silver in my name. I spent a lot on my gear and my ID." I said while feeling kind of stupid. "You know a night in the tavern is 2 silver per night, and that's excluding the 50 bronze per meal." She remarked while looking at me.
"I was planning on doing lots of quests to try and save up money for a house. How much is a one-bedroom house here?" I asked the two. Corey responded almost immediately. "Around 35 through 50 gold. That's just for a one-bedroom house." He said while examining his staff. It had a huge blade that stuck out at the top.
"Well, I could always just camp outside the city walls," I said and the two looked at me with dumbfounded expressions. "Do you not know how dangerous it is out there at night? There are wild bears and wolves and other scary animals." Lily remarked. 'I never thought it was that bad.' I thought while ignoring their reasoning.
"You can come stay at my place for a few weeks while you get on your own two feet," Corey suggested. 'He just invited a stranger to live with him. This man is too nice for his own good.' "I'm good. Not only is that risky since you don't know me, but I'd also much rather just sleep in the woods." I said.
We finally arrived at the guild. 'This is my third time here today.' I thought as we walked in. We headed over to a quest board and went to the F rank section. We ended up picking a Slime subjugation for beginners. It stated we had to eliminate 25 slimes within 2 days. "This is too easy," I muttered while we went to the counter and told the lady we'd be accepting this quest.
[QUEST ACCEPTED]
Kill 25 slimes in 2 days. Rewards: 450 exp, 1 silver, 1 skill point.
'It seems when I accept a guild quest my system also considers it a quest. That means I will always get extra rewards.' I thought. "You two know slimes are immune to all forms of magic right?" I asked while we were leaving the guild and headed to the town gates.
"Yup. That's why mages should always carry a small weapon with them just in case their magic is rendered useless. That was the first lesson we went over in the Institute." Lily said while pulling out a small dagger from her waist.
We walked out of the city after showing our ID's to the Guards and explaining our purpose for doing so. The slime fields could be seen from the gate of the city so the walk there was only around 5 minutes.
The flat field making it even easier. "So what skills can you two use?" I asked while we were approaching the slimes. "I know a minor healing spell and a vitality-boosting spell," Lily replied with a proud voice.
"I know earth wall and poison dart. We're both only rank 1 mages so our skills are very limited. Once we hit rank two that's when people of the same element start becoming more diverse from one another." Corey replied before spinning his staff in his hand and pointing it at the slimes.
Lily pulled out her dagger as she charged at the slimes. I didn't realize it earlier but Lily has a dog tail and ears. The ears blend in well with her hair so unless you look closely you'll miss them.
Corey was just a normal human but he seemed like a nice person as well. He also dashed forward with Lily. 'They're slow. They must be around the low E rank.' I thought as I flew further into the field where the slimes were more abundant.
'None of my skills will help me here so I guess I'll just stick with the basics. I immediately darted around the field as fast as I could slashing and stabbing at every slime core I spotted.
It only took us around 3 minutes to complete the quest. "Woah, you're fast!" Lily complimented me as I was sheathed my shortsword within my cloak. "Yeah, I'm not just a mage. I'm trying to become a mix of both a rogue and a mage." I replied while looking at Corey who was still catching his breath. "By the way how does the guild know if we completed the quest? We could just lie to them." I asked
[You've received 312 exp for killing Dungeon Slime*13]
[QUEST COMPLETED]
Kill 25 slimes in 1 day. You've received 450 exp, 1 silver, and 1 skill point.
'So if I team up with others their progress counts as my own towards quests. That is convenient.' I thought while spacing out.
"They use some sort of rare tier 4 magic ability to make sure no one tries to attempt that. I'm not sure how it works and neither does anyone else." She replied before standing up straight and stretching a bit. "Strange," I said while we started walking back. We ended up turning in the quest and parting ways after talking a while longer.
'I like those two.' I thought as I walked back out of the town and into the woods around 10 minutes out. I returned to the place I had dug my hole and decided I would make some improvements. I dug the hope much deeper and wider and removed the roof I had made.
Once I was able to stand up rightfully without my head sticking out above the ground. I built a triangle-shaped roof that looked like a small tent. I placed it above the hole after adding more sticks and leaves to it.
I made little paths for the water to travel in case it ever rained, this way my hole wouldn't become a little pool. This all took several hours and before I realized it, the sun had already set and it was night. 'I like my little home. I'll make more expansions to it in the future. For now, let's go take some guild quests.
I Flew out of my hole and put my tent back over it. I walked back out of the woods and the guards looked at me suspiciously when I tried to return into the town. I quickly explained to them that I was currently dirt poor and would be camping out in the woods until I could afford some living arrangements. They both laughed and patted me on the back and wished me good luck.
I couldn't tell if they were being sarcastic or if they genuinely were wishing me good fortune in my future. I walked to the guild and looked back at the quest board. Apparently, you have to complete ten quests at F rank to be promoted to E, then 15 E ranked quests for D, and so on. I accepted three F rank quests. One was to pick 20 flare flowers that were used to make small health potions.
The second one was to help an old woman clean up her house. Then the third was to subjugate more slimes. Most of the F rank quests were just trivial tasks and such like this. I walked out of the guild and into the empty streets of the night.
I made my way back to the gate and into the beginning fields once more. 'I need to climb the ranks in the adventurers guild as fast as possible.' I thought before slaughtering more slimes.