I took the quest paper from Philip and looked it over.
REPEATABLE STONE GRADE REQUEST|
DETAILS: HUNT [Longtail Monkeys] IN THE TEMPERATE WOODS SOUTHEAST OF TOWN|
REWARD (per kill): 3 Dali|
EXTRA INFO: SWINGING THROUGH THE BRANCHES WITH THEIR STURDY TAILS, [Longtail Monkeys] HARASS AND ATTACK MERCHANTS WHO PASS THROUGH. THEIR NUMBERS MUST BE CULLED REGULARLY BECAUSE OF THIS|
COMMISSIONED AND FUNDED BY VARIOUS MERCHANT AND TRADE ASSOCIATIONS|
"Seems fine to me," I handed the rough and sturdy paper back to Philip.
"Alright, let's go accept it then. We should be able to arrive there and get done with some hunting before sunset, then we can setup camp outside the woods and return home in the morning."
oooooh, an overnight trip, sounds adventurer-ish!
We went up to the now decently busy counter, and waited a few minutes before a clerk got to us.
It seems luck was not on my still embarrassed side, however, as Jina somehow got done with someone right as we walked up, and out of a handful of clerks manning the main counter she was the one to motion me and Philip over.
Jina stared at me with a strange look I had never seen before as she took the paper from Philip. Even as the attractive clerk filled out some documentation, which Philip signed, her eyes continued to periodically glance over every few seconds.
Apparently only one person in a party needed to 'accept' the quest using their signature, who would typically be called as the 'party leader'. And thus, Philip had formed, and became the leader of, our tiny temp party.
After getting that over with, we left the post and began talking some things over.
According to Philip, the repeatable prefix was added on to the quest so the clerk who verified that we accepted it knew to go and put the paper back up immediately.
This made sense, because from the merchant's point of view each additional kill provided even more value to them.
For example, a population size of 12 could be reduced by 4 and it would only take one generation for them to get back up to 12 again. However if that same population lost another 4 members on top of that, it would take three generations for them to get back to their original size.
While it was unrealistic to wipe out all of the monkeys, the merchants were still happy to constantly pay to reduce their numbers. Even if many adventurers accepted the quest at once and put a strain on their liquid funds, it would be worth it.
This was because every extra kill in a short period of time gave them increasing marginal benefit due to the principle from the population thought experiment from before, which was why the ones commissioning it let the quest be 'repeatable' and put no limit on the number of kills you could cash in.
There was a silent agreement among adventurers, however, to not over-accept quests like these. Keeping demand high was in their best interests after all.
As we were preparing to leave, Philip learned that I owned literally zero adventuring gear, camping gear, extra clothing, food rations, and miscellaneous items.
And so, a frustrated Philip led me to an Essentials Shop and made me buy a bunch of supplies for myself, which ended up costing me 82 of my 355 Dali.
Even across my entire life up until now I had never spent so much money, and it was all in one go too...
"Don't worry about it," Philip consoled me, "even if you don't earn it all back on this quest, a good amount of this stuff will remain helpful to you even after multiple uses. Please stop crying... I'm sorry for getting a little mad ok... Spending some money isn't that big a deal! Come-on let's get going, people are staring!"
I may have gotten traumatized just a small tiny bit... a tad, even.
One of the things I had been forced to buy was a travel pack, which I threw my two pouches into, along with everything else I had purchased.
Philip and I then left through the gate next to Guild Post #14, where we were greeted by Brad who was currently on duty as a guard once again.
He put us on the list of 'returnees', which served the dual function of documenting who left town and when, as well as allowing us to get back in easily when we returned. So even if Brad wasn't on duty, the list would show that we should be let in.
Our little duo then proceeded to circle the city for a while until we found a wide dirt path that led southeast, which was the direction of the Temperate Woods mentioned in the quest.
And just like that, we set off through the rolling green hills bathed in golden rays of morning light.
Thus my first ever adventure had begun, and as I walked along the dirt road next to Philip, we began to have random conversations to pass the time.
About the emergency quest, the people we knew, adventuring stuff, and our own lives.
I told him about living in the boonies, and my story about the skill book dropped in the forest, to which he was just as dumbfounded as I had been at the time.
Turns out Philip was 20 and Aisha was 21, which wasn't too surprising, but when I told him I was 17 he did a double-take. For some reason, he had thought I was a kid...
I asked him what that meant, and he said that throughout the empire anyone under the age of 15 was considered a child, while anyone 15 or older was considered an adult.
It was my turn to be astounded, because where I grown up, if your age had two numbers in it you were expected to fight for yourself despite being under the same law as everyone else.
I learned that Philip grew up with no parents, abandoned or orphaned he didn't really know. Either way, for a long time he had to take up odd jobs to just barley get by.
Only a few months ago did he become an adventurer after a party he was porting for got wiped out. From their remains he retrieved a dropped skill book before escaping, leading him to a join the Pentaz Guild soon after reporting what had happened.
According to Philip, he was even kept in a cell for a few days on suspicion of sabotage after revealing he had gained a skill from the party, however it was eventually concluded that he could not have pulled off such a thing and was released.
Philip told me that, while he hadn't done anything wrong, he didn't feel bad about it and was actually happy with how the situation had turned out. Apparently that party had been pretty severely mistreating him, having used to be scrawny, weak, and hungry just like I was before.
In the end he took the skill book and abandoned them without hesitation, getting his revenge and a ticket to a better life all at once.
"Sorry you had to suffer for so long, I'm glad you were able to become an adventurer."
"Nah, if anything I should be the one saying that to you."
"o-oh... t-t-thankies," I stuttered out, embarrassed yet again.
"thankies?" He questioned, "By the way dude, why was Jina looking at you like she was about to attack you earlier? Did you do something?"
"w-What!?"
"She looked like she was about to... man, I don't know... but what I do know is that that's the exact look Aisha has whenever a five course feast is sitting in front of her after a long quest. Voracious, like a predator or something."
I don't really get it, but that can't be good...
Maybe she started hating me after I acted weird in front of her...
scary, I need to be careful...
And like that, we passed the trip talking about whatever, and after 9 long hours of travel Philip got my attention and pointed something out.
A tree line on the horizon.
We had arrived.