"No I don't and nor do I care," Alex started walking to the side wall covered in hundreds of different papers containing missions.
"When someone insults me, I respond in kind. If they don't like it, then they can beat me up if they can. But I doubt you'd be doing that Baba."
'Baba?' Vera thought but shook her head and forgot about it.
"When did I insult you? Just because you are strong for your age doesn't mean you can be an ass to everyone." Vera scolded him like a child.
Alex pointed back to her.
"That's exactly what I mean. You treat me like a child when I already know everything I need to know to climb up to rank B on my own. Laugh at me all you want but I'd like to see what you think of me when it actually happens."
Alex kept looking at the missions to try and find the ones he could take. When he spoke about climbing to B rank, a bunch of adventurers laughed at him like it was the funniest joke they've ever heard.
Vera on the other hand just narrowed her eyes at him. She actually believed his words! Even though she thought he was rude and a bit too confident, he had the strength to back it up. For him to be able to stand up to 3rd Rings just fine, he had to at least be a high 3rd Ring himself, probably more like 4th Ring.
"Well, I'm sorry for making you feel like a child. It's just that to me and many others here, you are like a kid since most of us have been doing this for 10, 20, 50 years or more.
"My name is Vera, I'm the resident healer and doctor for the Carson branch here. Can I ask who you are?" Vera decided to change her attitude a bit, even if she didn't like to 'bow' down to someone younger than her.
Alex widened his eyes a bit after hearing there was another doctor here.
"I'm surprised that there's a healer outside of the churches in Carson. On top of that, you know hands-on medical treatment?" He asked her.
She smirked at his change in attitude. 'Maybe he won't be so haughty now.' she thought but her thoughts wouldn't come true.
"That's right. I don't want to involve myself with those Koran worshipers anymore." She rolled her eyes and looked at the slave girl that was looking at her curiously.
Grace was just wondering if her teacher in the healing arts would look this saggy and grumpy when she was older. Both Sharla and Vera would probably cough up blood if they heard her thoughts.
Alex was curious about those Koran worshipers she mentioned but he decided not to ask. He didn't want to get himself involved with religion since it was just a huge mess and the Koraneers especially were frustrating since their God was Koran, the God of Magic, for humans at least.
Other races had different beliefs but he didn't know much else. There's only so much he could get from those who live in the middle of nowhere basically.
Alex nodded and introduced himself and Grace as well. He asked if she knew any good missions that he could take so he could rise through the ranks easily.
"To get from F rank to E rank at least, you need 20 completed missions, whether they are herb collecting or monster hunting, it doesn't really matter. There are some requests that are repeatable but they won't get you as much money as taking a full request but if you are looking for a quick buck, that's what you should do.
"For rising ranks quickly, there really isn't an easy way to do that. Unless you plan to take multiple requests at the same time, I would just take your time."
"I can do that? Take several requests at the same time?" Alex asked curiously.
Vera cursed herself for mentioning something like that but she sighed and answered anyways.
"Yes, technically you can. However, if you are late on any of them, the fee is its normal amount, times the number of requests you took at the same time.
"We do this to deter people from taking too many at once and to make sure they finish their quests on time. As for the normal fee, for an F rank quest, it is usually 10 gold at least. So it's really expensive."
"That's fine with me," Alex smiled knowing he could maybe hit E rank in 2 or 3 days if he camped out.
He only booked the room he got for 2 nights since he wasn't sure if he would be leaving right away so it was a good thing he didn't book it for a week or something or it would have been a waste.
He still had around 500-600 gold in his storage ring so he could spare being late on 1 as long as he didn't take too many.
"Then can you show me herb collecting requests and monster slaying ones in similar areas? I'd like to take those if possible."
Vera sighed before going back over to the counter behind the bar and pulling out a large book. This was their request book and it was much neater than the board, but it had all the requests on there and then some, and were much more organized.
She took out a pair of glasses and squinted her eyes at the pages, removing a few and flipping over others to move on. In the end, she picked out 16 that were in the same general area. Some were a bit farther or harder than others but were in the same area.
"These are all requests to the east of the city around the Elsen Woods. There are mostly herb collecting requests here since that area is a big hotspot for medical herbs and many types of wild plants for cooking.
"There are also a few monsters there that have been causing trouble, probably eating up those items we rely on here in Carson. If you can clear up that area, I'm sure it will be much easier for some of the other newbie adventurers like you to have an easier time earning a living.
"I probably shouldn't be doing this but if you do me a favor as well, I will sign off on giving you up to 10 of these requests." Vera spoke about the area he would be going to.
"Wait you need to get permission for multiple requests?" Alex said than felt it was kind of stupid now that he said it.
Vera chuckled, "We aren't gonna let someone as new as you cause a fuss by taking too many requests. If you took them all, no matter what rank you were, it would mean less money for others and we can't have that.
"Some of those here rely on these requests to be able to eat another day so we normally don't allow this so either the Guildmaster, or myself, have to give permission."
'Seems I've been duped.' Alex thought as he got too excited about rising ranks fast.
"Then what the favor you want me to do?"
"Nothing much," Vera shrugged as she put away the other requests into the book after Alex chose his poisons, "It's more of just a discussion more than anything. I'd like to talk about a few things but the biggest one for me was the way you used the Kristi technique."
"What's the Kristi technique?" Alex asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You know, 'that' skill, the medical skill that..." 'breaks your bones.'"
Vera tried avoiding talking about it out loud since many people had no idea this skill existed even though it was meant for them. At least in this country, it was more of a rite of passage for nobles or apprentices of strong adventurers and runners to learn the technique.
She also whispered the last bit and he got the hint.
"Oh, that..." He sighed in frustration.
Ever since getting the skill before leaving, he had been trying to use it more often to get used to the movements. Now having it as a skill, it was much easier to 'break' his bones until it became one fluid motion for him.
He reacted out of instinct yesterday and it seemed he was lucky that most of the people there were too stupid or shocked to notice his arm was turned backward. It was only Vera who seemed to notice but that might have been a given considering her profession.
"Can you do it as well?" Alex asked curiously and handed his ID card to her so she would work on the requests for him.
"Heh. 30 years ago maybe, but not now. I'm too old for that stuff." She started shuffling around to get everything else situated before giving his ID back.
"Here's a list of everything with the times to complete. The first is due in 3 days and the last in 7. You're welcome to take trips back and forth but how you manage your time isn't my problem. If you are late with any of them, it'll be 100 gold for the fee."
Alex smiled and thanked her before heading off. Vera sighed and left the front of the Guild and went back to go to bed early. She was tired after having such a busy last few days and she felt this newcomer was going to make her even busier.
Alex on the other hand was very happy that he could get this over with pretty quick. He didn't really care about the rewards since most of them were only a few dozen silver at most, but the completed missions would allow him to move up and get one step closer to being able to go into dungeons.
It was still early in the day, around 11 am, so he took Grace to a restaurant and ate. Grace once again got a lot of glares and weird looks since it wasn't normal for slaves to eat so fancily or even dress so fancily.
She was currently wearing a sky blue dress that accentuated her curves excellently. Her hair was currently in a ponytail and she had some jewelry on like the rings and earrings that Alex had to give her some extra stats.
If it wasn't for the contrasting dark metal collar around her neck, she would look more like a noblewoman. Alex was frustrated not only at how much the people stared, whispered, and blatantly cursed them, but also that Grace seemed to be completely oblivious to it all.
He felt awful that he couldn't help this girl more with her commonsense but he wasn't a shrink or anything. Alex wouldn't respond or acknowledge any of the things people said about them unless those people decided to take action.
He was lucky that no one was willing to do anything so he was able to pay and leave with his girl so they could go back to the room and get any luggage they left there before checking out and heading toward the east exit.
Looking through the gate, he could see that it was still extremely crowded since there were several major cities along the east highway to the rest of the Sorketh Kingdom, and also neighboring kingdoms.
There were no problems getting out since the guard captain from the night before wasn't able to finalize the report on him yet. Alex truly did make his life even harder by going through the more reputable Dungeon Runner's Guild.
He decided to run there, so to Grace's delight, he carried her in his arms like she was a koala while he held her butt and head to keep her from moving. He then used his overwhelming speed and stamina to race over to the Elsen Woods that Vera mentioned.
There was a map in the Adventurer's Guild and he had Grace memorize it since apparently, she surprisingly had a photographic memory...