I heard Elaria get up and start making breakfast. Figuring it must be morning, I stopped working on my mana circles and gently woke up the little pervert. She woke up and "stretched" before Elaria brought her breakfast. After eating, we dressed and left the apartment for the guild to take more quests.
We needed mana stones to increase our circles faster, and getting paid to kill the monsters was an excellent bonus.
After walking through the guild doors, I remembered we needed to go to a magic shop first, so I turned around and headed right back out the door. Due to the sharp turn in the other direction, I didn't notice the group behind us and crashed into a lady who had been behind me.
I reached out, held her shoulder so she didn't fall over, then released. "My apologies, I didn't look where I was going."
She was dressed like a witch in a red mage robe and a brown hat. She looked about 25 and had a pretty face.
"Hey! What if you hurt her? If you don't want me to call the guards, then you should beg for forgiveness, and maybe I can be lenient."
I ignored the speaker for a moment.
Her eyes flickered with annoyance at the other's words. She looked at me and gave a smile, "It's okay; I've done it also."
I turned my head toward the voice of the other speaker, a rich-looking guy about the same age as the witch girl, and raised an eyebrow. I think he's only trying to impress her, but instead, he's annoying everyone.
He pointed at me, "Shouldn't you provide some compensation? Don't worry; I'll make sure you are shown leniency if your genuinely remorseful," then he pointed at the ground in front of him.
I gave him a bored look and looked back at the witch girl. She looked annoyed, along with the rest of the party members. Why they weren't saying anything to him I don't know; maybe he's powerful or something.
Looking back at him, I asked, "Who are you? I'm new in this city. Do you have the power to show me leniency?"
He puffed out his chest, "I'm Azreel Schmuck," I almost choked, but he didn't notice and continued, "a 3rd circle mage; my father is a 4th circle and best friends with the city lord."
Ah, that explains it. For most people, they can't offend him, but I don't have to care.
I thought maybe he was friends with a 6th or 7th circle that I might have to worry about, but it's actually his father that is friends with the city lord, who is only a 5th circle. Still, I don't want to fight a 5th circle, but the city lord won't want to either and probably has better things to do than fight to the death. In reality, he'd probably try to make friends to make his position safer.
I turned and started walking away. When my back was to him, I held my hand in the air off to the side and gave a thumbs up.
As I walked towards the magic shop, I could hear screaming from behind, but just tuned it out. When we passed a guard who was stationed on a corner, I cast an illusion of text in front of him.
"A guy named Azreel Schmuck made a mess and tried to offend a 5th circle mage using his connection to the city lord. Please run it up to your supervisors so it doesn't turn into a big issue. Hopefully."
I could have just not said anything, but sometimes, it's the guy who reports it first that gets favored, so I figured I would.
The guard started speaking what was written into a little device, probably a magic communicator, and I released the illusion as we entered Ruth's Magic Books.
It was a small shop and had the walls lined with books. There was a bookshelf going down the middle and a counter near the entrance, across from the counter there were 2 small tables.
There was an old woman sitting behind the counter, and I walked up.
"Hello, do you have any higher-level spell books?"
She pointed, "3rd shelf on the left."
We walked over, and I found the books she was talking about. Unfortunately, they were all for 3rd and 4th circles, not that they couldn't be used by higher circles; they just didn't have as much power as a spell designed for it.
I selected some spells totaling 3 gold and went back to the desk.
"Do you have any for 5th circle?"
She squinted at me, "I can get a few."
"Alright, which ones can you get?"
She listed 5 spells, consisting of 2 offense, 2 defense, and 1 healing for 2.5 gold each. I decided to purchase them all.
I sadly handed over 15.5 gold for all the spells, and she went into the back to get the 5th circle spells.
Instead of leaving right away, we sat at the table to study the new spells. After an hour or so, we had a basic understanding, at least enough to try them out.
When we left, we were greeted with a scene I hoped to avoid. In front of us, there were 3 guards along with Azreel Schmuck and a man who I assumed was his father.
Azreel pointed with a sneer, "They're the people who disrespected us and don't care about the authority of the city lord."
His father looked at us, "I'm De'ol Schmuck; you're going to have to come with us. If you resist, I can't guarantee you won't be unharmed."
I looked at him and sighed, "Let's get this sorted now, shall we?"
I compressed the air around the 5 of them into a barrier, then lifted them off the ground. I walked toward the city lord's residence with the ball containing them floating behind. This gave me an idea for a spell to try later.
Shouting and screaming could be heard from inside, and I cast a silencing spell on top of the barrier.
"So noisy," Lila remarked.
They were pounding on the barrier, and De'ol Schmuck was trying to break it with magic to no avail.
When we reached the city lord's residence, the guards stopped us. Looking at the floating ball of people, they were alarmed and started casting spells.
I held up my hand, "I'm just here to deliver some people causing mayhem in the city, okay? I'll leave them here now."
I set the ball down in front of the gate and walked away. After a sufficient distance, I dispelled the barrier, and I could hear shouting in the distance behind us.
We returned to the guild and asked Ann which quests were issued by the government. Pretty much every kind of monster has a government-issued quest; however, some of the major monsters don't require 10 to be killed.
We decided to just run around and kill whatever we found; we also found out that we could buy a map with the general areas of monsters, which we did so we could find the ones with basic mana stones faster.
When we were about to leave the guild, the witch girl from earlier came over.
"I'm sorry about what my party member did before; I hope he won't cause you any trouble."
"He already tried and probably will again, but you shouldn't apologize for what someone else has done."
"Yes, I know. We never should have let him join us."
"Are you unable to kick him out because of who he is?"
She nodded and hurried away.
We left the city and headed in the direction of where the ogres were supposed to live. After traveling for about 15 minutes, we'd killed a few goblins along the way but didn't find anything interesting.
When we reached the ogre territory, we started moving slower. I don't think that ogres will pose any threat, but I've never fought them, so I can't say for sure.
Ogres are tall, usually around 9-10 feet with thick green skin and bulging muscles and usually carrying a club.
When we saw one, I created a single ice spear and shot it at the ogre's chest. Sure enough, it passed through, the ogre died without even knowing how.
Since they generally move on their own, unless it's at their camp, we decided it would be a good opportunity to try out fighting them close up. Even though they weren't as good as a human opponent, they could still help us train.
When we found another, I went first. Charging towards it with my sword, it noticed me and swung its club, I dodged to the side. The club crashed into the ground, shattering it with a loud boom. I swung my sword at the wrist that was holding onto the club that was still touching the ground, severing it.
It roared in pain, clutching its stump, spurting green blood with every heartbeat, and took a leap into the air, trying to stomp me to death. I dodged, and when he landed, the ground shook, he sunk several inches into the ground leaving large footprints and cracks.
He swung his other arm, and I dodged again, moving in closer and swung at his stomach, slicing it open. Some guts spilled out before he was able to hold them in with his arm. When he did this, he bent down enough in pain for my sword to swipe across his neck.
A river of blood flowed out of the wound as he tried to hold in his intestines with his stump and stop the blood with his good hand. He turned and tried to run away, but I severed the back of one of his knees, making him fall to the ground.
I sliced off his left ear and gave it to Elaria, who put it in a sack. Then, I devoured him while he died.
We kept hunting alternating between myself and Lila doing the killing until it was going to get dark if we didn't go back. We slew 54 orcs, 4 Kobolds, and 13 Goblins. We should earn 75 silver when we turn in 50 ogre ears.
When we returned, there was one of the guards that had been at the city lord's residence before waiting for us.
"Hello, the city lord would like to thank you for earlier if you have time."
I looked at Lila before replying, "Sure."