"What is the mission about?" Aric asked.
"They are going to hunt some wild Eclipsian Hyenas that had shown up in the forest. There is no particular mission about this in the bulletin board and they will be doing the Adventure Guild a favor. So you will not recieve the coins upfront and it will depend upon your work and their attitude. In normal circumstances, I wouldn't tell any bell boy to take this task because they were risky and the payment won't be good enough. But you are new and if you take this job, your name will be written on the books as flexible. This helps in acquiring subsequent teams as they look for someone who is ready to help them and not always hungry for money since these teams don't like bell boys who are a burden."
"But my first mission will be dangerous since they are taking the mission suo moto." Aric said.
"Yes, that maybe true but they will work their best to safeguard you. The bell boys don't have enough power but in this age, every bell boy will see if the team before had any problems with the bell boys before. Even if they leave the city and go elsewhere that is still in the books. And thus if they treat a bell boy bad or a bell boy die, they will be marked in red and no other bell boy would ever join them. They might not have the power but they have the power to refuse work. The team in the previous mission brought back an injured bell boy and he was sent to the hospital, and thus if another bell boy comes back injured they will be marked in red." The manager patiently explained the Aric.
Hearing the last few sentences actually made him double take because this story aligned with the other story he knew. He thought for a few minutes and then decided to take up on this mission. the manager had a big smile on his face when Aric decided to take on the mission and thus registered him for the next day.
"You need to show up tomorrow at 9 am and this mission might take a couple of days as that was length of mission they had asked for." The manager said, to which Aric accepted. He would need to do some preparation for the mission tomorrow.
There was a reason why Aric had decided to be the bell boy. He would soon have to leave for school and before that he needed to have some real world experience. In order to achieve that, being the bell boy would be the best course of action since he couldn't register himself as a warrior or a mage.
Warriors were nothing but men who knew some fancy moves from swordsmanship, archery and hand to hand combat. And like mages they too had schools but it was mostly for those who had talents unacceptable to be a mage. The warrior path allowed them to stand up for themselves in the wild and not be under the mercy of nature.
That was the reason why the runesmiths was a profitable profession was because of these warriors. Of course the mages also needed their enchanted instruments but he presence of warriors made runesmiths of who had lost hope of being an Acolyte still have the dream of having a good life with their below Acolyte tier enchantments.
Aric went back to his home as there more work left. The manager had also sent his staff for confirmation from Albert if what he said was true. Aric went home of Earth after this and only returned to Distant Wind at night and what surprised him was that Alden was here again, with food on the table for him.
"Why are you back?" Aric was genuinely confused seeing Alden with the food being prepared.
"Uh.. Sir.. I thought you will need dinner after coming back late at night." Alden's soul almost left his body when he heard Aric speak out of nowhere. Why did this man always used magic to return home. Couldn't he just enter his own home like a civilized human being?
"I have already had my dinner and you don't need to cook for me. How is your sister?" Aric asked. Alden actually also felt guilty as he thought Aric had some bad thoughts about his sister, he had seen men like that who only thought through their genitals and his world view was very skewed.
While returning home in the morning, he actually took turns and always looked over his shoulder as he felt that Aric would follow him. He knew that this was probably futile against an Acolyte, it didn't hurt him to take measures.
Later when he saw that he had thought too much, he felt bad and thus returned to Aric's place to pay him and cooking was the only way he could pay him back since this brick wall of a man wouldn't want anything from him.
"She is recovering thanks to you. I have fed her the potion." Alden said and for the first time Aric could see a happy face on him.
"You did the work of bell boy and earned it." Aric shook his head and said.
"You saved my life and thus I will always be indebted to you." Alden said.
"Don't always take a life savior to be some kind of God. They might just save you in order to use you later." Aric dished out a lesson for this young boy who seemed to be fixated on him. Alden didn't know how he should answer the words of Aric and could only nod.
"What is your aim in life?" Aric was an introvert in his previous life so it was quite awkward for him to engage in meaningful and healthy conversations, so he asked the most basic question he could.
"I want to have enough to provide for myself and my sister." Alden didn't hesitate at all when he said that.
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