The adventurers guild was filled with adventurers, however, the majority were bunched up like when some super hot cosplayer was posing for pictures.
In the middle of it all was a blond man sitting at a table. He had a red tricorne hat with a feather stuck to one side and a red trench coat with yellow highlights.
Briggs noticed I was looking at the man sitting and decided to satisfy a bit of my curiosity. "That's Mils, he is supposedly over level 400 and the strongest adventurer here but I don't believe it, or maybe what makes him strong are some items on him."
I quickly lost my interest in the reason for the grouping, the quest board stole my attention. Simple quests took the majority of the board, my eyes roamed all over it. Briggs and the others were discussing some quests they saw, most of the ones they were talking about, and debating about taking them.
In the corner of my eyes a quest post called for my attention. "Spotted a quest that interests you?" Tifas voice came from a bit behind me, failing to fully pull my attention.
"This quest, What is a 'special' quest?" I asked back. A bit distracted by the picture and details of the post.
"Did someone say special quest?" Briggs came over to my side looking for the post. "They are a great way to bump up your rank. "They should bump up our rank by two or three levels." Once he found he pulled it off the board and held it close before reading it out loud for us. "Lesser Vampire has been seen a days walk from the base, seen using blood magic, adventurers being charmed, necks being bit and their bodies left in a state of totally void of any dryness."
"Can we join the quest?" I asked.
"Yeah, if there aren't any requirements." Briggs first checked if there were any requirements and answered.
Jessie snatched the paper from his hands and hopped to the lonely receptionist who looked excited and was eyeing Mils.
"Excuse me." The receptionist was too distracted she did not even notice her. "HELLO! ANYONE THERE!" It took her almost screaming and waving her hand in front of her face for her to come back from her fantasies and notice Jessie in front of her with her right-hand fingers pinching a poster and wiggling it in front of her.
"Briggs rushed to her side and before she could reprimand the receptionist he spoke. "We would like to sign up for this special quest, we are a party of 4."
She blushed, "Ah yes yes."
Briggs was either getting lucky or she was simply embarrassed for being distracted.
"A special quest, let me see your card," she stretched her arm with the palm up and he placed the card in her hand. "Rank-E party? Are you sure you all want to take this quest?"
"Yes are sure," he replied. "Let's go get everything ready, Everyone will join up with the rest of the people who joined the quest in the west exit. We have about an hour."
We left the guild, walked down to the inn, and checked our gear and bags to be sure we had most of what we needed.
"Anyone fought a vampire before?" I asked. They all gave me a no by shaking their heads. "Let's ask around the inn, see if anyone else going on the raid, and ask if they know what we might need."
The inn now looked a bit lonely, breakfast time was over, and most adventurers were out on quests or looking for some right now.
Inside the first floor was just as desolated as the outside. The sound of footsteps resonated from the upper floor, most probably the owner, his wife, or one of the maids cleaning the rooms.
"Nobodies here, guess we go out, maybe people are already gathered at the meeting point," Tifa suggested.
We all gave small nods and made our way there. Two parties of five or it could be 3 parties with different numbers of people forming them were there, all of them were hiding from the sun under a tree or in the shade made by the walls.
"Briggs!!" One leaning on the wall yelled out and waved to gain his attention.
"Donny!!" he called back with a raised hand. "You going too? We got this in the bag then." A huge smile threatens to split his face.
"Aww shucks, you know if you were using those compliments on the ladies you'd get laid." He lowered his voice to normal volume once we got closer.
Briggs pulled back like he was being pulled back, "No way, you really think so?"
Jessie jumped into the conversation, "Don't give him non-existent hope. He will shut himself in his room to cry for weeks when he finds out it's not true."
"That's not true, don't spread such despicable lies!!" He raised his voice in defense of himself and his right index finger raised to the sky.
She crossed her arms and raised her left eyebrow, "The mouse bringing money in exchange for a tooth that fell out."
Those words made him take a knee, his right arm clutching his left breast. "Please Mistress don't dredge such awful memories."
"Did I miss something last night?" I turned and asked Tifa.
She shrugged her shoulders "Probably something regarding the bet they made while drinking last night."
I gave her a small nod, Jessie never did say what her bet with Briggs was. "Let's find a shadow that will hide us from the sun." My eyes roamed in search of shade close to where we were. When I found one I tapped Tifas shoulder, nodded, and pointed with my chin to the spot I found.
My backpack and sword made leaning on the wooden wall uncomfortable so I leaned them on the wall by themselves beside me. Tifa did not lean on the wall and opted to stand an inch away from the wall, her hands rested bellow her breasts entwined like when she smashed a monster downward.
"So..." Tifa started bouncing on the soles of her feet, "Is someone waiting for you back in your town?"
"My parents and a friend, now that I think about it I am quite alone, huh? He was part of my first party." I realized I was a loner when I answered, but I was with a party so I'm not alone right?
She bowed her head a little, her right hand moved the hair on the right side of her face, hooked it behind her ear, cupped her hands behind her back, and pushed her chest out making it look a bit bigger than usual. A small smile formed on her face her eyes stealing glances at me often.
Briggs approached us with a downcast face, "Donny says we will need either sun weapons or to douse our weapons in an oil, not as effective as sun weapons but better than nothing. "He crouched in the shade the wall provided, his elbows resting on his knees. "Jessie went to buy enough for us to apply on our weapons."
"What's with your face?" I asked.
"I was born with it so if something you don't like I can't change it." Sarcasm rolled off his tongue with a deprecated laugh.
"Wow she went hard on you huh?"
"Nah," His hand waved in the air, denying what I said. "Just climbed up a boulder and jumped down lading with her elbow on my nuts!!" His voice was a line below wailing in a whiny voice.
My hand cupped my own to make sure mine were there, and the imaginary pain crossed my mind thanks to the image of 2 nuts cracking under a metal elbow dropped from a high place and my eyes closed with eyebrows furrowed. "Shut up, keep your suffering to yourself."
Tifa beside us started giggling until both of us gave her the stink eye. She gave us innocent puppy eyes and bit her lower lip to hold her giggling but failed.
"What's so funny?" Jessie's voice made our hearts stop as we turned to her.
"That was fast!" Briggs exclaimed and tried to shift her attention. "Why? How?"
"Huh? Oh, they were in a hurry to sell them, the guy said they got these a month ago but there were no vampire quests in that time since." She handed each of us a vial of a milky yet transparent liquid.
I looked for a pocket in my backpack to place it in. It looks similar to a vintage leather camping backpack with multiple pockets around it.
"The plan Donny thought was to either fight it at night or ambush its hidy hole." Briggs shared with us, guess he thought it was the best time now that we were all together.
"Let's make the warrior with shields up front, the warriors good at dealing damage weave between the shield one and attack before falling back behind shields, healers behind all the warriors to heal them, and archers and mages attacking from behind," I suggested.
---
Word Count: 1522
If there are any grammatical errors let me with a comment on the paragraph.
Thank you guys. I appreciate your reading so far.