I couldn't help but be curious about Taggart. "How good is he really? At fighting I mean."
Ted narrowed his eyes, looking at me closely, taking his time to answer the question. "Well, He's good enough that he made it into the Ebon-wolves."
My eyes slowly widened. "Does that mean?"
He raised his hand, shaking his head. "No, he retired before he joined up with us, but still. If he was with them, and a captain, well. Seeing him fight I believe it."
The elf Yawned. "I could still take him one-on-one though. Even if he is a better fighter." He stood up and walked back into the room.
Ted flipped me the rings "Two days worth if you're up for it."
"Oh… How very interesting." The elf looked back at me with a poker-faced smile.
I would be lying if I said I didn't think he was… Attractive… But the way he was carrying himself made me uncomfortable. "And you are?"
His elegant bow didn't match his attire, as he swiftly lowered his head and stretched one arm out to the side. "Rurin Thaladora, pleasure."
"Rurin…"
"Roaren is my half-brother. Our mother thought it would be cute to give us similar names."
"Well… As long as she can keep them straight I guess…" Personally, I thought it was stupid. I couldn't say that though, so I just awkwardly tried to leave. "Anyway… I got, work to do. Gotta get to gutting these spiders and all that."
"Hm, quiet." he reached out and grabbed one of my hands, raising an eyebrow. "Do be careful, these hands of yours are worth quite a bit of money." After looking closely at my palm he moved even closer, staring intently at my face.
'The heck?'
I quickly pulled back and tried to say something, but I was too embarrassed, so I just awkwardly left as fast as I could. My chest felt tight again and my heart pounded, but it didn't hurt like before. Even after I made it outside I couldn't calm down. 'What's his deal? Did he notice I'm a girl? But why would he when nobody else seems to manage?'
My head heated up as my thoughts started to run wild.
'If he knows I'm a girl, wait, but it's not like I look like a girl anyway right? Even if I did I would be a little girl, it's not like I am actually part dwarf… Is he into little girls? But wait… If the answer is yes then he's a creep, and if the answer is no then he wouldn't like me because I look like one…'
I suddenly realized that even if I wanted to find a boyfriend… It would be more
complicated than I thought… 'I suddenly feel motivated to eat more…' A strange thought to have while gutting spiders… But one that I had nonetheless.
The thought came and went in passing, as my thoughts began to drift back towards my own prey. Coming up with a battle plan. 'Wait. Ted's party, why don't I just ask them to help me?' Even with double the workload, I finished in half the time as the spiders seemed to be in much better condition than previously, and none of them were boiled alive by fire.
When I was done I headed back to the room and the whole party was assembled again. "I got those spiders taken care of, here." I flipped the rings back over to Dabai, who slid them back on his tusk.
"Now that that's taken care of, you guys want to help me kill a minitour?"
My question was met with a dead silence. 'I… guess I should have expected this…'
"What color?" Dabai asked.
It got me excited, he was actually willing to listen to me. "They think it's black, but they aren't certain."
He groaned, "Then I can't. My magic will do nothing against a black minitour. I am sorry."
I looked at the rest of them. "Anyone… else?"
Roaren flipped his dagger in the air, before catching it and coming out of a lean against the wall. "I don't have good enough weapons to kill it in one strike. On the other hand, it would probably crush me, my armor isn't enchanted."
Ted hesitantly looked up at me. "The only reason we didn't take the quest ourselves was because we thought it was too risky. My shield is strong, but the enchantment isn't I could take a few hits, but after that then what? I wouldn't be able to outrun it if we needed to retreat."
"And Taggart?"
He turned to the bed behind him. "Out cold, but I suppose we could ask him when he wakes up."
"N-no that's fine… I might be better off alone than with someone staggering around attracting more monsters anyway…"
His eyes narrowed as he stepped forward. "You still plan on going?"
"I mean… I took the quest… If I give up without even trying there is a fine you know…"
"A fine is better than dying."
I sighed. "Yeah, you're right, I'll fall back if things get too dicey."
He groaned again, walking over to Taggart and grabbing a flask from his bag. "Here, take this with you at least. It's highly concentrated."
"Uh… Thanks…" 'Why does he only give me other people's stuff?'
"Don't worry about him… If anything I'm doing him a favor by giving that away. It's not as strong as a drink, but the effects are double that garbage he gave you last time."
"Oh."
"He's gonna be pissed when he finds out it's gone, so hurry up, and make sure you bring it back."
He pushed me out of the room, and before I could hand the flask back to him and refuse, the door was closed behind me.
'Rejected again…' It hurt even more in a way because they were people I knew, but at the same time, they actually had legitimate excuses. Dabai's only magic was pretty useless, Roaren would die in a single hit, and Ted couldn't fall back if things went bad. They were just being safe, not doubting my abilities. 'Whatever, I'll kill it myself, and when I get back I'll get to rub it in their face they weren't there to see the fight.'
I smirked imagining it as I headed back to my room and started to gear up. I almost forgot the feeling of putting on new gear. To put it simply, it felt amazing.
No two adventurers wore the same armor… But even among the crowd mine stood out. My leather pants were designed with multiple pockets and buckles, with an extra cape-like extension hanging down from the waist to cover my large knife and provide even more pockets. My leather vest was thick and had heavy metal buckles, while my forearms were covered from my wrist to my elbow. A protector I made covered the back of my hand with iron and guarded the back of my fingers with hardened leather plates. Finally, my boots stretched up to just below my knees, They were thick leather that was strapped tightly to my calves and supported my ankles, reinforced with iron soles to protect me even if I stepped in acid and make my kicks more deadly.
'I'm starting to feel pretty good about this.'
I pulled out my sword, examining its expertly sharpened blade and a newly refurbished handle wrapped with leather that fit into my hand perfectly.
I was well rested and well fed, so my mana was topped off. With my diverse spells and my several weapons, I was confident in my abilities to take it down. I was still a bit anxious, but it was nothing like the way I felt before I began to panic, it was more like… Excitement.
It was thrilling. The thought of taking it down alone and taking all the money for myself. Normally, killing a minitour would be worth maybe 1,500 talons, but the urgency of the situation, and the difficulty of getting to the site made it become worth 2,500. Then you add the bonus for it being a black diamond quest. Which is 50% and it goes up to 4,750. The icing on the cake is that they didn't stop there. To try and incentivize higher-level adventurers to take the quest they rounded it up to 5K.
On top of that, the quests for saxifrage, which would be easy to fill out afterward, and since they were in high demand the reward for that was a crazy 100 talons per gram of seed. Considering they grew like moss… that was a lot. It probably outweighed the minitours bounty by far.
I placed the 6 new throwing knives I made in their sheaths on my thighs and tightened my vambrace, pulling it tight to ensure it was secure. Wearing tight leather armor made me feel invincible, almost like I was strong enough to wrestle the minotaur bare-handed, as ridiculous as that sounded. It felt good.
'Ok, let's go.'