The day came quickly and the team headed back to the guild station after breakfast. On their arrival at the guild station madoka branched to the waiting area while the others went to receive the reward,the team spent an hour or two before coming out, noticing their arrival madoka stood up and followed them out.
Allistor started allocating the money between the group,the total reward of the mission was fifty gold coins Wu feng, Rong ji,Jia mei and Fei ling received nine gold coins each while allistor took ten gold coins and the rest was thrown at madoka.
Looking at the measly four gold coins her eyes grey eyes turned frosty making them look like two glaciers of ice looking over at allistor, judging from her calculation each of them was supposed to receive eight gold coins allistor included remaining two gold coins which could be given to any of them but was not her problem,her issue war her part of the reward cut in half an distributed amongst the team. Cutting in front of allistor she pointed at her gold coins " this is just half of my cut of the reward" allistor looked down at her eyes filled with unhidden disgust.
"We shared the reward according to the level of participation in the mission" allistor said in a devious tone. "And as far I'm concerned the team battled villantly to bring the beast down while you stood at the side cowardly right team" he said while addressing the team
"Oh yes allistor you were so powerful taking down that beast all by yourself"jia mei said giving fake praises in a flattering tone fei ling nodded in agreement beside her.
"Dirty unawoken trying to squabble with us for rewards when she did not offer any form of assistance people like you should know your place "Wu feng shouted his face looking like a bloated tomato while pointing at her gathering attention to them . madoka's eyes darkened as she looked at him directly in the eye making a eerie chill creep up his spine like a cold blooded snake . Flinching he stepped back almost falling making Rong ji beside him laugh
Shoving her by the shoulder roughly to the side allistor and the team went into town getting to ready to spend their fortune.
With clenched fists and rage filled eyes she stared daggers at the back of their heads, luckily she did not have to see their faces for another two weeks she calmed herself down and walked into town passing by a tavern in town she paid a gold coin for a room to spend the rest of the groups break there ,the room was moderately large and spacious with a simple bed and a chair and table with a cupboard to the side. After settling down her luggage she took her twin daggers to head out , passing the downstairs of the tavern the smell of alcohol filled the place with the horrible singing of drank men and the sticky sweet voices of the female bar attendants who kept encouraging the men to drink stepping out of the tavern she headed for the market square,the place was bustling with with various activities, stalls were set up everywhere the eyes were set selling various good, foods and artifacts ,the chatter of busy pedestrians and vendors could be heard everywhere,the clamoring of some animals were also heard around, various horse and donkey drawn carriages were seen on the streets the joyous shouts of children could be heard as they played in the alley some streert urchins picking the pockets of unaware pedestrians on the road.
Clutching her purse close to her she walked to a nearby herbal shop, opening the door the Bell on top of the of the entrance signalled an arrival of a customer and the store clerk came out of another room to greet the customer. Upon entering the shop she perseved various herbal and earthy scents
"Good morning, what would like to buy"the store clerk asked with a professional smile
"Healing paste"she said as she smiled back politely. healing paste is a mixture of healing herbs and some spiritual plants which is grinded into paste and sold, although not as effective as a bottle of healing potion it still works
"Right this way madam"the shop attendant guided her into to shop and gave her a seat and went to attend to her , sitting down and crossing her long legs she began to calculate her wage and planned on how to suffice with it,the system of curency in the Ural empire consists of copper, silver and gold with copper being the basic and gold being onlyavailable to the nobles and some aristocrat families,ten copper coins amounts to one silver coin and hundred silver coins amounts to one gold coin unlike people like madoka who are not awakened ones , awakened ones can get discounts or even free purchases if their blessed ability is high enough. She waited for a few minutes and the store clerk came out with a small package of healing paste"that would cost two silver coins"the store clerk said and she took out one gold coin out of her pouch to pay,the shop clerk gave madoka her change and told her to come again, nodding she went out of the shop.
Walking leisurely through the market square with a shawl covering half her face she came across a stall selling bread with dried fruit and salt pickled bacon, she bought two loaves of bread, two packets of dried fruit and three slices of pickles bacon all of which costs six silver coins leaving her with two gold coins and ninety-two silver coins .
She headed back to the guild station to see if she could get any tasks to do to pass the time and make money now that the team is taking a break. stepping up to the board she glanced through the task list and finally settled on a simple mission of capturing a silver clawed Rhode this mission reward containd twenty silver coins and ten task points. The mission of capturing a silver clawed Rhode is easy they are poultry like birds with bright red feathers with black dots splayed on their backs with mane like sharp feathers around their necks and sharp beaks and claws they are mainly found in the forest of Tamraq,they are specially sorted after because of their meat , quality eggs and beautiful red flame like feathers but their meat is so expensive that only nobles and some well off households can afford it.
Finally making up her mind she left the guild station heading back to the tavern ,after arriving to her room she changed into loose fitting clothes and tied her long golden hair into a bun and pulled down the hood to hide her face and walked out of the tavern walking all the way to the Tamraq forest,the forest is a lush pile of greenery which spreads for twenty kilometers through out,the first five kilometers were safe and wild animal free the deeper parts of the forest is teaming with fierce beasts and poisonous plants.
Entering the forest she surveyed her surroundings saw saw nothing but a lush group of greenery and vibrant colourful flowers of known and unknown species scattered around,tall trees towering at great hightes the sun rays falling through the leaves making them glow like emerald jewels . walking through the shady grove she saw a colony of sliver clawed rhodes resting in a small barrow under a cluster of trees,the females were in the nest made of twigs dried leaves and grass and the males were patrolling outside the barrow , looking around she saw a vine tree a close distance from her spot and had a plan . Quickly walking over to the vine tree she used her dagger to cut some vines ,the vines were slender but strong and were flexible enough she started making a net from the vines, after tackling with it for a few minutes she made a make shift net and a basket and went back to her observation spot seeing a tree close to her she climbed up the tree and let the net down and climbed back down , taking out a few pieces of a few pieces of dried fruit and bacon from her purse and laid them in the net .
She waited for a very long time and not a single one rhode beast come around the area of the net , getting up from the ground she was about to go over to check the trap when suddenly she heard a noise of the long claw and quickly hid behind the boulder and grabbed the vine connected to the net as a noose , the sound came closer and she peeped from over the boulder and saw the long clawed beast who was curious about the fragrant food which came from nowhere, inching closer and closer to the net and right after it was in the center tasting the delicious food she pulled the vine and the net enclosed the prey trapping it inside and lifting it off the ground suspended.
Getting out of her hiding spot she went and brought down the rhode beast and instantly slashed it's throat all in a swift motion making it impossible for it to even make a sound and finally placed it in the make shift basket ,she repeat this action for a while and finally cought five of them.the sun was already setting and due to the danger out there she packed and was up an ready to go to the guild station. getting out of the forest she lowered her hood and and began her journey to the town with a basket of dead long clawed rhode beasts in her arms.
After an awfully long walk she finally saw the building of the guild station and hurried forward, going inside the building she presented the basket of beasts to the old man with a kind face on the other side of the counter.
"Wow you caught so many"he said in surprise""I have never seen an awakened who would take on this task" he added she stiffened at the words and relaxed before answering
"I'm not an awakened" she said in a monotonous tone "oh then that means we're on the same both " the said with a joyous laugh hearing his words she visibly relaxed and showed a more friendly attitude , giving her one gold coins and her task points he said she should come back next time , seeing the gold coin she frowned and asked him the reason "one rhode beast is twenty silver coins and you cought five making one gold coin "he said clearing her doubt she nodded and turned to leave but suddenly stopped in her tracks turned back to the kind old man "if you do not mind me asking are there any missions which are available for the non awoken" listening to her question he generously answered.
"Well there are some but they are never picked up unless they are really in need of money mainly because of how low the rewards are or because of the fear of danger " listening to his words she thought for a while and asked"how much is the reward exactly" doing a rough calculation he answered"about sixty to eighty copper coins or two silver coins if luckily depending on the difficulty of the task no task points included" hearing this piece of news her eyes turned cold the space interval between the task rewards of the awoken and the non awoken was huge
"Why are there no task points allocated in the mission of the non awakened " the old man smile sorrowfully "well it was a rule made by the council,task points were meant for people who awoken ,and accumulating enough task points as a awoken can be used in exchange for some things or even be used in exchanging death sentences to lighter punishments or even escaping the punishment of committing crime" he sighed and shook his head in depravation ,she froze in place on hearing the piece of information, this was just another form of loophole for the awakened to get away with anything the treatment of the blessed band the normal people is a very stark contrast , taking deep breaths to calm herself before asking"can non awakened get the task points by doing the awakened missions and can task points be exchanged for more rewards" she asked in one breath
"Well technically speaking yes they can and for the second question exchanging task points for more rewards is ok but one task points is one copper coins so you will need a lot of task points"he said kindly.
Getting the information she wanted she thanked him and got out of the guild station heading back to the tavern,the skies as if sensing her mood brewed with dark clouds and the rage of an incoming rain storm.