"One month..."
Lying on his bed, he thinks about the challenge presented to him.
'One month to kill over 140 goblins and 2 goblin mages. If I can get a few spells it should lower the difficulty by quite a bit, so that's first on the agenda now.'
He sits up and a small dagger materializes in his hand.
'I also need to experiment with the traits, get used to them.'
The dagger disappears.
'Let's find a way to learn magic first.'
...
"50 Gold for each." The mage sitting behind the desk informed him.
"No bargaining." He leaned back in his chair.
The items worth the relatively high price, were pages made of brown paper, with a spell circle in the middle and lots of runic inscriptions both along the edges of the paper and inside the circle.
In the middle of the circle were different symbols.
Reed picked one up and identified it.
[Spell page: Gale]
Similarly, the other pages were also the same, but with different spells.
He gave them a cursory glance.
"I'll come back later."
"Sure, sure." The mage waved him off.
Reed exited the store, and started towards the dungeon.
'Money, I need so much!'
He frowned as he came to a decision.
'I need to descend deeper into the dungeon.'
...
Reed let out a soft hum as he massaged his left arm.
Having tripped over a protruding rock while side-stepping an attack, he had landed hard on his forearm.
The pain was gone, and so was the injury, but it still felt wrong.
'My experience with wounds makes me think it's still injured, even when I recovered within a few seconds.'
He used a dagger to very slightly cut into his forearm, and watched as the wound disappeared within moments of it's formation.
'This is going to take some getting used to.'
He had not ventured deeper into the dungeon, only repeated the first two levels multiple times.
'The third level are supposed to have fire slimes, and I am not fireproof, or have ways to deal with the fire.'
'I could carry some water in my storage, but that could run out, and running out of water in the middle of battle against a creature made of fire is quite dangerous.'
A man with a tray came up to him, and set it down in front of him, and walked away.
"Thank you." He called behind the man's back.
He looked down at the food he had ordered, picked up a spoon from the side, and started to eat.
'Oh, these potatoes are nicely salted!'
He tasted the dish carefully, trying to find a mistake.
'Slightly undercooked, but much better than the other restaurants I've been to.'
With the test completed, he enjoyed his meal.
...
He set down the spoon inside the plate, and let out an appreciative breath.
'Unless I can find a better place, I will be having my meals here from now on. Its cheaper too!'
As he paid his bill and was about to leave, he noticed a table occupied by a well equipped group.
His thinking sped up as he looked at them.
'Armor's taken quite a beating, leathers worn and they're injured, but still enjoying themselves.'
'Experienced party coming back from a trip, or travelling party who had some trouble.'
However, that hadn't been what had called his attention.
His eyes stared directly at the top of a head.
'Green hair?'
The man who appeared to be the leader of the group, had dark green hair, and was not wearing armour, but was instead dressed in black robes and wearing a silver necklace with a white gem imbedded in it.
His companions were flattering him, and he took it in stride, showing that he was used to it.
'Not a player, some sort of high-ranking adventurer or well-known mage.'
[???] [Mage] [Tier 4]
'Tier 4. Explains the flatter, but...'
His eyes darted downwards.
[???] [Tier 5] [Protective device]
'That necklace is not well maintained, there is dust on it, and it has been rough-handled meaning that he does not care much of it.'
'That means that he either does not know what it is, which is highly unlikely, or that he has a way to obtain more, which is much more probable, signifying a connection to someone who has some amount of wealth and power.'
Reed quickly appraised the mans condition.
Unlike the others of his group, the man was fine, with no injuries or damage whatsoever.
Five seconds after he had stopped, Reed turned his head, and walked away.
'They will most likely visit the guild at some point, I can find out more then.'
...
He did not spot the group from last night in the morning, but he they did enter the guild as he was preparing to leave after collecting his gains from his morning dungeon run.
He paused and looked the mage, who was now holding a metal wand with two gems, one red and the other purple, embedded in it.
The man also looked at him.
"Hello." Reed raised his hand and greeted him.
"Good morning." The man nodded his head in response.
A moment passed, with neither of the two talking.
"Is there something you would like to talk about?" Reed took the initiative, now certain that the mage in front of him had something to ask him of.
'I can take advantage of that.'
In response, the mage nodded again.
"I can tell that you're pretty strong for a tier 3, so I have a proposal, if you are interested?"
Reed gestured him to a corner table.
"I'm listening." He said quietly.
"In 4 days, a few of my... students will arrive here for their first dungeon experience, I want to hire you as additional security."
"Surely you have people already."
"Not at all, I am not allowed to hire groups for protection, and there are few adventurers who work alone, and as a coincidence, you happened to be the first one I lay eyes on!"
"That's why I'm here actually, to see if someone worthy was available."
"I'm willing to hire your services for 10 gold per day, and as the training varies between 3 days to a week, you may be paid up to 70 gold just to provide protection!"
The high reward had him slightly doubtful.
'Even for a tier 4 that's a high reward. Who are these 'Students' of his?'
He did not respond immediately, instead he put on a thinking face as if he was putting deep thought into it.
"That's a lot of time, and I have something to do..." He murmured quietly, as he kept an eye on the mage on the side of his vision.
The mage frowned slightly.
"Alright! I can agree, but with a different payment." Reed held up his finger.
"Hmm?"
"I want you to teach me magic for the duration of the mission."
Reed was slightly startled when the man clapped his hands together.
"Excellent! As a teacher, I have experience in that area, and, I was wondering what I was going to do these 4 days."
"This takes away my boredom, and pays you as well! Very good!"
Reed smiled mirroring the face in front of him.
'Magic teacher acquired!'
"Before any further talk, what's your name?"