Heroes, Magic and Monsters

Next morning I met with my party. We were planning to go to the dungeon again. Before I thought that drakes were most dangerous sign of monster stampede, until I run into lava worn. But there will not be any such dangerous monsters left anymore. Right! Right?

Luara and Myne were already inside the guild hall, but we needed to wait for Trevor.

- What spell did you learn? - I asked Myne out of curiosity.

- I learned Death wave spell. It is level two spell, that's why I needed so many days to learn it.

- Death wave. Sounds scary, - robbed her nose Luara.

- It kills all enemies in front of me. Well to be precise, it depletes their life force. Weaker enemies will definitely die, but strong monsters at my level will only become weaker.

- Sounds useful, - nodded catgirl.

We waited for Trevor some more, and got up to leave when he came inside, but Leone stopped us.

- My I have a moment of your time?

- Of, course, - nodded Luara: - What is it?Catgirl looked fresh and rested. I resented her for that. I was still tired, and wanted to sleep some more.

- We received another personal request for your party. Again from the Mage Guild.Luara looked at me, but I shook my head.

- I have no idea what it's about. Maybe Myne impressed them.

- Doubt that. What kind of job is it?

- You will need to visit the Mage guild. They will be waiting for you. Please consider visiting them, even if you do not intend to take the job. Also miss Avone, the guild master would like a word with you before you leave.

- What it's about? - asked me Luara.

- Donno. I'll be back soon.

Leone took me upstairs and knocked at the door.

- Come in, - answered Fiord, and Leone opened the door for me.

- I will wait for you here, outside.

I nodded and came inside.

- It's you. Good. Sit down. I must sincerely apologize to you. When you gave me the honey you mentioned to me that monster, that you collected it from, looked more like wasps. But I failed to acknowledge that and paid you for the honey the worth of bee honey. Dungeon wasp honey is much more valuable. There is the rest of the money that I owe you, - he handed me two coins. Coins were red and when I picked them up, coins felt very light. That was the first time I saw the orichalcum coins.

- That's fine, - I quickly put the orichalcum coins in my magic bag, before he changed his mind: - I should have insisted that you need to appraise it first. Fault is mine.

- Thank you for saying that. My guilds reputation would be ruined if rumors that we cheated the adventurer would spread around. Please excuse me again, - he bowed, and I felt uncomfortable.

- Forget it, its fine. I don't feel angry.

- Thank you. We also managed to appraise the stone. It will earn you nine orichalcum coins. It will take us a week to pay you for it, if you are satisfied with the price?

- That will be fine.

- As you wish. Will you want your payment in gold or orichalcum coins?

I thought for a while: - Can I get seven orichalcum coins and rest in gold?

- I will arrange that. Now, about the scales. Seems that Grimsburg rookie adventurers own you a debt, even if they never find out about that. Scales themselves can't be used to create artifacts, weapons or armor, but there are many rich people who collect such monster materials. We usually send them to the capitol, where capitol's Adventurers Guild sends them to the auction. That could take some time, could be more than a month, depending on the auction. If you don't want to wait, I can offer you forty gold coins, right now. But in the auction you could get more.

Waiting for more than a month, sounded like a problem. I will have to stay in Grimsburg for that time, but I wanted to be more free in my travels.

- I'll take the gold coins now, - I decided. Fiord nodded and put the wallet on the table. I put it inside magic bag. No need to count, after guild master, right.

- Leone will keep you informed concerning your reward for the Magic gem.

- Thank you. Good day to you then Guild master, - with that our business was over and I left the room. I joined my party members and told them that guild master wanted to talk to me about my Night vision skill and its usefulness in the dungeon.

- What did you decided about the Mage Guild request?

- Lets visit them, and at least hear them out, - decided Leone.

Myne, who was most familiar with Mage Guild, took the lead and first entered the building.

- We were told that our party received a job offer from the Mage Guild.

- Yes, please follow me. Guild Master will talk to you personally, - nodded Sally and guided as to the Guilds third floor.

The guild master room's door was decorated with gold runes and stylized magic circles. Sally knocked and after hearing guild masters voice opened the door for us.

- The adventurers party that you were expecting guild master. Please allow me to introduce Mage's Guild guild master honorable Mesmer.

After entering the room I froze for a moment. Mesmer was an elf, not just an elf, but high elf. There were no visible differences, I just knew that he was high elf. Probably some kind of elf thing. My instincts screamed at me to bow to him, but I resisted.

Mesmer looked at me, and small smile appeared on his lips. He was sitting near the window behind the desk covered with various papers. In the middle of the room was small decorative table. On our side of it was soft sofa, big enough for five people to sit on it, and on the other side was an elegant chair. It reminded me of Adventurers Guild guild master's room, just more elegant and expensive.

- Please sit down, - he pointed towards the sofa: - Thank you for coming so fast.

We took offered seats and Mesmer sat down on the chair.

- Let me congratulate and thank you for stopping the dungeon monster stampede. Your accomplishments did not go unnoticed.

- Is that the reason, why you send a personal request, for our party? - asked Luara. As our party's leader she took charge of negotiations.

Mesmer smiled: - No, but that is one of the reasons why I did it. You were chosen by Nelly. Please let me explain her circumstances, since they are related to the job. Nelly is an apprentice mage in our guild. As you probably know, in Ashgrin all human and half-human children after reaching age of six years are taken to the church. Priests use appraisal crystal on them to find out the job that they were born with. Most humans, even nobles and royalty, are born with commoner job. But in rear cases children are born with specialized job, like mage, warrior or blacksmith. When it happens, priests are obligated to inform the lord that rules the land were child is living. Lord then can choose to pay for child's education, and then accept him as a member of his household. That rule of course applies only for peasants and town's less wealthy children. In some special cases when for example child is born with spellsword or mage job, the lord informs guild that is responsible for education of such children or even a king, in rarest cases when child is born with very powerful job.

Nelly was born with archmage job. Lord informed Mage Guild, and as always in such cases we took upon ourselves to raise the child and give her necessary education, so she could grew to her full potential. Parents of such children are generously compensated. Nelly spend seven years in our guild learning magic spells and our guild's history. Usually when such children reach age fifteen they are send to increase their levels. In capitol it is done differently, but in Grimsburg, where Adventurers guild and Mage guild have long and fruitful relationship, we usually ask an adventurers party to accompany such children inside the dungeon. Usually we make a job request in Adventurers guild or ask your guild master to find for us a qualified party.

Until now Nelly never shoved any interest to increase her level, but after drake extermination quest, she decided that she wants to become stronger. That's why I decided to hasten her leveling timeline. She chose your party as her companions. After consulting with your guild master I decided that you posses minimal requirement for this job.

That's why you were offered this job. Will you agree to take it?

- First I would like to ask you some questions, - said Luara hesitantly.

- Of course. I expect nothing less.

- You do understand, that dungeon is dangerous we can't guarantee that Nelly won't get hurt. Even if we do everything that we are capable of.

- I understand that. The monster hunting and dungeon can be unpredictable and dangerous. But I expect that you will take every possible precaution and won't take unnecessary risks. Sadly there are some cases when adventurers and apprentice mages do not return from the dungeon, but in your case you will need only to increase Nelly's levels, not kill the drake pack.

- What level she needs to reach?

- Ideally one of her magic skills needs to reach master level, but I won't ask something that hard from you. It will be enough it two of her magic skills are advance level and wisdom skill is at least basic. She already has all four elemental magic skills and Wisdom at novice level, so that should be more than possible.

- Increasing someone's level my take a lot of time, especially since skill acquirement is so unpredictable. What about our payment?

- If you do your job right, you will receive two gold coins for every day that Nelly will spend increasing her level. All monster magic stones and materials you are free to keep to yourselves. If you complete your job successfully I can also offer you additional benefits. I was told that Myne and I assume Avone as well will want to study in Magic Academy. What you probably don't know is that thousands of applicants every year apply for studies in there, but only less than a hundred are accepted. Most of the places go to children of noble birth. I can give the two of you a letter of recommendation. Recommendation from mages guild master will guarantee you a place in the academy. You will of course have to pay for your lessons. Also I can allow all of your party members register in our guilds Guild circle free of charge.

- What's a Guild circle?

- Mages who can use spell called Guild portal can teleport themselves and if they have necessary skills, then also their companions from any place in the world to the Mage guild, if they have registered in the guilds magic circle. Mages with necessary skills, can register in all the Magic guilds. Every such registration costs an orichalcum coin.

Teleportation spell. That peaked my interest. I already knew that I will agree to take the quest, recommendation letter was too big of a temptation to refuse. But Luara was not finished yet.

- Sounds useful, - agreed catgirl: - But protecting your apprentice will require us to change our strategies. We always use magic lantern, but with my hands busy I won't be able to fight and protect two mages at the same time. Trevor has his sword with glowing stone, but I and Myne would have to buy bracelets with glowing stones. Those will be additional expenses that our party can't afford right now.

- I see. Are there any other problems, that you have, that would prevent you from taking Nelly with you?

- No. Not that I can think off.

- Very well, if the compensation is agreeable, and you will continue your dungeon visits anyway, to increase your party member levels, and only thing that stopping you is illumination problems. Then I will offer you two bracelets with glowing stones as advance payment for the job.

Wow, he was way better negotiator than Luara. Experienced adventurers would have realized how important it was for Mesmer to send Nelly to the dungeon while she was showing interest in it. They would squeeze him for more money, but Luara missed her chance. I also realized that too late. But it was too late to change things now.

- Sally, please come in! - Mesmer called for guilds receptionist and Sally immediately opened the door: - Please provide these adventurers with two bracelets equipped with glowing stones. That will be part of their payment that they will be allowed to keep upon successful quest completion. Rest of the details and schedules will be handled by our receptionist Sally. Thank you for your time and willingness to help our guild and the town.

He bowed to us and returned to his work desk. Our audience was over. We stood up and also bowed to the guild master. Sally accompanied us back to the guilds reception room and asked us to wait. She returned soon with two bracelets, and handed them to Luara.

- When are you planning to take Nelly to the dungeon for the first time? And what equipment should she take with her?

- Can she go today, - I asked: - We were planning to go to the dungeon ourselves and it will be better if she spends at least half a day on the first floor, so she could get used to the surrounding darkness and threat of the monster attack. If we stay on the first floor, it will be safe enough, and no equipment will be necessary. Then later we could go and hunt the monster for real. What do you think? - I looked at my party members.

- Sounds reasonable, - answered Luara.

- I agree, it is hard to get use to the dungeon, taking it slow will be better, - nodded Myne. Trevor also agreed. He still was slow and steady approach preacher.

Sally thought for a moment.

- Very well, I agree with your reasoning. Nelly is free today, and can accompany you.

- Later she will need magic bag with supplies, - added Luara: - Food and water for four days, just in case. Mana, healing, stamina, anti-venom and petrifaction resistance potions. Dagger to protect herself in close range combat. And of course bracelet with glowing stone. If everything goes well we will return to the dungeon tomorrow after sunrise, and spend there two or three days.

- Very well, I will make sure that everything is prepared for her tomorrow. Please wait. I will inform Nelly about her dungeon visit for today, and tell her to prepare for it.

She returned with Nelly who had the same close and equipment that she used during our drake hunt. She happily waved at us and run to me.

- Hello. Thank you for agreeing to come with me.

- Thank you for choosing my party, - I smiled and stroke her head: - Are your ready for your second adventure?

- Yes, I am.- Please take good care of her, - bowed to us Sally.

We said goodbye to her and departed for the dungeon. After entering the dungeon we scouted the first floor, using Luara's map. Nelly seemed too careless. We warned her to stay quiet, but she treated our hunt as an excursion and admired our surroundings. I decided to be cruel and did not warn anyone, when five giant centipedes attacked us. Nelly got scared when they suddenly appeared in our light circle.

Luara and Trevor also were too relaxed, but I was ready for the attack and immediately killed first centipede using my arrow and used Magic arrow to kill second one.

- Three more, - informed I Luara and Trevor, and they quickly disposed of them.

- Don't get careless, - I turned towards Nelly: - Always expect monster attack and never drop your guard.

Nelly nodded and concentrated on her surroundings. Luara wanted to say something, but understood why I did not warn them and nodded.

- Let's go. We all should be more careful. Stay on your guard, - ordered catgirl and we continued our expedition.

During our lunch break we discussed our future strategies, and decided to continue using Slow spell as our primary strategy. With only difference, that Nelly will cast it alongside Myne. Nelly could use Magic arrow and Luara told her to use it to support her and Trevor. By the end of our first day, Nelly killed several snakes, two rats and one flying insect, that resembled giant mosquito. We returned to the Grimsburg shortly before sundown and took Nelly to the Mage guild.

Sally paid us two gold coins and we agreed to come back after Nelly next day.