Ugly Bastard

Noah walked into the adventurers guild back in his disguise. Lack of sleep and weariness showed on his face even deeper than usual.

"Mr. Lewenred, why is it that you look worse and worse by the day. Is something going on in your life?"

"Couldn't sleep." Answered Noah, not 

properly looking at her when he said it.

Miss Louriat looked at him with squinted eyes.

"Anyway. Your guild card ready. I congratulate you on your promotion….is what I'd like to say, however I have bad news." Said guild attendant handing him his updated guild card and receiving his old one.

"What kind of bad news."

"Because of your high search and hunt capability registered in the record, thanks to your tamed wolf, you have received a mission order from a guild."

"Order?"

"Yes. You see, high ranked guild members can receive an order if it is a very serious and important case. Usually such cases require personnel of high capability, so only high ranked members are eligible." Explained Miss Louriat

"But I am not a high ranked member." Said Noah

"And that's why it's bad news. Usually such orders are very well paid directly from guilds pockets. However, risks are high. And in your case very high as you are too weak to participate in missions on the same level as high rankers."

"And I can't refuse?"

"You can. With consequences though."

"I see. And what's the mission?"

"You will get instructions at the participant assembly, today at six o'clock. In the meeting hall number one."

"I understand."

"You better be well rested too. So no hunting today."

"I see. See you later then Miss Louriat." Said Noah and walked out of the guild.

*****

"What do you think Jake? Will he be a liability to the mission?" Asked the Guild Manager.

"Well. Hard to say. At least nothing outright suspicious about him." Answered Jake "From the side he looks like a normal guys to me. What do you think Rey?" Said Jake taking tea cup from Miss Loutiat hands and nodding in appreciation.

"Well. His day was quite usual. Hunt, guild, bath house. However after that he went to red light district and spent whole night in Madam Irene's brothel" Said Jake and sound of clacking porcelain sounded in the room. "If he does have some connections in the dark circles he could have made contact there." Finished his talk not noticing a dark expression in Miss Louriat face while she put cup of tea in front of him.

"Indeed." Sade Jake after throwing a glance at the secretary. "However, he could just go there to celebrate his promotion. It's not rare among adventurers to visit such establishments." 

"Although it may not be unusual for a single man to search for warmth in such an establishment. The question is why did he go to that place specifically? " Said Guild Manager avoiding his secretary's dark gaze peering at him. "I remember he asked for a cheap inn when he came to town. He lives thrifty and he does not have good equipment. But then suddenly goes to Madam Irene's establishment to spend a night there? That place is not for poor people. A night there would cost a fortune that not all middle class adventurer.would be able to pay. He made money with his good hunts, but not that kind of money."

"Yes. The Guild Manager is right." Said Miss Louriate with blank face "After all our guild manager frequents that establishment a lot. He is well knowledgeable about that specific place's prices." She said with a smile on her lips but not a speck of smile in the eyes. "Right guild manager?"

"I…I…Miss Louriat it's not like that. Khe-khem. I may have gone there on business matters once or twice but…."

"Twice. This week only." Said Miss Louriat.

"Khe-khem…Anyway. What I am trying to say is, there are still some concerns regarding him so we need to be vigilant. Especially considering the mission this time." Said Guild manager with sweat streaming on his spine from his secretary's cold gaze.

"About that." Said Rey after sipping tea not noticing guild managers and secretaries' strange exchange. "Maybe we could use it?"

"Use it?" Asked the guild manager.

"Why don't we tell him the mission's objective in advance?" Said Rey.

"Hmmm. That could indeed be interesting." Said Jake rubbing his chin.

"You want to see what he'll do?" Asked the guild manager. "That may work. But it may endanger the mission."

"So we'll have to be extra careful." Said Jake.

"If you are sure that you will be able to prevent the leak attempt in time."

"Rey will be on surveillance. Also Keena is in town already. We could ask her to support us." Said Jake.

"Alright. But as I said. The less people know of this the better."

"I understand." Said Jake.

*****

Noah walked down the street leading from The Adventurers Guild, not knowing what to do, as the hunt was out if question. The streets were already in full motion. Trading tents on the market were opened and called for buyers. 

Come to think of it, he still has not toured the city since his coming here, as he was quite pressed for money, barely having any to pay for the roof to sleep under. However, now his situation changed and he could even splurge a bit, so he decided to take a walk around to find some useful shops and nice eateries.

Noah stoped at the street signs post that were there more for the many newcomers sake, than for the locals. As the closest city to Great Tree Labyrinth, Greenville alway had a great deal of visitors from all around the country. Many of them coming here for the first time. The signs helped them to not stand around with lost faces in the middle of the road.

He checked for directions he could take and found the market street, deciding it to be his target. Funny but red light district was not in the signs. Noah guessed that's not a place a town government would like to officialize. Red light districts and prostitution were not banned, but they were not looked well at either by the general populace, however very liked by many adventurers and traveling merchants. The directions towards it were usually spread by the word if mouth.

He was walking down the street just window shopping and occasionally entering the shops to look around without buying anything. His longest visit was the alchemy shop.

Potions and brews there were good quality of course, however that was not the main thing that interested him. He stood at the shelf with beginners' brews recipe scrolls and plants encyclopedia books, while rubbing his chin deeply in thought. A good idea came to him when he saw this. He never was interested in alchemy, however he did remember a fine point made by his teachers that he studied under back at home. 

His teacher once told him. That many plants that are used in potions are actually poisonous to humans. So the main idea of potion creating is to neutralize the poison in these plants while amplifying their benefitting qualities. This is why recipes are very elaborate. Not because many plants combine into some kind of healthy liquid but because they are needed to compliment one main ingredient that has benefitting quality. The stronger the potions benefit the stronger the negative side effects of plants it has in the recipe. But what if he has a way to neutralize poisons without the additional ingredients?

The highest level potions that use costly rare ingredients indeed use other methods for this than simply combining plants. However these methods are so costly in lab equipment, that only big alchemy guild branches have the capital to build one. In some cases these laboratories are built with national capital and are used to create potions, that are considered national treasure. Highest level alchemists work there with the rarest ingredients in the world. But all their equipment can't compete with his poison slime that could absorb the poison directly.

This was a nice road to take if he wanted to make money. With poison slime absorbing poisons he could make brews several times more benefitting than normal, without adding additional components that in many occasions lessen the effect. At the same time he will be spending less on ingredients, raising his competing chances on the market. 

Also many stories he had access to could be of use. He was sure there would be information that could get him alchemist skills if he were to put his time into searching. 

Noah took a few recipes and read their effect. His task was to find a few that would benefit him the most. He needed potions that would sell good, cost quite well and save up quite well in poisonous effect neutralizing components cost. 

Even beginner scrolls cost quite a hefty sum, however money wasn't big a problem. He gained quite a lot from robbing Samantha and her team khe-khem… Receiving from them for a good service. Also he almost did not spend any money for the night in Madam Irene's place as Samantha did not take a penny from him, even for the room rent for a night. This night was a very nice gift….to him? Or was it to her? If he is the one receiving money from her the first time, wasn't he the one giving her a free service this time…

Noah smirked at his own silly thoughts and picked up a few scrolls with recipes, and book describing plants, their effects and growing areas marked by the alchemy guilds study.

Alchemy guild was one of the greatest clients of the adventurer guild. Many missions on dangerous area exploration and alchemy experts travel protection came from them, bringing high profit. So adventurer guild and alchemy guild were on very good business terms. Many plants that adventurers could pick traveling around could be directly sold to adventurer guild with good benefit. And adventurer guild would deal it to the alchemist guild. Also many adventurer rangers always were taking notice of plants in the areas they traveled through, selling that information later to the guild, that would forward it later to alchemist guild to map the plant growing areas.

With monsters around. Growing ingredients in mass was not an option. Villages and cities had to be guarded by the walls if they wanted to sleep well at night. And amount of area they could guard was usually barely enough to provide for themselves and sell to the center city the villages usually surrounded. Growing potion plants was a luxury for humanity. Thus the need for picking it in areas populated by monsters.

Noah paid for his scrolls and books and walked out of the shop. His walk in the city was quite long and sun was high in the sky already. It was time for lunch so noah went to search for a nice place that was not overcrowded yet.