A plethora of quests was pinned on the boards, but Cerea’s won’t take any of them. For the last few days, the available quests were only for slaying monsters. Monsters had begun migrating from the deep forest to places closer to human settlements, and it’s a headache for everyone. This happened before in Verriad branch, albeit decades ago when their current branch leader, Mr. Anders, was still in his rookie years. Both had the same cause — tremors. Scholars attempted to know why such incident occurred, however, they hadn’t found a desirable result yet.
Many reasons floated around, but just four had many adherents. First: the Sentinels were secretly controlling the monsters to fight against the humans so they can, again, have the sole ownership of the Verriad Forest. Second: monsters had learned to devise a strategy and attack human settlements in waves. Third: the Zestential Guild did it to increase their revenues. Lastly: the monsters just wanted to find a new home where they weren’t bothered by the constant tremors. Most people believed the latter, however, rabble rousers journeyed town-to-town to tell people conspiracies like the debunked rumor that the Zestential guild were routing the monsters to settlements so the guild will become richer.
On one of Cerea’s quests in the past, she cooperated with a squad from the monarch’s army as they incarcerate a rabble rouser. When interrogated, he kept on telling them to open their eyes to the truth, but after days of detention, he gave up lying and said that a disgruntled nobleman recruited him. Expenses by noblemen and merchants to the guild were surging not because of the monsters, but because of the lack of adventurers that can do personal quests. The affluent Zestential shouldered the cost of slaying the monsters. Most adventurers chose to take slaying quests which rewards more rather than personal quests made by stingy nobles and merchants.
Cerea’s personal mission today was simple: wait in the guild’s lounge and check the quest board every hour, and hopefully she would find a personal quest. She’s tired of slaying monsters every day. Leaving the city only meant eliminating the monsters in the forest, near the settlements. Even in her dreams, she would still be slaying monsters. She’s sick of it. She wanted to do something else like escorting someone to another town, find a lost item, or pick-up herbs that can only be found in the forest. Anything other than facing those monsters. Leave those monsters alone, Cerea thought.
Cerea checked again the quest board. None within her interests.
“Cerea,” a voice said, “Captain wants us to rendezvous near the Verriad Forest entrance.”
Cerea turned — it was Leili. Leili looked at her with concern as the former adjusted her black thick-framed glasses. A ruffled purple tunic covered her torso, and below were her pleated skirt and pants. Her stature was as straight as a ruler, and elegant — a woman of noble origin.
“Why?” Cerea asked. “I believe we don’t have anything to do as a team.”
“Captain took a team quest because he needed money to complete his armor,” Leili said.
“He didn’t even notify me. What’s it about?”
“Kill a group of Shell-horned deer. Scouts said they’ll soon come across the 4th town.”
“No way. I told you yesterday that I won’t do that kind of mission anymore.”
“Still, you should come with us.”
“You are more than capable enough. Even without me, you can do it just as fast.”
“But it’s for your training — Mr. Anders wanted you to rank up faster. Look at all these quests waiting to be done.”
“It doesn’t help much. The quests give too much money in exchange for lower merit points. My personal savings from the quests would still satisfy my stomach for a year and that doesn’t include the allowance my parents send me monthly. Just let me do something else.”
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“I see. Then I’ll tell him this.” Leili paused. “By the way, did you hear about what happened in the forest earlier? Some adventurers said they saw two magic circles, and the ground shook after that. A few saw a person falling from the sky — shot down by a magic circle — kilometers away from the 4th town. I think the guild is currently fielding people for that. ”
“Thank you! I’ll take that one. Let’s meet in the afternoon.”
Cerea embraced Leili. The former then ran to the counter, where the quest manager, Freiya, read a book about sieging a bandit fortress. When Cerea became an adolescent, Freiya took a break from being an adventurer, and succeeded the job her father did. Freiya was half a head taller than Cerea, wore her usual attire: a blue ribbon attached to her auburn hair, and a blouse and shorts emblazoned with the Verriad branch insignia, a whirlwind of needle-thin blades.
Cerea sat on the stool, and leaned to Freiya.
“Freiya, the greatest quest manager in our branch’s history! Please, give us that mission!” Cerea excitedly coaxed.
Freiya glanced at her. “I wonder what mission that.”
“Don’t act like that. I’m aware that you listened to our conversation. I want to join that operation. Please!”
Freiya sighed, closed her book, and placed it aside. She took a portfolio under the desk, scanned the pages, and stopped on a certain page. She pulled out the paper and read it.
“It says here that you still have a quest yet to be done.”
“I know, but I want to do two quests at once. If I go do that kind of quest again, I’ll lose all the motivation I’ve built up since birth. That’s no good. As a rookie, I must do a variety of quests given by none other than the celebrated quest manager.”
“You can’t have two quests running at the same time in your rank. Finish that quest, and I’ll consider giving it to you.”
“The monsters we’re going to deal with is nearby the area where the man was last seen. Both of the quest are somehow linked to each other, so it should be fine.”
Chapter 5; Part 1 End.
Extra:
I made a few wording edits in this part since they sounded awkward. Below were exact changes.
Leaving the city only meant eliminating the monsters in the forest, near the settlements.
Leili looked at her with concern as the former adjusted her black thick-framed glasses.
The former then ran to the counter, where the quest manager, Freiya, read a book about sieging a bandit fortress. When Cerea became an adolescent, Freiya took a break from being an adventurer, and succeeded the job her father did. Freiya was half a head taller than Cerea, wore her usual attire: a blue ribbon attached to her auburn hair, and a blouse and shorts emblazoned with the Verriad branch insignia, a whirlwind of needle-thin blades.