18 First Ques (1/2)
After his two companions went about to do their respective errands, Kalin found himself alone inside the guild. Though it was still fairly early in the morning, the guild was filled with numerous people browsing through requests at the numerous quest bulletins filling the room. Several others were lined up at the counters, either accepting quests or trying to flirt with the attractive men and women manning the counters.
Although he had never accepted a quest, Kalin had heard how to do so many times in the past. After arriving at an empty bulletin, he placed his card atop a small pedestal beside it. After doing this, the empty board in front of him was filled with various words and numbers. Called a terminal, these kiosk-like stations were connected to the central branch database that contained all acceptable quests. Using complex magic formations, it allowed for any guild member to accept requests from any branch in any country of the world. It even had convenient functions like a recommended section, and the ability to sort requests by most recent post, difficulty, reward size, region, request type, and various other details.
As a level 0, Kalin wasn't actually considered an adventurer yet, he was still only a temporary member. Because of this, he was limited to what kind of quests he could receive. This limitation was to help combat the high rate of theft caused by new adventurers. Though he was limited, it didn't mean that there weren't countless options for him to choose from. Deciding to narrow down his search results, he narrowed down his search results to the area surrounding the 18th branch that were acceptable by rank 0 adventurers. After a couple more adjustments to the search, the list was finally narrowed to a couple thousand requests. After skimming the list, three requests jumped out to him.
Courier Job
Request: Deliver completed orders from Sweet Dreams apothecary shop.
Duration: 10 deliveries (estimated 5-7 hours)
Reward: 45 pints; 1 QP
Details: Any lost, broken, or stolen goods are the responsibility of the adventurer. Any case of recipient not receiving their order will result in compensation by courier.
Labor Job
Request: Work as a temp worker at the Redd Hart general store.
Duration: 1 shift (8 hours with break)
Reward: 60 pints; 1 QP
Details: Fill in as a temporary worker. Must be able to lift a minimum of 25 kilos. Lunch will be provided.
Miscellaneous
Request: Help me find my pet.
Duration: Undeterminable
Reward: 3000 pints; 5 QP
Details: My darling Todenschwein Messerschmitt went missing. If you find my precious baby, the reward is yours. He is the most adorable thing you've ever seen and has a tag around his neck with his name on it.
Ultimately, Kalin decided to accept the job working at the general store, for no other reason than it looked interesting. The courier job wouldn't be terrible if it only took around 5 hours, but the pay was low for 7 hours. The pet job relied on luck, and although he was lucky, his skill worked better when he wasn't expecting to find something because of it. Strictly speaking, the more he wanted to be lucky, the less it worked.
Picking up his guild card, he lined up at the counter that had Pauline manning the desk. After waiting for maybe 15 minutes, he was finally first in line.
”Oh, hi!” Pauline said with a cheerful voice, ”You're that cutie from yesterday. Where's your friend?”
Kalin smiled and said, ”She's busy today, so I decided to do a quest today.”
Pauline admired his dimply face and asked, ”Oh, so do you need help, or did you find one by yourself?”
Shaking his head, Kalin said, ”I would like to receive the labor job at the Redd Hart general store.”
After finding the job in the database, Pauline nodded and said, ”Alright, the quest has been accepted. Do you need directions to get to the store?”
Accepting her offer, he listened to her give simple directions to the general store before sending Kalin on his way. The directions led him to the same shopping district from the fabric shop he was at the day prior. Following the directions, he found himself at a large shop with a signboard out front depicting a dark red, veiny heart.
Entering the store, he was greeted with several rows of shelves containing numerous goods ranging from essentials to luxury and hobby goods. Positioned near the very front of the store was a couple in their 30's talking to each other, from behind the retail counter with somewhat stressed looks on their faces. Noticing their diminutive guest, the man turned to Kalin and asked, ”What do you want?”
Hearing the unfriendly greeting from her husband, the woman slapped the back of his head and growled, ”Is that any way to talk to a customer?” She was a little on the plump side, as her entire body had a pillow-like consistency.
”Dammit woman! That hurt!” He complained. The man was built like a brick, every feature of his body and face seemed to be rectangular and boxy. The sharp contrast between the round woman and boxy man was quite comical.