CH.199 They don’t trust us
“We need to have a guild employee with you to monitor your party.” Was what we were told at the adventurer’s guild.
We had gotten there, Paulina had explained the direct request quests and handed them over. Then as we were accepting the first one of them, we got that little bit of news from the guild.
“Why is that necessary? Brian hasn’t failed any of his guild quests, has he?” Paulina asked. Do they send out soone with the party if the party fails a lot of quests?
“I understand that, but you also have to consider our view on this matter. He, and the rest of you, have been completing quests so fast that it should be impossible. We simply must know what you are doing differently, so other adventurers can also use similar techniques.” The employee explained.
Yeah, good luck with that. Just buy an airship and use that. I’m sure every adventurer will have the money for one.
“Brian, what do you think?” Paulina turned to and asked. Then she added in a quieter voice. “This is your quest, so you do have the right to just say you won’t do it under that condition if you don’t want to.”
“Will that reflect badly on us?” I asked quietly.
“No. It will actually look bad on the guild, as the quest giver, my father, clearly trusts your report and wants more of them from you. So for the guild to set a condition that you don’t agree with, causing the quest to be left undone, or having to be given to soone else will reflect on the guild. Rember that as an adventurer, outside of ergencies, you are allowed to refuse a quest for any reason, including no reason.”
“... maybe I should …” I pondered my options.
If I refuse, the guild might panic and allow us to go without soone spying on us, considering the quest giver. Or they might just say “The nad adventurer didn’t accept the quest.” or sothing like that. But they should realize that Paulina will tell the real reason to her father. And even if the quest actually fails, the Earl can just ask to do the quest outside of the guild's influence. There is nothing strange about a lord sending soone out to check the safety on the roads in their territory. And while usually those missions are given to adventurers, sotis the knight order does them instead. Or so I’ve been told.
But at the sa ti, refusing the guild’s auditor would look bad on . Like I want to keep secrets. Which I of course do, but that’s a different matter. They might ask for sothing more next ti, like showing my status or sothing. But at that point I could just say F them and quit being an adventurer. I don’t need the money and while sure it would be cool to get to be an S-rank adventurer, it might not be worth it.
“Paulina, say I accidentally happened to travel up and down the road we were supposed to check today, then I just happened to write a report about it and deliver it to your father, do you think he would still pay for it?” I asked so that the adventurer’s guild employee definitely heard all of it.
“Of course he would. And he would cancel the guild quest right after that. He might even stop sending jobs to the guild as a whole, considering how much they seem to doubt people he trusts.” Paulina answered, keeping up my not at all subtle hint that I really didn’t want anyone from the guild to co with us.
“Well, I guess that will make this simple.” I said before turning back to the guild employee. “I’d like to ref…”
“Please don’t!” She panicked a bit and interrupted . “Please just wait a mont. I’ll call the guild master. I’m sure he will approve you doing this quest without anyone from the guild having to monitor you.”
“... sure. Go call him then.” I said. “But please do hurry. I don’t have all day.” I added, just to add a bit more pressure to the guild.
It’s not that I want to do this, but co on. You have no reason to send soone with us. Overdrive is one thing, but having to explain B.E.S. Big Core to the guild. Yeah, I’d rather not.
“I already said that he needs an observer, so make sure he has one.” I heard soone speaking in a loud voice, as he was approaching the front counter.
“But…” The employee likely tried to tell him sothing.
“No buts. Either he is observed, or he doesn’t take the job.” The loud male said, as they finally made it to the main room of the guild.
He was probably in his early thirties, by my estimation. Not too muscular, but still decently well built and his hair was li green in color.
I guess I never talked about hair colors in this world, so I’ll ntion it now. Most people, about 85%, have what I would call ‘normal’ hair colors. You know, brown, black, blond, ginger. Things you see on earth, outside of soone visiting a hair salon. But there are also so with colors that are completely wild, like his li green. Assuming that his hair is a natural color, not the result of so magic hair dye.
On the other hand, dhampirs seem to have a much higher chance for rare hair colors. Putting Lua’s crimson and Ria’s silver aside, all of them have so more rare color. Red and blue were the most common in the village, but there was also silver and even the indigo hair of Rosemary. I originally thought that the color of the hair ca from magic attributes or sothing, but that clearly isn’t the case, as shown by Lua and Ria.
Humans are probably just a boring race. Maybe the unnatural hair colors are caused by interbreeding with other races. … or maybe not. I don’t know. I think Tahlia would be better at calculating genetics than I am. But then again, I feel like she would rather invent a ti machine or so sort of teleportation device than work out how genetics work.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand.
“Is that the guild master?” I asked Paulina. I know the last ti I interacted with a GM for the first ti, it didn’t go so well, so if he is the GM, I’ll try to accommodate him a bit better. I still won’t allow an observer, but maybe I won’t threaten his job or sothing like that.
“No. He is the assistant guild master. He is also the third son of baron Hari Bloggs.” Paulina answered.
“Oh. Alright.” So he is just an assistant GM. I guess going for his job is fair ga then. … Okay, I’ll try not to do it.
“So, are you the kid who cheats on his quests?” The assistant GM asked.
“Cheats? Hardly. I can understand your suspicions about the safety check, but how do you cheat an escort quest or a monster hunt?” I asked.
“So you admitted it. And it is quite easy. You just buy the monster corpses from other adventurers and have the quest giver fake the paperwork.” The AGM answered.
“... alright. Well, I guess you could.” I agreed.
“And another admission. Because of your less than normal speed at completing quests, we have decided to send an observer with you on your next mission. I believe you will have no problem with that.”
“Well, actually I do. And I won’t go on a quest with an observer.” I answered.
“... I see. Well, if that is how you want it, so be it. Leila, cancel the quest.” He said to the employee.
“But sir…” She began.
“Cancel it. He is a cheater and until he is willing to go out with an observer, he won’t be taking a single quest from this guild.”
“But sir, the quest he was about to take is nominated for him. And it cos from the Earl’s house.” Leila finally was able to say what she wanted.
“... wa? Show the quest form!”
“Sir, please don’t yell. Lady Paulina from the Sawyer house is also present and she would be going on the quest with Mr. Brian.” Leila added, as she handed the form over to the AGM.
The AGM quickly confird that statent, by making eye contact with Paulina. Paulina just waved back playfully. The AGM then read through the quest form.
“... fine. Because it cos from the Earl and a mber of his family is here to make sure it is done right.” He muttered, before talking to us. “But don’t think this is it. Just because you have contact with the nobility, doesn’t an that you can cheat your rank.”
“I don’t cheat.” I told him. Well, I do, but not with these quests. I cheat in all the other places. I cheat the system, not the guild. “I’ll be accepting an apology from you when you realize that.” I added.
“Then just take an observer with you.” He said. “If you can show them that you don’t do anything wrong, I’ll gladly apologize for my words.”
“Sorry, but not to this quest. I have to use so quite secretive techniques to get this quest done in a day, which I don’t want to share. I hope you understand that.”
“Just because it is the adventurer’s right to keep their status secret outside of their registration, doesn’t an that the guild likes it. But do as you wish.”
“Thanks.” I turned back to Leila. “So we are good to go?”
“Yes. I apologize for all the issues and the delay.”
“Paulina, are you sure this won’t cause any problems?” I asked as we rode Overdrive towards the north gate. Today’s check was going to be on the road heading north. Ironically enough, we would actually pass the town of Bloggs, where the AGM is from. We would also go a bit beyond it, all the way to a larger town ruled by a viscount, who would be attending the birthday party.
“As the guild gave in, I think it will be fine. But if they cause more troubles, we will help you with them. But at the sa ti, the guild master should know your situation … with the system, so I don’t think he will allow anything more than that.”
“... oh. But the assistant GM doesn’t know?”
“I believe the info was limited just to guild masters, if I recall correctly.”
“Then how do you know about it? Well, I know I told you, but how do you know info about the guild?”
“I have my ways.”
“Of course you do.”
Once we were outside, we swapped to Big Core.
Other than that, the mission went basically the sa as it did last ti. First, we flew up, north, all the way, marking all of the problem monsters and otherwise completing the report.
Then we had a small lunch break.
“Mystik Wok. Cook up my Hungry Burger.”
Spoiler
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This was going to be today's lunch. I really was craving for a burger. And admittedly, I had eaten all of the bento that I was given by the kitchen staff at the manor already, because I had been hungry for the entire day. So I had to Wok sothing up. And when you are super hungry, what is better than a huge burger? Well, maybe pizza. Or a kebab roll.
But a burger might still be the best because the excessive carbs will make you feel full faster.
“Brian? Want to explain that?” Paulina asked.
“I can, but what about it? It's just a card that makes food.”
“It cooked up your monster, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Can you use it to cook up any of your monsters?”
“Pretty much yeah. But so of my monsters are … tallic, so I don’t think they would taste that good.”
“But you can cook a dragon with it?”
“Yeah.”
“... I see. How much would sothing like that cost? Say I wanted to buy a cooked dragon for a party.”
“Like for a birthday party? We can co up with a price both of us can agree to. Depending on the dragon.” I answered. Admittedly, I have been wanting to taste dragon as well, so I’m more than willing to go along with this. Sure I could do it in the dhampir village, but I think a dragon deserves a more fitting place to be served than that, no offense. And I can serve them dragon blood instead.
“But that burger, it is way too large. The ones in the capital are small enough that you can hold them in your hand.” Paulina said.
“... there are burgers in the capital?”
“Yes. They co from a tiny dungeon, turned restaurant, which only makes burgers. They are quite tasty.”
“... okay. Well, that’s cool. But don’t worry about the part where the burger is too big. I’ll just use this. Micro Ray.”
Spoiler
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