Entering the office, it was easy for Ceselee to see the stark difference between the two. One with pure excitement in her eyes in wonder over what they’d been called for while the other looked like they wanted to be anywhere else, Ben feeling no need to hide that fact as they took their seats.
“Alright,” he asked. “What is it this time?”
“You know, you could stand to be a bit more positive about the quests you get,” the guild master told him. “At least until you know what it is.”
“Mmm, nope. If it were something good then you would have just told me. I can already tell this quest is going to suck.”
“Ignore him, Ceselee,” Thera told her, her own enthusiasm undampened. “What are we being called to do this time?”
“It’s really a collection of a few different tasks, so you'd be going around to a few different locations, but you can consider the heart of it all to be helping with infrastructure. With how many people are moving around from villages to larger settlements and the damage the demons have done to other locations as well, there’s plenty of work that needs doing in the form of both building and repairs and-”
“Hold on,” Ben stopped her, raising a hand as he did. “This suddenly feels like an elaborate scam to get me to do the sort of work I might already get hired for without paying me my proper rates. Hard pass.”
“A pretty negative way of viewing it.”
“I don’t see how I could look at it as anything else. This isn’t adventurer work.”
“Sure it is; why wouldn’t it be? You may not have seen it in town, but in other locations, adventurers are frequently brought on as labourers for bigger projects.”
“I’m sure,” he said dryly. “And how many first ranks are brought on for those sorts of projects?”
“How could I say?” Ceselee shrugged. “I don’t run a big enough guild to see any other town do that sort of thing. I doubt they went out of their way to ask specifically to pull a fast one on you, though. You’re registered as being a first rank for your crafting, and Thera is for her earth magic. Given the fact that you’re both a team on top of it, when they were selecting who to ask to take this on, you were almost certainly the first names to come up among any of the first and second ranks on record.”
“And we should at least hear the finer details before rejecting it,” Thera told him, not having lost her interest, even to what sounded like a rather uneventful job. “Come on, quests for us don’t come up too often.”
“I don’t know, I’d say this feels pretty often to me,” Ben sighed. “But fine, what are the details?”
“Seven different locations, but the first four should be relatively easy for you both,” Ceselee explained, considering that the next time a quest for them came up, it might make sense just to tell Thera so she could accept on their behalf without having to subject herself to Ben’s grumbling. “Those ones are just building defensive walls around a few cities, but considering what I’ve seen of your power, Thera, you shouldn’t have any issue with that sort of thing.”
“No,” she agreed. “Sounds pretty quick.”
“And the last three?” Ben asked. “What level of pain in the butt are we talking about?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“More your specialty. From what I understand, we’d be looking at building two different settlements for housing some refugees, either people moving from areas ravaged by demons or else left their villages that were too isolated to feel safe given everything going on in the world, and the last seems to involve reinforcing some structural issues in one of the subterranean settlements, though I’m not sure of the finer details on that particular one. In all cases, you just need to report to the local guild branches and they’ll set you up. Given that these would take a few days too and happen in proper cities, you’d even get to enjoy some of the benefits I’d told you about when you first reached this level. You’ll be provided with the best accommodations each location can offer and the best meals too. With how simple the work seems like it should be for both of you, consider it a mini-vacation.”
He wanted to shoot back that no vacation included being underpaid considering the fact that he was sure whatever the guild was offering would be below his rates, but he held his tongue. He could see that Thera looked interested, and Hentath’s words were still in his head. Maybe a couple of easier days would be good for him before he got back to working himself to death in the name of his own growth and progress.
“Alright, fine,” he gave in as Thera did the same, albeit in a far more positive way. “In that case, when do we leave for it?”
“While there’s technically not a strict deadline for it, unlike some of the other quests you’ve been on, in general I’d still say the sooner the better. They’re expecting you at any time.”
“We can probably head out tomorrow then,” Thera said, thinking it over. “It really doesn’t sound like this should take more than three or four days, Fontesh will probably be able to watch Mora.”
“Guess we’ll ask her when we pick him up. Okay, in that case, I guess let’s go let them know.”
And I guess this is one quest I don’t actually need to do too much to prepare for, other than to see how it goes.
“Alright, quick question. Am I being scammed?”
“In general, I view you as far more likely to be the one doing the scamming,” Myriad told him. “Why, what happened this time?”
“Got a request to do what sounds like some construction through the adventurer’s guild instead of, you know, just outright hiring me and I can’t help but view it as an elaborate way to avoid paying me my rates no matter what the guild says about it, hence I'm asking you.”
“Ah, I see. In that case, no, almost certainly not. Even if getting a first rank to help with a quest like that is unusual, quests like that for lower ranks aren’t. My bet would be the planners for this were looking for any awakened earth mages they had in their records considering the use such a person could provide in aiding in construction and when they found your name and skills attached to Thera as her partner they felt like they struck gold. Far more likely than anything nefarious, at least.”
“Mmph, I guess that lines up well enough with what Ceselee told me,” Ben sighed before lying back. “Fine then, I guess that’s going to be what I’ve got on the agenda for the next couple of days then. How bad could it be?”
“Depending on what you’re doing, I’d say pretty bad.”
“... Building a few defensive walls and, from the sounds of it, helping with some issues in one of the subterranean cities. Why?”
“The walls should be easy enough for you, and I'm not sure what you might be doing underground specifically, but there’s a lot of people who’ve either lost their homes to the demons or else have made the choice to abandon them. Depending on where you’re being sent, you might be building a lot.”
“Ugh, great,” he groaned. “Whatever, it’s fine, we’ll make it work. Thera basically has infinite mana compared to a normal person and I’ve reached a point where my volume is unimaginable to most people too. Add in the fact that we’re both contenders for the magics we’ll be using to build everything and we’ll make it work. Who knows? Maybe it will even be interesting. Besides doing the planning for both my researchers and the demis’ housing, I’ve never had a chance to build a town before. I just have to look at this as a neat little project and only a couple days of time.”
If his goal had been to awaken his crafting, it might have even been exciting. He didn’t know the scale of it, but it would undoubtedly have some challenges to it that would need to be addressed compared to how relatively straightforward it had been to expand Stonewall. The only real issue with it was that it was unrelated to his main goal.
But that’s fine. Hentath and Ceselee are both right. I’ll just look at this as a little break and then get back to work, refreshed and ready to get back to the grind.
