'Weren't you going to ask Ashley if there was a way for us to make some pocket money?'
"Shit, I totally forgot about that." I nearly drop the weight I'm holding when Nick reminds me of what I said yesterday.
I walk over to Josh who is currently dragging himself forward at a snails pace to finish his laps. Unsurprisingly, he met me at the market square again this morning and followed me into the courtyard.
"Hey, Josh." I pat him on the shoulder to get him to stop running; well, less running and more slogging.
"I'm going to go talk to Ashley, you stay here and take a break."
"Okay." He says and falls backwards onto the grass.
"Perfect." I say as I give him a thumbs up.
I run inside the guild hall and find a line of people at the counter next to the bar. A tiny woman and a man with pointy dog ears are greeting the adventurer's in line and handing them slips of paper.
"Hey, what's going on?" I ask one of the people in line.
"There's temp work from the guild to move stones from the river to the northern palisade."
"Why?"
"Who cares, it's easy money."
"True."
I run back outside and scrape Josh off the ground. He seems to be breathing well enough so I bring him back inside with me and move to the end of the line.
"Does this happen often?" I ask the people in front of us who look particularly bored.
"Occasionally, we usually we get temp work when one of the buildings is damaged by the storm or a monster attack."
"Oh, cool. Thanks!"
"No problem." he says as he turns back towards the front.
"Did you hear that, Josh? We should be able to get these types of jobs with some consistency!"
"Why do you want to do this so bad?" He asks while still catching his breath.
"Think about it, moving stones; we're getting paid to workout. Pretty sweet, right?" It looks like Josh's face turns pale but I'm sure it's just my imagination. If I can start bringing in some steady cash, the kid's parents won't be able to say much about Nick's new behavior. Eventually, you need to wake up and try to make money, right?
It takes a while but after half and hour or so we make it to the front.
"Guild card." The small woman says as she shoots her open hand my direction.
"I don't have one of those."
She looks up at me quizzically but something seems to click in her mind as her expression changes.
"Oh, you must be one of the new kids. Nick, right?"
"Yup!"
"Okay, you probably won't get your guild card for a few months but that's okay since everyone knows you."
"Why does everyone know me?"
"You made quite a stir when you first walked in the door."
"What did I do?" I turn to Josh, looking for him to defend me but he's way to interested in the design of the molding on the counter to notice.
"Mary, knock it off," her companion pipes up from her side. "Guild business is confidential."
"Oh, right. Sorry." she says as she sticks her tongue out and knocks herself lightly on the head.
"What? No! Don't try to play it off by acting cute! What did I do? You can't just leave me hanging like this." I say, trying to look as pathetic as possible.
'Cough, cough,' The pointy-eared clears his throat before addressing me. "All you need to know is that you weren't at fault for the commotion."
"Oh, okay. Cool." If it wasn't my fault then I didn't really care. "Anyway, what are the terms for the temp work?
"You will receive two Denarii for each confirmed stone delivery by the site manager."
"Sweet. So, where do we start?"
"Does your friend want to work as well?"
"Yeah, totally." I say while ignoring the fact that Josh has gotten down on his hands and knees to inspect how the floor meets the counter.
'Cough, cough,' "We need each person's signature to issue the quest."
"Sure, no problem." I pull Josh up and turn him towards the counter.
"I like your floors." He says with an overly serious expression. To my surprise the man at the counter puffs his chest out as if he laid the stones himself.
"Thank you, we take pride in the guild hall as it is the face of our organization."
"Now you got him started." Mary sighs.
"This building was first constructed one hundred, ninety five years ago as the two thousand, seven hundred, sixty third branch of the Adventurer's Guild and even after that much expansion we still take the time to carefully design every stone before it is placed."
"Tucker, no one cares." While I'm interested in the history of such an extensive organization, I'm in a bit of a hurry so I appreciate Mary's interjection.
'Cough, cough,' "Right, just sign here and head to the south gate; someone will guide you when you get there."
"Thanks! Let's go Josh." I start running when I notice him lagging behind so I fall back to keep pace with him.
'How do you keep running like that? Aren't you tired and sore?' Nick asks.
"I mean, it's all mental. Just keep telling yourself you're not tired and it doesn't hurt."
"I'm not tired and it doesn't hurt." Josh repeats my words and I see his shoulders rise a couple inches.
"There you go, that's the spirit." Our pace quickens as Josh reiterates this mantra to himself and we actually pass a couple other adventurers along the way.
Just outside the south gate stands a man in a guild staff robe with a clipboard in his hand.
"Hey, we're here from the guild." I hand him the slip of paper I was given at the counter and he gives another one back to me while pointing to the nearby river.
"Grab one of those stones by the river and compare it with the green guide stone on the shore. If the stone isn't big enough you won't get paid so try to get one bigger than the guide stone to be sure. Then, take it to the north gate."
"Okay, thanks." I head down to the water to pick up one of the stones. "Woah."
The guide stone probably weighs fifty pounds, more than half my own weight.
"Maximum Effort."
I heave to stone up a couple inches and immediately drop it back to the ground. It seems maximum effort wasn't enough effort.
While heavy, I'm sure I can carry the stone if I can just get it up to my chest.
"Hey, Josh. Mind giving me a hand here?"
"Okay."
I weave my fingers together beneath the stone and struggle north one step at a time. Mentally I divide the journey into a bunch of smaller steps; just get off the shore and then take a break, just get to the gate and then take a break, just make it to the market square and then take a break, except I never actually stop to take a break. Something about doing a many small distances instead of one big one makes the task almost bearable.
I chance a look back and see Josh a hundred feet behind. Fortunately for him, he's pretty big so he's not struggling nearly as much as me.
After what feels like years, I finally make it to the North gate where another man points to a pile of rocks just like mine. I drop the stone and then fall right on top of it. My whole body is shaking, my hands are bloody from popped blisters, and my legs are cramping from the exertion. And it's all too funny. I don't know why but I burst out laughing.
"What's so funny, Nick." Josh asks as he puts down his stone.
"I don't know. Maybe it's just the feeling of getting stronger everyday; it's addicting. It makes me want to keep pushing myself even harder."
"You must only be level one if you're saying that." The guild staff member chuckles.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because leveling up is what people actually get addicted to, it's euphoric." He says as he looks off into the distance.
"Is it really that good?"
"Oh yeah. I've seen more people than I can count throw their lives away trying to get just one more level."
"Huh." I say, a little stunned. I hadn't really thought about it but maybe the system was chemically rewarding me for gaining stats on top of the dopamine and endorphins I was producing naturally. It was sobering. Am I really in control?
"We should level up," says Josh.
"I don't think we should." I frown. "We're steadily getting stronger as it is and I don't want to end up throwing my life away just because I get addicted to the sensation."
"You're an adventurer, you're going to level up eventually." The guild staff member says.
"Maybe so, but I want to be much stronger before I do. You know, Josh, it becomes much harder to gain stats from working out as you get stronger so it's best to put in as much effort as we can before we start leveling."
"Okay." He nods.
"Speaking of that, let's go get another stone."
"Not so fast, give me your slips or you won't get paid."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot."
Josh and I spend the next several hours carrying stones to the North Gate. At the end of the day we collapse at the pile of rocks after making ten Denarii; we would have made more but each consecutive trip took longer than the last as we became increasingly exhausted.
I talked to Nick and he said that much money is enough to buy a couple meals, which doesn't feel like much but it's better than nothing. He's also getting used to taking control of our wrecked body without crying. I think he is becoming just as addicted to the incentives from the system as I am.
Nick drops a handful of blood covered coins onto the table when he sits down to dinner.
"Sweetie! What happened to your hands?" Carroll cries as she inspects her sons palm.
"We got paid to move stones for the guild!"
"You and your friend?" She asks skeptically.
"Yeah, and my friend Josh."
"Who's Josh?"
"Jezabel says he's the son of the Mason."
"Arthur?" Vincent chimes in.
"You know him?" Carroll asks, shocked.
"Yeah, he used to come in here to check out books on architecture; until we had to sell them." Vincent says the last part under his breath. It's clear now that he feels insecure about his ability to provide for his family.
It made me think of my own Dad. He came home late most nights just to keep our crappy trailer warm, right up to the end. How must he have felt always falling behind, always down going.
"That's nice." Carroll places the handful of coins back into Nicks palm and curls his fingers around them.
"No! I want to help." He frowns, dropping the money back on the table.
"Sure." Vincent swipes up the coins and places them in his pocket before Carroll can protest.
"Vincent! If we take his money we're encouraging him to keep working!"
"Good, we need the money!"
"He wouldn't have to do that if you would go get a job!"
"Job? I'm a librarian, just like my father and his father before him. What could I even do? Why don't you get a job if you're so concerned about it?"
"I-you-how dare you say that when I cook every meal and clean the whole house."
"Using money I receive from my job as a librarian."
Nick quietly finishes his meal and cleans his plate off in the sink before walking back up to his room; a big smile on his face.
'I've never seen you smile while your parents are arguing.' I say as he closes the door behind him.
"I've never been able to help before." Nick responds as he squeezes his pillow. "Let's do that again tomorrow."
'Roger that, Captain.'