Lance and Anna stood in a daze in front of the quest board. The sheer number of F rank quests was like a treasure trove to the duo. There were so many good options they didn't even know where to begin.
"Anna, is this real? Pinch me, I mu- OOWw!" Lance rubs his arm in pain. "You didn't even let me get the whole phrase out!"
"Oh sorry, you can do it again if you want." She says, making a pinching motion with her fingers.
"No way! You're just gonna pinch me again."
"Yeah, but only because you asked." She said with a smile on her face.
"Whatever… Oh hey look he's back!" Lance says while he rushes past. He rushes up to Reid, unloading a barrage of rapid-fire questions. "So how'd it go? How was the test? Did you pass? Did you register? What happened?"
Overwhelmed by the overenthusiastic boy, Reid finds himself unable to answer anything. Instead he simply held up his brand new guild card. He made sure, however, to cover the race tab with his thumb.
"Whoa wait, you actually did it? That's crazy! Oh I know, lets compare cards. I wanna see what kinda class you went with. Anna, you get in on this too!" The over energetic boy completely took control of the situation and didn't allow for a single voice of opposition. The two sandwiched Reid, Lance on his right and Anna on his left. They held their guild cards up in a line. Amadeus made sure to record the information to learn more about their different classes and talents later. Their cards read as follows:
NAME: Lance
AGE: 13
GENDER: Male
RACE: Human
ABILITY: Spirit Blade, Acrobatics
CLASS: Blademaster
RANK: F
PARTY: Blue Phoenix, F rank, 2 members
____________
NAME: Anna
AGE: 13
GENDER: Female
*******************
ABILITY: Strong Body, Flexibility, Water Element
CLASS: Elemental Spearman
RANK: F
PARTY: Blue Phoenix, F rank, 2 members
Reid takes a good look at their cards, excited to see new friends' talents. He couldn't see Anna's race section since it was covered by her finger, but he found the rest very interesting.
"Water element? What's that?" Reid asks Anna.
"Oh, that means my spirit energy can takes on water attribute. I can use the water to help with attacks, plus it gives me some passive buffs too!"
"Oh that seems pretty useful!"
"You bet! So Reid what does this Dual Soul talent do?"
"Oh, well it's hard to explain, but it basically lets me focus on two things at once."
"Wait really? I've never heard of a talent like that before. It must feel super weird, right."
"Definitely. Especially the first time I used it."
"Wow, I haven't noticed it until now, but you're really good at lying." Amadeus points out.
"Thanks, and who's the one who keeps putting me into situations where I need to lie?"
"Point taken."
Lance looks at the guild card in confusion. "Hey Reid, what's a 'Runic Spearman'?"
He answers quickly. "Oh, it's a class that lets people know I can use rune magic while I work as a spearman. Try not to tell to many people though."
"The whole reason we went with runic spearman was to improve your reputation, why are you hiding it?" Amadeus asks.
"Holy crap! You can use RUNE MAGIC?!?!" Lance shouts loud enough for most of the guildhall to hear him.
"Never mind, Lance took care of it."
"Owww!" A quick pinch arrives on Lances arm. "What'd I do to deserve that one?!"
Anna is quick to answer. "You idiot, he literally just told you not to tell people and you went and shouted it for the whole guild to hear."
"Oh right, sorry…"
"It's fine. The secret was bound to get out sooner or later." Reid answers calmly.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Lance quickly changes the subject. "How about you join us on an F rank quest?"
"But I'm only a G rank."
"That's fine, if you party up with us you can take 'em!" Lance's enthusiasm left little room for argument.
"But what about equipment? Shouldn't I get a weapon or something before I start going on quests?"
"It's fine, we'll protect you while you use magic in the back. Let's get going." Lance gives him a thumbs up.
Anna stared daggers at the impatient boy. "Lance…" Her angry tone froze the boy in place. "Are you suggesting he doesn't buy equipment before taking a quest?"
"What? No, I would never do anything so reckless." He answers nervously.
"Good. Now Reid, if you go to the merchant counter on the left they can sell you starter gear." She points to the long line on the left filled with well-dressed businessmen. "The gear's not the best, but its good enough for us greenhorns. Cheap too!"
"Okay!" He was relieved that she won out over Lances recklessness.
"Oh, and is it cool if we hang on to your guild card while you do that?"
"I… I guess that should be fine…" The odd question threw him off. "Why do you want it?"
"Well while you're getting your gear we're gonna register for a quest. We need your card so you can get credit for it. Oh and we can add you to our party too!... Well, only if you want to." She explains while looking at him expectantly.
"Of course! I'd love to join!" A big grin envelops his face.
Lance almost shouts in response. "Then welcome to the Blue Phoenix!" Ignoring the stares of other hunters, he continues. "The phoenix represents us as we rise from the ashes and become awesome hunters! And when fire magic gets really strong it starts turning blue! That's why were the Blue Phoenix', to show how strong we are!" Lances over the top and awkward explanation overwhelms Reid. He looks over to Anna and mouths 'are you serious?'
Anna answers with a defeated tone. "I just liked the sound of the name. I never thought he would go and make a whole speech for it." She sighs in regret before she starts to turn around. "We'll meet up when we're done."
She reaches forward to grab Reid's card. The boy hesitates for a moment, fearful they would find out he's a mixed blood, but he couldn't think of a way to avoid it. Fighting against all the paranoid voices in his head he hands her the card face down.
"See you in a bit." Anna says, walking away.
"Hey! I'm not done celebrating with our new member yet… Wait up!" Lance chases after her.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
The mid-day sun hangs heavy overhead as the Blue Phoenix' make their way to the edge of the Great Vash forest. With Reid's new equipment the group now had matching sets of gear, like a true hunting party. The equipment consisted of a simple dark gray gambeson top with green accents on the side and simple balt-leather pants of the same color scheme.
Their Balt-leather is a specialty of the Great Vash Forest region. Balts are the largest E-rank herbivores this side of the continent. The beasts live in herds on the plains at the edge of the forest. These large bison like creatures are able to move far faster than their size would indicate thanks to their ability to use wind magic to push themselves forward. This unique trait is what makes balt-leather so desirable. A balt's skin is able to freely manipulate airflow, allowing movement at high speeds. This makes the material itself incredibly flexible and breathable. In terms of comfort, balt-leather is practically unmatched.
The edge of the magical forest was littered with flowers of every color and shape. The beautiful scene was getting an unexpected response from a certain party member.
"Are you okay?" Anna asks Reid. "I know it's your first quest but you don't have to be so nervous. We're right here with you!" She says, trying to cheer him up.
"Oh, that's not it. I just have some… bad memories of this forest. I'll be fine though." He flashes her a quick smile and a thumbs up. "So can you two finally tell me about this quest?"
Lance answers him in his typical cocky tone. "Well well, I guess its finally time to brief you on your first quest with the Blue Phoenix. Prepare to take notes!"
"Notes?"
"Exactly, and if you don't have anything to write with, you've already failed!"
Reid was starting to understand why Anna ignored lance so much, just like she was now.
"We're collecting Gilded Lily's." Anna pulls a rolled up piece of paper from a small bag on her hip. The paper was their quest document, on it was simple instructions about quantities needed and a timeline with which to get it done, it even included a detailed illustration of the Gilded Lily. The flower was quite beautiful, with a dark green stem and light green petals that were accented on the edges with a brilliant golden hue. "The quest is asking for 10 of them but if we find more the guild usually takes them anyway. Not like we're gonna to find that many though. Gilded Lily's are notoriously hard to find."
"Wait, this says the quest is F rank. Shouldn't I be starting with G ranks?"
"No sweat, since we're here too the guild says its fine. Besides you're not missing much with G ranks, they're all just a bunch of manual labor no one wanted to do." Lance explains.
Before the hunters switched to the current letter based ranking system, they used a simpler naming system. The newest and/or most incompetent members, similar to the G-ranks of today, were called laborers or peons. They were meant to assist with farming, or any small task the other villagers were too busy to handle themselves. Going up the list F-ranks were known as gatherers, E-ranks were known as beast hunters, while D-ranks and above were known as monster hunters.
"I guess that's fine then. So where should we be looking for these things?" With the unexpected increase in difficulty, Reid was beginning to feel nervous.
"We normally find them right on the forests' edge with the other flowers. Let's split up to cover more ground."
"Yeah! First to find one wins." Lance proclaims as he takes off for the edge.
"I swear, you're such a little kid." Anna sighs before walking after him.
"You should be looking for Adalia trees. Your target only grows next to them. They're the dark brown, almost black trees with the occasional sharp barb protruding from the bark. Gilded Lily's will grow on the west side of the tree up to 5 meters away, depending on the size of the root system." Amadeus' chimes in with his encyclopedic knowledge.
"So a tree like that one?" He thinks while looking at a lone thin dark tree in the distance.
"Exactly!"
Reid runs over to the unusual tree, still keeping a cautious eye on the thickening forest around him. His recent experience didn't allow him to relax even if the area was considered safe.
As Reid arrives at the base of the tree, he notices something, only certain colored flowers grew in the trees radius. Instead of the usual rainbow it was surrounded by red, white and orange flowers. He gets distracted for just a moment before he keeps looking for a Gilded Lily. Looking back to front and left to right he methodically searches one row at a time.
His eyes suddenly go wide as 3 meters away from the tree, he sees a golden edged flower. "Guys!! I think I found one!" Reid shouts at the top of his lungs. The other two, who were both about 20 meters away, turn around in surprise.
"You found one?!" Anna shouts excitedly.
"Yeah right, lemme see it!" Lance shouts back. He rushes over to see the supposed 'Gilded Lily'. Once he arrived, to his surprise, the Lily was real. "Holy crap, you actually found one! How did you do that so fast?!"
"Well I remember something in the basic hunters book about how Gilded Lily's only grow near Adalia trees." Reid points at the dark barked spiny tree behind him. "And when I went to look, it was right here."
"Wow, that's really helpful Reid! If we know where to look, we can find them so much faster than normal!" Anna replies cheerfully.
"Awesome! If we hurry, we might be able to find more than 10 today!" A bright smile paints Lances face. "We could make some serious money today. Now watch this, I'ma teach you how to properly pick one of these things." At that, he squats down to the side of the Lily and carefully begins excavating the plant.
"Hey kid, I have a question."
"Yes Mr. Amadeus?"
"Since your talent is enhanced senses and not just enhanced hearing, does that mean your sense of smell is enhanced as well?"
"Well yes, I normally try to hide it though. People tend to find it… creepy."
"Creepy? How so?"
"Well, I would always seem to know where people had been or what they had eaten. They thought it was because I was secretly following them around and when I tried to explain myself, they wouldn't listen. One time the lady of the house was walking by with her friends and I noticed she smelled like blood. I thought her friends might have hurt her so I asked if she was okay since she was bleeding, but when I asked about it her friends started laughing. Then her face went bright red and she called me disgusting, telling me to never talk to her again. I don't know why she got mad but I've been hiding it ever since them."
"Haha." Amadeus' unexpected chuckle confused Reid. "If our biology's are as similar as I think, then there is a reason she got embarrassed and angry. Not that it was your fault since you were a child, but she was probably just trying to save face in front of her friends. I'll teach you about it some other time. Now back to my question, have you ever heard of a tracking dog?"
"I don't think so, is that a type of monster."
"No, they are a type of animal who have a very strong sense of smell. They can use this sense to locate objects that are extremely far away. It's mostly used in hunting or looking for a lost person, but I was thinking you might be able to get the scent of the Lilly and use it to find more."
"I've never thought about using it like that. I'll give it a try though."
As their conversation ends Lance finishes his careful excavation. He made sure to keep the entire root system intact and wipe off almost all of the excess dirt that stuck to it. He takes a moment to admire his handiwork.
"Hey Lance, Anna. Do you mind if I see that for a second?"
"Sure, just be careful not to lose it. Certain people have trouble holding onto things." Lance smirks while looking at Anna, happy to return the teasing for once.
"Hey! It's not my fault my pocket ripped." She crossed her arms in irritation.
Lance gently hands the Gilded Lily to Reid. Once in his hands he closes his eyes and brings the flower up to his nose and sniffs it a few times. With his eyes still closed he lowers the flower and begins concentrating.
"Smells good, doesn't it?" Anna said cheerfully, albeit slightly confused.
"Give me a second." Reid says as he puts his full concentration into his nose. His nose, hundreds of thousands of times more sensitive than a normal humans, felt inexplicably different to Amadeus through their shared senses. The closest way he could describe the sensation would be as a myriad of waves made from colors that had never existed before crashing into him. The beautiful tapestry of scents distracts them for a moment before Reid begins his search. He slowly turns his head back and forth while feeling his way through the waves of scents. "Found it!" He gives the flower back to lance and takes off, following the trace.
"Hey wait, where are you going?!" Anna yells after him but gets no answer.
"I guess we should just follow him?" Lance shrugs as they jog after him.
The spear on Reid's back clacks against his hard leather belt as he sprints through the forest. His mind focuses on the scenery just enough to avoid crashing into anything as his nose guides his path. His pace slows to a walk as he sees an Adalia tree right in front of him. He drops down onto all fours, brings his head close to the ground and begins sniffing. He moves forward slowly but confidently until it was right in front of his eyes; another Gilded Lily.
"Phew," Lance exhales behind him, clearly out of breath. "You sure can run fast."
"He wasn't that fast, you're just slow." Anna chides him as she stands there without even breathing hard.
"Well yeah, all you have to carry is that spear. I have to carry a greatsword, shield, and all our harvesting tools!"
"Sounds like an excuse to me." She teases lance a bit more before turning to Reid. "So what did you start running for?"
With a proud look on his face Reid points down at the flower in front of him. "I was looking for this!"
Lance's eyes nearly popped out of their socket as he looked as a second quest item was found in mere minutes. "Great Agalia! You actually found another!?!" He could do nothing more than stand there flabbergasted.
"Yeah, it turns out my enhanced senses talent is really good for quests like these. As long as I can get the scent from one of them, I can find anymore that are close by."
Anna walks forward and squats down next to the flower before replying. "That's amazing! I'm so glad you decided to join our party! Think you can find any more?"
"I'll try."