Dust billowed around Julia’s feet as she and Braden made their way down the small stretch of dirt that connected their destination with the main road. They were on their way to meet the requestor for this particular job. Braden had selected one of the Bronze-ranked jobs that was still up on the board before they left the Guild.

  This request was to eliminate an infestation of Earth Voles from a local farmer’s field. Braden had said this one would teach her a lot, but Julia had to admit that she was a bit disappointed at how mundane it sounded. The image she had in her head was of brave adventurers facing down dangers, not gardening.

  That said, it was still her first job. Maybe it wasn’t her first official job yet, but she was still going to give it her all. Braden had indicated that he would be there for help and advice, but he was largely going to leave its resolution up to her. That had her a little nervous, but the stakes seemed relatively low on this specific job, so that was actually more a comfort than a disappointment for her right now.

  Braden knocked lightly on the door of the farmhouse they approached. Julia had noted that the path from the road, although only made of stamped-down dirt, was well-maintained. It was flattened until relatively level, with no weeds sprouting. Julia could guess, just from this fact, that the owner of this particular farm was rather detail-oriented.

  The door opened to present a wide, middle-aged woman. She had a neat bun on top of her head and wide, but sharp, blue eyes above a narrow nose and thin lips. She had a pristine white apron over a lavender blouse. Julia wasn’t sure why, but the first impression the woman gave her was “motherly.”

  “Greetings, Ma’am,” Braden said amicably while bowing his head slightly. Julia copied the maneuver. “My name is Braden, and this here is my young apprentice, Julia. What looks to be a scarf that she’s wearing is actually her tamed companion, Trixy. We’ve come to accept the job that was posted with the Guild.” Braden presented the contract bearing both their signatures and that of a Guild receptionist.

  “Oh! Thank you so much for coming! Please, come in! Come in!” the woman exclaimed while ushering them into a modest but neat house. She led them from the entry hall that was facing a staircase to a small sitting room with an open arch into the kitchen at the back.

  There was a comfortable-looking couch and chairs seated around a small, knee-high table. Just to the side of the seating area was a large, stone fireplace with a shiny wooden mantle mounted on it.

  At her insistence, Braden and Julia took a seat on the couch. The woman that welcomed them turned in their direction and bowed slightly. “Thank you so much for accepting our request. We were worried that it would sit there for weeks while our crop was ruined. My name is Meriarla, Arla for short, and my husband is Arlor. “

  Julia tried not to chuckle about the Arlor and Arla couple. Talk about a destined pair.

  “We don’t have a great deal to offer in compensation, but I’m quite good with a needle and thread, and my husband is a deft hand with wood. We’d be glad to offer those Skills to you for anything you might need. We can also offer some of our crops that survive the Voles, if you’d like.”

  Braden smiled at her. “Oh, there’s no need for any of that, Ma’am. Though, I thank you for the offer. As I mentioned, Julia is my apprentice, and this is her first job. The experience alone will be more than enough reward.

  “That said, if you feel honor-bound to offer something, we would gladly accept a meal. I’ve been cooking for the two of us on my own for a decade now, so I would love a home-cooked meal to enjoy without having to prepare it myself.”

  “Of course, dear. We’d love to welcome the two of you to our table! Arlor will be out tending to the field, so please relax while I go fetch him. Can I offer you anything to drink while I’m gone? Perhaps some tea?” Arla offered as she motioned towards the kitchen.

  “That’s quite alright, but thank you for the offer. We had an early lunch in the city in preparation for heading out here. I also can’t help but think that tea would relax us a hair too much since we still have some work ahead,” Braden said good-naturedly as he scratched behind Trixy’s ears. Trixy was still draped around Julia. Although awake, she moved with a languid air as midday approached.

  “Can’t argue with that. When Arlor comes in for the day and sits down, I know there’s no hope of getting him out of the house again,” Arla chuckled. “I’ll be back shortly. Please feel free to relax. There’s an outhouse around back and a well on the opposite side of the house, if you need either before I’m back.”

  Julia and Braden nodded and thanked her, and then Arla was out the back door. Julia noted that the house was spotless and organized. Everything seemed to be in its place with not a speck of dust present. Her suspicions of a detail-oriented family seemed to be confirmed. This couple ran a tight ship.

  Trixy began languidly stretching around Julia’s chest, clinging to her shirt as she moved around. This, Julia knew, was the real start to Trixy’s day. The crawling around that was slow and lazy at that moment would ramp up until she was zipping around faster than Julia’s eyes could track. This was one of Julia’s favorite moments of her day, though. While waking up fully, Trixy would be very hungry for attention. Julia was more than happy to oblige.

  While Julia was feeding Trixy all the attention she desperately needed, a man walked in the back door, closely followed by Arla. Arlor, presumably, was a tall man with wide shoulders and a shiny, bald head. He had sun-tanned skin that was soaked in sweat and wore a loose, linen tunic with equally-loose breeches.

  “Howdy, folks. Arla told me bout ya already. ‘Preciate ya comin’ out here. Them voles been drivin’ me up a wall. They’s bad enough chewin’ on m’ crops, but it’ll be real bad come time fer the next round’a plantin.’ Them thieves’ll eat seeds just as well as m’ growin’ crops,” Arlor finished dejectedly.

  “Don’t worry, Arlor. We’ll take care of it. Now, I don’t know if Arla mentioned it, but Julia here is my apprentice, and this is her first job. So, Julia, I’ll let you take things from here. I’ll just offer advice when you want it, or if I think it’s necessary,” Braden finished, motioning to Julia to continue.

  “Uh…ok. Um, Mr. Arlor? Could you tell me what you know about the voles? First of all, they’re called Earth Voles, yes? So, they’re magic beasts, then?” Julia asked with uncertainty. She wasn’t used to even conversing with people, let alone taking charge of a job!

  “Tha’s right. They got some kind’a Earth Magic. Makes ‘em even harder to catch ‘n a normal vole or mouse. Can burrow them tunnels faster‘n you can reach yer hand down after ‘em. Think the Magic makes ‘em eat more, too. They’ll knock a whole stalk down an’ eat it. Jus’ a single one by itself!” he finished animatedly.

  “I see. So, we’ve got voles that eat more than their non-magic counterparts, and they can use magic to both get to your crops and run away from them quickly. Do you know when they tend to be active? Or about how many there are?”

  “Well, I’d be tempted t’ say they’s active at night, but it might jus’ be that they ain’t out there when I am. I ain’t seen but one or two when I’m out there workin.’ Ain’t sure if it’s cause they’s afraid of me, or it’s their natural sleepin’ hours. Terms’a numbers…I ain’t familiar enough with’m t’ be able t’ tell one from another. Must be a’least four or five based on how many I seen runnin’ around at once.”

  Julia pondered for a moment before deciding she needed the whole picture to plan further. She stood up and asked Arlor to show them to the fields. There seemed to be an even mix of wheat and a tuber called klontrup planted. The fields weren’t numerous, but they were impressively large. Julia was shocked that so much was tended to by just this one couple. She must’ve made a face of some kind because Arlor chuckled and spoke up.

  “It ain’t much, but we do what we can. City’ll take bout three quarters of the harvest, though. Well, that’s what it were last year. Who knows what it’ll be now. Seems t’ change every single year. Then we gotta keep what we’re gonna need to live on, but we can sell the rest. Usually, that leaves somethin’ like a tenth of it fer sellin.’”

  Julia was shocked to hear that the city took so much of their harvest. She knew the basics of taxes, but this seemed like robbery. Braden nudged her gently from behind and whispered so that only she would hear, “Focus. We’re here to do a job, not debate the ethics of different tax rates.

  “He’s also already keenly aware of how much the city is taking from him. Telling him about how he’s being taken advantage of won’t be telling him anything that he doesn’t already know.” Julia nodded at the mild correction.

  “Can you show me any of the hills and burrows, assuming they’re still around?” Arlor nodded and led them all around the fields. They saw several little hills and spots where tunnels had collapsed. Julia could imagine how Arlor arrived at his guess to their numbers. There were many hills, but not so many that there would be double-digit numbers of diggers. That might change if they reproduced, though.

  Arlor bid them farewell and headed inside. He’d decided to take the rest of the day off so as not to disturb Julia and Braden while they worked. Julia crouched before a slightly-collapsed burrow with a hand on her chin, thinking. Braden made his way over.

  “Will you think out loud for me, Jules? I’d like to hear your thought process.”

  Julia nodded and stood. “I was thinking about options. I can think of several ways to smoke them out. I mean, I could literally use smoke. Funnel it into the burrows that aren’t collapsed with Wind Magic. I could even shoot fire directly into the burrows. I could shake the ground enough to scare them out. I could do any number of things to get them out, but I don’t know what I can do to corral them once they are out.

  “I have lightning, but that’s obviously tremendous overkill. Plus, it would be horrendously wasteful for mana unless they conveniently decided to cluster together. Fire in a field is a no-go. Actually, that is one of the key issues that I can identify.

  “The best option would be to use a spell to target them all at once, but any spell I might be able to target multiple creatures with would also undoubtedly do damage to the fields. It would defeat the purpose of us being here if I went and destroyed his crops myself.”

  Braden nodded along as she worked through the problem out loud. “Well, those are all great points. I will give you a hint, though. I chose this job for several reasons, but one of them was that you are uniquely suited to this exact job. If you get completely stuck, think about what that could mean.”

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  Julia pondered. She thought the problem through and chewed it over for close to an hour, with Braden occasionally interjecting. Try as she might, she couldn’t think of a way to get them all.

  And that was the main thing. She had to get them all. If even one survived, not only would it continue destroying Arlor’s fields, but it could also be pregnant. She had no idea what a pregnant vole would look like, so as far as she was concerned, any one of them could be.

  She actually felt pretty bad about killing animals. Especially pregnant ones. Voles, though she’d never seen one before, were supposed to be very mouse-like, too. She thought they must be pretty cute. Hopefully she wouldn’t lose her nerve when it came time to do the deed.

  This was just the first step of being an adventurer, though. Not all monsters that harassed people were vile and ugly. Some were cute but destructive nonetheless. She had resolved herself to this when Braden had first broached the apprenticeship idea to her.

  Still, the issue was actually getting them all. Braden had said she was “uniquely suited” to this job. The only thing she could think that was unique to her at this point was her Lightning Magic. She had become increasingly aware that while unlocking it wasn’t uncommon (many people saw lightning during storms and could conceptualize it easily enough), having any kind of competence with it was.

  However, how would lightning solve this issue? Did it have to do with the way Braden often described it as getting “grounded?” She thought he just said that because it would often strike the ground and dissipate. Maybe it was more? Could she…somehow distribute her lightning through the ground?

  Braden, likely observing her mounting frustration, began with an amused tone, “If only there was some way to take the fight directly to them, you know? If only there were…I don’t know…a natural predator nearby that hunted creatures like mice out in the wild and liked to burrow.

  “If only said creature could become invisible and hunt the voles one at a time without them even knowing it was there. Maybe the creature would even grow stronger as it hunted the voles and consumed them. That would really be…honestly that would be the ideal solution here. If only.”

  Julia slapped her hand to her forehead. Of course! Trixy was also something unique to Julia! Ferrets were meat-eaters. Braden had called them “obligate carnivores” before. Julia didn’t pay a great deal of attention then, since Trixy didn’t require food to survive, but now the information rushed back to her.

  She lifted Trixy off the ground from where she was playing, weaving between stalks of wheat like an ambulatory snake. Braden had explained before how to communicate more effectively with a bonded companion. He had used his favorite “thread” analogy. Julia thought about it now, trying to identify the intangible “thread” connecting her to Trixy.

  It felt something like a tugging at the back of her mind. She likened it to if she were to tug on one of the hairs on the back of her head, only less…physical. When she felt it, she began sending images and imagined scenes of Trixy turning invisible, leaping into the burrows, and hunting the voles through the thread.

  Trixy seemed confused at first, but after a few repetitions, she seemed to get it. She actually looked excited by the prospect of hunting. Julia supposed that wasn’t strange since it’s what Trixy would be doing in the wild anyway.

  She dashed out of Julia’s arms and flew like a white streak into the closest burrow. Julia was worried she’d forgotten about the invisibility, but she saw her tail disappear before it was fully into the burrow. Hunting while invisible is also what Trixy would be doing in the wild, so Julia realized she was likely worrying too much.

  Julia and Braden wandered around the field trying to prepare in case any voles came running out. They didn’t want any to escape. None came, though. Eventually, they just resolved to sit down towards the center of the field and wait. It had been a solid hour without any activity that they could see, so they stopped worrying about escapees.

  It took another two-ish hours before Trixy finally emerged from a burrow in one of the tuber fields and came dashing over towards them. She jumped into Julia’s arms and began her usual thing—racing around and around Julia’s torso like if she had a shoulder bag on and spun it around her.

  Julia noted that her fur was quite a bit browner than it was a few hours ago. She hoped it was just dust and dirt. Surprisingly, she started to feel that tugging at the back of her mind. Focusing on it, Julia began receiving images from Trixy.

  They were unorganized, but she thought she recognized what must be voles. There were scenes of Trixy walking right up to them before dispatching them with a quick bite to the neck.

  They were caught completely unaware while Trixy dispatched them one-by-one. There turned out to be seven of them. The images stopped after a few seconds, thankfully absent of any images of Trixy actually feeding on them. Seeing the little things die was more than enough violence and gore for Julia.

  “She did it!” Julia exclaimed as she came out of her memory-sharing reverie. Braden smiled at her and motioned towards the house. They started on their way, and Julia decided to check Trixy’s gains.

  Julia did the mental math and came up with each vole giving Trixy two percent towards her evolution. Hunting fifty equivalent creatures to evolve seemed like a lot to her, but if she thought about it, a wild ferret would likely consume well over fifty in its lifetime. It made sense.

  When they reached the house and informed the couple about the voles, they were both invited to a jubilant dinner. Arla had gone above and beyond with the meal. There was a ham wrapped in bacon (apparently from a neighbor who farms animals) with fresh klontrup from the field. It was cut into cubes and cooked in oil to give it a nice, crispy texture, while the inside was still soft.

  Apparently, they staggered the fields so that both harvesting and planting were nearly year-round activities.

  It was a delicious pairing. Julia thought it was a heavy meal, but considering the labor Arla and Arlor were both doing every day, it seemed to fit.

  When dinner concluded, the couple thanked them profusely and told them to drop by any time they liked, as they were always welcome. Julia followed Braden back towards the city in the evening with a smile on her face and a full belly.

  Trixy had been too full to eat much after the vole hunt, but she did munch on some bacon. She was now lounging on Julia’s neck. Both were full and happy.

  “Regardless of this being a perfect opportunity for Trixy to gain some evolutionary progress, there were many other reasons I chose this specific job,” Braden started as they walked down the road towards the city’s gate.

  It was evening and the road was busy, but they were still far enough away that their conversation could remain private.“The main reason I chose this job is to give you some perspective,” he continued.

  “Perspective?” Julia asked.

  “Yeah. First of all, remember what I said a year-or-so ago? You spend enough time hitting things with a hammer, and eventually everything starts looking like a nail.

  “You’re talented with magic, Jules. A prodigy, even. That’s likely breeding a desire to use it for everything in you, so I wanted to give you the opportunity to think and problem-solve outside of your magic repertoire. The more tools you have in your belt, the more problems you can solve. Magic is just one tool. Granted, it’s a powerful and versatile tool, but it’s just one tool.

  “That’s one of the reasons I chose this job. The most important reason, though, is so that you can see through others’ eyes.

  “Adventurers join the Guild for many different reasons. Power. Fame. Glory. Wealth, or having no other options—any number of reasons exist. What I want you to remember is what the Guild itself exists for. Do you know what that is?” he asked her.

  “Um…the Guild’s purpose is…to…take care of its adventurers?” She answered questioningly. She hadn’t ever thought about it, truthfully. The Guild just…was. She didn’t think about its purpose just like she didn’t think about Striton’s purpose for existing. It just did.

  “That’s one of the Guild’s most important responsibilities, yes, but that’s not the reason it was founded. It was created to help people. Unfortunately, Jules, there are varying levels of competence when it comes to authorities around the world. You heard what Arlor said about his harvests, right? Three-quarters of his harvest is collected by the city.

  “And what does he get for those tributes? It’s not the city that’s out here helping with his fields, is it? It’s us. Adventurers. What’s more, he had to post the job himself, offering whatever compensation he could manage for it. The sad reality is that the job he posted would likely have languished at the Guild. It was low-risk, certainly, but also low reward.

  “The Adventurers Guild exists to help people like them, people who fall through the cracks. I personally would argue that the Adventurers Guild shouldn’t need to exist at all. In my mind, a government’s primary responsibility is to take care of its citizens. If it’s not even doing that, for what purpose does it exist?

  “Reality doesn’t always work out like that, though. And, unless I’m going to overthrow every government on the planet, and then rule the entire planet, there’s no way I can help all those people. So, I’m an adventurer. We are adventures.

  “We do it for fame, gold, glory, and power, yes. All of those things are great, but we do it first and foremost to help people. The Guild, together, can help many of those people, the ones falling through the cracks, far more than you and I individually ever could.

  “I wanted you to meet that lovely couple. I want you to remember, even when you’re Mithril or Adamantine or even Orichalcum, that the jobs you take are posted by real people living their real lives. The things we do have consequences. And, the things we don’t do, also have consequences. If we didn’t take that job, those lovely people would likely have lost their harvests and their livelihood.

  “I know that might seem extreme for seven voles, but those were not ordinary pests. They were monsters—magic beasts. Seven magic beast pests could knock over an entire field in one season, even before considering reproduction or evolution. Arlor and Arla’s fields and livelihood were very much at stake.

  “So, please don’t ever forget that inaction is also an action, and actions speak much louder than words. I’m not saying that the other adventurers don’t all have good reasons to take other jobs and ignore this one, nor am I trying to suggest they’re bad people.

  “I’m not even saying that it’s always going to be possible for the Guild to handle every single request they get. You’ve seen the board and the hundreds of requests posted to it every single day. Sometimes, it just isn’t going to be possible to handle every single request.

  “What I am saying is that you and I, right here, right now, had the time, leeway, and ability to handle this specific job. I know you were initially disappointed that it wasn’t glamorous or exciting, and I don’t blame you.

  “On top of that, it wasn’t rewarding at all from a financial standpoint. However, completing the job likely changed those two wonderful people’s lives for the better. If you remember nothing else about this day, please, remember that.”