The next day was pretty uneventful. They took their two requests but took them slow. The party wanted to try out their new items. Stephanie’s Weapon Ring was extremely easy to use. She was able to switch between the three weapons within it seamlessly. Griff loved his new leg armor. The tentacle it had gave him an extra ten feet for any of his kicks. He was able to cause cuts with the small barbs along it or grab an enemy and drag it closer. It gave him a few new attacks for his repertoire.
Fergus used his Arrow Dagger whenever something got close. He was able to coat it with wind using his gust shot skill and could cause serious damage with each attack. Gaia didn’t have a reason to use her new skill yet but during most of the bigger fights they’d had her bonds had taken a few injuries. None that were worrying but almost all of them had some deep cuts.
The party got some good use out of their new items during the requests since they were both for groups of monsters. One was a group of mushroom monsters called Shroommen, which were three-foot-tall humanoid mushrooms. These were easily dealt with by Stephanie and Fergus. Griff and Gaia stayed back while the two killed them first with their bow and musket then their hammer and dagger. It took them a bit longer than the request usually would since they were focusing on using the new items.
The second request was for a group of Chrocamorphs. These were chameleon monsters that could change more than just their color. If they killed a creature, they could change parts of their body to become parts of these creatures. This did not affect their natural camouflaging ability. These were some of the more annoying stone rank monsters since they were extremely hard to detect before they attacked.
Luckily for the party, Gaia could sense them within her Mana Field. They were the usual small flame with heat radiating out so she could sense the shape of its body. Sadly her mana still passed through the ground and plant life around her since the ambient mana was still quite thin. She still needed to use her webs to feel the terrain around her but they only went out about thirty feet. Considering she could sense them around fifteen feet off the ground she assumed they were up a tree.
When they got close enough to the monster for it to attack they were ready for it. It shot a spike from its tail that sailed towards Griff who easily dodged. The monster scrambled down the tree before its tail changed into some kind of stinger while it grew wings and its front legs turned into something else Gaia couldn’t make out. Griff swung his leg out and one of the tentacles stretched out and wrapped around the monster. He pulled it closer while Gaia used her vines to bleed them more.
Griff’s new leg armor was nice as it gave him the ability to grapple monsters and pull them closer while also bleeding them. This gave him an attack that caused a condition while also allowing for him to control parts of the fight. The condition he dealt also stacked with one Gaia could deal making her condition deal more damage from the get-go.
The monster died from the onslaught of Griff’s strikes and Gaia’s poison and bleeding. They moved on and took out four more that weren’t very far from the first. These were killed just as quickly but Gaia had Antonio and Liv kill the last one with Shadow and Malachite protecting them. Antonio and Liv got hit a few times from a projectile it could shoot from it’s front legs.
Gaia tried her new skill after the fight was over. Her bonds weren’t injured greatly but had a few gashes and cuts from what she was told through their bond. The skill worked immediately after she tried activating it. She could feel something being pulled through their bond while something else was pushed towards her bonds. When the injuries finished passing through their bond she felt the pain of cuts and gashes from different parts of her body.
From what they told her the location of the injuries were the same as they were on her bonds. They were a bit painful but nothing like the pain she got from being injured herself as it also effected her spirit. The group started towards the city after everyone made sure she was alright. They all rode on Malachite’s shell after he grew to his current full size. It only took about half an hour for the wounds she’d taken from her bonds to completely heal. It would have taken them at least twice that for them to heal. She was glad that any of the injuries she took from them would heal twice as fast as usual. She did wonder how it would work if, gods forbid, a limb was gone but she wasn’t hoping to find out any time soon, if ever. They came upon the gates of Boundary about an hour after killing the last of the Chorcamorphs.
They collected their reward for the requests from the League before heading back to the inn for the night. The next day they decided to take a break. The party went about their own business with Gaia going to search the shops with Stephanie and her bonds. They were scattered over her body. Liv chilled on her head while Antonio and Malachite, in his small form, claimed her shoulders. Shadow was walking right beside the two while getting occasional pats from the pair. She had heard about a magic item from her gardening teacher during the training camp. She hadn’t thought about it since he’d told her as she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to afford it.
The item was a portable garden. It was similar to Stephanie’s own portable forge but was larger and was filled with fertile soil. From how Gregor had described it, it was similar to the first portal she’d gone through just on a smaller scale. Stephanie was helping her look through the shops for one but they hadn’t had any luck. They looked through almost every shop throughout their trip which had started just as places started opening. Now it was almost five or six hours later and they still hadn’t found one.
Gaia hadn’t held out a whole lot of hope in finding one since they were difficult to make and usually extremely expensive. Most of the portable gardens were bought by higher rank alchemists so they could grow their own herbs and ingredients while they traveled. They stopped by Esbert’s Extraordinary Equipment last. It didn’t take him long to welcome them.
“Ah Gaia and Stephanie! It’s good to see you two again. Is it just you two today?” Esbert asked cheerily.
“Yeah. Just us today. We’ve been looking around the shops all day and haven’t found what we were looking for yet. We hoped you might have it.” Gaia replied.
“Ah. Alrighty, what is it you’re looking for?”
“We’re looking for a portable garden. I know they’re pretty rare and expensive but was hoping to find one. I mainly want it for personal use which I know is a bit odd.” Gaia said.
“I’m sad to disappoint but I don’t have one either. I’ll keep an eye out for one though. If you just want one with a small single field I may be able to get one custom made. It’ll take at least a few days for it to be made though. I just need to know how big you want it to be.” Esbert replied.
“That would be wonderful. I don’t have a whole lot though. I would probably need an estimate on how much it would be.” Gaia stated.
They went through the details of what she wanted. The main points were a field about thirty feet square and had a high concentration of mana inside so she could somewhat see everything. The cost of it would be extreme from what Esbert explained so she decided to scrap the idea for a while longer. The base cost would be at least fifty bronze cores since it would be a magic item that creates a pocket dimension.
She knew that it was a long shot but figured it was worth finding out. They went back to the inn empty handed after their unsuccessful shopping trip. When they walked in they found Fergus and Griff at one of the tables having a debate. From what Gaia could hear before they noticed them it was about some request the party had been allotted. The two hadn’t taken it but went to check the requests from the League.
Gaia and Stephanie sat down at their table and got some fruit juice. This one was different than any Gaia had had before. It smelled oddly sour like a lime or lemon would but when she took a sip it was extremely sweet with a tinge of sourness to round it out. She really liked it and wanted to find out the fruit or fruits it came from. Her thoughts were interrupted when the others called her name.
“What? Sorry I was thinking about something. What did I miss?” She asked.
“We were talking about the commission Fergus and I read through when we went to the League earlier.” Griff replied.
“What about it? What kind is it?”
“It’s a commission that includes escort into subjugation.” Fergus started before taking a large swig from his drink. “We would escort the group to the location then help them with whatever it is they’re doing there.” He finished.
“That’s a bit weird but what caused you two to debate about it?” She asked.
“It would take us pretty deep into the Shimmering Forest. Deep enough that a bronze rank party will be going as well, possibly even one that has an iron rank in it. The actual commission isn’t for another month but it was allotted so far ahead so we could take it and get to know the people going. The length is for a month as well.” It’s an odd request that would normally be denied since there’s the Mana Torrent.” Griff explained.
“I’m guessing you two were debating whether to take it or not then?” Stephanie asked.
“Yep. I’m for it while Griff’s against it. I understand why, but the group would consist of at least two more stone rank parties and likely two bronze rank parties as well. We also have the choice to meet the other groups before fully accepting it. I figured we could meet the other hunters and the people we’ll be going with before writing it off. It would also allow us to fight some higher level monsters since our leveling speed has dropped a lot recently.” Fergus explained.
Gaia and Stephanie thought about it for a bit before speaking their piece. “I’m fine with meeting them at least.” Gaia stated.
“Same for me.” Stephanie added.
“I’ll agree, as long as we still hold off on the final decision until we all discuss it afterwards.” Griff stated.
“Then let’s let Freya know we want to meet with the requester and the other teams before fully taking the request.” Stephanie finished.
Griff ran to the League to let them know and they had a time for them to meet the requesters in two days at noon. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and the group agreed to take a few weeks to relax. They would take requests at least six days a week and use the last three to relax and do whatever they wanted. The next day they took their usual two requests and returned to the city a few hours past noon. Gaia convinced Fergus to go shopping with her. She wanted to find some seeds she could plant since she had convinced the inn keeper to let her use a small section of the yard to garden. He was reluctant but said she’d give him anything she ended up growing. She just wanted to grow something.
Fergus was happy to go with her. It was the first time she’d asked him to go shopping with her with just the two of them. The fact it was for seeds was something he’d never expected since she’d never said anything about wanting to garden. That may have been because they’d been hunting almost every single day since they’d met. The only breaks from it had been when she had gotten injured or he had gotten hurt himself.
He was happy to learn more about her and help with shopping. That outlook was great until they’d been at a stall for almost three hours while she asked every question she could think of to the operator who happily answered every question she asked. He pretty much stood there listening and learning more than he had ever wanted to know about the seeds the stall had.
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The look on Gaia’s face after they’d bought a few seeds had made his suffering worth it. She had an extremely adorable smile on her face as she held the bag with her seeds to her chest. He was holding all of the equipment she needed to plant and harvest the crops which was more than he had expected but they got to the inn after a quick walk. Gaia immediately went to the back and started to work in the area she’d been allotted to garden.
Fergus ran to follow so she could have the equipment she needed. He dropped them where she stopped and she thanked him before she was once again wrapped up in her plans of what to plant. He watched for a bit before realizing she was so absorbed in her gardening that she didn’t know he was still there. The seeds she had gotten were for a variety of fruits and vegetables.
These were called Sweet Sprouts, Greenberries, Blissfruit, and Sugarweed. The sweet sprouts were similar to Brussel sprouts but were naturally sweet. Green berries were similar to blueberries in texture and size but were sour like lemons. Blissfruit was similar in shape to an apple but smelled sour while being extremely sweet. These were also an oddity as they apparently grew on bushes. Sugarweed was similar to lettuce aside from the fact that it smelled sickeningly sweet while being leafy in taste.
These were the first four crops Gaia wanted to grow. She started by using a spade to break up the sod then a hoe to to break up the soil before having Malachite make a few rows using his webbed feet and telekinesis when he needed to move any stones. After he made the rows, Gaia proceeded to have him help her sow the seeds. This was time consuming as he used his head to show her where to plant after she explained the distances.
After this she covered the seeds with a little bit of soil and got malachite to create some water shots and he dropped his concentration on them. This allowed the water to fall into a watering can she’d bought which she then watered the seeds with. After this she pushed out her Mana Field and tried to see if she could keep her poison from effecting the seeds while casting some growth magic. She didn’t know if it worked but she figured she’d find out within the week. If the growth magic worked the crops should be sprouting in the next couple days. She walked back into the inn where her party was waiting. They all laughed a bit when she entered.
“What?” She asked.
“You’re covered in dirt. It just wasn’t something we figured we’d see.” Stephanie replied.
“Gardening is a dirty hobby. I bet y’all will like everything if it grows though.” Gaia stated.
“I bet we will. Now we just need to wait for them to grow, right?” Griff asked.
“Yep. I just need to water them a few times a day and use some growth magic once a day. I hope my poison mana doesn’t effect that though. Then pluck the weeds which I might need Antonio’s help with. I figure he might be the best for the job.” Gaia replied.
“Alright. Sounds good. I’m looking forward to seeing what you grow.” Fergus stated.
“Shall we get some dinner? We have the meeting with the requester tomorrow.” Griff stated.
Gaia nodded and they all went to get food. The meeting the next day was at the League where someone would guide them to the meeting point. They were all excited and nervous about meeting the requester and the other parties going on the request. They still had the option to back out after the meeting but didn’t know how the other parties would take it. The request didn’t have a time limit to it so they could be out there for a week or a month they didn’t know. This all caused them to worry but sleep came like usual.
The next morning, they had breakfast, and Gaia went to tend to her garden. After that the party made their way to the League. They got there around ten and just sat in the tavern area for an hour before someone came up and spoke to them.
“Are you all the party that wanted to meet with the requester for the escort commission?” The man asked.
“Yes, we are. Are you our guide to meet them?” Griff asked.
“Yes. I am Drint. I will guide you to the Journeyman Guild’s building. The guild master is the requester. I know it’s a bit earlier than planned but the guild master wanted me to bring you whenever you were ready.” Drint explained.
“We’re ready when you are.” Stephanie stated.
“If you‘ll follow me then.” Drint finished.
The party rose and followed Drint out of the League. They stopped for a moment to allow Gaia and Stephanie to climb on Malachite’s shell before setting off. They were glad they did since Drint was a fast man. Fergus and Griff had trouble keeping up with him. He didn’t mean to be so quick and after a few minutes he slowed down after seeing them a bit behind him.
“Sorry. I forget how fast I go sometimes. I’m usually a courier for the Guild so I have to be quick to relay the messages when they’re required.” Drint explained.
“It’s alright. We just weren’t expecting to go so quickly. Thanks for slowing down for us though.” Fergus replied.
The group continued to the Guild’s building which was somewhere in the southern section of the city. They arrived about thirty minutes after leaving the League. From her party’s reaction she guessed the building was beautiful. She could smell flowers and food drifting out towards them, all of which smelled delightful. Drint led them through what she guessed was likely a courtyard, from the stone tiled floor, into a large hall. She could hear their footsteps echo through a large space as they passed through and were brought to a room where they were asked to wait for a bit and asked if they would like anything.
Gaia had brought all of her bonds into their tattoos to save some space, and she wasn’t sure how everyone else would respond to a group of stone rank creatures. A few minutes after Drint left she heard a couple people walk in and place something on the table in the middle of the room. She caught the scent of sweets after the people left. When she probed the table she felt some pastries on the table. She grabbed one and happily bit into it. It was wonderful. It was similar to a turnover but had some kind of sweet that was leafy, instead of fruit.
They waited for about half an hour and were brought water along with other refreshments until Drint returned. He brought them to a large room where they heard a multitude of voices. He walked up to the door and knocked. A moment later it went quiet and a muffled voice said to enter. Drint did so before speaking.
“Esteemed hunters. The guild master and other hunters are ready for you.” Drint stated.
Fergus took Gaia’s hand and led her inside the room where she could feel a multitude of gazes on her. They sat in a group of chairs at a table that was about ten feet into the room. As soon as they sat a woman spoke from the opposite side of the room.
“It’s nice to meet you. I am Delilah the Guild master of the Journeyman Guild. You wanted to meet with us before accepting the commission, correct?” The woman stated in a stern voice.
“Yes. We did. It’s an odd request considering what’s going on and we wanted to get as much information as possible before accepting.” Griff replied as his voice wavered slightly.
“Understandable. The commission is for an escort and protection while we explore a newly discovered ruin in the Shimmering Forest. It’s more dangerous with the Mana Torrent occurring but the League allowed it due to the possibility of discovering an artifact that could help with defending the city. The guild members that will be going can defend themselves to a point but the support personnel can’t defend against a high level stone or bronze rank monster. Hence, why we’re commissioning stone and bronze rank parties to join us.” Delilah explained.
“What exactly will be our duties?” Stephanie asked.
“You will mainly be there to guard the caravan during the transportation and then the main camp outside of the ruins. You will be paid extra if you decide to enter the ruins to help with the exploration as long as it is not your assigned time to guard the camp. There will be a flat payment of ten stone cores per day along with free food. Lodging will be cheap if you want to stay in the inn that was built but free if you want to make a small camp within the walls. There will always be one bronze rank party active at the camp in case of an attack. I will be there myself to help in case of an iron rank monster.” She added.
“Sounds reasonable. I’m guessing everyone else here compose the parties joining the commission?” Fergus asked.
“Yes. If you have anymore questions for me feel free to ask Drint and he will find me. Otherwise, I’ll let you all talk to each other.” The Guild master stated before standing and leaving. Silence prevailed for an awkward minute after the Guild master left. It was broken by a few familiar voices.
“I see you guys were given the commission.” John stated in his usual gravelly voice.
“Well, if you guys are planning on going I’m guessing it’ll be quite interesting.” Douglas stated a moment later.
Gaia heard someone walking over towards them and stopping behind her chair. “There’s the Legion and Flora as the two bronze rank parties. The other stone rank parties are here as well. There are a total of five other stone rank parties here. Shall we all introduce ourselves?” Titania asked.
“As everyone probably knows I’m Titania leader of the bronze rank party Flora. John is the big Tigren Barbarian, Francois is the muscular Martial Artist, and Jess is our Wizard.” Titania introduced.
The hunters went around the room introducing themselves or their party until it was just Gaia’s party left. “Well, I’m Griff a Magic Martial Artist, Stephanie is our Smith with the full metal armor, Fergus is the tall Bowman, and Gaia is our Tamer.” Griff explained.
“ If everyone doesn’t mind can I bring out my bonds to introduce?” Gaia asked. After a few moments Fergus whispered they all agreed.
Gaia let her bonds out of their tattoo’s one at a time. As they appeared she had them grow to their usual size or wait where they appeared so everyone could see them. She introduced them as they appeared and she could hear some people tensing or reaching for a weapon. They were quickly stopped by the parties that had seen them before, thankfully.
The room was quiet for a while after that as the parties came to terms with the fact these creatures were allies not monsters. They were all able to come to terms with it though and the entire group started asking questions of each other. The bronze rank parties kept everything on track so it didn’t descend into chaos. Gaia and her party learned a lot about the other parties.
They were starting to believe they could trust some of the parties to watch their backs if they agreed to the commission. None had asked if they’d officially decided to take it and just acted as if they had so no one would feel awkward. The party was thankful for that since they still hadn’t technically agreed to it yet. The meeting lasted for another hour before the hunters started to filter out of the room. When it was just Flora, the Legion, and Gaia’s party they all relaxed.
“Are you guys planning on taking the commission?” Douglas asked the party.
“I’m not sure. We’ll discuss it after we get back to the inn for the night and will likely have our decision by tomorrow morning.” Fergus replied.
“Fair enough. Would rather you guys be certain you want to join than decide hastily and then be forced to follow through.” Francois stated.
“If you do, we’re all here for y’all. Just be prepared for a long commission if you do.” Fern stated.
“Will do. Thanks.” Griff replied before the party got up and left. They returned to their inn and sat down to discuss what they wanted to do.
“How do we want to start?” Griff asked.
“Shall we start with what we’ve learned first?” Gaia asked.
“It seems to be well planned.” Fergus started.
“We’d have two bronze rank parties we know pretty well too.” Stephanie added.
“The other stone rank parties seemed strong and reliable.” Griff said.
“The Guild master will be there in case of an iron ranked monster and daily pay for each of us.” Gaia finished.
“A lot of pros for accepting while the main cons are the unknown dangers. Shall we go ahead and decide then?” Griff asked.
“I think so.” Fergus added.
“Then, those that want to accept say aye.” Griff stated.
“Aye.” All of them stated together.
“I think it’s decided then. My main worries were alleviated finding out we know both the bronze rank parties. I’ll let the League know in the morning that we’ve accepted it.” Griff finished.
“Then let’s relax for the rest of the day and plan to take requests like we planned. The last week before the commission starts, I say we don’t take any requests and relax while preparing.” Stephanie suggested.
“Sounds good to me.” Gaia replied.
“Same.” Fergus added before the party split off to do what they wanted until dinner.
Gaia went back to tending her small garden. Stephanie went into her portable forge and worked on her weapons. Fergus trained with Griff for a while before splitting up. Griff went to the library to research some sorcery while Fergus went over and tried to help Gaia. He mostly ended up just watching her work since she was focused and didn’t notice him. Her bonds helped her or were playing around in the area nearby.
Dinnertime came much quicker than any of them were expecting and they all met back up. After eating, they retired to their room to tell more stories until they went to bed. The next morning, they ate breakfast before heading to the League. They relayed their acceptance to Freya before taking their allotted requests for the day and heading out as usual. The two requests were done quickly as they were basic subjugation requests. They had been dealing with monsters close to their level recently without any issues. The League, however, wouldn’t give them any requests for monsters of a higher level since there just weren’t that many to begin with. The Mana Torrent was still going but there hadn’t been any significant increases in high stone rank monsters since the stampede.
The party was frustrated, but couldn’t do anything about it. They were just not going to level up anytime soon which they’d started to come to terms with. It had been taking longer and longer to level up as theirs rose. The last level up was the dungeon boss. They just had to deal with it until the commission at the earliest. Then they might come across stronger monsters or at least have to fight more monsters than they currently were with the restrictions from the League.
