18. Boar, Bread, Filler

18. Boar, Bread, Filler

Adam awoke early, staring up at the ceiling. He hopped out of bed, dropped into a deep squat.

“Today. Today I’m killing all the boars.” He leapt up to stretch out his legs and swung around his arms. “All the boars!”

He made his way down, seeing Jurot eating. They exchanged light greetings, with Adam quietly eating breakfast.

“Look at them, going on a quest again,” came the voice of an adventurer.

“Trying to show us up.”

“Too young, too eager.”

Adam ignored them, and Jurot only glanced over in their general way, causing them to quieten.

“How many boars should we slay today?” Adam asked.

“At least four,” Jurot replied.

“Let’s get to it.”

The pair went out, leading the porters to the bakery. “Is it your turn to pay?” Adam asked.

Jurot nodded. “I will pay.”

“Good morning, Jurot, Adam,” Pam said. “Off to work today?”

“We are, we are,” Adam said, glancing to Jurot for a moment.

Jurot motioned to a few pieces of bread, slightly more expensive than typical bread, before heading out with Nobby and the cousins. He didn’t say much to Pam, who waved at them as they left.

‘I need to do something to help,’ Adam thought. With the pair of them barely meeting, only for a few seconds at a time for bread, nothing would happen. ‘What am I to do, what am I do to?’

However, his focus quickly turned to Nobby and the cousins. “How’s your father?” Adam asked.

“Sick,” Nobby replied back simply.

“Then let’s work hard today.” Adam reached over and pat Nobby’s shoulders. He eventually walked over to Jurot. “What do you think? How much are we paying them?”

“You can decide.” Jurot didn’t care too much as long as he made a few gold. With him working so much, he was making enough gold to send back to the Iyr, enough to bring him honour to his family’s name.

“We’ll call it a gold for each head, and if we do get a fourth boar, an additional gold?”

Jurot nodded his head. It was more than a fair price, and since they were aiming to get four boars, it was good to incentivise that.

Jurot led them forward, using his expertise of the past week to find some boars for them to slay. They had become so used to slaying the boars now, that they managed to kill the boars with the assistance of several javelins, then a single moment of Jurot fighting it in close combat.

A third and fourth boar were quickly found and slain, allowing them to return quickly and

Victory!

Boars

+50XP

XP

610 -> 660

Quest Complete

Boar Hunting

XP Gained

+50XP

660 -> 710

Stamps Gained

+1

7 -> 8

Currency Gained

+16GP, 5SP

45GP, 11SP, 14CP -> 61GP, 16SP, 13CP

He noticed that he hadn’t earned as much experience as he should have, though he expected that was to stop him from farming too much from doing the same thing.

‘So you want me to explore life, huh? So what if I want to live my life slaying boars? I’ll slay a million boars!’

Once the porters were paid, they went to eat some jam buns, and Jurot and Adam went to drink to celebrate.

“Boar slaying again tomorrow?” Adam asked.

Jurot nodded. “Yes.”

“Sounds good. We might become the Boar Slayers rather than the Immortal Duo.”

“Then we will become the Boar Slayers,” Jurot said.

“Doesn’t sound very exciting.”

“You can slay a thousand boars, and they will call us Boar Slayers. You slay one dragon, and they will call us Dragon Slayers.”

The air was tense and thick still, as the lumberjacks reached for the buns, dropping down their hard earned coins, and slowly slipped away.

Adam followed them as they stepped past, his gaze following them through his helmet, a faceless nightmare. When they lumberjacks disappeared, Adam snapped his head back to Pam. “That was hilarious,” he said.

“Yes?”

Adam laughed, finding the discomfort of the lumberjacks hilarious. He understood why they were wary, coming face to face with a heavily armoured adventurer and an Iyrman. His words had been troublesome for them, but that didn’t matter to him. They had come here first after a hard day at work, and their jam buns were going to be stolen by a pair of adventurers?

“You have to take care of the common man,” Adam said. “So the common man takes care of you.”

“Even though they’d overcharge you when they work with you?”

“...”

Pam smiled nervously. “So what do you want today?” She still wasn’t so sure about Adam. He was weird, even though that should have been the case as a faceless armoured adventurer, he was weirder than that.

“We’ll go with whatever desserts you have on offer. I’ll order six.”

“Coming right up,” she said. She brought six wild berry tarts. “That’s three silver.”

Currency

15SP -> 11SP

“A tip,” he said, taking five of the tarts. “You can have the last one.”

“Oh, uh, are you sure?” she asked.

“Jurot, why don’t you-“ Adam turned to see Jurot having scarfed down the tart already. “...”

Jurot swallowed the tart, taking a sip from his water skin. “Yes?”

“...” Adam blinked at Jurot. “Nothing. Nevermind.” The half elf sighed. “It was a pleasure seeing you. We might be leaving tomorrow or the day after, so we won’t be back for some time.”

“Why don’t you order some bread since you’ll be gone for too long and you’ll miss it?” Pam quickly said, adopting her business smile.

“You’re right,” Adam said, placing down a gold coin. “A bread basket, then, since we might not be back for a while.”

Currency

76GP -> 75GP

Pam smiled and quickly disappeared away around back.

“You should have ate a little slower,” Adam said, glancing at Jurot. “You could have spent time with Pam.”

Jurot squinted his eyes, thinking about what Adam had said. “Yes,” he replied back simply.

Adam shook his head, but smiled. “Next time, alright?” He pat Jurot’s back.

‘Does he know?’ Jurot thought. After a long moment, he narrowed his eyes. ‘It must be his elven eyes.’

Pam returned with a giant basket of bread, the smell of the freshly baked goods filling the air with a deeper, richer smell.

Adam nodded his head, picking up the basket. “See you around,” he said, nudging Jurot with his elbow as he walked out.

Jurot threw a glance back towards her. “Good bye,” he said.

“Good bye, Jurot. Come back soon.” Pam flashed the winning smile of a baker.

Jurot’s heart disarmed as he took a mighty blow deep inside, before he quickly turned and followed Adam away. It was rare to see an Iyrman flee.

“We’ve brought tarts,” Adam said, sharing out the desserts to all the men. “Here.” Adam held out the basket to Remy. “Share the bread amongst yourselves.”

“Thank you,” Remy said, accepting the basket. Adam was a queer one, in all the right ways. He had begun to accept Adam for his peculiarity, though had been worried when he saw the looks of the lumberjacks who had stepped out.

“Nobby, take good care of your father, alright?” Adam pat the large teen’s shoulder gently. “Once we’re back, we’ll probably be needing a strong young man like you, and we’ll be paying good coin for it.”

“Okay, yes,” Nobby said, nodding his head.

Adam chuckled. “Then, we’ll be seeing you.” Adam waved at the porters as he withdrew, returning back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Jurot followed Adam back, staring at the half elf’s back. ‘...’ Even now, Jurot wasn’t sure why Adam wanted to head to the Iyr. Yet, every man has his secrets, human or otherwise.

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Literally a filler chapter!

Or is it?