Chapter 161.2: Work

Chapter 161.2: Work

A job board, organized by difficulty. Thankfully, due to the organization, the thing was pretty easy to find jobs within our range, despite how absolutely full it was. Most of the jobs seemed new, too, not like they’d been sitting around for forever—a testament to just how full of adventurers this town really seemed to be.

“Okay,” I said, “we just need to find something quick to finish, so we can get money by tonight.”

“Monster elimination would probably be best, then. Nothing else that quick would pay well.”

“So, monster elimination, monster elimination...” I scanned over the board, looking for decent jobs. I could certainly find some that seemed safe and quick, but there was one problem. “How much is an eyt worth?”

“Yeah, pretty tough to figure out what to do when we have no idea what it actually pays.”

I looked over at the receptionist by the desk. “You think they could be of any help?”

We walked over to the front desk, keeping to the walls so as to not be forced to push through the crowd. The woman sitting there looked up when she saw us approach, her eyebrows rising when she saw our appearances, but she said nothing.

“Hey,” I said when we got to her, “do you have, like, an inn? Can we pay you money for rooms?”

She chuckled politely. “Yes, of course. Six hundred eyt for a night in a one-bed.”

I nodded. “Alright. And when we complete a job, we can get the reward immediately, correct?”

“Yes, just come to me with proof of completion, ideally. If you don’t have any, it’ll probably take a little longer to ensure you actually did it.” I saw her eyes glance over us—again, understandably, given my armor and Erani’s shadowy state. However, I noticed her eyes lingering on one spot in particular.

Erani coughed awkwardly as she, too, noticed the receptionist staring straight at her missing arm. The woman blinked and looked back up at us, obviously unsure whether to apologize verbally or just move on in the conversation.

I just wrapped my arm around Erani and pulled her close to me, so that her left arm was wedged between our bodies—unable to be attacked by wandering eyes. I was sure the receptionist didn’t mean harm, but still. “Got it. So, like, for an elimination job, we can just bring heads or something, right?”

Her eyes widened, looking at me like I’d said something wrong. What had I done? Hesitantly, she spoke, “...No, bringing a sack of bleeding monster heads into the guild lobby would probably not be a good idea. Perhaps something else? Teeth or horns, for instance, would work just fine.”

“Oh. Sure.”

“Are you looking for a job you can do to get a room for tonight?”

“Yeah, ideally something we can do fast. And I guess something that pays at least, like, two thousand, or something. With the room and then food and stuff, that’d get us this night and tomorrow, maybe. I mean, ideally we’d end up getting enough for a change of clothes, too, so maybe closer to three thousand. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

“Hm,” she frowned. “Finding something that pays that well would probably be quite difficult, in these parts. Lots of adventurers—lots of competition.”

“Yeah, but we’re two silver-degrees,” I gestured to Erani and myself. “Getting enough money for a few nights in an inn shouldn’t be much of an issue at all, even given the competition, right?”

She sighed and shook her head. “You won’t get any takers like that, but sure. I’ll just put down what I already know about you two.”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

She nodded. “Well, if that’s all you need, there’s kind of a line, so...”

I looked back and saw a group of people impatiently waiting on us. “Oh, right. Yeah. Sorry. We’ll get out of your way.”

With that, we hurriedly walked off.

“Gods,” I muttered to Erani, “I’ve gotta get used to all of this again. Feels so weird to just be...back.”

“You and me both,” she nodded. “Maybe it's the looks I’m getting from everyone because of Distortion Strike, but I feel so on-edge around all these people. Can’t keep them all in my vision at the same time.”

“Yeah, well. Guess we’re just gonna have to tough it out.”

“At least we can get back out of the walls now. I’m worried about Ainash.”

“Yeah, it’s only been, what, half an hour? Not even that? But I still feel uneasy not having her with us.”

“Well let's head out, then. If we’re only getting thirty eyt per Gloomspur killed, then it’ll take a good bit of killing to get a night’s rest.”

“Yeah,” I shook my head. “Twenty killed monsters for a single room feels criminal.”

She laughed. “Maybe turning to a life of crime wasn’t so bad an idea.”

“We should probably try to at least wait one day before we resort to that, I think.”

“Perhaps.”

“Okay, well let’s get out of here. It’s stuffy and loud. I want to hurry up and get back in our element. Killing shit in the middle of nowhere.”

“Y’know, when you put it like that, it kind of makes me worried about us.”

“Nah. Not a bad thing to have a set of skills.”

“A set of skills,” Erani laughed again. “I guess you could call it that.”