Asher wasn't disappointed in the pay at E rank in the slightest. On top of that, he could take jobs off the board in the room rather than going to the secretary directly. Even still, there weren't very many E rank jobs that Asher could perform on his own.
Asher had immediately bought a steel sword with the coin from the job with the coyotes. He had kept his iron sword as a backup. The pay for his latest job had just barely been enough for a decent steel sword. Now he had to work towards armor.
If he worked hard enough, he figured he might be able to make D class in another year or so.
Asher stared at the board, hoping to find something at E rank that was easy enough for him to do solo. He had already talked to the secretary about doing F rank jobs solo. He was about the only one who had been doing it all along, so the secretary didn't mind him taking any solo F rank jobs, as long as Asher didn't take any of the group tasks.
Asher was about to walk away from the board when one solo mission caught his eye. There was a single goblin caught in someone's basement. The payout was low for an E rank at 25 bronze, but it still trumped an F rank payout.
Asher snatched the paper and told the secretary he'd be dealing with the goblin. The secretary nodded and replied, "I don't know why no one has taken that one until now. I guess they figured it just wasn't worth their time."
Asher smirked. "It's worth my time, it's still more coin than I'm used to." He thought back to when he stole for a living. Gold was easy to come by. It was also easy to lose as he would pay off bounties from neighboring provinces just as quickly as he would attain coin.
If Asher could make D rank at least, silver was definitely an option for jobs. His average payout had increased four times over due to his promotion from F to E rank.
Asher still noticed a theme in the jobs for E rank. They were usually still pest control on average, just a higher level. There were more wolves to deal with or wild boars, things of that nature. There were also a lot more group missions.
As Asher was about to leave, the secretary told him, "Be careful with this one. Goblins aren't very strong, but they are crafty beasts. They usually ambush or overwhelm with numbers."
"I will," Asher replied. "You don't have to worry about me."
With that said, Asher left to do his job. It was roughly in the middle of town. Asher wondered to himself how a goblin could have ended up in such a populated area without being seen. It didn't make sense to him.
The house that had posted the job seemed to be abandoned due to the tenant living downstairs from them. Between that and the fact that no one else in the guild seemed interested in taking the job, they had left.
"Why did no one else take this job, I wonder," Asher muttered to himself. Perhaps they had the same suspicions as Asher himself.
"It can't just be one goblin stopping them from this. The job should have only taken twenty minutes tops. Easy money for one goblin."
As he mused that point, he heard scuffling downstairs. His attention darted to the doorway towards the basement. He drew his sword and cautiously walked down the stairs.
He unlatched the door to check through the crack and found not just one, but three goblins in a group conversing in a language he didn't understand.
He had fleeting thoughts to get help for the job. Once he thought of the coin he would get once he told the secretary about this development, he dismissed that line of thinking. He figured if he caught them off guard, he might be able to take two of them before they could respond.
Asher rushed into the room, drawing his iron sword from his back and slashed the two blades in an X shape, killing two of the goblins instantly. As quickly as he had killed the first two, he winded up and plunged his steel sword into the third one's heart.
As soon as the adrenaline died down, Asher noticed something. He had a warm sensation, almost electric running through his body. It was almost euphoric for him.
It surged throughout his body, pulsing until it finally stopped. "Am I hallucinating?" he asked himself. He had never felt that way before. He figured it was likely the adrenaline making him feel that way and shrugged.
Per the usual, he collected trophies from his kills to confirm the job was done. He dropped them off with the secretary who looked astonished. "There were three!?"
"Yes, I took care of them."
"Whoever scouted this job is going to be in a lot of trouble when I get my hands on them. I'm giving you a hundred bronze for a job well done, Asher. And I'll give you a bonus of fifty coins from my personal stash for taking the initiative to deal with it yourself."
Asher greedily took every coin he could until he thought about his rank. He needed armor for his rank. "How much is it for a leather cuirass?"
"You just barely don't have enough," the secretary stated. Asher looked disappointed and the secretary whispered to him, "I'll help you out just this once and cover the rest of the cost. I don't do this for just anyone."
Asher smiled. "What is your name anyway? You never did tell me."
"Colin."
"I appreciate it Colin. I'm going to recheck that house before I go on another job. I have a bad feeling about what happened there."
"I appreciate that. I don't like the idea of a job being left half finished," the secretary replied with a kind smile.
Asher left after that, making his way back to the house. It still had an ominous look to it. The place was still abandoned as the guild hadn't contacted the owners yet to let them know it was safe to return.
Asher felt goosebumps on the back of his neck as soon as he walked through the doors. The air was colder than usual. He snuck through the house, making virtually no sound as he crept along. Years of being a thief were coming into play.
He went down to the basement to find even more goblins. There were at least five of them now. Asher figured there must be a tunnel underneath the city directly into the house. The green skinned, pointed ear humanoids had a penchant for tunneling for miles almost mindlessly.
This wasn't the first time there had been a goblin infestation, but there were more and more goblins arriving. Asher knew he wasn't enough on his own to defeat an entire goblin tribe.
He was about to leave as he heard one of the pig faced creatures grunt. He looked back to see it had locked eyes with him. It grabbed the short spear in its hands and hurled it at him.
Asher ducked down and drew his sword in one smooth motion. The unarmed goblin rushed Asher and he thrust his sword in between its eyes with a burst of blood flying towards him.
As soon as Asher recovered his blade, he drew the iron one from his back and hurled it into one of the goblin's chest, launching the beast farther into the room.
Asher deflected a spear and slashed across one of the monster's throats and proceeded to stab another in the chest. His sword got stuck and he grabbed the short spear off the goblin below him and stabbed it through the last one's head.
Just like the last time he fought the goblins, he felt a warm sensation pulsing through his body. He felt energized and refreshed when it was all over. Unlike the last time he fought against a large group, he wasn't completely exhausted from the fight. He was still out of breath, but he didn't have sweat rolling down his back like before.
"Curious," he remarked off handedly. Now that the goblins had been taken care of, he retrieved his weapons and as he pulled the iron sword out of the goblin he had flung it into, he found the tunnel. He had almost launched the goblin straight back through the tunnel.
The tunnel stood about four feet tall, so short that Asher would have to remain crouched the entire time if he were to wander down the path. "I'm too tall to even attempt this," he muttered under his breath.
He figured the best thing he could do would be to contact the guild and have them attempt to find the nest so they could send a team to exterminate them.
He left as quickly as he could to inform Colin about the issue he had found. As soon as he got back to the guild, he shared what he had discovered and Colin considered it a rank D job. Since Asher had been the one to discover the infestation, the guild made a special exception and allowed him to join the team.
Asher could feel his heart thumping excitedly, thinking about the money to be made. If he was already making almost a hundred bronze on average per job at rank E, he wondered how much it would be for a dangerous rank D job. One that required a party, no less.
He made a special request for the woman he had met on the coyote hunt to be included, Leah. He felt as though with her skill with a blade, she would be a worthwhile party member to be included.
As they waited for a scout to find the origin of the tunnels, Leah asked him, "Why did you ask for me, personally?"
"I like your skill. That, and the fact that we were both involved in that hunt. I feel we both have a lot to gain from working together," Asher explained.
As soon as he finished speaking, the guild secretary, Colin, came in and told them the scouts had found the nest. The scouts led them out of the city and above a grassy hillside where they caught sight of the village.
Leah was the first to speak, "There's almost a hundred of them."
Asher responded, "That's why there are so many of us."
Leah nodded and took note of the ten people around her, including Asher. They had gathered a group to deal with the village as a high level threat to the city since they were tunneling in.
The guild wasn't going to play around with something this serious. They had forced a couple of members into the expedition, where as Asher had volunteered and brought up Leah's name in order for them to both benefit from a rank D quest. Leah of course hadn't refused the opportunity to make more money.
"When do we start?" Asher asked the leader of the group.
"At noon. They're usually nocturnal, so most of them will be asleep around that time. That's when we'll strike, when they're most vulnerable."
Asher agreed with the plan as it was the least risky. Obviously the leader of the group knew these creatures well. He knew their habits and routines well enough to confidently form an attack.
They waited until noon, per the leader's request. As soon as they saw that most of the creatures had gone to sleep, the sneakiest ones of the group went in first. Asher took a knife from one of the others in his group and slit one of the goblin guard's throats as Leah did the same. Again, he felt a strange sensation as the beast died, but he shrugged it off as he had more important things to worry about.
They took care of them one by one, leaving a massive opening in the defenses. Asher wasn't done yet though. He kept going until every single guard was dead. Only then did he give the signal for the rest of the party to come in.
It was an absolute slaughter, the guild members rushed in and killed over a dozen before any of the goblins even awoke. Even more dropped before they had gotten ahold of a weapon. Asher almost felt it was too brutal, but he couldn't say much about it himself. With his past, he had no room to judge.
The massacre was completed in under five minutes. Asher saw body parts, blood and entrails coating everything.
They worked their way back to the guild with hardly anyone saying a word. Asher's face lit up as Colin told them what they had all received from this job. It was almost five hundred bronze coins.
Asher had to admit, he could get used to the pay from the D rank job. He could comfortably live on the income he received from his latest outing for weeks.
Asher was already planning what equipment he was going to buy, however. In the end, if he kept investing into his gear he would climb the ranks eventually. It was only a matter of time. He was counting on it.