Once we had registered the quests with Ella she took our ID and put them in a machine.
"Here are your IDs back. You can complete the quest and return here or go to another guild. Just provide your ID, and you'll be good." She smiled and waved as we left.
As we walked towards the east gate we saw a few shops and stores selling delicious smelling food and various items from jewelry to clothing, armour to weapons, everything you could but was seen being sold all around the city.
When we reached the gate, we showed our IDs, and the guards let us out but warned us that the gates close at 8.
It was around 11 am right now so we had plenty of time.
I had gotten the locations for our quests from Ella earlier and led everyone.
We walked along the road seeing farmers harvest their crops and bringing them into the city.
It didn't take long before we got to the southeast end of the Forest and I spotted a river not far off as well.
I turned around and spoke to the group.
"Ok so as a party it is good to maintain equality. So we will take a vote when we have different opinions or plans but everyone will voice their plans first. Right now we should figure out what quests we will do first."
Everyone nodded but Orin asked "I forgot to ask until now but why did we accept the iron mining quest? The mine is in the woods isn't it?"
I smiled and reached out my hand. Suddenly a lump of iron ore appeared in my hand shocking everyone.
I smirked "Luckily I have some iron left over from a while ago. To be honest I completely forgot about it until earlier when I saw the quest. It is quick and easy money if you guys accept."
Everyone stared at me but Aaron was sceptical.
"Why are you being so nice? It's a little suspicious," he said and I noticed him move a hand to the end of his sleeve.
*sigh* I lowered my head as I sighed, then I looked up and explained.
"In truth, I want to get a higher ranking. I have been stuck at D rank for around 4 years now and have only taken like 6 D rank quests in total."
Everyone was confused and Aaron asked "I thought D rank quests are pretty common. Why have you only gotten 6 of them in 4 years?"
I sighed again and said "Because D rank quests and above almost always require a party of at least 3-4 members minimum. Nobody wants a kid or someone with so many various skills in their party as it can throw them off."
"the 6 D rank quests I have completed are those I did will 6 different parties. in the end they either died or none of them were willing to continue with me. no, I was not the cause of the deaths, it was them going down a different path in a cave system."
"Anyway some decided to move away, one tried to steal my gear, one was a cult and tried to sacrifice me, another kicked me out, one died when they went without me and one was poisoned because of a past job."
"I hope that if you guys can reach D rank and we are in a party I can finally advance beyond D rank."
Everyone was shocked by my honest and nonchalant way of talking about dead adventurers it put some of them off a bit.
"S-sorry for asking I was just being cautious." Aaron apologised
"It's not a problem. I can't deny I wasn't being careful of you guys as well."
Aaron gave me a quizzical look.
"I was worried someone would try and steal my stuff while I slept or something," I said as I shrugged my shoulders.
"Why would we do that?" Orin asked confused
"Because it isn't unheard of for jealous adventurers to kill each other for better gear or to stop them from taking the better quests. It isn't common but it does happen," I said
everyone nodded and understood what I was saying.
I smiled and said, "Why don't we get back to the quest."
Everyone nodded and we started talking. We decided to do the wild dog hunting quest right now and do the slime and mint quest on the way.
I pulled out the address I had written down and we started walking.
After around 10 minutes we came to a farmhouse and knocked on the door.
An older woman came out and we said we were there to handle the wild dogs and she was very relieved it was so many people coming to help her.
She pointed us toward the forest and gave us descriptions of the dogs. They have been raiding the chicken coops and she hasn't gotten eggs in a few days and they are attracted to the smell of chicken blood.
I asked if she had some chicken blood anywhere that we could use as bait and she said yes and went to grab it.
Once we knew what to do we walked away and came up with a plan.
Araki would climb a tree and watch from above and Aaron would scout on the ground in the shadows.
Both of them would try and find the dogs on their own but if they can't we will draw them out. To draw them out I will pour the bucket of chicken blood from the woman onto the ground and the dogs should be attracted to the smell.
Ark will stand guard around the chicken coop and try to keep the dogs away if they get close.
Zek and Orin will face the dogs directly with Orin fighting them and Zek using ice magic.
Zekk can't use fire magic as the coop is near the haybales and he could start a fire.
We agreed that I would keep watch and intervene if needed. Everyone understood I could handle this entire thing myself but they wanted to do it themselves.
We waited around 30 minutes for Araki and Aaron to return.
When we heard 4 whistles from the forest I knew we had to be quick.
I spoke to Araki earlier and told him to whistle once if the dogs are dead, twice if he can't find them, 3 times if the plan failed and 4 times if the dogs are coming already.
I warned everyone and we watched as one dog came running out of the forest.
Its matted and muddy fur along with its bloody mouth and loud barks and grouws showed it was angry and going for the attack.
Orin moved around and got ready to hit it with his sword while Zek got a spell ready.
I raised a hand signaling to wait and after a second a dagger shot out from the forest and hit the dog in the hind legs causing it to fall over.
I motioned for them to go and watched as Orin ran up and swung his sword down decapitating the dog's head instantly.
We were all waiting for the second dog when 2 whistles were heard and we all relaxed.
Araki and Aaron walked over from the forest and explained that they had killed the other dog earlier and this one managed to get away and run here.
Orin congratulated Aaron on his shot and Aaron shrugged and said it wasn't anything special.
I smiled and asked her where the other dog was while I went over and put the corpse of the first one in my ring.
They led us over to it and I could see an Aaron sticking out of its neck. It appears Araki hunted this thing like he normally hints at rabbits for food back home.
I smiled and put this one in the ring too.
We went back the the farmhouse and told the woman we handled the wild dogs and she should have eggs in a few days.
She thanked us and gave us each some muffins as an extra thanks.
We accepted and ate them while walking to the lake for the next quest.
As we walked past the forest I said "Everyone grabs some branches. We are going to need them."
They gave me quizzical looks and Orin asked "Are we starting a fire?"
I shook my head and said "We are hunting slimes next. They aren't dangerous so long as you don't touch them. They are comprised almost entirely of acid so it isn't good if we tough them directly."
"Slimes aren't a difficult monster to fight or kill, a child can do it with a stick. The problem is that because of their acid, any weapon you kill a slime with will melt and become useless, so using tree branches or rocks is best."
"Oh, that makes sense." Orin nodded and we all grabbed a few branches.
I led everyone over to a pond and we could see a few blue slimes around.
"Slimes are very slow and like to live near bodies of water which works in our favor. Slime acid dissolves in water, so if you get acid on you wash it off in the pond or if you can't kill the slime, try throwing it in the pond. Either option works."
"Our goal is a blue stone in the center of the slime. That is its core and what we hand into the guild."
I turned around and said "We need 30 slime cores in total today so we will do 10 here and 20 at another pond that has a higher slime population. It's a good thing slimes are fast to reproduce."
"Zek, one use ice magic to freeze the slimes if needed. your magic could damage the cores and lower our rewards." I warned and Zek nodded
I turned back and we came up with a plan.