Once we finished collecting the mint, we headed back to the city.
When we got there, I turned down a different road than the one leading to the guild.
Orin asked, "Are we not going to the guild?"
I shook my head. "No. Remember, we also got the mining quest, so we will complete it first."
Everyone nodded and followed me.
It didn't take long for us to arrive at the smithy.
It was a simple building with a shop on one side and a workshop outside. A sign was hanging above the door saying [Blue Horse Smithy].
A dwarf woman was outside, working the forge, heating up some metal.
I took a step forward while also keeping my distance from the forge.
"Hold it, I see ya. Don't step closer, I will be there in a second," she said as she pulled out the metal with some tongs, checked it, and put it back in the forge.
She stepped away and said, "Hello there, young-in. What can I do for you all today?"
"Hi. I'm Jack, and this is Ark, Orin, Araki, Zek, and Aaron." I said as I pointed to each of us. "We are here for the mining quest you posted at the guild."
She nodded and said, "Names Winona, it's good to see some people taking the quest, it has been a while." She said, looking at us and raising an eyebrow.
"Did you come here after taking the quest?" she asked, seeing us not carrying any bags.
I shook my head and showed her my ring. "I have them stored away," I said.
She was wide-eyed and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, mi-"
"I'm not a noble, my mother was also an adventurer, and I kept it after she died," I said, slightly annoyed.
I heard Orin and Araki snickering to themselves, and I ignored them.
Winona coughed and said, "Sorry... I'm um..."
"It's fine. It unfortunately happens a lot, so I am used to it." I said, causing her to relax.
She nodded and said, "R-right. Follow me, you can unload it inside."
She then guided us inside and into a back room.
"So how much do you have for me?" she asked after closing the door.
I then, using magic, reached into the storage ring and started pulling out the ore.
As I was pulling it out, I said, "Truth be told, I didn't get it from the mine. I took a similar quest a few years back, but the smithy tried to swindle me. I kept it and kind of forgot about it until today."
Winona sighed and said, "Sadly, some people are like that, but the good thing is I only need the ore. So it doesn't matter where it is from."
I spent a full 2 minutes pulling out the ore and putting it into the buckets Winona provided. When I finished, Winona said, "Wow... this is a lot. I normally only get one or two buckets per person at most."
"I can't disagree..." I said as I looked at everyone else.
They were all slack-jawed the entire time as they saw me unload it all, and I couldn't blame them.
In total, I had about 18 buckets of iron ore. A lot more than I remembered having.
Winona, after breaking from her shocked trance, got to work and weighed every bucket with a scale she had back here.
Each chunk of ore was around the size of a fist and weighed 1 kg. Each bucket had around 24 chunks of ore.
When she was done, I had apparently delivered 432 kg of ore, and the rewards were 20 copper per kg.
Converting that makes it 84 silver and 40 copper coins in total. Almost an entire gold coin! (100 silver)
The others were all shocked out of their minds as they realized how much that was.
Truth be told, it was the most I had ever gotten from an official quest, so for me, this was still a shock, but my parents had gotten gold coins for some quests, so I was used to it, sort of.
However, I was more shocked at how much iron ore I had been carrying around for the past few years and never realized.
After counting it all, she stood up and said, "I appreciate this. If any of you ever need some weapons, you know where to find me."
She then got out a paper from the desk and asked, "Did all of you accept the quest?"
Everyone was still shocked, but Zek managed to shake it off a bit and said, "We all registered it, but I feel Jack should get the reward as we did nothing."
Me Winona and glanced at each other.
I smiled and said, "We are in a party, so we share rewards equally. Besides, F rank quests do nothing when you are at D rank like me, so it's better if you all complete it so you can rank up sooner."
Winona nodded and added, "He is right. Your rank is only affected if you take quests of your current rank or higher. It's just a waste to make your friend take it and not use it yourselves."
"Besides, from what I am getting, you are newbies getting taught by a seasoned adventurer. Take the bonuses when you get them; if you don't, you will fail before you can succeed," she said.
Seeing everyone nod, Winona proceeded to write a letter to the guild stating the completion of the quest and payment upfront. She dropped a bit of wax from a candle and stamped it.
She then pulled out a bag of coins and counted them in front of me.
Once she finished counting, she put them in a pouch and said, "Here you are, 84 silver and 40 copper. Have a nice day, and thanks for the iron."
"No problem," I said and guided my still somewhat dazed friends out of the shop.
We walked to the guild next.
I waited for everyone to calm down, and we entered the guild next.
Ella, who was still at the counter, greeted us and said, "Welcome back. Did you complete your quests?"
I stayed back to let them handle things this time.
Orin nodded and said, "Yes, all our quests have been completed," and handed over the paper Winona gave us.
Ella gave it a read and asked, "This one is good, do you have proof of the other quests?"
Orin nodded and gestured to me.
I walked up and said, "Do you have a private room? We have the wild dog bodies and want to sell them to the guild."
Ella nodded and said, "One moment, please," and went out back.
"We can sell bodies?" Orin asked, confused.
I nodded and explained, "The guild will accept the bodies of animals and monsters as they contain useful resources. With the wild dogs, so long as they had no diseases, the guild would harvest their hide for leather and meat for food."
"We do get paid slightly less rather than harvesting and selling it ourselves, but this saves time and energy."
No one complained about eating dog meat like I originally expected, but considering where everyone was from, I wasn't surprised.
Ark and Aaron are from the Beast Kingdom, where it is survival of the fittest and you eat whatever you hunt.
Orin, being raised by Orcs, finds it norma,l as they even ate people. (Orin did not, but other Orcs did.)
Zek, being a kobold, was used to eating whatever he could.
And me and Araki have eaten it before while hunting with Rirki.
When Ella got back, she said, "Please follow me," and she led me out back.
I followed her into the cellar.
It was lined with stones, and the floor was polished.
I could sense a soundproof barrier around the room and even a sealing barrier in case of emergencies.
I smiled seeing their preparedness.
When we got to the bottom, I saw a man leaning on a table by the wall.
"Please unload any bodies you have here," Ella said and gestured to the center of the room.
I nodded and pulled out the 2 wild dog bodies.
The man walked over and examined them.
After a minute, he stood up and said, "They are in good condition. Give them full rewards." He then started to drag them to the table to begin working.
Ella guided me back up to the others and said, "The bodies are all in good condition, so you will get full rewards. Do you have the mint and slime cores?"
I nodded and gave them to her as well. She counted them and nodded, "Good. All quests have been completed. Please give me your guild cards, and I will register the completed quests."
Everyone gave the cards to Ella, and she put the cards in the machine she made them from earlier.
She pushed a few buttons and paused when she was checking the mining quest.
"Sorry, but does this say you turned in 18 buckets?" she asked.
I nodded and smiled, knowing what she was checking.
"Is there a problem?" Aaron asked.
Ella hesitated for a second and said, "The guild registers 1 bucket (weighing 24 kg) as completing the quest. You handed in 18 buckets, so..."
Everyone paused as they realized what she was saying.
She did some quick math and exclaimed, "In fact, your party, on their first day of adventuring, completed 32 quests in one day!"
Many other people in the guild turned as they heard that and saw everyone and their shocked expressions while I smiled.
'I forgot the guild did that with ore gathering quests,' I thought as I chuckled to myself.
Everyone was surprised, and a few people congratulated us on our accomplishments.
After a few minutes of congrats and well-wishes of good luck, Ella got our attention again.
"So in total, you all have completed 32 quests. Jack, will you be accepting any of them?" she asked.
I shook my head.
She nodded. "Alright. That means the 5 of you have completed 6 quests and 2 to spare. Does anyone want the extra 2, or should I randomize it?"
Everyone took a second to decide, and we agreed to randomize it to make it fair.
Ella nodded and pulled out a box of dice.
She reached in and searched for a second, and I remembered a scene like this from my last life, playing D&D with some friends and trying to find the right dice.
She pulled out a 10-sided die and explained, "I will place you all in alphabetical order, and every 2 numbers are for you. I will roll this die, and the numbers that come up are who gets them. Is everyone fine with that?"
Everyone nodded, and she rolled the die.
"5 and 8. Ark and Orin, you two will get the extra quests. So Araki, Aaron, and Zek, you all have 6 quests, and Ark and Orin have 7. Remember, you will rank up at 10, but the total number resets when you rank up."
We all nodded.
Ella then went and calculated out rewards and handed over the money.
"Here are your rewards, 10 silver and 80 copper," she said and handed me the pouch.
I thanked her and turned to leave, but she stopped me.
"Oh, sorry, Jack, but I have a letter for you," and she presented me with an envelope.
I turned back and asked, "A letter?" confused, and took the letter.
She nodded, leaned over, and whispered, "Yes. It is from the Guildmaster. I was told it was for your eyes only, and you should read it before returning to the academy."
I realized what this could be and nodded. "I will go over it, thanks for letting me know."
I then turned and went to sit down with the others to divide up our rewards and read the letter.
'I wonder what they need me to do this time,' I thought to myself as I sat down.