Rise and Grind

Michael digging through his fridge, found some leftover pasta, opening it, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it, so he dumped it all into a bowl and microwaved the whole thing in one go. After five minutes, he had an unevenly heated bowl of pasta that he was ready to scarf down as fast as possible to get back to DMO. Once filled, Michael returned to his bedroom and booted his helmet from sleep mode. When he logged back in, he watched as the flashing colors filled his eyes and the brief disconnect from his real body to the virtual one as his body was put into a sleep-like state.

Waking up, Smaug found he was still on the bed he logged off on. 

"Ahh, now I'm back, I gotta get back to work. I wonder how my dungeon is coming." 

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"Oh? Took them long enough. Then again, it was what? Not much more than 20 minutes in real life."

Leaving his room, Smaug walked down to the front desk where he saw Rainha waiting impatiently. 

"You're finally up, ready to do a few quests? I wanna take a couple of quick ones today."

'Yep, sounds like a plan. If I remember correctly, there are a few that would be perfect."

Arriving at the guild, in no less than a couple minutes, they managed to beat the morning crowds, there were only a couple of people at the front desk. But there was the same receptionist from the day before. 

"Hello again, here to take more beginner quests I presume?"

"Yes, mind showing us what's available? We want to take a few today" Smaug replied.

"Ah yes, but you are only permitted to have one quest active at a time. The only exceptions are constant quests like clearing out local monsters, but even then that is only if you finish your current quest and have the materials on hand to finish a constant quest. In which case, you can redeem it as many times as possible."

As the receptionist was talking she showed Smaug and Rainha a series of quests. One was to find a missing pet, another to help clean the streets, and lastly, a third one involved delivering packages around town. 

"What do you think?"

"I say we take the packages, I can fly short distances, nothing that'd get us anywhere right now, but it's enough to get on top of a house. I got it when I turned level 5 if you are wondering. But, using that, if we split the work I can probably get packages farther from here faster by jumping from roof to roof, while you deliver the nearest ones. If we have time we'll street sweep. I don't really wanna look for a pet, giant city, small animal, and plenty of places it can hide without us able to get to it."

The receptionist chimed in, "Sounds great, now wait while I assign the quests to you two."

Holding out their cards, the receptionist did her thing and then they were on their way. 

In their vision, they could also see waypoints marking where the different packages had to go. Rainha took the ones that went further away, while Smaug took the rest. After which they promised to meet back up at the guild once they were finished. 

Once separated Smaug started walking down the road to his first destination, which was a small two-story single-family home. Knocking on the door a middle-aged woman answered, while behind her Smaug could see some rambunctious children aged from about 5 - 12. 

"Ahh, thank you so much. You must be a new adventurer, I'll get a writing utensil so you can get the signature for the quest reward." 

Handing over the package, the woman disappeared into her house. Then a short time later, reappeared with what seemed to be a very basic pencil. She then scratched her name onto the signature paper that came with the quest as well as the bag of packages that Smaug just stored in his inventory. With twenty total deliveries split among both Smaug and Rainha, Smaug just has to finish 10 deliveries. With one now finished, he had nine more to go, and getting all 10 was important since they got paid per signature. 

Traveling a bit down. Taking a few turns down a few allies, Smaug then arrived at his next destination. Handing it over to an extremely young man who lived in a pretty nice house, he ripped the box open right at the door. He then confirmed what he had received and his eyes lit up. After calming himself down, he also signed the paper to confirm he had received his package. 

This continued a few more times. One delivery went to a dwarven blacksmith, while another went to an elven guardsman who was at a guard station. But problems arose with the last delivery. It was a housing complex. Three floors high, and the address was on the top floor. On the front of the door was a sign. "Go away, no one is home but if you try to break in you will NOT make it out unscathed. - Giony"

'Wait, Giony? Isn't that the guy who led the attack on my dungeon? I think I vaguely remember him saying he was in charge of the adventuring guild. Maybe I could try and get him his package there.'

Walking back to the guild, he found Rainha already waiting for him, meaning she had beaten him in finishing her deliveries despite having more distance to travel. 

"You done now too?"

"Nope, one more delivery, but the guy wasn't home. However, I do know that he works here so maybe I'll be able to deliver it to him here."

"Makes sense."

Walking in, Smaug waited in the admittably short line and when he reached the front, he was immediately asked if had finished his current quest.

"Not quite yet, I was hoping to see the guild master, since the last delivery is for him and he isn't home right now."

"Oh, right this way, I can even sign for him if he is too busy to receive the package."

"That would be perfect." 

Walking into the depths of the guild, they eventually came upon a door that read "Guild Master's Office". Right underneath it was a plaque that could be changed out easily enough that read "Giony".

The receptionist knocked on the door and from inside a voice rang out "Come in". Smaug and the receptionist entered and Smaug started to speak.

"I have your delivery, sir, you weren't home, so I came here. I need your signature for the quest if that is all right with you."

"Ah yes, didn't know it had gotten to the guild yet, I have been so busy recently, I would have just grabbed it myself otherwise."

After he signed the paper. Giony ripped open the package with his hands and pulled out an exquisite bright green potion, similar to the color of a green screen. Drinking it, a faint light enveloped Giony and the slight signs of exhaustion instantly cleared up. Things Smaug didn't even notice until they were gone. 

Afterwords. Smaug and Rainha turned in their quest, receiving one copper for every five signatures. Meaning they each got two coppers, enough for them to sleep two nights. At this point, it was mid-day so they took the street sweeping job, shortly after they met up with an old Beastman who was of the dog tribe it seemed, matching many features with a golden retriever from Earth. 

"Ah, you must be the hired help for the day, here grab a broom and sweep until I say stop. We will just be doing a couple of blocks for today."

Smaug and Rainha then spent the rest of the day sweeping. Granted halfway through, the old man produced three sandwiches, one for each of them, offering them a free lunch. That was when Smaug and Rainha realized, that their bodies needed food and water, they were outside of the dungeon, and their physical needs now needed to be met, they had completely forgotten about that. They weren't going to be able to live off of a couple of coppers they made every day. The daily food and water needs alone would set them back at least 10 coppers a week if they only ate and drank the minimum to live, however, that wouldn't stop any debuffs from cropping up from starving or being thirsty. They would need a LOT more money, and the beginner quests just weren't cutting it. Luckily, once they had turned in their quests, they were officially trusted adventurers able to complete three beginner quests in just two days, which spoke volumes about their efficiency. As of now, they were now F-rank in the guild. At first, they were what's known as a "no rank" which is the equivalent of a part-time intern. This is the stage where most aspiring adventurers are given menial tasks that test their resolve to do the dirty work they get hired to do. As of now, they can start looking at the main quest board for quests that pay out anywhere from 10 to 30 coppers for just a day's work. But that would be for tomorrow, it was now basically night so while the guild bar was still open, quests would no longer proceed. So Smaug and Rainha spent the night drinking the free water and eating the cheapest appetizers to keep their invisible hunger and thirst bars up, hopefully, enough to last them a couple of days. The tab for them to split ended up being 8 coppers. And after getting two from the street sweeping, Smaug was left with just 20 copper.