Chapter 8 Quest Accepted!

Now that they were registering as adventurers, Grace led them into a room with a small floating orb. Grace smiled as she said "Please stick your hand on this magical device for a few seconds, depending on the color it glows we'll be able to tell how strong you are, the brightest color we've seen so far has been an intense red color. Lily stared at the orb excitedly and then ran towards it, putting her hand on it as she said, "Please be a bright color." Toby stared at her as he mumbled, "She's only level four… if I had to guess, her level is only that high due to that bracelet, since she was only level one without it." After waiting a few moments the orb began to glow faintly, the orb didn't really glow a special color or anything, but it did at least shine enough to be visible. Grace stood there for a moment as if she was waiting for something to happen, but as soon as the orb quit glowing, she grabbed a clipboard and scribbled something down. Grace smiled at Thomas as she said, "Next up is you." Toby stared at Thomas intently as he mumbled, "Now this I'm interested in… I can't actually see his level… it just appears as question marks, but if I had to guess it's around level two or three because he's able to use some magic." Lily seemed disappointed with the orb as she said, "It didn't even glow a color." As Thomas walked up to the orb, Grace said, "That's alright, it usually glows less than that for new adventures." Toby sighed as he said, "Yeah… I'd hate to admit it, but mine wasn't any brighter than that." As the three of them talked, Thomas placed his hand on the orb, and it began to glow and change colors at random intervals for a few seconds, and then it began flickering until the orb exploded, sending Thomas through the wall. Thomas laid there for a moment before getting up, holding his left side. Grace began to panic as she said, "T-the orb? It blew up!" Grace began to look around frantically as she asked, "Did it malfunction?" Grace continued to panic as Lily and Toby rushed over to ask if Thomas was alright. After a few moments, Grace walked over to Thomas and sighed as she said, "Unfortunately I'm not too sure what happened… so I'm just going to list you down with her, is that alright?"

Toby nodded as he said, "That's probably for the best." Grace bowed as she said, "And I'm incredibly sorry that the orb malfunctioned and nearly killed you." Lily stared at Thomas nervously and began to rapid fire questions at him as Toby and Grace talked to each other. After being asked a few questions, Thomas said the word fine which seemed to annoy Lily as she said, "The last time you said you were fine you lied to me!" Toby grabbed Lily's shoulder as he said, "Maybe we should go back to the inn and call it a day." As Toby said this, Lily fell silent for a moment and had a sad look on her face, but then Thomas said, "I'll stay… at inn." Toby stared at him for a moment as he asked, "Are you saying you'll stay behind, so she can go?" As Thomas nodded, Lily immediately cheered up and asked, "But won't you get bored?" Thomas thought for a moment but then shrugged as he turned around and began to walk towards the door, however before he could make it to the door Grace walked back out calling for Lily and Thomas while carrying two weird looking pieces of metal with engravings on them. Thomas froze and then turned around as Grace handed him and Lily the metal and said then said, "These are proof of you being adventurers, they keep track of everything you kill and can also confirm whether or not you've done other things to, for example, for things like delivery quests it can keep track of where the item is and if it reaches the designated spot." Thomas stared at the plate for a moment and then dropped it on the ground while continuing to walk off. Grace immediately panicked as she said, "I-if this is about the magical device that almost killed you I'm sorry but if you'd like to become an adventurer you need to carry this!" Thomas continued to stare at her for a moment and then picked it up as Toby said, "You don't have to constantly carry it, it'll still keep track of everything you do through your mana." Thomas continued to stare at it for a moment and then put it in his storage. Grace began to panic once more as she asked, "Where did it go?

There's no way it just up and vanished." Toby put his hand on her back as he said, "Actually it did, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say you didn't know demi-humans could use magic." Grace paused for a moment and then asked with a serious look on her face, "Then… does that mean the orb exploded because he was super strong?" Toby sighed as he said, "If only that were the case, the only magic he can use is storage magic, and he can't even use it much without completely draining his mana pool." Grace paused for a moment and then sounded incredibly disappointed as she said, "O-oh… so then the orb incident is still our fault." While all this was happening, Thomas had been dragged off towards a table full of adventurers. They all stared at Thomas as one of them said, "We need your storage ability, how about it?" Thomas stood there staring at them blankly before Lily tugged on his sleeve and said, "You said you'd go back to the inn." Once the group of adventurers seen her, one of them said, "Listen, little girl, this is no place for you, now go away while the grown-ups talk." Lily glared at them as she said, "I'm an adventurer now to, so I can be here if I wanna be." Lily began to drag Thomas away as she angrily said, "Let's go!" Just as Lily and Thomas were about to reach the door, Grace said, "It seems like he's already quite popular after everyone witnessed his storage magic." Toby sighed as he nodded and said, "I know, and I was hoping this wouldn't happen." Grace glanced at him as she asked, "And why is that?" Toby watched Thomas and Lily as they left and then said, "I'm worried because he's far from the sharpest person I've ever met." Toby glanced at Grace as he said, "Please keep an eye on him for me, he's already nearly died twice since I met him." Grace stared at him as she nervously asked, "And how long have you known him." Toby stared at her with a disappointed look as he said, "I've only known him for a little less than a week." Grace stood there as she nervously asked, "Are you counting that orb incident as one of those two?" Toby nodded as he said, "Yup, and I'm going to chalk that up to his luck."

After standing there for a moment or two, Grace said, "I suppose looking out for him won't hurt anything, plus we kind of owe him for nearly killing him." Toby glanced at her as he asked, "Oh… and can I look through those quests for a moment?" Grace nodded as she said, "I'll go get them for you, you can just go have a seat, and I'll bring them to you." Once Toby sat down for a short while, Lily came back and sat down beside Toby. Lily glanced around as she said, "You know… this place is kinda cozy." Toby nodded as he said, "Yeah, it's made to be like that, some adventurers even stay here overnight since this place is open all hours of the day." Lily stared at him in shock as she said, "Really? But there aren't any rooms for people to stay in." Toby nodded as he said, "I'm aware." Toby pointed to the door behind the counter as he said, "The only rooms they have are that one which is where they keep all the quests, the room that blew up which is rather empty aside from the magical device that blew up, and the basement which is huge and is where they typically keep the money and dead monster materials." Lily stared at the door that lead to the basement as she asked, "But won't all the monsters begin to rot?" Toby shook his head as he said, "No, it's sort of like storage magic, it won't spoil or anything like that down there, they have some other magical device down there that prevents it." Lily glanced around at the other tables filled with adventurers as she asked, "So… did you decide what we're going to do?" Toby shook his head as he said, "Unfortunately, no, I'm still waiting for the quest papers." As Toby mentioned this, Grace set a giant pile down on the table and said, "Sorry it took so long, the explosion sent the papers flying all over the place." Toby grabbed a paper from the top of the pile as he said, "It's fine, plus, it's not like it's completely your fault that it blew up." Toby stared at the paper for a moment as he said, "This is a request to find someone's cat?" Grace nodded as she said, "Of course, you asked for the easiest quests we have, and all the quests you have there are by far the easiest."

Toby set the paper aside as he said, "We're going to keep looking through them, if that's alright with you." Grace nodded as she said, "Of course, after all, these are quests that no one really wants to do." After searching through another few papers, Toby stopped on one that requested rubber from the baalloons just right of the city in the field that they were in the other day. Toby stared at the paper for a moment and then said, "This one doesn't seem too bad." Lily peeled over at the paper as she said, "No, we already went after some of those monsters, so it'll be boring." Toby stared at her in disbelief as he said, "You know most people would accept this quest in a heartbeat." Lily stared at him for a moment and said, "Yeah, but I wanna do something fun." Toby set the paper aside as he said, "Fine… but if we can't find anything else we're doing that one." After searching for another short while, Grace walked over and asked them if they had found anything, but Toby didn't want to do any quest he considered even the slightest bit dangerous and yet also didn't want to do something like finding a lost cat. Toby glanced at her as he said, "We haven't found anything yet… do you maybe have something that requires us to deal with weak monsters?" Grace thought for a moment and then began to search through the pile while saying, "I believe it's in this pile." After searching for around a minute she said, "I found it, it's a quest to deal with some giant rats in the city's sewer, they've been causing problems and a few of them have even ventured out from the sewer and attacked a few people, they've been badly injured but luckily no one has been killed yet." Toby stared at the paper in her hand for a moment before saying, "Alright, what are the requirements for it?" Grace handed him the paper as she said, "It says that you'll be given two copper coins per giant rat you kill and another two per each one you bring back." Toby stared at the paper for another moment reading over it all before saying "Alright we'll do this one."

Shortly after, they accepted the quest and left; however, Thomas entered the tavern once more and seen Grace carrying the stack of papers that Toby and Lily were searching through. Thomas began to follow Grace for a moment before she noticed him and then asked, "Oh, do you need something?" Thomas pointed to the papers as he said, "Quest." Grace stared at him for a moment and then thought about what Toby had said about looking out for him and then handed him the paper on top as she said, "Here, take this one, it's really simple, all you have to do is find a lost cat, it shouldn't be that hard right?" Thomas stared at the paper for a moment as Grace said, "The details about the cat are on that paper as well, it's a grey cat with black ears and a white stomach, it also has black stripes on its back that go down to its sides."