My First Labour
After seeing that my shield came back without so much of scratch I couldn't quite believe my eyes. After a couple more experiments of seeing how much damage I could inflict before it gets repaired, so far everything I did got repaired as if it was nothing. There has to be a limit I can't just repair everything, can I? I guess I'll need to do a bit more testing.
Wait, because I can repair my weapons every time I de-summon that means I don't need to waste money on maintaining my equipment. Fuck yes. Every adventurer knows that maintaining equipment is a major profit sinkhole in their finances, with this I can be much more flexible with my wallet. I wonder if I can bound myself to armours as well, what's the limit of weapons I can bind myself to? Can I bind myself to anything more than weapons?
So many questions but too little time. I guess before I do any of that I need to earn my first bit of coin. With that thought I went to sleep, the bed is so much more comfortable than a bush I can't seem to stress that enough. I let myself go to the sweet, sweet embrace of sleep excited for what tomorrow could bring.
Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the curtains, splashing onto Sam's slumbering face.
Ugh, I've never been so unwilling to wake up in my life until now, all this fancy living is going to spoil me. After I tended to my personal hygiene I psyched myself up for today. As I walked out the room to the main room in the inside does look really homely and calming which contrast with brain rotting colour scheme on the outside of the inn, I get the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Walking through the inn is much quieter than it was last night, I guess people like coming down for the alcohol.
I looked about looking for the landlady but I couldn't find her so I just sat down at one of the tables and waited for when she comes out. There were just a couple in the room eating breakfast, other than that there was nothing else of interest until I locked my eyes onto a broom and dustpan. That got me thinking, could I bind myself to anything other than weapons. I guess that'll food for thought since I don't particularly want to steal the landlady's broom before I even start working.
For a while, I sat on the bench twiddling my thumbs until the door to the kitchen opens up, instead of the kind-faced landlady what came out instead was a hulk of a man. Well maybe not a hulk but he is huge, is plain commoner clothes fail to hide the Adonis physique underneath, his hands would put a bears paws to shame and has untamed bristly beard that made feel inadequate by being in its presence. Upon seeing this muscle-bound god-like being all thoughts were halted and my brain is now on idle.
The man in question came out of the kitchen and saw a scrawny looking youth with blueish black hair and amber eyes and a stupid dumbstruck look on his face. This reminded him of the description that his wife gave him about an adventurer finally brave enough to take the task he put out, but seeing the kid now he figures that he's just fresh out of his awakening and doesn't know who he is so the youth thought it was just another average job. He did a small silent prayer for the youth in front of him as his wife is definitely going to put him through the ringer.
"So who might you be?" The large man worked up a smile as he asked me. My God even his voice is manly.
"Samuel Hayden Sir" Why am I saying sir? Why am I saluting? Hopefully, he didn't notice. Upon seeing Sam's minor breakdown the man let out a small smile as the display reminded him of disciples when they first met him even though he was never an army man.
"Pfft at ease kid, this ain't the barracks. So you're the unlucky sod who Maria picked up, well good luck to you. If you survive you can find me at the guild, just ask for Mathias." And with that, the large man gave Samuel a small pat on the shoulder and lumbered out of the inn. As Samuel watched him go out all he could think about was what he meant by 'unlucky sod'. After forcing down a cold shiver he walked into the kitchen to where his destiny awaited him.
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Meanwhile, a large man who just exited the inn was frolicking like a child with tears in his eyes, rejoicing his newfound freedom, he did a silent salute to the unlucky newbie before skipping his way to the guild.
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When looking around the kitchen made he found the landlady who had a little kid beside her as she was working the stove. Shit, I better not keep her waiting much longer.
"Er-excuse me, boss lady, is there anything that you need me to do?" The landlady whipped around and brought Samuel down at ladle point but once she recognised who he was she quickly retracted herself as her sudden outburst never even happened. She smiled at me but damn when I see it now it make me go into a cold sweat.
"Of course honey, as a matter of fact, I've got a list of odd jobs for you to start cracking on with." She then pulled out a magi-tablet and handed it to me.
"You have three days to complete these tasks, any longer then you'll get diddly squat. Understood?" I quickly nodded my head, this woman is definitely not one to be trifled with. As I was about to turn around she said,
"You can use the tools in the shed if needed, if there any junk in there get rid of it will ya. Also, let Annabell tag along with you while I run some errands." I couldn't even get a word in before she puts her kid in front of me, puts on her coat and disappears out of the door into the horizon.
Speechless I look down at the little girl in front of me and she looked back at me. What do I do with her then? I give her a nervous and she replies in kind. Okay then…
I look down to the magi tablet. These are magic tools that are for everyday use that anyone can use even if they don't have an ounce of magic in them. This one is one of the higher-end models as well, I guess my employers are a lot richer than they let on huh.
As I focus back onto the tablet and scroll through the list of tasks and instantly my mouth fell open. This is just impossible, no other word for it. She wants me to 'tame the garden' build some new outdoor furniture and give the inn a new paint job in three days. I now realise why no one picked this job, it's fucking extortion and free labour. There's no way around it, I have to complete the tasks as you have to pay a fine if you cancel the job with the guild and as my purse has a severe case of dead broke I just have to grit my teeth and get this done with. At least I get a bed and meals with jobs.
First I went into the garden to assess the damage and my god is the landlady getting her money worth. It's like a jungle back here, I wouldn't be surprised if a demon jumps out at me right now. I wonder if this place could qualify for a danger label from the guild.
Sigh
Let's check out the shed before I start landscaping. I ask Annabel to lead the way and we make it to a dilapidated shack that is also on the list of tasks to be completed, fuck my life. Annabell went back inside obviously, I wasn't interesting enough for her, now that I think about I didn't even hear her speak at all. Whatever it's not my problem.
The shed on the inside is what I expected it to be, cobwebs seemed to be ubiquitous, heavy layers of dust and everything was burnt with rust. She said that I needed to get rid of any junk but it all looks like junk. 'This is vile', this is all I could think as I waded through the loose filth. I looked down and saw an old-looking scythe, man I forgot that these were garden tools before people used them to annihilate each other. I look up and down at this scythe, it was a bit taller than me, wait this is definitely a weapon scythe as the handle is completely straight and the blade is too heavy to be used for garden work, although it may have been impressive in it's prime its just a bit of rusting on stick now, to the junk it goes.
As I was about to throw it away I thought if she's just going to throw it away, why don't I just take it off her hands for her. HAHA, I'm a genius, wasting no time at all I press my magic into the rusty weapon and felt a large chunk of my reserves disappear, the familiar sight of blue sparks and circuit blaze upon its entire body, engulfing it for a couple of moments before it disappears like a dream. What's left behind is a tall, sturdy, mahogany shaft free of all splinters, and the previous rusting metal piece is now a wicked sharp crescent blade. Holy crap this is some expensive equipment.
Fucking jackpot.
I go through the rest of the dust and junk to see what else I could salvage. The boons of my findings are a hunting knife with a cracked handle, some leather gloves with some extra leather wrappings, a small iron mallet with a fragmented stone handle, strange, finally a huge axe with a shattered a blade. The rest of the stuff in the shed is still in good condition and I don't want to get too greedy as I've already profited.
I then bonded with each of my new equipment and by the end of it, I was wheezing as all of my mana has been drained out of me. I never did this before and now I know why people hate it. Right now I'm a zero circle like every other mage when they first awaken, circles are a consolidation of one's stage and to get to the first circle one just needs to build up enough mana so they can construct their first circle.
It's different for warriors as they have a core rather than circles and they need to increase the size of their to increase their stage. At the beginning for them, it's zero core as their core hasn't formed yet. To progress, you'll have to either increase the level of your core or circles which go up to 10, after that I'm not too sure of what's next as that's all Cassie told me.
Anyway, after waiting for a while for my mana to regenerate I summoned each of winnings one by one. First the hunting knife, now that I see it in its original state it is just a good quality knife, nothing too special about it. Next to the gloves and the wrappings, when summoned they went straight onto my hands and arms, this is so sick I don't even need to waste time putting them on. The mallet fucking surprised me when I summoned it was much taller than me with the handle restored it was about 2m long and the iron was actually the core of the hammer as the head is now a huge stone rectangle with wave style engravings on it. This is a fucking Warhammer, who the hell is the landlady and her husband that they just have war weapons lying around. I gulped down, I better keep on their good side. Finally, the axe and I was a bit underwhelmed as it's just a standard-issue battleaxe, maybe with better construction and materials however compared with the hammer I was a bit underwhelmed.
After I de-summoned everything I looked towards my arm I saw the new symbol what confused me is that they're no longer just images of weapons, they're now runes as I recognise the rune for knife, and that's not even the weirdest thing, the blue circuits that appear when I summon my magic are now marked onto my arm. I don't know if this is a good thing or not but I'm just gonna roll with it.
I go back outside, ready to take on the world but first, the garden.