1.13 Hyper goats = Dark gold
Hmmmm, that was some top-quality sleep I got.
Shame Velariah was rudely knocking on the door with complete disregard.
'Just five more minutes, please.'
''Elania? Breakfast is served.'' Velariah sounded all energetic.
No rest for the wicked, eh?
''Coming...'' I said as I yawned at the same time, stretching my arms.
I got up from the pillow nest and clapped my hands, illuminating the room. There were no windows so I had no indication of what time it was. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, Velariah had been there to wake me up.
I walked over to the sink and let the water run, it seemed there was only one temperature of water coming from this faucet and it was freezing cold, Yikes.
I washed my face and brushed my hair at the same time.
Look at me, I am super mom, doing all the things at once.
It seemed my hand eye coordination had improved quite a bit since coming here. The slight slipup from yesterday with the lights was an example of one of the few mistakes I would still make.
I picked up the same shirt I had tried on yesterday and put it back on. I checked the mirror to make sure that I was presentable, not that it mattered after how I looked yesterday but still. I seemed to be in high company after all. When I was happy with the results, I made my way over to the dining area.
Velariah was already in full armor. She waited behind a plate of freshly baked bread with what looked like a jar of jam in the middle of the table. A boiled egg sat in an egg cup at the side. On the other side she had a cup of tea. I assumed it was tea because of the color. I couldn't imagine anything else with the same distinct color and tea should be fairly easy to get your hands on. It seems the same was waiting for me on the other side of the table.
The smell of fresh bread was unmistakable, it lured me in from afar, and even if I wasn't hungry fresh bread would always find a way to my heart, erm, stomach, maybe both.
It seems Velariah hadn’t exactly thought this through. It was quite obvious to see the embarrassment on her face when I moved the chairs out of the way to get to the table. Her face became at least three tints redder. Nice going there, Vel!
At least I would be able to decide for myself at what height I wanted to ''sit'' at the table, even when there was no sitting involved. No more would people look down on me, hah!
The bread sat in the middle of the table on a chopping block but two slices had already been cut off and were waiting on a plate. I had to know what this jam looking substance was. If it was what I thought it was Velariah knew how to win my heart.
I scooped out a bit with a knife and put it on the bread before putting a finger on it and bringing it to my mouth.
Jackpot.
Strawberries were amazing, strawberry jam even more so.
''I believed you would like King Berries so I had Elly buy us a jar.'' Velariah smiled as I was hastily spreading more of the jelly goodness on my slices of bread.
''King berries? So, that's what they are called here. We call them strawberries.'' I replied before I took a large bite out of a slice.
''Strawberries, huh? What a weird name.''
I raised a finger in objection before I realized that there was nothing to say about the matter. They simply called it King berries. We called it strawberries, I had no idea why either. At least it wasn't something stupid like eye berry. I referred to the ''eyes'' that a strawberry had just like how ''tree hardfruit'' referred to the fact that a coconut was a pretty tough nut to crack. Wait, why did we call it a nut again?
I cut off another slice of bread and chopped up the egg on top of it.
'This would be even better with mayonnaise' I thought as I continued eating.
One of these days I would really have to work on that.
The tea wasn't as good as I had hoped for, even with sugar added it still didn't come close to even the supermarket tea that I had known. What a letdown. I drank it without complaint, not wanting to upset my gracious hostess.
''Where's Valtheril?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence of breakfast.
Velariah had already finished a bit ago and was working on her tea as well.
''He left a while ago; he is a busy man you know.''
Yeah, I had figured as much. He would probably be especially busy working on covering things up and finding out how that unlucky adventurer had gotten his hands on a square black coin.
"I see.'' I said as I drank the last of the tea. ''So where is this trial of yours going to be?''
''Market square.'' She said as she stood up.
''What? In the middle of the village? You joking?'' I frowned.
''Sure, there's trials every last day of the week. Stores are closed as well and there's a fair amount of people interested in watching and trying to learn.''
Oh, so that's why we didn't go armor shopping. She could have mentioned the fact that the stores were closed. I hadn't thought there would be so much public interest in these so-called trials. The thought of a large mass of people was a bit frightening but I had already decided to watch her for myself, no turning back on that now.
We were about to leave when I did my usual check. Phone, nope, keys, nope. Wait, my tag! Oops, good thing I checked too often.
I walked back into the bathroom, fished my tag from the sink and put it around my neck over my crimson shirt. I checked again if I missed anything. I shouldn't need my weapons, not for now. I guessed it would be better optics if I watched the trials without having weapons at the ready.
I walked back to Velariah who was eagerly waiting to leave.
''Let's go, we're gonna run late.'' she was practically jumping in anticipation.
''It's literally a two-minute walk.'' I sighed.
''Still!'' She replied.
Oh, she sure was excited.
Alright, let's get this show on the road.
We arrived at the market area not much later. I got the usual looks and stares that I was slowly getting used to. The tag did seem to prevent anyone from even trying to do anything funny, neat. That was the effect that I was looking for, after all.
The stands had been moved towards the stores that bordered the square and it appeared a few elves were already sparring with each other. I saw all kinds of armor, weapons and even saw some magic spells fly through the air. How did they manage to not hurt people when using magic? I mean, disarming your opponent was one thing, but disarming them with magic looked like an impossible task to me. I didn't think magic was intended for disarming in the first place.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
There were indeed quite a few people watching these duels.
The duels themselves seemed to be in in large circles that seemed to be chalked on the ground. These circles were about five meters in diameter and it seemed that the rules were pretty simple. Incapacitate your opponent or force them out of the circle to win. That would be a good way to win with magic I figured.
As soon as we got there an elf in large red satin robes with a small silver rod in hand called out for her. He seemed to be the organizer of the whole thing.
Among the crowd I also saw the Lore keeper from the guild earlier with a large book in hand. It appeared she scribbled some lines down with a pencil every now and then. Yeah, pencils would probably be the way to go. Quills seemed like a terrible hassle in such a crowd and not on a desk.
I assumed she was writing down how well each contestant performed, she worked for the guild after all.
Oh, I see what was happening. There was a very young elf, I guessed about 16 years old waiting in one of the circles. He was standing there in average day clothing, no armor, nothing. All he had was a rusty short sword.
Now here came the fun part.
Velariah entered the ring.
That was it.
That was literally it, the guy instantly forfeited and ran away in fear. I actually cupped my head in my palm.
The good thing was that I could stand wherever I wanted and I could still easily observe what was going on. I towered over all the other elves. Ah, this would be ideal for concerts... I imagined. It was not like I ever went to concerts...
The second challenger stepped into the circle. The guy also seemed to not have a lot of experience or armor. At least he didn’t have a rusty sword. He used a spear but was disarmed within seconds and yielded. I couldn't even get a look at his face before it was over.
Was this even a trial? This was utter humiliation, for them.
The next was an elven woman, an archer from the looks of the large bow she had in her hands.
When she nocked an arrow, I could see it was tipped with cork. Ok, so that was this worlds equivalent of a rubber bullet it seemed. Velariah stood there as an arrow hit her in the chest. What was this about?
Instead of charging at the elven archer, Velariah gave a thumbs up signal to the Lore keeper.
What?
Then she charged at the archer with her sword and had it at her chin while she was still in the process of drawing a second arrow. Velariah then gave a thumbs down signal to the Lore keeper who eagerly scribbled.
I would have to ask her what was up with that.
The next spar seemed like it was actually going to be the first interesting one. The white-haired elf's next opponent actually had a shining set of armor. He walked up in full harness and longsword. He seemed tough with all that on.
He was, but he was also slow. Velariah due to being somewhat lighter armored managed to easily dodge every slash blow and stab that was thrown at her, before responding with her own that seemed to do almost nothing because of all the armor.
Velariah was actually getting pushed back to the edge of the circle. Was she going to lose?
Nope, she wasn't.
She rolled under a swing and just butted him with her shoulder, pushing the guy outside of the circle, what a sick bait.
Well, that's one way to win. Using your brain seemed solid. Technically, that’s how the both of us defeated the Saibon boar as well.
Velariah sheathed her sword and walked over to me while being cheered on by the crowd.
''That was...'' I began as she stood in front of me. ''Interesting to say the least.''
''Yeah, that was actually easier than expected, I think my next opponent is going to be mid-ranked silver.''
''Oh.'' I raised my eyebrows, ''Then what were those guys?''
''I believe the first guy was low ranked copper, the second guy mid-ranked iron, the archer was high-ranked iron, and the last guy was low-ranked silver.
Yeah, the first guy I could have guessed, he seemed like the kind of person that would have to take the quests to find lost kittens. The second person was heavily outclassed. The archer fight I wasn't sure about what I witnessed.
''What was up with the archer, anyway. What was that theatre?'' I asked her.
''It's just a test of your armor, really. That's the gesture I gave to the lorekeeper. That arrow would not have pierced my armor in that place. From there, it's a test of how far you can close the distance to an archer. She didn’t get to nock a second arrow and fire so I ''won''. It also serves as some sort of training to the archers in the guild for combat situations. Archer testing for the guild is mostly done by Allina's squad. These trials aren't for them.''
What a bunch of information but I guessed it make sense. It would be hard to test archers in such a confined space.
''When's your next match?'' I asked.
''I think it's in a few hours, let me ask the organizer.''
She walked over to the man in red and exchanged a few words before returning.
''Yeah, it's about four hours from now. Let's go check out that goat guy. But psst, don't tell anyone, I'm not technically a member yet.''
Huh, that was interesting.
''Yeah, but you're with me so it should be fine.''
'Well, thank you very much.' I sarcastically thought.
''What are you waiting for, let's go.''
Oh, it seems she had already walked ahead and I was lost in thought. I quickly caught up to the way too energetic elf, what had gotten into her? Was it a demon as well? Now that would be ironic.
We left the square and walked towards the southern village exit. The streets were mostly empty, it appeared most of the populace was gathered in the center staring at either the spars going on, or me. I actually saw a few people leave as soon as Velariah and I went on our way. Don't tell me they were there just for me? That was just creepy. Joke's on them though, I already had my tag!
We followed the cobblestone road for as long as we could. Eventually we had to take a small dirt road that led to a farmstead that bordered the forest. It seemed the fields closest to the forest were currently unoccupied because of the demon's curse. In the other fields I saw a variety of goats, sheep and cows. It seemed there were young animals frolicking around which warmed my heart. Baby goats were the cutest! I would not let a demon take those from me!
I was about to ring the bell by grabbing hold of the cord under the clapper before I halted myself.
''Maybe you should do this Vel, lest they faint when they open the door.'' I sighed.
''It's Velariah. And sure, but I can’t do this every time.''
Yeah, yeah, whatever.
At least when the door opened the old farmer standing in the door didn’t suffer a heart attack when he saw Velariah.
The white-haired elf started the conversation and eventually I was able to join in when he seemed to have calmed down a bit after seeing my tag. He told us the field next to the forest was cursed and his goats went crazy when they were last put in that field. We received permission to use one of the goats in an attempt to pinpoint where this supposed demon could be found.
As long as we stayed out of the forest, we should be fine is what Velariah had said. I wanted to believe her but I still felt uneasy when I lead the goat into this field on a leash. The goat really didn't seem affected by anything as we lead it around the field which made me wonder if this demon thing was a hoax.
Velariah was walking in front of the animal with her sword drawn in a defensive stance. This whole ordeal must have been a hilarious sight. A female knight with a sword drawn followed by a spider-lady walking her goat. What a joke.
We reached the outer fence of the field on the border of the forest. I kept my eyes on the ground looking for any irregularities.
I was maybe a little too occupied looking at common grass when the leash tugged. Apparently, the goat was eating something from just outside the field. It had its head stuck out through the fence, in some kind of berry bush.
Get back here you stupid goat.
I tugged the leash pulling the animal back.
What were those berries anyway? I had never seen them before. They looked like cherries, but they were a lighter shade of red and not transparent at all. To be fair they looked like those small tomatoes, maybe they were edible?
''Velariah, could you take this goat for a sec, I got something I need to check out.''
''Got a clue yet?'' She approached with her sword aimed at the fence. If anything jumped inside, she would be ready.
''Nope, but I wanna see what these berries are.''
''No clue.''
They looked fairly appetizing. I broke one of the berries apart to take a closer look at the inside.
Well, that was not what I expected. There was almost nothing to eat, it was just two large beige seeds in a peel. That was disappointing.
Hold on. These seeds reminded me of something. I pulled one out and took a closer look. The distinct shape of the seed resembled a coffee bean, there was no mistaking it. weren't they supposed to be brown, though?
''You almost done playing there?'' Velariah was impatiently tapping her foot. Well, as good as tapping on grass got anyway. No tapping sound could be heard, it made her look silly.
''I think I may have found the ''demon''.'' I replied.
''A berry? You must be drunk.''
''Nope, I think these berries may be the reason the goats were possessed.'' I made sure to emphasize the last word to make it known that the whole possession thing was grossly exaggerated.
''If my intuition is correct, these berries are of a kind that give you a lot of energy.''
''Why would you use berries, we have potions for that?'' Velariah was laughing it off.
''Because you can make a delicious drink from these known as coffee.''
I hoped I was right, the color had me wondering and when I broke one of the ''beans'' apart it didn't exactly smell like how I had expected it to smell. Maybe that would come after ''roasting'' them? I doubted I had miscalculated this. From all the info we were given there was no chance that I screwed this one up.
Goats running in circles all day and the fact that these beans were an exact copy of the coffee beans that I had seen in far too many coffee commercials (except for the color) could only mean one thing: I had struck gold. Dark delicious gold.
The only problem was that I had no idea how coffee was made, damn. Would it be as simple as simply roasting the bean, then grinding it and adding water through a filter? I was going to find out for sure! Coffee was the drink of the gods, after all. I couldn't function without starting the day with coffee, at least back home...
''So, there's no demon?'' Velariah half stated, half questioned.
''Nope, just a few goats with too much energy because of these.'' I held up one of the ''beans''.
I was getting excited, even before drinking coffee. This was so unlike me. I was always told there was a certain thrill in making your own stuff. It's one of the aspects that had led me to watch those survival shows on TV when I was younger. The satisfaction of creating your own goods and shelter had drawn me to it. Now, I was actually going to find out how to make coffee, I had to!
''So, can we consider this quest completed?'' She was leaning against the fence now as I started gathering more of the berried.
''Yes, yes, you can tell the farmer that there is no such thing as a demon. He won't need a treemender or anything. If these get eaten, they will just go hyper mode for hours.'' I paused before curling my lips in a smile.
''Actually, tell him to start planting these beans. I have a feeling they will be very popular very soon. Also, give me your pack please, we're going to make coffee.''
She detached her pack and I filled it with the berries I had collected so far before she ran off to the farmstead to talk about our findings. I frantically started harvesting and fulling up the leather pack, soon flooding the potions and money poach with the fruits containing the coffee beans. I was going to need a fair amount to experiment.
There was a large amount of these berry bushes to be found at the edge of the forest but I knew that eventually we were going to need more. I had no idea how to grow these things but if they managed to grow here, I guessed the climate would be fine. I did think they would need a certain amount of shade judging from where they grew.
Coffee, hamburgers, mayonnaise, ketchup, possibilities were going to be far and wide. I only hoped I wouldn't be too distracted trying to get some good ol' quality food and drink back into my life. I was going to be an adventurer after all! Or at least trying to be one. I just couldn't let this coffee thing slip by.
I had almost filled up the pack completely when Velariah returned. Her sudden voice made me jump in reaction as I was too focused on collecting these ''cherries''.
''Elania, next time, take the quest paper with you.''
Oh, so what was a thing. Didn't know that.
'"Also, you do realize that goat is eating those hyper berries, right?''
Oopsie, I was too lost to even notice what was going on around me. It appeared I had dropped the leash and the goat was happily eating those berries.
''That goat ain't gonna sleep tonight, that’s for sure.'' I laughed. ''Yeah, I'm almost done here, we should take the goat back.''
'"Are you okay?'' Velariah asked. ''You seem like you struck gold.'' She tilted her head and eyed me warily''
''That's because I have!'' I happily exclaimed. ''You will see!''
She gave me a quick glance that said something like: "alright, show me''.
''Alright, show me.''
Hah, I knew it.
''Chill, it probably won't be that great, at least not the first try. I have no idea how it's done exactly; I only know the very crude basics.''
With my treasure chest filled we delivered the goat back to the farmer explaining to him that this goat in particular was probably going to be hyperactive soon and told him that it was nothing to worry about. In case he was doubting if what I told him was true, we explained that he could easily verify it for himself by feeding these particular berries to his animals.
Since we didn't bring the quest paper with us for him to put his signature on, he was forced to make a stop by the guild sometime to report our success. When I asked Velariah it turned out that the idea was to bring the quest paper with you for the quest giver to sign after completion. In case of monster extermination quests where the quest giver would not be present you would have to take parts of the felled animal or monster with you as proof. That seemed quite reasonable.
This did mean however, that my payment would be delayed, I wasn't even sure how much the quest would reward until I actually asked the old man. It turned out to be two silvers which seemed a bit low, but then again, we didn't have to actually do any work.
I guessed everything was a bit low compared to the three gold coins that I still had. I would need to get my rank up and get some more combat experience, maybe some training, not necessarily in that order.
Training would be the safe way to go for. I would have gone for that route normally I had to admit. The thing was that with Velariah in my ''party'' I felt like we should have no issue with the easier quests. I would still have to get armor and getting any money buffer would allow me to get any training I wanted later. it's not like I was completely defenseless, far from it. As long as enemies were as dumb or dumber than a troll, I reckoned we would be alright.
With that we walked back to Velariah's home. I kept the pack close to my chest the entire walk and held it firmly. I was not going to lose this treasure box of gold!
When we arrived at her home, Elly had opened the door and curiously followed the ''chest'' to the dinner table. Valtheril was also present and sitting at the head of the table, reviewing documents and signing others. He too seemed to be drawn in the leather pack that was bulging because of how much I had filled it with ''cherries''.
Velariah would have the rest of her trials in a few hours, we had finished the demon quest pretty quickly which was going to help quite a bit. Elly would also be helping out, she had brought a large bowl from the kitchen that we would use to deposit the ''beans'' in after separating them from their shell. Extra sets of hands were going to be useful with this labor intense task.
Hah, extra sets of hands, nice one.
I giggled at my own joke, shame on me. The three elves had looked at me with frowns when I did, so I quickly went to work and pretended nothing happened.
Peeling these stupid berries turned out to be a blessing in disguise in some way. Yes, I had four hands. No, I was not able to use them all properly for separate actions at the same time. Pulling out the beans from the cherries started out slowly for me, but as time went on, my hand eye coordination improved drastically.
I felt like a certain kid from a certain movie that learned how to do karate by painting fences and waxing cars. I never would have expected a mundane task like this to allow me to control my new limbs so much better than before.
I think we managed to finish within an hour. The bowl had a nice heap of coffee beans and Elly and Velariah were both looking rather tired from all the peeling. Valtheril had already left the building after wishing us luck with ''whatever experiment'' we were doing.
He would learn soon enough too.
''Now what?'' Velariah had asked, while she and Elly were both staring at me with expectation in their eyes.
''Honestly, I have no idea.''
1.13 Hyper goats = Dark gold
Hmmmm, that was some top-quality sleep I got.
Shame Velariah was rudely knocking on the door with complete disregard.
'Just five more minutes, please.'
''Elania? Breakfast is served.'' Velariah sounded all energetic.
No rest for the wicked, eh?
''Coming...'' I said as I yawned at the same time, stretching my arms.
I got up from the pillow nest and clapped my hands, illuminating the room. There were no windows so I had no indication of what time it was. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, Velariah had been there to wake me up.
I walked over to the sink and let the water run, it seemed there was only one temperature of water coming from this faucet and it was freezing cold, Yikes.
I washed my face and brushed my hair at the same time.
Look at me, I am super mom, doing all the things at once.
It seemed my hand eye coordination had improved quite a bit since coming here. The slight slipup from yesterday with the lights was an example of one of the few mistakes I would still make.
I picked up the same shirt I had tried on yesterday and put it back on. I checked the mirror to make sure that I was presentable, not that it mattered after how I looked yesterday but still. I seemed to be in high company after all. When I was happy with the results, I made my way over to the dining area.
Velariah was already in full armor. She waited behind a plate of freshly baked bread with what looked like a jar of jam in the middle of the table. A boiled egg sat in an egg cup at the side. On the other side she had a cup of tea. I assumed it was tea because of the color. I couldn't imagine anything else with the same distinct color and tea should be fairly easy to get your hands on. It seems the same was waiting for me on the other side of the table.
The smell of fresh bread was unmistakable, it lured me in from afar, and even if I wasn't hungry fresh bread would always find a way to my heart, erm, stomach, maybe both.
It seems Velariah hadn’t exactly thought this through. It was quite obvious to see the embarrassment on her face when I moved the chairs out of the way to get to the table. Her face became at least three tints redder. Nice going there, Vel!
At least I would be able to decide for myself at what height I wanted to ''sit'' at the table, even when there was no sitting involved. No more would people look down on me, hah!
The bread sat in the middle of the table on a chopping block but two slices had already been cut off and were waiting on a plate. I had to know what this jam looking substance was. If it was what I thought it was Velariah knew how to win my heart.
I scooped out a bit with a knife and put it on the bread before putting a finger on it and bringing it to my mouth.
Jackpot.
Strawberries were amazing, strawberry jam even more so.
''I believed you would like King Berries so I had Elly buy us a jar.'' Velariah smiled as I was hastily spreading more of the jelly goodness on my slices of bread.
''King berries? So, that's what they are called here. We call them strawberries.'' I replied before I took a large bite out of a slice.
''Strawberries, huh? What a weird name.''
I raised a finger in objection before I realized that there was nothing to say about the matter. They simply called it King berries. We called it strawberries, I had no idea why either. At least it wasn't something stupid like eye berry. I referred to the ''eyes'' that a strawberry had just like how ''tree hardfruit'' referred to the fact that a coconut was a pretty tough nut to crack. Wait, why did we call it a nut again?
I cut off another slice of bread and chopped up the egg on top of it.
'This would be even better with mayonnaise' I thought as I continued eating.
One of these days I would really have to work on that.
The tea wasn't as good as I had hoped for, even with sugar added it still didn't come close to even the supermarket tea that I had known. What a letdown. I drank it without complaint, not wanting to upset my gracious hostess.
''Where's Valtheril?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence of breakfast.
Velariah had already finished a bit ago and was working on her tea as well.
''He left a while ago; he is a busy man you know.''
Yeah, I had figured as much. He would probably be especially busy working on covering things up and finding out how that unlucky adventurer had gotten his hands on a square black coin.
"I see.'' I said as I drank the last of the tea. ''So where is this trial of yours going to be?''
''Market square.'' She said as she stood up.
''What? In the middle of the village? You joking?'' I frowned.
''Sure, there's trials every last day of the week. Stores are closed as well and there's a fair amount of people interested in watching and trying to learn.''
Oh, so that's why we didn't go armor shopping. She could have mentioned the fact that the stores were closed. I hadn't thought there would be so much public interest in these so-called trials. The thought of a large mass of people was a bit frightening but I had already decided to watch her for myself, no turning back on that now.
We were about to leave when I did my usual check. Phone, nope, keys, nope. Wait, my tag! Oops, good thing I checked too often.
I walked back into the bathroom, fished my tag from the sink and put it around my neck over my crimson shirt. I checked again if I missed anything. I shouldn't need my weapons, not for now. I guessed it would be better optics if I watched the trials without having weapons at the ready.
I walked back to Velariah who was eagerly waiting to leave.
''Let's go, we're gonna run late.'' she was practically jumping in anticipation.
''It's literally a two-minute walk.'' I sighed.
''Still!'' She replied.
Oh, she sure was excited.
Alright, let's get this show on the road.
We arrived at the market area not much later. I got the usual looks and stares that I was slowly getting used to. The tag did seem to prevent anyone from even trying to do anything funny, neat. That was the effect that I was looking for, after all.
The stands had been moved towards the stores that bordered the square and it appeared a few elves were already sparring with each other. I saw all kinds of armor, weapons and even saw some magic spells fly through the air. How did they manage to not hurt people when using magic? I mean, disarming your opponent was one thing, but disarming them with magic looked like an impossible task to me. I didn't think magic was intended for disarming in the first place.
Well, this was going to be interesting.
There were indeed quite a few people watching these duels.
The duels themselves seemed to be in in large circles that seemed to be chalked on the ground. These circles were about five meters in diameter and it seemed that the rules were pretty simple. Incapacitate your opponent or force them out of the circle to win. That would be a good way to win with magic I figured.
As soon as we got there an elf in large red satin robes with a small silver rod in hand called out for her. He seemed to be the organizer of the whole thing.
Among the crowd I also saw the Lore keeper from the guild earlier with a large book in hand. It appeared she scribbled some lines down with a pencil every now and then. Yeah, pencils would probably be the way to go. Quills seemed like a terrible hassle in such a crowd and not on a desk.
I assumed she was writing down how well each contestant performed, she worked for the guild after all.
Oh, I see what was happening. There was a very young elf, I guessed about 16 years old waiting in one of the circles. He was standing there in average day clothing, no armor, nothing. All he had was a rusty short sword.
Now here came the fun part.
Velariah entered the ring.
That was it.
That was literally it, the guy instantly forfeited and ran away in fear. I actually cupped my head in my palm.
The good thing was that I could stand wherever I wanted and I could still easily observe what was going on. I towered over all the other elves. Ah, this would be ideal for concerts... I imagined. It was not like I ever went to concerts...
The second challenger stepped into the circle. The guy also seemed to not have a lot of experience or armor. At least he didn’t have a rusty sword. He used a spear but was disarmed within seconds and yielded. I couldn't even get a look at his face before it was over.
Was this even a trial? This was utter humiliation, for them.
The next was an elven woman, an archer from the looks of the large bow she had in her hands.
When she nocked an arrow, I could see it was tipped with cork. Ok, so that was this worlds equivalent of a rubber bullet it seemed. Velariah stood there as an arrow hit her in the chest. What was this about?
Instead of charging at the elven archer, Velariah gave a thumbs up signal to the Lore keeper.
What?
Then she charged at the archer with her sword and had it at her chin while she was still in the process of drawing a second arrow. Velariah then gave a thumbs down signal to the Lore keeper who eagerly scribbled.
I would have to ask her what was up with that.
The next spar seemed like it was actually going to be the first interesting one. The white-haired elf's next opponent actually had a shining set of armor. He walked up in full harness and longsword. He seemed tough with all that on.
He was, but he was also slow. Velariah due to being somewhat lighter armored managed to easily dodge every slash blow and stab that was thrown at her, before responding with her own that seemed to do almost nothing because of all the armor.
Velariah was actually getting pushed back to the edge of the circle. Was she going to lose?
Nope, she wasn't.
She rolled under a swing and just butted him with her shoulder, pushing the guy outside of the circle, what a sick bait.
Well, that's one way to win. Using your brain seemed solid. Technically, that’s how the both of us defeated the Saibon boar as well.
Velariah sheathed her sword and walked over to me while being cheered on by the crowd.
''That was...'' I began as she stood in front of me. ''Interesting to say the least.''
''Yeah, that was actually easier than expected, I think my next opponent is going to be mid-ranked silver.''
''Oh.'' I raised my eyebrows, ''Then what were those guys?''
''I believe the first guy was low ranked copper, the second guy mid-ranked iron, the archer was high-ranked iron, and the last guy was low-ranked silver.
Yeah, the first guy I could have guessed, he seemed like the kind of person that would have to take the quests to find lost kittens. The second person was heavily outclassed. The archer fight I wasn't sure about what I witnessed.
''What was up with the archer, anyway. What was that theatre?'' I asked her.
''It's just a test of your armor, really. That's the gesture I gave to the lorekeeper. That arrow would not have pierced my armor in that place. From there, it's a test of how far you can close the distance to an archer. She didn’t get to nock a second arrow and fire so I ''won''. It also serves as some sort of training to the archers in the guild for combat situations. Archer testing for the guild is mostly done by Allina's squad. These trials aren't for them.''
What a bunch of information but I guessed it make sense. It would be hard to test archers in such a confined space.
''When's your next match?'' I asked.
''I think it's in a few hours, let me ask the organizer.''
She walked over to the man in red and exchanged a few words before returning.
''Yeah, it's about four hours from now. Let's go check out that goat guy. But psst, don't tell anyone, I'm not technically a member yet.''
Huh, that was interesting.
''Yeah, but you're with me so it should be fine.''
'Well, thank you very much.' I sarcastically thought.
''What are you waiting for, let's go.''
Oh, it seems she had already walked ahead and I was lost in thought. I quickly caught up to the way too energetic elf, what had gotten into her? Was it a demon as well? Now that would be ironic.
We left the square and walked towards the southern village exit. The streets were mostly empty, it appeared most of the populace was gathered in the center staring at either the spars going on, or me. I actually saw a few people leave as soon as Velariah and I went on our way. Don't tell me they were there just for me? That was just creepy. Joke's on them though, I already had my tag!
We followed the cobblestone road for as long as we could. Eventually we had to take a small dirt road that led to a farmstead that bordered the forest. It seemed the fields closest to the forest were currently unoccupied because of the demon's curse. In the other fields I saw a variety of goats, sheep and cows. It seemed there were young animals frolicking around which warmed my heart. Baby goats were the cutest! I would not let a demon take those from me!
I was about to ring the bell by grabbing hold of the cord under the clapper before I halted myself.
''Maybe you should do this Vel, lest they faint when they open the door.'' I sighed.
''It's Velariah. And sure, but I can’t do this every time.''
Yeah, yeah, whatever.
At least when the door opened the old farmer standing in the door didn’t suffer a heart attack when he saw Velariah.
The white-haired elf started the conversation and eventually I was able to join in when he seemed to have calmed down a bit after seeing my tag. He told us the field next to the forest was cursed and his goats went crazy when they were last put in that field. We received permission to use one of the goats in an attempt to pinpoint where this supposed demon could be found.
As long as we stayed out of the forest, we should be fine is what Velariah had said. I wanted to believe her but I still felt uneasy when I lead the goat into this field on a leash. The goat really didn't seem affected by anything as we lead it around the field which made me wonder if this demon thing was a hoax.
Velariah was walking in front of the animal with her sword drawn in a defensive stance. This whole ordeal must have been a hilarious sight. A female knight with a sword drawn followed by a spider-lady walking her goat. What a joke.
We reached the outer fence of the field on the border of the forest. I kept my eyes on the ground looking for any irregularities.
I was maybe a little too occupied looking at common grass when the leash tugged. Apparently, the goat was eating something from just outside the field. It had its head stuck out through the fence, in some kind of berry bush.
Get back here you stupid goat.
I tugged the leash pulling the animal back.
What were those berries anyway? I had never seen them before. They looked like cherries, but they were a lighter shade of red and not transparent at all. To be fair they looked like those small tomatoes, maybe they were edible?
''Velariah, could you take this goat for a sec, I got something I need to check out.''
''Got a clue yet?'' She approached with her sword aimed at the fence. If anything jumped inside, she would be ready.
''Nope, but I wanna see what these berries are.''
''No clue.''
They looked fairly appetizing. I broke one of the berries apart to take a closer look at the inside.
Well, that was not what I expected. There was almost nothing to eat, it was just two large beige seeds in a peel. That was disappointing.
Hold on. These seeds reminded me of something. I pulled one out and took a closer look. The distinct shape of the seed resembled a coffee bean, there was no mistaking it. weren't they supposed to be brown, though?
''You almost done playing there?'' Velariah was impatiently tapping her foot. Well, as good as tapping on grass got anyway. No tapping sound could be heard, it made her look silly.
''I think I may have found the ''demon''.'' I replied.
''A berry? You must be drunk.''
''Nope, I think these berries may be the reason the goats were possessed.'' I made sure to emphasize the last word to make it known that the whole possession thing was grossly exaggerated.
''If my intuition is correct, these berries are of a kind that give you a lot of energy.''
''Why would you use berries, we have potions for that?'' Velariah was laughing it off.
''Because you can make a delicious drink from these known as coffee.''
I hoped I was right, the color had me wondering and when I broke one of the ''beans'' apart it didn't exactly smell like how I had expected it to smell. Maybe that would come after ''roasting'' them? I doubted I had miscalculated this. From all the info we were given there was no chance that I screwed this one up.
Goats running in circles all day and the fact that these beans were an exact copy of the coffee beans that I had seen in far too many coffee commercials (except for the color) could only mean one thing: I had struck gold. Dark delicious gold.
The only problem was that I had no idea how coffee was made, damn. Would it be as simple as simply roasting the bean, then grinding it and adding water through a filter? I was going to find out for sure! Coffee was the drink of the gods, after all. I couldn't function without starting the day with coffee, at least back home...
''So, there's no demon?'' Velariah half stated, half questioned.
''Nope, just a few goats with too much energy because of these.'' I held up one of the ''beans''.
I was getting excited, even before drinking coffee. This was so unlike me. I was always told there was a certain thrill in making your own stuff. It's one of the aspects that had led me to watch those survival shows on TV when I was younger. The satisfaction of creating your own goods and shelter had drawn me to it. Now, I was actually going to find out how to make coffee, I had to!
''So, can we consider this quest completed?'' She was leaning against the fence now as I started gathering more of the berried.
''Yes, yes, you can tell the farmer that there is no such thing as a demon. He won't need a treemender or anything. If these get eaten, they will just go hyper mode for hours.'' I paused before curling my lips in a smile.
''Actually, tell him to start planting these beans. I have a feeling they will be very popular very soon. Also, give me your pack please, we're going to make coffee.''
She detached her pack and I filled it with the berries I had collected so far before she ran off to the farmstead to talk about our findings. I frantically started harvesting and fulling up the leather pack, soon flooding the potions and money poach with the fruits containing the coffee beans. I was going to need a fair amount to experiment.
There was a large amount of these berry bushes to be found at the edge of the forest but I knew that eventually we were going to need more. I had no idea how to grow these things but if they managed to grow here, I guessed the climate would be fine. I did think they would need a certain amount of shade judging from where they grew.
Coffee, hamburgers, mayonnaise, ketchup, possibilities were going to be far and wide. I only hoped I wouldn't be too distracted trying to get some good ol' quality food and drink back into my life. I was going to be an adventurer after all! Or at least trying to be one. I just couldn't let this coffee thing slip by.
I had almost filled up the pack completely when Velariah returned. Her sudden voice made me jump in reaction as I was too focused on collecting these ''cherries''.
''Elania, next time, take the quest paper with you.''
Oh, so what was a thing. Didn't know that.
'"Also, you do realize that goat is eating those hyper berries, right?''
Oopsie, I was too lost to even notice what was going on around me. It appeared I had dropped the leash and the goat was happily eating those berries.
''That goat ain't gonna sleep tonight, that’s for sure.'' I laughed. ''Yeah, I'm almost done here, we should take the goat back.''
'"Are you okay?'' Velariah asked. ''You seem like you struck gold.'' She tilted her head and eyed me warily''
''That's because I have!'' I happily exclaimed. ''You will see!''
She gave me a quick glance that said something like: "alright, show me''.
''Alright, show me.''
Hah, I knew it.
''Chill, it probably won't be that great, at least not the first try. I have no idea how it's done exactly; I only know the very crude basics.''
With my treasure chest filled we delivered the goat back to the farmer explaining to him that this goat in particular was probably going to be hyperactive soon and told him that it was nothing to worry about. In case he was doubting if what I told him was true, we explained that he could easily verify it for himself by feeding these particular berries to his animals.
Since we didn't bring the quest paper with us for him to put his signature on, he was forced to make a stop by the guild sometime to report our success. When I asked Velariah it turned out that the idea was to bring the quest paper with you for the quest giver to sign after completion. In case of monster extermination quests where the quest giver would not be present you would have to take parts of the felled animal or monster with you as proof. That seemed quite reasonable.
This did mean however, that my payment would be delayed, I wasn't even sure how much the quest would reward until I actually asked the old man. It turned out to be two silvers which seemed a bit low, but then again, we didn't have to actually do any work.
I guessed everything was a bit low compared to the three gold coins that I still had. I would need to get my rank up and get some more combat experience, maybe some training, not necessarily in that order.
Training would be the safe way to go for. I would have gone for that route normally I had to admit. The thing was that with Velariah in my ''party'' I felt like we should have no issue with the easier quests. I would still have to get armor and getting any money buffer would allow me to get any training I wanted later. it's not like I was completely defenseless, far from it. As long as enemies were as dumb or dumber than a troll, I reckoned we would be alright.
With that we walked back to Velariah's home. I kept the pack close to my chest the entire walk and held it firmly. I was not going to lose this treasure box of gold!
When we arrived at her home, Elly had opened the door and curiously followed the ''chest'' to the dinner table. Valtheril was also present and sitting at the head of the table, reviewing documents and signing others. He too seemed to be drawn in the leather pack that was bulging because of how much I had filled it with ''cherries''.
Velariah would have the rest of her trials in a few hours, we had finished the demon quest pretty quickly which was going to help quite a bit. Elly would also be helping out, she had brought a large bowl from the kitchen that we would use to deposit the ''beans'' in after separating them from their shell. Extra sets of hands were going to be useful with this labor intense task.
Hah, extra sets of hands, nice one.
I giggled at my own joke, shame on me. The three elves had looked at me with frowns when I did, so I quickly went to work and pretended nothing happened.
Peeling these stupid berries turned out to be a blessing in disguise in some way. Yes, I had four hands. No, I was not able to use them all properly for separate actions at the same time. Pulling out the beans from the cherries started out slowly for me, but as time went on, my hand eye coordination improved drastically.
I felt like a certain kid from a certain movie that learned how to do karate by painting fences and waxing cars. I never would have expected a mundane task like this to allow me to control my new limbs so much better than before.
I think we managed to finish within an hour. The bowl had a nice heap of coffee beans and Elly and Velariah were both looking rather tired from all the peeling. Valtheril had already left the building after wishing us luck with ''whatever experiment'' we were doing.
He would learn soon enough too.
''Now what?'' Velariah had asked, while she and Elly were both staring at me with expectation in their eyes.
''Honestly, I have no idea.''
