Adam gasped for air and his hand shot up towards the ceiling. He stared at it in alarm as his heart pounded wildly within his chest. He looked about himself.

‘Oh…’ he thought, ‘I’m still in the guild.’

His head felt dull, like a blade that had been swung too many times. His heart continued to pound as he slipped out of his heavy blanket and then placed his feet onto the wooden floor. The cold shot through his soles straight into his soul, awakening him from his heavy slumber as he let out a little yelp and then looked down at the floor suspiciously. Too cold.

He looked about the room to see if anything was off about it.

PERCEPTION
D20 (3) - WISE (1) = 2
FAILURE

Everything was exactly where he had left it. He checked his body to see that it was free of blemishes and the wounds he had received from the bear had all but vanished.

‘Cool…’

He changed into the clothes he had left to dry, recalling that he had other clothes he still needed to receive from Albert. He supposed he needed to get that done today.

Oh right, the duel.

“Tomorrow,” he whispered to himself. “The duel is tomorrow. I have quite a bit of time for myself today…”

Oh right, the level up.

“Whoa.”

He looked deep into his status to see just how much had changed. His health pool had increased tremendously, only just recalling one of his wishes.

HEALTH
44/44

‘That’s a lot of health.’

Adam grinned to himself. Fighting, and almost dying to, that bear had been a great boon. Perhaps he wouldn’t have been here any longer if he had gotten slightly unlucky, but with this much health he didn’t need to be quite so cautious. Then a thought crossed his mind.

How powerful was Alten?

Alten was apparently the son of the Captain of the soldiers. It was quite a mouthful, but he wondered if Alten was much stronger.

How strong was the Captain of the soldiers?

He shook his head. There was no point in thinking of such things as he had an entire day to himself to take a rest and test out his abilities. He wondered if Jurot was about, and slipping into his heavy chain, he thought whether or not he should head out to complete another quest and then level again. Even if he levelled into a magical class, the health bonus would help him. Plus he could always level into wizard and see what he received at second level, for there may be some things that could help him out that wouldn’t be considered overtly magical.

Adam lumbered down the stairs to reveal to all his arrival. He caught a few glances from the nearby adventurers, many of whom threw a nod his way, and he was completely ignored by the dwarf girl.

“Morning,” Adam said to Emma who was at the desk this morning.

“Good morning,” she replied. “Did you have a nice sleep?” Her eyes glinted with something beyond just the question of the quality of his sleep.

“It was fine,” Adam replied. The sleep hadn’t been good, it hadn’t even been bad, it was just fine.

Emma nodded and then smiled at him. She waited a long moment and Adam smiled awkwardly in return.

‘Is she going to-’

“What’s this about a duel?” Emma smiled with a smile that was not a smile but the disapproving look of a mother.

‘She did.’

“Well,” Adam began as he lost the next few words under the intense scrutiny of her gaze. “Yes. A duel. A duel with Alten.”

“I’ve heard. I’m sorry about what he said to you in the guild. I hope you know that you’re always welcome at the guild. We don’t care about what race you are, we just care about whether or not you can completely the quests you choose. Speaking of…”

Emma left Adam waiting at the desk. He looked around to see some awkward glances his way and he nodded his head and threw out an empty smile towards them as he tapped his fingers over onto the hard wood. The desk had been made of red oak, though he supposed that made sense.

Emma returned with an envelope and then opened it up to reveal a letter. Her eyes scanned the letter and then she placed it back into the envelope and it disappeared under the desk.

“First let’s begin with the matter of failing a quest. Usually you would pay a fee if you take a quest and return with it incomplete. There are some quests in which the fee is waived, as it is in the quest for gathering herbs.”

“Right, sorry about that.”

Emma shook her head. “It’s alright. We can understand why you perhaps didn’t complete the quest. You mentioned you had slain a black bear, but unfortunately as we can’t verify that and so we won’t be able to reward you.”

“Yeah, I assumed.”

“You did slay a brown bear, however.”

“Yes, I did.”

Emma nodded and smiled, that was to say, an actual smile. “You have been awarded the bounty of slaying a brown bear. That comes to a sum of fifty gold pieces for the bear. There was also the matter of the meat that you had handed over, which comes to a sum of four gold pieces, and we have saved you some meat to do with as you please. Margh can cook that for you this morning if you’d like.”

“I’d would love that, yes,” Adam said. “A meal for myself, a meal for Jurot, and a meal for James.”

“That will be arranged. Then there is the matter of the pelt. We have managed to finish skinning it, and since you’re a copper rank, we will be taking half and paying you for that portion. Once you’re iron rank, that rule changes to a quarter, and then when you are bronze, we no longer require taking any amount and the bounty will remain your own.”

Adam nodded his head. He would have preferred to have kept all the pelt but if those were the rules then those were the rules.

“The sum of that comes to six gold pieces, and so the total for that is sixty gold pieces. I can hand you that in a mixture of coinage and gems if you prefer.”

Adam straightened his head. “Gems?”

“That’s right.”

Adam stared at Emma for a moment. He did need gems for something, he wondered if perhaps he could manage that now. He leaned in towards the red-haired receptionist.

“Is there any way I could get gem powder?”

Emma nodded her head.

“Then could I get twenty golds worth of gem in powdered form, then three gems worth about ten gold each, and the last ten gold I would like as nine gold, nine silver, ten copper.”

“We can facilitate such a request,” Emma said with a smile. “We will need to charge you two silver for the process of the special gems.”

Adam nodded and pulled back as Emma left to go retrieve such items.

Finally! He could finally summon a fam-

…

SPELLS AVAILABLE
Alarm, Mage Familiar, Magic Arrows, Sleep, Shield

Finally! He could finally summon a familiar!

Adam’s fingers drummed along the desk gleefully. Having a familiar would make life so much easier, especially during the nights, and of course scouting out, in fights, though he wasn’t sure just how close he wanted his familiar in case it was defeated.

‘I could use the dust to make a magical weapon…’ The thought flashed across his mind for just a moment before it fell away. ‘No… I don’t have enough.’

Emma returned with a box, as well as a sack. His sack. Within the box there were two small pouches made of leather, three small black gems that were smooth and round like coins, and then the coinage he had requested minus the fee.

CURRENCY
36 Gold
22 Silver
23 Copper
3x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

He checked within the sack to see a ton of bear fur as well as some bones.

“Did you have a plan for the bear fur?”

“I was thinking about making a cloak,” he said as he looked at how much bear fur there was. He could probably make a half cloak, that might look pretty cool over his armour.

With that the bell rang for breakfast and Jurot appeared with it.

“Adam!” he exclaimed out and sauntered over.

“Good morning, Jurot,” Adam said. “How did you sleep?”

“I slept well and you?”

“I slept alright.”

“I have heard that you are about to duel!”

Adam smiled and then began to explain what had occurred the day before. Jurot’s face had turned completely red and he tore into his bread with great rage. Adam couldn’t help but feel slightly worried for the bread, though watched as Jurot almost choked before the barbarian gulped the bread down with his ale.

“Such dishonour!” Jurot roared as he tore into some more bread.

“That’s why I’ll be winning the duel,” Adam said.

Jurot’s face slowly shifted into something less angry, but not quite fine. It looked as though he was holding in a fart.

“You will win?” Jurot asked.

“Of course,” Adam replied with a chuckle.

Jurot nodded. “You had slain a brown bear?”

“I did.”

Jurot’s face turned to a look as though he was holding in a poop. “Without me?”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just sort of did.”

Jurot grumbled and drank some more ale.

“I did invite you,” Adam smiled. “Then we would have both defeated the brown bear.”

Jurot continued to remain a stroppy little thing.

“Plus I wasn’t able to find any herbs by myself,” Adam sighed, “I don’t have that kind of skill.”

Jurot looked up to Adam with a curious gaze. “You do not have the skill to find herbs? You are an elf.”

Adam raised his brows. “I’m half and elf.”

Jurot nodded his head as though that explained anything.

Adam went about finishing his scrambled eggs and toast before the guild doors opened and James appeared in his red outfit. He was panting and covered in sweat, slinking his way towards the front desk where Emma handed the little boy a cup of water. James drunk it down in a couple of gulps and sighed, dropping down onto a seat nearby. Emma whispered something over to James, who dragged himself up and then went to grab onto a tray that was covered in two slabs of fried meat. He carefully brought it over towards Adam and Jurot.

“Thank you,” Adam said as he slipped down a copper piece towards James.

James snatched it off the table and stood up straighter. He grinned towards Adam with a toothy smile and then nodded his head, turning and then rushing off before returning after a moment when he had forgotten something.

“You’re welcome,” he said before he was off to Margh once more and then sat down to eat. This time he was given quite the surprise and he poked at the meat. He looked at it with great delight and then he rushed back towards Adam and held out the copper.

“Thank you for the meat, mister Adam.”

Adam waved a hand to dismiss the coin. “Don’t worry about it, it’s just a thank you from my part.”

James stared awkwardly at Adam with a quivering lip and his eyes narrowed. He was obviously unsure of what to do.

“You should get going,” Adam said, “the food will get cold if you wait for too long.”

With that James was gone ready to eat. Adam chuckled as he looked to Jurot.

“You have offered me meat?” Jurot asked.

“Of course,” Adam said with a nod.

Jurot narrowed his eyes.

Adam kept smiling.

“Thank you,” Jurot said.

With that Adam cut into the bear meat and then took a bite into it. He winced from the intense flavour of the meat, which flooded deep into Adam’s tongue. There was a sharp flavour to it, and it wasn’t quite as fatty as he expected it. Luckily it was heavily salted and the amount of spices that had been used allowed the meat to taste… fine. Adam continued to chew the tough meat, which was quite some work.

Jurot was ravenous as he tore into the meat and he closed his eyes as he ate it. He chewed quickly and then swallowed it right away before he chased it down with some ale.

“The bear loved to eat fish,” he said as he continued to eat.

Adam looked at Jurot with furrowed brows. “It loved to eat fish? You could tell.”

Jurot nodded. “This bear loved to eat fish. This is the flavour of such a bear.”

“Do bears usually taste different?”

“Some do,” he nodded. “When they are young they taste much better. It is the fruit they eat.”

“Right…”

Adam looked over to see James was making all sorts of faces as he ate the meat, as though he was currently being exorcised. Sometimes Margh would look over and he’d straighten up and then freeze in place, staring at the woman for a long while, before she’d go back to work and he’d continue the exorcism.

Adam made a mental note of not keeping any bear meat unless it was a young bear.

With the sack in hand he decided he may as well go and check on Albert and Marnie. He’d head towards Marnie first, wanting that bear cloak to be done soon.

He knocked on the door.

“Adam?” Marnie called out.

Adam’s brows raised in surprise. “Yes?”

“Come in.”

Adam stepped into the store, the scent of various leathers hitting him in the face. Marnie was currently sewing a bag together, it was almost entirely pure black like the night.

“How did you know it was me?” Adam asked.

“No one else has ever knocked,” she said with a smile.

“Oh…” Adam flushed like a peach. ‘That’s embarrassing.’

“What are you looking for?” Marnie asked as he spied the giant sack.

“Do you by any chance work with bear fur?”

“I can.”

Adam opened up the sack and then revealed the mass of bear fur he had received. “I wanted a bear cloak.” He pulled out the fur and revealed the skull as well, and a few of the bones.

“For something like a cloak, Albert might be better than I. He’s used to making bear cloaks and that sort of thing.”

“Oh, alright.”

“I could make you something else with the bear skull, perhaps something to sit on top of your helmet?”

Adam looked at her.

That sounded so cool, but at the same time he knew it would look stupid on him. He thought of something else she could make with it.

“Perhaps not, but what about something like a shoulder pad?”

“It’s quite a heavy thing but…” she eyed up his body, “I’m sure you could handle it.” She smiled warmly towards the young man who blushed at her words.

“Well maybe… uh, could you make it so it was removable? Like with a belt of sorts?”

“Less of a shoulder pad and more of an item you could strap on to other items?”

“Yes please.”

She nodded her head. “It’ll cost you,” she said.

“That’s fine by me. How much?”

She reached for the bear skull and then turned it about. “I’ll need to treat it first so it’ll take some time. I’ll be done in a few days and it will cost you two gold pieces.”

“That sounds like a fair price to me,” Adam said as he slid her two gold pieces.

CURRENCY
34 Gold
22 Silver
23 Copper
3x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

“I’ll be done by the end of the week. Is there any leather you’d like?”

“Whatever you would recommend that is long lasting.”

She nodded and, with the transaction complete, he left.

He dragged his sack along towards the small shack with the dishevelled door that was still pining for attention. Adam knocked on it gently.

“Who is it?” Albert’s voice called out so dusky and angry.

“Adam,” he said, “the half-elf.”

“You’re late! Hurry it up!”

Adam stepped inside to see Albert was working on a long set of robes, black like the night.

“You were meant to be here last night,” Albert said.

“Sorry about that,” Adam smiled. “I nearly died and so had to take the night off to rest.”

Albert raised his brows.

Adam then pulled out the long bear fur and showed it to Albert. “Could you work on this?”

“Where did you get that?” Albert asked as he placed down the robes and crept up towards the bear fur as though it was still alive.

“It’s the reason why I had to take the night off.”

“A brown bear?”

“Yeah, I just about managed to slay it.”

“Tough elf, aren’t you?”

“Only half.”

“You want some work done with it?”

“That’s right. A cloak, please.”

Albert nodded and then brushed his hand through it. “I can do that.”

“How quickly?”

“A few days. I have some work to be done.”

“How much would the cloak cost?”

“You just want it fashions into a cloak?”

“That’s right.”

“I can call it a gold,” he said with a nod.

“Could you do it by tonight?”

Albert clicked his tongue against his teeth and narrowed his eyes. He chewed on his thoughts. He raised his brows towards the half-elf and shrugged.

“For a price, perhaps.”

“How much?”

“Another gold.”

“Done.”

Albert nodded. “Any special requests?”

“What kind of request could I ask for?”

“A special thread you’d like for me to use, an inner lining, do you want the bear skin coloured?”

Adam blinked. “Yes.” He thought for a long moment of what he’d like. “I want it to be red, and I want the inner cloth to look gold. I’d like the stitches to not be seen, if that’s alright.”

“That’ll cost you an extra three gold pieces.”

"Five total?”

“Five total.”

Adam handed the coins over without a second thought, it seemed like a fair price to him.

CURRENCY
29 Gold
22 Silver
23 Copper
3x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

He smiled to himself. “Tonight?”

“Tonight.”

With that, Adam received his second set of common clothes and then he left back to the guild. He whistled as he headed back, thinking of how cool the bear fur would look. Then he thought of treating himself and so tried to recall where the bakery was.

INTELLIGENCE
D20 (3) + SMART (4) = 7
FAILURE!

Unfortunately his memory wasn’t quite up to take as he spent close to a half hour walking around in a circle and peering through side streets.

Well that sucked.

Then he saw James rushing back towards the guild.

“James!” Adam called out.

James skid to a halt and his head snapped towards the sound before seeing Adam. He rushed up towards Adam and then panted for some air. Adam offered the boy some water, who quickly sipped some of the water and gave a quick thanks.

“Do you know where a bakery is?”

“A bakery? I know where one is.”

“I’m looking for a specific one,” Adam said as he went on to describe the bakery and then the girl.

“Pam,” James said. “I know where that bakery is.”

“Could you take me to it?”

James looked beyond Adam and then went to think for a moment.

“I’ll pay you two coppers.”

“Okay!”

Then James led Adam towards the bakery, though this time he made sure to commit that to memory. Then Adam was at the bakery, two copper pieces down.

CURRENCY
29 Gold
22 Silver
21 Copper
3x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

Adam stepped inside and was welcomed by the wonderful smell and, who he assumed, Pam. She looked up towards Adam and then a look of recognition fell across her eyes before she smiled.

“Good morning, how can I help you?”

“Morning,” Adam said. “I was hoping to buy some desserts.”

“What can I get you?” Pam asked as she pulled out a piece of parchment.

Adam looked about to see all kinds of pastries. There was an assortment of desserts, breads, pastries and the sort. “Do you have any of those doughnuts?”

“We do, how many would you like?”

“Five, a solid silver, right?”

“A silver that is.”

“Do you have any different fillings for those?”

“We do apples, strawberry and conk.”

Adam nodded his head. “Can I have a pair for apples and strawberries and one for conk.”

She wrapped up the doughnuts and he handed over a silver piece.

CURRENCY
29 Gold
21 Silver
21 Copper
3x Obsidian Disks (10G each)

He had wanted to talk to her, but he really wanted to figure out what conk was and so he thanked her and bid he a good bye, heading back to the guild. On the way there he picked up the doughnut and then brought it to his lip.

PERCEPTION
D20 (14) - WISE (1) = 13
SUCCESS!

Then he saw James rushing towards him, carrying with him some boxes. Adam stepped aside as James rushed through where he once stood.

“Careful James,” Adam called out.

James slowed down and looked back to see Adam, throwing the half-elf a nod before then moving onward.

The forces of the world would not ruin his chance to taste the conk.

He bit into it and a viscous liquid flowed out into his mouth. Confusion filled his brain as he ate the doughnut. The inside was sticky and thick with some kind of other pastry, which had flakes of something. It wasn’t as sweet as the doughnuts he was used to, but it was delicious. There was a nutty taste to it too that he couldn’t quite place. He swallowed it down.

Conk wasn’t too bad.

With that he returned to the guild to finish up his doughnuts and then relax until evening came.

When evening had come, he slipped away for his evening rendezvous with Albert. With that the day came to a close.

In the morning he would be laying down a smack down.