I headed back to town around sixth bell. I didn’t want to get caught in the seventh bell rush hour, so being a bit early prevented me wasting that time.

The lines were starting to grow as the adventurers who thought like me were starting to arrive, but it didn’t take too long to get to the front.

“Welcome, how can we help you today.”

The receptionist greeted me with a big business-only smile. I had no doubt she was hit on by many of the adventurers who she helped. It seemed to be a running trend to have pretty young receptionists in order to keep up the morale of the guild members.

“Did some hunting in the woods, bagged me goblins and orcs. Also need to reserve a dismantling room to take ‘em apart for tomorrow, second bell till fourth.”

I put my card and a bag of ears on the counter. There were only six orc ears in it, even though I killed several times that number. I didn’t want to stand out too much. Goblins were easy to come by, since they could be found in the outer layers of the woods easily, and the bag included two requests worth of ears.

She opened the bag and counted them, then plugged my card into the magic tool they used to process the requests. After adding eight completed quests, she handed the card back before disappearing into the back for a moment to collect my reward. It was delivered in the same bag I’d given her, I’d deal with the blood that was left over later on.

The reward was short the fee for the dismantling room, but included a token for my reservation. Business done, I cleared out so the next person in line could be helped.

Since I knew it was too late in the day to make browsing the markets idly worth it, I asked around about stores specializing in magic tools. I was given the name and location of two of them, but only one would be open right now. The other was only open every other day, and this wasn’t one where it was open.

Crossing my fingers, I started walking.

The store that had a chance of being open was located near the northern gate. I hadn’t been to that part of the city, so I looked around, taking in the area and adding it to my mental map. While there was no mini-map, I had a perfect memory, so I’d be able to search said memory for things related to what I wanted to find. In this city, I knew of three tailors, eighteen grocers, nine butchers, and… well you get the picture, and those were just the permanent stores. The street markets had the potential to change daily.

As I neared the location, I had to ask the passersby for more detailed instructions. Most cities at this level of civilization were not big on keeping things organized outside of specific areas. There were no addresses, many streets didn’t have names, and even if they did, there were seldom signs. That’s why it was typical to give the general area of a location in a city. It’d take a while and most people would forget detailed instructions if something was very far off a main road.

When I reached my destination, it was closed. Seventh bell had rung just before I got there, so I had to return to my inn empty handed. I had really wanted to see if they had clocks available.

I got drunk that night.

---

The next morning after breakfast I made my way to the Guild. Since there was some time until my reserved time in the dismantling room started, I browsed the boards to see what quests were available, and if any of them included the other stuff I’d taken down or picked up in the forest yesterday.

It’d be nice if there were, the number of quests required for each rank up increased. I’d needed ten to get from zero to one, then forty to rank up to two. To get to rank three, I’d have to complete fifty rank two quests. I had turned in ten goblin requests the first time, then two more and six orcs yesterday, so I was sitting at 18/50. Not bad for two day’s work.

Had I been normal, I’d have had to group up for safety, and unless a request specified that it was a group one, then each turn it only counted once. Just for a single individual, not one per person in the party. Doing this helped to prevent people from ranking up without actually working for it, though there were always ways to cheat. Cheaters were punished if caught. Severely.

I didn’t find the four-armed bear, the great wolves, or the seed spitter on the rank two board, though I did find a couple of requests for the herbs I’d picked. I checked the higher boards, and found the wolves on the rank four, and the bear on rank five. The wolves seemed to be rank three individually, but since they usually moved as a pack of four or more, they got bumped up to the next higher rank. The lucky thing was that despite only being posted on the rank four board, they were open to both three and four.

Huh, based on the rankings, looks like the deep forest is a place for veterans. Well, I know what the parts I need to store for the reward later on are, so I’ll see if I have time to dismantle them today. Though, the bear might not fit in the room, since I’d specified I’d be taking orcs apart. The wolves should. They’re larger than average, but not too large.

A bit before my time started, I hopped in line to pick up the key to my reserved room. I’d turn in the herbs later, when I turned in the key, maybe throw a few more ears at them. I could also see about selling the parts of the orcs I don’t want. All I was keeping was the meat. I could use the orc berries to make a potion of vigor or conception, but I refused to make the things. I hated even having to handle the parts. Orcs also had tough hides, a bit better than cow leather, so they were worth something.

I was the first to use the dismantling room that morning, and though the second bell hadn’t rung quite yet, it would soon enough that I was given the key early and allowed to get started.

On my way to the room, I discovered something new about the guild. Unlike the other guild hall I’d been at, this one had a large room where one could work for free, as long as one cleaned up after themselves, including discarding the refuse. There was a fee if you used the communal rubbish bins to have it hauled off.

The private rooms were for if you wanted to avoid people, or not show what you’d acquired, or something to that effect.

With the wyvern, I’d needed to hide them, but for orcs, the only thing I might need to hide was the numbers. Though I wasn’t sure I wanted to show off the other stuff I wanted to dismantle right now. I looked too young to be very strong. I liked to be underestimated.

Well, the room was already paid for, so I went in and locked the door. The place wouldn’t be big enough for wyvern, but it would suffice for the bear.

I got to work.

The quest postings for monsters tended to include the parts that were worth something, that way the adventurers would know what they should bring back, in order of value. Not that I needed to pay attention to the posters to get the info I needed. Appraisal would give me info, if I was willing to go through all the excess text to find it.

The bear was chock full of useful parts. The hide was a given, but the claws, teeth, some of the organs, and the larger bones were all useful and valuable. The meat was included on the sheet, but at the bottom with the words ‘monster food.’ It was too tough for people to eat, though there were some beastmen who enjoyed tough meat, but carnivorous monsters would enjoy feasting on such flesh. Lower ranking monsters would gain a bit of strength by eating the flesh of higher ranking ones.

It was similar with the wolves, except their organs were not useful, and the meat was less tough, but still not enjoyable. It would be something to eat in an emergency, but only that.

Or so that’s what the people of this world seemed to think. Yes, the meat was tough, but with the right preparations, they could be very tasty. It was just that those preparations were a little pricey… but I had a useful skill that might make it work, so I intended to keep the meat for now. I could always use it as bait if I needed to.

Other than the trophy part, the spitter plant was useless except the beans, but since it was difficult to kill while being pelted by the seeds, they were seldom on the market.

I’d left the orcs for last, since they were really simple to dismantle. Also because I could always use the communal room to take them apart.

I got through eight orcs before I felt the forth bell was close enough to make me stop. It wasn’t bad for four hours work, eight orcs, a huge bear, and five wolves.

I packed up the solid stuff into inventory, flushed the blood down the drain, then purified the place, leaving it cleaner than it was when I got there.

I was just joining the reception line when the bell rang. Crap. Hope they won’t charge me, since I’m turning it in literally right after the bell. They didn’t. No one was waiting for the room, and I’d been third in line, so I hadn’t been very late returning the key.

Once they’d logged the key in I took care of other business, turning in eight sets of orc parts, minus the meat, and the herbs. I was now over halfway done with the requests to get rank three.

As it was noon, it was time for some food, so I went and browsed the nearby food carts, trying whatever peaked my fancy, and stowing away extras if something was particularly good.

For my afternoon, I wasn’t certain what I wanted to do. I could deal with the orcs, but I had a lot, so that’d stand out quite a bit. I could read, go shopping, go on a food tour.

The possibilities were endless.

I let d20-sama decide.

Yes, I’d made a twenty-sided die. Also twelve, ten, eight, six, and the evil four-sided caltrops. I’d made them for fun, not for games, but they’d somehow become popular because I, the hero, had made them. I only knew a few dice games, and they all used d6 only, but that didn’t stop people from coming up with games for them.

I’d numbered the choices thusly: 1-3 orc dismantling, 4-6 reading at the library, 7-9 read ancient books, 10-12 book shopping, 13-15 clothes shopping, 16-18window shopping, 19-20 music practice.

I got a 17.

I went wandering around the markets at random, looking at interesting stuff. It wasn’t really window shopping, since I did end up buying stuff. I found this one guy who had some really cute accessories, so I picked up a pair of silver earrings. They had tiny cats dangling from them inset with colored glass. Mine were pink. They weren’t expensive, not from a stall, but they looked nice.

As the day grew later, I returned to the inn for dinner. There was a minstrel there today, so I made sure to get a spot near him so I could enjoy the music while I relaxed.

It had been a good day, and this was a great way to end it.