Chapter Twelve Guild Quest

Around the same time that Arlie and company were leaving town, Hikaru was at the guild bar. Idly he played with his mug half lost in thought. He wasn’t really sure what to do, his former party had broken up. Nothing he could do about that, better than being kicked out. Perhaps, yet the result remained the same. Unfortunately, that last quest had been hard on them. Once again he was struck on how different this otherworldly adventure was going.

Opening his wallet he started counting coins. He’d managed to save up a few gold marks, but those were in the guild bank right now. That was a nice service to find in a fantasy world, one so strange that women didn’t have bras but the military had lasers. It just felt... well he wasn’t really sure how to describe how that felt to him, it was an odd mix of emotions.

He had a few silvers on him and a couple hundred copper marks. That would be good enough, Hikaru had long figured out that a copper mark was roughly equal to one yen. With that mental conversion, he’d been able to get a decent idea of what their currency was worth. Although it certainly wasn’t a perfect conversion. Here in Arcs with a thriving economy and trade thanks to the river there was an abundance of cheap food and drink. He could get a cheap room at an inn for a single silver, although said room would be small and have only a basic bed. If he paid a bit more he’d get a fairly decent room and a meal included. Hikaru started doing the math and considering meals. He didn’t really want to dip into his meager savings, but he’d need to find a new party sooner rather than later. He had enough coin here to make do for a couple of weeks, maybe a little longer if he settled for cheaper accommodations.

A figure sat down across from him, and a familiar female voice spoke up, “Counting our coins are we?”

“Morning Polca, can I help you?”

“I heard your investigation quest went sour and your party had to disband.”

He sighed, “Sour is putting it lightly.”

“Mind sharing the story?”

“Well, after we took that quest to look into where the hellspawn came from, we set out to follow their trail. It wasn’t too hard to figure out where they had been; they certainly left a mark. Our quest quickly took us to the nearby village of Streg.”

“Streg? Um, didn’t one of your party members have family there?”

“Yeah, Robert our tank did, his parents had already passed on years ago, but his sister was still living there with her kids and husband.”

Polca gulped, “And the hellspawn were there?”

He sighed, “There? They’d made it their fucking nest, by the time we got there the village had long since fallen. You can imagine how hard that was on Robert, he lost his mind and charged right into the village. We were lucky to get out of there with our lives.”

Another familiar figure came up, a small girl with a bushy tail and some food in her hands, “Hey Polca, Morning Hikaru what are you two chatting about?”

“My last Quest and the poor village of Streg.”

“Oh? I think I saw a quest on the board about Streg. What happened there?”

“Hellspawn took the place over, it wasn’t pretty,” replied Hikaru as the girl sat down.

“Yeah you said Robert charged in, but did you ever ascertain if his family was alright?”

“Not really but I doubt it. Most of the adults were dead, the only ones that weren’t were pregnant women we found chained in the village square. The hellspawn had a bizarre altar there and Robert foolishly charged right into the square where all the hellspawn were gathered.”

“Damn, what about the kids?”

“I didn’t really have time to verify what they were doing to them. They were doing some kind of ritual sacrifice with some babies when we got to the square. I also recall spotting some young girls chained up in one of the houses, a few hellspawn guarding them. Didn’t get a good look at them though, we had hellspawn on our tail and Jerry was tied up carrying Robert.”

“Sounds like an eventful quest,” commented the foxgirl.

Polca interjected, “If you are looking for a party, I’d love to take you.”

He blinked, “huh? What!?”

She pulled out a quest paper, “One you’ve been to Streg already, two I know you are good with a sword, and three we need a new swordsman, our usual pick is retiring and he’s got a baby on the way.”

He looked at his coins, this wasn’t a bad deal, “Well count me in then,” he said as he read the quest. It was simple enough, they were to join one of the knight orders and several other parties on a quest to clear the hellspawn nest from Streg. Hikaru had worked with Polca’s party before so he knew the group was capable. Polca herself was a powerful dual-element mage with access to Ice and Nature magic. The young foxgirl that had joined them was named Eren, she was the party scout with excellent tracking skills and rather handy with a bow, but she was also quite deadly with a knife.

The members not present was old George, the swordsman Hikaru would be replacing, and the last member Kuon was their tank, a brute of a man that wore full plate armor and carried a large shield. He was also rather skilled with a spear. Although Hikaru did recall that he’d never seen Kuon’s face. Personally he imagined the giant was covered with old scars and had a rather ugly mug, but then again he could be a pretty noble underneath that helm.

Overall it would be a decent four man party and Hikaru figured he could slip into George’s old role easily enough. It helped that he’d worked with them on a couple of quests before, so that would help speed up the acclimation process.

“Great, glad to have you, now pack your gear. We leave tomorrow morning.”

“If we are going to Streg it might be a good idea to stock up on potions, I’ve got two with my gear right now, what about you two?”

Polca smiled, “Not a bad thought, I think I will come along. What about you Eren?”

“I’ll come with, don’t need any potions but I do need to stop by the local blacksmith. I dropped my knives off for regular work, and ordered some new arrowheads. They should be ready now.”

Polca nodded, “We can work that in, it's near the market so we can stop there and stock up on travel supplies.”

Chatting about quest prep the trio left the guild bar and headed on down to the market.

____________

Hikaru pushed the door to the potion shop open, a kindly old man sat at the counter and greeted the trio as they walked in, “Morning ladies, gentlemen anything in particular you are looking for? Lady Contrey recently brought in a lovely selection of aphrodisiacs and fertility potions, and I’m running a special for the upcoming festival.”

Polca grinned, “Those sound fun, I might take a few, but we are going on a subjugation quest with the knights. Wanted to stock up on healing potions and antidotes.”

“The usual first aid bundle then? Three sets run for three gold marks, I could throw in a box of aphrodisiac potions for three and a half.”

Before Hikaru could say anything, Polca dropped three gold coins on the counter and fifty silvers, “Sounds good to me.”

The old man smiled and headed off into the back, Hikaru frowned, “Aphrodisiacs? Really?”

Polca pulled Erin next to her, the young fox turned red, “Oh they’ll be a lot of fun, it can get boring on the road without a little spice. Besides Lady Contrey makes good stuff, getting some of hers for half a gold is a steal.”

Meanwhile, the old man in the back kindly packed up a few potions into crates. The healing potions, antidotes, and the like went into three of them and he filled the last crate with aphrodisiacs. Pulling several pink vials off a shelf and into the box including one of a slightly different shade that had been placed with the aphrodisiac potions when he stocked after the delivery. A minor mix-up, but one that went unnoticed.

Coming back out with a stack of four small crates each with a couple dozen potions in them, he smiled, “Alright here are your potions. Anything else?”

Polca did a brief inspection, “Looks like it's in order, thanks.”

The man gestured to the aphrodisiacs, “Now have you used these before?”

“Once or twice, but not those made by Lady Contrey.”

“Hers are more potent than the standard variety, each vial contains two doses, not one. Drink half yourself, and share the other portion with your partner.”

“Understood,” she replied as she packed up the crates. The trio followed her out of the shop, and headed for their next destination.

The blacksmith was a short walk down the road from the potion shop they had chosen and with the light traffic they made good time. They only passed a few other groups that were also out shopping for supplies and the like.

Stepping into the shop they were greeted almost immediately by a muscular man holding a large blacksmith’s hammer, he spotted the young fox right away, “Eren good timing I just finished packing up your order for you, you’ve got the money? Yes?”

She nodded and pulled out some coins. He took the silver marks, counted them out and said, “I’ll bring your change.”

The man vanished into the back of the forge but only for a moment before coming back with a brace of freshly polished and sharpened knives along with a crate of arrowheads.”

Eren looked over the work, then smiled, “Good work as always, thank you!”

“Come by next time you need something.”

“Will do!” she commented, and the trio left for the general shopping. Where Hikaru found himself carrying most of the crates and bags. Not that it came as any surprise, but every time he went shopping with girls he ended up carrying everything. On the plus side, the girls did treat him to lunch, so overall he considered it a good day. Things seemed to be looking up after a string of disasters.