We went and checked through the request board we were pointed to. After a preliminary search, I found that most of the requests were all quite far or inconvenient to take. I looked to the rest of the group and found their equally disappointed gazes.

  Like the receptionist said, the requests here were all the ones rejected by the local adventurers for a reason. So after we failed to find any satisfying mission for today, we headed out of the adventurer's guild. Thanks to that receptionist, we now know the rough time that the requests on the board get updated so I know to get up and check the board when that time comes for a final check to see if we will get the opportunity to take up a mission on our way.

  It would be best if we could complete the request further in on our journey, but we are not in that much of a hurry. Although we want to head over to our destination to meet up with that Varuna, she specifically does not know us so we also need to find a way to talk with her as well.

  So we wandered around for a bit. After some exploring, we found a weapon shop that had good reviews in a more secluded section of the town in the alleys. After hearing about it, we decided to have our weapons checked out. Unlike before, we are currently on the go so having our weapons maintained is an issue we need to deal with. Although we can do basic checkups by following the guides on our communicators, it does not solve the fundamental issue of our weapon's deterioration.

  Back at the base, not only would the golems be able to help maintain our weapons, but the other members who practiced in forging could also help. When we were under William it was under his main butler's suggestion that he take them to be maintained with a family run bcksmith shop trusted by William himself.

  Now that we have to even take care of situations like this really makes me know the fundamental difference between working with a local force and being away from our local area.

  Unfortunately, although the Silver Rose is expanding quite steadily, it is more interested in expanding innd so if we want to encounter more members from our group.

  So finding local pces that are trustworthy is going to be a problem we will have to face on this trip. Since this pce is recommended by many locals around here, I think it is worth taking a shot.

  Of course, I ask everyone and they all nod their heads in agreement. Lily then brings up an interesting issue.

  Lily: If you are worried about their credibility, wouldn't it be fine to just ask someone using the communicator.

  I turned to gnce at her. It was such a simple idea, why didn't I think of it sooner?

  Lily: Sean?

  Sean: It's the perfect idea! Thank you, second brain!

  Lily showed a slightly embarrassed expression from my praise. On the side, Kris then pouted a little. She was dissatisfied with the attention I was giving Lily. Then she thought about something and arm bells rang in her head.

  Kris: You aren't think of calling...

  Before she could finish her sentence, I already typed in her number on my communicator and it rang. Thankfully, Mist had already checked to see if anyone would be eavesdropping and since we were deep into the winding alleyways, there was little to no chance we would be found or interrupted.

  Then, on my communicator, it dispyed that the call was received. A familiar voice appeared from the phone.

  ???: Hello, this is Eileen from Eileen's Workshop. What can I do for you?

  A familiar sound the banging of hammers on metal echoed. It seems that I have called while she was in the middle of forging something.

  Sean: Hey, Eileen. It's me Sean, do you have time for us to chat now?

  Eileen: Oh, it's you! wait a moment I always have time.

  From my communicator, I heard rapid jumbling as well as a quick shout of 'hot' and 'pain'. She is just as clumsy as ever. I gave a deep sigh and suddenly had a feeling that she might not be as reliable as I thought.

  Marianne: Who are you calling?

  Oh, I suddenly realized that Marianne was here with us and has no idea of the people in the base. Since Eileen was still cleaning up, I thought it would be the right time to introduce her to her.

  Sean: Marianne, this is Eileen. She is the head of the Silver Rose's Forging division. As the head of the forging division, she is quite excellent at forging. I heard that she was the daughter of an experienced bcksmith. She trained as one even before she joined our organization. Unfortunately, her dad had an accident while traveling with a group of adventurers. Because of this, she was forced into the orphanage we were at when a bunch of things suddenly came at her all at once and she had nothing she could do. Now she is in the Silver Rose and does not have to worry about anything besides forging so that is what she does now. Our weapons and armor were all forged by her.

  Hearing all of this, Marianne showed a surprised expression. Normally, a girl would not be chosen to be the heir of a bcksmith shop and so her willingness to work hard at forging in such a young age shocked Marianne.

  Marianne: I could never do something like that.

  Eileen: Of course, but it is not that exaggerated. Hey, are you the new little girlie that Sean likes? Haha! I can see why he has been talking all about you for a while!

  Suddenly, her voice emerged from my communicator. She had long finished cleaning up and was sitting quietly waiting for Sean to complete his introduction of her. While she was feeling a little smug, she also showed a little feigned expression of bashfulness.

  I was holding my phone up while talking about her. On my screen, a pretty girl with wheat colored skin appeared. Her hair was a faint vender and was tied into a side ponytail. Her clothes were her usual work clothes which were a white shirt with grayish overalls. She appeared to be quite cute if only she were to dress up more.

  Then she heard what Marianne had said about her and couldn't help butting into the conversation.

  Sean: Eileen! I did not say that I liked her! I only talked to you about her since we have been traveling around together for a while.

  I spoke carefully in order to not trigger the powder keg that is Kris who was silently trying to hold back from bursting in front of me. As a fire magic user, emotions like rage can be infused into the user's fmes to temporarily affect the potency of her magic. I know this first hand with the amount of times I have accidentally triggered her to burst on our adventures.

  Of course, now she tries to hold back the best she can even if her heart want to explode forth. The problem is that I was not the only one here. And that a certain someone has been trying to get me tricked this whole conversation.

  Eileen: Oh? Is that so? Then I wonder what would happen if I said that you have spoken to us more about her and not a lick of a word about Kris recently, hmm? Hahaha!

  She then started ughing as she heard the commotion caused on the other side. After a while, with Lily's help, I was finally able to get out of the situation where I was being uniterally ravaged by Kris. Of course, she was careful not to let her anger get too far into her head and not use magic, so from an outsider's perspective, it was more like a lover's quarrel.

  After a moment to catch our breath, I could finally stand to criticize Eileen for her vicious actions.

  Sean: How could you pit me like this?! I thought we were pals. And you treat me like this?

  Eileen: Of course, I would pit you! I love watching your pitiful expression while I mock you like this with you unable to do anything except accept my bullying.

  Of course, this is all mainly banter. Due to her experiences, she was like a big sister existence when we were all in the orphanage. Because of this, she would always tease all of us when she got the chance. Of course, since we were all of a simir age, we also found our own ways to get along with her.

  Sean: At least I have somebody, what about you? Have you found anybody.

  Eileen: Yeowch! That one hurt Sean. Why did you have to say such a thing?

  Then I felt a sting of murderous intent from behind me and to the side. When I turned to look, I saw that Mist was quieting sharpening his dagger while staring daggers into me. On the side, Lily was looking at me with a look that made me feel like garbage. Thankfully, Millie was a little clueless as she was snacking on a pancake she bought on the way here.

  I didn't expect that this blow ended up as an area of effect and started sweating a little. Thankfully, the two of them ended up just gncing away for better or for worse.

  Over on Eileen's side, she was still as chipper and cheerful as ever, even if I remarked what would be considered a personal attack onto her.

  Eileen: So, what's up? I got plenty of time now. I haven't checked out your equipment in a while. Speaking of, I haven't checked up on you guys in a while.

  I then went to ask her if she was willing to help us check if the bcksmith shop we were going to was up to standard or not.

  Eileen: Hmm. Such a simple thing, I got you! Keep the ball rolling and let's go! I haven't seen much outside of here so let's go!

  Receiving her acceptance, the six of us head on over to the address of the bcksmith according to the directions given by the friendly civilians here. Thankfully, the communicator automatically maps out our surroundings so we do not have to worry about getting lost even if we have travelled far into the alleyways.

  Soon, we arrived at the pce. It was in a rather remote area and we could all still hear the sounds of banging metal from a distance away. We checked the sign and indeed confirmed that this was the pce those people had told us about.

  When we walked into the entrance, We saw what could be described as a cssic style of bcksmithing shop. On the counter there was a younger boy manning the register and after we arrived, the bell on the door reminded the kid to rise up and meet his new customers.

  Register boy: Welcome, to the Smithery of Mr. Ronald Rovel. How may I help you today?

  Sean: We would like to peruse your wares.

  Hearing that, he began to introduce the various sections of the store and then sat at the register to await our order. I turn to look at Eileen to ask where we should look at.

  Eileen: Check out the swords, they will give a basic idea of how effective of a forger the forger is.

  Hearing this, we headed on over to what the boy had mentioned as the sword section and began checking the options. After bringing the communicator closer, Eileen had been able to get a good look at the sword and after asking me to do things like flicking the edge and others she was able to get a good grasp of the forger here.

  Eileen: It's a pretty good pce you found. I think this pce is quite trustworthy. Maybe go through a few more weapons to see if it is consistent.

  I follow her instructions and go through the various sections. It turns out that this pce was indeed the right spot to go to. All of the weapons seemed to be made by the same forger since the style on all of them were simir. The quality was above average so Eileen approved of our decision to have our weapons checked up on here.

  So I headed on over to the receptionist in the back and asked him if we could get our weapons checked up on here.

  Register boy: If you need your weapons fixed I need to talk to the master of the store.

  He then rushed into the back to talk to the forger here. After a while, a strong and muscur man arrived. I guess he is the forger who works here.

  Ronald: Hey kid, show your weapons and I will get them checked out.

  I then call everyone over to get our weapons checked up on. We take out our main weapons and hand them over to him. Of course, we also have back up weapons on us to prevent us from being helpless without our main weapons.

  He checks out our melee weapons and gives a nod of approval when he sees them.

  Ronald: These are quite good weapons. The forger must have put a lot of emotion in them. Come back tomorrow morning and they will be freshened up.

  We nodded and headed out. Since our weapons are not on us, we headed back into our hotel room.

  Now we. have a clear schedule for tomorrow. First of all, we would get our weapons when we wake up. Then we would head on over to get to the request board to see if there are any requests that match up with our goal. Finally, we would prepare to head out.

  Although we are adventuring on our own time, there are limits to how long we will wait. Varuna had left the town of Golden Scarabs a long while ago, so the longer we take the higher the chances of her leaving and being somewhere else.

  Even if we could start our experience getting closer to everyone one by one, the dark races are drastically different to the people from the church. While the church usually goes out of their way to not harm civilians, the dark races have no such rule.

  So getting closer to the various dark races without knowing one of them could spell trouble. At least, that is how I am getting it.

  Because there was nothing else for me to do, I went and started practicing my sword skills with a smaller back up short sword. As a padin type fighter, my skills with my sword are very important to hone. Even if a little practice won't change much immediately, the effect over time would be significant.

  When we were traveling, the opportunities to practice were all quite few so taking this time to reconsolidate my practice will only do good for me. While I was practicing, I saw that the girls decided to go on their own shopping trip. Since I did not want to be stuck in the position of bag carrier, I declined their invitation and watched as they left.

  I kept on practicing even all the way until the girls returned from their shopping trip. When I finally stopped, it was getting dark outside so I returned in and asked an employee if I could get a meal delivered. After I saw a nod, I told them my room and headed over to rest my sore muscles.

  When I arrived in my room, I saw that Mist was there fiddling with some small gadgets. After greeting him, I id down on my bed after exhaustedly tossing my gear aside. Soon after I was resting my body, I heard a knock and went to open it. I confirmed that it was the meal I had ordered. I heard from Mist that the others all had their meals already so I quickly scarfed down mine.

  As I finished, a wave of exhaustion flowed around me and after a little preparations, I was fast asleep in record time.

  I woke up according to my biological clock and went to freshen myself real quick. I then went to see if the others were awake. After searching around, I only found Lily up as usual. She was in the lounge of the hotel completely rexed. This time, she was taking a break from cooking since we can order food from our hotel.

  So I saw her merely reading through a magic book full of unintelligible letters and phrases. Although I have and use Light magic, the textbooks I am on are all quite simple. I usually mainly train in my swordsmanship and other melee fighting skills rather than magic. That is why I admire mages like Lily and Kris who can not only keep up with these complicated books, but also go further and study beyond the originally scheduled lessons.

  In contrast, I struggle with them and I had to take time out of my other training to get used to light magic.

  Shaking my head, I went to ask her if she had already ordered a meal for us. She gives me a thumbs up and I nod in response. Sure enough, a waiter comes by and pces our ordered food at a table for us to access.

  Like clockwork, the others were seen groggily heading down the stairs of the hotel and arrived at us freshened and sleepy. Since we were all here and ready, we said our thanks for the meal and chowed down. After finishing this meal, we headed on over to the bcksmith again to get our weapons back.

  We soon arrived at the pce again and entered. When the register boy saw us, he nodded in greeting before heading into the back to inform the forger here. Soon after, the man appeared holding our new fixed up weapons. We check to see them and confirm that they have indeed been sharpened and fixed up. We say our thanks after paying for the fix and head on out into a more isoted section of the alleyway.

  After checking it with Eileen, we confirm that the smith we found was indeed the real deal. We headed on over to the adventurer's guild and found that the pce had quite a number of people. After a little searching, I found the request board was now full of various requests. After skimming through them from a distance, one of them happened to catch my eye.

  Sean: Collecting Grogg eyes in the Allort Swamp.

  This was an interesting request since the swamp mentioned happened to spread across both territories. In this case, we could take a little detour to collect these. The most important factor is that the client wants the eyes delivered to a town we were going to in the Dark Race Alliance.

  With the help of this request, we might be able to get acquainted with a member from the dark races on our own. As I got closer to the board, I saw that no one was taking the request so I took it off the board. When I took it off, I felt several gazes on me. They were all sympathetic or scrutinizing gazes. I ignored them and headed to the same receptionist I went to st time with my party.

  As I gave her the request, she gave me a questioning look. Seeing this, I was curious and decided to ask her what was going on.

  Sean: I have been getting looks ever since I received this request. Is there something wrong with it? Or is it something I am missing here.

  Receptionist: Let me expin it to you. Since you are likely new around here, you should know of the wars that happen here between the church and the alliance, right? Well, this pce is the Bde's Edge, a highly contested territory for both sides. So many of the people here hate the Dark Race Alliance and will go out of their way to avoid missions leading there. Only newcomers or the truly desperate would take missions over there. The only reason the mission was pced on there is that there is no need to contact the client directly as you can just deliver the materials through the guild's system instead.

  Hearing this, I turned to check the request again. Sure enough, in small print, it was there on the request. However, that was not going to be a problem for us since we were going to go to the Alliance's territory anyways. So I nodded to the receptionist to tell her that I understood and still accepted the request anyway. She filed the paperwork for us and we left the guild while the pce was still bustling.

  Now that we had left the guild, we could finally chat and communicate freely since we were no longer being crowded. So I went and asked the others of what they thought of the commission. Although I should have asked in the guild, the others did not bme me and thought about it on their own. In the end, none of them objected with taking the commission and so Mist pulled up his communicator.

  We were still in a busy street, but no one was paying their heed over here so I let him pull it out. He then switched to a photo of the map. On that map, it described a basic expnation of various areas and also highlighted the so called Allort Swamp.

  It is not directly in the direction we are going, but it is over to the side of the area. This means that the commission would lead us on a little detour, but as long as we were quick with it then it would not be so bad.

  So we decided to head on out with our own two feet. Because of our small break, we already had plenty of supplies for our trip. The girls indeed went shopping before and they did not go for nothing. Lily had made sure to replenish some of our cking supplies while we still had the chance.

  It was still early in the morning so we headed out to the Dark Race Alliance while the sun was still out using the entrance on the other side of the town. Soon we left the city far behind as we wandered off into the wilderness.

  Since we were no longer in Church territory, we had to remain more vigint on our own. In Church territory, cultists and many other vilins were more restrained due to the Church of Light's existence. Now that we have entered the Alliance, I do not know exactly how they are treated here.

  We trekked cautiously as ever past the pins and finally reached the exact border separating the two forces. Unlike what I imagined, there was no rge wall separating both halves nor any constant fighting to prove the existence of enemy forces. I remember that Farrell had arrived only because there was suspicions of war. I guess it was either a red herring or perhaps it was in another region.

  Either way, I was thankful that we would not have to worry about such things for now.

  Now we had to divert our path over to the side to reach the swamp where we would be obtaining the Grogg eyes on the request. Now, the request showed an image of the so called Grogg as well as how to harvest them, but not how to find them. Thankfully, we had a reliable ranger like Mist around who would be able to better search for these enemies then we would with our bare eyes.

  Groggs are grog like creatures that grow scales as armor on their shoulders arm and back and also are able to spit out a glob of acid at their foes. They are quite the nuisance even for experienced adventurers due to the acid from their mouths being able to corrode most materials easily.

  Of course, magic is the most efficient and practical method to hunt them. Of our magic, light, ice, wind and pnt based magics would be the most effective at killing the Groggs without having to destroy the materials in the process.

  That means this hunt will have both Millie and Kris sit this one out. Fire magic could harm the eyes we are collecting and melee weapons can be corroded with their acid.

  With all of that confirmed, we would have to rely on Mist for this exploration. First he used wind magic to conduct a basic examination of the surroundings.

  Mist: Wind Magic - Wind Scan.

  Mist: I can't find any creatures that match the Grogg in a long distance. Maybe they are hiding and have ways to avoid detection from wind.

  Hearing this, we were all a little stumped. From what the information we have, these Groggs should not be that hard to find as they are quite oppressive and invasive. As we were wondering what to do, Mist suddenly told us he has another idea to try.

  Mist: Pnt Magic - Pnt Speech!

  Through his new spell, Mist went to one of the trees in the swamp. After he went closer, the branches slowly curved in towards him. While we went on alert, he motioned us to put down our weapons. He then whispered to the trees. The tree shook a little before finally ruffling its leaves as Mist touched its branches. He finally returned to us when the mana in his spell ran out.

  Sean: What just happened?

  Mist: That is one of the rare spells that I learned from Pnt Magic. It is called Pnt Speech. It lets me speak to pnts and learn about the environment that it lives in.

  Sean: Cool! Does that mean that we can easily find all of them and hunt them?!

  Mist: Not so fast. First of all, pnts are not that intelligent and they have trouble listening to instructions. Any information they have is also not so trustworthy since they do not see things the way we do and finally their sense of time is different so something recent to them might not be so recent for us.

  When Mist finished saying all of that, it really cooled down my mind for a bit. All of those restrictions really reduce the overall effectiveness of this magic. I calmed down and then asked the question most important to us now.

  Sean: Did you find out where the Groggs are hiding?

  Mist nodded and then pointed his finger downward. I look at the ground below us for a second before it finally clicked.

  Sean: They are hiding underground! So that is how they can avoid detection through the wind!

  With a nod, Mist then leads us to the closest location mentioned by the trees of a creature simir to the Grogg. We then headed on over while still being mindful of below us in case we were to be ambushed from below.

  Unfortunately, although our team has a wide variety of different elements of magic, earth is not one of them. So we had to be careful in case one of us gets caught when we least expect it.

  After a while, we march quite a distance into the swamp and finally stop a certain distance ahead.

  Mist: In front of us was where a creature that matched the description of a Grogg was st seen.

  We all looked ahead of us. After some searching, we found a bit of earth that looked freshly unearthed and moved recently. Although Mist does not specialize in tracking through earth, as a half elf it is quite easy for him to collect clues when the creature in question is not hiding its tracks that well.

  Following the trail, we finally stop a few steps away and Mist calls us to get into position. When we were all confirmed ready, Mist takes out his bow and attaches it with wind magic.

  Mist: Wind Magic - Weapon Enchantment.

  He then pulls an arrow out of a quiver on the inside of his coat and pulls the bow taut. Firing the arrow, it reaches a few feet away and pierces into the dirt.

  Suddenly, a loud croak screams out from the dirt as its owner reveals itself.

  A huge frog that reaches up to my waist in size leaps from the ground spttering dirt and mud around. We get into position as Marianne prepares a spell to attack the frog.

  When the frog nds we finally get a good look of the creature. It has a rge green scale covered back and arms with a light purple underbelly. Before it could react, Marianne already unched the first spell of the battle.

  Marianne: Light Magic - Light Spear!

  A spear made of light was summoned from her hands and quickly pierced into the frog from the front. It easily pierces through and the frog croaks its st as it falls lifelessly on the ground.

  When we were going to celebrate, Mist hushes us and tells us that we better get ready.

  Hearing this, we all get back to position as in front of us a huge area burst open as dozens of those frogs leap from the ground.

  Unlike before, these guys were ready and immediately spat acid at us while still airborne. Due to Mist's swift warning, we were already prepared and leaped back to avoid the acid shots.

  Thankfully, the acid is both slow and heavy so even the furthest shots were easily avoided.

  Now the monsters were right ahead of us as we all got our magic and skills ready.