In the time room, we had unlimited potential. It wasn't so much that I wanted to get all the books and learn all the knowledge, which was on offer, as was the fact that I could do much more here than I could ever do in the outside world.
We were cultivating, both of us. But that wasn't something I was very proficient in. Cultivating sales was done by selling stuff, and I truly wanted to cultivate that path.
I finally understood what the teacher wanted to tell me. If I went out of the real world and stayed in the time rooms for too long, I was sure to never grow.
“Hey,” Constantine said, looking up from a book.
“Do you think we should copy some of the books, some of the better ones?”
We didn't have any paper or even a pencil. Everything vanished after the lesson.
“Do you have something for notetaking?”
That made him pause.
“Maybe we could, I don't know, just take some books?” Constantine suggested.
I shook my head.
“If we steal from here, then the people who are going to come to the next workshop will be left without any study material.”
I walked to the door.
“I think it is finally time for us to go and do something ourselves,” the twinkle was back in his eyes “Let's go and raid a dungeon and then sell the loot!”
It was actually the easiest way in which we could gain some gold. Dungeons, even the ones that were actually just for adventures, were free looting sites
And there was more than one meaning to the word raid. If the dungeon was peaceful, then looting meant doing quests for it!
And since money made the world go round, I wanted desperately to keep out of debtor’s jail.
I was ready to work any job, any job at all, as long as it brought me enough money to pay for my expenses.
We walked out with Constantine leading the way. I saw as the students who attended the workshop made their way out of the clearing where the time room was held.
The teacher was still there. She sent me a knowing look, after which she walked away as well.
I have no idea where the nearest dungeon was, but the tree line of the forest was beckoning to me.
And I knew then and there that I could find the dungeon if I only followed the mana.
Dungeons were mana purifiers. Everyone knew that.
But I had no idea if I could go and raid one.
“We should buy a map,” Constantine suggested.
I blinked.
“Those were expensive. We could wash dishes or sweep the streets until we get enough money for a map,” he added.
A self-updating one.
That was actually a very strange idea. Such jobs were usually F-ranked.
But even those quests were out of my scope. You had to be ranked C to get sent to one of those by the guild.
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Otherwise, you were stuck on fishing duty, and Constantine must know that as well. However, I wanted to hear him out to understand how he was going to go about doing such a task.
“We just need to start doing the work,” Constantine said as he walked in front of me. “As soon as we manage to get a good name for what we do, we will gain job offers from the guild! It is a very stable source of revenue. We should continue to fish, and we should continue to attend workshops.”
I know that as broke as we were, that was probably the best idea he could think of.
“Sure, meet you tomorrow!”
We went our separate ways.
As I went back to my room, I decided to read a little bit. There were some free books on offer that were so old and falling apart that I was afraid that I would ruin them.
But as things were now, I decided to still try to read some of them.
There was an ancient manual on how to tell whether a beast can be tamed or not.
I had never heard about the Theory of Evolution. Maybe it was something new, but it got me thinking. If some of the beasts were cultivated for thousands of years, could one speed up this cultivation method with mana and perhaps with some conditioning and kindness?
I very much wanted to have a proud wolf familiar. No one was going to allow me to keep one in the inn, and I had no other place to stay at.
But perhaps if I bought a dog, a puppy whom I taught how to hunt. Because grown-up hunting hounds were expensive and usually part of a royal or a lord’s hunting party, I could gain a very valuable familiar.
With this thought in mind, I put the book back on the shelf, went back to my room, and fell asleep, waiting for the next day to begin.
Constantine came early in the morning.
He had two brooms and a smile on his face.
“Today's Volunteer Day!” he told me.
I had not heard about Volunteer Day for a while now, maybe since about 20 days. Volunteer day was something the mayor arranged so jobless people could earn a bite to eat.
Everyone took a task which would help improve the community, and they finished it until the end of the day.
“I think that we can build stamina sweeping the streets,” Constantine told me as he handed me one of the brooms. “And besides, all the other tasks were taken.”
“Really?” I asked him. “Even the task to deal with the poisonous snakes?”
“Yeah, that's skilled work. You need training and to complete education for that,” he said.
I knew that he had the right of it. Besides, if you got bitten by a poisonous snake, you would be forced to end up in the hospital, and the fees there were sure to ruin us for the rest of our lives.
“Shouldn't we go fishing?” I ask him as we began to sweep the streets.
“Well, I think we can actually earn more money with sweeping. Do you think the guild is going to chase us way if we don't do our quotas?”
I was no guild master, but if some guildie told me that they were going to do Volunteer Day instead of showing up to work, I would have done just that.
“How about this? We sweep the streets for 2 hours, and then we go and fish,” I suggested.
“That sounds good.”
We began to sweep as storm clouds began to gather over our heads. Dark clouds we both didn't notice, for we were simply walking with an easy back and forth.
Trying to get to know one another.
When the first rain drop fell on my nose, I sucked in a breath. Who was going to let us fish during a storm? The entire dock must have been evacuated by now!
Our nation of Forestria was an island rich in forests but surrounded on all sides by the sea. The waves could bring even a giant under the water if one stood and waited by the docks!
As the barrier was placed over the city, we thought that everything was done with.
“What are we going to say to the Guild master?” Constantine asked, clutching at the broom.
I could see how he looked at the streets we had been sweeping for the last two hours. The storm was going to turn them into muddy walkways through which not even the best horse could pass.
All that effort… wasted.
I didn't have an answer to his question. The guild master was sure to kick us out.
I would have done the same in his place.
“We should still face him,” Constantine said.
All the lessons of the negotiating book came back to me. Maybe if we were honest, if we said that we simply wanted a bit of extra cash, the guild master wouldn't kick us out?
We went together to the guild house. The man opened the door himself.
He was a kind, elderly elf, the type who gave people chances. But he was not a man who gave second chances. Wasn’t it ironic that we had cut our study session in the time rune short to practice, and now we were going to practice with a master negotiator?
“Guild Master Hans,” Constantine began, bowing his head. “We couldn’t complete our fishing quota. We were participating in Volunteer Day.”
The elf nodded, showing us the two chairs before his desk.
“And what am I supposed to do with the both of you?”
We kept our silence. The lesson from the book told me that I had to keep my peace. To hear the what the other negotiator had to say.
But the elf just narrowed his eyes. He even had the right of it, if I had to be honest.
“You are part of the guild,” the elf began as he placed his hand on the table. “And to be honest, the fish you catch isn't good enough.”
Oh, what were we going to do now?
