บท 5: Guild's Quest and PIDMA's Quest

Del opened his eyes. The ceiling was not that of the bar. The ceiling was that of his own room. He tried to regain his consciousness after that long drinking session last night. The hangover was killing him with the headache.

He remembered that he had a weird dream last night, about Pidma and something with a system on it. Well, it was a dream so Del wouldn't even bother about that. He got up from his bed and washed his face with the water on the….

"Thinking about it, what happened last night?" Del thought as he washed his face.

[Hello…]

"What???" The screen from his dream appeared right in front of him.

[Yes. I'm PIDMA. We met last night, right?]

"Wait, you're the one from my dream? You're real???" Del's jaw dropped.

[I'm very real. We already have this conversation before, haven't we?]

"Yes, I know, but still. I can't believe that you're real. What are you doing here? Are you here to remind me about something?" Del asked the mysterious screen that was floating in front of him.

[Yes, I'm here to remind you of our deal last night. Displaying Quest…]

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[Basic Training 101]

Alright, since you are not even fit to become a soldier, you need to exercise a bit. This exercise is certainly not heavy for you who have tried Head Captain Lyner's training. Anyway, good luck with the exercise.

Task:

[Do Push-Up] [200x]

[Do Sit-up] [200x]

[Run] [20 Miles]

Reward: [1x 1911 Pistol] [24x .45 ACP LVL.1] [3x 8-rounds magazine] [2x Sterile Gauze] [Strength +3] [Agility +3] [3x Medium Crackers Pack]

▬▬▬

"Woah, so it's real?" Del scratched his head while looking at the screen in front of him.

[Yeah. Of course, it's real]

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door, "Del, who are you talking with?"

Suddenly, Del realized that he had been talking to a screen that couldn't talk back. The voice from outside was Rina's. The inn owner must have thought that Del was still drunk from last night's drink even though he had been detoxicated with her spell.

"Sorry, it was just a cat," Del said.

"Alright. Breakfast is ready downstairs," Rina said from the back of the door.

"I'll be coming there soon," Del said.

Del looked at the screen that was still in front of his face. It was on idle. PIDMA must have heard Rina and went idle. Del immediately felt that it might be a good idea to do what PIDMA told him to do. It was only a basic exercise.

Del got on the floor and started the exercise. First, he would do the push-up. Del put both of his hands on the floor and started the exercise. He did the push-up two hundred times. After that, another screen appeared.

[Do Push-Up] [200/200] [Task Completed]

Del flipped himself over and started to do sit-ups. He lifted his body up and down two hundred times. After that, the same screen appeared.

[Do Sit-Up] [200/200] [Task Completed]

Del felt sweaty, but the sense of accomplishment was filling his heart. He felt energized to start the day. However, that spirit went away once he remembered that he could barely make anything by doing odd jobs in the guild.

He picked up his swords and he went out of his room and locked the door. Four rooms were on the second floor of the inn. The inn where Del was staying was well-known to be cheap and decent. It was no wonder why there were so many beginner adventurers on the inn.

Some of them were obviously still sleeping while the others had gone down for the breakfast. Del went downstairs. The stair would lead to the lobby. The dining area and the bar were located at the back of the lobby.

Usually, in the morning until afternoon, Rina's daughter would be at the receptionist's desk. Her name was Lisa. Lisa always worked when her mother was sleeping. Fortunately, Lisa was at the receptionist's desk right now.

"Del, what're you going to do today?" Lisa asked as Del walked downstairs.

"Ah, you know, the usual, running odd jobs from the guild for a little bit of cash," Del said.

"It would be better if you spend it on something other than alcohol," Lisa said.

"Hahaha, that's good advice. I'll see you later, Lisa," Del entered the dining area.

As he thought, the dining area was quite crowded. Adventurers were eating at the tables of that dining area. Some of them were eating together in a group while some others were eating alone. The breakfast was served buffet-style.

Del grabbed a plate. The breakfast for that day was mashed potato and gravy. It was not fancy but certainly would fill up his stomach. Del sat down on a table near the window alone. He didn't feel like talking to the other adventurers.

As he ate, he looked out of the window. The view of the small town was quiet as usual. There weren't many people living in the border region after all. Del was banished to a town called Midham. It was located very far away from the capital.

It took Del three weeks just to reach the town using a horse carriage. The town was not filled with many buildings. There were only a few buildings inside of that town. The biggest building was the guild building where the adventurers took quests.

The other buildings were the blacksmith, the inn, the market, and some houses owned by the residents of that town. Overall, it was a quiet town without any traffic from a carriage or something similar.

People also had zero to no interest to come to a town located close to the neighboring empire. Only select people wanted to stay in a town like that. There was a high chance that any border town would be attacked first.

Del finished up his meal and he went outside of the inn. He smelled the fresh air of the countryside. It definitely smelled better than the urban area where he used to live in. He walked down the streets to the guild building.

The guild building stood up among the other buildings. That building was painted in white and was the tallest building inside of Midham. It was five floors tall. Guild building could be said as the most luxurious building in Midham since it was a place where the more experienced adventurers stayed.

Del entered that guild building.

He headed straight into the receptionist's desk. Usually, the guild secretary compiled the quests according to their difficulty. They were F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS, X, and O difficulty ranks. There was also the quest board where the guild secretary put a quest with high reward and high demands.

Adventurers were also divided into those ranks. F toE ranks were considered to be the novice adventurer aka the newbies. D to C ranks were considered to be the beginner adventurers. B to A ranks were considered to be experienced adventurers. S to SS ranks were considered to be expert adventurers. SSS to X ranks were considered to be legendary adventurers.

Then there was the O rank. This rank was so rare that nobody had gotten this rank before. This rank was usually attainable by combining the power of one adventurer party. But still, it was very rare to see a party with the strength of O rank.

It was not like there was a quest for someone who had the rank beyond B in the town of Midham anyway. Most of the quests in Midham were either E rank or C rank. There was no point in giving an S-rank adventurer an E-rank quest. It would just be taken as an insult.

"Hey, Del, looking for work again?" The receptionist asked.

"Yeah, more or less. What do you have for me?" Del asked the receptionist.

"Well, what do you have in mind? I'll search for it on the guild's quest book. There might be something that fit your request," the secretary said.

Del thought for a moment. Right now, the only assignment that he hadn't finished was the running for ten miles assignment. It might be good to do a delivery quest where he had to deliver a package to a location.

"Do you have any delivery mission?" Del asked the guild receptionist.

"Well, in fact, I do," the guild receptionist said.

"Show me then," Del said.

The guild receptionist put a paper on his desk. It was a quest with its description. There was also a small package beside it. The quest description was simple too. Maybe it was because an easy quest didn't need a lot of descriptions.

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[Delivery of a Wedding Ring] [Difficulty: F]

Location of Delivery: Begard, Lebisa Street 27.

Reward: 2 silver coins, 50 copper coins.

▬▬▬

One silver coin was equal to that of one dollar on Earth. It could buy Del a meal and that was it. One copper coin equals that of one cent. It was only there as a loose change. Copper coins were also very small, many people lost copper coins since it was worthless.

"Alright, I shall take this quest then, Begard is not that far from here anyway," Del said.

"Alright, here's the quest paper, and here's the wedding ring. I'll reward you once you return here, ok?" The receptionist said as he gave Del the ring and the quest paper.

Del left the guild building with the package in his pocket.