The First Request Accepted!

Chapter 4

Emily and I headed towards the guild building. The familiar stone streets and grey brick buildings are the only scenery available. We arrived at the adventurers guild building at around the time it was about to close. As we entered the building a group of adventures were exiting the building. I overheard their conversation, it was a group of 6 adventurers 4 female and 2 males by the look of their equipment they are probably green rank or maybe even the rank that followed green rank.

"You think it was a good idea to get that request Syki?"

"Yes of course Lylia! It's just an investigation and It pays six hundred shells!"

"But isn't weird that a whole squadron of soldiers disappeared just like that? The story itself scares me! The job is red rank or higher! it's the hardest rank request we've ever done."

"Lylia . . . I'm red rank, and if anything happens I'll be sure to protect the group. Like I said before it's only an investigation we won't run into any danger, so relax."

The two girls that were talking seem to have accepted a request inquiring into the disappearance of the 10 soldiers in the northwestern part near the DarkWood Forest. The girl named Syki seems to be the leader of the group of six adventures. She is about 180cm in height and wearing a steel-colored metal chest plate with a steel lower layered guard that ends by her knees. Also, her shoulders seem to be protected by a similar layered guard that appeared to be made of steel as well. Under her armor, she appeared to wear skin-tight black clothing similar to a compression shirt. It covered her arms and legs even around her chest ending on her neck. She has black eyes and white hair that is made into a single ponytail held by a red string. A single long two-handed sword with a blue ember near the end of the hilt was sheathed on her hip. The second girl named Lylia is around 172cm in height, she is wearing a single piece of blue battle armor made from Ura Shell. Black leather seems to be sewn on the sides of her hips to protect her lower guard. The shoulder guards also seem to be made of the same black leather. Her hair is black and freely dangled all the way to her shoulders. Two iron short swords were strapped behind her back.

"You guys don't need to worry because I'll protect all of you."

"Erien you are still just a white rank the most you could do is run if we run into danger in this red rank request."

"Shut up Berym! I may be white rank but I'll level up soon to green rank! Then I'll be just like you."

"You two are weak I am second only to Syki at Blue rank."

"The only one that's weak is you, Norma!"

The man called Erien is about 182cm tall and appears to be wearing brown leather armor. Iron studs cover his chest and hip guards to aid in absorbing hits from swords. A short dagger hung next to his right hip sheathed but ready to be used at a moment's need. The boy has light brown short curly hair with a narrow face that looks like it screams "I am stronger than you!"

The second man called Berym is tall at around 205cm. Equipped, with iron armor that covers his whole body leaving no unguarded spot a single battle axe was strapped to his back. A helmet that had two short horns on each side that covered his face at all times was equipped.

The woman named Norma who was a blue-rank adventurer was around 190 cm tall and had a very voluptuous body that caught any man's eye. Her armor was steel armor that had brown studded leather. The chest was protected by brown studded leather with a steel plate on top. Her shoulders had leather guards with steel that layered over them. The hips were protected by the same studded brown leather with layered steel over it, she also had skin-tight clothing that covered her arms and legs. Her back was equipped with a grey cape that dangled all the way to her back knees. Norma had long steel daggers on each of her hips a median size one-handed sword was strapped behind her back, underneath the grey cape. Norma has long red hair, a single braid on each side of her head that ran towards the back of her hair, and she has big Blue eyes with silky white skin.

"Don't you think that I'm strong Meli?"

"Sure."

Norma wrapped her hand around the woman called Meli. The sixth and final member of the party of adventures was named Meli and she was a petite, slender elf girl that was around 156cm in height. Meli wore a white light leather armor that had an iron outline of metal studs. Strapped on her back was a sheath containing a lot of arrows. She held a long bow in her left hand. The longbow was decorated with carvings of a bird that resembled a hawk. The bow string is thin and very tightly wound, ready to launch arrows at incredibly high speeds piercing through the enemy with ease. Meli also had blond hair that was braided from her right temple, her eyes were green and looked focused.

The party of adventurers kept causally talking as they walked on the stone sidewalk until I couldn't hear them anymore. Emily and I were standing near the counter waiting for an open spot near the request board. Many adventures were taking the last requests of the day.

"Hiroki I want to register as an adventurer."

"Huh? Emily, you want to be an adventurer?"

"Yes, I want to be able to follow you when you take up a request."

"Well . . . if you want to, then I guess we should go to the front counter to register you."

We headed towards the front counter where the small friendly woman named Lorey Galor stood.

"Hello, mister Hiroki how can I help you now?"

"Hi Lorey this is Emily and she came to register as an adventurer."

"Hello miss Emily, please fill out this form and we will begin the process of registering you as an adventurer."

"Okay Lorey, thank you."

Emily was handed a form and pen called a zocn. She squeezed the zocn on each side firmly and the zocn began to fill out the form.

[You Name] Emily Zolckster

[Date of birth] Madus 88th sunset year 540

[Signature] *******

[Race] Human

[Level] 1

[Rank] White

Emily handed the filled form to the receptionist. Lorey placed the form into the white box and it began to glow. A white card began to materialize on top. After the card had fully materialized Lorey handed it over to Emily. Emily began to wave her hand around in front of her and Lorey began to explain the display menu to her and everything else she had explained to me when I first registered in the morning.

"Hiroki look! I'm an adventurer now!"

Emily looked eager to show me the glossy white rectangular card. she handed it to me, overall it looked just like mine.

[Adventures Guild of Ercas]

[Emily Zolckster]

[Age 16]

[Level 1]

I handed the card back to Emily. We began to move towards the request board to look at the available requests to see if we could accept one. The adventurers that were gathered near the board were gone only a few remained searching for a request. As Emily and I approached the board, we began to read the requests to find one for us to complete. Since we were white rank we could only accept white or green-ranked requests. We found a green ranked request that read: [I require an adventurer to collect beel flowers from the northwest edge of the Darkwood forest. It is only available in this section of the Darkwood forest please collect 30 beel flowers. Reward 50 shells. (Green Rank Request) Requester-Erika Gunther]

Emily and I agreed to accept this particular job since it seemed easy enough for adventurers of our rank. I ripped the paper from the board and folded it in half to place it in my pocket. We began to walk towards the building's exit. Once outside the building, we stopped near the sidewalk and I turned to look at Emily.

"Emily we should go to Logrix to buy armor for you. It would also be a good idea to buy you a weapon as well."

"Yes. I think it would be a good idea. When we were still at Logrix's shop I was still unsure whether to register as an adventurer or not. Because of that, I didn't feel the need to buy armor for myself."

"I guess we will just be a little late when we get back to the house."

We walked on the stone sidewalk until we reached Logrix's Armor shop. We opened the large wooden door and entered.

"Ah, Hiroki! Emily! Welcome, what can I do for you now?"

"Hello, Logrix. I just registered at the adventurers guild a moment ago and I'm in need of armor."

"I have just the thing for you! Since Hiroki has the fairy soul armor, this armor will basically match his! Let's go to the back follow me."

We followed Logrix into the back through the narrow small door. We found ourselves in Logrix's workshop again. Logrix began to drag out a tall wooden wardrobe that had a steel look in the front. Logrix used a key to open the wooden wardrobe. When the doors opened it revealed a purple armor that almost resemble the one purchased from Logrix earlier for me. The armor was clearly forged for a woman's body. It was purple with black as well, some places were also chrome.

"Here she is!"

"I thought you said that you only had one fairy soul armor Logrix?"

"Ahhahahaha Aye, I did say that. I wasn't planning on selling this one when you came earlier. Seeing how you already have one I think it's only fitting to keep both of the fairy soul armors together. This armor was made by me great-grandfather Loglis the strong. He was an adventurer and the only one to have gone the farthest in the dungeon that leads into the unconquerable territory. Logrix found the fairy soul ore and the Ilutz ore that are required to forge it. The only reason I was able to make the fairy armor that ye bought from me earlier was that I used this one as a model. This one will cost ya more than the other one. I'm asking about one shield for this one."

"What do you think Emily? "

"I love it! I get to match with you! "

"It's a deal!"

When we got back to the front of the shop I shook Logrix's hand and thanked him for the exceptional armor we acquired from his shop. He said both armors would be delivered tomorrow morning to Emily's house. Emily and I both said goodbye to Logrix and exited the shop through the wooden door. We then proceeded into the next-door shop to buy a weapon for Emily to wield. In front of the weapons shop, a sign read [Erika's Forges] The front wooden door was already opened. We entered the shop and immediately heard the shopkeeper greeting us.

"Welcome! My name is Erika Gunther how can I help you?"

"Hello Erika, my name is Hiroki and she is Emily. Since we both recently become adventurers, we were looking for a sword for her."

"Take a look around. If you spot something you like just let me know."

As we searched the displayed weapons we saw war Hammers, battle axes, daggers, and swords. In the end, I could find a weapon for Emily. All of the ones on display were just not right for Emily.

"Hey Erika, do you have any more swords? "

"Actually . . . I just bought one today from a guy who came to sell it, just wait a moment I'll bring it out. I have it in the storage behind the shop where I put recent inventory."

Erika disappeared behind a doorway that led further back behind the counter. A few minutes later Erika reappeared carrying a sword inside a sheath. She took it out slowly from the sheath. The blade was thin even the hilt was thin, the sword almost resemble a Japanese katana. The hilt was chrome but the blade was black and the wrist guard was red. Towards the end of the blade, it curved slightly upwards.

"I've never seen a sword this thin. I bought it because it seemed like a nice decoration piece for my shop. No one would want a sword this thin so I thought of just using it as a decorative piece. "

This sword . . . I've seen it! I remember now! The old suspicious man at the food market. He had it on the table next to all of the things he was selling!

"Um . . . Erika did the person who sold you this sword look suspicious while rearing a hooded robe?"

"Actually, Yes. How did you know? I told the man that I didn't want the sword but he kept on insisting. Finally, I gave in and accepted to buy it from him. Weird thing was, that when I went out back to the storage to fetch the coin when I came back the strange man was gone. The sword was left on top of the counter."

"Hiroki had a strange encounter with the same person yesterday when we visited the food market."

"Is that right? Well, you guys can have the sword free of charge I didn't pay anything for it anyways. If the strange man appears again I'll just pay him a few shells for the sword. I'm sorry I couldn't help with one of my forged swords. I'm actually low on material and haven't had the chance to restock my inventory of lightweight swords. I actually put out a request with the adventurers guild to collect some beel flowers this morning but no one has come to complete the request."

"Ah! we actually accept your request just now before the guild closed for the day right, Emily?"

"Yes! What a coincidence."

I took the folded paper out of my pocket and handed it to Erika.

"Oh, so you guys took my request huh."

"Yes, we did. We will complete it tomorrow by the end of the day."

"Thank you so much both of you! This will really help me start forging new weapons. Not many adventurers are interested in a green rank request since it doesn't pay much."

"Actually, your request helped us. Since we just started, we were looking for a request that wasn't dangerous."

"Yes Emily is right, Thank you, Erika! "

We left the shop with the sword. I turned to look at Emily, she was smiling. She had the thin sword strapped to her hip. Erika had decided to give Emily a sword support belt so that it made it easier to carry.

The sun had turned into a red color and the sky displayed a beautiful Scarlett. By the time we arrived at the house, the stars were visible in the night sky. We immediately entered the house. Emily put her new sword next to mine. Both swords are from the same strange man. Emily turned on the single candle that was in the middle of the table. She then began to prepare a meal for the both of us. To cook, she had to light a fire in the chimney. An iron pot hung above the fire as the heat began to warm up the water inside the iron pot. Emily started to chop vegetables, I helped by slicing the venison-like meat into edible-sized pieces. As we prepared our meal, we talked about everything that happened today. Smiling and laughing we looked just like husband and wife. When the food was done cooking we served ourselves in wooden bowls, placing them on the table next to a pair of wood-carved spoons. We both sat down on the wooden chairs near the table and began to eat our stew. After we finished the meal it was time to sleep. Emily walked into her room, while I gathered the used bowls and spoons to place them on a kitchen sink. While cleaning the bowls, I was thinking if it was appropriate for me to sleep in Emily's room tonight. My cheeks began to blush with a tint of red. I abandoned the thought and finished cleaning the bowls and spoons with water drawn by a hand pump next to the sink. I made my way toward my makeshift bed. I took off my white dress shirt and placed it in the drawer next to the futon. I sat down on my temporary bed and untied my shoes taking them off and revealing my tired feet. I placed the shoes under the bed, then stood up and unbuttoned my black dress pants taking them off. Then I proceeded to fold and store my pants in the same drawer I had placed my white dress shirt. A pair of soft hands embraced me from behind, I was surprised and jumped a little. Realizing it was Emily, I gave in to her warmth and caressed her hands.

"Hiroki, you can sleep in my room tonight."

Emily whispered softly in my left ear. I responded by turning around and looking into her eyes.

"Is it really okay?"

"Yes."

While holding onto my left hand, she pulled and led me into her room. The room was dark. I carefully walked until I reached Emily's bed. We both immediately got under the bed sheets. Laying on the bed I was nervous and feared I wouldn't be able to get any sleep. I've never slept next to a beautiful woman before! My mind raced with so many thoughts, I couldn't focus on any of them. Emily turned around and placed her arm on my chest, her fingers gently caressing my skin. I felt surprised but in a pleasant way. I turned to look at Emily but with the room being so dark, all I could see was the outline of her shadow. Emboldened, I launched towards her and my lips met hers. The moment I Kissed her, I could feel the time beginning to slow down. Emily placed her hand on my cheek, and in turn, I reached out with my right hand to caress her. Things led on and we began our slow romantic dance called love. Enjoying our youth, exploring what is a man and what is a woman. I kissed Emily on her neck, chest, and stomach. We danced in a rhythm only lovers could entangle with pleasure and ecstasy.

I woke up to the sound of a knock on the door. Logrix! I jumped out of the bed and ran out of Emily's room, headed straight towards the front door. I opened the door, revealing a smiling huge man named Logrix.

"Man cover yerself up would ya? Ahhahahaha did I interrupt something?"

I had completely forgotten, I wore nothing but my briefs! The laughing Logrix put his hand over my shoulder letting himself in.

"Common lad, spill it would ya? Did someone have a bit of fun last night? Ahhahahaha!"

Thankfully, I had closed the door to Emily's room on my dash toward the front door earlier. I immediately jogged towards the drawer where my clothing was and busily began to dress. Logrix was still laughing while hitting his right thigh. He was sitting on one of the wooded chairs near the table. When I finished dressing I proudly approached the still-laughing Logrix.

"Sorry lad, it's none of my business. Aye, I just couldn't help it, ya know? I brought the two fairy armors down with me like I promised yesterday."

Logrix got up from the chair and dashed to the front door, dragging a big chest through the door from the outside. When the chest was inside the house Logrix closed the front door. He then walked up to the big wooden chest and opened it with an iron rod. The top lid of the chest gave in and began to reveal a split. The wooden lid popped and Logrix lifted it off. Inside were both of the fairy soul armor we had purchased yesterday.

"Well lad, I have to run off to another delivery."

"Thanks for the delivery of the armor, Logrix."

"No problem lad! Let's catch a couple of rounds of Atas ale next time! Ahahahaah! Maybe you can tell me the details of a certain someone's night. Aye, see ya lad Ahahahaah!"

Logrix began to walk towards the front doorway, he opened the door letting the bright morning sunlight inside. The door shut and I was left standing looking at the fairy soul armor. So . . . we are finally starting our quest today huh? I realized how excited I was to start my adventure in this world. finally! I'll be exploring outside of blackthorn for the first time since arriving in this world.

"Is he gone?"

Emily had opened the door revealing a small crack so just one of her eyes could see outside of her room.

"Yes, Logrix left already. He brought the fairy soul armor."

Emily opened the door wholly and walked out of her room. She was wearing a red nightgown revealing a little of her white smooth skin. Her cheeks were dyed a rose color, cute! That was what came out of my mouth. The morning light that filtered through the windows made her body glow in a warm light that made me want to embrace her once again. Emily's beauty radiated leaving me in complete awe.

"I'll get started with our breakfast. We have our first request as adventurers today!"

"Yes, I'll prepare our rations and gear."

"Okay, I'll leave it to you Hiroki."

I started to fill two small packs with dried meat, dried berries, and dried nuts as our food rations. I also filled a large container with water for us to drink, placing it inside one of the packs. We decided to stop by a potions shop before we left blackthorn. When I finished packing essentials, I walked to the table and sat on the chair placing the packs on the floor.

"I finished packing our gear, Emily. We just have to remember to buy the elixirs before we leave blackthorn. Is breakfast ready?"

"Almost, I'm heating up some leftover stew. I'm also preparing a few sandwiches to eat after we finish picking the beel flowers."

"I guess we'll put our armor on when we finish eating breakfast. I'm actually kinda looking forward to it."

The stew finished heating up, taking out two wooden bowls Emily began to fill them with stew. She placed them one by one on top of the table. I grabbed one of the bowls of stew and set it in front of me. Emily then gave me a wooden spoon while also placing one next to her bowl of stew. She then doused the flame and sat on the chair across. We began to eat our stew with pleasure. When we finished breakfast I took our bowls and spoons and placed them on the stone sink.

*****************

We stared at the two fairy armors for a while. I moved towards my armor and took it out piece by piece. The armors were separated by a thin wood in the middle of the chest. Mine was on the left side and Emily's was on the right side. I began by taking my clothes off and putting on skin-tight clothing that covered my whole body to protect against the hardness of the fairy soul armor on the inside. Next, I then started with the armor. First, the lower body parts. This included my feet, legs, and groin. After the lower half of my body was fully covered in the fairy soul armor I started equipping the upper half of my body. I started with the torso piece that included both of my arms, the backside of my torso, the front side of my torso, and finally my shoulders. One last thing remained to finish readying up. I placed the two-handed sword that seemed to have followed me from the sketchy vendor's stall. I then secured it behind my back where all I required was to reach with one hand to easily draw it out when needed. I was finally ready and fully geared up in my fairy soul armor. I looked over to Emily, she had started to take off her clothes and put on the skin-tight clothing that covered her whole body to protect against the hardness of the fairy armor on the inside. She then started gearing up her lower body, starting with her legs. I walked over to Emily and helped her equip the groin area pieces and hip guards. We then moved on to the torso. I lifted the torso piece of the fairy armor and began lowering it on Emily. She guided her head and arms on their respective openings. When the torso piece was secured, Emily began to equip the last pieces of the fairy soul armor. The arms and shoulder pieces were now finished being equipped. I then secured the thin sword we got from Erika to Emily's hip so that she can easily remove the sword from its sheath when needed. We were now fully equipped with our swords and fairy soul armor. I then grabbed the packs I had prepared earlier with our rations and other necessary items. I carried both of them since they weren't that heavy.

We headed towards the front door and exited Emily's house, closing and locking the door behind us. We then began to walk on the stone sidewalk towards the potions shop to buy a few needed items for our trip to the northwest part of the Darkwood forest. We stood in front of the shop, it had a white wooden double door and a sign that read [Adventurers Elixir]. The building was a double-floor grey brick building, adventurers were entering and exiting the building. The shop seemed very busy, unlike the previous shops we'd gone to. Emily and I entered by opening the white double doors of the building. Inside I could see adventurers browsing the stacked shelves with different kinds of potions. We walked up to the counter on the far left side of the shop. Behind the counter was the receptionist a woman around 174cm in height with tan skin that shone healthily as the sun illuminated her through the windows on the left side of the counter. She wore a black dress, her brown hair fell straight to her shoulder. Her brown eyes were narrow and alluring, she proudly stood behind the counter.

" Hello sir, my name is Lixi can I help you with something today?"

"Hello Lixi, my name is Hiroki."

"My name is Emily, nice to meet you Lixi."

"We are looking for health and mana potions."

"Oh . . . I keep those near the counter since it's what I sell the most. How many do you need? Each health and mana elixir is 50 shells."

"I'll take eight of each."

"Okay, that'll be 700 copper shells."

Lixi fetched the elixirs I wanted and neatly wrapped them all in a bundle with a rope then placed them in a cloth bag. The elixir is inside 16cm long glass bottles, so the way she wrapped them should keep them from breaking during travel. I handed over the coin and Placed the bundle of elixirs inside one of the packs. Procuring what we needed for the request we exited the potions shop and headed toward the gates of Blackthorn. As we crossed a bridge that connected the entrance of Blackthorn and the land over a small stream. Emily told me that her carriage was at the stables just on the other side of the bridge.

"How can I help yer today miss."

"I would like my horse and carriage fetched, please. "

"Can you please present yer title?"

Emily presented her horse and carriage title to the stables man. He was 190cm, well built, and had dark brown hair with green eyes. After scanning the title that Emily had presented carefully he then nodded in agreement.

"Aye malady, I'll bring yer horse right away!"

The stables man brought out a white Horse that appeared well-groomed and fed. He then mounted the carriage to the horse, a simple small carriage that sat two people and had a small space for cargo, which could fit around three people. We placed our packs in the back and mounted the carriage. Following the stone road north around 50 meters away from the Darkwood forest. The trip to collect the beel flowers would take around four hours. Slowly Blackthorn began to disappear in view behind us as we continued north.