Chapter 8

"Sorry for my poor manners. Welcome to Dew Farms. I'm always glad to welcome friends of my grandson," the old man said as he lay on the couch, seemingly a bit embarrassed. But not letting that get him down, the old man continued to speak.

"As you can see, we don't have much here but hospitality, but I'm glad to see someone in this family is not too embarrassed to bring friends here." Saying this, the old man delivered a nasty kick to the back of the unsuspecting Noah, who grabbed his head in pain, much to the old man's apparent joy. With a large stretch and a crisp 'crack,' the old man sat up on the couch.

"We are Glad to be hear sir but we didn't come here just to visit Noah told us you needed farm hands and we would be happy to work if you would take us" I spoke getting a nod from the old man who with swift movement of his hands smacked Noah in the head causing him to cry out in pain but ignoring his cry the old man reprimanded him.

"How many times do I have to tell you to tell me the whole reason you're coming! Every time you visit, you're either running from something or just need some quick work for some cash!" I was surprised, but seeing Olivia's unphased demeanor, I did my best to ignore the brutal ass whooping that Noah kept receiving.

"Anyways, I would be glad to get the extra help, but I hope you understand the pay won't be very good, as this old farm has barely been making much of a profit in recent years," the old man began to explain, turning to us and sounding as if he expected us to leave after hearing this.

"That's fine. We're just looking for a place to stay mostly, and I hear there's employee housing?" I said, sticking out my hand for a handshake. The old man stared at my hand for a moment, as if too shocked to respond, before enthusiastically shaking it.

"Of course, of course, follow me!" Saying this, the old man quickly led us to what looked like a series of small cabins that appeared to be in rough condition. However, when we went inside, we found them to be actually quite nice, though they needed new furniture and a bit of cleaning. They even had clean running water and small but usable stoves. Overall, not half bad. Looking at the 20 or so huts, it was plenty of room for future guild members.

"I will give you all the keys later. How about I show y'all the work you will be doing from now on?" Leading us away, the old man came to stand in front of the field that had been claimed by nature.

"I hope to have this land cleared of trees as soon as possible, and you seem relatively strong. I want you to spend the next few days chopping these trees down," the old man said, pointing to me and then towards the large stretch of land covered in trees, bushes, and weeds.

"Does not sound to hard I will begin as soon as possible" Saying this the old man nodded seemingly satisfied with my answer, but shaking his head he told me I can start after he showed everyone to their jobs.

Walking away from the overgrown land, we came to stand in front of the rundown chicken coop I saw earlier. The chickens wandered almost freely, but the old man, seeming not to mind, walked over to a shed where he pulled out what I could only assume to be chicken feed. He proceeded to throw some into the coop, causing the group of chickens to swarm in and eat the thrown food.

"I will have Blueberry take care of these. Please note that these are not normal chickens. They are a special breed that needs near-constant feeding, but be careful and manage each one's individual food intake. They can grow large and fat very quickly, leading to their legs breaking under their own weight."

Nodding at the old man's explanation, Blueberry, aka Olivia, looked at the chickens seriously. Ignoring the girl, the old man continued on his path towards another pen, this one containing pigs.

"Be careful of these bastards they look like pigs but similar to their boar kin they will hit you with enough force to match a car" Saying this we watched in near abject horror as the 'pigs' stood all the way up to our chest, if that wasn't scary enough the pen they were in was made of metal with a electric fence mixed, but it showed several large dents as if something repeatedly tried to break out.

"They don't need much tending and only need their troughs filled. I feel the skinny girl can handle that much." Saying that, the old man slowly began to walk us over to another pen. As he did so, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a look of dread cross Noah's features, but I didn't have time to find out why as we came to stand right outside what could barely be called a fence and should instead be called a wall. It was a 3-meter-tall wooden fence with concrete reinforcement.

"Over here you can find our cattle, and the Dew family's prized bull, Turo. Spanish for Teaching, He was named that because he taught a certain boy not to enter the pen of an aggressive animal." Saying this, the old man looked over at Noah, who looked away in embarrassment and fear. It seems Turo left quite a bit of fear in Noah's heart. But seeing the bull in question, I could understand why, as it was truly huge, nearly 2.3 meters tall.

"Since Noah already knows what to do, I will leave this job to him. But for the rest of you, after you finish your normal duties tending to your respective animals, you will join your friend in clearing the land. Any questions?" Saying this, the old man turned to look at us. Seeing none of us speak up, and with plenty of time to kill, he led us to a hut near his home where he had me grab an axe and everyone else some other tools. He then began to direct us in the clearing of the land. It was then I understood why the farmhands might have left, other than the pay.

"What are you doing? Swing your axe lower! You're supposed to be aiming between your knees and waist, not your waist and elbow!" The old man was frantic as he gave directions, correcting people's form. He even ran over to yell at the girls who were tasked with bush clearing using loppers, and then at Noah, who was using a pick to break up any particularly large stones, before returning to yell at me.

Eventually, evening came, and the old man decided to have us pack up and head to his home for a shower, something we happily accepted as we found ourselves a bit exhausted after such hard work.

'Wow that was nice' coming down stair after taking a shower I found myself engrossed in the smell of the food the old man was cooking it seemed to be a large soup with anything and everything in it but judging by the smell the taste shouldn't be to bad.

"Glad to see none of you quit after day one. Now, come and eat," the old man said, passing out bowls to everyone. We all wasted no time digging in. Honestly, I would give the soup a 9/10. It was filling but didn't feel too heavy on my stomach, even after eating large amounts of it. I absolutely loved it and nearly drifted into a food coma on the couch. Sadly, though, the old man had a lot more to say.

"Starting tomorrow I wont observe you all working so Noah will be in charge, please be warned that all the animals on this far are incrediblely dangerous and will and can put anyone of you in the hospital if your not careful, so tommorow morning you all will be signing working contracts do you all understand?" Saying this the old man got a resounding yes from everyone's and seeming satisfied with this the old man left upstairs to go to sleep having already left blankets and pillows for us to sleep something lily appreciated as unlike everyone else she was the only one not to throw any blankets or pillows or blankets into her inventory.

"Good night, everyone." With those last words from me, we all began to drift off to sleep, but my peace was soon disturbed by a loud ding as a screen appeared in my vision.

[Missions have been renewed. Please check out available missions.]

'I should check them before I go to bed,' I thought. Ignoring Noah's snores, I wasted no time moving my hand and opening the mission board, which had four new missions. One mission, in particular, stood out amongst the group.

[To Die and Serve]

[Description: A Master less knight in Life, now seeks one in Death]

[Target: Show this Dead knight their is still something greater than himself to serve]

[Rewards: Companion token]

[Note: You cannot die in mission of this or similar nature and its best to challenge alone]

Seeing the reward and note, I almost immediately accepted the mission. However, I chose to take an easier mission first so I could level up before tackling this one.

[Caves Of Green]

[Description: Goblins and a handful of apprentices are Inhabiting a cave get rid of them]

[Target: [0/3] [0/20]]

[Rewards: 2x weapon token, 1x armor token, 150 gold]

'I can do this alone no need to awake everyone' With that thought in mind I accepted the quest the world around me going completely black as it was then replaced by the damp insides of a cave system.

'Need to be careful, there's barely enough space to swing my axe. I don't want to end up like the swordsman in the first episode of Goblin Slayer.' Thinking this, I raised my grip higher and closer to the axe head, shortening my range but also lowering the chance of my weapon hitting the cave's walls.

So began my long night of hunting as I moved through the cave systems. They were not well-lit but not very dark either. My axe constantly found its mark on the groups of goblins that either found me or were found by me. The only time I experienced any real difficulty was when two of the three apprentices gathered together and put up a decently solid shield while the last one took potshots at me with the occasional wind blade. I was able to dispel it with a casual swing of my axe, but it was at this time my new skill came into play.

'[Weakness Detection: Lv 1]' With that simple thought, my world changed. Everything took on the colors of red, yellow, and green, but most of it was dominated by the first two. The only obvious green area was on the bottom left side of the two apprentices' shields. Just like that, I understood where to strike, and so I did. In one instantaneous motion, my axe swung, and the shield shattered like a nail puncturing thin glass.

[You have received 90 gold]

[Gold: 1790]

[You Have Leveled Up]

[Stats Increased]

[Missions level]

Seeing my Gold grow and feeling the strength in my body increase slightly I felt joy as I appeared back in the spot I fell asleep in the moon still high in the sky and after a quick glance at my phone I found that it had only been 1 and half hours showing how quickly I slew all the goblins so feeling pretty good I looked at my new rewards and decided to use the armor token and save the weapon tokens for Noah.

[You have gained [Soulless Teacher's Gloves (Rare)] ]

Looking at the pair of black leather gloves that appeared in my inventory, wasting no time I took note of the three affixes one of which increased my dexterity by 25% while the other one increased the comfort by 37.5%, but none of this compared to the final and most insane ability of this gloves which came in the form of a active skill.

'This should be enough' It is because of this active skill that my confidence soared and I wasted no time accepting the quest to impress the knight.

- - - - - -

Took a bit to upload and that's because Wednesday I had went to meps(Military Entrance Processing Stations) and completed my swear in so more than likely I will have to stop updating soon as Im trying to leave for the air force before september.

Hope I can write after but for now no more updates for now. or maybe I will update a couple times more before I leave don't know