Discussion with Edward

Damien returned to the Guild, entering the main hall he saw the old man putting up a new wooden board on the wall.

Edward also saw him and said:

"Took you long enough kid, I almost went back there to fetch you myself."

"Now, help me make this place presentable, we wouldn't want our future clients to think we're playing around."

"What are those?" Asked Damien as he saw a pile of papers on Edward's right hand.

"Oh, these? They are your work as an adventurer."

Damien immediately went to help him place the mission contracts on the board, using a small nail to stick the contracts in place one by one.

And before he even had the chance to ask.

"I'll quickly explain how things work around here."

"See all of these papers? They are mostly old requests and other problems that have been piling up in the town over time."

"I used to do them in my free time, but what can I do? My back can't handle going around the Village all day."

"These are the most recent ones, and I made sure to remove all the ones I know are fixed, but they're not all as I still have some left to confirm."

"I may be old, but I never took my job lightly."

"Pick whatever mission you want, but only one at a time, if I see you getting more than that you will receive a penalty."

"3 penalties make a strike, 1 strike and you will be put on probation, 2 strikes and it's a long-term suspension, 3 strikes, and your Adventurer identity will be revoked immediately until a trial can be held."

"Of course, you can receive penalties through other means such as unjustified aggression to your contractor or violence within the Guildhall."

"There is a long list of things, in short, just stick to common sense, you can always come back to me if you wish to clarify something, as I'm aware you may not understand our customs very well."

"Though if I see you getting even a single strike, I'll kick your ass!!" He said loudly, the air blowing back Damien's hair.

"..."

He let out a sigh and said with a smile:

"Though that... Would be the case if we were operating normally… But we aren't."

"So, pick as many as you want, just make sure to finish the job once you accept it."

"There is something to do everywhere so it's best to pick as many as you can instead of wasting my time having to process your missions every time you finish one."

"Especially since most of these don't have time limits."

Damien picked one of the missions and asked:

"Who issues these?" He asked as he read the contract in his mind.

'Help needed, Rebuild fence.'

Edward replied to his question as he put his pile of papers on a table nearby:

"Everyone really, and the pay is written over there as you've already noticed."

"As I said before, normally, I would be the person to do these contracts."

"But my time is short, and my age and injuries are catching up to me, as such, in the last few decades, I focused all of my efforts on hunting down the dangerous beasts that come too close to our village."

"Don't worry about payment as, despite our condition, money is the last thing we lack…"

"If so, why is everything so…"

Edward let out another sigh.

"Rundown? Simple kid, we have the money, but merchants rarely stop by after... well the disaster, and even then, it's not for long and I am betting that newer merchant don't even know about this place."

"We built everything we have here with material we could get around,as for why everything here seem expensive to you, it's just because that is the amount we are used to."

"And even if we wanted to fix the Village, we cannot."

"With how bad the soil is just farming takes most of our effort then we have security we have to be on guard against any undead creatures that might slip out from the ruins, if we were to try and set up a group focused on gathering such resources to rebuild... We might starve soon enough."

"The only thing an old man like me can do now is to hunt some meat to lift their moods."

He kept sighing, despite his looks, he felt very bad about their current situation.

"From time-to-time groups and adventurers looking to make a fortune by exploring the ruins arrive but leave immediately after… And I suspect they may not come this year either... And the years after as well."

"In any case, focus on doing these, and soon enough, your Adventurer rank will be increased, don't think I will take it easy on you just because you are the only adventurer here, so get in there and start working."

Edward smiled and patted Damien's shoulder, while the Damien's thought wandered.

Damien scratched his chin and asked.

"What if I invite other outlanders?"

"Oh, I see you are an outlander but how do you plan to do that?" Edward asked sceptically.

"Don't worry, I am quite influential in my world and..."

"You can forget about that we don't just accept anybody here." Edward cut Damien off.

"Hear me out first."

"Go on I am listening." Edward said after a pause before moving to take a sit on one of the stools.

"I am not inviting just anybody; I am inviting kids, well mostly younger generation and as you know except for special cases these kids haven't been tainted by the world besides I will leave them to you to train and I can assure you that they would be more than happy to help for the rewards."

"I see kids." Edward pondered on the proposal Damien just made. "Go on."

"Don't worry, I will make sure they are not more than one thousand well one thousand and one for now until this place is better developed, but you have to promise no extreme labour and the no blood for them under 16."

'I can't believe I am now into child labour. Well as long as they don't know this is real it should be fine.'

"Oh, please no mentions of this world been real." Damien finished.

"I see, you have already thought this through." Edward said as he listened to Damien, "But unfortunately I can't give you authorisation to do all that, you would have to improve your reputation before presenting this to the other leaders of the town but don't worry you have earned my support."

Damien sighed as he heard the notification sound.

[Ding: You have successfully earned Edward support.]

[Ding: Special Quest activated]

[Ding: Earn the leaders' support]

[Ding: Supports earned 1/??]

[Reward: Increased authority in Gleyma]

'I see it now… reputation is really important here besides I need to convince those leaders.'

'One person won't make a difference, but if there were 1000 players doing this at the same time, this town will completely change after a few weeks, but they don't want to many outsiders here.'

'I should have realised that why the fairy that brought me here was surprised when I mention the name of this village even though it was not listed on the list, besides I doubt they can actually support that many people.'

The list referred to here is the list of places player could choose to 'spawn' but oddly enough even though the town was facing a lack of manpower their name wasn't there.

Damien thought they weren't on the list since this place could barely be classified as a town and more like a village and a rundown one at that but now, he could see there were several other reasons.