9) Hidden Chain Quest

colour drained from Gama's face, as he fell over and punched the ground, muttering something about injustice, as Sam was completely stunned at Gama's antics and almsot facepalled.

*What the hell is up with Gama? Is he a pervert or something? Like, he genuinely is shit at talking to women, I will have to fix that in the future. Virgins are really annoying. Well, I am one too, but at least I haven't fallen that low.* Ignore my Friend here. He doesn't speak for me or represents us in any shape or form." 

Anne nodded her head and Sam brought a chair from what he assumed was a make up drawer going by the triple mirrors and sat down in front of her. 

"Now, miss..." "Annette, Anne for convenience." 

Sam noddes along "Miss Anne, my name is Samshank or just go with Shanks. As you know, this is my friend Gama. If you are wondering why I am here, it is because of what my friend told me. I was looking for new equipment for myself when he was getting into trouble and found you. 

He told me about how you met up in a bar and asked him to being you some mushrooms, which got me suspicious about your motives, but then he told me about how you were a nice and beautiful woman, who only asked him to fetch some mushrooms. Gama might be slightly easy to fool with looking like you have good intentions, but I'm a bit more cynical, so I investigated...

On a different topic, as you can see, we don't have jobs yet and mercenary work isn't for us... Yet. I was wondering if we could join you and help deliver stuff for extra money while adventuring like the good citizens all three of us are!"

Anne nodded her head and was about to speak up, when Gama suddenly stood up and yelled "Wait, aren't we here for smu-" the blunt side of a huge sword hit him across the head as he once again fell over, dazed for another reason now. "Ignore him, he is an idiot." [Gama, shut the f*** up! You failed MISERABLY! I'm the captain now.] after sending a quick message, Sam got back to his negotiations. 

"I was wondering if you needed some extra hands to deliver things like mail or meat to a friend in a different town or region. We could help you with that. What do you think? I can vouche for the both of us, we are quite capable... Gama is also capable in a different way." 

Anne rubbed her chin for a bit and looked Sam over and went on to Gama, who just recently came back to his senses. "I believe in your competence, mister Shanks, but I am not so sure about your agent over there. He wasn't the best at following orders or even any basic extracurricular work." 

Sam nodded his head and sighed "While it is true my friend can act somewhat dumb sometimes, it is mostly because he is young and pure. This also makes him an unlikely suspect and it isn't as if I can't finish the deliveries on my own. You don't need to hire both of us, just me is enough." 

Anne nodded at Sam's slightly cruel ruthless answerin approval. He offered himself as a labor force and Gama as free labourer, something Anne found amusing. *So, he is only using this kid as well. At least I know my goods will be in good hands. I'll test them a bit.* 

Anne acted as if she was thinking for a long time and let out a sigh "I don't have a high enough rank to directly let someone into our organisation, but you two can work for me personally. The amount I will pay will depend on your performance, so make sure you do well on tomorrow's little test." 

[Hidden chain quest: Smugglers of copper city] 

When taxes are high and the prices even higher, the people who complain the loudest aren't the commonwealth, who lose the most money, but the rich who have to give up wealth. One such man prefers doing his job with no third parties benefitting. 

You are going to be put to test and Annette Rox will be the one to decide how much you are worth. 

Graded quest E-S 

Rewards:173% experience, ???

*Oof! This is some nice experience. If I can get myself to level 3, it will be havled, but I can potentially even reach level 4 in one go if I get my experience bar to 50%, before completing this quest, I will just skip level 3 and directly reach 4.* 

Sam thought about the huge benefits this quest offered and nodded his head. His smile never left his face, as he turned towards his friend "Gama, let's get going, we need to get up early tomorrow morning and show miss Anne our capabilities." 

Gama finally learning when he should shut up and just do, only nodded and followed Sam out. The two friends left the house and headed to where their shared inn was. On the way there Sam looked at Gama and held his forehead from the headache of Gama "Gama, you ROYALLY blew that. What the actual hell happened?" 

Gama looked down and said "I-I'm sorry, shanks. I am not that good at talking with w-women. I get scared and l-lose the ability to t-talk straight." 

Sam sighed and patted Gama on his back "Don't worry about it. At least one of us got the hidden quest. Sorry I took your opportunity, but it was either that or nothing. I'll share some of the cash with you if you want when the job gets done, but losing out on the experience sucks.

Well, let's forget about that and get to our teammates. Actually I think it's about 9 pm where I live. This took us quite a while. You are in Uni, right? You probably have some lessons or something in the morning, so you should log off, if you got nothing, you can wander around and I'll meet in a bit. I have a friend of mine I need to meet and then we can regroup and grind." 

Gama nodded his head and went back to the inn by himself "sorry, I have anatomy lessons in 1 hour, so I can't exactly stay for long." Sam nodded and parted with Gama, as he went to meet his friend. The two other people in their team had not even logged on yet, so there was nothing left for Gama. *Shanks is right, I have to attend my biology classes. I should go rest after that screw up.* 

Sam parted with Gama and went towards the Adventurers association to pick up Cecile. When he arrived there in 10 minutes, he saw how his friends list went completely gray, indicating, that his teammates and his drinking friends had all logged off. *Is it really that late into the night? Even if they were 1 time zone ahead, they shouldn't be logging off at this hour, right? Do they live on the other side of the planet? It's morning where I live and Realms of Conquest should be region based, so I have no idea why the two idiots would be offline now. The drunks, that makes sense, they probably only join the game to hang in bars, as getting drunk here has no effect on your IRL alcohol level and you can even enjoy a strong bear with your mates in the morning.* 

Sam ignored his thoughts and focused one the beautiful woman dreased in adventure clothes in front of him "You know, just because I am wearing a potato sack, doesn't mean you should too." 

Cecile laughed at Sam's remark and they walked away quickly to the restaurant Cecile reserved. They quickly checked into a tea house together and sat down in a corner. With it being dead in the night, only a few other people were left there besides them.