Tyom’s Request

For five days Poltas had been working at the clinic and trying his best to level up the weblet.

The clinic had been busy with various activities, from teeth check ups to monthly pregnancy tests. Poltas had been weirded out by the poison testing due to how many people turned out to be under some form of poisoning.

His time spent at the clinic had been meaningful as he learnt a great deal about the world of Floretia, but it also made him realise how inadequate he was compared to most local people. 

The weblet was his only source of motivation. He had discovered that the weblet could be levelled up by doing mini quests in real life as well as on the weblet itself. Some quests were simple such as 'meet 5 elves in Pamsteria' but others were quite vague with a short clue on what to do.

The clinic was a good place for gathering information too. Whenever Poltas had time, he'd try to gather more information about Pamsteria from patients and their attendants.

He had levelled up the weblet twice so far, and new features such as a sub-branch of auto-mode called 'communication-mode' and mini-games had been unlocked.

The communication-mode could be used to skip activities which required Poltas to actively interact with people. And in the end a summary of the interaction would be available on the weblet. At first glance this mode seemed quite OP, but it had its limitations. It could only be used when interacting with the main icons of Pamsteria. And currently it could only be used a maximum of 5 times a day.

The mini-games were a few basic mobile games from Earth, they could be played when conscious but also when using auto-mode. Poltas felt that he could unlock even more games if the weblet was of higher level, but that was a mission for the future.

On his sixth and relatively relaxed day at the clinic, Aslant had showed up with Tyom in tow to ask for some medication. Unfortunately the anti-allergic medication had been all used up and they would have to wait weeks for the next shipment.

Aslant had been understanding and left after making a reservation. 

But Tyom lived up to his reputation as an annoying child and "ambushed" Poltas on his way home.

"Hello Miss! I was waiting for you."

Poltas, who had experienced a jump scare, considered ignoring the child but in the end curiosity won over.

"Why were you looking for me? We saw each other at the clinic today."

"We did.but… Miss is the only one who can help me since you work at the clinic."

"I am not helping you steal medicine if that's why you stalked me."

"Sta-staked?! I did not. Everyone knows the visitor lives with the Keeper."

Tyom was flustered and upset at being called a stalker, but Poltas had no qualms with him feeling wronged.

"Anyways, I looked for you because I need help getting medicine for my uncle."

"..."

"NO! I don't mean you should steal it, I need your help in making the medicine for my uncle."

Making medicine?

'Since when am I known for making medicine? This child is dangerous, I should alert Brandial about him.'

"You work with the healer, so I am sure you know how to make medicine, yes?"

"Did you wait for me based on this assumption?"

"Y-yes."

"Sorry to disappoint you kid, but I am merely a temporary assistant, I do not know how to make medicine."

"Oh…but surely you know what herbs are used to make my uncle's medicine?"

"If you just want to know the herbs, you can ask Darshel about them. He has a few books with pictures and descriptions of them."

"I already have the book with herbs, but I…"

"But you?"

"I lack the skills to collect those herbs, please accompany me in this task!"

Tyom bowed at a 90 degrees angle and maintained the pose while Poltas tried to process his request.

Ideally he would reject this request and be on his merry way, but he had heard the ding sound from his weblet when the request was made. His suspicions were confirmed when he looked at the weblet, this request was his next main quest.

The title of the next quest was 'Harvest herbs skillfully'. Poltas had learned his lesson by now, no matter how straightforward the quest may seem, there was always a trick to it.

"What skills are you lacking?"

"Uh..um…."

"I can't hear you if you mumble it all."

"I said, I..um…do not have much fighting experience. Unlike all my fellow students, I am quite lacking in physical skills. I know where the herbs are, but those locations are all full of monsters, I can't bring them back by myself."

So this was the trick of the quest, Poltas thought smugly. Even if the aim was to harvest herbs, the quest expected him to display combative skills.

Unwilling as he may be, he had to complete the main quests to progress the town's plot.

"I will help you in collecting the herbs."

"Really! You will?!"

"Bring a map with marked locations of the herbs, and meet me here at this time tomorrow."

"Of course. Anything you ask for. I will also start gathering resources we will need for the trip. Thank you so much."

Unaware that he was only receiving help due to necessity, Tyom returned to the bakery in high spirits and spent all night working on a plan to efficiently collect herbs.