Book Four – Chapter Three – Part Two – The Joy of Assisting Others

Around twelve hours later, a casually dressed Momo, who wore something sporty but adorable, descended to the lobby with Servi in tow. As usual, she still had on the outfit that suggested she was the daughter of a local farmer. And in a change of pace, one of her suspenders was hanging off. Itarr had nearly a hundred different outfits to pick from, but she settled for the very first one Momo had picked out for Servi.

I’m happy she’s wearing it, but I also remembered I picked out a cute dress… I guess it isn’t the time for dresses, is it? Still, you’d look pretty wearing it!

Momo thought the clothes would start to stink, but that wasn’t the case at all. And while she didn’t hear it from the Goddess herself, Itarr was absorbing any sort of foul-smelling particles that found themselves on Servi. In a sense, she was, by far, the most effective clothes washer in the world.

“Servy, what’s on the menu for today?” Momo asked. She adjusted her trademarked black bag around her shoulders and reached into her pockets. She pulled out a small tissue and sneezed into it, sending her hair flying backwards. “I always seem to get a little cold around this time. And sneezing… One time, when I was little, I swear I sneezed twenty times in a single hour. Ah, but you can’t really do anything about allergies with skills. Maybe Lux Dei Omnipotentis, but seriously… Who’d spend a single-use, Rank 0 skill on something like allergies?”

Servi stared straight ahead as her foot touched the bottom floor. With the foul stairs behind them, she squeezed Momo’s hand. The Singi responded by tapping her middle finger on the back of Servi’s hand.

As they walked towards the exit, Momo caught a glimpse of someone she knew very well. She was unprofessionally sprawled on a bench made for four people. Her red hair was in a ponytail, showing off her gorgeous pointy ears. The black blouse she wore was cut low enough for her white undershirt to be visible. Even though it wasn’t even 9 AM, there was a layer of sweat streaming from her face, descending to her neck where it was caught by the collar of her buttoned-up shirt.

“Claire? Servy, let’s go see what’s wrong with her?” Momo said, deciding on the first mission of the day. She maneuvered through a horde of people getting ready for their morning quests. Momo fathomed taking one for old times’ sake, but rushing into combat so soon might have been detrimental to Servi’s recovery.

But did it have to be a combat-oriented quest? Momo bet her dupla that there were a few deliveries she and Servi could take.

That could be fun, I guess. I’ll talk it over with Servy and see if she wants to do that.

Momo did travel all the way to Canary to become an adventurer. Could she really call herself one? The last quest they took ended up almost failing. Then there was the month-long preparation for the Warden tournament. Neither Momo nor Servi took anything on during that period. Truth be told, their record was somewhat spotty, with frequent gaps of inactivity. And if Servi’s healing was going to take a while, it just meant that there would be another gap. And this time, it would probably be longer than a simple month.

Momo wanted to return to the grind, but she knew that her darling Servy had to come first.

She ducked under a three-and-half-meter-tall Kobold. The black scales on his arms were so dark Momo thought she was staring into a void. His furry face looked down and smiled at the little scamper. Momo nodded and continued her journey. “Hiya, Claire!” Momo said, waving her arms.

“Mooooomoooooo!!!!” Claire exaggeratedly whined. She reached a hand out, and it dropped to her skirt-covered lap. Her heeled shoes clacked against the hardwood floor as she made room for Servi and her protector.

“What’s wrong?” Momo asked, plopping down.

“I’m upset… You see, I was supposed to be off today. I had big plans that involved sleeping all day… Last night, before I was about to lay down, someone knocked at my door. I didn’t want to open it… Why did I open it? It was my boss… He said Darci was sick and couldn’t come in, and he asked if I could cover for him. I wanted to say no, but he offered me time and a half, so I had to do it. Then when I got here, it turned out Darci wasn’t sick at all! He wasn’t sick!!! That lying cat… And now I’m here, early in the morning, and I’m not even going to get paid… Oh, Momo… Life isn’t fair!! Ah, why couldn’t I find a bag full of priceless jewels to sell, so I didn’t have to work… Do you know of any diamonds I can sell?”

“There there, it’s okay,” Momo said. She raised a hand and lovingly patted Claire on the hair. Claire formed a wry smile and sighed. “So, I guess you’re about to head on out?” Momo removed her hand and returned it to her lap.

Claire shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. I just wanted to sulk and throw a silent tantrum. Still, couldn’t I have at least gotten paid an hour’s worth for showing up? I—”

“Clare…okay… Claire…okay…”

“Eh?!” Claire and Momo exclaimed, turning to Servi. She had a painful grimace, but she kept repeating those two words. Momo went wild with excitement, quickly turning between Servi and Claire.

“Claire! It’s the first time Servy’s said something by herself that isn’t just repeating what we said!” The happiness in her voice could make a grumpy dragon smile. Claire stood up off the bench and walked to Servi. She kneeled down until she was at eye level, then hugged Servi. Her left hand went that glorious field of black hair and patted it softly.

“Servi, you’re right. It’s all gonna be okay. I’m just acting a fool. It is unprofessional, and I’m sorry,” Claire whispered. She felt a hand touch her hair and smiled, then leaned back from the hug and returned to her seat.

After some small talk, Momo told Claire how they spent the previous day.

“It was a lazy day, huh? I was gonna have one of those myself. But I bet it was fun. When I was little, I loved to lay down near a window and listen to the rain hit the glass”

“I did the same thing. When it was really stormy, grampy would heat some of the milk we had and give it to me because I couldn’t sleep. I’m not afraid of thunder or lightning, but I can’t just ignore them like some people. I’m pretty sure these are to blame.” Momo pointed to her fluffy ears. They twitched adorably as if they wanted to show off their adorableness.

“But they are cute. I kinda wish I knew what it was like to have cat ears. I have to wear specialized warmers for mine when it gets too cold.”

Momo grinned. “I’ve seen those. They’re like tiny gloves, aren’t they? Guess what? They’re cute as heck, too.”

Right then, an announcement came from overhead. “At-Attention all W-W-Warden members, we have updated the quest board. T-Thank you.”

“Ah, that was Cebia. She’s a Dwarf that just started a few days ago,” Claire said. She leaned back and raised her arms to the sky.

“That was a Dwarf’s voice?” Momo exclaimed.

“Yeah. She doesn’t like to speak that much because she sounds like an Elvish girl talking to her first love. My boss convinced her that she needed to be a good speaker to work at Warden, and I guess she took it to heart. Starting from now, she said she wanted to do all of the announcements.”

“Good for her! She knows an area she has to improve at, and she’s making strives to do just that. But I do wish I can go on another quest… I don’t wanna get rusty… But I gotta take care of Servy.”

“I don’t mind watching her for you, but questing alone has its own sorts of challenges,” Claire said.

“Quest!!!” Servi suddenly spoke and stared at the back of Momo’s head. She turned around, slightly leaning forward, and her nose touched Servi’s. She scooted backwards, accidentally rubbing against Claire.

“Bwha! Claire, I’m sorry!” Momo said, looking like a lost kitten.

Claire only smiled and rubbed Momo’s head. “There isn’t anything to apologize for. What? Did Servi scare you?”

Momo nervously scratched her chin. “A little bit? That’s the first time she’s ever leaned in like that. Servy, do you wanna take on a quest? I’m sorry, but we can’t. I don’t wanna fight solo, and I couldn’t forgive myself if you get hurt.”

Itarr wouldn’t allow that, but that’s beside the point.

“Ah, hold on… I think I have an answer to your problem. Momo, there is a festival coming up in a few weeks. I’m sure we have plenty of quests that need to be completed, and I’m sure over half of them don't require any fighting. They won’t offer any Potential, but there’s still a monetary reward. You can help and earn some cash at the same time.” Claire said, raising a finger.

“Help!!! Help!!!” Servi said. She stood up and repeated those two words four more times before Momo made her choice. She slightly smiled at Servi, then stood up to hug her.

“Well, I guess you’ve convinced me, Servy,” Momo whispered. She then leaned back and spoke a bit louder so their friend could hear them, but Momo kept her arms around Servi’s back. “Let’s go check them out.” Her arms slipped down Servi’s side, but one stopped about halfway down. Momo hooked her fingers back, grasping Servi’s palms with the gentleness of a spring whisper.

Claire stood up. “I don’t suppose you two mind if I tag along? As your friend and elder, I believe my advice would be invaluable!” Claire pushed up a pair of invisible glasses and tucked a strand of hair behind her pointy ears. A cute chuckle escaped her lovely lips. “And it also gives me something to do before I go home and pass out for 12 hours.” She added that on at the end in a low whisper. Momo picked it up, but she knew it was a joke.

“I think we would like that very much, wouldn’t we?” Momo turned to Servi and smiled, and she returned it with a flashy grin.

“Very much!!” When Servi offered her approval, the three friends squeezed their way through the mass of bodies in their adventure to reach the quests. It was a long bulletin board that spanned the length of a wall. With eleven sections, it offered quests that needed the adventurer to be anywhere from Rank 10 to Rank 0. Considering Lando was moderately safe, there were no quests that needed someone more experienced than Rank 3. Even then, the number of times Canary needed a warrior as mighty as a Rank 5 could be counted on two hands. But that wasn’t to say those mid-powerful adventurers couldn’t be found in Canary. No rule stated a member had to take a quest equal to their rank. As odd as it seemed, there would be no problem if a mythical warrior of legend, who was at the fabled Rank 0, wanted to take on a quest meant for a rookie. As in, one that required the adventurer to pick a bundle of shiroblooms from a nearby forest.

Since that was the case, it was also theoretically possible for a warrior to rise through the ranks of the guild just by completing easy quests. It would obviously take a lot longer than if they were to do missions suited to their Rank, but that was an option. But mere quest completion wasn’t the only metric the guild took into account when it came to promotions. The list of criteria wasn’t publicly revealed, but most had an inkling of what was required.

But knowing knowledge and acting on that knowledge were two different things.

Southeastern Lando was usually relatively peaceful. The Arcton situation, which only happened due to a series of extraordinary circumstances coming together, was the first of its kind.

As for the quests about helping with the festival set up? Those had their own section. That was to the left of Rank 10 quests. Luckily for Servi and Momo, no one was perusing around. They had the spot all to themselves.

“Alright! The quests in this section are only for helping the town prepare for the summer festival. You do not get any Potential, the quests aren’t counted towards your next promotion, and I’m a bit afraid to say this, but there’s not that much money to be made,” Claire explained. She pointed a finger to the first task she saw, moving it down as she progressed with her explanation.

“That’s alright with us! Servy and I just wanna help out where we can,” Momo remarked.

“Very good. Oh, there is one more thing. If you’re lucky, you might find a quest that wants a bear’s pelt. I don’t know why the client wants it, but let’s say they want to make a blanket for the festival. Since it’s here, you won’t get any Potential. But here's the thing! Let’s say there’s a quest in the Rank 9 section that is asking the same thing. If you bring the two up to a receptionist, they can alter the reward and give you the Potential you would have been given if you took the second quest. Does that make sense?” Claire asked.

“It does. Basically, there might be two identical quests in different sections. If that’s the case, I can get Potential from a task that I might not have gotten in the first place. But wait, what determines how much Potential a quest can give?” Momo asked.

“Ah, an excellent question. It has quite a long answer, so prepare yourselves. You see, when a client has a quest, like requesting an adventurer to escort them to a field of medicinal herbs or a request to wipe out a horde of goblins, their first step is to go to the nearest Warden office. When they get there, they wait in line to see a receptionist. After explaining the quest to them, the client must fill out some paperwork and offer up a payment. Warden takes a predetermined cut based on criteria I cannot reveal. The rest is given to people like you and Servi upon completion. Then it is up to the employee to assign the quest a rank. As you can probably guess, the rank given is equal to the Rank Warden gives out to adventurers. So a task with a difficulty of 10 would be suitable for those who are Rank 10.

"To determine the rank of a quest, the receptionist grills the client for all available info in and around the quest location. Things like what type of terrain to expect, what kind of monsters or beasts live by, and if there are any reports of any bandit attacks are things that must be shared. Hiding or withholding any pertinent information carries a heavy fine and punishment, including but not limited to temporary and permanent bans from Warden. Ah, that includes both as a client and as an adventurer.

“I’ve gotten off-topic, but the crystal clear exchange of information is super important because it determines the quest’s rank. So after a receptionist assigns the quest a rank, they sign off on it. And after that, they deduce how much Potential should be given upon completion. Once that is done, the Warden Manager and the receptionist both sign off on it, and the quest can go up on the board the following morning. All that’s left is to wait for an adventurer to take it on and wait for them to return. If the quest is one that requires a completion slip then we wait for that too. But honestly, we’re thinking about phasing completion slips out because clients keep misplacing them.” Claire shrugged a bit at the end, possibly remembering how much of a headache it was to replace lost slips during a frantically busy day.

What was even worse was the fact Claire could tell who came in to replace a lost slip based on their facial expression. It was a gift, both good and bad, but it always ended with the overworked girl sighing out of frustration when she was alone.

“Wow…” Momo said, almost expressionless. “I never knew that much went into it. But wait, what’s stopping a receptionist from giving a rank 10 quest 100 Potential?”

Claire tapped on a random quest for extra emphasis while answering that very question. “The Gods and Goddesses responsible for creating Warden took that very scenario into account and implemented a built-in verification system. When the Acceptance Flame burns the initial contract, there is something in the fire that verifies everything is in the correct range. For example, a Rank 10 quest can only pay out a maximum of 10 Potential.

“If it detects an error, the Acceptance Flame simply vanishes without doing anything. You might think that it’s fine to give every Rank 10 quest the max amount of Potential, but it checks for that too. According to my boss, there has to be an ‘appropriate average of Potential given divided by the total number of completed quests,’ or something like that.

“I don’t know how it knows to check, but sometimes it feels like the Acceptance Flame is its own entity or something. It almost feels like it’s a living thing. It’s difficult to explain. I guess I can’t complain too much, though. It really does the hard work for us, and without it, this oh-so-well-oiled-machine I work for would literally come to a grinding halt.”

I think that last bit was just loaded with sarcasm. A stray thought passed through Momo’s mind. She really was astounded at how much went behind the scenes so adventurers like her could go out into the world and do what they did best. Active and passive, supporters and players, there was a near-infinite amount of terms that could describe that relationship that went back hundreds of thousands of years.

“The Acceptance Flame sounds amazing! Hey, Servy, what kinda quest you wanna do? We have a lot open to us, so why don’t you pick the first one?” Momo turned to her friend, then to the board, and back to her friend.

“Help!!! Help!!!” repeated the girl who wasn’t all there.

“I know you wanna help, Servy, but that doesn’t narrow it down. Hmm…”

“What about this one?” said Claire, whose purple eyes scanned the details of a particular quest about a clothing shop. She moved to the left and allowed Momo the chance to read it.

“The Old Onyx? That sounds kinda familiar, but where have I heard it?” Momo wracked her brain, but Claire spoke before an answer could be found.

“It used to be a popular clothing store, but it closed its doors around two months ago. According to the description, the client is the previous owner’s son, and they are looking for a few hired hands to help with the reopening preparations. And they also want people to help move the boxes of supplies meant for the play over to the theatre. So I guess you can expect moving, boxing, and sorting clothes and the like. Shouldn’t be too hard, I suppose,” Claire said, describing all the quest had to offer.

“Wait, there’s a play coming up?!?! Like an actual play?!” Momo exclaimed, vocally demonstrating her surprise.

“Yeah…? You haven’t heard?” Claire slowly asked. Momo shook her head, and the Elf continued. “There’s going to be a play on the last day of the festival, which runs from August 17th to the 24th.”

“A FESTIVAL?!?!” Momo exclaimed a second time as her tail danced in a flurry. Servi repeated it right after.

“Yeah…? Did you not hear me talk about it before we walked over here? It wasn’t that long ago. It was all over the newspapers. Heck, the governor himself is funding this whole ruckus from his own pocketbook. He mentioned something about how Canary needed one final blowout to return the life it once had. I have to admit he’s right on that last thing… With the attacks on Canary and whatever’s happening Arcton, I do think we need a bit of extra happiness in our lives.”

“If you mentioned it before, I must’ve not had heard it. I’m sorry, Claire, but this is the first time I’m hearing anything about a play or festival.” Momo sounded a bit dejected, and Claire started to seriously worry for her feline friend.

“Momo, I’m kinda getting worried… Are you sure you’re getting enough sleep? What about food? Are you and Servi eating enough?”

“Thanks for worrying, but I promise we’re doing fine. We both had a lot of money saved up because we got lucky with the rat spawns in the sewers, so buying food isn’t a problem. And I’m sleeping better than ever these days, so I’m pretty relaxed. If anything, I probably missed it because I was kinda not paying attention…” Claire had known Momo long enough to know she wasn’t that good at lying. That was why she found it odd that everything stemming from her mouth appeared to be the truth. The strangest thing, though, was her offhanded comment about sleeping well.

Claire knew that the lumpy, hard mattresses provided by Warden were obtained by paying the lowest bidder. They were coarse, rough, and hard to wipe down. Cleaning them was a pain because any grease or trash had to be baked off by the sun before attacking it with a nearly lethal amount of soap and water.

“Well, you do seem to be in good spirits. I don’t see any bags under your eyes, either. And you aren’t excessively yawning. Sorry, Momo. Guess I was just being a bit overprotective.”

Momo smiled and shook her head. Stray strands of pink hair flew past her eyes. “Don’t be sorry. I think it’s sweet you’re always looking out for us. It’s like what we said at your place. You’re mine and Servy’s best friends. We’re super inexperienced, so we hope you don’t mind helping us out a bit more until we’re veterans.”

“Are you kidding? You two still better come to me for help when you’re masterful adventurers with pupils of your own!” Claire’s true feelings backed those heavy words of promise.  Their friendship already had a permanent fixture within her long-lived heart.

The friends shared a giggle, which then evolved into a cheerful laugh that came from the heart.

“Alright. So we’re doing that one, but why don’t we pick one more. Servy?” Momo turned from Claire, to the quest board, then to Servi. As always, the two words she spoke didn’t help in the decision-making. Momo just smiled and turned back to the board. The empty displeasure building up inside her heart didn’t make itself known because it just wasn’t there.

“Here’s one for the Rude Crystal… That also sounds familiar…” Momo said. Claire unpinned that quest and started to explain.

“A few months ago, the Rude Crystal was a pretty popular bar and restaurant. It even had space for a live band. But even though it made a lot of money, there were a few nasty rumors going around about it. I heard from a co-worker that the Rude Crystal used to hold drinking contests, and the loser had to become a slave or something like that. Ugh… It makes me sick and scared even thinking about it. I don’t want to wish ill on the dead, but maybe that’s the reason it was shut down? It wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary if an unhappy patron didn’t want to become a slave and chose to take the hard way out. Unfortunately, if that was what happened, they probably took a few innocent people along for the final destination…” Claire sighed. She quickly apologized when she realized her harrowing theory had sullied the mood.

“It’s okay. But what is the quest for? Moving boxes?” Momo asked. Her expression had turned morbid for just a flash before it was back in the shape of a young girl in love. Her lips curled like a flower blossoming for the first time.

“Umm… It says that the new owner is the previous owner’s grandmother. They need help moving supplies and lumber waiting at a nearby warehouse. Then they need assistance in setting up chairs and tables around the restaurant portion.”

“That doesn’t sound that bad,” Momo said. She looked down at her slender arms and petite frame, realizing that she might not be the best pick. Servi, though, had strength on strength on even more strength. She was a muscle powerhouse, though, and only three people knew what was hidden beneath that cute face.

“Are you sure you two can handle it? The client is asking for Koena and Kobolds because there’s going to be a lot of heavy lifting.” Claire didn’t want to point out the obvious, but she indirectly did.

“Hehe! Servy, you think you can handle it?”

“Help!!! Help!!!”

“See?” Momo shrugged. “She can do it. Servy’s stronger than me by a lot, but I’m sure I can help with the smaller boxes. If not, I used to help grampy move tables and chairs around when it was time to give our house a deep clean.”