Caelus Online

14. A Mountain of Ears

Upon hearing the mind blowing number, the quill in the receptionist's hand dropped to the desk.

“350! Are you serious?! Wait, you must have been with a large party, right?”

Smiling now she had finally seen a guild receptionist react like this for the first time, Astaria corrected her misconception.

“It would have been nice if I did have a party at the time, but I was alone so killed them all solo.”

Astaria’s revelation seemed to shock the receptionist to the point she just stared at her in shock. While Astaria enjoyed the reaction, she decided to give the receptionist a friendly warning.

“Just so you know, once the other immortal warriors get used to fighting in this world, there will be many more people like me bringing large sums of subjugation proof, so prepare yourself.”

Choosing to not think about it since her brain was going blank, the receptionist just returned to filling out the document with an blank expression.

After a few moments and a deep sigh, she handed over a copper plate with Astaria’s details on it. With a sudden expression showing her confusion, the receptionist posed Astaria a question.

“By the way, why is your race unknown?”

Hearing this Ben looked over Astaria’s shoulder, examining the new copper guild plate in her hand.

“Huh? Oh! I completely forgot about that. Well, before I arrived in this world, the gods decided to do something to my body, so I am just as clueless as you. All I know is I’m slightly more agile than most and have a high magic affinity.”

With a tilt of her head, the receptionist made some speculations, clearly intrigued by the mystery.

“I see… that sure is strange. Maybe they blessed you and changed you into some sort of ancient race similar to the legendary high elves?”

With a thoughtful expression, Astaria nodded at the suggestion.

“Maybe, but only time will tell.”

After a short pause, Astaria returned to her original business.

“Can I sell some of what I looted from the goblins?”

With a hint of anticipation, the receptionist called out while quickly walking towards the back room.

“Ah, yes, of course! One second please.”

The receptionist disappeared into the back room behind the reception desk, returning shortly after with 2 of her colleagues each carrying a large wooden tray.

“Can you please place your proofs on the trays please?”

Nodding, Astaria opened up her inventory and started dropping the mountain of goblin ears onto the tray, easily filling the 3 trays up. After the first tray had been filled, one of the receptionists took it into the back room, only to return with another empty tray.

After all of the ears were handed over, Astaria looked through the remaining loot in her inventory, not finding anything else to sell to the guild.

With a nod of her head, she spoke up.

“That’s all the items. The rest of my loot I will give to a merchant I know. To sell on my behalf.”

Hearing this the 2 other receptionists remove the filled trays and return to the back room to start processing the mountain of ears.

“Are you sure? The guild will give you a decent price for things you want to sell?”

Shaking her head, Astaria replied.

“Thank you for the offer, but the merchant who I am working with will be selling to the immortal warriors directly. It’s part of our effort to improve the capability of others like us. I hope you can understand.”

Smiling with a new revelation about the person in front of her, the receptionist smiled, wanting to help speed up the process for Astaria.

“It will be a few moments for us to process all of the items you have brought, so if you don’t want to stand, please feel free to make yourself comfortable in the bar.”

Nodding, Astaria walked over and sat down at one of the tables, closely followed by Ben.

“I didn’t realise that you were trying to improve other players just yet?”

Ben inquired with a slight look of confusion covering his face, sitting down on the opposite side of a small table.

“Heh, of course not. I needed a decent excuse to explain that I will be selling my stuff where I can get a much better price. Besides, a handful of poor-quality weapons will only hinder players, it's better to sell them for the metal.”

with a nod in understanding, Ben continued to talk with Astaria while they waited for the receptionists to finish processing the ears.

After around 10 minutes the receptionist came over holding a tray with a small pouch on it.

“Thank you for waiting, here is your reward money of 4 gold and 6 silvers exactly. 3 gold and 5 silvers are from the proof, while the additional 1 gold, 1 silver is from completing the open Goblin subjugation quest 11 times.”

[Adventurers Guild Quest: Goblin extermination (Complete)]

[Quest Description: Kill 30 goblins and hand the proof of subjugation to the Adventurers Guild]

[Rewards: 1 silver, 30 Temple Contribution Points, 30 Adventurers Guild Contribution Points, 1 Alennos Kingdom Contribution point, 1 Personal Fame, 1 Skill Point]

[Adventurers Guild Quest: Goblin extermination (Complete)]

…

…

[ {New} Adventurers Guild Quest: Promotion to Iron rank (ongoing)]

[Quest Description: Speak to an Adventurers Guild receptionist about ranking up to Iron rank]

[Rewards: Iron Rank Guild Tag, 50 Adventurers Guild Contribution Points, 5 Personal Fame]

Accepting the bag with a smile and a word of thanks, Astaria put it into her inventory. As she stood up, the receptionist spoke up again.

“Oh, before you go, since you are Lv 10 and have successfully finished over Guild 10 quests, you have completed the requirements to become an Iron rank adventurer. Please come to the reception desk so I can process your rank up.”

Internally sighing that she was taking more time than originally had planned, Astaria followed the receptionist and placed her new adventurer's tag on the desk. After taking the tag the receptionist started operating a magical imprinting device behind the counter, before handing over a new Iron tag after a minute.

Astaria gave the receptionist a smile as she accepted the tag.

“Thank you.”

Politely bowing towards her, the receptionist replied with a charming smile.

“You’re welcome! If that is all, we hope to see you soon.”

Returning the greeting, Astaria walked back out of the guild with Ben, lightly stretching her shoulders in the warmth of the sun.

“Damn man, that feels like so much money compared to what I managed to make! I barely managed to scrape together 8 silvers!”

Smiling at the comment, Astaria explained the difference.

“Well, goblins are the strongest enemies in the kingdom with the exception of the occasional roaming bear, and given that they attack people on the road through Woodspike Forest, they have quite the bounty on them.”

With his fist resting on his chin, Ben sank into thought.

“Hmm, that makes sense. So that’s why there is such a big bounty on the goblin boss. I assume once he is killed the nearby goblins will become disorganised or something, making it safer until it respawns?”

Astaria gave a nod in affirmation.

“Exactly. In the past, I remember that there was a player who stumbled upon the bounty poster while investigating the higher-ranked boards in the guild. He managed to gather a decent number of players and killed the boss by the second day after the official release. He thankfully had the help of a few early access players like us otherwise his party would have been completely wiped.”

Ben shrugged his shoulders.

“Man, that’s quite impressive given they didn’t have any advantages like us. Anyway, next up is getting you a gear upgrade, right?”

Nodding, Astaria answered.

“Yes, I need a lot. How about you, judging by your bow, you are already equipped?”

Ben shook his head, raising an arm to show off the lack of equipment.

“Almost, I still need some gloves.”

Leading the way towards the main crafting street, Astaria noticed that there were a lot more players around, the majority looked like they bought the Forerunner Edition, discernible due to the appearance of their equipment that could only be obtained from the costume box that came with it, while the rest were adventurous Deluxe Edition players in beginners gear who must have rushed to Haligrad.

Players, unlike the NPC’s, had tags above their heads. The tags only displayed a person’s name, however, for those who like to show off, they could add some of their personal information such as level, race, class and guild. A player’s tag could also be hidden from others either by using specific items or covering 95% of the body.

Upon entering the crafting street, various sounds unique to the area rang out. The noise of hammers hitting steel echoed out alongside the muffled sounds of wood being cut with a saw inside of the workshops. As they made their way through the street, the heat from the forges began to hit them they passed while the occasional gust of wind carried dust and sand into their faces.

After making it to the other end of the street, they turned down a specific narrow alley that remained quite inconspicuous. With practised steps, Astaria entered through a fairly well-maintained wooden door that caused a small bell to chime when opened.

Upon entering the shop, Astaria could see it was fairly small with various types of swords lining the right wall, while the left side was partially covered with armour, spears, and polearms.

Hearing that the blacksmith was still hammering away, apparently oblivious to his new customers, Astaria gestured for Ben to wait for a moment and made her way behind the counter and through the doorway that was covered by a cloth. This action caused Ben to raise an eyebrow and lean by the front door with his arms folded.

Upon entering the forge, Astaria was hit by a wave of heat as she looked around. The familiar setup was as expected, well organised. A large furnace sat against the right wall, with an anvil and barrel of oil next to it. The walls were covered by neatly arranged tools, and the bench was kept tidy.

Currently sitting at the anvil was, as most could imagine in a hard-to-find weapons shop, an old dwarf who was stoically hammering at a brightly glowing orange sword's blade. His long, dark hair was braided, tied together at the end with a large, ornate black bead, while his stout body was well built with bulging muscles.

Spotting a stall in front of the dwarf, Astaria walked over and sat down, watching him intently as he worked.

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