[Chapter 22 –The first quest – Part 1]

Before the young celidre could even realize, Vix had already her hand pressing on the girl's neck.

She didn't put much pressure though or her claws could seriously injure the celidre.

Soon after her tendrils unwrapped and like twisting serpents circled around the petrified lady.

"We demand respect, little girl "

Then the unpleasant and distorted voice rang out, clearly stating a warning.

After a few minutes the celidre timidly replied.

"I-I'm sorry, I should have been more professional"

I think that this will suffice for now, I indeed didn't like how she looked at us.

However by killing her in such plain sight I would have to be either a beast or an idiot.

I nodded Vix to let her go and we left the tall rectangular building, leaving behind us its glass walls.

For her misfortune and our entertainment the estate agent was wearing high heels.

Her work, for security reasons didn't consent the use of spatial tools, and due to my size we didn't get on any taxi.

In the next hour we visited various apartments, but it wasn't easy to accommodate our low budget and needs for a wide space.

I was almost three meters tall, as such I couldn't live on normal sized rooms.

Considering that the average size of the citizens of the empire was 1.60 meters of heigh.

Finally the thirteenth apartment looked really promising.

It was situated about ten kilometres from on of the gates leading to the slums.

It wasn't that close to let the stench of the infamous district permeate the air. At the same time it wasn't that far off too.

The condition of the building didn't look as clean and well preserved as the one of the agency.

Although the building was only about fifty meters of height, and as such was one of the smaller in the area, it was only a ten story building.

Every floor was roughly two times higher than a normal one.

The buildings in the area, as we got closer to the slums, started to lose their grey colours to give more space to the dull azure of the pristine panels.

Although the metallic walls of the building didn't resemble much the ones of the slums.

They were clearly more firm and thick, but nonetheless the atmospheric phenomenons with the passing of years had ruined it bit by bit.

The zone of the capital of the empire was situated at the north side of the equator of the planet.

Approximately in the middle of the north section of it, as such the climate wasn't too hard on us.

As Dock explained me I could generally define it as a mild weather.

The celidre guided us inside of the building, she stopped on a four metres tall door we arrived to by taking an old elevator.

"This way, only the third floor it's still available for rent.

With the budget of a hundred coins I can't give you more than two hundred square metres of space.

In the future, if you'll be willing to pay more coins we can increase your allocated area.

Keep in mind that most of the furniture isn't present, as such you have to buy it yourself."

Alright, It seemed pretty decent in my opinion.

I Then nodded to vix and transferred one hundred coins into one of the leather pouches I conserved into my space.

Soon after she saw the coins appear, the agent contacted the system to let us sign a contract under its supervision.

Basically it stated our allocated space and the number of coins that will be automatically detracted from my funds monthly.

Obviously in case I couldn't pay it I would be kicked out.

Anyway as the agent quickly walked away, we just did the same.

The reason is because I had spent a good chunk of coins, as such I wanted to accept a quest from the system and replenish my funds.

Ten minutes later, me and my team approached the nearest notice board of the system.

It's aspect wasn't very similar to one might expect. Probably the system wasn't that original with his interaction points.

As in front of us there was a little pristine hut, and inside of it was standing a metallic humanoid.

Only a transparent glass panel was currently separating the two of us.

One could think that this seemed quite wrong, this thing could barely move its arms and with no security was completely defenceless.

But no one would be that stupid to openly attack the system, it would be a plain suicide. You will only put a big target on your head, as the merit points one could get from killing the enemies of the system were pretty high.

Once I got close enough to the robot I initiated a mental bridge between us.

[System, I would like to search for available mission to my current team, Xez'ets]

Without uttering a word, its eyes flashed of a more intense blue and suddenly I could visualize a holographic panel listing tens of quests.

Obviously this was only inside of my mind, as such I had to focus my concentration on the panel to keep it working.

After five minutes I had chosen one of my liking and communicated again with the robot.

[I personally think that mission number 23 is the most suitable for me. I would like to accept it.]

I simply declared in a clear tone what I had chosen.

For our first quest I preferred something simple and straight, without little games behind or logistically complicated.

Nonetheless I wanted to gain a fair amount of coins. The most compatible mission I found was an escorting task a merchant had issued.

He would pay about a thousand coins to be protected until the arrival at Kelipso, the second city for importance inside the empire.

It should be fairly simple, in the worst case we had just to fight. Furthermore he is a rank two merchant and the goods he is transporting shouldn't be that precious.

Ones could ask himself why if it is possible to use the transportation device should this merchant use a vehicle.

This is due to the high prices needed to utilize it, indeed they are that high that hiring a team like mine would cost a lot less.

Well, by doing so the risks well be much higher, as not only beasts would target our little convoy.

We will basically be moving targets for two to three days. We will be constantly assaulted by coins hungry predators.

At least this was the constant nagging of Dock once I told him about the quest. He started to panic just after I told him that he will come with us and Vix would ensure his safety.

On the contrary, I am quite confident to be able to withstand this kind of danger.

Consequentially our team started to head towards the meeting place stated by the merchant.

On the clean dark grey road, separated in half by a white line, there were four long wheeled black vehicles standing still.

They were about ten metres long and four metres high.

They had a general cylindrical shape but they were more tapered at both the front and behind.

This was clearly the convoy of the merchant we had to escort. Soon after a fatty celidre greeted towards our way, he wasn't as fat as the brothel owner but he was quite short. I mean for the average celidre, as every one of them was small compared to me.

His overall complexion was something I would have considered unpleasant in the past. As he clearly didn't like cleaning himself very much, since he smelled as something that was starting to rot. Even more he was profusely sweating, and his forearms were getting wetter by the seconds.

This guy must be quite the stingy one, usually the habitants of the middle district either way had tools to increase their overall hygiene or assumed assistants to keep themselves in a good and clean state.

"Greetings, the name is Zingud. Please tell the other members of your team to hurry and get here quickly. I'm tired of waiting"

Along with his greetings he extended his drenched hand towards me, clearly expecting me to shake it.