Chapter 13.3 – Dragon’s First Guild Job

"Hmm…thanks, I understand. So, in theory, if we were to complete any three jobs of F-rank or lower, two of which were monster slaying, and bring back a rare monster item, would we be eligible to take the C-rank exam this afternoon?" (Mizuki)

Melanie's eyes fly open in shock.

"U-Uhm…I mean I can't technically think of any rule against it." (Melanie)

I smile at Melanie appreciatively, and head over to the job board without another word. Nina remains at reception, seemingly disinterested. Looking around at the board, I grab another job for killing slimes, a job for slaying one wolf, and a collection job for five medicinal plants called Mertroot.

I walk back over to Melanie and hand her the three jobs. She looks at me like I'm nuts.

"U-Uhm, I can give you two of these, but parties are limited to two simultaneous job acceptances." (Melanie)

Ah, that's right. Hmm…I wonder…

"In that case, our party will be accepting the wolf and collection job, and Nina will be accepting the slime job on her own as an individual. Since I already have a slime job completed, that shouldn't ruin our plans. Is that against guild regulations?" (Mizuki)

Melanie begins glancing nervously between us again, then sighs dejectedly.

"Again, no, there's technically no regulation against it. However, I'll be recommending that we pass some new rules after the past couple days of dealing with you, Mizuki." (Melanie)

Ignoring her jab, I continue with my information gathering.

"Great! So, one last thing. What is a Mertroot, and do you have a collected one around that you can show me?" (Mizuki)

She seems to have no problems with that exchange, and she disappears into the back. After a moment, she returns with something that looks kind of like a turnip.

I hold out my hand to take it from her, and then pretend like I'm examining it closely. Instead, I'm tuning my magic sense to the plant. I'm not actually about to go randomly eyeball searching for this, after all.

While I'm doing this, she's explaining the plant.

"This is a Mertroot, and you commonly find them hidden below ground level in less dense forest where there's plenty of light and water. They are primarily medicinal herbs, and they are used in making healing potions." (Melanie)

After I successfully tune my magic sense to the plant, I hand it back to Melanie. Nina glances at it briefly, but then loses interest.

"Okay, thanks for that, Melanie. Well then, we'll be taking these three jobs, divided up the way that we asked, and we'll see you again this afternoon!" (Mizuki)

Melanie looks like she wants to roll her eyes at me, but instead quietly processes the job acceptances. Afterwards, I also return the book to her that I'd been borrowing from the guild. Once everything is settled, we thank Melanie and leave the guild.

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Following our guild job acceptances, Nina and I are in my forest clearing that's used for training.

"Alright, Nina, I promise we can make this quick, so you won't be too bored. I appreciate your help. Since I'm sure that the wolf is the least boring thing to you, how about you take care of that? You just need to kill one without destroying its body. While you're searching for it, I'll take care of the slime cores and Mertroot. When I'm done, I'll just teleport to you. How does all that sound?" (Mizuki)

"Yeah, that's fine, I don't want to keep doing these boring jobs forever." (Nina)

Wow, I thought she might get all 'dragons don't lie' about me doing the slime job for her. I guess not, though. Then again, she looked so bored in the guild earlier she might not even know that. I'll keep it to myself just in case.

With a little wave, Nina sprints off into the forest. Cool, now it's my turn. Mertroot first, I guess. I focus my magic sense and spread it out in a roughly 500 km semicircle deeper into the forest, then set it to detect Mertroot like earlier. About 200 km away, there's a patch of them that looks like it will do. Hmm…that's pretty far, I'll have to fly.

I activate my stealth flight spells and take off over the tree line at top speed. I think I've gotten faster, because in just a few minutes I make it to a large clearing with a small lake. I check for the herbs with magic sense, and they seem to be near the forest's edge closest to the lake. I deactivate my flight spells and teleport to the area by line of sight.

Looking down, I see the familiar tops of Mertroot, about nine in all. I enhance my dagger, so it won't get dulled, then use it to carefully dig out five of the plants. No need to be greedy.

I make sure to keep the roots of the plant in good condition in case they're important. After about fifteen minutes, I have five decent looking plants. I place them in my travel pack and stand up.

I use magic sense again to search for nearby slimes, but there aren't really any of them around. Too deep in the forest, maybe?

I teleport back to my usual clearing and repeat the process, and I sense about twelve of them within a 20 km radius. I apply max body enhancement, then begin sprinting around taking their cores as before. After a while, I place the last core in my travel pack. Time to check on Nina.