They arrived earlier than planned at home. The thing was it was probably later than dinner and for that matter later than his parents awaited him. For that reason he was surprised and not surprised to see his mom standing at the front door with an explicit awaiting gaze. It probably was noteworthy that he had just told his parents he would go outside with his friends, not exactly what he would do.
It seemed his mother caught on to the fact that he wanted to help his friends in leveling and classes. But her reaction wasn''t exactly welcoming.
"So, good that you returned from your venture. Maybe we talk inside after you sent off your friend. Good day to you Jenna."
"God day my Lo- Lady. We''ve been hunting. And there was this strange plant, vine something and then a hog surprised us..." While Jenna started to retell their adventure with enthusiasm the gaze of his mother became even sterner.
Why did you have to talk.
He had to act quick, so he stopped Jenna from talking with his hand over her mouth. "Actually we want to ask you something about rare classes and quests." At that his mother raised her eyebrows. And then she sighed.
"Ok, come in. We are going to have a few words with each other later." That was obviously a forewarning at Ker.
As they sat at the table, the butler serving them water as they requested, his mother expectantly asked:"And, what exactly do you want to know? What did you encounter specifically?" His mother picking up on the situation.
"We were hunting simple, nearly harmless rabbit beasts. When we encountered a vine. It was called arsenine vine and it was level 2. She killed it by destroying its sprout. Then she received a rare class, but a weird gardener one"
"Hey, you told me to take it" Jenna protested his description.
He also thought it would be better to just tell what they were doing. His mother would find out about it anyway. And they needed answers for their questions as well as for further developing his friends class.
"AS you know son, rare classes are as the name suggests rarely given. To achieve one you have to put in a necessary effort and prove your worthiness. That is one of the theories. Another theory is that a person is given a class for a specific purpose. Both are not proven and more speculation. Some people believe more in one then the other. However it seems you got your class because of the effort, am I right"
"Well it was just a little sprout, it could barely hurt me"
"That is interesting. Vines are extremely dangerous for people traversing wild territory." At that she looked pointed at Ker.
"Maybe there is a reason for receiving a class after all... what is your exact class and what is this about your quest?"
"The class is named ''Wildness Gardener'', rare. And the quest says its pending. I don''t know what else to tell, I could tell you about the weighted stats-"
His mother cut her off before she could blurt out the details of her class.
"It is extremely rude to eve ask about class details. You do not owe anyone specifics about your class. Especially when someone wants to order you to tell about them. s that clear"
"Ok! Very clear Miss, I mean Lady Hellena"
"Good. Now to the quest. We, Ker''s father and mother, met one unlucky person with a personalized quest. It nearly ruined him to chase after it. Those quest can be very rewarding, but also very costly. And I don''t mean only the money aspect. It can cost years of afford, if not decades. It could very well take your life, so be certain before committing to any such quests. Beside you can live without ever fulfilling it."
Jenna was in thought for a moment. "So this quest might be dangerous and I don''t even know the price."
"To say it simply, yes. I think what comes next would be how to develop your class best. For that you should visit the local gardeners and probably ask for an apprenticeship. If that is worth it I can not tell you, but it might help. Another thing is to go to the adventurers guild and be evaluated to get your first assignment. Since your beginning you should consider to team up with a group of fitting people."
That led to Jenna being even more in thought.
"Now I would like to thank you for telling me about your class and probably prepare to departure for all the *things* you have to do."
Jenna hesitantly stood up and left after promising she would convince the others to join their group.
Afterwards Hellena''s sternness returned. "So, do tell me why you thought it a good idea to take her with you to the woods, going on a hunt alone."
"Because there are not really better alternatives around. And she really needed a class"
"That may be, but you also didn''t ask us for help. And you risked her life and so yours. To make it short, that was dump! We were really worried when you returned after your hunt and told us everything. I know I can''t keep you from going on adventures, but I''m still worried. A lot of things can happen out there. The further away from cities and people you get the more seldom and strange things you will encounter. But with that comes always danger. So when you next plan to go out to help someone of your friends tell us."
"I will do that. Sorry Mom for making you worried so much"
She sighed letting a lot of tension pass. "Since that''s out, mind telling me what you encountered and where exactly" She said much softer. He retold the story this time from beginning to end, not letting anything important out.
"You had a lot of luck, son. Vines can become extremely nasty do deal with. Not to speak of their potential aspects, like poison. You would need an experienced adventurer to permanently deal with them."
Than she made him promise that he would actually report such finding to the guild if he would ever encounter a vine again. Following her logic it would be safer to let the guild deal with that problem.
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Another matter was the commissioned growth armor for Ker. Even after 4 weeks it did not arrive. On one hand it wasn''t untypical for deliveries to arrive later on the other hand the smith was very confident that the production would need 4 weeks. For whatever reason they had to wait and see how it turned out.
?──?─?─?──??
Later that day, Ker met with his friends near Gord''s home. One of Ker''s friends, who just finished preparing the baking goods for tomorrow. Jenna was there snacking on salty bakery goods. There was also Nemgrad, eager to catch another story to tell and Helk of course. Helk did not have his title Snap anymore. Since he lost the left arm he was practically disabled. He had gotten a relative expensive prosthesis. It could hold a bow and therefore he technically could hunt again.
Also his mood had considerably improved. How much was because of the prosthesis and how much was playing a good mood, Ker didn''t knew. But he definitely wanted to repay his friend for probably saving his life.
Also one of their friends, Sarah, was not there. She was pretty tide lipped about what she was doing, Ker could only guess it had to do with her new job that she got after receiving her class.
"So what are you talking about? Why are we meeting in the evening?"
Gord answered. "Because it is the ideal place. we go hunting tomorrow. I got the day off. I could convince my dad to give the day free. And from here we can take bakery goods as provision. Isn''t that great."
"Okay, do you have any suggestion where you want to hunt?"
"There is a new place full of rabbit beasts" Jenna broke the news. "They gathered there just a day ago or so"
"Really..." Ker asked incredulous of that suspicious coincidence.
"Yeah, so we don''t have to travel that far, but we also have to hurry before other adventurers take that spot. Don''t want to share the spoils too much." It was a solid point Jenna made. She also caught on towards Ker''s narrowed eyes, but didn''t say anything. "That''s great isn''t it! We can hunt together again, this time in our own trustworthy group and safely. I also heard Jenna got now class." By that he smirked at her. She just rolled her eyes at his pun.
"Actually, do you have weapons? I can surely bring a spare sword and shield. But I never saw Gord with a weapon."
Gord looked slightly displeased. "I have trained with a weapon before. With a mace and a wooden shield." The way he said that, clearly transported how less he had liked it.
At the questioning look of Ker he answered. "My uncle was here just a few days prior. He made good on his promise to train me when I was old enough. He showed me simple training methods and how to use a mace. He has shield berserker as class. It let''s him be very proficient with a mace, while storming forward with a shield. He said he had seen his fair share of combat. but I don''t think that was hunting."
"So, you actually want stay and become a baker, right?" Jenna asked. They all new how much Gord loved his job and with that his father''s job. He love to do nothing more than be a baker. If possible.
"So, do you now have weapons or not?"
Gord shook his head, Nemgrad only smiled unperturbed, Jenna and Helk nodded. Of course Ker knew that both of them had weapons. "Then I will bring you a shield and a sword and look what else I can find. For you Jenna... I don''t really know what you would need, but I think a dagger is not anymore the best weapon."
"Ok, whatever you have in mind. But I''m not gonna use shears!" She looked pointedly at Ker. Helk looked slightly confused at them. "Sure, I will find something suitable" Ker said placating, but not without a smirk.
"I guess you are just here to fetch the newest story you can tell you patrons, right." Said Ker as he looked at Nemgrad.
"Absolutely. I can''t care less for going on a hunt. It would be a short sad story, one no one would hear. So I rather stay where I''m safe and tell the tales."
"No worries, for sure we are going to have to tell you a lot when we come back." Added Gord.
"Does anybody of you guys actually know what is with Sarah?" Ker had to ask. He was occupied with training, doing his first quest and traveling for a personalized armor, therefore he was a bit out of the loop. Not even mentioning the fact that he was on dangerous hunt for about three weeks prior to that.
"No, we are clueless as you are" answered Helk with a shrug.
"I don''t know the specifics, but something about her is scary or better dubious. I can''t really pin it down." Added Gord.
"I could ask around, but since I normally tell stories and don''t just gather them – I think she would find out that we asked around about her and not appreciate it." mentioned Nemgrad.
"Let''s not do this. I think we can ask her directly, but she always deflects questions in that direction."
Who knows why she was hiding what she was doing and meeting her became a sparse pleasure. Sometimes she just appeared greeted everyone and left short afterwards.
The more important task to concentrate on was to get the supplies, like bakery goods, water and such. The second most important part was to make certain everyone had at least some kind of gear. They would just hunt rabbits beasts and with Helk and him there, his friends group would be very protected, but he already encountered a deviating variant.
He wanted to be on the safe side. He already experienced the worst case of going wrong and wanted to save his friends any amount of that. To that he felt insufficiently prepared, even for this small-time adventure. But he could not think of anything more to prepare his friends.
"So, what do you think. Are we prepared with food, water bags and gear? It sounds like it to me at least." He looked questioning at his friends.
"I would like a new dagger, y'' know" Jenna commented.
"Thank you for caring that much about us" Gord said and meant it, then he threw another one in. "Maybe you could bring an over-sized rolling pin to smash the beasts and an equally sized cutting board to defend against the vile horde of beasts"
Jenna just rolled her eyes and Ker deadpanned in response.
To go certain he gave Helk a questioning look. "No worries I''m good. Really, you''ll see tomorrow there is still hope for the legendary ranger coming from humble beginnings."
With all of their matters discussed they departed early. Normally they would spent more time with bicker and banter with each other, but they wanted to be ready in the early morning.
As he was home, Ker told his mother about their hasty thrown together plan. Since it was near enough and just low-level rabbit beasts she approved. She also liked his hindsight and ordered butler Nellson to prepare fitting gear. To that counted not only weapons but also light armor. In this case it was really light armor, that would at best halfway fit his friends. Then again, some armor is always better than none.
In the evening his father was excited to hear about his story. He was far more forgiving than his mother in those regards. That also meant Ker had retell his story again. He started to see a point in Nemgrad''s alterations of stories. If he had to retell the story again he would have to make use of that so called artistic freedom.
In the morning he was prepared for adventure and for battle. He had his sword, leather armor, his water bag, an additional bag for provisions - and all of the stuff for his friends too. It basically tripled his carried weight. It started to somewhat heavy for him. he thank his mother and swore internally that next time he would plan and execute those plans for his adventures by himself. It was still in the very early hours. To make it short the sun was barely visible and had yet to illuminate the world. And with the sun also his mood was rising, since soon he could unload all this stuff to his friends.
?──?─?─?──??
"Were thon aw?" Asked one of the clansman. Before them the entire attacking company lay defeated.
"Ay, thon were aw o thaim. Let''s tak some prisoners an quaisten thaim."
Some time later a man with a scar running across his left eye approached the clans leader. "We couldnae find oot anythin. But it''s no because their sae patriotic, thare''s magic at work, sir."
"Sae, we find us amiss i thon situation. It wad leuk like we wad be attackit bi forces o Timboury, but A know for a guid reason thon guid old Timboury wad niver betray our pact. We will ready ourselves an travel tae him. Dae tell Raibeart tae gather a small delegation. It''s probably nothin but let''s see whit''s gang on i the south."