Seeds of Chaos: Chapter 7 (Monster Subjugation Quest)

Chapter 7

Rennel’s anger was greatly reduced after giving the three drunken adventurers a lesson. She then look around and saw that the other adventurers looking at her warily. With a huff she completely ignored the other adventurers and came to face the muscular, bearded man at the counter again.

She slammed her hands at the counter and repeated what she said earlier in a more forceful voice. “I want to register as an adventurer!” She declared to the bearded man.

The bearded man was taken aback by the girl’s more forceful attitude but didn’t make it difficult for her. “Alright, tell me your name, age, and the place you are currently staying. You can also tell me your skills and weapon of choice but those are optional. Lastly, you need to pay me two silver coins for the registration fee.”

“Two silver coins? The registration fee is that expensive?”

Hearing that she needed to pay two silver coins for the registration fee, Rennel was slightly taken aback. With two silver coins she could stay for a week at the inn!

The bearded man shrugged his shoulder. “I’m not trying to make it difficult for you. That was indeed the required registration fee,“ the bearded man replied.

Although still feeling hesitant, Rennel still took out two silver coins from her leather pouch and gave it to the bearded man after giving the required information.

The man skillfully wrote Rennel’s information on the guild’s official parcel and stamped it with the guild’s seal. “It’s done,” the man said as he took a tag under the counter, passing it to Rennel.

“Our organization isn’t too strict on our members nor do we force them to complete certain number of quest to remain a member.  You can also take any quest from the board over there. But every quest is on first come first serve basis. So you need to be quick if you want to get quest that pays well. Also, you need to be careful of the quest you wanted to get. Don’t overestimate your ability and take quest with high difficulty, or you might just lose your life in the process.”

“Lastly, we don’t really care what you do outside the guild but it also means that if commit some heinous crimes and was apprehended by the authorities, then you’re on your own. Do you get all that?” The bearded man explained.

Rennel nodded her head and thank the bearded man for his explanation. She then went to the board and scanned the available quest. As she was standing there, a young man, that seemed to be slightly older than her approaches her and asked if she wanted his help in reading what were written on the board.

Since many of the adventurers are illiterate, the guild provides people that can read and write to read and write for them. Of course the service was not free but the adventurers only needed to pay 10 copper coins for their service.  But since Rennel can read and write, thanks to ‘seed’ and Chaos’ insistence to educate, she didn’t required the young man’s assistance and politely declined his offer.

The young man didn’t insisted and politely left the girl alone. After leaving, Rennel’s side, the young man let out a sigh of relief as if having escaped a great calamity. To be perfectly honest, the young man found Rennel really attractive, and had the intention of befriending her. But after seeing how she dealt with the three drunks that tried to take advantage on her, the young man completely lost his courage. The only reason he approached the girl was because his job requires him to do so.

After the young man left, Rennel read the available quests on the board again, and after several minutes of reading, she finally found quest that caught her interest. She then went to the counter and gave the parchment containing the quest that she wanted to the bearded man.

After reading the parchment and asking if she really wanted to take the quest, the bearded man nodded his head and stamped the parchment. The bearded man told her that she has a week to complete the quest. If she failed to complete the quest within the given time period, she would be given an automatic failure.

Rennel nodded her head affirming that she understood. After that she quietly left the tavern while being watched by the other adventurers. Once she was out of sight, the tavern became boisterous again.

“Whew! That was terrifying. Just what’s up with that girl?”

“I know right? She was able to easily handle Howard’s group. Even though those three are dead drunk, that’s still three against one.”

“It is as you say.”

The adventurers started conversing with one another again and commented on the event that had just transpired. They talk how they’re very angry at the three drunken men who went on and harassed a new comer.  They also commented on how looks can be very deceiving, referring to the fact that Rennel was deceptively strong despite having such delicate features.

You can’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone who had seen how the girl, Rennel settled Howard’s group can attest to truth of this famous adage.

“Boss, what are we going to do with Howard’s group?” The young man who spoke to Rennel earlier talked to the bearded man at the counter and pointed at the unconscious bodies of the three drunken men that were mercilessly being kicked around by the female adventurers.

The so callled boss, the bearded looked at the three unconscious men and slapped his forehead. “Have some people carry them to the monks to have their injuries treated. Have them heal these three idiots. As for payment, they could just directly charge them. If the three don’t have money, let them work for it” he instructed.

The young man let out a hollow laugh. He could only sigh at the misfortune of Howard’s group. But considering what they did, the three deserved everything that had happened to them.

While everyone at the tavern was talking about a certain silver-haired girl, the person in question was walking towards the town’s main gate. Since she had already taken a quest, Rennel was in no mind to take it easy.

“Teacher, do you think I did well back then?” Rennel asked.

The mysterious creature, Chaos that had been quiet the entire event spoke. “You did okay. Your reaction was not bad but I think you could have done better. Still having solved the situation without any help, you still deserve a passing grade.”

Rennel pouted a little after hearing her teacher’s evaluation. In her opinion, she handled everything flawlessly but according to her teacher, she made a lot of mistakes in handling the situations.

“Teacher’s standard was still very high.” Rennel sighed inside her heart.

Having completed her weeks long training in the woods, Chaos rarely gives her advice anymore. Instead, Chaos let her handle everything in her own – acting only if really needed.

“It’s good that you’re trying to assess where you made a mistake. But for now, you should focus on your first quest.” Chaos advised.

“Yes teacher.”

Rennel stopped thinking of the previous event and focused on her quest. Having gotten only an “okay” rating, the girl wanted to make up for it during her first quest.

****

Back at the present, Rennel, ignores the gaze of other adventurers as she contemplates in front of the adventurer’s board. There were two quests on the board that catches her attention so she was hesitant which quest to take first. Since the guild have a first come first serve rule for the available quests, there’s a good chance that the other quest would have been taken when she returned.

 After thinking for a while, Rennel finally made up her mind and took the parchment of the quest she had chosen. It was a monster subjugation quest.

Before the eyes of the observing adventurers she went to the counter where the muscular man with a beard, Arnold was and spoke.

“I want to take this quest.” She declared as she gave the parchment to the tavern boss.

Arnold raised one of his brows as he read the content of the parchment. “Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yes!” Rennel answered without hesitation.

Such short conversation, or rather, a ‘question and answer’ routine was a common occurrence for the two. Having seen what the girl could do and her performance as an adventurer, Arnold’s question was merely out of politeness, or maybe, simply a formality.

Having stayed for weeks in Alchur, local adventurers and citizens had already known that Rennel was a very skilled adventurer that never once failed a quest. No matter the difficulty of the quest, Rennel could complete it as long as she took the quest.

Speaking a few pleasantries with the tavern boss, Arnold, the girl left the counter and walked towards the exit. But before she could step outside, Rennel almost bumped to another person. Fortunately, she was able to stop in time. Rennel bowed her head a little and apologized. The person she almost bumped into, a familiar person wasn’t so forgiving.

“Damn wench, watch where you going!” The man rudely said without looking at the person he almost bumped into.

Hearing the man cursed, the entire tavern suddenly went silent. The place was so quiet that it was possible to hear a pin that was dropped onto the floor. The rude man, Howard noticed the weird atmosphere of the tavern and frown. Looking around, he saw the other adventurers looking at him wide-eyed.

“What’s up with them?” Howard thought while frowning.

Howard was taken aback, and slowly looked down. And seeing the person he just cursed, Howard almost fainted in shock!

 “Why is it her!” Howard spewed vulgarities that could not be written inside his head.

Of all the people to bumped into, it was actually the person he lest wanted to see.

Howard started to sweat profusely as the girl she cursed just now stared at him with emotionless eyes. The mental trauma he had suffered previously has yet to heal unlike the physical trauma. And now the same person responsible for the trauma was eyeing him again.

“Please gods, no! It was an accident, I swear!” The terrified Howard prayed profusely to the gods in hope of escaping his predicament unscathed.

The monks from the monastery had just healed his injury and through some miracle, managed to restore his body to full health. The girl’s kick had almost shattered his family jewel. Thankfully, it was not to the point of being unable to restore. As such, Howard managed to remain a man!

He and his companions who also suffered the same fate were very lucky to come out of it whole. But if he suffered another kick from this girl, who knows if the monks could still restore it.

“I’m, I’m very sorry!” Howard apologized loudly as he stepped to the side with his hand on his crotch, protecting it.

Rennel frowned a little after hearing Howard apologized. Although she’s feeling slightly annoyed, Rennel still chooses to forgive the rude man’s slight and simply walks out of the door without saying anything.

After seeing Rennel leave, the tavern becomes boisterous again.

“I survived…” Howard walk towards the nearest empty chair and sits weakly.

That was a really close shaved there, old Howard. An adventurer sitting on the same table teases after seeing Howard’s expression.

“Shut up! That wasn’t funny. I really thought I’m going to die back there...” Howard cursed.

Everyone in the tavern broke into a raucous laughter after hearing Howard’s recollection. Although Howard was someone with foul mouth, and was a bad drunk, he’s not really the worst person out there. As such they were actually glad that he didn’t suffer for his foul mouth this time.

“You should really fix that horrible temper of yours. Next time you might not be so lucky.” Another adventurer advised.

“Yeah…” Howard let out a long sigh. After that he yelled at the tavern boss for a drink who rolled his eyes at him.

****

“I’m surprised you didn’t flare up in there,” Chaos commented as they were walking.

“What do you mean teacher? Do I look like someone with a short fuse?” Rennel complained after hearing her teacher’s comment.” Besides, he already apologized so there’s no reason to make things difficult for him, right?

“I wonder about that… Still, you becoming mentally more mature and that’s a good thing.” Chaos answered.

Rennel rolled her eyes at her teacher. She hastens her footsteps, and suddenly broke into a run. Her next quest is located at a village to the north and Rennel wanted to get there as fast as possible.

Fahl village is a small village that falls under the jurisdiction of Alchur. The village was located farther to the north and could easily be reached by foot if one walks for half a day.

Although Fahl was just half a day walk, Rennel didn’t like to waste time by walking. If she ran, it’s possible for her to reach the village in 3 hours or less.

For most people, running for 3 hours was impossible but for Rennel who completed her hellish training in the woods under Chaos’ guidance, 3 hours was nothing. If she really wanted to, she could run for a few days without resting.

Besides her training under Chaos, the ‘seed’ she had received from it, boosted her stats greatly. If it were an RPG game, her stats would be near the maximum if not the maximum. In other words, Rennel was slowly becoming less and less human. If she were to continue training under Chaos’ guidance, she might really become a monster that could fight dragons or worse!

Just like what the mysterious guardian of the Mazes of Trees (the name of the forest between Robac and Alchur where Rennel trained) once said, the girl, Rennel might end up with power that could threated this world if Chaos continue to train her.

Anyways, the other reason that Rennel was such in a hurry was the content of the quest worries her. According to the quest description, the village of Fahl was being threatened by a powerful monster. But the monster that threatening the village of Fahl was not just any powerful monster; it was being threatened by a monstrous wolf!

****

To be continued

Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion