Rise of the Devourer-Chapter 23Book 2: — Monster Hunting

After a brief search, Noah had found his way to the adventurer’s guild in the city. The building was rather hard to miss, once he knew what he was looking for. Stepping in, Noah watched the doors open up automatically for him. The temperature inside was a pleasant cool, with a fragrant scent filling the area.

Noah watched as people of all kinds and species walked around. The guild was much larger when compared to Windrest, with multiple reception counters present at the front, lines formed around them as people lined up.

Looking around for a moment, Noah’s eyes found themselves on a display with various items listed. It was a lot like a board, set high up in the air, with a list of quest names, categories, requirements and pay listed on them.

“First time?” a man asked, looking at Noah.

“Yeah,” Noah replied. “Not quite sure how the system works here. My previous guild was… not like this.”

The man chuckled. “I bet. Celestian magic and all that. Head that way to the counter, tell them what quest you want after you pick one from the display. They’ll set you up.”

“Thank you,” Noah said, dipping his head lightly as he walked ahead.

Scanning through a bunch of quests, Noah finally found one he thought would fit.

Quest: Iron Teeth Infestation

Difficulty: Bronze-III

Recommendation: An E rank Party with at least one D ranked member.

Payment: 25 D-grade mana crystals.

After reading a little more, Noah found the quest quite fitting. The infestation would be filled with F to E grade monsters in large quantities, perfect to test out his abilities with. The fact that it was fairly close by was just the icing on the cake.

Walking to the counter, Noah waited in line for his turn to come up, before a woman with shining silver hair greeted him.

[Astral Assistant - ??]

"Hello, how may I help you today?”

“I’m looking to take up the Iron Teeth infestation quest,” Noah said.

“Of course, may I look at your adventuring plate?”

Noah paused. “Ah… I don’t think I have that yet. Will this work?” he said, taking out his adventuring contract.

I have to give it to Nae, she wasn’t lying about the benefits of joining the guild. This has come in use multiple times now.

“I’m afraid I can’t help you till I have an official designation. The guild cannot assign any quests to an unranked adventurer,” the woman said, handing back the form to Noah.

Noah frowned, thinking for a moment. “Actually, is it possible for you to contact a guild in a different city?”

The receptionist hesitated. “I can, but there will be a payment. A call typically costs around five E-grade mana crystals. But the cost may be more or less depending on distance and mana usage.”

“I’ll pay,” Noah said.

The woman nodded, opening a drawer as she took out a blue runic square, similar to the one Aurelia had, and what Vix had given him.

“Who would you like to contact? Please keep in mind we can only contact official runic cubes, and not any individual owned ones.”

“Nae Celestine from the Windrest adventurer’s guild.”

As the receptionist twisted the cube around, runes flared on the device, before a chime played on it. Nae’s smiling face greeted him from the floating projection.

“Hey Nae! I need some help,” Noah said, waving to the woman.

Nae’s expression visibly fell. “Ah, it’s you. What do you want?”

“You could at least pretend to be a little happy to see me,” Noah said.

“I don’t have the time to play around Noah,” Nae said, as he saw her hand reaching out to cut the connection.

“Okay, hold on, this is serious,” Noah said. “I need to take a quest but I’m being told I don’t have an adventuring plate, so I can’t. Can you do something?”

“Oh, right. That’s actually my fault, sorry. I got so caught up in, well, everything. I completely forgot to get that made,” Nae said.

“We would be able to issue one. If the individual’s information can be transferred,” the receptionist added.

“Right. I believe in this case, the individual does not wish to share his information, so I can’t do that. But I already have the assessment ready. I’m sending it right now,” Nae said.

A moment later, another chime ran over the device, and the receptionist pressed a rune, before frowning.

“Bronze-I for an F rank?” she asked.

“Yup. It would be higher if it wasn’t for a few annoying conditions,” Nae said.

“I’m afraid I still can’t issue the quest in question here. The quest is Bronze-III and requires a party,” the receptionist said.

“What’s the quest about?” Nae asked.

“Iron-teeth infestation.”

Nae hummed in thought, and Noah gave her a pleading look from across the projection.

“So, truth be told, this guy is an idiot. Now that he knows, I'm almost certain that he'll run off on his own if you try to stop him. Just let him go,” Nae said.

The receptionist looked hesitantly at Nae, before turning to look at Noah.

“She’s not wrong,” Noah said with a shrug.

After a moment’s consideration, the receptionist nodded, as she walked across the counter to a strange box-like device nearby, tapping a blank metal plate on it. A moment later, she put the plate on the counter. “I’ve registered the quest. That will be your plate, please keep it with you as we won’t be able to reach you without this in case of an emergency or to return your belongings should you die.”

“Grim,” Noah said, reading the plate.

Adventurer Plate Bronze-I

Noah Brown

He flipped it over to read the backside.

Please return to the nearest guild if found missing.

The message made him chuckle as he read it, before he put the plate in his Dimensional Pocket. “Thanks Nae.”

"Don't die, or I'll be annoyed,” Nae said, before the spell was cut with a click.

“May the stars guide you adventurer,” the receptionist said and Noah made his way out.

***

The cart rattled beneath Noah, as he leaned comfortably on a sack full of grains. He’d hitched a ride on a wagon heading in the same direction. Typically Noah was the person who would be filling in the silence between any conversations, but this once he felt scant need of it, with the merchant talking nearly non stop since he’d picked up Noah.

“And so there I was with the boy, and I told ‘em, I ain’t got no crystals, but the men weren’t listening. Bein’ a merchant and what not, I ain’t one for fighting and stuff, not at me age, but with m’boy behind me I couldn’t appear weak y’know? So I picked up a pitchfork and went after the darned bastards. Did I tell you I used tah be a farmer? Grew the finest corn this side of Melior,” the man said.

“Yeah you told me,” Noah replied. Only like three times. He kept that thought to himself.

“Anywho, like I was saying. I’d be all up for hunting some monsters myself, but the years are coming in, and them beasties have been a little unstable this part of the year. And with m’boy grown up and all, I’d prefer not to take risks y’know? Wanna see that fool get married while I’m still alive at least. Not that I can’t, of course, I’ve still got me skills all well and good.”

“Right, going back a little. The monsters, they’ve been unstable recently?” Noah asked.

“Oh yeah. Bunch of them coming into civilized land. Them beasties ain’t dumb y’know? They know what they can take and what they can’t. But they’ve been rushing into civilization, for the last few months. The crop’s been dying too, bunch of children getting sick as well. It’s a right pain I tell ya. M’boy almost got bit by a serpent that wandered out the forest, and we ain’t got no healer. Thank Septah that I was there and I took care of that beastie.”

Noah hummed in thought. “Is this infestation recent?”

“About a week old or so. This one grew out of sight, but now that it’s big enough, them beasties are aiming for the fields. They wipe through the crops like some kind of wildfire. But that ain’t even the big thing, Iron Teeth aim for the animals and people too. Chew them out from the inside. It’s all sorts of nasty and dangerous,” the man said. “They’ve got these razor blade teeth, and they grow up to be about your arm’s size. Fast too, and they’ve got these armored shells. Got anything they can eat and they’ll clear it in seconds. Let it grow, and these beasties kill entire kingdoms.”

“Huh. Sounds like a locust swarm but worse,” Noah murmured.

“What’s that?” the man asked, glancing back.

“Locusts. Flying pests that fly in swarms of millions and tear through crops. They’re basically a disaster for farmers. We have them back in some places at my home,” Noah said.

“Must be some far off place. Never heard of these locusts before. But that does sound similar to Iron Teeth. I hear the big ones can fly too, so you better hope they ain’t that mature yet. That’s a right nightmare. Run if you see them, don’t waste your life,” the man said.

“I appreciate the warning,” Noah replied.

After a little more talking and stories from the merchant-farmer, Noah hopped off the wagon at his destination, waving the man goodbye.

Turning around, Noah saw the forest extending outwards from where he stood up a hill.

New Quest unlocked!

Quest: Iron Fest Infestation!

There is an infestation of Iron-teeth nearby. Find them, and clear them out.

Difficulty:Hard

Reward: An Epic grade ability Tome.

“I was wondering when that would show up,” Noah said. A dirt path led further in and Noah followed the trail, making his way through the forest.

[Void Hunter’s Senses] pinged him at every step, as he made his way around. He was still adjusting to the sheer amount of information coming from the skill, but with Tony’s help, he was adapting fast.

The forest was rich, but Noah felt an oddly surprising silence in it. He’d expected to sense or hear a lot more wildlife, but the place seemed almost barren.

An alarm rang in his head as something fell from above on top of him and Noah blinked back, spear in his hand and ready to fight. He paused, noticing the creature was already dead, with half its body missing and organs splayed out.

“Is that from the infestation?” Noah murmured out loud.

He couldn’t use identify on the creature, but whatever it was, it had not been given a chance to resist.

“Also, what was that alarm in my head? It damn near gave me a heart attack.”

Tony shivered.

“My ability? It does that?” Noah said, feeling a little strange that he had no idea till now. The sensation had felt like his instincts had fired all at once for him to rush into flight or fight mode. He’d need to adjust to that too.

“I’m glad Marvel doesn’t exist in this world, or they’d probably sue me,” Noah said, trying to lighten his mood. Even so, he kept the spear clutched in his arms, and his eyes set out to the forest around him.

“Well, guess we should head in?” Noah said, and Tony shivered happily.

Noah walked ahead but his eyes lingered on the mangled corpse behind him. A moment later, with a slight exertion of his will, he reduced his shackles down to fifty percent.

He’d rather not take too many risks all at once.

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