Sharp

When we got to the adventuring course, we were split into teams of five and stayed in those teams for the semester. Val wanted to stick with me, so we were joined by three third years.

“Hello, I’m Lyari, and I am the beauty,” said a beautiful young elf lady approaching me.

Then a handsome elf man came up, “Don’t worry about her,” he said, “I am Haemir, and I am the beast.”

“And they have been waiting for new people to announce themselves to for ages,” said a slim Celestine. “I am Zavis.”

“Are you two related?” I asked the elves because they looked alike.

“Yes!” said Haemir. “She is my sister and the youngest.”

“By four minutes,” finished Lyari.

“Never upset Lyari,” said Zavis, “she is our healer.”

“And the beauty,” said Lyari

“And the beauty,” agreed Zavis with a wink.

“Bah, it doesn’t matter,” said Haemir, “I don’t need healing!”

“And he doesn’t,” agreed Zavis, “and he is the one to take the hits for us.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“OK. It is like this,” said Zavis. “Lyari is the beauty because she has the Tree, Growth, and Life essences, giving her the Dryad Confluence. Haemir is the Beast because he has the Blood, Might, and Renewal essences, giving him the Troll Confluence. So he is big, strong, and has so many self-heals they are coming out of his ass.” Zavis looked at us. “That is good for us because Lyari doesn’t have to worry about him, and all her heals are for us.”

“OK, I am Theo, and this is Val.” We introduced our essences and roles.

“I am Zavis, as I said. I have the Sword, Lightning, Adept, and Master essences, so I am similar to Val, and I am so close to bronze that I can taste it. Those two,” he pointed to the elf twins, “Just beat me to bronze, and that really annoys me.”

“Loser!” Haemir taunted.

“We three also did this course last semester, so we know what goes on. They only let you take the course twice. Essentially, we meet at the Adventure Society, choose a job, Iron rank only, and see which silver rank staff member is available, and we go and do it. Haemir likes jobs where he can bash things. Lyari prefers the healing requests, and I like the delivery runs,” Zavis said.

“You are a speedster?” Val asked.

“And I have a portal ability, which just hit bronze rank. It won’t level more until I fully get to Bronze, but it does mean the range has extended, and I can portal a bronze ranker, but there is a ten-minute cool down before I can send the second bronze and then another ten before I can send us Iron rankers.”

“I am with you on the delivery runs,” I said, “I have a storage space called Hunters Pack.”

“Sweet,” said Zavis, “We could make a good team.”

“I like cutting things,” said Val, “so I am with Haemir.”

“Yes!” Haemir said.

I took the liberty of picking our first contract,” Zavis said, handing around a thick sheet of paper. “It is a monster hunt. If you are OK with that, just touch your Adventure Society badge on the sheet, and it will register you for the contract.”

It was a monster clearance contract on the outskirts of Vitesse.

“What did you get this stupid contract for?” Haemir complained, “I can’t hit these.”

“Acid Ants. Locate and destroy the nest and Queens. Iron-rank.” I read aloud. Then I saw the date. “This is quite old,” I said.

“Yes, and the reward has gone up,” Zavis said.

“Wouldn’t the ants and queens have multiplied,” I queried.

“Yes, but that won’t trouble Haemir,” he replied.

“Yes, they will,” Haemir replied. “They won’t beat my regeneration, but they still hurt.”

“What were you planning to do? Plaster him in honey and stake him out as bait or something?” I asked.

“Hey, that is a great idea,” Lyari said.

“Absolutely not,” said Haemir, giving me a dirty look.

“How were you planning to find the nest?” I asked.

“The usual method is tracing the ant trails back,” Zavis said.

“But with the nest multiplying, there will be a lot of trails,” I said, “and their scent will be everywhere.”

“It says here that the nest is usually buried, and the ants travel both in tunnels and overland.” Lyari had the Monster Compendium out.

“What do they eat?” I asked.

“Everything,” she replied. “More specifically, they chew everything and melt it with acid.”

“OK, wait a minute,” I got out my alchemy textbook.

“Alchemy?” Haemir queried.

“There is a whole section on acids. We haven’t covered it yet, but it might have some hints. So there are acids of various strengths, neutral stuff like water, and anti-acids, which counter acids. It doesn’t say what type of acid the ants produce, did it?”

Lyari shook her head as Haemir said, “There is more than one type?”

“Couldn’t we just dilute it with water?” Val asked.

“That depends on the type of acid or anti-acid. Water can sometimes make it worse… Wait a minute. Some acids react with water, making it more susceptible to lightning.” I looked at Zavis, “We could flood the area in water, and you light it up. We should test that.”

“None of us has a water essence,” Haemir said.

“So we use barrels. I can fit one, maybe two, in my Hunters pack, and we have a portal user who can portal me to and from the nearest water source as I am only iron rank. If it doesn’t work, then there is nothing lost, and we go back to coating Haemir in honey.”

“We should try it,” said Haemir quickly.

I went out to source some barrels, and Zavis went to organise a silver ranker and transport.

Later that afternoon, I led the way back into the Adventure Society. Haemir followed me.

He told me, “I hate you, and I don’t want to be on your team.”

Lyari spoke up behind him, “You hate him? You are about to get paid for a drive in the country, a few hours sitting in the sun and a drive back. What is there to hate?”

“No experience. None! Although hate might be too strong a term for the amount of coins.”

“Make way! Make way!” Zavis yelled, pushing past. “You deal with the agreement. I am about to rank up,” he pushed the form onto me. “That was awesome!” he yelled as he ran off to find a washroom with ranking cleaners.

“Do you think he has a change of clothes?” I asked.

“There are spares here he can borrow,” Lyari said.

Val followed him in, “You didn’t get any experience either, did you?” she asked me.

“Kai got a little when he found the nest, and using the resin to stop the water escaping too fast got me a little.” I shrugged. “We got a different type of experience. It was just as valuable, but it didn’t rank skills, except for Zavis.”

She gave me a funny look, and I didn’t know what it meant, so I went to the counter to complete the contract. “We counted seven queens,” I told the administrator.

“Seven! That is a huge nest,” he said. “Does any one need healing?”

“We have a good healer, but nobody was hurt except one of my familiars who had a bite taken out of him. He will be fine.”

“Okay,” he said, unsure. He sorted out the payment, and I went back to distribute the coins.

“I am not sure we should be taking this,” Lyari said. “You and Zavis did all the work.”

“Of course we should,” Haemir took his, “Great working with you. See you next week.”

“Don’t worry, my ideas will not always work out, and we will need everybody,” I said. If the ants had been bronze rank, it would have been a different story.

Lyari reluctantly took it and left with Haemir.

Val refused. “Keep it. I don’t need it and you had all the ideas. I mean, who even thinks of things like having Zavis create his portal right on the water, so you only have to dunk the barrels through?”

“That is just logic.”

“No, Theo, I think it is all you. Keep the coin.”

I shrugged. I didn’t tell her I had almost a barrel of acid in my storage. If I took it out, it would start eating away at the barrel, so I was going to have to be careful what I did with it. The acid quintessence was used in advanced alchemy and should bring in some coin even though it is only iron rank.

I decided to look around at the job board and see what jobs there were while I waited for Zavis. I didn’t need to wait for him, but I thought it would be nice to do. He was a smart and enthusiastic Celestine. He is the sort of guy I wouldn’t mind working with. His pink hair and eyes stood out, but that was nothing unusual for a Celestine.

Not every job is going to go like this, and I hope they know that. I am not some miracle worker. Wait up. I am a Cleric. Maybe I can occasionally ask the goddess for a miracle. I never thought of that.

This has reinforced my desire to do more alchemy. I am not bad at it, even after my pathetic start. Even just the knowledge of the world around us that it brings is useful. I don’t know who figured out that type of acid combined with water made it pass lightening easier. That was some clever thinking. I just applied that knowledge.

Plus, I was lucky that those ants used that type of acid. I had better find out the name of the acid; otherwise, I would have problems finding a buyer for it.

I wonder if the Trade Hall has a merchant that sells alchemy equipment.