Together they scouted the forest for any signs of herbs, each walking in separate directions to cover more ground.
"This is taking forever!" Velmira whined out. "Let's take a break already!"
"You can do that. I'm going to continue to search and complete my quest." Rivel stated bluntly.
Velmira pouted, marching over to Rivel and hugging onto his waist as she slowly allowed herself to fall. "Come on! They can't possibly need the herbs that badly. Plus you're an F-rank, no one expects you to do well anyway."
"Harsh, but fair. And that's exactly why I need to finish this within a day, not meet their expectations."
Velmira looked up at him with an eyebrow raised. "I thought you of all people wouldn't care about what others expected of you."
Rivel, still trying to wiggle free, just shrugged. "I don't, but it's beneficial in this case to go beyond it in order to rank up faster. And can you let me go!"
She lets go and drops her head into the grass groaning like a child who didn't get her way.
Rivel stared at her in silence before huffing with annoyed expression. "I knew I should've refused. Just– go home already Velmira."
Velmira lifted her head up immediately. "W-wait no no! I'll help, I'll help!"
"Even when you are helping, you don't do much, " He claimed, while walking ahead. "Plus you've only managed to pick up two so far."
"...I said I'll help… not that I would be a great help." She pointed out.
"Useless demon queen." he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
Velmira jolted onto her feet with a hand over chest. "I can be useful!" She shouted, offended.
"Sure you can." He said sarcastically.
Velmira puffed up her cheeks before raising her hand in the air glaring at Rivel. "I'll show you!"
Rivel flinched, and started to slowly back away glaring. "What are you doing!?"
"I'll show you how useful I can be by rooting all the herbs in the area!"
The earth trembled and cracked as a purple glow came from underground. The tree's leaves started to fly off their stems and any bugs that were in the area started to fly away as quickly as they could.
Rivel started to wobble as he tried to keep his balance. "Hey! You idiot! Stop before you cause unnecessary attention!" He shouted.
Despite his shouts Velmira didn't listen.
The ground began to shake even more until small parts of the ground shot up and started to float.
Once Velmira flicked her wrist, the small pieces of ground all floated to Rivel and dropped all around him as the ground stopped shaking.
Velmira smiled, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow, as she strutted to Rivel's side. "See! Told you I could be useful."
Rivel slowly turned toward her, his face a mix of annoyance and anger.
"...Uhm… you don't look too happy."
"What on earth made you think that rooting the ground could possibly be a good idea?"
Velmira sensing that she did something wrong started to poke her fingertips together. "Well, I figured bringing everything to you would make the job easier."
"Right, and how exactly am I meant to explain how I got all these herbs?"
"...I didn't think that far."
"It's ok I can tell."
Velmira's head started to droop.
Rivel glanced at her and sighed. "But, you still managed to speed this up so… thanks for that… I guess."
Velmira grinned. "I knew you would've appreciated it anyway."
"Yea whatever, just help me grab these herbs."
Soon as Rivel crouched down, a loud rumble came from deep within the forest that shook the even the trees.
Rivel froze.
"Oh no." Velmira said casually.
Rivel glanced upwards at her. "What is oh no?"
Velmira slowly looked away from Rivel's gaze as she pretended he wasn't glaring at her. "I might've upset the forest spirit."
Rivel fell silent.
"B–but don't worry! I can fix it! We can just explain the situation, and maybe it'll calm down."
"And what are spirits?"
"Oh right! Well spirits are protectors of elements. There's a spirit for every element that exists, and if you're lucky enough a spirit could bless you, if you happen to dwell with their element or they like you enough."
"And how do they feel about demons?"
"Oh they hate demons! Don't get along at all. Demons tend to corrupt spirits due to our souls and tendencies. Spirits usually tend to stick around fairies though."
Rivel inhaled then exhaled. "And you— A demon queen… plan to talk with the spirit, after you just practically destroyed its forest?" He asked, whilst pointing at the now damaged forest with tons of holes and cracks.
"...Now that you say it out loud like that—"
Before Velmira could finish he sentence a huge roar erupted, as a huge thorny branch monster with glowing yellow eyes, rushed at them. "How dare you filthy demons destroy the forest without any regards!" The monster roared at them.
Velmira bumped in place as the ground shook underneath her. "Also forgot to mention that spirits can take on different forms as they please depending on how strong they are."
Velmira waited for a remark from Rivel, only to receive silence.
"Rivel?"
Velmira glanced down to where Rivel should be, but the only thing that remains in that spot is a few of the herbs she plucked straight from the ground.
Rivel was calmly walking out the forest adjusting the strap of the bag of herbs and walked away as if clocking out of work, while the sounds of Velmira's pleading erupted from the forest.
"Wait! I can explain! Technically he picked the herbs—!"
______________________________
Rivel pushed through the doors to the adventurers guild and marched right up to Erna who looked at him curiously as he was covered in dirt.
"Did something happen?" Erna asked curiously.
"What makes you think that?"
"The dirt on your head."
"You weren't actually meant to answer that."
"Then why ask?"
Rivel stared. ".... You know what, forget it. I'm here to report that I completed my quest." He explained as he tossed the bags of herbs and quest paper onto the counter.
Erna looked inside the bag of herbs as her eyes dilated in surprise. "This is… unexpected."
"Can you try not to be so surprised."
"Did you receive any help with this? Not that you couldn't do it, it's just… unusual to accomplish in only a few hours."
"Nope." Rivel said very blankly.
The crystal ball that sat to the side of them on the counter glowed green.
Guess even the crystal ball agrees with me.
Erna, after glancing at the crystal ball, took the quest paper and stamped it. "I'll fetch your reward, which was originally 30 bronze, but due to the amount of herbs you brought in… I'll bump it up to 50."
Rivel did a small fist bump as Erna retreated to the back of the guild.
Guess I owe Velmira a small thank you, even if she managed to cause problems at the end. Though that is the last time I ever do herb gathering again. I think I have to avoid that forest for a while.
Erna finally returned with his reward and placed it directly on the counter. "Here's your reward."
"Thanks," he said, as he shoved the pouch of coins into his jacket pocket. "Also a question for you."
"Yes?"
"Is herb gathering the only quest available to F ranks? I seem to notice most of the F-rank quests are from the guild.... So I'm hoping to receive anything else but herb gathering."
"Well we typically assign those quests ourselves because we often need herbs for healing potions, and well… no one wants to hire tr- newbies."
Rivel squinted at her in suspicion. "You're not even hiding it anymore."
"Whatever could you mean?"
"..."
"..."
"Back on topic, we could possibly assign you with other quests like… fighting mini slimes."
"Mini slimes?"
Erna nodded, and showed him a quest paper about Low end slimes. "Mini slimes are the earliest stage of slimes that people tend to forget about. They're not as common as many would think, since slimes level up so quickly that they don't stick around as long. Meaning they're perfect for beginner level newbies like you."
"If they're rare, then how come there's a quest out for them?"
"A king rests inside a dungeon nearby the area, so slime started to pop up as a factor of it. And the longer the king slime is there, the more the rate of mini slimes spawn increases."
"Are they even dangerous?"
"Oh not at all, but they can be annoying to deal with for farmers and kids."
Erna then pressed the quest paper up against Rivel's chest. "I know you're going to want this quest for later so go ahead and take it."
Rivel took the quest and examined it.
[Quest]
Subjugate all mini slimes within the area.
Reward: 1 Silver
"Just have to eliminate them all? Do mini slimes even have drops or something… so I can show proof?"
"Just tiny cores that are only worth 1 copper," Erna stated. "And if that's all— I have work to get back to."
As Rivel watched Erna leave he couldn't help but to form a grin on his face as he pictured himself fighting mini slimes with ease.
I can't wait! A real adventuring quest! Though fighting mini slimes aren't a good reason to buy gear, I instead get a chance to test out the dagger Velmira gave to me. He thought, as he took the dagger from his pocket gleaming in the light.