Lys pushed the door open and stepped into the cooler hall of the guild building. The noise from the drill yard faded behind him. He let the door close with a soft click and stood there for a second. The air inside felt nice after all the sweat and heat outside. His shirt was still stuck to his back with sweat, but the shade made it a little better.
He walked over to the front counter. Pell sat there on a stool with his elbows on the wood. He looked like he had nothing to do right now. A few papers lay in front of him, but he was not touching them.
"Hey, MIster Pell," Lys said casually.
Pell looked up and gave a small smile. "Lys. Done with drills already?"
"Yeah. Maybe enough for today." Lys leaned one arm on the counter. "It is very quiet in here today."
Pell nodded. "Yeah, it is. There are not many quests to sort out. Most of the staff are still on the way. They sent word this morning that the rest of the crew will arrive by afternoon. Should make things run smoother around here when they come. I can only oversee a handful of things by myself, you know."
Lys thought about that for a second. Maybe there was not much quest because, without staff to handle it, Pell and Vessa were rejecting them or something. More people meant the guild would also get busier with more quests and adventurers to finish them. He liked the idea.
"Hmm, that's good. I was wondering when things would pick up here. It has been days since the guild opened, you know. I thought it would be filled with quests and adventurers just after it opens. Guess I was wrong."
Pell laughed a little. "No, you weren't wrong. It was supposed to be very busy around here, but for some reason, there are very few quests coming in from yesterday. Only the first day was as we hoped. But after that, it went down as fast as it came. Weird! That's not supposed to happen."
The two of them talked a little more about the new staff and how the guild planned to handle more adventurers now that it was open. Pell kept his voice low and easy, like he was happy to have someone to chat with during his break time.
While they were talking, Vessa walked in from the back hallway. She stopped near the counter and looked at Pell. "Hey, Pell, your break time is over, right? Go check the storage room in the back. Make sure the new crates are labeled correctly. I don't want mix-ups when the rest of the team gets here."
Pell stood up right away. "On it, Maam." He gave Lys a quick nod and walked off behind a small room.
Lys stayed at the counter for a moment. He looked around the empty hall. The sun outside was still high, but it was only barely afternoon. He had time before he needed to head home.
He could go back to the yard, but the drills had already taken most of his morning, and his legs felt heavy now to do any more training.
He thought about the quest board on the wall across the room. There were some papers stuck with some kind of pin on a board. 'Maybe I should take a small quest or something, to pass the time. Surely Vessa won't get angry if I take a small one, right?'
Before he even finished the thought, his feet started moving toward the board. He crossed the hall and stopped in front of the quest board. A few papers hung there, held by small metal pins. The writing on them looked neat, but Lys could not read a single word. The letters were nothing like the ones he knew from his old world.
He stood there and stared at the papers anyway. He tilted his head a little, trying to make sense of the shapes. But nothing clicked.
This has been a major pain in his butt for the past couple days; he has done Sara's guild-related papers. Back then, there was Selene or Sara to help him, but what about now? They can't come with him every time he needs to read something, right?
While Lys was inside his mind, thinking about how badly he needed his System to give him any kind of quest or something to learn the language of this world in one go, Vessa had been watching from a few steps away.
She walked over without saying anything at first. She stopped right beside him. Being a little taller than him, when she reached up her arm, it went easily over his shoulder.
She pulled one paper free from its pin and handed it to him.
"Here," she said. "You can take this one. While I would prefer you take more drills under me, on the other hand, you should occasionally take small quests here and there. Plus, this quest won't be that hard, I think. Considering you even went to the forest with me."
Lys took the paper and looked at it. The words written on it still did not make sense, but he held it anyway, looking at the pictures, which indicated it was some kind of herb-collecting quest or something.
"What is it?" He asked her despite knowing she might look down on him for not being literate.
"Simple herb collecting quest," Vessa told him without changing her expression at all as if she had already figured him out.
"The spot is not far into the forest. You can just follow the marked trail from your map for about twenty minutes, pick the blue-leaf plants and the other herbs shown on the back of the sheet, and bring them back. Should not take you more than two hours total if you move steadily. This should be a good one for your first quest. Just make sure to return before sunset."
Lys felt a small rush of excitement in his stomach without him even knowing. He turned the paper over in his hands. Even though he could not read it, the idea of walking out with a real guild quest made him stand a little straighter. "Yeah, I can do that," he said. "Thanks for letting him do this. Just doing drills was getting boring."
Vessa gave a short nod. "Bring the herbs straight to the counter when you get back. Pell will handle the rest. And watch the trail markers. Do not wander off in the forest."
She turned and walked back toward the hallway without waiting for more talk.
Lys stood there holding the paper. He looked at it again, then at the door that led outside. The excitement stayed with him. This was it. His first quest. Not training, not basic drills, but something real adventurer work.
He folded the paper once and slipped it into his pocket. His legs still felt tired from the morning, but that did not matter now. He headed for the front door of the guild hall.
Before he stepped out, he glanced back toward the drill yard door one last time. He could hear the others still working out there. Calla's voice carried faintly as she asked someone another question.
Lys smiled to himself, feeling second-hand embarrassment for her, and pushed the front door open.