Chapter Eleven #4
Stella let out a relieved sigh. “I was seriously going to start thinking I woke up in an alternate dimension or something if none of you had phones. Anyways, I’ll take you out to get phones tomorrow.” More and more of her bold side was coming out.
“Already planning our first date?” I asked.
“The first date comes after. Getting a phone is way too serious to take lightly. Phones are like, an extension of the soul.” Then she looked at Lupa. “You’re coming too. Everyone needs a phone.”
“Mm. Okay,” Lupa replied.
“Anyways, for these quests,” Stella paused and got real serious, “repeat after me, ‘I will complete an intent to complete form. I will not see a quest and decide to complete it without filling out an intent to complete form. If I do complete a quest without submitting an intent to complete form, I will not complain when I am refused the reward for the quest.’”
Both of Stella’s coworkers had that, “Here she goes again,” look on their faces as they sighed to themselves.
But sorry.
I couldn’t resist.
“So,” I said, “I don’t need to fill out a form to complete a quest?”
“No gods will protect you from me if you don’t,” Stella answered.
“I’m just kidding. I’ll make sure to fill out the form.”
Stella let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you. Even if you don’t accept any quests, thank you.”
“By the way, what if someone gave me a job without having a proper quest or form or anything?”
“If it involves a dungeon, then it is an unregulated quest, and both the quest giver and adventurer may be banned from using the guild’s services.”
Lupa maintained a totally straight face hearing that, but Rosie… Rosie would never get to come along for any bank heist fantasies. “Got it,” I said. “We’ll look through these quests now.”
Stella pointed to the wall alongside the left of the lobby where a bunch of different papers and announcements were posted. “On the right side there, you can pick up the intent to complete form and a pencil. Drop it off with me once you’re ready.”
“Will do.”
With that, the three of us went to find a table to sit at so we could look through the quests. A few girls tried approaching us, but Lupa made sure none of them got close.
As for the quests, there wasn’t anything too interesting in them.
I recognized a couple from the game while others were brand new, but they were equally generic.
Typical quests. Things like, “Bring back X amount of Y and get paid Z.” The only quest that wasn’t too generic was the one on top that Stella told me about.
It was a quest for recovering someone’s sword that they dropped while running away in the dungeon.
It sounded easy enough.
So, I went over, grabbed a couple of those forms Stella told us about, and filled out the information. That information included: our full names, our levels, signatures, the date—typical paperwork stuff.
Then I took the forms back to Stella, alongside the quests, and said, “Here we go. Does filling out these forms mean that I’ve made you fall in love with me out of appreciation for following procedure?”
“You have no idea how turned on I am from a man who can do the required paperwork,” Stella said, laughing a little afterward.
“But seriously, I swear, no matter how many times I remind people to fill the forms out, they don’t.
Anyways, let me just give these a quick look and…
alright, everything’s good!” With that, she pulled out an ink stamper, dipped it in ink, and then stamped each of the accepted quests.
Each quest then popped up in the system as she went.
//Quest: Twisting Woods #3758
//Order: 15 Hog Meat
//Reward: 30 Silver
//Notes: None.
//Quest: Twisting Woods #3763
//Order: 40 Hickory Logs
//Reward: 1 Gold, 12 Silver
//Notes: Will pay an extra 10 silver per HQ log.
//Quest: Twisting Woods #3764
//Order: 20 Hog Hide
//Reward: 45 Silver
//Notes: None
//Quest: Twisting Woods #3768
//Order: Iron Sword (+2) with “C.A.” etched into blade.
//Reward: 3 Silver, 47 Copper
//Notes: PLEASE GET MY SWORD BACK FROM THE BOSS ROOM! THIS WAS MY MOM’S SWORD AND I DON’T WANT TO LOSE IT! I PROMISE I’LL NEVER TAKE IT OUT AGAIN AND RISK LOSING IT IF YOU brING IT BACK!!!
Seeing each quest simply have a number for a name made the whole thing feel very…
corporate. Like they were IT tickets or something.
Well, I never worked in IT before—I never worked in anything before, so maybe that wasn’t the best comparison, but it was what I thought of going by what other people said about working tech support on the internet.
But it made sense. If there were thousands of quests for mundane things like this, then there was no way every single one of them was going to get a proper, quest-y sounding name.
“I’m happy you accepted that latest one,” Stella said.
“The poor girl came in here crying because she lost her sword, and she said that was all the money she could afford to offer for payment.” Then she winked at me.
“But I told her I was sure a brave adventurer would bring her back her mom’s sword for sure. ”
“Honestly, a reward isn’t even needed for this,” I said. “Is there a way to reject the reward?”
Stella shook her head. “The reward has already been deposited, and the guild keeps all unclaimed rewards.”
“Even when an adventurer completes a quest without submitting the form?”
“… we get a lot of our funding from adventurers not submitting the right forms, but it’s not like we don’t constantly remind them to do it!”
“In that case, is there any way I can put in a quest for her to accept where the only requirement is to accept the quest and claim the reward?”
Stella smiled and let out a little sigh. “You’re a real sweet guy, aren’t you?”
“I just feel bad taking all of a girl’s money for something like this.”
“Don’t worry about it, mmk? I’ll figure something out for you.”
“Got it. I’ll leave it to you then, Stella.”
Stella closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Hearing you say my name is way too powerful.”
“I wonder how you’ll react when I whisper it in your ear.”
Stella opened her eyes once I said that, but I was already walking backward with Rosie and Lupa to go to the dungeon. Still, at least I got to see that nervous, excited smile of Stella’s before leaving.
“Master loves flirting,” Lupa said.
Rosie nodded. “He’s seriously addicted to it.”
I couldn’t deny their claims.