After I picked all the Macktosh fruit, I decided to travel away from the trees and make camp for the night as the sun was already starting to go down. once I was a few hours away from the trees I set up my tent and pulled out my travel rations. I don't start a fire as I heard from Hogan that the especially dangerous beasts usually hunt at night and I didn't want a big glowing target on my back.
After eating some rations I turn in and check out the spatial tent. The tent is about the size of my room at the Flying Dragon. There's enough room for a table and chairs as well as my sleeping bag, there's even a spot to light a fire in the center of the tent with a hole that can be closed with a flap right above the fire pit. I took note to buy a metal fire pit next time I'm at the Adventurers guild.
I wake up in the morning and pack everything up then start heading back to the city. I thought about using the hover bike to make the trip faster but quickly realized that the lack of roads or even a solid path would make it more of a hassle than just walking. With that thought in mind I decide I'm going to sell the hover bike. With the money Ill make from doing jobs and the profits I'll get from the hover bike I should have no problem making my first payment to the city in three months. Besides I don't plan on leaving the city for a long while, well besides to enter the wilderness.
After about seven hours I see the wall of the city in the distance. When I get to the northern gate I show the guards my Adventurers I.d and after looking at it for a few seconds they let me in.
Excited about turning in my first job I quickly make my way towards the Adventurers guild. It's late afternoon by the time I make it to the guild the lines are surprisingly short this time of day as it only takes me half an hour to get the receptionist.
Its yet again an elf looking lady, after talking to Hogan I know now that they are the native race of Endora they're called Razacks. They make up a majority of the population of the city. Ii hand her my Adventurers I.d and tell her I'm there to turn in a job. She takes my I.D and looks at it for a minute before handing me a spatial satchel while saying "just ut all the fruit in there and then I'll verify the amount." I transfer twenty of the forty-five fruits I have and hand the satchel back to her. She takes it from me then spends a few seconds verifying its contents, after doing so she touches my I.d to a larger blue crystal and says " congratulations on becoming an E ranked adventurer, your I.d now reflects your new status. Also here is your ten gold coins for completing the job." she then hands me my I.d and twenty gold coins.
"Where do I turn in my tags" I ask her
"You can turn them in right here, just transfer them to this spatial satchel." she replies while handing me a satchel. I transfer them over then hand it back to her. she takes a minute to verify the contents then says " These beasts are known as Red Tailed Woodpeckers and each core plus the carcass goes for five gold each, here's your forty gold."
After I pocket the gold I head over to the shops where I plan on buying a few things to make my time in the wilderness more comfortable. First I buy a metal fire pit, then a set of collapsible chairs and a table. After purchasing all that I go back to the weapons shop and buy two more Simple knives to use in my main and off hand while I control two with my telekinesis.
I then head over to the job board to see if there's anything I want to take right now. I'm honestly not in a huge rush to take another job. Even though the unranked job seemed easy it was still my first time facing death in such a way, if I had been even a little bit off my game then I probably would've died to those unranked beasts. With that line of thought I could only imagine how much more dangerous an E ranked beast is.
I make my way to the job board and see that like the line to the receptionist desk its not nearly as packed this time of day as opposed to the first time I was here. All the jobs for E ranked are pretty much hunting jobs with only a few being gathering as well as there being a few capturing jobs. I found out from Hogan that to complete catering jobs I need to buy a special kind of spatial satchel, its one that allows you to hold live beasts within it. The satchel I have right now is just a basic one which only allows you to store inanimate objects. That's one of the reasons capture jobs are so expensive. That and just the fact that its a lot harder to capture a beast alive than kill it, at least in most circumstances. The capture jobs were easily worth double and in some cases even triple what hunting jobs cost.
Hogan also mentioned that most adventurers take on jobs as a group and split the reward money. He said that very few Adventurers take on jobs by themselves. This is mostly because of how much more fighting you have to do once you reach E ranked hunting grounds. One person would run out of energy if they tried to take on E ranked hunting grounds by themselves. I don't really feel as though I would have the same problem since I could always use Shadow Meld to get away. You don't start finding really intelligent beasts until you reach B grade from what I've heard, E grade beasts wouldn't even think about destroying a shadow which is the only way Id get popped out of shadow meld. It probably would still be better to take on E ranked jobs with a group though. Only because of how inexperienced I am.
With that last thought in mind I make my way to the least crowded shop in the Adventurers guild. The book store. I pick up an encyclopedia of E ranked monsters in the area as well as an encyclopedia of valuable herbs that can be found in the E ranked hunting ground. I figured I would study them in my down time. I pick up the latter while thinking that I can make more money if I can bring back some valuable herbs from every job since there's no tag limit on how many precious plants you can bring back and sell.
That reminds me that I never sold the rest of my Macktosh fruits. I head over to the shop that appears to buy and sell herbs, I end up getting a gold coin for each one which gives me fifteen more gold in my pocket.
Then I head to a store that seems to be selling mechanical items that are made with beasts cores. I end up selling the hover bike for one-hundred gold which takes a big load off my mind. If I keep to a simple budget and don't spend frivolously I'll have no problem paying my fee in three months, so I'll have at least four months to either make it to D rank or do enough jobs to make my next payment.
After making all my purchases and selling the fruits and hover bike I make my way to The Flying Dragon. When I walk in I see that its Hogan at the bar again so I take a seat and order some food as well as a drink. After I take my seat and order Hogan comes back over to me with something in his hand "this came for you just a few hours ago." he says while handing me a sealed letter. To say I was surprised would be an understatement, besides Hogan there's no one else iv even had a conversation with in World Game.
I open the letter and it reads:
Dear Cole
Im sure you're surprised to receive this letter, I'm sure you're wondering to yourself who else even knows who you are in the vastness of this world that we call World Game. Well that would be me, your Guide.
I know I hinted at it when we talked last but a guide is so much more than just a being that helps you at your character creation. If you would've gotten the original guide you were supposed to have them that would be the last time you interacted with your Guide, but luckily for you I was able to take their place because of your unique energy signature. Now iv written this letter to give you some information as well as a few warnings. First off let me tell you that as your Guide I am able to give you information and even quests or Jobs as the adventurers call them. When you get a job from me not only will the rewards be greater but so to will the risk. That's because all sentient Guides have certain agendas they are trying to push, myself included.
We distinguish who will be helpful to us based upon a new Players energy signature, which is why I was able to become your guide in the first place. now just because our energy signatures match dosen't mean our goals will match, but it does mean that our thought processes as well as our karmic alignment are pretty close to each other. Which is a big thing to us Guides.
Now in return for completing my jobs and helping me further my agenda I'll be able to not only give you information but also valuable items and maybe even territory. All The jobs you will take from me will be well worth your time I assure you. Plus if you work for me you'll also gain a network of other players that will be able to help you if you ever need it.
Enough about all that, lets get to the warnings I have for you. First off let me say congratulations on already becoming an E rank adventurer. Now I know that as an E rank adventurer you will have to form a party to take on jobs from now on, but let me just say that you should be very careful about what skills you show when you're in a party.
You see in World Game human trafficking is a big thing intelligent species and races that have certain unique skills are in high demand. Even just information about someone with a unique ability is worth a lot of money. Certain factions will pay good money to turn someone with a unique ability into a farm for their unique ability. Meaning that they will have you breed continuously to create as many people as possible with said ability.
The higher tier people of World Game are always looking for ways to strengthen themselves and because you wont die from old age in this world that means you will eventually hit a cap on your personal power. Now once they hit a cap on there personal power they always eventually start to accumulate Social power which means they will start to accumulate underlings and creating army's to further their agendas. Which means they are always on the hunt for people with special abilities which will further develop their social power. Now it just so happens you have such an ability, which is Shadow Meld, even your Solid Energy ability could be valuable enough to have you kidnapped.