First Steps III

[Arvid Sawyer]

Sharon, a town a little over halfway towards Magnolia, was a little bigger than Willowherb.

By then, Arvid felt like he was getting used to bigger places… In the sense that they weren't surprising or shocking anymore. He was still very much in awe of each and every new place they visited though. How could he not, when all of them held new and wonderful things for him to see? Some had nicer farmlands. Others had great art. They had even visited a place with great wooden sculptures that he'd just loved.

Sharon didn't seem to stand out in any category from what he was seeing while exploring the commercial district. It was, in turn, very spread out. Where some places were better at certain things and about average in everything else, Sharon seemed to be a little better in everything, but not really standing out.

'Jack of all trades, master of none,' Arvid deduced. Now, if he found that Sharon did, indeed, have a specialty, then he'd be very surprised. Or maybe not. Seeing as it was a little bigger than everywhere else they'd been, maybe the better quality of things was a result of that. 'If that's the case, I can't wait to see Magnolia or better yet, Crocus. I already thought those were amazing from Saul's stories, but they might be much, much better if this is anything to go by.'

So, Arvid continued walking, gazing through the windows of shops and checking merchant stands. For one, because maybe he'd get lucky and find some material for wands that might be cheap for whatever reason. For another because there was so much to see. All kinds of goods that in Wintergreen they'd have had to wait for months to see if a merchant might bring some. There were many that Arvid hadn't ever seen until that very moment.

It was an experience, for sure.

That was what he'd set out to see, why he'd left home. He hadn't even reached his destination and he was already achieving what he'd wanted. It was amazing, and he couldn't get enough of it all. He wished he had about ten more eyes so that he could take everything in, honestly.

'Woah, those are neat,' he thought then, his eyes zeroing in on a particular stand with polished stones of all colors and shapes. None of them were particularly impressive, he was pretty sure, but they did look like he could use them.

That is, until he saw the price.

'Man, these people don't pull their punches at all,' he thought wryly, giving one last wistful look at the goods before deciding to move on. No point torturing himself with stuff he couldn't afford. That was one lesson he intended to follow from his father's teachings.

Maybe he should have followed the one about looking where he was going though.

"Woah, you ok?" the man he crashed onto when he turned said, getting a hold of him when he stumbled a bit. "Maybe you should be more careful, buddy," the guy told him, giving him a pat on his arm.

"Right, sorry," Arvid replied with a nervous smile. "Thanks for catching me."

"Don't mention it!" the man called over his shoulder, already leaving.

That was another thing that he was having some trouble getting used to. There were a lot of people around in those towns. If cities had even more, then… Wow. Just, wow. Arvid didn't even know what he'd do surrounded by so many people.

He didn't think he was shy per se. Miko had made sure that he wasn't, dragging him along with Saul basically everywhere on Wintergreen. However, there was a difference between that and being surrounded by that many people, all the time. Arvid genuinely felt a little overwhelmed at times.

He could only hope that he'd get better about that and sooner rather than later.

Otherwise Magnolia might not be as good as he thought, if only because of how he'd feel in the crowds. That was a problem for future Arvid though. If it came to that, he'd just make sure to stay somewhere else close by and only go to Magnolia on occasion or to get a job or something. The logistics were kind of a work in progress, he supposed…

Which was the best part really.

Arvid rather liked not having to stick to plans or deadlines anymore. There was no project to make sure it was ready in time. There was no schedule to follow so he could work as much as was necessary. There was no fixed time for anything.

He got up whenever he wanted, ate whenever he wanted, did whatever he wanted, and went to sleep whenever he wanted.

It was great.

'Hey, that looks like it's cheap enough,' he noticed, pausing in front of a stand and looking through the goods like he'd done several times already. This once though, he didn't bolt at the numbers on the price tags, however. Instead, they just made him more interested. If they weren't fakes or something like that, then this might be worth spending some of his saved money on it.

'Now, how much do I have to spend though, that's rather important,' he mused idly as he patted his pocket… And then he paused and blinked. Patting his other pockets, he found them empty too. With a frown, he checked his messenger bag, even though he was sure that he'd put his wallet in his left pocket like he always did.

There was nothing, nowhere.

'What? Did I forget it somewhere? No, but I had it on me. I know I di-' he thought before something came to mind. 'Fuck, did I just…? Fuck! Saul will be insufferable about this… and I'm an idiot,' he thought, sighing and running his fingers through his hair, feeling whatever good mood he'd carried vanish into thin air.

It seemed he'd been robbed, and he hadn't even noticed.

[}-o-{]

[Saulus Lambent]

"So, what you are telling me is that you lost all the money for the trip then." Saulus let out a sigh as he reclined himself on top of the bed. "A guy just crashed onto you out of nowhere and took your wallet without you even realizing…That is like, the oldest trick in the book, Arvid. What the hell?"

"In my defense," his friend said, raising an argumentative finger with a sheepish expression. "I lost my money for the trip," he explained as if that were any better.

"Yes, but I was planning to leech off of you after all, so that means that was pretty much all our money for this. I only brought enough for food and to buy some gifts for the family," Saulus said with another sigh, there went his pocket money. They still had to pay for the inn they were staying at, and with what was left they'd still not have enough to even buy tickets back to Willowherb.

"That's… more your fault than mine," Arvid unhelpfully pointed out with a wry smile, even if he still fidgeted with his fingers, clearly feeling embarrassed and guilty.

"You know, I sort of feel like this is my fault in some way…" Saul responded as he mused to himself. Arvid raised an eyebrow in askance so he elaborated. "Well, you give off this country bumpkin aura that follows you, so it is only natural that a petty thief would target you, so perhaps I should have accompanied you inst- No. What am I saying? Of course this is one hundred percent your fault," he backtracked.

That was close, he almost took responsibility for something. This is what happened when his second afternoon nap got interrupted. He got this really wacky nonsense in his head.

"I feel like I should be insulted like three times over with just that," Arvid commented, his tone flatter and it was his eye that twitched that time. "But I admit it, I messed up and I'm sorry," he added then, rubbing his hands on his face. "I guess it's time to make money again." Because of course, Arvid's mind always went straight for work. Saul, personally, blamed his dad.

"But we just got done working" Saulus said, most definitely not whining. Seriously, they had to help that Fergus guy just a few days ago, and now this. The worst part is that he knew Arvid was right. They didn't have money left to backtrack and if he didn't want to go hungry in this city they now found themselves stuck in, then they would have to get some income.

"Pretty sure a few days isn't "just", you know? But it's fine. It's my fuck up, so I'll put in the work," Arvid said, visibly getting himself together and groaning. "Man, this still sucks," he grumbled. "At least I get the mage experience ahead of time."

Saul raised an eyebrow at that

"You are thinking about taking a Free Job?" he asked.

"Sure am," Arvid answered with a grin. "I mean, I'd take a regular job at a carpenter shop too, but I'd rather do the mage thing, you know?" his friend added then, looking excited of all things. Then he shrugged with a sheepish smile at his raised eyebrow.

Saul grumbled to himself for a few moments before sighing. He rose himself from the far too comfy bed and stretched his back until it gave a satisfying 'pop'.

"I'll go with you then," he said, already resigned. He doubted Arvid lacked the common sense to not pick something weird from the board, but just in case, he would follow him and make sure the man didn't bite more than he could chew. For all his virtues, Arvid tended to have tunnel vision when he decided to achieve something.

Independent Quests or, as they were colloquially known, Free Jobs were pretty much the same as quests one would see in a Guild. Instead of being posted and regulated by the Magic Council, however, and then sent to the Guilds, these types of missions were sent directly to the Rune Knight outposts. Given that they couldn't stretch the garrison of the guards too much, they usually just posted them on a board and let all mages, Guild registered or not, take them and reduce the workload.

If anything, it was more like community service than actual quests. Most of them came from the locals wanting to deal with a problem fast instead of waiting for bureaucracy to do their thing and for the Magic Council to approve them for Guilds. Either that or from people who had gotten tired of paying taxes to keep those quests on the Guilds boards for some mage to take it and wanted to see if someone else might.

The problem with them was exactly that, however. While it was true that they got to independent mages faster, the job was still unregulated. There was no way to know if the payment for the job was fair or even if the rank for the mission was correct since there was no investigation just yet. All one had to base themselves on was the word of the person who put the quest up.

An independent mage could find themselves making an easy pay by following a mere superstition for an afternoon. Or they could find themselves realizing that the "small group of bandits" they were supposed to take care of was a full fledged Dark Guild base in the middle of a forest.

Of course, those were the higher paying jobs most professional independents gambled on. There were other jobs like birthday parties looking for a mage to attend, or to help get rid of some critters that assaulted some poor old man's farm. Those didn't pay much, but the risk was certainly lower…

And they were probably going to go for those, he supposed.

Which would mean needing to do a bunch to make enough money.

Which was such a drag.

"Alright, then," Saul said as he grabbed his jacket. "Let's go check out what they have posted around here. Also, anything that involves going deep into the forest is vetoed, Arvid. Don't even try. I know you want to clean your "fuck up" as fast as possible, but…"

He wanted to say something regarding staying safe and not getting into unnecessary danger. Because he knew Arvid and he was too stubborn to actually take care of himself. So, someone had to do that for the two of them. Saying any of those things out loud sounded kind of corny though. So, Saul went for the next best option.

"I don't want your country bumpkin aura to attract every bandit in the forest. I'd rather have my clothes still on my person by the end of it."

Nailed it.

"I guess I deserve that," Arvid replied with a sigh. "Let's just go already. The sooner we start, the earlier we'll finish."

[}-o-{]

[Arvid Sawyer]

He looked around the Rune Knight Outpost – shortening it to RKO felt weird, but maybe that'd go away after getting more familiar with them? –, Arvid considered what Saul had said about it being kind of similar to Guild halls but not. An eloquent descriptor, his friend was not, but he guessed he could kind of see it once he'd gotten a little more to work with. Or maybe he was just making up things so that his friend made sense. Either or.

Ultimately, the space next to the entrance was more or less what he imagined a Guild hall to be like, filled with tables in front of two counters, a bar and the counter area with several office people in the area for jobs. Maybe it looked more boring than he expected Guilds to be like, but that was, funnily enough, expected since these were the Rune Knights. It wasn't supposed to be the place for adventures… or at least not quite what he was looking for, Arvid acknowledged, glancing to the other side where it was more of a Rune Knight area, where people would go if they needed assistance from the law enforcement side of things.

"Here you go, these are the ones I could find on such short notice," the young man that had talked to them before said as he came back from the backroom. "If you want more, you'll have to come back at another time, I'm sorry," he said, looking genuinely apologetic. He seemed new, to Arvid at least, but at least he'd been nice.

He couldn't say the same for the measly three jobs that he'd found, but he supposed they shouldn't have expected much. After all, the guy had been gone for… ten minutes, maybe fifteen. Arvid supposed he could cut him some slack. There couldn't be a small number of jobs to comb through, he was sure. On top of that, Saul and him had… limited tools to work with too. Maybe once he had a more varied array of wands, it'd be easier.

"Thank you for finding this many, man. Don't worry about it," he replied with a smile that the young man – Derrick, he was pretty sure he said his name was – returned enthusiastically. After all, if he didn't talk then Saul certainly wouldn't. Or he would, which would be just as bad, if not worse. "Do you mind if we take some time to look through this?"

"No, not at all. I'll be going back to continue looking, alright? If you decide on something, just ring the bell," Derrick told them before going back through the door he'd just come through after Arvid nodded. When he was gone, he glanced towards his friend, who seemed to have let his mind drift off towards the outside of the outpost's front window.

Deciding to let him be, Arvid started reading through the papers he'd been given. 'It's my fuck up, after all,' he thought, feeling the sting of guilt and shame in his chest. He was an idiot and he acknowledged it. He'd been too caught up in the marvels of a world he'd only dreamed of to pay attention to what was in front of him, to remember that… 'The world still has its parts that suck,' he thought, holding back a sigh.

Shaking off those thoughts, he focused on the pieces of paper.

Three jobs, that was all the receptionist that greeted them had been able to find that remotely suit their needs. Granted, that had been kind of a rush job since they'd just dropped by without further notice or anything, so he could accept that. They'd have to make do. Hopefully there'd be something nice to do.

Job one… didn't seem like something they should do though. A person that said their property was haunted was asking if a mage could check it for them. The pay was… abysmal and Arvid knew that neither his current skillset nor Saul's fit the job at all. Granted, it was noted that it wasn't a sure thing, even mentioning that the client was known to exaggerate and such things. However, Arvid didn't know if it was worth risking for how little it paid. 'If there's nothing better… but even then, might be more worth it to just wait,' he thought to himself, setting the paper aside.

The next one was more interesting. An alchemist was asking for help from someone to clear off the residue of a failed experiment. Apparently, they weren't able to get the thing off from their workshop no matter what and they were asking for help from other mages. Arvid tilted his head, considering the job while thinking of the wands he currently had. That sounded like something that the acid or lava wand could work for. Still, if the alchemist hadn't been able to get the thing off for… 'A week,' Arvid noted, checking the date on the job… then it was probably more complicated than that, right? It was worth checking, he supposed. If they couldn't then it'd be a quick thing to check.

He just hoped that he wouldn't waste a wand for nothing at all. He'd have to be careful about that. At least the pay on that one was good though. 'More of a maybe than the other one, that's for sure,' he thought with a nod.

The last job was… something. A woman was, apparently, worried that her husband was cheating on her. Worried enough that she had to get mages involved. Probably some rich woman, if he had to bet, because the pay was entirely too high for something like that… Or maybe there was more than met the eye, Arvid supposed.

He did have a stealth wand that might work for this. On top of that, he'd always been good at sneaking about. It wasn't just because he spent a lot of time in his father's workshop that few people in Wintergreen knew he existed for the longest time. He just had a way of blending into the background when he wasn't doing much. He'd had a lot of fun sneaking on Miko and Saul at times.

'Hm, job two and job three look promising,' he thought. And the best part was that both of them were more suited to him than they were Saul. He was glad for that, because he'd been the one to get them in the mess they were in. He'd feel really shitty if his friend was the one that had to put in the work to get them out, doubly so with how… uninterested his friend seemed on pretty much everything.

Arvid knew he was dragging his friend around for his journey. So, the least he could do was try to make things easier for Saul, which was why he'd decided on something already. Thus, he took a deep breath in, squared his shoulders and turned towards his friend.

"These ones look easy," he commented, giving the pieces of paper a wave. "I can do them by myself, honestly. You can go back to the hotel, if you want," he told Saul, not even really having to lie. He really hoped his friend would go for it. It'd make him feel less guilty, at the very least.

"Clean an alchemist's mess?" his friend said with a raised eyebrow as he read the quest. "Well, the pay is pretty good, at least," Saul commented, reading through it.

"I know, right?" Arvid asked, reading again. Good pay, simple job, just what they needed. Sure, maybe it wouldn't be that easy, since it came from an alchemist and that meant magic was involved, but he'd take it.

Saul mumbled as he read the mission over and over again. Still, Arvid noticed that his eyes repeatedly moved to the reward that, while not substantial, was quite the sum for a single job. Seemed like his friend was on board with that one.

"Well, I guess it sounds easy and fast, which is nice. Also, no way you are going alone. I am going too, just in case. Besides, I want to complain some more, and doing it alone in the hotel room makes me feel lonely."

Well, there went that idea, Arvid guessed, which didn't mean he couldn't try to think of a way to convince his friend though. He wouldn't give up that easily. So, with the excuse of re-checking the other jobs, he tried to come up with something. Except that Saul would do as Saul wanted. He was a lazy bastard, but he was also a stubborn one. If he wanted to do something, nobody would change his mind… unless it required more effort than he expected.

Which probably wasn't the case here.

Neither would Arvid be able to convince him that it was, sadly.

"... We are going for it then," he said, trying not to appear as defeated as he felt. Turning towards the counter once more, he hit the bell.

"Just a second, I am coming!" they heard the receptionist call, his voice muffled by the wooden door that led inside.

"Yay…you again," Saul "cheered" "enthusiastically", making Arvid roll his eyes.

"Not too late to change your mind," he reminded him, because a man could hope.

"No, thanks. I am a man of convictions… and changing my mind requires effort too, so there is that."

'Of course,' Arvid thought with an internal sigh.

"The inner machinations of your mind are an enigma, man," he commented dryly.

"Yes?" the receptionist asked, through the door once more, looking at Arvid. "You decided something?"

"Yeah, we are taking this job," he answered, taking the document and separating it from the others.

"Oh, ok, great!" the young man – 'What was his name again?' – said, beaming at them. "You just have to fill this," he continued then, taking a piece of paper from behind the counter and placing it in front of Arvid. It was a form for them to fill in, mostly with personal information but also some regarding the job they were taking. "I'm guessing you are both taking it?"

Arvid turned towards Saul, because giving up was for-

"-By signing this form, I declare myself responsible of any and all consequences taken during the job and renounce to charging the Rune Knight or Outpost of any work-related injury or- Really?" he said with a raised eyebrow to the young receptionist while pointing at a small section of the contract that was in suspiciously small letters in a suspiciously far corner.

"Haha… It's just protocol?" he answered nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"... You guys suck." Blunt and dry. The Saul classic, as Miko would say. Arvid had to hold back a chuckle at that.

"... Sorry, sir," the receptionist had the decency to say, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but there.

"Gotta cover all the bases, I guess," Arvid commented wryly while looking at the rest of the text that Saul had pointed out. 'What a way to start off as a mage, huh?' he thought to himself.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Sometimes, you are just unprepared and unlucky at the same time. Such is the case of poor Arvid. He was just too excited and too country bumpkin for his own good.

Arc: Thankfully he has Saul there ready to be a good frie- help him carry the l- being moral suppo-... ehm, at least he has Saul with him.

Adrian: Saul is certainly there, that's for sure.

Arc: Still, without counting the incident with the Jagras, this is their very first official step as mages. Even though it is not at a Guild like they had expected, it is still a memorable moment for them.

Adrian: I'm sure they'll have a great time at it… probably. With all that said, we hope you liked the chapter, everyone! See you in the next chapter!

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ