After leaving the park I begin my walk back to The Flying Dragon. Walking back to the flying Dragon will only take about thirty minutes. The walk during the day was a completely different experience compared to at night. The city was completely lit up at night by floating balls that glowed and bobbed up and down in sync with each other. The color of the balls seemed to change colors every ten seconds they switched between a white, yellow, red, and green. Overall it made me feel as though there was a festival going on but it was just a regular night in Andora.
After thirty minutes I found myself back at The Flying Dragon. When I walked in the door I saw that the place was packed, there seemed to be some kind of live musical performance going on.
There was a young woman who looked completely human playing a guitar while singing up beat drinking songs that Iv never heard before but appeared to be very popular because a lot of people were singing along with her. The woman had completely white hair tied back in a bun, she had high almost sculpted cheek bones and full lips, If this was earth I would've assumed she was some kind of model or something. The most enchanting thing about her though were her eyes, they were an almost fluorescent green that seemed to light up whatever she gazed upon.
To say I was entranced would be an understatement. I found that I couldn't keep my eyes off of her and even found my foot tapping rhythmically to the music. It took someone else coming through the door and shoving past me to realize I had just been standing inside the doorway stuck. Embarrassed by my behavior I hurriedly make my way towards the bar where I struggle to find a seat. After I finally do I realize that there will not be any idle chatter with Hogan tonight on account of how busy he is. Finally i waved him down to order some food and my usual drink, then turned my attention back to the enchanting woman and her guitar. At this point people are up out of their seats dancing with one another, that festival-like feeling I had earlier while walking to the tavern was only enhanced further by the atmosphere inside.
The woman's voice is just as enchanting as her appearance. She was somehow able to turn drinking songs into what felt like a full blown musical performance. I was absolutely blown away by the overall effect.
My food and drink arrive but I am so caught up in her performance that it is several minutes before I realize that they are in front of me, and even when I did realize it the only thing I did was pick up my drink and take a few sips, leaving my food untouched because I didn't want to take my eyes off her.
A few hours later her performance ends and she makes her way through the crowd where everyone was fighting for her attention. She makes her way to the bar where I see Hogan give her a large bag of what I assumed was money. Then she takes a seat and orders something from Hogan. I want to go up and talk to her but even back on earth I was never good at talking to woman, I just always become so nervous about what to say that I end up saying nothing which leads to awkward one sided conversations. I just gaze at her from afar. While I'm watching her she turns her head my way and we lock eyes for a second, realizing iv been staring at her a bit to long I quickly avert my eyes in embarrassment and turn my attention back to my food. Not being able to help myself I take one more peak in her direction and could swear I saw a slight smile on her face. I then finish my food and turn in for the night, from what Griffith alluded to I was in for a long day tomorrow.
I wake up early in the morning before the sun even came up. I wanted to return to the park to practice Quiet Nights forms again before I actually used them in combat. I grabbed a quick meal from Mina then hurriedly made my way to the park.
Once there I entered that same determined trance like state I entered the previous day. A few hours went by before I realized that I was already late to meet Griffith at the Adventurers Guild. Luckily I was only a few minutes away from it. so I rush there and end up only being a little late.
Griffith is already there in front of the job board waiting for me. Thankfully he was a head taller than the crowd of people that had already accumulated in front of the Job board despite the early hour.
"Your late." is the first thing Griffith says to me.
"I'm so sorry, I actually woke up early and was practicing my styles forms at the park and lost track of time, it wont happen again." I reply in my most respectful tone.
I know that the only reason Griffith was even still on this planet was because of me so I felt terrible about wasting his time. I guess my feeling showed on my face because Griffith replies '' No worries man, it's probably for the best that you got some style practice in before the hunt. Just remember that the earlier you get to the Job board to find a job the less time you will have to wait in line to accept the job. Otherwise you could find yourself not reaching the receptionist until noon depending on the day. Luckily it's still early enough that we will probably only have to wait in line for about a half an hour or so."
" Okay il keep that in mind. Iv always been a morning person anyway so that shouldn't be a problem. From now on I'll be sure to come to the Job board first before I train in my style that way I can avoid the crowd." I say
"That's probably the best way to go about it. Training in your style will become very important, especially if word gets out about your abilities." Griffith moves closer to me and says the last bit at a whisper, which surprises me because I didn't think the loud boisterous man even possessed such a volume.
"That's why I've been trying to practice it as much as possible, the bar tender where I stay said that I'll most likely find conflict with other adventurers out in the wilderness now that I'll be moving further away from the city for Jobs." I say
"That bar tender is a wise man. At the E and D rank is where most of the players who target other Adventurers tend to hunt. Unfortunately you may even find yourself at odds with higher tiered Adventurers who strictly hunt other lower tiered Adventurers to make a profit. The odds of that happening are fairly low though because most people who make it past the D rank can make more money taking C or even B ranked jobs than by killing E to D rank Adventurers. But still it's something to be mindful of. With your abilities you should have a better than decent chance to get away from them unscathed though. The only problem with that being you would probably have to use your Shadow Meld ability to do so, which would bring along its own host of problems. Those problems though would still be better than dyeing. I don't want you to hesitate to use the full scope of your abilities when you're in danger, that will just form a bad habit that could prove fatal one day." Griffith lectures.
I take what he says to heart because I know it will be valuable advice in the future. To be honest I was already starting to form a psychological block toward using my Shadow Meld ability after being told the risks. That block began to loosen after hearing Griffiths advice. If someone did find out about my abilities and managed to kidnap me at least I would still be alive and possibly be able to find a way to escape. If I found myself in a position where using my ability would save my life and I don't do so then it would be all over.
"Anyway enough of the morbid talk. Iv already grabbed a job that I want us to complete. I think it will be a good first hunting job for you and will allow you to hone your combat abilities in a relatively safe environment. The beast you will be hunting is called a Tyrant Swine, its a pig-like monster with large tusks that even some D tier Adventurers have a hard time dealing with. The reason I say this will be relatively safe for you is because the Tyrant Swine is really slow compared to you, most of their stat points are in strength. As long as you don't stay in one place to long you should be good. This Job is a high paying one as well. The job requires you to bring back three Tyrant Swines beast cores as well as carcasses. The pay will be forty-five gold coins which is about the highest you'll ever get for an E rank job." Griffith explained.
After hearing that even D rank Adventures have a problem killing Tyrant Swine I begin to get nervous. Then I remembered that Griffith is an SS tier Adventurer, and he knows all about my stats and abilities, If I can't trust him to be a proper judge of my capabilities then there's no one I could trust. Plus forty-five coins will be a nice way for me to keep my wallet a nice bit ahead of my next city payment.
Breaking me from my thoughts Griffith continues to say, "Now unfortunately because my tier is so much higher than yours this Job will not count towards your tier promotion at all but that's okay.
Once we do this job I'll be able to gauge exactly what kind of capabilities you have.Which will allow me to pick jobs that I know you'll be able to handle, well as long as outside factors don't interfere.
I'm looking to find you a good party to join, iv even asked our guide to help in that regard. It would really help you a lot in dealing with the dangers of the wilderness, plus it would take a lot of stress off my mind knowing that you won't be by yourself out there.
Most of the time the most dangerous situations you face in the wilderness have nothing to do with the job you're on. Its always unexpected high tier beasts, beast swarms or even other adventurers that will prove to be the most challenging part of a Job. Also if you get hurt out there by yourself there's no one to help you make it back to the city, and healing potions only help so much.
That brings me to the final part of my lecture, potions. Potions are a must have when you enter the wilderness, especially Energy potions. Healing potions are important as well, especially if you plan on hunting in the wilderness alone. Energy potions though are an absolute must.
Some jobs will have you fighting against beasts back to back for hours, which will not give you time to replenish your energy naturally. Once you run out of usable energy in the wilderness you're pretty much dead. Most adventurers never let their energy drop to twenty-five percent.
Let me remind you too since you're a Player and didn't grow up in World Game, once your Energy reaches zero you will without a doubt die. Unless you have a party member that has an extremely rare revival skill, who is actually willing to take the risk of revealing said skill. Even if one of your party members has such a skill they would still have to use it on you right away for it to work.
So energy potions are a must." Griffith explained.