First Quest

Hearing a request gave me an unavoidable RPG feel. Monster slaying had its frightening appeal, but providing aid to locals felt like proper hero work. I shouldn’t be trying to think of it like a game, but the system menus didn’t make it easy sometimes. “Of course, I am here to help and protect your people. If there’s something that I can do.”

“A friend of mine has gone missing. She’s been gone for two days now and there’s been no word.”

“Missing? Did she leave town on a trip or something?” It sounded pretty open ended. I wasn’t a detective. Finding a missing person in an unfamiliar land felt like an impossible task for me. Even if it was something that I signed myself up for.

Mrs. Erina shook her head and glanced back over to something on the racks behind the table. “She’s a tanner and sells a lot of her stock to me. But sometimes she’ll get requests from hunting groups for her to join them in the field. If the hunt is too large to bring back or a specific order to fulfill, she would do the skinning for them. She’s not a fighter.”

“Then she got one of these requests a couple days ago?”

“Four days. It was for a two day hunt that was going to require a lot of materials for some new work in the town. They sent out a whole band of craftsmen along with hunters and adventurers.”

This wasn’t sounding good. It made it seem like there was some foul play by someone if she disappeared while in the hunting party. “Did the group return?”

“When I checked, they all did. They even told me that my friend, Welinna, did as well. But she’s not at home. No one’s seen her since she returned. But everyone I talked to from the hunting band told me they all returned safely together.”

‘Either they’re all lying or it’s the truth and something happened to her in town.’ I shifted over the details I already had while trying to organize my thoughts. “How big was the group?”

“Five hunters, ten adventurers and four craftsmen.” A very large group. It was hard to imagine that they were collectively able to kill someone and then get everyone to agree to lie about it. That didn’t feel right.

“You spoke with everyone in the group?” She nodded. “And the Markets? I assume the task was being run through them?”

“Multiple people say that they saw her leave, but after returning she hasn’t been seen since.”

This made it less likely that there was a murder out on the hunt. It could be a big conspiracy, but that seemed like far too many people. But a disappearance within the town made more sense. If there was someone working within there would have been plenty of chances. The town was a maze to me, there had to be dozens of places to hide.

A missing person in the town made me glad that I had a local with me. Eri'Sol should help make talking to people easier. “Did she have any enemies?”

“No, in general there’s enough struggle between demons, monsters and war that unity is needed. So I don’t believe someone had it out for her.”

There were demons, that wasn’t the first I’ve heard of them. The King casually dropped them but didn’t go into details. We were to protect them. Mrs. Erina painted a more complicated picture than I realized. “So you think it was an outside third party.”

“Most likely.”

“Which is why you’re asking me. This could be beyond the scope of the usual adventurer.”

“Yes, will you look into this?”

I crossed my arms not answering immediately. Even as a hero, I was only level 10, whatever that meant in the scope of things and a level 3 priest. Things like demons sounded a little beyond me. Even monsters kicked my teeth in. “I’ll just warn you now, I’m not even a week in your world. If this is beyond my means I’m going to prioritize Eri’s safety. If you can accept that, I’ll take it on.”

“But Minoru is someone’s missing—“

“No, Eri, he’s right. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders. I think if you had just said yes without question, I would have been content. But I’m confident I made the right decision now. Keep her safe. And yourself, some of you heroes can be a little too self-sacrificing for your own good.”

Eri'Sol nodded with acceptance. I’m glad she listened to someone. “I don’t have any intention of dying, but I’ll do my best. Is this an official request through the Markets or something personal?” Being my first probable quest, I hadn’t a clue if there was any sort of protocol that needed to be followed.

“I haven’t issued it to the Markets yet. But since you are one of the heroes I doubt anyone’s going to give you trouble. If it becomes necessary I can submit a formal request for you. But if this is just empty worrying, I don’t want to over complicate matters.”

That was an understandable point of view. People had been more than willing to help me even if I did get a lot of looks. There weren't any signs of discrimination, yet anyway. So she probably was correct that just me asking should be more than enough. “I guess we should start with where she lived and I’ll check the Markets after. I’m going to need your help on this, Eri.”

She bounced forward full energy and ready. “You can count on me! I promise we’ll get you answers!”

“Thank you both, come back if you ever need maintenance or repairs again!”

Accepting the quest and getting directions to Miss Welinna’s home, Eri'Sol and I could set out. It was like a fresh start. I felt as if I had left the starter village and came across the first mission in my journey. Obviously, I couldn’t be treating this like a game or story, but this felt more meaningful now.

It was a little strange. I thought I’d miss home more. Maybe knowing that I died somehow made it easier for me to give it up. But it’d also only been a few days, like a long weekday. Maybe I haven’t given it enough time yet.

But for now I shouldn’t be focusing on that. We had a mystery to dig into. I looked over to Eri'Sol. “Do you know where we need to go?”

“According to Erina, her house is on the west side of town. It’ll be a bit of a walk.”

“Have you met Miss Welinna before?”

“Maybe once. When I started training I spent more time at Erina’s. So I probably saw her, but we never talked.”

There wasn’t a lot to go on right now. A broad description, but without a picture we were just going to have to rely on people to confirm her if she did find her. I wasn’t sure what I hoped this outcome would be. It felt like we were headed down a dark path.

Eventually, Eri'Sol pointed out Miss Welinna’s place as we came around the corner. It looked normal as did the street. But the question was going to be what would we find at her house. Were these demons I just only heard about involved or some sort of smart monster? I braced myself for whatever this quest had ahead for us.