“We really need to find some better way to kill frogs.”
“Toads, Celestia.”
We were currently on our way back from Celestia’s particularly long visit to the bathhouse. I took the extra time to read the rest of the section in Fluttershy’s book on toads, and by the sounds of it, almost nopony aside from the two of us would have screwed up frogs and toads. You’d think Maud or somepony else would have stopped us and said, I don’t know, ‘Hey! You seem kind of under-equipped to fight toads! Maybe you should grab some armor!’
I can’t personally get too upset at Celestia for the screwup, since I wasn’t the one who nearly wound up as a toad treat, but still.
Stepping back into the guild, Celestia and I walked right up to Maud’s counter.
“Oh, hey, it’s you guys. Gotta say, pretty impressive taking a toad quest so early on.” She looked down at a card on her desk. “How’d you manage to take one of them down?”
I gave Maud an odd look. “How’d you know we took one down?”
Maud looked back at me, and raised an eyebrow. “Magical quest sheet? You two really must be new to adventuring.”
I looked at the countertop to see a more complete version of the card we had picked off the floor earlier that afternoon on a fresh sheet of paper.
BY ISSUE OF THE CITY OF PASTELBURG
BOUNTY- 5 GIANT TOADS
REWARD- PER TOAD: 50 BITS
UPON COMPLETION- AN ADDITIONAL 1000 BITS
DIFFICULTY- EXPERIENCED
STATUS- 1 / 5 SLAIN
Well, that makes ONE of my guesses right. What kind of a difficulty level is “experienced” anyways!?
Not complaining about the payout increase, though. If all the toads are THAT hard, at least 1000 bits would be some actual compensation.
“So how’d you do it?” Maud asked again, after placing a bag of bits on the counter.
I looked at Celestia, who shook her head.
“Uh, it’s a secret?”
“If you say so.”
I thought back on what I had read about toads. Surely we’d stand a better chance if we got some armor!
“Do you have any armor for rent?”
Surely any place that has such a generous sword rental policy would have an equally generous armor renting one, right?
“Not at the moment, no.”
Drat.
Soon Celestia and I found ourselves ordering our second meal in this world (Well, Celestia’s second in a while, technically). I opted to try the daisy sandwich with some strawberries, so at least if the sandwich was a total flop I could at least have something I knew was edible.
While we waited for our order, I struck up the topic of finishing the quest to Celestia.
Although I wouldn’t have been too against leaving the quest if it only gave a sum of 350 bits, it was hard to deny the value of an entire 1250 bits quest. If we keep up our food spending average, that would easily pay for well over two months of meals, but more importantly, it could let us get at least some better equipment.
“I definitely think we need more party members. I know it was rough, but we’ll get a LOT more for completing this one quest than completing something easy, like a walk in the woods. Remember, Fluttershy said she had posted her quest for 20 bits, and it still took us a few hours! Armor would help, but I doubt we can afford a set of it right now, much less two.”
Celestia glanced around the room. “I suppose it could be a good idea. I really hope we have a better plan than last time, though.” She shuddered a bit.
“Relax! Remember how many adventurers were here last night? Even if we’re new to adventuring, we shouldn’t have any problem finding somepony who wants to help with the quest!”
“Didn’t you find that quest paper on the floor?”
I blanched. I guess this sort of quest must be understandably unpopular if it had been in such a state of neglect when we had found it.
“Well, it can’t hurt to ask!”
“Well, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it.”
Celestia and I had sat through the entire dinner rush in the guild hall, with not one pony approaching the entire time. At least we had seen several stage shows since we got here in the afternoon. I have to give props to them for using the stage for entertainment, but the shows were a bit of a mixed bag.
While the music acts were pretty good towards lunch and dinner times, some foals attempted an acting production that seemed more like a practice session, followed by a magician whose act probably would have had more impact if she wasn’t performing to a near empty hall in the lull of the afternoon.
While I had seen quite a few adventurers check out the board, not a single one had bothered to come towards our table the whole time we had been here.
The small flyer we had posted on the corkboard was fairly simple.
IMMEDIATE-
Party in need of additional members!
Party currently consists of:
Level 1 Adventurer
Level 1 Arch Solar Priestess
Party is only available with both members!
Any prospective adventurers welcome!
Feel free to look for us in the hall
to join or recruit us!
Below this was a surprisingly well-drawn picture of Celestia and I’s heads she had drawn with colored pencils. I guess drawing must have been a hobby of hers.
I had originally thought to try to limit who could ask, since I was worried Celestia’s high-tier job would have made her too in-demand, but with the way things were going, I’m glad I hadn’t made them even less likely to show up.
Of course, by refusing to split up, we may not have been able to join a high-tier and low-tier party separately… Most parties in need of an arch priest probably don’t want an adventurer, but I really don’t think it’s a good idea to split up after one day here. Besides, they could see me as a potential investment! Or deadweight.
Experience is still experience either way, though!
Seeing as how we had been here the entire afternoon, I was ready to throw in the towel for today. If we get here early enough tomorrow, we might be able to get some of the easy quests before some scumbag nabs them all.
All we need now is to beat the hardest enemy so far in our journey– Waking up early.
“I have seen your notice of recruitment, and in your time of dire need, you may count yourself lucky!”
A voice had sounded from behind me right as I was planning on leaving.
“Such a party is in dire need of somepony as overqualified as I!”
Turning around, I saw the magician who was on stage to a near empty crowd in the afternoon. Although I will admit I hadn’t really been paying much attention to her show, I recognized her blue coat, and more strikingly, her purple, starry hat and cape. Actually, I wasn’t sure if she was a pegasus or a unicorn at this point, seeing as how she has yet to take off either.
“That we shall meet is surely the providence of the stars themselves! A party such as yourselves, wishing to the sky above for a truly great and powerful ally! One capable of casting the equally great and powerful magic known only to the most select few! Explosion! The most feared, deadly and destructive spell in all of Equestria!”
Saying this, she flicked her cape back, causing it to billow slightly for a moment.
So, a mage in this town knows the most powerful spell, and wants to join our party immediately. Sure! That’s totally believable. Maybe she already beat the Chaos Lord, too!
No, this pony sounded less like a benevolent and wise wizard, and more like a middle-schooler trying to impress her friends, despite looking around my age.
“If you wish to make all your quests as simple as they get, you cannot go wrong recruiting one as powerful and gre–” The mare collapsed to the floor.
Celestia was first to rush to her side. “Are you injured? I have healing magic if you need it.”
The mare’s stomach growled. “The great and powerful Trixie requires food. I haven’t eaten in a few days…”
And so the mare took a seat next to Celestia and promptly ordered an entire plate of peanut butter and crackers.
I noticed the mare used telekinesis to eat her meal. I guess that made it fairly clear which sort of pony she was.
“So… you’re a unicorn?”
The mare seemed indignant. “That seems an odd thing to note. But you would be underselling it! The great and powerful Trixie hails from the faraway, yet Equestria-famous Crimson Alicorn clan!”
“What’s a “crimson” alicorn? You seem more blue to me.”
Trixie seemed absolutely flabbergasted at this statement. I looked over to Celestia only to see her sneaking a cracker. She gave a shrug before taking a bite.
“You’ve never heard of the Crimson Alicorn clan?”
“Should I have?”
The mare’s mouth curved from a frown into a slight smirk.
“The Crimson Alicorn clan, is of course, as the name could so-obviously inform you, the most powerful alicorns in all of Equestria!”
Celestia seemed to choke on the cracker a bit.
“This is why I wear my hat and cloak, to protect my identity!”
“You’re being awfully loud for somepony trying to mention something that’s supposed to be a secret.”
“Well, uh… Hey! Hooves off the cloak!”
Celestia had taken a moment to lift the side of Trixie’s cape, revealing…
No wings.
“Uh… Oh, no! Some dreaded wing-snatcher must have stolen my wings in the night! Whatever shall I do?”
I gave her an unamused look.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’m not an alicorn. Happy? It’s not every day I meet someone who has never heard of the Crimson Alicorns, and I play it up sometimes. It adds to–” she waved a hoof, leaving a small sparkling trail in the air “ –the mystique!”
“So what is a ‘crimson alicorn’ anyways?”
“The Crimson Alicorn clan is renowned throughout Equestria for their exceptionally high magical potential! Don’t believe me?” She held out a deck of cards, with an adventurer’s card sitting obviously in the middle. “Pick a card, any card!”
I grabbed one of the smaller cards. This seemed to annoy Trixie, as she laid the cards down on the table and pointed a hoof at her adventurer’s card.
While most of the stats weren’t particularly impressive, the magic stat was impressively high. Her class was the high rank Archmagician, and she was already at level six, but…
“Why do you know so few spells?”
“The path to learning Explosion is a grueling and daunting one! With all of the effort to learn it, I simply have not been able to learn almost anything else!”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”
I’m sure she’d pick up some other spells as she leveled up.
Right?