[QUEST COMPLETE: TAKE MARTHA TO CLEARBROOK VILLAGE]
[REWARD: 5 SILVER, 25 EXP]
[Martha's Love: 0 → 2]
[NOTE: SHE THINKS YOU'RE OK. FOR HER, THAT'S A LOT OF PRAISE.]
Rick read the message. Two points of love for three hours of carrying bags and listening to people complain. It was a real pain in his ass.
Rick started the long walk back to Thornwick, and Sebastian said, "Well, that was sad for only twenty-five points for experience."
"If you keep going this fast, you'll get to level ten in the next hundred years."
Rick said in his defense, "It was a safe quest, so it was good for people just starting out."
"Safe, boring, and not very useful at all. You have to take real risks to really learn."
"Fighting quests, going into dungeons, and other times when you could die. These will help you learn a lot more, especially if you're doing them with a woman who meets the requirements."
Rick thought about that as he walked. The escort quest was very boring, but it was safe.
There were no monsters or threats, just walking and listening. But Sebastian was correct. He had to do harder quests if he wanted to level up at a good speed.
The problem was that he had never been in a fight before. He would die in minutes if he tried to fight anything on his own.
Rick got back to Thornwick in the late afternoon. He went back to the guild hall and headed straight to the quest board.
He was looking for something more exciting than gathering herbs or helping people get to their destinations. He saw something in the middle of the board that caught his eye.
[Clear Hollowsade Cave in Dungeon Quest]
[RANK: E]
[DESCRIPTION: SLIME INFESTATION IN A CAVE SYSTEM NEARBY. Kill all the bad creatures and get five slime cores.]
[PRIZE: 20 SILVER, +100 EXP]
[NEED: 2 OR MORE ADVENTURERS]
[NOTE: IT IS BEST TO HAVE MAGE SUPPORT]
Rick took down the post and brought it to Miraya's desk. She stopped working and smiled. "Back again? What happened with the escort quest?"
Rick said, "Martha is scary, and her bag is heavier than I am, but we made it safely. Anyway, I want to do this quest."
Miraya took the post, and her face changed to show concern. "Rick, this is a quest with an E rank. You signed up just yesterday. Are you sure you're ready to explore the dungeon?"
Rick said, "Probably not. But I need the experience, and the reward is a lot better than F-rank quests. Additionally, this quest requires two people, so I won't be going alone."
"Do you have a friend?"
"Not yet."
Miraya bit her lip, obviously torn between sticking to the rules and letting a new adventurer take on too much. "I can't really stop you from taking E-rank quests. But I really think you should get more experience first."
Rick said, "Thanks for your concern. But I have to do this. Is anyone looking for a party member to go on dungeon runs with?"
Miraya sighed and took out a notebook. "One person has been searching for a partner for the Hollowshade quest for three days now. But no one wants to go to a party with her."
"Why not?"
"Because she's Natasha Ravenscar, and people say she's very hard to work with."
"How hard?"
"Four different adventurers have quit in the middle of a quest because they would rather not work with her again. One of them made a formal complaint about how she acted. She's a talented mage, maybe even one of the best in town, but her personality is terrible."
Sebastian appeared with a sparkle of excitement. "Oh, this sounds wonderful. Please tell me more."
"Tell me more about her." Rick crossed his arms.
Miraya went on, "She's 35 years old, excellent at fire and ice magic, and doesn't like people at all."
"She speaks only when necessary, frequently raises her voice at others, and appears to lack patience for errors. But she has never failed a mission in two years and always finishes every quest perfectly."
[IDENTIFIED POTENTIAL TARGET: NATASHA RAVENSCAR, 35 YEARS OLD]
[ESTIMATED LOVE POTENTIAL: VERY HIGH]
[DIFFICULTY RATING: EXTREME]
[WARNING: COLD PERSONALITY TYPES GIVE YOU A LOT OF EXPERIENCE BUT MAKE YOU MUCH MORE LIKELY TO DIE]
Rick said, "I'll take her as my party member," before his common sense could stop him.
Miraya's eyes got bigger. "Are you absolutely sure? She's going to make your life hard."
Rick said, "I'm already miserable. At least this way I'll learn something while I'm in pain."
"I can't argue with your logic, but it's bad." Miraya wrote something down in her ledger. "Natasha usually stops by around this time to see if there are any party requests."
"She should be here shortly. I'll tell her that you want to work with her on the Hollowshade quest."
Rick thanked her and went to a table close by to wait. Sebastian floated next to him, almost shaking with excitement.
"This is excellent," the tiny butler said. "Cold, anti-social mature women provide the highest experience multipliers."
"Their emotional walls are so high that breaking through them results in massive affection gains. Of course, most people fail because they either give up or die trying."
"You're really selling this," Rick muttered.
"I'm being realistic. Natasha Ravenscar is going to test you in every possible way."
"She'll criticize your combat ability, question your intelligence, and probably tell you to leave her alone multiple times. But if you can earn even a single affection point from her, the experience gain will be substantial."
"How substantial?"
"A normal interaction with a level six affection bond gives you maybe five to ten experience points. A single positive interaction with someone like Natasha at affection level one could give you fifty. The multiplier increases exponentially with her personality type."
Rick absorbed that information. High risk, high reward. Story of his new life.
The guild hall doors opened, and the atmosphere immediately shifted. Conversations quieted as a woman entered, and Rick understood why Natasha had such a fearsome reputation the moment he saw her.
She was beautiful in a cold, untouchable way. She has a long black hair fell straight down her back, and her eyes were a striking ice blue that seemed to look through people rather than at them.
She wore dark mage robes that hugged her figure, and she carried a staff made of what looked like crystallized ice. Her expression was set in a permanent scowl, and she radiated an aura of absolute don't-talk-to-me energy.
She was also clearly in her mid-thirties, with the kind of mature confidence that came from years of experience and zero tolerance for nonsense. "Oh my god..."