Chapter 28: 13.1

Previously on Centaurus: The band complete their goblin slaying job and return to town. On the way there they find a bedraggled Kayla and Lily and after some discussion they are made apprentice adventurers to the band. 

Now, Chapter 13:

Ellaria stepped into the Adventurers Guild and paused. An awful lot of people were looking at her, in fact, every adventurer who happened to be in the guild seemed to be looking her way. She narrowed her eyes.

“What are you looking at? Never seen an elf before?”

The adventurers hesitantly turned back to their drinks. 

“Hmpph.” She strode toward the main desk but paused partway. Glancing around to check she wasn’t still being watched she surreptitiously pulled the job for the pack of royal slimes down from the job board then continued onward to the counter.

The clerk was there, that clerk. Ellaria pursed her lips as she stepped up in front of her.

“I’m here to turn in the goblin job.” 

“Oh? Are you the only survivor? How sad, the adventurer life is often so tragic,” said the clerk, clearly faking sympathy.

Ellaria glared at her. “No, my band is perfectly fine thank you. We successfully beat the goblins with no loss of life.”

“Ah, is that so. Hmm.'' The clerk seemed mildly disappointed, although that was difficult to tell with how inexpressive her face was. She pulled out a large book from under the counter and placed it onto the dark wood surface. The thick leather cover was flipped open and perused, the clerk wetting her finger as she turned each page. Ellaria had the vague suspicion that the clerk was doing it at the slowest possible speed that she could manage without being slow enough to cause comment.

“Goblins and hobgoblins threatening the town and waylaying inter-city caravans. A simple enough beginner or amateurs job, very well.”

Ellaria furrowed her brow, she had a distinct memory of the clerk playing up the job as being above the band’s skill level and now she was quite clearly playing it down. This clerk truly had a stick up her butt about Magic Mog.

The clerk fished below the counter and then bought up a green uncut crystal on a leather cord. The crystal refracted hypnotically in the soft light of the room.

“Did you, Band Captain, Ellaria De’loquint the Third of House Starry Oak, along with the registered band Magic Mog, eliminate the goblin and hobgoblin threat you were contracted for?”

Ellaria remained silent for a moment, then she looked directly into the crystal.

“Yes, we took care of the threat, there will be no more armed goblins or hobgoblins attacking the people of this town, or anyone travelling nearby.”

The crystal remained as it was, and then after a moment it flashed blue. 

The clerk looked at it suspiciously, obviously wondering why it had taken so long to change colour.

“If that is as all, I would like the reward please, I did not intend to spend my entire evening here in your ever so wonderful company.”

“...fine.” 

The clerk ducked down and the sound of shuffling and clinking coins filled the air.

Ellaria put the paper for the royal slime job on the counter and casually slid it forward. 

“I would also like to claim this job’s reward.”

The clerk glanced back up at it and snorted dismissively. 

“You are not registered for that job, no one is. If you don't register the job you don't get the reward. Sorry.” The clerk stood and dumped a brown leather purse on the counter that clanked with metal.

Ellaria held up a finger. “That is factually incorrect.”

“No, it’s not. It’s an Adventurers Guild policy. If you unknowingly complete a job then that is your bad fortune and our good luck. The guild is not in the business of handing out money to every schmuck who stumbles on a monster and accidentally squashes it.”

“That policy also has a sub clause that states that any officially designated job from the AG itself is culpable for fifty percent of the reward if done off the books. Third party jobs have their own rules, but this isn’t a third party job, it is an officially sanctioned job from the AG itself, therefore we are eligible for half the reward.”

“This is-

“You of course were perfectly aware of that, you simply chose to conveniently ignore it in the hopes of making life more difficult for unknowing amateur bands because it fulfills your inner desire to make people suffer out of a bitter sense of entitlement over your own failed career as an adventurer. What was it? A faulty Class? Trauma from losing your bandmates?”

For the first time genuine anger crossed the stoney faced clerk’s vizage.

“My personal affairs are none of your concern elf and I suggest you take a step down from your elven high horse, not everyone takes kindly to be talked down to by a snotty knife ears.”

“Nevertheless I want my reward.”

The clerk glared at her but then held up the crystal.

“Did you, Band Captain, Ellaria De’loquint the Third of House Starry Oak,” the clerk spat Ellaria's name, “along with the registered band Magic Mog, eliminate the slime threat described in this contract?”

“We neutralised the problem.”

The crystal flashed blue.

“That is not eliminated, be specific.”

“The king and queen slime and their pack no longer exist.”

Blue again.

The clerk seemed irritated that she hadn't gotten what she was looking for but reached below the counter and angrily stuffed a fistful of coin into the purse already sitting on the counter. She shoved the purse toward Ellaria who smoothly scooped it into her dimensional bag.

“One last thing. That job should have given us enough points with AG to be moved up to silver plate.”

The clerk who had been closing the book jerked and her hand nearly ripped out a page. 

“You? Silver?” 

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“You can look for yourself, the AG will have given you our numbers.”

The clerk slammed the book back open and furiously flipped through it until she found what she was looking for and ran a finger down the page. 

She blinked and then snorted. “Unfortunately for you, no.”

“Wait, what do you mean? Taking care of the goblins should have given us what we needed!”

The clerk held up her index finger and a smug look appeared on her face. “One singular point away from ranking up.”

“What about the slime job? That would have pushed us over easily!”

“Sorry but that’s not how it works. While the AG does reward it as an unofficially completed job, as you so defiantly stated, it doesn't count as points toward your ranking.”

Ellaria rubbed her brow with the side of her finger and frowned. The worst part was she knew the damned clerk was right. If the clerk wasn’t such a jerk she might have been able to convince her to tweak their numbers and push them over to silver. As it was, they were going to be stuck with bronze plate until they got around to completing another job. She had wanted to rank up today, she had ambitions for her band and she was irked that she was being snubbed- wait…

She looked up at the clerk who raised an eyebrow.

“There are other ways to get points apart from jobs.”

“Oh?”

“Yes!” said Ellaria, giving her a winning smile, which on the elf was like being clubbed over the head with her attractiveness. “I happened to take on two apprentice adventures before coming here and while small the AG does reward bands who do such a thing. That will give us the requisite to rank up.”

The green crystal flashed brilliant blue and the clerk scowled.

Ellaria put a uniquely elven smug look on her face and fished the band’s bronze plate from her dimensional bag. She slapped it down on the counter.

“One silver adventurers plate please.” 

The clerk glanced between the plate and the elf and then sighed, her jaded attitude for the job overcoming her irritation with Ellaria.

She pulled up a white wooden box from underneath the counter with difficulty, the box was chained to the floor below with heavy irons. On the lid of the box was an engraving the AG’s logo. The clerk tugged at a slim chain around her neck pulling an intricate key from her cleavage. She took the key and inserted it in a dark keyhole in the side of the box. The box clicked and a clockwork sound came from within, the top of the box then opened of its own volition, separating into separate panels that slid apart smoothly, unfolding like a blooming flower.

The inside was padded with black velvet. A stack of bronze plates was within one partition, in a smaller partition was a number of silver plates, and then separate from that again was a single partition with one dusty gold plate. 

Ellaria raised an eyebrow. “A gold plate?”

“Yes, it came with the box when this branch was setup. Unsurprisingly we have never had cause to use it, gold platers are rare enough, vanishingly rare someone ranks up to gold in a small town out by the mountains like this.”

“Hmm maybe someday. Please, carry on.”

The clerk ran her fingers over the silver plates, rectangular pieces of metal inscribed with the AG’s logo and a warrant of service from the Queen herself. She chose one, probably the one in least perfect condition knowing this clerk, but in the end it was all the same. Across the plate was engraved: Rank of silver of the -AG- by appointment of Her Majesty EXCALIVANIA the Dragon Queen, Dei Gratia Regina ⚜️ 

Ellara bit her lip. She had waited such a long time for this, years and years, longer than she perhaps should have as she had decided to spend her time more academically rather than practically. 

The clerk lifted a glowing crystal stamp from the box and affixed it to a section of the bronze plate that Ellaria had placed on the counter. The glowing gradually brightened as it interacted with the bronze. The clerk left the stamp for the moment and scribbled something in the large book. After about a minute of the stamp getting brighter and brighter she lifted it off the bronze plate and placed it on the silver plate. The light flickered and then seemed to descend into the silver causing it to glow faintly, light rippling across its surface in an almost ghostly manner.

Even the jaded clerk seemed vaguely interested, upgrading to silver was an uncommon event around here. 

At last, the stamp was done and the clerk put it back in the box along with the band’s old bronze plate. She hesitated then reluctantly pushed the silver plate over the counter toward the elf. Ellaria reverently picked it up, the metal warm to the touch, her reflection flashing across the shiny silver surface. 

She glanced around and saw other adventures in the room looking at it. It was pretty obvious who was bronze plate amongst them just judging by the hunger in their eyes. Ranking up for an adventurer was a big deal, and if the band were to go to any of the local adventurers' dives they would have their drinks paid for for the entire night. That would come later though, first she had to show her band, to show off their achievement, perhaps awe the crowd outside and bask in their adoration. Pleasing imaginings of being a Famed Adventurer crossed her mind.

In a mildly blissful state she stepped away from the counter, plate in hands and wandered toward the doors, pushing them casually open as she passed the adventures. One particularly large and bearded man glanced between the job board where the band’s warning had been pinned and the elf, he tilted his head and furrowed his brow, but let her pass without comment. 

Ellaria stepped outside and paused as she saw the size of the crowd, it was far far larger than it had been when they’d arrived at the AG. People were packed building to building, wall to wall, standing shoulder to shoulder. She had apparently wildly underestimated the attraction a giant floating ten foot wide gnome would cause, even now people were still trying to join the crowd and come see the strange spectacle of the noisy storytelling orb.

Well, maybe that was for the best, she could show of her band’s achievement to all the people! This was her chance to bask in their adoration, an adventurer’s glory. She gripped the shiny silver plate and began to lift it into the air, visions of cheering crossing her mind, this, this was going to be-

Flora suddenly stopped her story and gasped aloud. The whole crowd looked up at her.

Ellaria paused, not liking the alarmed look in the gnome’s eye. She lowered the plate a little.

“What is it Flora?”

“It’s coming, oh gods it’s coming out!”

Ellaria furrowed her brow in confusion and lowered the plate some more.

“What’s coming out?

“The slime! I’m going to give birth to the slime right now!!!”

“...What?” she was joking right? She must be joking! Half the goddam town was right here right now! This couldn’t be happening! 

Ellaria’s dreams of basking in the crowd’s adoration for their accomplishment were rapidly disintegrating and crumbling around her shoulders.

Stratothrax-After-Dark

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