Days started passing as the weather got warmer quickly, and it started looking like the rainy season would start soon.

Trevor found that Mr. Tiggles would still wake him up when no one was in the Hero House, and he was often the first one up because of it. He would make sure the cat got fed, and waited for people to trickle in.

Adabelle had been given leave for a few days as a reward for her diligence. She had announced that she was going to spend the time away from everyone in order to catch up on her sleep and books. The woman still emerged to cook breakfast, which was apparently hardwired in her brain now, but other than that and delivering dinner, Trevor did not see her. He found himself missing her sharp wit and company, but gave her the space she craved.

Wayne and Rashie were frequently coming and going. Not on quests, as nothing seemed to call for one, but they hunted monsters in the nearby forest anyway. The dwarf switched off cooking with Trevor every night, and turned out to be a prolific griller. His meals were always much better, usually leading to full plates of several foods, and he would always send the young man off to deliver to Adabelle while he and the shark girl chowed down.

Trevor didn’t mind that.

Still, he didn’t linger. Adabelle deserved her staycation.

During this time, he had started learning the local language so that he could finally get around to reading. It was called Lucern, named after the people of Lucent which was the name of the country he had been summoned to. The letters looked like chicken scratch to him, but Trevor was getting the basics down. He would often study while Drelik was working on his statue.

The elderly dwarf’s efforts were paying off as the statue was starting to look like an actual figure now, sharing some similarities with his previous works. It was still slow going, but Trevor had been warned of that from the get go and he knew he was just there for support.

Trevor continued to stop by Thimbleden’s shop and get deliveries, but nothing quest-worthy appeared until the gnome approached him late one morning with an apologetic grin.

“Good morning, Trevor. I have a favor to ask of you,” he said. “It, well, it does require you to leave the walls, but that also means I’m allowed to make a quest of it.”

The young man paused. Though he had been in Tosa for almost two weeks now, he had still yet to actually leave. There were tales of monsters out there. Weak ones, he knew, but Trevor was not at all combat trained and he knew it.

As if reading his mind, Thimbleden waved his hands. “Please, let me explain a little more before you start looking at me like that.”

“Sorry, Mr. Thimbleden,” Trevor said, scratching his head. “Please, go on.”

“I have an axe that came in for the logging crew’s foreman,” he said, motioning for Trevor to come to the back, and the young man followed. “He needs it so that he can cut down the Firesap trees that are found in the forest. The gremlins destroyed his old one, and this one had to be made on request.”

For the first time in a while, Trevor thought about Denden and Merckle. True to their word, they hadn’t come back to town to make any more messes, but their work still persisted today. The wainwrights would be busy for weeks to come, and the only wagons that still operated in town were those that came in after they had left. They had caused a huge mess, and the young man had thought about telling Jackson about them despite what he had said.

But that was for another time. “Firesap trees?” Trevor asked, his curiosity piqued.

“The wood of Firesap trees is used in a lot of different rituals, such as the one used to make heating stones,” Thimbleden explained. “This area is one of the few places they can grow, so they’re a major export. The axe makes it so they don’t, well, so they don’t explode on contact.”

Trevor blinked. “These trees explode?”

“Without this specially made axe, yes.”

In the back room, the gnome removed the top from a large wooden crate to reveal an immaculately crafted axe. Its blade shone red where the light hit it, despite appearing to be made of pure silver. Trevor could see his own reflection in its polish. The haft was made of a dark wood, almost black, and had golden leaves inlaid near the top.

“This is beautiful,” Trevor said.

“Go ahead and pick it up.”

Doing as instructed, Trevor held it in both hands. It was heavier than he expected it to be, but it still felt good. “This needs to go to the foreman, right?” he asked, and Thimbleden nodded. “He leaves town every morning except weekends, couldn’t you give it to him then?”

“I could, but I’m trying to help you out,” the gnome whispered. “If it’s outside the walls, then it can be a quest. And, because you don’t have a Power that lends towards combat, I can make it a plus one.”

Trevor cocked his head and turned away from the axe to regard Thimbleden curiously. “What’s a quest with a plus one?”

“It means you can invite someone along, and it counts for them, too,” Thimbleden explained patiently. “That’s how the Quest Master does group quests that need a lot of people to complete. One person gets the quest, and invites others along. This one will be you and a plus one. I hear Adabelle is on vacation, but I know both Wayne and Rashie are in town. You could ask one of them.”

“They would probably jump right on this,” Trevor admitted. “They’ve both been waiting for another quest to come their way.”

“So you’ll take it?”

Trevor pursed his lips and looked down at his reflection in the axe again. To his surprise, he didn’t feel very concerned that he would be venturing out of the city walls. This was exactly the sort of thing that he would have felt nervous about in the past, but he was more relaxed than ever.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

He knew that both Wayne and Rashie had been coming back these past couple of days bummed that they weren’t able to track down any monsters. That alone meant it seemed safe to him. She kept saying that there was something, but couldn’t figure out what or where it was.

“Yeah, I’ll take it,” Trevor agreed.

“Excellent, then I’ll throw in a gold piece for both you and your plus one to seal the deal,” Thimbleden said.

“Wow, that much?”

“You deserve it,” Thimbleden said, adjusting his glasses. “And I'm not just saying that. You're making our community a brighter place and you've been a huge help in the shop. You haven't even asked for compensation despite being such a hard worker. This is the least I could do.”

Scratching his head, embarrassed by the praise, Trevor looked away but couldn't help but smile. “Do you have anything that may let me learn Lucern faster? I’ve been meaning to learn, but I feel like it’ll take ages before I get anywhere with it. It'll be better than asking the Quest Master to translate everything, anyway."

“Something to help you learn Lucern faster,” the gnome repeated, crossing his arms and looking towards the floor. Trevor waited patiently, recognizing Thimbleden’s thinking face. “I may have something, I’ll just have to find it. For now, let’s say a gold piece each is the reward, but if I find it in time then I’ll swap it out for the Trinket I may still have. Does that sound like a deal?”

“Yes, sir. You’ve got yourself a deal for sure, Mr. Thimbleden,” Trevor said with a grin, offering his hand which the gnome shook.

[[New Quest! First foray out of Tosa.

Look at that, Trevor’s growing up! Two weeksish and he’s finally taking a step outside. We’re all so proud of his initiative. This is great progress!

But Laric, the orc foreman of the logging crew, does need that axe. Perhaps not immediately, but he will soon, and he’s been jonesing for something hefty to swing. After his last axe was destroyed by fairy curses, the foreman has really been stewing in that pent up aggression. Save him, and his workers, from himself and get yourself that fancy level up you’ve been itching for!]]

“Did you need anything else today, sir?” Trevor asked after reading through the quest screen. The axe disappeared into his inventory.

Thimbleden shook his head. “I do not, so you’re free to head on your way.”

“Good, I should be able to get back to the Hero House before Wayne and Rashie head off for the day,” the young man said as he started heading for the door.

Once he was outside, he activated the Horn of Swift Heroics to boost his Speed stat by 2 and started running. The clouds that were coming in were starting to darken, and Trevor thought he might just get to witness his first storm in this world. It still got cold enough at night that he could cozy up in front of the fireplace, and the thought of rain hitting the roof while the fire crackled was a nice one.

Perhaps a bit lonely, he felt, but nice.

As he had hoped, the two adventurers hadn’t left yet. Rashie stood in front of the Hero House and stared up at the sky. While she had shown a fondness for frilly dresses, the shark girl was wearing custom-made light leather armor today, which was her go to when it came to adventuring. Wayne was nowhere to be seen, and she didn’t react when he approached.

“Hey, Rashie, what are you up to?” he asked.

“Waiting for the sky water to start falling,” she responded. He noticed that she wasn’t blinking, just staring.

“So it is going to rain today? I thought the clouds were starting to look pretty heavy.”

Rashie nodded. “Few hours, I think,” she said cheerfully. “And I’m going to be ready for it when it does.”

“I’m actually about to head out into the forest to where the loggers are, and I was wondering if you or Wayne wanted to come with me.”

“Wayne won’t want to go, he doesn’t like getting his beard wet,” Rashie claimed. “Or something. I stopped paying attention when he said he didn’t like getting wet.”

“So you’ll come?” Trevor asked, raising an eyebrow. “Or does staring at the sky sound like more fun?”

The shark girl paused as if considering it, and he saw her eyes narrow before she shook her head and looked back at him. She gave him a grin that showed off all of her teeth.

“We can go, but let’s tell Wayne first!” Trevor smiled as he watched Rashie run towards the Hero House and throw the door open. “Wayne! I’m going with Trevor to the forest!”

“It’s for a quest, with a plus one,” he told her.

“It’s for a quest! I’m going to be a plus one!” Rashie repeated.

“Can it wait until tomorrow?” Trevor heard Wayne ask. “I only need a couple more quests to level up again.”

Rashie turned to look at Trevor, who shook his head, before she looked back into the building. “No! Too slow, old man!”

Cackling, she slammed the door and started running. Rashie grabbed the young man’s hand and started pulling him along. Despite being so short, she was much faster than he was, though she was at least kind enough to slow down. By the time Wayne started shouting after them, they were already turning the corner and out of sight.

“I only have a couple of quests to go, too,” Rashie said as she led him through the streets. “So the moment he showed weakness, I had to strike!”

“He’s not going to be mad at you, is he?” Trevor asked, looking back. There was no sign of Wayne following, at least.

“Nah, it’s first come first serve in this household,” she said. “The first fish gets the early worm, as they say.”

“Do they, now,” Trevor said with a small smile.

“They do, and I already accepted the quest,” Rashie confirmed with a confident nod. Then she paused, causing Trevor to nearly run her over, and turned to face him. She pointed at his shoulders. “Walking slow is hard, can I ride up there?”

“Like you do with Wayne?” he asked.

Rashie nodded vigorously. “I like being tall. Addymanatine doesn’t let me do it anymore because I grabbed her horns too much, but I’ll behave, I promise.”

“I don’t know,” Trevor said slowly, raising his hand to his chin. “Should I allow it?”

“Yes!” she said immediately.

“But should I really, though?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm, tough choice.” Once Rashie looked like she was going to start pouting, he nodded and reached down to pick her up. She giggled as Trevor put her on his shoulders, and her webbed hands grabbed his thick hair. He winced, thinking that it might be time for a haircut. “Careful with that, okay?”

“Sorry,” she said, loosening her grip.

Trevor pulled his PathGuider 5000 out of his inventory space so that it was already in place around his eyes and started moving. The green arrows pointed towards and over the wall, causing the young man to shake his head.

“Over the wall? Really?”

It slowly shifted towards the nearest gate to the north of Tosa, and he started heading that way with an amused chuckle.

“Onward, to adventure!” Rashie cried out.

“To adventure!” Trevor repeated, picking up his pace to a light jog.

They were out of the town in no time.