Of Monsters And Magic

4 The First Hun

'Solar coins? I guess that's the currency they use in Elea then...' Steve thought.

'Well, it's not like I have any money! Might as well try and get a quest from this shopkeeper, after all... my profile seems like it came straight out of a game! All these people are just NPC's waiting to give me quests!'

He looked up towards the shopkeeper, put a big smile on his face and asked him, "What would happen right now if I told you I forgot my wallet?"

"I'd have to tell you that--... GUAAAAARDDDSSSS!!!!" the shopkeeper loudly shouted.

"..."

'Do you have to be so harsh?! Can't you just give me a quest...' Steve bawled.

Quite some people in their surroundings stopped in their tracks to watch what was going on.

A few guards swiftly arrived. They were dressed in white robes, which had 3* Apprentice Mage badges pinned on them.

"What's going on here?" The guards asked.

"This guy won't pay for his meal! I bet it's one of those foreign beggars, just look at his clothes! I've never even seen clothes like that before!" The shopkeeper started ranting.

It was only now that Steve realized he was still wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Even worse, he had left his other clothes in the internet café, back on Earth!

He thought that he must be looking quite suspicious indeed... After checking the people in his surroundings, he noticed most people were wearing linen clothing or mage robes. Jeans probably didn't even exist here!

"Traveller, if you are not able to pay for your food, we will have to expulse you from the city! Unless you were to find someone to pay your bail, we have no choice but to throw you out." The guards told Steve.

"Serves him right!" A few spectators shouted.

Under normal circumstances, if someone were to steal food, they would only have to be in jail for a little while.

This rarely happened, as it was actually quite easy to earn some money. All you had to do was do some chores for an Adventurer's Guild. This could go from helping find an old lady's cat, to collect some herbs or even kill some monsters!

Steve, however, looked way too foreign. How could someone not know to do some simple chores to earn some money? The surrounding crowd merely thought of him as a lazy bum that didn't want to do chores. They'd rather see him removed from their city.

Just as they were about to take Steve away, a man halted them.

"Ah come on, he's just a foreigner. He might not have known the rules around here. I'll pay for his meal, just let him go." the man said.

People gave him some strange looks but quickly carried on with their lives as there was nothing left to see.

"Thank you for your kindness, sir," Steve said while still wiping off his sweat, "I didn't realize people were so xenophobic around here..."

"My name is Steve, what would be yours?"

"Haha, don't worry about it. People around here really don't like foreigners is all. I'm a butcher around here, my name is Erwin Whitley. Most people around just call me Butch. Pleased to meet you!"

After chatting for a little while, Steve sincerely started appreciating this old man. He was a very down-to-earth guy who showed Steve around town.

As they came to the Adventurer's Guild, Butch told him he could earn some quick bucks here.

Since Steve still felt quite guilty for letting the old man pay for his meal, he had promised him he'd pay him back shortly.

"I'll do some chores and come find you later when I have some money! Thanks for what you did again, Butch!"

"Anytime. Just don't do foolish stuff like that again and you'll be fine. See you later!" he replied as he started walking away.

---

As he entered the Adventurer's Guild, he saw a bunch of people scurrying around. Some were looking for work, some were looking for people to do a job for them.

"Hello, adventurer! Can I help you?" a girl sweetly asked him from behind a counter.

"Hello, I'm looking for a job to earn some money," he answered.

After looking around to see if nobody was watching him, he whispered "I can't do magic though... Would that be a problem?"

"It's no problem at all! We have quite some jobs for agents, which is what we call adventurers without magic," she replied with a dazzling smile.

"There is a separate board for jobs agents could do, you can find it over there," she pointed at a board.

"I'll also give you an agent badge, which will allow you to enter and leave the town for a mission, without having to pay a fee."

After taking his badge, he thanked the sweet girl and went towards the job posting board.

He quickly put away that agent badge though, as it would make him look like a loser and lose his senior status.

He started looking for a job that fit him.

- Find my lost cat! He's a 5 years old male cat, reward 4 coins -

- Looking for 100 grams of Wild Clary, reward 20 coins -

- Bring me 5 dead rabbits, reward 10 coins -

There were many jobs, but most of this stuff... he hadn't even heard of! How would he even find Wild Clary? He even had trouble recognizing herbs on Earth.

After looking through all the jobs, he decided to go and hunt some rabbits. He used to have a rabbit named Bunny as a kid, so he knew they were pretty easy to catch.

He swiftly accepted the task and couldn't wait to start this hunt. This would be his first job in this new world!

"Be careful not to stay out til it's dark!" the girl reminded him as he walked out of the guild.

---

After returning to the forest, he went off to find some rabbits. They weren't that hard to find! After merely walking around for 10 minutes, he had already found one.

As he approached it, the rabbit heard him and turned towards Steve. Sensing he wanted to catch it, the rabbit started running towards him and bit him in his foot! It then sprinted to a safe distance again.

As his foot started to hurt Steve thought, 'What kind of rabbits are this?! Am I the hunter or are you?!'

'If this continues I'm going to get rabies!'

---

Meanwhile in the city, Butch went into an ordinary looking shop.

"What's up, Butch?" The shopkeeper asked.

Butch looked around carefully, as he didn't want other people hearing him. Even when he saw the coast was clear, he still whispered very softly.

"I think I found another one..."

"... An Earthling..."