[Shrubley, the Monster Adventurer] Chapter 89 – New Leaf

Shrubley woke with the dawn as he did every day. The morning sunlight slanting through the broad window pleasantly warmed his leaves. He picked a bed by the window for that very reason.

He had gone long enough without sunlight in that mirror realm. He would not do so again unless it was a necessary part of an adventure.

Smudge snored nearby, a snot bubble growing out of where his nose would ordinarily be.

This will be a good day, Shrubley said to himself.

***

A small goblin adventurer placed his contract onto the counter. He smiled with his oversized, uneven teeth at Sel.

Returning the smile, Sel picked up the paper and looked it over. Seeing that everything was in order, she accepted the goblin’s request and handed back its stained-glass variant. He hurried off, eager to get a start on his courier contract.

Fortunately, this one was safely located within the town’s limits. There would be no wandering off into another dimension for that greenie.

There was more than enough that needed to be done within the borders of Taamra. The Guild could easily supply contracts that were both safe and useful for the new adventurers to cut their teeth on.

As Guild Leader, Sel didn’t strictly need to do the duties of an attendant any longer, but she nevertheless considered it a part of her job, anyway.

At least, when she had the spare time. Until the relief from one of the larger branches in the Outer Ring came to shore up their staff, everybody was wearing multiple hats. Besides, Sel usually liked her old duty.

Usually.

Sel immediately regretted her desk duty when the front doors of the Adventurers Guild burst open. A towering figure cast a long shadow across the many tables and chairs empty of occupants this early in the morning.

The overwhelming pressure of a Steel Ranker filled the space. Sel instinctively shrank back in fear. This wasn’t Jerric, or any of his company. The elf nearly reached for a weapon beneath the counter before she shook herself out of it.

Sel wasn’t alone in her reaction. A few guards who had been placed ever since the attack on Taamra began to draw their weapons until they noticed the shake of her head.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Sel straightened her jacket and rested her hands on the counter, trying to appear competent at her role.

Everybody in Taamra knew Countess Haalften. She had been a fixture in the vicinity since before Taamra was little more than a camp by hardy souls looking to expand the Empire.

The Haalftens and the town had come to an uneasy truce some time ago. In any case, the Countess was a civilized vampyr by all measures, certainly less bloodthirsty than your normal human baron or baroness in the Outer Ring.

The fact that Shrubley would not stop singing her praises did not hurt her reputation either, but seeing her was another matter entirely.

Sel would have thought that the Countess would prefer to retire to her lands, a lauded hero among her people, content to idle there another lifetime or two. Or at least long enough that Sel was old and gray, and most important of all, retired.

The Countess, despite her reputation, did not immediately come to the counter. There was a line of three or four adventurers turning in items. One looked to be a hopeful applicant, judging by their expression.

The closer the Countess came to the front of the line, the more nervous Sel grew. This was an unusual turn of events, all things considered. And for a reason that eluded her, it felt like the calm before a storm.

Sel blinked again at what she saw. Easily topping 8 feet, the Countess literally towered over every soul in the Guild at the moment. The adventurer standing in her shadow seemed to shake from fear, his feet rooted to the spot.

The dark furred oppa, perched on the Countess’ shoulder, eyeing him with scathing judgment, didn’t help things any.

Against all reason and expectation, the Countess queued. She stayed in line, even when the line wasn’t moving. From everything Sel had heard of her, she was imperious and pompous, though with the unfortunate power to back up such rudeness that many took to be part and parcel of being “highborn”.

When the Countess finally reached the front of the line, she leaned in so as not to tower so much over Sel. Still, the younger elf needed to crane her neck back to get a good look at the woman.

“How may the Adventurers Guild help you, Countess?” Sel asked, surprised at how steady her voice was.

Unlike the other Steel Rankers, the Countess was technically a monster. Either she did not exercise self-control to restrict her aura, or she was doing it on purpose.

In either case, it was a horribly oppressive thing. Most people counted that as incredibly rude, bordering on outright hostility.

With enough of a rank disparity, the unchecked aura of a powerful person could literally kill weaker people. It was enough of a problem that people in the Empire, notably those within the Inner Ring, were classified as weapons upon reaching Noble stage.

Sel had done some reading on the matter now that she was a Guild Leader and was expected to know these things. It had been horribly fascinating.

A goblin skeleton lingered nearby. He held a paper in his bony hands, trembling with the effort of patience as he stared, moony-eyed (which was quite the feat given he had blue fires in his empty eye sockets) at the Countess.

“I would like to join the Adventurers Guild,” the Countess said. Her oppa scrambled out of her prodigious cleavage and perched on her shoulder. He looked around at the surroundings with the sort of haughty disdain only a very small, very pampered animal could convey.

Sel nearly swallowed her tongue. “Excuse me, Countess. Did… I hear you right? You wish to join the Guild?”

The Countess raised one manicured eyebrow. “That is what I said, is it not? I take it you are taking all sorts, including monsters, yes? Well, I would say I fit the bill, don’t you?”

Sel had to admit, after everything that Shrubley had told her, the Countess acquitted herself quite well. While Shrubley received the bulk of the credit, it was clear from his earnest recounting that much of the foundation was built upon the Countess’ training and safeguarding.

Had she not protected them that first day, they very likely would have died. Though their training had been cut short, it provided enough of a foundation for Shrubley to master himself when he was painfully separated from his group.

Sel had teared up a number of times hearing that portion of the tale, especially when Cal or Slyrox told it, because the pair could not stop crying.

“Well?” The Countess prompted.

Sel inwardly struggled to find the words to answer the Countess.

“You will need to start as a G-Grade, of course,” Sel managed to say.

“I would expect nothing less,” the Countess told her.

“I… do believe, however, considering the extenuating circumstances, that we can skip your initiation.”

The oppa snorted.

The Countess looked over at the contract board. Then back at Sel. “Are you sure? I do not mind going through the official channels. After all, young Shrubley did.”

Sel folded her hands atop the desk. “Yes, but you were also instrumental in not only helping Shrubley, Cal, Smudge, and Slyrox on their contract, but also in saving Taamra. I believe, in this instance, it is fairly obvious you are more than capable of handling yourself. Besides, you are Steel. It would be unbecoming to test a Steel.”

“It would be rather insulting,” the Countess said, giving her a predatory smile. “I am so glad that we have reached an agreeable arrangement.”

This was part of the process that Sel was intimately familiar with. She had done it dozens of times over the last week and many more in her years as an attendant.

The Countess was a model applicant, answering all questions without hesitation and eagerly using the [Stele] to complete the process. When it was all said and done, Sel handed her a small green badge with a wicked razor-like edge. The Steel border of her G-Grade adventurers badge looked as dangerous as the Countess.

“Thank you, my dear,” the Countess said, pinning it not to her black cloak, but to the band around her large and floppy black hat.

It was only then that Sel realized the Countess had walked through the dawn light to the Guild. A very clear, very deliberate display of her power.

Most vampyrs disappeared into a fiery cloud of ash as soon as even reflected sunlight touched them. The Countess was making a statement.

“Might you know where I could find a certain upstanding little shrub? We have much to discuss.”

Sel frowned. Technically, Miranda–she insisted on using her name now that she was an adventurer–was an adventurer and could ask such questions. Sel didn’t have to tell her, but it would be rude not to.

Besides, Miranda was Shrubley’s… friend?

The little soul shrub certainly appeared to think so, but Sel wasn’t so sure. He thought everybody was his friend, and while that was true of most people nowadays, he had thought it ever since the first day she saw him.

The goblin skeleton shuffled forward, briefly interrupting them to ask Miranda for an autograph, giving Sel enough time to make her decision.

Miranda knelt down, quickly signed the paper, patted the skeleton on the head and turned back to Sel, awaiting her answer.

Sel nodded. If she couldn’t trust Miranda, then she might as well have not let her join. She told her where Shrubley could be found.

The oppa studied Sel with squinty eyed scrutiny.

“Thank you,” Miranda told her with a friendly nod.

The skeleton goblin was dancing in place with three other normal goblins, showing the autograph he had just gotten and gabbling excitedly about it.

Sel was hardly surprised when, as one knot of 4 goblins, they approached her and asked–with surprising politeness–if they too could be adventurers like the hero shrub.

Grinning to herself, Sel got out a stack of plates to begin the process in quadruplicate. She couldn’t help but think that either she would go down as a pioneer for opening the floodgates of goodly monsters joining the Guild or be fired for negligence and rank incompetence.

We’ll know in a month when the Auditors arrive, she thought to herself. Until then, she was more than happy to add to their depleted ranks. They could use all the help they could get.

***

“Do you have everything, Smudge?” Shrubley asked the bouncing slime. He looked after the slime more than anyone else in the group, as he felt responsible for Smudge ever since he found him crying out for help.

“Pyuu!” Smudge replied affirmatively.

“Well then,” Shrubley said to the room that had been his first real home ever since he left the mountains. “I do believe it is time we head out.”

Cal shuffled into the main chamber from his bedroom. “Are you sure we don’t need a different map?”

Shrubley took out the [Magical Map]. “We have already gone over this. It will fill in as we discover more areas.”

“I know,” Cal said, a little nervously. “But it makes my bones fidgety seeing how blank it is. What good is a map if we don’t see where we’re going?”

Shrubley put a gentle hand on the skeleton’s bony arm. “We need no map to guide us, Cal. We are going on an adventure. The map will not tell us where an essence might be found, or where some town in need of our services is.”

Cal opened his mouth to speak, to tell the little shrub that, yes indeed, that is precisely what a map was for, but he didn’t have the heart. Both literally and figuratively.

Shrubley was so sure of himself.

Slyrox padded over. Her new backpack was weighed down with much of their supplies for the journey. It was surprisingly spacious.

A knock at the door drew everybody’s attention.