Odin had been a mage for quite a while now, but at a lot of things he could still be considered relatively new. One of those things were Quests, since he had only actually started his first Quest when he had arrived in Oak, that being the Quest regarding the Phantasm family and the mason who had been blabbing secrets. This meant that today would mark Odin’s third assignment, a number that was increasing as steadily as his financial situation was, neither of which was bad at all in the young mage’s mind. But despite having only been a mage that did requests for a short time (about three days by this point), Odin did know that sometimes a mage would receive a Quest from a client they had already completed Quests for in the past, like a chain, since they were known to be reliable. This was a normal situation, and in many cases expected given the line of work mages often had to do. What wasn’t, in the young dark mage’s mind at least, a normal situation, was when the target of your previous Quest hired you for a job, with the target of this job being the client of the previous Quest you had undertaken.

And yet, as the dark mage walked once more through the streets of Oak town, getting more and more familiar with the types of people, kinds of shops and all the buildings in the area, that was exactly what he was about to do. He had walked over to the Request board, hoping to find a decent looking request that would pay out well, and he had. There had been a Quest about a large monster terrorising the local Oak countryside, and the taker was to find it and bring it in alive for a scientist (the monster’s creator apparently) to run more tests and make it more dangerous than it currently was. Fighting against a large monster, now that was something that had interested Odin greatly, and he had immediately grabbed that Quest, hoping to get it done before the day was out and allow him to skip his training due to the combat scenario he would face. But then he saw it, at the bottom of the board in almost incomprehensible writing, like it had been written by a child with no knowledge of handwriting or education. But then, it had been hadn’t it. Having only glanced at it for a moment, it had been enough to read the only legible word on the page, no doubt because it was also written three times bigger than the other words. It looked like an attempt at a signature, but the single word itself was more than easily recognised, especially by someone who had met him before: Jerr.

It was then Odin had made the decision to re-post the monster hunt Quest onto the board and take a look at what his young orphaned acquaintance needed doing. The message, once it had been decoded by both Odin’s and Lucifer’s brains, was arranging a meeting at a designated area, ironically exactly where Odin had previously apprehended the young boy during their last encounter. It didn’t take Odin long to find the location once more, and once again the young boy was facing away from him, not seeing his former enemy and his new client as the dark mage simply laughed to get the attention of the now terrified young boy. Turning around and realising who it was that had accepted his Quest didn’t help, as Jerr tensed up after seeing the one who had thrown him against a wall only a few days before. But, the orphan boy knew that Odin was only here for one reason, and that was to complete whatever task Jerr wished the dark mage to complete, which Odin couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at as he was described the details of his newest Quest: a Quest which felt very familiar to the previous one, but from the opposite side of things.

Walking towards the market street of Oak town, hood up as he looked around, Odin knew exactly where he was being sent. The shopkeeper, Darius of ‘Darius Fruits and Vegetables’: the self-same man that had hired Odin to catch Jerr in the first place, was about to receive some sweet revenge from the young orphan. What the young boy wanted was so simple, and yet worked so very well. Odin was tasked to go into the shop owned by Darius, and steal from the man who had once hired Odin to deal with a thief himself. And now that same dark mage had to think of a way to steal from Darius, either without the man knowing or with all the flamboyance of a Phantom Lord guild member, a brainless fool who would simply run in and cause havoc to get the food. That was not Odin’s way, nor was it the way of Grimoire Heart, why else had the dark guild managed to stay hidden away from the public eye, despite being responsible for the destruction of the Etherion weapon, which showed the Ark to the world, but nothing more.

Knowing the right way to go about it, Odin would wait until much later in the evening, and approach Darius as he was closing his shop. Keeping his attention distracted by various other things, Odin would use sleight of hand to steal with key from Darius, before wishing him well and letting him leave. As he walked away, the dark mage opened the door and allowed Jerr to enter freely, taking as much as he could carry before paying Odin his reward for the job. Jerr had the food, and Odin had his pay, it was another mission accomplished. Ignoring the young orphan boy after receiving his pay and heading back to the request board, Odin looked in mild dismay as he saw the blank space on the board where the monster hunt quest had once sat. He might’ve not completed the mission he had planned on that day, but he’d received a decent amount of pay for doing very little, and there were no complaints there.

1032/1000