Roman stood at the front gate of Oak town waiting on someone. Not so long ago he met someone that seemed they could be reliable. He would need to craft a team that he can look to when he goes in search of power. A group of like minded individuals who could hold their own on combat. Or at least be great meat shields. Roman did not care one way or another. He was leaning on the right side of the entrance of oak with his back on the cobble stone like pillar. He was clipping his nails so they looked nice and neat. This person was a female, one who he had met before and interacted with. Roman had kind of grew accustomed to he company so why not keep her around. Maybe he could see what her magic is at some point who knew. The job they took was simple and straight forward. There were some illegal items that needed to be picked up in the woods. This time around Roman was wearing not so nice clothes. They would have to go on a scavenge hunt today. His clothing was some sweat pants, gym shoes and a jacket. Because it was slightly cold outside as winter had already arrived in Fiore. Was not snowing too heavily, at least not yet.

A sort of shroom, that has long since been outlawed for multiple reasons. One of the biggest being the fact people eat them on the regular to get a high unlike any other. A mix of psychedelic power with a sprinkle of darkness on it. However, eat too much of the stuff and you could go to sleep and never wake up from that slumber. Stuck within the reaches of your mind until the end of time. This was merely a rumor that he heard. Of course he was going to try one or two on a day off. So he would make sure to grab a few extras for himself. Thankfully the request had a good idea of what exactly these things looked like. They would have to go rummaging around in the forest to find it however. Roman finished clipping his nails and stood up from the post. He looked around for a moment before speaking.

“Where is she?”

388/1000

Not long ago she met someone by the name ‘Roman’, on a carriage on her way back to Oak Town. She definitely didn’t expect him to be in the same guild as herself, but here she was now preparing to take on a quest with him. The quest was simple, and all she had to be careful of was not to eat the mushrooms they were supposed to find. Being someone who liked to be clean and hygienic, there was no way Bianca was going to put something they found in the woods in her mouth. So she was preparing to go on this quest right now, putting everything she thought they might need in her drawstring bag and dressing appropriately for the woods. Even though she had been in Phantom Lord for a while and practically lived in Oak Town, she had never been to the woods, not even near.

Bianca shoved two water bottles into the bag, some paper towels, a hat that she might need if it was a bit sunny ‘cause it was winter and it wasn’t likely, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared just in case. She put on some repellent lotion that smelled like lavender, and then put on her shoes. It was her running shoes, the most appropriate one to wear into the woods, out of all the footwear she owned. “Oh shit,” she mumbled to herself, noticing that she was late. She had arranged to meet at a certain time and place with her partner, but the preparations took longer than she thought and it was already their meeting time. She still needed time to go all the way to the entrance of the town - which was their arranged meeting place. Throwing everything else she thought they might need into the bag, she rushed out of her room and almost ran before she realised she could hire a carriage.

The carriage ride was very short, of course, but since she was in a hurry Bianca didn’t mind paying a bit to be on time. When she reached the entrance, she hopped off the vehicle, paying the driver and hurrying to where Roman was standing. She could spot him easily since he was much taller than most people - though only a few inches above her - and was blonde. He wore less fancy clothes today though, but she still recognized him. “Hey!” she called out to him, jogging towards him and pulling the drawstrings over her shoulder so that they didn’t fall off.

Roman looked down the street and saw the one known as Bianca. She had just hopped out of a carriage and was making her way over to Roman. She was wearing the appropriate attire granted she took the time to pretty up as any female would. This was common knowledge that women operated on a different time zone from men. Even the most well dressed men could take less time than a female getting ready to go do something. He straightened up his back and dusted himself off. He waved to her as she called out to him. “Well let's get going, we still have to walk a bit before we reach the place.” He did not waste any time because he wanted to get the job done as fast as possible. He turned and began to walk off into the forest, hoping Bianca would be following close behind. “Try to keep up will ya?” Roman would give a slight chuckle as he picked up the pace into the forest. The snow lightly covered the ground so it wouldn't be too hard to find these things. Now if it had been snowing like it would in the mountains it would be damn near impossible to find the things. Not to mention running the risk of them being out of season.

Walking through the forest, there would only be a few animals scurrying around. Some white rabbits trying to get a quick meal. It would not be too long before a fox made it's entrance and began to stalk the rabbit. Roman admire the brutality of nature among other things it had to offer. Only two ways this story would end. The rabbit would get it's meal and get away. Or it would become a fine meal for the fox. Sadly he would not be able to see the story unfold as they had a job to do. It would be roughly five minutes before the two would get to the area they were supposed to be. “Well this is the place, lets get to work shall we?”

739/1000

Roman noticed her and waved at her, saying that they had to walk a bit before they reached the place so they should get going. “Right,” she said with a grin. She was somewhat excited because this was the first job she had ever done with a partner and it was in a forest! Roman was pretty quick on his feet, he didn’t even bother to wait for her and told her to keep up. She figured this was because he was taller and, being a man, naturally had stronger legs. With a tiny pout, Bianca replied saying, “I am keeping up!” as she fastened her pace so that she was walking beside him and not behind him. The forest ground was carpeted by a thin layer of snow. Thank god it wasn’t too much, otherwise she didn’t know how they were going to find the mushrooms since they would all be covered in snow, if they weren’t as tall. She did remember reading that the mushrooms were tall though, so she might not need to worry about the snow covering them at all. Skipping over tree roots and watching some rabbits looking for food probably, Bianca chuckled in amusement.

“Wait isn’t that--?” she started, noticing something moving between the trees on her right that looked very much like a fox. She pressed her lips against each other. The fate of the rabbits had been decided for them, it seemed. She didn’t bother to finish her question, because her job here wasn’t to observe nature. They reached the spot where they would find the mushrooms quite fast. It took them like, what, five minutes? She couldn’t tell since she wasn’t wearing a watch so she didn’t keep track of the time. Roman announced that this was the place, upon arrival to which she nodded, saying, “Nice…” She could see a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms growing from the earth. So now all they had to do was find the exact ones delineated in the job description. She bent down to check for the glowing green spots but she couldn’t exactly find one. She felt a bit dizzy after looking at very distinctly colored mushrooms and stumbled back a little. “Ugh, they’re dizzying to look at,” she groaned. She rubbed her eyes and tried again, squinting and walking around to look for them. The job sheet did say that the glowing green spots were what made them stand out. She could see a lot of spotted mushrooms, just not glowing.

Roman seemed to have gotten lost in his own world as he tried to search for the mushrooms on his own, a bit further from where Bianca was. She decided to think that he preferred to work alone than with others, which was good because this created a nice silence in which Bianca could focus as well, making sure her footsteps were as muted as possible while she looked around. Although it was pretty dizzying to look at all these mushrooms with all sorts of colors, she was able to find them in the end, which made her gasp with delight and reach for the particularly glowing mushrooms and plucking them out of the ground. She then began to collect as many as she thought was necessary, then turned to see that Roman was gone.

“Roman?” she called, looking around but seeing no sign of the large man. If he was still here she was pretty sure she could notice him thanks to his towering height and bright hair, but it seems he was nowhere near her, or even far. “Hm, guess he found them and forgot about me,” she mumbled to herself before gathering her findings and heading back to where she was supposed to turn the mushrooms in.