"I know the money's good, but why the fuck can't I get something a little more interesting than a search and rescue for a fucking plant?"

This exclamation was but one of a great number that escaped the young, olive haired mage as he ascended up the mountains of Oak town, after accepting his third Quest from the enigmatic Doctor: Stephan Mabuz. The first two hadn't been that bad compared to this one: the first having been a fun experiment to hex various people in Oak town and report back on the utility of the hexes. That had gone down a treat with the chaos loving Odin, who had found the best subjects with which to test the hexes on, even if one of them hadn't worked as well as desired or expected. The second had been just like this current Quest: looking for a plant on the outskirt of Oak town, although it had been a mushroom last time so technically a fungus as opposed to a plant, but also he had been in the company of his guild mate, Nastasya Crowe, or Shadow, which had made the entire thing go more smoothly and a lot quicker. This time, it seemed he had no such luck.

This whole thing really started maybe around 2 hours previously, when Odin received a letter in the main square of Oak from the doctor himself, requesting his presence at the man's unassuming shop, which he used as a cover to hide his black market dealings. After arriving at the shop, Odin realised how strange it actually was, having detected the same odd smell he had noticed every time he had entered, despite not having said anything. Whatever the doctor was up to, it was either not Odin's place to know, or maybe Stephan Mabuz just didn't notice it himself after all his time surrounded by it. Regardless, the doctor's request was simple: journey towards the mountains on the outskirts of Oak town and find an 'extremely dark green leafy fern', and bring it back to the shop. He noted that he had only asked Odin to come because it was very likely he'd need more of these than just the one the Grimoire Heart mage was recovering, but the fern took a few days to regrow after being taken, so Nastasya would no doubt be sent after another one after a few days, but today Odin would be alone, not that he particularly cared. A mission was a mission, and it mattered little to him whether he did the mission alone or with anyone.

After leaving the shop, his objective secured in his mind and his destination set, Odin began his long trek through towards the edge of the town, before continuing on into the forests, having been told the path to take by Dr. Mabuz. It started off easily enough: the path was a long straight road through the forests and no animals neither came to greet Odin nor did they turn hostile and attack, it was almost a peaceful walk, until the path changed almost instantly. It started with a single turn, which was no issue whatsoever to the dark mage obviously, but then there were more twists and turns, and the path began to steepen, starting to incline upwards to signify that Odin was getting closer and closer to the top of the mountains, and his destination.

That was where the curses began to start.

The path not only steepened a little to make it an uphill walk, it effectively went vertical, requiring some adept rock climbing skills that Odin didn't really possess, although he was a quick learner, and had to be in his current situation. One wrong move, one slips up, and he'd plummet to his untimely death, which would've just been pathetic for both him and Lucifer, the demon within. The great Odin Morningstar, scourge of the land, with the demon Prince of Darkness within his soul, killed from a drop outside of Oak town, it's not the way the dark mage was planning on going, so he had to make sure it wasn't.

After about an hour of solid climbing, and a great many more curses echoing the side of the mountains, Odin reached the summit, and instantly the plant caught his eye. It had seemed that Mabuz had been right when he had said it couldn't be missed, it was the only colour in an otherwise brown landscape up that high, it stood out very nicely to the dark mage, who quite refreshingly walked over to collect the fern, stretching his legs and then sitting down to have a quick rest before making the journey back towards Oak town.

The journey back down the mountains wasn't nearly as difficult as the journey up, which was to be expected. From his high vantage point, Odin could clearly see where the town was, and simply walked in that direction, ignoring the paths that were full of twists and turns and just generally annoying. Bird's flew in straight lines to their destinations, so Odin thought he'd be quicker doing that, and naturally he was right, arriving in Oak town about 30 minutes after leaving the mountain's summit, which meant he made it back to Mabuz's house quicker than expected, which made his client happy, an emotion one normally wouldn't associate with someone like Dr. Stephan Mabuz, but Odin wasn't going to complain, as he received his reward and headed back to the Swineherd, his entire body aching all over. After a good night's rest, Odin woke feeling stronger than before. Not in terms of his base strength, but the trek up the mountains had taken so much effort that he now felt he could last longer, his endurance had increased by a noticeable amount, not to mention the sleep he had in the Swineherd Pub had, with no equal, been one of the best sleeps he had had in a long time.

1020/1000