In a way, life was moving forward. Velasteros had a job. Which was a wonderful experience!
Working for the library was perhaps the only basic human job Velasteros would have found any joy in. That didn’t mean it was easy. The human scorpion kept a notepad on her at all times, a gift from the head librarian. It was used to keep track of everything.
Row five, letter A… Wait, is this an exception or?
Velasteros double checked her notes to figure out where the ‘Adventures of Jolly Jefferson’ was supposed to be placed. Her memory was quickly becoming an issue. An urge to learn and a job that required memorisation were the ingredients for a painful mental burden.
Hate and sadness tried to get her to stop, but joy kept cheering her on. Not to mention, the determination to go down the path completely antithetical to her past life.
Finally, she found the place and used the stool to place the book right into the shelf. Taking a big sigh of relief, Velasteros stepped back down.
“Everything okay, Valmyst?” Mrs Tonight walked up the stairs to the floor where Valmyst was still busy sorting. The middle-aged lady had her hair tied back in a glorious bun with layers and decorative elements that Velasteros had no comprehension of how it was even possible to style hair like that.
Argh! I can’t be causing trouble!
“Sorry for taking so long.” Velasteros politely bowed.
“It’s alright, you are working here to learn anyway.” Mrs Tonight smiled after making sure everything was alright. The surprise new employee wasn’t what she was expecting when she came into work this week. But when the headmistress of the library told her they got a new recruit who was accepting basically nothing for work, she couldn’t exactly deny the assistance.
Mrs Tonight tonight first thought that Valmyst must be crazy or trying to steal books, but after a quick chat, that delusion was quickly thrown out the window, and she understood why Madam Heart hired the young girl. A bibliophile in the making or already there. The library wasn’t doing badly in the financial area, but it wasn’t doing great enough to hire someone else full-time. Tonight felt a bit bad about abusing Valmyst’s limited time, but the girl had told them she was looking for other work and was going to be working with an adventurer later.
“No… I need to get faster.” Velasteros pumped her arms with determination. She was going to do her very best when working with Catcher later, as she needed to level up even more.
“Okay, just don’t overwork yourself.”
“I will do my best.” Velasteros nodded and moved down the aisle to where she needed to add more books.
It was very much a miracle that the scorpion's loud announcement asking for a job actually succeeded. When she spoke to Madam Heart, who was the lady she spoke to when she was dazed, the woman didn’t believe her and asked if she was willing to work without pay. Velasteros, without any thought, immediately said yes, which certainly wasn’t the correct response.
Madam Heart had to spend the next few meetings calming the girl down and properly explaining how a job worked. Then, explaining they really couldn’t hire another worker at this point, but Velasteros really wasn’t backing down. Which led to this arrangement.
Working for below average pay. Made up for the fact that it wasn’t a hard job and that the scorpion had free rein over all the books in her many breaks.
Wandering through the library's walls delighted the scorpion's heart. One day, she was going to read every book in this place, and she wasn’t even going to stop, even if it killed her! However, there was another urge exploring Madam Heart's carefully built majesty.
If only I could go inside the ring, then I could build my very own library inside it.
Technically speaking, the scorpion knew it could still do that. Put the shelves in, and instead of the items in the ring being in piles, she could make it nice and neat. That would solve some of the problems, but it lacked something.
The ability for her to stand around her collection. To prove that it was hers.
Am I just being silly about this?
The scorpion’s dilemma was plaguing her mind for a while. If she just decided that it didn’t matter, then she could start full force to create her own pocket library within her ring. No eyes on it, and she could continue to add to it for as long as she wanted.
I should just hurry up… I need to visit Catcher later.
Velasteros told herself to refocus on her work as she didn’t want to be late for the meeting with Catcher later.
“Look who’s arrived right on time.” Catcher waved. He sat on a chair in front of the guild they’d organised to meet up at.
“Sorry. I couldn’t complete my work fast enough.”
“No problem, you arrived on time.” Catcher laughed away her worry. “You will find that some places have a ‘time’ to arrive that differs from what is agreed upon. Damn, there is a city far west, Westport. I know, silly name, don’t get me started. Anyway, if someone who lived there said to meet up at nine, you'd better be there at six. Awful experience.” He let out a long sigh. “Not a problem here, as said, don’t worry.” He stood up and gestured to Velasteros to go inside.
The first part of today’s adventure was bureaucracy.
A continuation from last time, Catcher taught her how to interact with the guild to accept a request. There were methods of bringing the reward in first, then accepting the quest for the reward, but that had complications. Worst case, the reward could be denied. This was especially common in requests that didn’t require or want the material of the monster slain.
Catcher showed how to apply for a request as a group, and once all that was done, the duo finally left the building and left the city to complete the mission.
“Sandcrocs?”
“Baby Sandcrocs, adults would be something I wouldn’t recommend to a greenhorn like yourself. But adults aren’t in the area this time of year, and the young are left to fend for themselves. However, waiting for them to grow up leads to many problems, so when a group is found, they are reported quickly.”
“I see.”
The duo travelled far out of the city to a small sandy plain.
This sure fits the habit of a monster that is called Sandcroc.
“So, what do we do?”
Catcher smirked. “Here is what you need to know about Sandcrocs.”
He gave Valmyst the details. Sandcrocs could stay hidden under the sand for hours without moving. However, they could be tricked into surfacing if they thought prey was above them. Technically, walking into the sand, but that resulted in missing legs more often than not.
Catcher then skipped a stone across the sand, which disturbed the crocs. “Okay, now try to use your shield to grab their attention.”
Valmyst frowned, but with her abilities, that was the best she could do.
She jumped into the fray. Not directly in the sand since there was a non-zero chance there was still more hidden, but on the edge, and she prepared her magic.
“Craa!” A Sandcrocs growled and snapped as it charged at the human.
The scorpion stood in position. [Barrier] [Reinforce] both activated, and a poor Sandcrocs, unable to break through. The moment it tried to escape, she used [Force Pull], which pulled it back to her shield.
I am just a target… I need to figure out how to use these on other people…
Honestly, she didn’t mind being a ‘target dummy’ too much, but she felt underutilised.
Catcher watched for a moment. Judging how she dealt with stressful situations. The crocs were way weaker than their parents, but they were still a metre long and deadly. However, Valmyst stayed calm, if not a little annoyed. He already checked the sand, and now the final croc emerged. He jumped out of the hiding spot and quickly used a sword to cut down all the monsters.
Valmyst paused as she didn’t expect that to happen so fast.
Once they all died, he threw their bodies out of the sand onto the rocky landforms next to the sand pits.
Dusting his hands clean with a clap. “Congrats, you did a wonderful job out there.”
“Thank you for your assistance and advice.” She did appreciate the tips he gave on how to safely trigger the monster’s annexation, and he gave plenty of tips on the road.
“Good, we can go back and get a punch.” He turned back and forth between the prey and Valmyst. “I think next time, we can have you try to go on a mission with more people.”
“Pardon?” Training was about to get a lot less fun.