Chương 20: 18. Boar, Bread, Filler

Adam awoke early, staring up at the ceiling. He hopped out of bed, dropped into a deep squat.

"Today. Today I'm killing all the boars." He leapt up to stretch out his legs and swung around his arms.

"All the boars!" He made his way down, seeing Jurot eating. They exchanged light greetings, with Adam quietly eating breakfast.

"Look at them, going on a quest again," came the voice of an adventurer.

"Trying to show us up."

"Too young, too eager." Adam ignored them, and Jurot only glanced over in their general way, causing them to quieten.

"How many boars should we slay today?" Adam asked.

"At least four," Jurot replied.

"Let's get to it." The pair went out, leading the porters to the bakery.

"Is it your turn to pay?" Adam asked. Jurot nodded.

"I will pay."

"Good morning, Jurot, Adam," Pam said.

"Off to work today?"

"We are, we are," Adam said, glancing to Jurot for a moment. Jurot motioned to a few pieces of bread, slightly more expensive than typical bread, before heading out with Nobby and the cousins. He didn't say much to Pam, who waved at them as they left.

'I need to do something to help,' Adam thought. With the pair of them barely meeting, only for a few seconds at a time for bread, nothing would happen.

'What am I to do, what am I do to?' However, his focus quickly turned to Nobby and the cousins.

"How's your father?" Adam asked.

"Sick," Nobby replied back simply.

"Then let's work hard today." Adam reached over and pat Nobby's shoulders. He eventually walked over to Jurot.

"What do you think? How much are we paying them?"

"You can decide." Jurot didn't care too much as long as he made a few gold. With him working so much, he was making enough gold to send back to the Iyr, enough to bring him honour to his family's name.

"We'll call it a gold for each head, and if we do get a fourth boar, an additional gold?" Jurot nodded his head. It was more than a fair price, and since they were aiming to get four boars, it was good to incentivise that. Jurot led them forward, using his expertise of the past week to find some boars for them to slay. They had become so used to slaying the boars now, that they managed to kill the boars with the assistance of several javelins, then a single moment of Jurot fighting it in close combat.

A third and fourth boar were quickly found and slain, allowing them to return quickly to the Adventurer's Guild that day. Victory! Boars +50XP XP 610 -> 660 Quest Complete Boar Hunting XP Gained +50XP 660 -> 710 Stamps Gained +1 7 -> 8 Currency Gained +16GP, 5SP 45GP, 11SP, 14CP -> 61GP, 16SP, 13CP He noticed that he hadn't earned as much experience as he should have, though he expected that was to stop him from farming too much from doing the same thing.

'So you want me to explore life, huh? So what if I want to live my life slaying boars? I'll slay a million boars!' Once the porters were paid, they went to eat some jam buns, and Jurot and Adam went to drink to celebrate.

"Boar slaying again tomorrow?" Adam asked. Jurot nodded.

"Yes."

"Sounds good. We might become the Boar Slayers rather than the Immortal Duo."

"Then we will become the Boar Slayers," Jurot said.

"Doesn't sound very exciting."

"You can slay a thousand boars, and they will call us Boar Slayers. You slay one dragon, and they will call us Dragon Slayers."

"Let's take our time then," Adam said, staring up at him.

"Let them call us Boar Slayers until we finally slay a dragon, or something equally as powerful."

"A Vulfaire," Jurot whispered.

"If I can slay a Vulfaire by myself, I will bring great honour to my family." A wide smile crossed his face as he thought about the Vulfaire.

"It would make a good dowry." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"A dowry?" Adam whispered.

"To you?" Jurot's lips twitched.

"Whoever I find."

"Uhuh…" Adam sipped on his drink, feeling a warm buzz.

"Anyone in mind?" Jurot looked at his drink.

"Yes." He closed his eyes and finished his drink, sighing once he was done.

"Good night."

"Good night," Adam said, smirking up at the Iyrman as he left. He quickly finished his own drink, noticing the glare of a new adventurer.

'Seriously.' He dropped down onto his bed and closed his eyes.

'I should probably make some more potions.' The next day passed by the same way. He spoke with Jurot in the morning, paid for some bread for them to eat. Currency 61GP, 16SP, 14CP -> 61GP, 15SP, 14CP With the porters assistance, they were once again able to deal with four boars, finding two in the beginning, then another two. Victory!

Boars +50XP XP 710 -> 760 Quest Complete Boar Hunting XP Gained +50XP 760 -> 810 Stamps Gained +1 8 -> 9 Currency Gained +16GP 61GP, 14CP -> 76GP, 13CP"Thanks for the boar tusks, Emma," Adam said, pocketing them. He had taken the hit for the silver, but he found that the boar tusks might be more useful for him. He pocketed the four into his pack, moving some things around, before taking it to his room.

"Well done, everyone," he said, smiling at the porters.

"We might be heading out soon, so let's eat a lot of jam buns today! My treat!" When they arrived in the bakery, there were a few men already ordering some jam buns. They were dressed in thick shirts, covered in sweat. They held no weapons, but were brawny as all hell.

"Sorry, but we don't have any more jam buns for sale," Pam said to the men. She glanced over to see Jurot and Adam enter. She nodded towards them and smiled.

"No jam buns?" Adam sighed.

"What a shame."

"Well, we have a few we reserved for you."

"Hold on," a man began before turning to see both Adam and Jurot.

"…"

"Yes?"

"Uh, nothing." Adam chuckled.

"It's alright. You guys were here first, so I think you should get the jam buns."

"N-no, it's alright." Adam raised his hand.

"Relax. What kind of work do you guys do?"

"What?"

"I'm just asking, what kind of work do you guys do?"

"We're lumberjacks," the man said, staring at Adam and then to Jurot, an Iyrman.

"We don't want no trouble."

"Lumberjacks, huh? You guys work hard. Without you, we wouldn't have firewood for the cold season, or wood for buildings. I'm sure it's not easy work. You should have the jam buns, I'll just order something else. We made enough coin that we can order a few more things today to make up for it." The lumberjacks stared at Adam.

'Is he poking fun?' Even Pam stared at Adam, wondering what he was doing.

"If you're sure…"

"We're alright. We hired a few porters recently, and it's because of them we're able to have so many jam buns freely. You guys work hard. Slaying boars is one thing, but chopping down trees all day, that's truly hard work. We spend a few minutes in combat, which is rough, but a sustained chopping over the entire day?" Adam turned to Jurot.

"What do you think? Their back muscles are really big, aren't they?" Jurot nodded his head.

"Yes. Your back muscles are impressive. Even in the Iyr, we train by chopping wood to form a strong core and back."

"We don't want no trouble," the lumberjack said.

"There's no trouble here, but if you take too long, our porters might get annoyed at us." Adam chuckled. The lumberjacks weren't sure what to do, so they looked at Pam, who looked to Jurot. Jurot remained blank faced. Pam sighed, eventually leaving to find some jam buns, returning with a half dozen she had saved for Adam and Jurot. The air was tense and thick still, as the lumberjacks reached for the buns, dropping down their hard earned coins, and slowly slipped away.

Adam followed them as they stepped past, his gaze following them through his helmet, a faceless nightmare. When they lumberjacks disappeared, Adam snapped his head back to Pam.

"That was hilarious," he said.

"Yes?" Adam laughed, finding the discomfort of the lumberjacks hilarious. He understood why they were wary, coming face to face with a heavily armoured adventurer and an Iyrman. His words had been troublesome for them, but that didn't matter to him. They had come here first after a hard day at work, and their jam buns were going to be stolen by a pair of adventurers?

"You have to take care of the common man," Adam said.

"So the common man takes care of you."

"Even though they'd overcharge you when they work with you?"

"…" Pam smiled nervously.

"So what do you want today?" She still wasn't so sure about Adam. He was weird, even though that should have been the case as a faceless armoured adventurer, he was weirder than that.

"We'll go with whatever desserts you have on offer. I'll order six."

"Coming right up," she said. She brought six wild berry tarts.

"That's three silver." Currency 15SP -> 11SP"A tip," he said, taking five of the tarts.

"You can have the last one."

"Oh, uh, are you sure?" she asked.

"Jurot, why don't you-" Adam turned to see Jurot having scarfed down the tart already.

"…" Jurot swallowed the tart, taking a sip from his water skin.

"Yes?"

"…" Adam blinked at Jurot.

"Nothing. Nevermind." The half elf sighed.

"It was a pleasure seeing you. We might be leaving tomorrow or the day after, so we won't be back for some time."

"Why don't you order some bread since you'll be gone for too long and you'll miss it?" Pam quickly said, adopting her business smile.

"You're right," Adam said, placing down a gold coin.

"A bread basket, then, since we might not be back for a while." Currency 76GP -> 75GP Pam smiled and quickly disappeared away around back.

"You should have ate a little slower," Adam said, glancing at Jurot.

"You could have spent time with Pam." Jurot squinted his eyes, thinking about what Adam had said.

"Yes," he replied back simply. Adam shook his head, but smiled.

"Next time, alright?" He pat Jurot's back.

'Does he know?' Jurot thought. After a long moment, he narrowed his eyes.

'It must be his elven eyes.' Pam returned with a giant basket of bread, the smell of the freshly baked goods filling the air with a deeper, richer smell. Adam nodded his head, picking up the basket.

"See you around," he said, nudging Jurot with his elbow as he walked out. Jurot threw a glance back towards her.

"Good bye," he said.

"Good bye, Jurot. Come back soon." Pam flashed the winning smile of a baker. Jurot's heart disarmed as he took a mighty blow deep inside, before he quickly turned and followed Adam away. It was rare to see an Iyrman flee.

"We've brought tarts," Adam said, sharing out the desserts to all the men.

"Here." Adam held out the basket to Remy.

"Share the bread amongst yourselves."

"Thank you," Remy said, accepting the basket. Adam was a queer one, in all the right ways. He had begun to accept Adam for his peculiarity, though had been worried when he saw the looks of the lumberjacks who had stepped out.

"Nobby, take good care of your father, alright?" Adam pat the large teen's shoulder gently.

"Once we're back, we'll probably be needing a strong young man like you, and we'll be paying good coin for it."

"Okay, yes," Nobby said, nodding his head. Adam chuckled.

"Then, we'll be seeing you." Adam waved at the porters as he withdrew, returning back to the Adventurer's Guild. Jurot followed Adam back, staring at the half elf's back.

'…' Even now, Jurot wasn't sure why Adam wanted to head to the Iyr. Yet, every man has his secrets, human or otherwise.