Chapter Seventy-Four Assembling a Team (Patreon)

Susan sighed as she came out of the guild. She had done some talking after Seirra left. The jerk of a guild mistress could have bothered to give her a proper introduction, but no all she did was... and Susan. What kind of introduction was that? She was a future archmage and she was practically an A rank adventurer already. While there was some variance to the ranks, ranks pretty much followed a nice easy to understand bracket. A ranks were the cream of the adventurer crop and were typically above level 90. To reach S rank the only rank higher you actually had to evolve your race, which meant exceeding level one hundred. Something that seemed to be a requirement for guild masters and mistresses since they were almost always in the high hundreds.

For a B rank she was already at the high end of the scale at level 88. Most B ranks were between levels 60 and 90. Not that Susan felt her rank was right. Most B ranks didn’t have a single Arch-Master rank skill, she had three. Having one of those was a requirement for the guild to issue rank A. Arch-master skills and their counterpart Grand-Master skills represented the pinnacle of ability, exceeding even master rank skills. She had the talent and skills to get three of them and yet no one would recognize her for it. It was a travesty.

Pushing that aside, she figured she could at least take comfort knowing the adventurers here would soon acknowledge her. Most of them were pathetic. There were a few C rank adventurers here. The failures on the Evaluation Team were C rank, and that Mira she came with was one as well, but that was about it. Most everyone else was Rank E or F. Rank E was around levels 15 to 25, completely useless rookies. While F was even worse, anyone below level fifteen wasn’t even worthy as trap fodder.

As she moved down the street she saw a face run past that she recognized, and she felt her scowl deepen. It was that archer girl. She was an E rank, but Susan knew she had talent. She scoffed, too bad the girl was too stupid to take up an opportunity when it slapped her in the face. A quick analyze showed she was level 24, still solidly in rank E. Susan scoffed, that idiot turned down her mentorship. HER Mentorship. That still grated on her, to extend a hand and have it slapped. It was grating. To think that girl could have been near the top of rank D by now if she just accepted it, like a smart girl. It would have been nice having good help too. Her last party was useless. Now she had to find someone decent in these dregs.

She looked towards the dungeon. Susan felt she could likely solo it, but she had heard about the puzzles on floor two. That wasn’t her thing, she hated puzzles. As such solo was out. It was no fun if she had to solve something as beneath her as puzzles. That meant she would need to find people that wouldn’t hold her back. Thinking about it, her options were not that great. The two failures and Mira were the only ones worth considering. The failures had the advantage of being there before and that was valuable. Mira was a rogue, which meant she could save mana and let her deal with the traps. That was beneath her too. Hmm, yes that sounded like a plan, she would gather them all into a team and go into the dungeon. Give it a nice evaluation and maybe finally someone would see her worth and give her a chance to prove that she deserved to be Rank A. It galled her that she wasn’t one yet. A plan in mind, she headed off to go find the two failures. Susan had an idea of where they would be, so she headed towards the north side of the tent town. There was an isolated tent out that way. Quite suspicious too. If she was a betting girl that would be where she bet they were. Not that she was stupid enough to do something as base as betting. Everyone knows those kind of games are rigged.

The girl smiled as she looked herself over in the mirror. She had lovely pink hair that she kept loose and framed her young looking face. She had rosy cheeks, and lovely eyes with differing colors one pink and the other blue. Her skin was a flawless creamy white and she was wearing one of her favorite dresses.

It was torn in a few places, as all her clothing was. The girl didn’t feel right if her clothing wasn’t torn. She moved causing the flower patterned dress to shift, showing off hints of the figure that lay beneath. Her chest had only modest swells and when she moved the right way she was treated to the sight of her bare breast. It was small, almost flat with cute pink areolas and perky nipples. Her smile deepened, she was looking perfect. Now it was time for some fun.

Turning from the mirror, she left her room and headed on out. Idly she recalled a recent conversation with Akulie. Her fellow goddess had told her all about a recent ritual where a trio of lovers had caught her eye. That ritual sounded like so much fun and unfortunately, the girl had missed it. So many good opportunities for fun were missed. Oh well! No point worrying about that.

There was a new town being built in the Borderlands, if there was one thing she knew about new towns it was that they were always fun. Not to mention she’d left a gift out in that area and someone had actually received it. There was no way she wasn’t going to look in and see what kind of girl ended up with that joke class.

With that in mind, she reached the exit to her home and then shifted her location into the town. She appeared outside of a newly built home, constructed of earthen walls and freshly hewn logs. It seemed homely enough. The building wasn’t that big with space for a couple of bedrooms. It did have a decent yard and a detached bathroom. Several mortals walked right by her, paying her no attention. Nor did they notice her walk into the building. The occupants didn’t even notice her entry either. Not like they could, it was a simple trick, but a delightful one. So many fun applications. Some of them were pretty basic, but they could still be fun.

Looking around she noticed that the only one here was a naked elf. Her gift wasn’t in sight, but she wasn’t really here to check on the chicken. The girl was young and was preparing herself a meal. The goddess smiled, she loved young mortals. They were always so much fun. Now how to have fun with her? Her smile widened as an idea graced her mind. It didn’t have to be some big prank.

It wasn’t hard to find the girl’s room and it seemed she didn’t like clothes. Not a single dress or pair of panties. That was a shame, playing with a girl’s wardrobe was always a good way to get a laugh. Still there were other ways for fun, so she started rearranging the room and while she was at it, she put a little something in her bed. Just a fun little surprise for her. On top of the whole room. Giggling, she slipped out of the room, but not before leaving a little something so she could watch the result later. Oh and to make up for the prank later, she left the girl another gift in her nightstand. One that would trigger a little training quest the moment she picked it up. Let no one say she isn’t a fun and kind goddess.

Still giggling, she took a moment to watch the kid walk outside having finished her lunch and collect “Tovi.” It was a good name for the little chicken. The young girl did seem happy with the chicken. It was nice seeing someone appreciate her gifts.

Feeling good and happy after seeing that, she headed out into town looking for new sources of fun. Today was going to be a fun day, she just knew it! To her delight, she soon found new targets.

Aidera stepped outside. Her turn watching the young girl was over and Thomas was keeping an eye on her. So she figured she would go find Amy. Before she could get very far a familiar face showed up. “Miss Aidera? How is my daughter doing?”

She smiled and with the practice she learned from being a healer she told her, “She is doing really well actually. I expect her to be on her feet by tomorrow.”

There was visible relief on the other woman’s face. Aidera figured it best not to mention the brief scare. Although it was an expected one. “Great, thanks for saving her,” she frowned, “Is there anything I will need to know? I am only passingly familiar with Black Blood Fever.”

She sighed, “It’s not that bad if caught early, unfortunately, we got to her a bit late. She won’t be exactly the same as she was before. Also I would suggest you keep her warm. It will be a while before she recovers her strength.”

“I see, how did this happen?”

“Bad luck mostly. I think your daughter had it when you left Sunblossom. It was just your misfortune to be caught out in the open when it rained. If not for that I think she would have fought it off on her own, but it rained and the healer attached to your caravan made the easy mistake of misidentifying what she had. Just be glad I was able to help her.”

The woman frowned, “Before? How did she even get it?”

Aidera shrugged, “I can’t be certain.”

To be honest, the spread of the Fever wasn’t fully understood. It was known to be really common up north where it was cold year round. The disease thrived in the cold, really thrived. Contaminated blood was already known to be one vector and having sex with an infected was also a known vector. Neither applied in this case, she knew without asking. Her examination eliminated the one and her previous questions had indirectly confirmed that blood wasn’t a vector. That left the poor girl as getting it from some other vector, but what? Aidera didn’t know. She did know that the Vampires were much better versed on the disease than anyone else, but the only thing they ever shared were treatments. Other information they kept to themselves. Now that she thought about it, there was a lot about the illness that was shrouded in mystery. That included its origins.

“You can’t?”

She shook her head, “Afraid not.”

“I guess it wasn’t that important. I did learn a bit about post care.”

“I’ll tell you more when I release her. In the meantime, I do have a couple of things to do.”

“Yes, sorry for taking so much of your time.”

With that Aidera went to look for Amy, but soon realized she was hungry. Maybe they could share a meal? Bring something back for Thomas, she was likely hungry as well. It had been awhile since they last ate. A plan in mind, she set out and soon found Eri. Not who she was looking for but a welcome face nonetheless.