After giving the earrings to his mom, Lukey made his way straight back to Ocean’s Bounty. It was still the middle of the day, and there was plenty of time left to pick a new mission from the board.

  Unfortunately, Ki’ida made a request to him before he left: to find someone to manage his store.

  People to sell fish, people to manage storefronts… This town needs people, but where are they?

  Because of the people from Vetus, there were now skilled craftsmen in Tranquil Waters. Unfortunately, they were all too busy with their own work to do any basic stuff like managing stores and performing daily chores. They had money and demand for their work, but even they needed people to staff their businesses.

  Of course, some people lived in Tranquil Waters or traveled here from the villages, but many islanders avoided this place because elders badmouthed the idea so badly. Word needed to spread about the town and its new opportunities, and the best way to do that was by doing those missions.

  That was why Lukey was currently rushing to the guild. As he hurried down the road, however, he heard someone call out to him from the side.

  “Hey human, stop! Lukey, was it?”

  The voice came from a haughty individual who Lukey did not expect to encounter today. Saphina was the one who called out to him and approached him from across the street. She had her green scale skirt and half-shirt on, along with the shell band binding her sea green hair up.

  In her hands, however, was something Lukey did not expect to see.

  That’s… a big club.

  Being dragged behind her was a white club that was as long as Lukey was tall, carved out of what must have been an obscenely large bone. It consisted of a handle and a long octagonal head with sharp spikes running up and down its length. The faces of the head were smeared in varying shades of red, which left Lukey to ponder how many battles this thing had been through in its lifetime.

  “I’ve been wandering this place for ages! Take me to your guild already!” She demanded.

  “My guild?” Lukey questioned. “And for that matter, why are you even here? Shouldn’t you be with your people in that shelter?”

  “The big brute didn’t tell you?” She looked at him quizzically. “It’s part of the deal we made.”

  Lukey didn’t have time to sit and listen, so he gestured for her to follow him.

  “In exchange for living here on the island for the time being, we have to perform jobs and help out with some of the work.” Saphina said.

  “What about the bonecarver? How does she fit in?” Lukey asked.

  “That’s the other deal. We provide our bone carver to make some sovereign icons, and the brute gives us a boat to leave the island.” Saphina responded. “The old guy said to go to your guild if I want to look for jobs that need brute force.”

  “Brute force?” Lukey asked, looking nervously at the club being dragged behind her.

  “Yup. I might look delicate and alluring, but I can bash brains in with the best of them!” Saphina said proudly.

  “Hooray…” Lukey applauded nervously.

  Something about her attitude was a complete shift from yesterday. He was afraid to ask anything that might result in him being bashed into the stone, so initially he avoided it. Eventually, however, Lukey’s curiosity got the better of him.

  “You look cheerier today. Did anything change from yesterday?” Lukey asked cautiously.

  “Ugh, nothing changed,” Saphina denied in a pout. “It’s just that so-called emperor of yours is so overbearing! The entire time we negotiated, he kept flashing his sovereign control over me. It was suffocating!”

  Ah, so that’s what happened. Caldoon wanted to exploit their situation, so he flashed his strength a bit to scare her into agreeing. Smart.

  “You should consider yourself lucky he was so generous. After that scene you made when you first arrived on the island, any normal emperor would’ve thrown you off the island or imprisoned you.” Lukey explained.

  “That ‘scene’ was how I was taught to introduce myself around royalty,” Saphina said, somewhat irritated. “My father said that around human nobles, you need to act like you’re the most important person in the room; otherwise, they won’t give you the time of day.”

  “Yeah, well, this is Leviathan’s Rest, not Avalon. The closest thing to nobles we have on the island are those prim Dragon’s Lance people, and even then, we don’t treat them any differently. We’re pretty laid back here, all things considered.”

  “Yes, I got that impression after a while.” Saphina sighed. “So where is the guild?”

  “Right around this corner,” Lukey said.

  The duo turned the corner, and sure enough, the guild building was there, sign and all. In unison they approached the double doors and pushed them open, entering the room with the front counter.

  “Good afternoon.” The man at the front desk replied.

  “Afternoon to you, too,” Lukey replied.

  Then, Saphina and Lukey made their way down the steps toward the main floor.

  Wait…a man at the front desk?

  Lukey quickly doubled back up the steps to the previous room, where a man not much older than Lukey sat behind the front desk of Ocean’s Bounty. He was leisurely reading a book with his feet kicked up over the desk. Lukey stared in confusion at the man, then in recognition as he gradually took in his features.

  The man in question had slick black hair, spectacles, and a calm, calculating look. A look that was familiar to Lukey

  [??? (Advanced Scholar) Lv. 83]

  “Aren’t you the scholar from that merchant ship? What are you doing here?” Lukey questioned somewhat abruptly.

  The man then looked up from his book and stared at Lukey with a bored face, then adjusted his spectacles as they began falling down the bridge of his nose.

  “I am.” The scholar stated this and then went back to reading his book.

  At this point Lukey was starting to get irritated, so he went up and pounded his hands on the desk to grab the man’s attention.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “That doesn’t explain why you’re here!” Lukey cried. “You can’t just show up somewhere and expect everyone to know who you are!”

  The scholar sighed.

  “I see you’re not letting this go. Fine, I’ll explain.” He spoke. “I was approached with a job offer, and I accepted. Now I work here.” After he finished his statement, he once again returned to his reading.

  Lukey groaned.

  “Can you at least tell me your name?” he pleaded.

  The man behind the counter opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, the entrance to the guild opened behind them. They parted to reveal Triton, whose eyes showed signs of weariness from having to deal with other people’s requests all day. The elder’s eyes took a moment to become focused, after which he recognized the three people present.

  “Ah, Lukey, and Saphina is with you too; that’s good.” Triton stated simply. “I see you’ve met Roman already.”

  “Actually, no, we haven’t. Do you mind introducing us?” Lukey asked, looking back at Roman with irritation.

  “Right,” Triton said, then waved an open palm towards the scholar. “This is Roman Barzola, a member of the scholars guild. He will be working for Ocean’s Bounty from now on as a member of the auxiliary staff.”

  “What?” Lukey asked, his face riddled with confusion. “Why would we need a scholar to work the desk? Couldn’t we hire anyone? And what’s auxiliary staff?”

  “Roman, if you please.” Triton sighed.

  “Alright,” Roman said, taking a deep breath. “Auxiliary staff refers to people within a guild who perform tasks that the guild can’t do or doesn’t want to do. This could be anyone from artists to make advertisements, culinarians to make meals in-house, or scholars to do administrative work.”

  Roman sucked in another breath and continued.

  “Normally, you would pay a fee to the respective guild to hire such an individual, which is how guilds like the artists guild and the culinarians guild make their money.” Roman explained. “As for why your guild needs me, there are two reasons. The first is that my arts and attributes give me a good memory and let me write quickly, making me ideal for administrative work. The second is the fact that I can contact my guild and connect you to other resources. Speaking of which…”

  Roman then looked at Triton.

  “Did you get my device from the other ship? I need to tell the Codex about what happened.”

  Triton reached inside a pouch that hung at his side and pulled out a strange-looking object. It consisted of a flat brass disc with a cylindrical brass compartment on top, and at the center of the box was a small circular indent with prongs sticking out above it. Then, along with the device, Triton pulled out a small green crystal.

  “I need to go back for the rest of your things, but it’s all accounted for.” Triton said.

  “Thank you,” Roman said with a slight bow. “Now could you give me a moment? I need to update the guild on what has been going on.” After saying that, Roman began the process of affixing the crystal within the prong inside the indent. Once that was done, he placed the device on the desk and began channeling aether into it.

  “The Codex?” Lukey whispered to Triton.

  “The official name of the Scholars Guild,” Triton clarified. “In addition to supporting other guilds, their primary goal is collection of information from across the world. I’ve heard that the Codex’s members use these devices to communicate over long distances.”

  Lukey was curious and wanted to ask more, but before he could do so, there was a response from the device.

  “You’ve reached Codex Central Intelligence; please state your name and identification.” A monotone voice chimed from the device.

  “Roman Barzola, ID#: 1092.” He stated.

  “Roman? Hey man, it’s been months! What happened? Weren’t you supposed to be taking that job with the Golden Threads?” The voice said, breaking free of its monotony.

  “Wait a second, Jean? You got a job in CCI? How the… Never mind, let me start from the beginning.”

  There began a long conversation that nobody present was interested in. So, instead of listening to Roman recount a story they were already highly familiar with, Lukey, Triton, and Saphina made their way down to the main floor.

  “Wow, this place is pretty nice,” Saphina said. “I was half expecting it to be a run-down old building with fish stinking up the place.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, princess.” Lukey chimed in sarcastically. “The mission board is over here.”

  They walked over to the right side of the room where the two billboards stood and began scanning their eyes over the one that read ‘Missions.’ The requests were all written on pieces of paper and tacked up on the board in a haphazard manner.

  There were already quite a few requests on board, ranging from some basic gathering missions to extermination. One request seemed to have come from Thousand Acre, asking to take some ecological samples within a local kelp forest. Another seemed to have come from one of the villages, requesting to deal with robbers raiding the local farms.

  “Robbers?” Lukey questioned. “I don’t think we have a bandit problem on the island, do we?”

  “The robbers they mention aren’t people. They are referring to robber terraclaws, a type of land crab that has a nasty habit of raiding the villages in packs to steal food.” Triton clarified. “They can be quite nasty in large groups, so I don’t recommend you take that one.”

  Lukey continued to scan the requests, but nothing really seemed like something he was willing to put hard effort into, especially if it meant spending a few days in another village.

  Monster invasions, basic fishing, deep water gathering… All of these are either too difficult or too easy. I need something more apt for my current capabilities.

  “What about this one?” Saphina chimed in, pointing to one request.

  Lukey stepped over to where she was and looked over to where she was pointing, then took the request off the wall and began reading it thoroughly.

  Killer Snail Invasion!

  Location – Bum’s Break

  The snail population has exploded out of control. The beach is infested with them, and they attack anyone who steps foot on the beach. I already asked the village elders about it, and they refused to help. Requesting someone to send help immediately!

  Bohdi

  Well, that’s interesting… Killer snails, huh? Guess it’s time to hit the beach.

  Bum’s Break was a place on the island where lots of kids and young adults on the island gathered to surf and have fun on the beach. Lukey sometimes used to visit, but he tended to prefer quiet isolation to loud parties. He always wanted to learn how to surf too, but he was always too embarrassed to ever try.

  “Alright, I can take this one if you’re not.” Lukey said.

  “I am not. As a matter of fact, may I join you?” Saphina said. “I don’t really know my way around the island, and this is a good chance to get some more levels. I’m sure that with my strength, completing this mission will be easy.”

  “Um, sure, I guess?” Lukey sheepishly said, scratching his neck. “You do realize that we’ll be traveling for a couple days away from the town though, right? I don’t want your clan getting mad because you’re going off on your own.”

  “Psshh, I’ll be fine. I’ve fought things way more dangerous than anything this island can throw at me.” Saphina dismissed.

  “Alright,” Lukey sighed, then took the mission off the board. “Mission: taken.”

  “Excellent,” Triton said. “Now, all that’s left is your lesson. I was originally going to give you a lecture, but now that we have a scholar, I believe he is best suited towards explaining the finer points of how your arts work.”

  “Alright then, but I think he’s going to be a while.” Lukey said, and then he got up. “I’m going to get some food; does anyone want anything?”

  …

  “Alright, I’m sorry that took so long. They needed an explanation for my absence, and then when I tried to explain how I was hired by another guild, they explained that your guild isn’t registered in the Codex’s records. So that turned into a giant mess and…”

  Roman descended down the steps of the guild into the large open room, explaining his problems out loud to the people he assumed were paying attention to him. Unfortunately, his complaints fell on deaf ears as he descended to see three people sitting around a wooden table eating various forms of grilled fish on sticks.

  “Mmmm. You know… We could probably take… a couple of these with us as provisions.” Lukey said between bites of fish.

  “Agreed,” Saphina said. “Provisions are important when you go on long hunts. I usually take pieces of bread and dried meat in a sack, but this is much tastier.”

  Roman stared at the group quietly from three feet away, and Lukey eventually noticed him.

  “Want one?” Lukey asked, pointing one of the sticks of fish at him.

  Roman stared at it for a moment, then eventually relented as he took the fish and started chewing into it.

  “Fine, but hurry up. I need to explain some things.” Roman said.

  This prompted everyone to start finishing up their respective meals and toss the sticks into the middle of the table.

  “Alright,” Triton said. “How did things go with the Codex?”

  “Overall? It was straightforward. I just needed to confirm a bunch of details with them to make sure your guild was legitimate. As far as I can tell everything seems to be in order, besides, of course, the lack of members.” Roman explained.

  “We are working on that,” Triton said. “In the meantime, I was hoping that you could give Lukey here some guidance on how arts work. He is going to start modifying them soon, and the boy could use some direction. I figured since you are a scholar…”

  “That I would be best suited to guide people on the finer mechanics of arts? Of course, that’s part of why you hired me after all.” Roman said. “My arts make me uniquely suited for this job, so I can give out tailored advice on how he should advance.”

  “Excellent!” Triton said. “Then please, start!”