Element Oasis: Project Zero

Chapter 3

"How do we pick up new quests?" Zero asked while Arza was sitting at the bar waiting for her breakfast. She looked extremely sleepy and was drinking her 2nd coffee of the morning. She had on her gear but she was so tired that her head was nearly stuck to the bar. It was clear that the coffee wasn't kicking in as fast as she wanted it to but Zero had no idea why she was up so early, to begin with. The bartender was the only one working in the morning so he ran back and forth cooking her meal and grabbing her another coffee.

"Right," Arza said while picking up her head. "I forgot that you don't understand how things work around here. Just ask around for work and you're bound to find a good quest eventually. Most of the time it's simple things like finding a lost watch or looking for someone's cat, but you'll get very interesting ones at some points."

Zero put a hand on his chin. "I see," he said while looking down at the floor. He took a deep breath, relaxed his shoulders, and walked closer to the bar. "Excuse me, sir, would you like some help?" Zero asked with a smile on his face.

The bartender looked at Zero and smiled. "That would be great!" he exclaimed. "My box of coffee hasn't arrived even though it should have arrived yesterday! I'm worried that something must have happened during transport but there isn't any way for me to know that. Could you get my box of coffee? I'll pay you the money I was supposed to give that merchant."

"Deal," Zero said with a smile on his face.

[New Quest Unlocked: Coffee Merchandise]

"Well, I'm off," Zero said as he began walking away from the bar until he felt someone grab his hood. As he turned around, he saw Arza staring at him with an angry look on her face with a handful of his hood in her hands.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"On this quest," Zero said with a confused look on his face.

"Not without a party you aren't. This could be a dangerous mission for all you know!"

"I'll be fine!" Zero yelled as he pulled away from her. "Trust me a little."

Arza narrowed her eyes. "At least take Elley with you. She's been dying to test out a new skill that she learned but hasn't had the chance to use it."

Zero raised an eyebrow then smiled. "Sure," he said.

Minutes went by before Elley appeared from the hall with all the rooms in the back. She looked just as tired as Arza did, meaning that Arza had woken her up just for her to go on a quest which made Zero feel bad. He had wanted to get up early so that he could finish more than one quest before nightfall but he didn't expect to wake anyone else up.

Elley's eyes eventually met his and she waved at him with a smile on her face despite her drowsiness. She had on her usual witch attire which made Zero want to get her more gear along with himself. He felt like his clothes were beginning to get a bit overused so he made a mental note to make enough money for new gear.

"Are you ready to head out?" he asked with a smile on his face.

She nodded her head.

"Great!" he said with so much energy that Elley couldn't help but smile. "The location of the coffee isn't that far from here. It should only take us about half an hour to get there if we move at a reasonable pace." Zero pulled out the map so that Elley could take a look at it and she gladly accepted the offer. "I think that instead of avoiding the monsters, we go straight through them to avoid wasting more time and possibly falling into traps set by other adventurers."

"I agree," Elley said as she looked at the map. "Experienced adventurers usually set booby traps along the safest routes so taking the shorter, but the harder way is a good choice."