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nLydia stared at Jack, “People have been disappearing at night in the western village of Oakedge. We need someone to investigate.”

nJack stared at her, “That’s the guards’ job, right?”

nLydia shook her face, “We lost them all. About twenty people disappeared without a trace.”

nJack froze in place, “If it’s severe, can’t you find someone else to do it?”

n“We tried to contact Alcott, but his wife kicked us out, saying he doesn’t need problems.” Lydia shook her head. 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒍．𝒆𝒕

n“The quest seems too big for me to investigate alone. You better drop a quest at the guild, and we might take it.” Jack said, finishing his breakfast.

nThud! Thud! “Jack, is there a problem?” Arad and Aella walked down to see Lydia. They immediately assumed she was here for trouble.

n“Cheif, she seems to have an interesting quest. Countless people disappeared at night in the western village of oakedge. She wants us to investigate.” Jack said, pointing with his thumb at Lydia.

n“We can’t take it even if we want. Such a quest will be over our rank.” Arad replied, and he was right.

nJack scratched his chin, “I can fix that,”

n“You can get us higher quests?” Arad looked at him. “If that is the case, then say it.”

nAella grabbed Arad’s shoulder, “We shouldn’t. That’s dangerous.”

n“It’s dangerous if we were low-level adventurers.” He was right. Even Aella was a level 12 fighter.

n“We can do it with this quest.” Jack looked at Lydia, “Post the quest as investigation, not solving. Just go there, see what’s happening, and report back.”

n“And you will just happen to be forced to solve it?” Lydia stared at him with a worried face.

n“That’s it, simple, right?”

n“No, If that is the case, I would go with you. I don’t care how strong you are. You will need healing and holy damage.” Lydia stood, a holy flare in her eyes.

nJack looked at Arad, “We will take it, but not now. I want to train a bit with Amber.”

n“I also want to check Mira’s shop for a new bow,” Aella added with a smile.

n“Right. We have to check the divination mage for you as well.” Jack added, scratching his head.” Thud! He stood up, looking at Arad.

n“Divination mage? Did you lose something?” Lydia asked.

nArad looked at her, scratching his head. ^It wouldn’t hurt to tell her, right?^

n“I got the curse of lycanthropy, and I’m looking for a cure.”

nLydia looked at him, tilting her head, “What kind of lycanthropy are we talking about in this case? Mild, moon, random, or a full beast?”

nArad took a step back, “There are different types?”

n“Mild means you only have a bit more hair on your body, harder nails, and sharp senses with a slightly violent personality.” Lydia counted with one hand.

n“Moon means you have the effects of the mild but are forced to transform on the night of the full moon, the night before and after.” She added another finger.

n“Random means that on top of the moon, you can transform randomly due to emotional distress, pain, or even hearing the howling of wolves. Of course, you can’t control the beast.” She then smiled.

n“Full beast is when you can freely change between human, wolf, or a hybrid form. Have access to all your powers at will, albeit with a strong hunger for humanoid flesh.” She explained.

n“I don’t know. I just got infected.” Arad replied. ^My dragon blood would probably affect the curse.^ Arad thought, quickly realizing the big elephant in the room. ^If human werewolves seek human flesh, would I see dragons’ flesh?^

nArad immediately grabbed a chair and started thinking, ^As a vampire, I would seek draconic blood. I might not have a problem living like this with humans.^

nLydia stared at him, “Don’t think about it too much. All curses have progression like that. And most people start from mild unless they got the curse through magic.”

n“I got bitten. so I would start as mild?” He looked at her, “Yeah. Did you ask in the church? Two of our highest priests are visiting the city, and they could lift the curse.” She replied.

nArad shook his head, and Aella looked at Lydia, “We met them yesterday, and they couldn’t lift the curse. Our only option is to kill the progenitor.”

n“That’s tough. But I can help hunt the beast.” She said with a smile.

nJack looked at her, “If the full beast can control the power, can’t we ask him to lift the curse? Make a deal?”

nLydia stared at him, “Good luck with that. But we can try and see.”

n“It will give us an advantage. We can pay the beast a ton of money to lift the curse and then kill him if possible to take our money back.” Jack stood smiling.

nLydia thought, “And we won’t need to go through the pain of the ritual.” She then pointed at Jack, “I like that,”

n“We’re scamming the progenitor, you know?” Jack smiled at her.

n“It doesn’t matter as long as they are evil or oppose the church.” She said, resting her fists on her hips.

n“Hypocritical as ever,” Jack scratched his head, “But we have to clear your quest first, right?”

nAs Lydia nodded, Arad and Aella sat to eat their breakfast. “Did you two make up?” Arad looked at them.

n“You can say we got past it.” Lydia smiled.

n“Past it?” Jack stared at her, “I still remember you people beating me,”

n“It was them, not me.” She shook her hands, “You also did a dirty one on us by stealing the letter. We’re even now.”

nAfter the break, They headed toward the guild to register Lydia’s quest. “Nina, I was to register a special quest,” Lydia said with a smile.

nNina looked behind Lydia, “Why are Arad and his friends with you?”

n“I’m going to investigate the disappearance of the oakedge people on behalf of the church. I wanted to get some company for safety.” Lydia replied, looking back, “They are the best value to hire.”

nJack looked at them, “Cheap since we’re low level, yet strong.”

nNina sighed, “Fine, please write the details here.” She smiled, “And how much are you paying?”

nLydia looked at her, “Five gold coins for a week’s trip.”

n“So four for the quest and one for the guild,” She looked through the papers.

n“The guild usually gets twenty percent of the pay, but this quest is a bit unpredictable. Make it seven gold coins, and the guild will only take one.” Nina knocked on the table with her finger. “I say two gold coins for each of them is a good price to risk their lives for a week.”

nJack looked at Jack, “Mira is trying to get us a good deal. Look she already registered the guild’s pay as one gold coin out of five. The other two coins are going straight to us.”

nLydia sighed, “Fine, here are seven gold coins.” Lydia immediately dropped the gold on the table with a smile.

n“You didn’t argue?” Nina was surprised. Paladins are usually hard-headed about deals.

n“Better pay, better work.” Lydia replied as she took the signed quest and handed it to Arad, “Your turn,”

nArad took the quest back to Lydia, “We accept Lydia’s request. Can you register it?”

n“Of course,” She smiled, stamping the paper. “Amber is waiting for you at the training ground,” She added.

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