The clerk doesn't say anything as she hands me the payment for the wolves. She's given up trying to assume I'm lying about my kills, especially since the guild master's son has vouched for my strength. Also likely because Nina always puts her in her place if she's around for it.

After I put the coins in my pouch, I tuck the pouch back into my pants. Just because it's coming back out again shortly, that doesn't mean I should leave it out.

I pull off my pack and place the rope – bundled up once more – back inside of it. After doing that, I close my pack and pull it back on, then look at the other lady behind the counter.

"Nina," I say. "Can I see the guild master? I have more information to report."

"Sure," Nina smiles. "Come with me, Max."

She's the friendlier of the two clerks that work around this time. I like her much better than the first one, but she doesn't handle the purchases from hunters. Her main job is handling higher-level job requests and acting as a link between members, guests, and Guild Master. If a guild member wants to rent a room for the night or needs a guild healer to heal their wounds, they also go to her to make the arrangements and payments.

Nina leads me up to the third floor and knocks on Guild Master's door.

"Yes?" Guild Master responds.

"Max says he has information for you."

"Let him in," Guild Master says.

Nina opens the door and tells me to enter, and I do.

"Hello, Max," Guild Master says. "I take it you encountered goblins again today?"

I have every day since the first one, and while the ones closer to where normal adventurers go are of normal strength, I always encounter at least one group that's stronger. I test this by using about 50 Magic for my attacks at first. If the goblins die, they're normal. If they survive, they're tougher.

"Yes," I pull off my pack and pull out some items, setting them down.

There's an amulet with a light green crystal set into the center, some sort of wooden wand, a pair of knives with light green jewels set into their pommels, and a ring with a light green jewel set into it. Guild Master gives the haul a curious look, probably because I've only brought in one or two items a day, not four items at once. I'm counting the pair of knives as one since they came from the same goblin.

"I encountered four groups today," I tell him as I pull a map out of my pack and unroll it. "Um. The map is new and I'm not sure how accurate I was. I also didn't mark the map 'cause I was afraid of ruining it, so this is mostly off my memory, which isn't the best."

"That's fine," Guild Master says. "With the map, we can use the areas you're remembering as a general guiding point. You encountered four groups today? That's unlucky."

"I was looking for them today," I tell him. "I can handle their spells, and their good stuff always sells for a pretty coin. Had to cut it short after killin' some wolves that shot really hot [Air Bolt]s at me so that I could get the coins from sellin' 'em without ruinin' 'em."

I slipped up a lot. Speaking like a commoner instead of a slums resident is difficult and I'm already exhausted.

"I see," Guild Master says. "So, Max, where did you encounter the groups?"

"Can I set this down?" I hold up the map a little more.

"Go ahead," he gestures to the table nearby.

We move to the table, Guild Master moving the loot to it as well. I spread out the map and he creates four small stones to hold the corners down.

"The amulet," I say. "Was from a group of five goblins that I encountered… around here. I'm pretty sure, but I know it was off of this river because the river becomes weaker and ends in this muddy area here. I think it was at this point on the river, anyway."

The amulet increases the wearer's Constitution by 5 and boosts the power of defensive wind magics by 10%. The crystal in it is cracked, however, so I think it has a use limit and will eventually break.

"That's fine," Guild Master tells me. "Knowing it was off that river is enough, even if you don't have a specific location."

"Okay," I say. "The wand was from a goblin mage that I think was here? He was by himself, which I thought was really strange. He was decently powerful, but weaker than most of the goblin mages I've fought so far."

If someone infuses Mana with an air aspect into the wand, it will shoot an [Air Bolt] out of the tip. The activation is achieved with 2 Mana, and the [Air Bolt] uses the caster's magical strength for its power. The benefit to using the wand is that it only has a half-second delay before it can cast again.

No actual need to know the spell, and the speed is rather decent. A proper mage will eventually outdo the wand's use, especially since reducing the Mana cost is something that can boost a Skill's Level.

"For the ring," I point at a spot. "I think it was here, but I think I got turned around, so I'm probably really wrong on this one. It was worn by a goblin with a bow that tried attacking me from a distance. My [Air Bolt]s could reach it."

The ring will generate an arrow of compressed air when 1.7 air Mana is put into it, the arrow being worth 85% of the user's Magic. So it's cheaper than a standard one, but also weaker. The bonus here is also that they don't have to be skilled with the spell to use it, the ring does all the work.

How the user can get the arrow to form on the bow properly, I don't know, but the goblin was able to make it work every time.

"This spot," I point at another spot on the map. "Is where I encountered the goblin with the knives. It was in a group of ten, and the ten were weaker ones. A normal hunter could probably have killed them. Well, they'd have probably needed a group, but whatever. The goblin with the knives was the only difficult one out of it. Look, it cut my tunic. I don't know how to sew, but I'm going to see if I can buy a kit and fix it myself."

I show Guild Master the two-inch-long cut on my sleeve before realizing what I'm doing. My face heats up a little, that's definitely not something a boy of my station should be doing.

"You seem rather sure about these goblins' location," he says.

"Yeah," I stop inspecting the cut on my sleeve and point at a landmark on the map. "Because it's close to that rock setup there, and not far from a stream that flows right here. The stream is west of the rock formation, which is why I know it was here."

One of the daggers actually got knocked into the stream and I had to retrieve it from there. The daggers are pretty cool, and definitely of a high quality. They're Grade 5, the highest of any goblin item I've found so far. All of the other magic items I've looted from goblins have been Grade 3 or lower.

All someone has to do is put in some air Mana into the knives, and a layer of wind will wrap around the blades, giving them an extra cutting edge. Instead of solid, compressed air, however, it's still moving. Because of that, it's listed as 'wind' instead of 'air' in the description. The quick-moving wind blade causes extra cutting along the sides of the knives, allowing for additional damage when stabbed into something.

The cost for them is 0.4 Mana per second and the air spell's power is 25% of the caster's Magic plus 10 Magic. Unlike all of the other items, its craftsmanship isn't crude, either. This looks like something I'd expect out of a human forge, with a perfect edge and no visible flaws, bumps, or crudeness to it.

"Thank you," Guild Master tells me, then calls for Nina. "Could you make sure that Max here is compensated for his information, as well as for these items?"

"Yes, sir," she responds.

"Also," he lifts up the knives. "Let Her Highness know her daggers were recovered and that goblins had them. Max, you'll be paid for the knives by the royal family once they come down. They'll likely wish to retrieve the knives now, so once we inform them we have them, someone will be down here. If you stay here a few more hours, you can be paid for them tonight. There's a job request looking for someone to recover them."

"These are human knives?" I ask. "I guess that explains the quality. Goblin-made stuff all has low quality."

"Yes," he chuckles. "They do."

"Wait," I realize something. "Did you say 'Her Highness' and 'royal family'?"

"I did," he answers. "Her Royal Highness Lady Elise, our princess, owns these knives. She was on a hunting trip a few weeks ago when she was attacked by some monsters a little stronger than she could handle, and her knives were lost in the process. A request went out for anyone who could recover them."

Why would she send a request for someone to hunt them down instead of sending royal mages to locate them? I don't doubt for a second that she could easily order that, which makes it suspicious. As a boy from the slums, however, it's not my place to question this sort of thing.

Guild Master's statement tells me I should probably be here for her arrival, and that makes me nervous. Especially since I definitely want to repair my tunic before meeting the royal messenger. First impressions matter and I already look scruffy, a tunic that's at least repaired will improve their impression of me.

"Oh," I say. "Okay. I'll stay here and order something from the kitchens after I get paid. Will I have long enough to go buy a sewing kit first?"

"It shouldn't take more than three hours," Guild Master tells me. "But no less than one."

"Do you know how to sew?" Nina asks.

"No."

"I've got a kit here," she tells me. "I can mend it for you and show you how."

"Thank you," I say. "How much?"

"Ten copper," she answers.

"Okay," I say, then look at Guild Master.

"If that is all," he says. "Then you are dismissed."

Nina leads me downstairs, and I pay for food from the bar before taking a seat at a table while Nina leaves to go do something. She returns with her sewing kit and my earnings for the loot I sold to the guild and the information I gave Guild Master. I pull off my pack and tunic and hand Nina my tunic and a ten-copper coinbefore I pull my pack back on.

Since Nina is showing me how to sew as she mends my tunic's sleeve, I pay close attention. Watching her movements, it's definitely something I'll need to practice. My fingers aren't nearly nimble enough to work as well as she can, and she's absolutely slowed down so I can actually see the work.

When she finishes, it's hard to tell that my tunic was ever damaged in the first place. As long as I don't use my high Perception, anyway. Then I can tell that the blue of the thread is a different shade from the blue of the tunic and can see the mending job.

"There you go," Nina hands me my tunic back, and I pull off my pack so I can pull the tunic back on, pulling on my pack again after. "It should be as good as new now. If you want to mend things yourself, I'd recommend getting some cloth and practicing on that first. Otherwise, you'll be likely to accidentally tear it due to using too much strength, especially with how strong you are."

"Thanks for the advice," I tell her.

"You're welcome," she tells me. "I'm going to get back to work now, enjoy the rest of your meal."

I do enjoy the rest of my meal, then I sit here and wait for whoever is coming from the castle to arrive. When they arrive, it's easy to tell it's them and not guild members or adventurers of some sort.

First, there's a woman around sixteen or seventeen, who is wearing a dark green dress with her brown hair tied back into a braid. Despite the more feminine appearance she has, it's easy to tell by her walk that she's a fighter. She's wearing a dress right now because she's not hunting or fighting, I'm sure of that. I bet she puts on pants and a tunic for combat.

Or she's a pure mage and doesn't care about that stuff. Either way, she knows what she looks good in and is making use of that. Most of the men here turn to stare at her. She's pretty, but Colt's more my type when it comes to looks.

I'm willing to bet her dress costs more than everything I've sold so far combined. Just how powerful a mage is she?

Accompanying her are four men and two women all dressed in similar outfits, dark green and black with white and blue parts. Two of the men and one of the women have swords, while the other three are probably mages.

Are they actually her bodyguards? Even though it's obvious she powerful on her own?

"Lady Elise!" Nina exclaims. "Welcome to our humble guild. We weren't expecting your presence, so please, forgive us for our accommodations."

This is the princess? She came here herself to collect her knives? Then those must be royal guards. Every single member of the royal guards has to have at least four affinities, Daniel told me yesterday. And they must be at least Level 50. Even the weakest of them is going to be stronger than me.

This is a powerful force standing before me. And here I thought it was going to just be a royal carrier. Is that the term? I think I got it wrong. A royal messenger.

"There is nothing to forgive," Lady Elise tells Nina. "I wished to meet with the boy who located my knives. The report said he found them while hunting goblins? Is he still here, or has he gone home?"

"He is here," Nina informs her. "He wished to be present for the payment, rather than have to wait for it. He's not a member of our guild."

"I see," Lady Elise says. "Where is he?"

"Max," Nina beckons me to come over. "Come here, please."