Kynos barely had time to see the reception woman wink before he was surrounded by people twice his height and many times his size.

From the jumble of voices coming at him, he managed to figure out that A-class mages were very rare, and that he could have his pick of the litter when it came to parties. The commotion left Kynos a bit confused, as he had interacted mostly with very powerful casters in their base city, which led him to believe they were commonly found. Even Elise was on his level in terms of combat, being able to reanimate a variety of creatures to form a small army.

A short moment later, a pair of objects that looked more log than arm pushed through the crowd and separated it. The giant of a man that the objects were attached to made way for a much smaller man in a white coat, who immediately spoke up.

“That is...a request to kill goblins? I imagine you're new here? Goblin extermination is usually left to the weakest of the newbies, and in this city, with so many powerful mages, those requests are usually very unpopular.” He paused a moment. “Ah, excuse my rudeness; my name is Erwin, an alchemist. Please to meet you.”

The man bent down a little to extend his hand, which Kynos shook. He noticed that Erwin was a beardless young man, dressed very well.

“Now then, as you are a master magician, I would like to hire you as an escort for my expedition into the forest outside of Incanta. My purpo...”

The surrounding crowd booed as the alchemist solicited Kynos. The large man stepped in and cracked his knuckles threateningly, trying to shut them up. Unfortunately, it turns out that adventurers were far too jaded to care about an overgrown, clearly inexperienced largish man. They turned to focus on taunting him instead, some of the burlier ones grinning at the thought of some real entertainment. Kynos took the chance to follow slip out of the crowd and ask a question.

“Erwin, I'm Kynos. It would be me and another mage, you'd have to hire us both, is that alright?”

The alchemist pondered for a moment, and replied, “sure, but I was going to offer you a gold coin, which you'd have to now split. It return, we'll shoulder the cost for food, water, and horses.”

Kynos nodded slowly. Gold was definitely valuable, as his entire fortune was less than a hundred of them. A single gold coin had been enough for all of his previous purchases, minus the water machine, all of which had been delivered to his residence along with the rest of his purchase. He followed Erwin to a table to sit and listen to the request.

Erwin was interested in safety first, so he decided to overload on combat power. The large man, still surrounded by ornery adventurers, was introduced as his companion from early childhood. Erwin claimed to be a 'field scientist' and was planning to test out several concoctions he had formulated, both in combat and on the local wildlife. They would camp out on the outskirts of the forest or in a clearing, if they could find one, in order to observe the effects over a period of several days. The whole trip would take two weeks.

Kynos added a condition, that Erwin would buy the supplies and water machine, which they needed anyway, for market price from Kynos in addition to providing additional supplies and the transportation for the trip. Erwin accepted it without negotiation. The two shook hands again and agreed to meet at the guild in ten days.

Kynos quietly slipped out of the guild while offering his condolences to the large man who was stoically enduring the insults and taunts. He needed to make time for a day out with Elise to pick out equipment.