Limits

The second group left, while the first group perished, at their hands. I checked the corpses, but found nothing. 'They aren't stupid, they took everything that could be of use, even their clothes' I thought. It didn't matter that much, I was still quite happy, that someone would help me out like this. 'I need to increase my strength. I've been too confident lately. Just because I broke through the Half Step of the Outer Limit, it doesn't mean I'm invincible' I thought.

If the fight was one vs one, I would also kill that leader guy from the first group. I could kill almost anyone from both groups, in one vs one battle. 'The exception is, that leader of the second group. I'm not sure if I could win, even with the help from Frosty' I thought. As I thought that, I asked out loud "Frosty, what do you think? What should we do next?".

Frosty transformed into his corporeal form, and this time didn't try to motion in order to convey its meaning. Frosty started writing something on the ground. Although the grammar was not very good, at least I knew the words and the meaning. Frosty wrote that we should continue with the Mercenary Guild thing, and that increasing my rank was a good idea. "I also thought about that. With a better rank, I will have access to more information. While I'm at it, I can still train and try to increase my strength. How about you?".

Frosty thought for a while, then nodded. "I still have that Extract, it seems to help you develop a lot. Maybe we can use that, to increase your strength?" I said. Frosty nodded, and agreed with me. I took out the Extract, but this time, I gave Frosty a much larger does than before. "Alright, take this. Absorb it for as long as you need. I will manage on my own for now". Frosty nodded, and drank the Extract. Frosty almost immediately froze on the spot, but before it could completely freeze, Frosty change back to the tattoo on my hand.

The Extract was so strong, that even my arm formed a layer of frost. 'This should help develop Frosty's freezing powers. It will be great help later' I thought, and went straight towards a cave, that was closest to me. I still had to complete the task, and I wanted to complete it exceptionally. 'Everything is recorded in that Mercenary Guild. If I finished my task in an exceptional way, this should allow me to move up the Tiers faster' I thought.

I already had over 100 Lears on me, but I didn't want to submit 100. I was aiming at a much larger number. 'I can probably catch about 100 Lears in 1-2 hours. If I assume about 3 hours to return, I have about 18 hours left' I thought. It was 18 hours, because I also had to get to this place, and fight meanwhile. The first cave I've visited, was full of Lears. I started catching them like possessed. I decided to utilise a different method to save some time. I only killed the Lears. I would leave the process of extracting all of the blade like legs and teeth, for when I was on my way back to the city. I could always do that when I walked, so there was no point wasting my time now.

After about 2 hours, I had almost 300 Lears in my bags. I separated the ones I already had, with the ones I had to clean up still. The number of Lears decreased in the cave, so I decided to change locations. 'I can't exterminate them all in one place. Besides, it takes longer, when there are fewer of them' I thought. The next cave, was about 20 minutes away, if one sprinted.

I repeated the same thing in the next cave, then moved to another. Not every cave was crawling with Lears though. Sometimes I had to change locations very quickly, as the amount of them inside was abysmal. I ran like this for about 10 hours, without taking breaks. I was tired, even though I ate food while traveling from one cave to another. After these 10 hours, I had around 800 Lears in my bag. That was the amount of Lears, I caught in that 10 hours period. All together, I had almost 1000 of them. 'I will catch a bit more, and then return. I wonder what type of bonus will I receive, when I bring a 1000? It is 10 times more than required, so I'm expecting a better bonus' I thought.

When I finally finished catching those Lears, I had over 1000 of them altogether. I decided to just rest, and eat something. The bag was also heavy. One Lears weighted around a kilogram, so I was carrying about a tonne of them in that bag. I could put them into my Storage Feather, but I figured that carrying so much, was also a form of training. With my rest and meal done, I started cleaning up the Lears.

'I still have couple of hours, before I need to return the task. I can just do it here then' I thought. I was already sick of those Lears. It was such a monotony, and I still had to clean them up. This alone took my a few hours. I finished cleaning the rest of the Lears in my bag, as I walked towards the Varent.

I went straight to the Mercenary Guild, and walked over to the counter. The same Golem that provided me with the membership stone, asked "You came to hand your task in?". I nodded my head, and said "Yes, I also have more than required", and handed him the paper with the task, as well as the bag which contained 1000 Lears.

When he took it, he became visibly shocked due to the weight. I said "I would like to get the bag back". He came back to himself, and said "Of course, we are interested in the items required only. By the way, how many did you collect?". I said "1000 of them". He took in some air, and replied "That is exactly 10 times the required amount. Because you brought so much, and it was your first task as well, I will double your contribution points. Although the amount of money will not change, you will get paid the same rate, 25 Copper Hals per 100 Lears. Are you alright with that?".

I said "Sure". He took the bag with him, and dumped the content somewhere else, probably into another storage item. He returned after a while, and handed me the bag while saying "Hand me your membership stone. I will update it". I gave him the stone, and he said "For this task, you will receive 2 Red Hals and 50 Copper Hals, as well as 100 contribution points, which is double of the usual 50 that you would receive".

He recorded all that on my stone, and then gave it back. The Golem then said "You can now take on another task if you'd like, or wait some time. You have 100 days, to finish another task". I nodded my head, and headed to the boards that displayed those tasks. This time, I wanted something more interesting, than simple Lears collection. I also planned to aim for a bonus like before. Last time, I didn't pay much attention to the tasks displayed on the boards, because I simply wanted a task which would give me a reason to leave the city. Now that I had a more detailed look, I noticed that not every task could be taken by me, or at least that was what I assumed.

The tasks possessed ranks as well. There were Bronze, Steel and Silver tasks displayed on the boards. My rank was Bronze, so I probably couldn't take the Steel or Silver ranked tasks. I didn't even try, I was sure that the Golem would say "You can't take that task, your Rank is to low", or something like that. I searched for Bronze Rank tasks, and found an interesting one. 'This one should be fun' I thought, and took it.