"Hey Soren, can you hear me?" Nicolas called out to him, as Soren was currently examining the mission board for his next quest. Hearing his voice, Soren whispered back quietly, as he stole a glance at Stephen, who seemed to be occupied with the sheet of paper he obtained from Aisha. "Loud and clear. What's the task for today?"

  "The task for today is to hunt this." At that moment, a blue panel appeared in front of him, nearly causing to jump.

  "That's... Very basic. Is this really it?" Soren asked, as he stared at the blue panel in front of him.

  "That's the next monster on the list. A far less complex opponent. It still outstats you, as it has a stat total of 42, with its primary stats being Strength and Agility, with a secondary focus on Vitality. Unlike the Caster, which boasted the entire set of beginner spells, this only has the ability to charge relentlessly. You shouldn't have many issues dealing with it, but we do suggest improving your weapon, should you be unable to pierce its hide." Nicolas explained, as he set a red cursor on Soren's left hand, which pointed towards the boar.

  "Got it... Is there anything else I'll need to do or keep in mind?"

  "Hmm... Nothing of the-" Nicolas was about to answer, before Vale took the microphone from him and stated in a cold manner. "Nothing of the sorts for now. For now focus on your target and as for anything else, we'll speak about it later."

  Once they closed their communication line, Soren decided to turn his attention towards any potential requests that required a Rugged Boar. Fortunately for him, there was one, but unfortunately, it was impossible to accept it currently, as he couldn't meet its requirements.

  'So I need to join a party... That's a problem...' Soren thought to himself, as he was quite a long ways off from becoming a Blue Rank hunter and he hadn't seen any players throughout the many days of playing the game. But even if he was playing in a bigger settlement, with actual people, he doubted anyone would be at a higher rank than purple. In the end, he could only give up for now and instead, accepted a quest about hunting Rabid Hogs, as well as the previous Slothful Knight Hunt quest, since both quests had the same kill count requirement.

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  With those quests in hand, he made his way towards his next location, Maybelle's smithy. Seeing the door to the smithy being left wide open as before, he wondered if she was away currently, but the groans and sobs that were echoing from inside, were telling him a different story. Upon entering, the suffocating smell of alcohol assaulted his nose, as if the air was infused with alcohol vapors and upon turning his eyes towards the counter, he was met with a bizarre sight, as many Maybelles seemed to be laying on the ground, walls and even a couple of the weapon displays.

  "Umm... Maybelle? Are you alright?" Soren asked, as he turned his head towards one of the nearby Maybelles, before her voice echoed from behind the counter. "Urgh... Mommy, let Maybelle sleep... For maybe a few years..." Hearing her voice, Soren decided to make his ways towards the origin of the voice and presumably, found the actual Maybelle, as she was sleeping inside an empty wine bottle, using a wine-stained napkin as a blanket.

  "Fan-freaking-tastic... The only blacksmith of the settlement is currently sloshed out their minds, as they are taking the nap of their lifetime, inside an empty wine bottle of all things." Soren commented annoyed, as he was looking at her sleeping form. Seeing Maybelle at her current state, he threw away his equipment upgrade plan and instead, decided to make his way towards Manny's potion shop. Thankfully, she was wide awake and sober, albeit bored, as she was staring absentmindedly at a nearby window.

  "Hey there." Soren greeted, as she turned her attention towards him and greeted him back. "Hey there kid. What'ya need for today?"

  "Got any remedies for drunkenness?"

  "Hmm... What you need it for? You don't seem drunk in my eyes." Manny asked, as she closely examined Soren's face.

  "It's not for me, it's for Maybelle. Seems like she decided to drink some wine and now she's taking an alcohol-induced power nap."

  "Ah, the usual. Got it. Give me a second, I know just the thing." Once she said that, Manny went to the back of the shop and quickly returned to the front with a small vial, filled with a viscous green liquid. "That's a basic antitoxin. Should help her with getting that wine out of her system. Do be careful with waking her up though. She doesn't take liking to people who interrupt her naps." Once she gave those warnings, she then passed the antitoxin vial on Soren's hand and added solemnly. "If she says anything weird about herself, just ignore it. Pretend you heard nothing." Soren nodded silently, as he took the antitoxin and slowly made his way towards the smithy. While making his way there, he examined the antitoxin vial, as this was a new item and was curious about its attributes.

  "Hmm... I guess alcohol counts a toxin." Soren commented, as he closed the panel and entered the smithy. As before, the stench of alcohol hadn't dissipated at all, despite the door being wide open, so he could only close his nose, so as not to let the smell of alcohol affect him. As he arrived in front of the Maybelle's makeshift bottle bed, he wondered how to wake her up gently, as he gently picked up her bottle bed and set it on the counter. While doing so, he accidentally bumped his elbow towards one of the other sleeping Maybelles, causing her to dissipate into red sparkling dust, which then started floating in the air for a bit, before gently gliding towards the bottle and entered inside Maybelle's body.

  Seeing this phenomenon, Soren worried he might have caused her some damage, but upon examining her slightly more colorful complexion, he let out a sigh of relief. With this information in mind, Soren decided to try again with another Maybelle, which was laying on the window and as the same events repeated as before, Soren suspected that she might need to take in her other unconscious versions of herself, before attempting to wake her up. With that plan in mind, he slowly nudged each and every one of them, as he kept an eye on her condition and once the last copy entered her body, Maybelle's body slowly moved, as her eyes slowly opened up and looked drowsily in front of the hazy figure in front of her. Seeing the hazy figure in front of her, she couldn't help but ask with a drowsy and sorrowful smile. "Vaan... You're back... Don't leave May-May alone again... You promised you won't leave, you big dummy..."