Gren looked out his window at the snow piled up on the streets. The guild was kept snow-free using his water magic. It was good practice for him and it allowed him to become useful. Gren put on his winter gear--a brown jacket made from wool, a pair of black jeans, a black knit hat, and a pair of brown leather boots. There were also some brown leather gloves but they"d get in the way if he put them on now.Gren was a bit excited since today was a special day; Gren would be partic.i.p.ating in his first mission. The reward wasn"t much but the guild got a request that only he could fulfill. A section of the slums had been destroyed by the heavy snowfall and Gren"s magic would be needed.
Gren went downstairs to meet up with his team for today"s mission. Jasmine wanted to join Gren on his first mission but she was defeated by the cold weather and needed to stay indoors; a few of the other women joined her in hibernation thanks to their nonhuman characteristics.
The first to arrive were the two kobolds with different fur colors. They were dog-like people the height of goblins that couldn"t speak like humans. They"re still almost as intelligent as humans but their mouths had the same shape as a dog"s mouth. Gren picked them for his first mission because they proved to be very helpful and well-behaved during the last couple of months.
"Good morning, Noir. Good morning, Choco. You two got up pretty early today." The two of them didn"t have names so Gren got to name them. Noir had black fur while Choco had brown fur. They were nice girls but Choco becomes a bit overexcited when eating and Noir didn"t handle stress well.
Gren decided to cook something while waiting for the other women in his team. He had been trying to use his fire spells for cooking and lately he has been doing well with it. The spell book t.i.tled Fireb.a.l.l.s and Flamethrowers was more of an introductory book that covered more than just the attack spells that Gren a.s.sumed it would have.
Ahk"s last mission was to hunt down a bear that was preventing people from getting firewood and he still had some of its meat left. Gren was cutting the meat into cubes so that they"d fit onto skewers when a grey fur-covered arm reached over his shoulder to grab one. "Hey, wait for me to cook it first."
The person that grabbed the raw meat cube was a wolf beastman woman. Unlike regular beastmen she was completely covered in fur like the kobolds were. "Eh ay oo I eh"(it tastes good like this)
"I can"t understand you when you"re eating but I keep telling you that raw meat isn"t safe to eat. You"re going to get sick one of these days." This isn"t the first time that Gren had to tell Luna not to eat raw meat.
Luna swallowed and ruffled Gren"s head, causing his hat to almost come off. "I"ve never gotten sick before from eating raw meat. You humans are too fragile. Besides, if I did get sick then you could just heal me."
"That"s not the point. I won"t always be here to heal you." Gren knew it was pointless to argue with her so he gave up as he readjusted his hat. "If you do get sick then just let me know."
Gren made sure to cook enough meat for everybody that would be coming on the trip. The bear meat wasn"t enough for all six of them so he added boar meat as well. Gren had lots of food stored in his pocket dimension but couldn"t use it in public. Many of the guild members had already seen him using the pocket dimension but he didn"t want everyone in the world to know.
"You"re going to burn the meat if you keep zoning out like that." A woman with black fur covering her body removed the skewers from near the flames. "It"s impressive that you can use magic while being distracted but it"s not safe." Luna seemed amused by Midna"s words since Gren had just lectured her on safety.
Gren stopped the spell. "I"ll be more careful. I"ve just had a lot on my mind lately." Gren had a lot to worry about. Estella"s belly was already getting large and she would give birth within a month. Jessica"s belly was barely showing but there was no doubt that she was pregnant as well; the system verified it. Jasmine seemed upset that she couldn"t get pregnant--she wasn"t barren but draconoids could only get pregnant once every two years and she was depressed by that fact.
"You"re doing it again. You can"t afford to get distracted on the job." Midna was right; the soldiers didn"t seem to like mercenary guilds and were waiting for them to slip up. It"s no surprise since the soldiers acted as mercenaries to make extra money and their guild was competing with them.
The last woman that he was waiting for finally walked up the steps. She seemed a bit tired still as she got closer to Gren. "Did you have a good rest?" Gren tried to start a conversation when she wrapped her legs around him.
"Good morning, Gren." She was yawning while talking. "Is everybody else here?"
"Yeah, you"re the last to wake up. Do you need more time to get ready?" Gren felt awkward since Korra was only wearing her pants. Besides her arms she looked just like a human and her face was quite attractive. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s weren"t large but Gren thought that they were nice as he came face to face with them. If Gren didn"t know that she already liked someone else then he might suspect that she was trying to seduce him.
"Can you help me put on my shirt? Everybody else is busy cleaning up the new expansion and moving furniture into it." Korra couldn"t wear normal shirts since she had ma.s.sive ape arms. She couldn"t even tie the straps on her shirts because of how thick her fingers were. Gren helped her get the shirt over her head and tied the straps for her; it was cold out so Gren wrapped a scarf around her neck. "Thanks, Gren." Korra seemed happy with the scarf.
They were almost ready to leave for the slums. Noir, Choco, Luna, Midna, and Korra already knew what the mission was but Gren decided to give them a refresher course before they left. "Last night we got a request for a mission. The snowfall in Adierton this year was greater than any previous year and many buildings have collapsed. It"s our job to help uncover the buildings and provide a.s.sistance to the people in the slums. I will be doing most of the work with my magic but I need you to be my eyes, ears, and sometimes arms if there"s any danger."
Each of the women were given a backpack filled with food and medical supplies and they were handed a trench shovel that could be used both as a tool and a weapon. The cost of the medical supplies alone were worth more than what they"d get from the request but Gren didn"t want them to be in trouble if they managed to become separated.
"If anybody gets cold then let me know. I can start a fire for you and I"ve got extra clothes prepared." All of the preparation was done so Gren and his team left for the slums.