The Most Dangerous of Weeds [Job, Solo]

Job Information:

Aelfric had spent some time deciding which job he should take for his first time, it was a landmark in his career as a future hero after all. Eventually, after scouring most of the D ranked jobs on offer, he decided on a simple enough request to acquire a sample of some new weed that had been discovered. It sounded like a nice, simple job while at the same time it should help prevent further people being hospitalized by removing these weeds.

After traveling to beanstalk village he quickly tracked down the herbalist's store, a rather nice two-story house near the outskirts of town, and entered through the swinging door at the front. The inside was a nice blend of rusty wooden house and modern storefront, mostly containing steel shelving containing all sorts of odd herbal mixtures. At the far end of the store Aelfric could also see a wooden counter with a smartly dressed woman behind it, thinking this was most likely the client he walked forwards and said "Hello Ms., I'm here about the job request you put out".

Looking up, the woman replied "Ah yes, I'm glad someone finally came about that. Well, you look tough enough I guess so the weeds aren't likely to put you in hospital like the last few people who came into contact with them. You can find the clump of weeds I'm aware of about 2 hours walk north-east of the town, there is a large patch of denser forest that the nasty little things are hidden in."

Nodding his understanding, Aelfric said, "Thanks for the directions, ill be back with the sample later this afternoon then", and turned to leave.  Wait! Before you leave take this"; the herbalist said as offered a small, sealed box over the counter, "use this to carry the sample back, I don't want it getting contaminated before I have a chance to examine it." After thanking her again, Aelfric starts heading out towards the North-East intent of getting to the plants as soon as possible. It was already well into the afternoon already and he had no desire whatever to try and search through a forest in the dark trying to find these weeds.

Luckily the Herbalist's estimate of the distance was correct and a little over two hours later what had to be the clump of forest she had mentioned. It was small, less than 5 hundred square meters by his guess, but rather more tightly packed compared to the thinly spread trees he had been traveling through so far. There were also thick, almost sinister shadows being thrown by the gentle swaying of the leaves; giving the impression that this was not a good place to travel.

While a little put off by the unusual sight, Aelfric pressed on through the edge of the trees; he had a job to do after all. While it was hard going at first, he soon got used to using his superior strength to force the various branches aside. Finally, after a good 20 minutes of searching, he stumbled into a moderate side clearing filled with 7 very strange, twisted looking plants. Around the outer edge were 4 single leaved plants, with two doubled leaved plants a little further in and a final, much larger, 3 leaved plants sitting in the center of the clearing.

"These must be it", he thought, as he pulled the box out of his pack and walked towards the nearest single leafed plant. "I'll just grab this one as a sample, then destroy the rest", with that thought he reached out and pulled the weed from the ground; only to should out in shock as a sharp, shooting pain came from his hand and shot all the way up his shoulder. Luckily, despite the pain, he was able to drop the sample into the box and seal it tight, rather than sending it flying across the clearing.

Looking down at his hand, he could see a nasty red push surrounding a small puncture wound, he could certainly see why some people had been hospitalized now! "Better take care of that first", he thought before activating Burst of Healing to clear up the injury. With the sample now stowed away, he had no need for the rest of the abominable plants and so drew his trusty club off his back and started going to town on the nasty things.

Soon he had destroyed all the single leaf weeds, requiring two hits each, and the two leaf weeds, require 4 and was left with only the much larger 3 leafed plant in the center of the clearing. "Something tells me taking you down won't be quite as easy as the others", he said out loud as he considered his options, I'd better go all out". So saying, he activated Echo of Strength and charged forwards, intending to smash the plant into paste.

At first, it even worked, he managed to land a solid hit on the thing before he reeled back in shock as he registered a stinging pain to every bit of exposed skin. Somehow the thing was hurting him without even touching it! And while each individual bit of affected skin hurt much less than the earlier sting, combined they were just as dangerous.

Shaking his head to clear it, Aelfric stared back at the plant and sighed. With no offensive magic or ranged attacks to speak off, there was only one way to do this and it was going to hurt. With a loud cry, to psyched himself up more than anything, he charged back into range of the plant and this time managed to get two solid hits on the dastardly thing before being driven back once more. Then, after resting against a nearby tree for a few moments to shake off the pain, he stepped back in for a final time, dealing two more blows that ground the plant into the ground and destroyed whatever foul method it had been using to damage his skin.

With the last of the plants finally dealt with, Aelfric wearily cleaned of his trusty club and turned back towards the village to begin his trek back. Despite how his so-called 'Simple first mission' had turned out he was reasonably happy, with the outcome. He had managed to finish the objective, and the injuries he had sustained were, while painful, nothing that his natural regeneration couldn't handle.

And so he headed back to the village to the village with a wide smile on his face to hand in the sample he had acquired. Upon returning the Herbalist was happy to receive an intact sample and gladly paid the promised reward. She also said she would keep in touch with the results of her Analysis, to which Aelfric nodded in thanks. After everything he went through with those damned weeds, he had a solid feeling that they were something very unnatural and he was deeply interested in finding out more. For now, though he left to get a good nights sleep, he really needed it after that day.

WC=1184

OOC - Combat Tracking: