I know that this is my first job, but really... [Job/Solo: Housekeeping!]

Spoiler:

Akeya walks through the streets of Clover Town, like usual wearing a large cloak to block out the sunlight. She's only been here for a day or so, and she has already decided that getting used to the weather is going to take some effort. Trying to ignore the few rays of sunlight that manage to reach her Akeya holds up the piece of paper which holds the details on the job. Since it's her first job she decided to take something simple, with little to no chance of things going wrong, but really, this is what mages do? They go around fixing people's houses? For one thing, you'd think people wouldn't let flies settle inside their house like that to begin with. It indicates that whoever owns that house isn't very keen on cleaning. As for the dog, he could just ask his neighbours to do something...

Akeya sighs and drops her head a little before shaking it and moving on. Fixing the roof shouldn't be too difficult, and for the rest she basically has to stay inside the house and make sure nobody tries to get in until the owner comes back, who has gone away for a week. All in all, this more sounds like some kind of minor errant mages do in between the actual jobs.

It didn't take too long for Akeya to reach the address written down on the piece of paper. While, at least it's somewhere in the middle of the town, so she won't have to worry about receiving a full load of sunlight at any point of the day, and with how busy this town is burglars would have trouble entering the house without being caught, even at night. Although at the same time the house didn't really fit in with the rest of the town: As Akeya suspected, whoever owns this house is not doing a good job taking care of it: the garden is badly taken care of, it's quite obvious where the leak in the room is coming from, and the hedge, probably put down originally to deal with the dog, has a hole in it. Other females might feel inclined to determine the gender of the owner to be male just because of what the house looks like. Well, at least that means the job is straightforward: Clean up, fix the roof, repair the fence so the dog at least has one extra deterrent.

Walking to the front door Akeya once again read the paper holding all details of the job while at the same time searching her pockets. When she took the job the man had showed up, telling her what she was supposed to do even though she had already read the job details before accepting it. After that was done he had quickly given her the spare key to the house before leaving. Apparently he was in a hurry to start his vacation. Of course, maybe Akeya's usual behaviour had also made him feel like going somewhere else.

Fishing out the key Akeya stuck it in the lock and turned it, then pushed open the door. Surprisingly, it didn't creak. Seems like the man doesn't just leave everything a mess. Entering the house Akeya silently closes the door behind her, then frowns as the smell of the house hits her. She normally made sure that her mask didn't block out smells, because denying herself that sense would just be foolish, but right now she was wishing that she didn't take that precaution: No wonder the man has problems with flies. Walking further into the house Akeya tries not to let the smell get to her, although it certainly doesn't improve her mood. If she's going to spend the next week here, she's certainly going to make sure that she can tolerate this place that long.

While walking through her temporary residence Akeya carefully inspected every detail of it, making sure she knew what was where and what needed to be done to get this house in proper shape. While the place did smell, it wasn't a complete mess: By and large, everything appeared to be where it was supposed to be, just not very clean. The man might not be the best cleaner, but at least he has made some effort at not letting his house turn into a hovel. Akeya was forced to revise her opinion: The lack of cleanliness aside, most of the house was still in good shape. The fence and the garden might have been broken due to reasons other than neglect, and maybe the man just wasn't very good at gardening. The house was fairly simple: The front door opens into a hallway, with the living room to one side, a toilet and a storage space on the other, and the kitchen at the end. The storage space's stowed away underneath the staircase, which leads to a single bedroom, a study, and a bathroom. Everything's a bit of a mess, but besides the kitchen, where the smell appears to be originating from, it's within tolerable levels.

Going back to the living room Akeya removed her cloak, relieved that inside she could walk around without the sun or any other light sources pestering her. Well, there are a couple of candles, and every room has one light lacrima, but those are too weak to bother Akeya much. Maybe this wouldn't be too bad a job after all. Not very impressive, no, and possibly tedious, but for a low ranked mage like Akeya that was to be expected.

The member 'FilFire' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Of course, it was that point in time that the universe had to remind Akeya the downsides of being optimistic: If you believe that things are going to go well, something is certainly going to go wrong. In this case, the thing going wrong was that exactly once Akeya had removed the cloak one of the actual issues with the house decided to let itself be known: The flies. Akeya only had some buzzing as warning before a small swarm of them entered the living room from the kitchen, heading directly for what for them is an intruder. Akeya stepped backwards, quickly grabbing the cloak she just dropped and using it to swat at the flies, at the same time quickly moving towards the light lacrima. The flies prove to be remarkably persistent, dodging the swung cloak and surrounding Akeya, together creating a loud droning. Some of them quickly flew forward, biting Akeya's exposed arms, causing her to grunt and frown. It wasn't exactly dangerous, but really annoying. Reaching the light lacrima Akeya threw her cloak over it, covering the room in shadows. A lot better for her. Now that she had enough shadows Akeya quickly gathered some of them around her right hand, forming them into a long and flat piece of what appears to be dark wood, with on one end a handle. Grabbing the impromptu made weapon Akeya started fighting back, lashing out at high speed as she tried to quickly make work of the pests.

Even with Akeya's training and the fact that she just made a weapon specifically for this, the flies moved fast enough that it took a while before Akeya managed to take them all down, to the point that when she could disperse the piece of wood the sun had very clearly shifted position. It was still in the afternoon, but it wouldn't be too long before it would be more appropriate to call it evening. The thought was something of a relief to Akeya, but before she could enjoy her favourite time of the day she'd have to do something about the mess. Flies may be small, but this large an amount of them is still not something you want on your floor. Ignoring the bites covering the pieces of her body where her skin is exposed Akeya started cleaning the mess which she herself just made. Luckily she didn't move much while taking care of the flies, so she just had to gather them in a pile and then put them in the garbage bin in the kitchen.

Once that is done Akeya sat down in one of the chairs in the living room, sighing as she finally relaxed. Okay... That had not gone as she expected. Apparently she couldn't let her guard down in this house. After a couple of minutes of sitting there, resting and mentally preparing for another swarm attack, Akeya slowly stood up again. First things first, she's going to do something about the kitchen.

Heading to the kitchen Akeya instinctively put a hand in front of her nose to block out the smell. It was weird how the man at the same time at least put some effort in keeping his house from just falling apart, but at the same time would let the kitchen be degraded to this. There were piles of unwashed dishes, the garbage bin was filled to the brim with leftovers, and now the flies Akeya just put in it, and by the smell of it some of the food had just gone bad. Akeya wondered what would happen if she just put a match to the place and then took care of what was left of it. However, while that is an interesting idea it should be kept inside her head, so Akeya started cleaning up, reluctantly letting go of her nose so she could use both hands. First thing to get rid of is all the leftovers and food that has gone bad. For now she'll just gather it in a bag and tomorrow she'll see how she can dispose of it. There were still a couple of flies, but the majority had been with the swarm Akeya ended up swatting, making the rest a lot easier to deal with.

Once that was done Akeya looked outside. It was already starting to become darker, the day giving way to the twilight. Deciding that she'd rather spend the couple of hours left before night following her rituals Akeya walked back into the living room, the biggest space available to her. Standing completely still Akeya closed her eyes, placing her right hand perpendicular in front of her masked mouth, all fingers folded except the middle finger and the index finger, while the other one was in front of her stomach, palm up and forming a bowl. Concentrating Akeya started breathing slowly and deeply, a sphere of magic energy forming in the curve of her left hand, which then slowly started to spread out, becoming fainter as it thinned and slowly mixed in with the magic which is always present everywhere. While doing this Akeya's senses at the same time became weaker and stronger, all of her focus on the magic around her, but also granting her the opportunity to feel the very flow of magic, to hear all the sounds, to smell even the smallest scent, although the stench from the kitchen still dominated the house.

Akeya continued this for the following hours, only stopping when it had become clear that the twilight had ended and now the night covered the land. Her breathing had become a bit heavier in the process: The ritual itself felt restful, but as always when it ended she felt the loss of magic she incurred trying to attune with the flow of magic. Well, that was the end of the first day. She felt the urge to stay awake during the night and sleep during the day, but now that she was outside of her home she had to account for the fact that most people spend their lives in daylight: Even if it was only for this week, afterwards she would be a mess trying to return to the sleeping schedule most people follow. Sitting down in the same chair as she had used before Akeya crossed her legs underneath herself, placing her hands in her lap as she once again closed her eyes and let her breathing slow, this time slowly falling asleep. Seeing how she was downstairs she should wake up the moment anybody tried to enter the house.

The night passed without incident, and so did the following day. Before the dawn arrived Akeya woke up, once again performing her rituals during the twilight, although this time she focused on sensing and controlling her own magic, since she'd rather not start the day feeling tired from following the ritual dedicated to merging her magic with that of the environment. Once the morning arrived Akeya ended the ritual and instead resumed cleaning the house. Finding out what to do with the garbage was at first a bit tricky, so she left it alone, until during further exploration of the house she found a not explaining how the next day people could put their garbage at the street and it would be picked up. Akeya had rather she could immediately get rid of the bag, but it'd be weird to leave the bag outside a day too early. She also wondered why the man himself hadn't just put the garbage outside. Probably just another aspect of cleaning he either wasn't good at or hadn't bothered with.

With that dilemma gone Akeya started on doing the dishes. That was rather easy, since she also had done that plenty of times back home, and while this was a lot more than she usually did, Akeya didn't have anything else to do, she was very much capable of being patient while doing chores, and besides, the sheer amount didn't make it harder, it just meant she had to go at it for longer. Once the dishes were cleaned up and stored away Akeya went around the house making sure that everything was in the right location: By and large it was tidy, leaving Akeya to pick up a couple of small items and books and put them wherever it looked they belonged. With the entire house at least tidy, and the worst source of the stench gone the house already appeared a lot better. Akeya set to work with the last task left before the house would be in good order again: Getting rid of all the dust. This took all day, since while the house wasn't that big it was still of decent size, and the only places where there wasn't any dust were the places the man had been using the most, meaning the bed, one of the chairs (the same one Akeya herself had been using), some of the kitchen, and footsteps connecting those places. Once that is done twilight has spread out across the sky, leaving Akeya to perform her attuning ritual, and then fall asleep. Tomorrow she'd go fix that fence, and maybe if the weather was right see what she could do about the roof.

The following day started the same way as the previous one had: Akeya woke up before dawn, performed the introspection ritual until it was morning, then considered the best approach for that day. Looking outside she saw that the sky was, like always here, rather devoid of clouds, so unless that changed somewhere throughout the day she'd have to save taking care of the roof for the next day. Although she didn't have any guarantee the next day would be any better regarding the weather. Sighing at the possibility of having to climb onto the roof during a sunny day Akeya grabbed the bag of garbage and carried it outside, placing it at the street, like the note said should be done with anything that simply needed to be removed from the house. Grimacing as the sunlight reached her Akeya walked to the side of the house to inspect the fence. That hole she saw when she arrived here wasn't the only thing that needs to be fixed, but if she wanted to keep the dog out of the way it'd probably take priority. If she remembered correctly there was some stuff inside the storage area she could use....

Walking back into the house Akeya headed for the storage room. Once she opened it she saw that she was right: There was plenty of planks here, as well as construction tools. Looks like the owner himself had already prepared for fixing the roof and possibly the fence, but then either forgot about it, didn't get the opportunity, or decided to let somebody else do the actual work. Either way, right now Akeya could get to work. She first carried the planks outside, then headed back inside to get the tools. Once she had everything Akeya got to work on the fence, which mostly meant replacing the broken pieces. Asides from the big hole, where she had to remove and replace several planks, that wasn't too bad. If that dog was so persistent this might not completely keep it out, but with some luck it'd at least help.

Once she was sure that she couldn't do much more about the fence Akeya inspected it. She wasn't a carpenter, so it wasn't exactly the most beautiful fix ever, but it'd have to do. Still better than what it was like before. She then looked up at the sky, holding a hand above her eyes to at least protect those from the bright sun. Looks like the weather didn't feel like helping her out. Really not feeling like fixing the roof under these circumstances Akeya gathered the tools and the remaining wood before heading back inside. Putting it all back into the storage Akeya considered what to do for the rest of the day, when she heard a rumbling from her stomach. Probably should eat something.

The rest of the day was rather boring, since besides the roof there really wasn't much for Akeya to do besides maintain the current level of tidiness and perform various rituals. Once it was twilight Akeya considered doing the same as the two previous days, but then decided otherwise. Maybe if she went to sleep early she could wake up in time to fix the roof before the sun became an issue.

Somewhere during the night Akeya woke up, stretching before looking around. The night may not be as good as twilight, but at least there wasn't the sun to bother her, and Akeya's eyes allow her to see just fine in the dark, at least as long as the moon kept giving at least some light. There were some clouds in the sky now, but still not nearly enough to help deal with the sun if Akeya didn't finish the roof before dawn. Just means she'd have to be quick about it. Grabbing the tools and the materials Akeya headed for the highest floor of the house. Yep, as she expected when she first saw the house, the source of the leaking is clear. She didn't know whether it was a matter of years of wear and tear or whether it was some kind of accident that caused it, but the roof had a hole in it. The reason why the man just described it as a leak was probably because when Akeya had been cleaning the house the entire attic had been covered in dust. He likely just noted it as a small leak when the water managed to get through the attic.

Akeya frowned as she inspected the hole. As said before, she wasn't a carpenter, so she wasn't sure how to fix a roof like this. Her guess was that she first repaired the inner layer and then took care of the outer layer. Putting the construction materials down Akeya went back down to the ground floor to get a ladder from the storage space, then came back up. Putting the ladder near the hole she grabbed the construction tools and materials and climbed up it, then closed the hole simply by putting planks in front of it and nailing them down. Once that was done she took the remaining materials outside, together with the ladder. Now to figure out how to get on the roof, since the ladder wasn't quite long enough for that. After some thinking Akeya shrugged. Might as well use her abilities then. Her arms and legs suddenly became darker, scales forming, while her hands and feet grow, fingers and toes turning into claws. Making sure she still had everything Akeya started climbing, using the increased strength and the claws from her magic to find her path up the roof. Once there repairing the roof itself was rather easy: Like before, put wood in front of the hole and nail it down, except now she has to make sure it fits properly.

Once that was done Akeya put the tools and what little wood she had left back in the storage, together with the ladder. Sitting down in the same chair she had been using the last couple of days Akeya stretched. It looked like the only thing left to do now is wait until the owner came back.

The remaining days of the job were uneventful, with Akeya mostly just staying inside the house to make sure that if there were any intruders she'd be there to take care of them, and make sure the house doesn't return to its state of being unattended. This left her lots of time to practice her rituals, and for the rest just rest, occasionally reading one of the books in the house. At some point she heard barking outside, and when she went to look for the source of the sound she saw the dog of the neighbours standing near the hole that she had fixed, looking indignant and confused as it barked at the hole. This managed to actually make Akeya chuckle a bit.

On the seventh day since Akeya entered the house for the first time she heard footsteps approaching the front door. It was already heading towards twilight, and Akeya had been spending her time meditation, allowing her to pick up on the noise. Opening her eyes Akeya stood up and walked towards the door, opening it to see the owner of the house stand in front of it. The owner took a bit of a step back when he saw her: Looks like he had forgotten Akeya's tendency to silently and with intensity stare at people. After the initial surprise the owner regained his composure: He was actually a fairly big one, maybe not exactly muscular but definitely broadly build.

"So, ehm, I'm back. Didya do everythin' that I put on the list?"

Akeya's only response was to nod silently, still staring at the man with her dark green eyes. The man tries to smile, although the scrutiny unnerves him a bit.

"Well, in that case I'll just pay ya... What was the amount again?"

"1250 jewels. I'll get my cloak while you fish out my reward."

Akeya turned around and walked back inside, heading into the leaving room to get her cloak. The man nodded numbly and started digging in his pockets for his wallet almost automatically. It wasn't so much the behaviour that got to him, but the fact that a girl like her was acting like that. When Akeya returns to the front door the man still stands there, money in hand.

"Here ya go. Thank ya for looking after my house for the week."

Akeya nodded silently, taking the money and stepping aside so the man could pass. Once the man was inside Akeya bowed slightly and then walked out of the door, making sure her cloak was completely covering her as she headed towards the guild. For a first job, this wasn't that bad. She did everything she was supposed to do, with even some extra. And while it wasn't very interesting, at least it had offered her plenty of opportunity to train.