Sarah's Story Chapter 033 - Ale and a Rumor

And that was it. Sarah had completed all the Scout training offered by the Adventurer’s Guild. Her tab for training expenses had grown, but she was making consistent money helping out on Sparring Saturdays and assisting individual adventurers who wanted to practice their skills on someone without having to hold back. It was win-win for Sarah: she got [Dodge] practice, and she got paid on top of that.

Still, she owed over fifty silver at this point.

And no Bounty Hunter had shown up in eight months.

She took a seat at the bar and Jacob poured her a half mug of beer, even though they weren’t open yet.

“Why the long face, Sarah?” he asked as he continued prepping for opening. “Scout training got you down?”

Sarah took a sip, savoring the ale.

Brawler Class Skill [Discerning Taste] has has reached level 7.

“Ahh, this is a good barrel.”

“Is it? Good, I’ll charge more for it.” Jacob smiled, polishing glasses and lining them up in a row.

Sarah sighed. “No, actually, I’m done with Scout training.”

Jacob raised an eyebrow. “Done?”

“Yeah, done.” She took another sip. “Exploration was the last one. I had to take a non-complete, but I’ve learned everything I can.”

Jacob chuckled. “You’re the first person I’ve seen actually take all the courses, in any track. You’re also, by far, the slowest.”

“Oi!” Sarah gave him a look, and then sighed again. “Well, you’re not wrong about that.”

“Oh, Sarah, there you are!” A cheerful voice rang out from the direction of the receptionist desks.

Sarah raised a hand without looking. “Hey, Tiffany.”

Jacob smiled, looking over Sarah’s shoulder. “Done with your shift, Tiffany? This new barrel has our resident expert’s approval, want to try it? For you, one copper.”

“For one mug? Get real, Jacob.” Tiffany huffed.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, eyeing the last bit of ale at the bottom of her mug. “You’re gonna charge a copper per mug?” Normally the ale was two mugs per copper piece.

He shrugged. “The brewery’s been putting out some real sludge lately. A good barrel’s been hard to come by. I’m sure it’ll be finished by the end of the night.”

Tiffany hopped up on the barstool next to Sarah. “Oh Sarah~” she sang.

Tiffany always started like that when she had some juicy gossip. But Sarah wasn’t in the mood.

“If it’s not about finding my brother or about Scouting, I don’t want to hear it. Not today.”

Jacob frowned. Sarah really was in a bad mood. Now he felt a little bad about teasing her.

“It is, though~” Tiffany sang back.

Sarah looked up at her from her slouch. “Wait, really?”

“Yep! I’ll tell you if you buy me a mug of that good ale.” Sarah gave her a look, but Tiffany just winked. “It’s worth it, I promise!”

Sarah trusted in the Guildhall’s resident gossip and fished two copper pieces out of her coin purse before tucking it back into her shirt. She slid them across the bar to Jacob.

“Make it a mug for each of us, might as well enjoy it before it’s gone.”

“My pleasure, miladies.” Jacob smiled professionally and swiftly poured them two large mugs of the ale.

Tiffany took a hesitant sip of the ale, getting some of the froth on her upper lip. “Oh, this is decent!” she exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Alright Tiff, dish.” Sarah took a sip of her own ale, trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

Tiffany smirked at Jacob and twirled her finger, activating her [Private Conversation] Skill, and then she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Fine, keep your secrets then,” he rolled his eyes and resumed his preparations at the other end of the bar.

“Ahem.” Sarah cleared her throat, feeling impatient.

Tiffany looked at Sarah’s expression, and frowned sadly. “Aww, sorry Sarah, I didn’t realize you were so down. But this is good news, I promise.”

“About James?” Sarah felt the slightest glimmer of hope.

“Uh, no, sorry. It’s about Scouting, though!”

Sarah took another slow sip of her ale while she recomposed herself. Then she shot a glance at Tiffany, urging her to continue.

“Look, I just heard that an A Rank party is coming to town!”

Sarah’s eyes widened. That was big news. News that Tiffany was not supposed to be gossiping about, but Sarah wouldn’t complain.

“And not just that, but their Scout is a bit unusual. Only B Rank, and super specialized in finding hidden treasures and traps. They say she’s the best.”

“Wait, and the party is A Rank? With a B rank member?” Typically, parties were ranked lower than the average rank of their members. Sarah had never even heard of an A Rank party with any members lower than A Rank before.

A Rank was a Big Deal.

Tiffany nodded. “That’s how good she is. But here’s the real juicy bit: they’re recruiting! ...Well, kinda.”

“’Kinda?’ How can they ‘kinda’ be recruiting?”

“It’s for the Scout: she’s good at finding treasures and traps, but she’s, uh… not great at anything else. So she needs practice with self-defense. And I happen to know someone who’s too good at fighting, but can’t find a trap to save her life…” Tiffany teased.

“Wait… wait, are you serious?” Sarah asked incredulously. There was no way…

“Yep! A certain someone’s going to get a certain offer to help another certain someone with training, and maybe get some training in return…” Tiffany leaned in and covered her mouth. “They might even take a certain someone in with them on a Dungeon run!”

Sarah took a deep breath. She was certain that if she could practice on real, actually dangerous traps, that she could get the hang of it with her [Danger Sense]. And if she could get training from some of the best of the best…

Tiffany leaned back with a smug grin and took a long sip of her ale. “Ahh, that’s good. Well, do you think that was worth your copper, buying me a drink?”

Sarah sat up straight and turned to face Tiffany directly.

“It sure was. Thanks, Tiffany.” Sarah’s smile was so sincere and direct it made Tiffany blush.

She covered up her embarrassment by drinking more of her ale, finishing the mug.

“Of, of course! That’s what friends are for, after all!” Tiffany smiled back, then hopped down off her barstool, leaving the mug on the bar. “Anyway, I’m headed home. See ya later!”

Sarah raised her mug in salute as the loose-lipped receptionist rushed out the door.