"Are there any regular gathering requests?"

While I was still basking in the excitement of becoming an adventurer without any trouble, Rio had already moved on to practical matters and asked the receptionist about available jobs.

"Yes, for F-rank adventurers, there are always requests for gathering medicinal herbs and antidote herbs. If you have some, you can sell them at the purchase counter over there."

"Let’s go, Shu," Rio said, tugging on my sleeve.

We made our way to the designated counter. Medicinal and antidote herbs… Did we gather any? I knew there were plenty of those in the Demon Forest, but because they were so abundant, we rarely bothered collecting them. Mushrooms were usually more effective anyway.

"Right, right, this is the purchase counter. Just place what you’re selling on the scale here," said the clerk, a short, stout man whose broad frame was wider than his height.

Rio stood at the counter, pretending to pull something from her robe, and placed two bundles of herbs on the scale.

"Let’s see here. Medicinal herbs and antidote herbs, huh? I’ll count these up for you."

The stout man quickly sorted and counted the bundles.

"All right, sixteen medicinal herbs and twenty-two antidote herbs. That comes to a total of 180 flons—one large copper coin and eight copper coins. Here you go."

"Thank you very much," Rio replied, accepting the coins and tucking them into her robe.

180 flons for those herbs… Considering our room at the inn costs 800 flons for two people, this was barely enough to cover anything.

"Rio, when did you even gather those herbs?"

"I’ve been collecting them bit by bit. I’ve got more, but I thought I’d start small to see how it goes."

We whispered quietly, keeping our conversation from prying ears. That was just like her—careful and meticulous. It wasn’t a bad thing, especially since we could always camp outside the city if needed.

"But gathering herbs alone isn’t going to make us much money. We need to rank up," Rio said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, we need ten completed requests to go from F to E rank, right?"

"Correct," the clerk interjected. "For constant requests like herbs, five bundles of each count as one completed request. So, missy, that means you’ve completed seven requests so far."

"Wait… only Rio?"

A sinking feeling hit me as I confirmed with the clerk.

"Yep. You two ain’t registered as a party, are ya? That means requests are logged individually."

"What?! Are you serious?!"

"Really?!"

We both turned to the blonde elf receptionist, who hurried over with an apologetic expression.

"My deepest apologies! This was an oversight on our part. Normally, we can’t amend completed requests, but if you form a party right now, I can process the requests for Shu as well."

"Oh, thank you so much for letting us know!"

"No, it’s entirely our fault," she replied with a polite bow.

The receptionist immediately began the paperwork for creating a party.

"Now, please decide on a party name," she said with a smile.

A name? I hadn’t thought about this at all. I glanced at Rio, hoping for inspiration, but she shook her head.

"Uh… coming up with a name on the spot is kinda tough," I muttered.

"Waterbook," Rio murmured, almost too softly to hear.

Wasn’t that just my name translated into English? Using my name like that felt… embarrassing. But it gave me an idea. What about using part of her name instead? "Yuzu" in English, maybe? But I wasn’t sure how to translate it… Ah, wait!

"How about Moon’s Dewdrop?"

"Understood. Moon’s Dewdrop it is," the receptionist said. "Please hand me your guild cards for updating."

After taking our cards, she returned a few moments later with our new party information added.

"Both of you now have seven completed requests. You’ll need three more to rank up to E rank."

Seven requests already done! With just three more, we’d hit E rank and finally start earning decent rewards.

"Let’s check out the available requests," Rio suggested.

"Yeah, let’s do it."

We walked over to the bulletin board, scanning the available jobs.

"The G-rank ones are mostly odd jobs around the city. Oh, look—there are F-rank ones for city work too."

"Looks like most of the city jobs involve heavy labor. Those are probably F or E rank," Rio observed.

"Doesn’t look like there’s anything we can finish by today," I said after a moment.

Some of the more unusual requests included cleaning public baths or searching for escaped tamed monsters. Cleaning baths? Did this city have public baths? If so, we had to check them out.

As for the escaped monsters… That meant taming skills existed in this world! I absolutely had to figure out how to unlock one.

Would feeding monsters meat and winning their trust be enough? What kind of creatures lived around the city anyway?

"Shu?"

Rio’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. Oh, right—requests.

"Let’s hold off for now," I said. "We don’t know the city well yet, so let’s spend the rest of the day exploring."

"…It’s a date, then!"

Her eyes sparkled, and whatever doubts she’d had earlier vanished in an instant.