Death's New Adventure

Chapter 13: Hatred and Ambush!

[Appraise]

<Wolf Claw>
<Wolf Claw>
<Wolf Claw>
<Dire Rat Claw>
<Wolf Claw>

I took the Dire Rat claw out of the small pile of claws I had been handed and set it aside. "Four wolf claws received," I noted, and looked up at the adventurer that had handed them to me. "Unfortunately, I cannot award you for the job until you provide all five wolf claws requested," I said to him.

"Count again, fuck demon," said the man angrily. "I gave you five wolf claws."

I winced internally, as this was the fifth time in a row my appraisal had been called into question. Outwardly I shook my head and pointed at the visibly smaller claw I had set aside. "That is a Dire Rat claw. Please return when you have procured another wolf claw. If you disagree with my appraisal you may have another clerk appraise it as well, but you should be aware that all of us are extremely busy." I didn't even want to speculate on how a Dire Rat claw got mixed in with Wolf claws, or how he thought I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It was clearly smaller and differently shaped; even if I didn't have Appraise, I'd still be giving it a doubtful look.

His face reddened. "I don't need anyone's appraisal to know that that," he pointed at the Dire Rat claw, "is a wolf claw, and you're trying to cheat me! I did my job, now pay me for it!" he yelled, and I sighed internally. This wasn't the first adventurer that had tried to pass off an obviously wrong item as the requested item, but most had the good sense to not press the issue against someone that could appraise.

"Is there a problem here?" asked Isabelle from behind me.

I handed her the Dire Rat claw. "What do you make of this?" I asked her.

She looked it over and shrugged. "It looks like a perfectly normal Dire Rat claw to me. What's the issue?"

"This man insists it's a wolf claw," I explained.

Isabelle narrowed her eyes at the man, and he fidgeted where he was standing. "I... ah... I might have made a mistake?" he ventured.

Isabelle clucked her tongue, and raised her voice. "Angela has the appraise ability, just like myself and all other clerks I employ. If you don't believe her appraisals, you are free to bring your concerns to me. However, if I keep having to double check every one of her appraisals because you don't want to believe a succubus can appraise, I'm going to have to start handing out demerits when I find her appraisals to be correct. Do you understand me?" she said, and her gaze shifted around the room to address the entire crowd of adventurers waiting to turn in their jobs.

Nobody spoke up, but several adventurers got out of my line and left. Others moved to the back of lines going to other clerks. I had to wonder if the other clerks had to deal with so many misidentifications, or if the adventurers were just trying to take advantage of the new clerk. I certainly had to wonder about the few that left outright; did even they know that they had the wrong items for whatever quest they were trying to claim?

A short time later, I had finished my queue, while the other clerks still had long lines formed. "Um... Clerk available!" I called out and waved. "I can take someone right now!"

Nobody moved, so I called out again. "Line open! Immediate service!"

I sighed as it seemed that nobody wanted to come to my line. I was working as a clerk to fill in for the clerk Isabelle had to fire, but that didn't do any good if I wasn't doing any work. Melissa beside me was giving job rewards quickly and efficiently, but her line was filling up as fast as she was working through it, and the other clerks were getting swamped. It was the busiest part of the evening, and more and more adventurers were coming in to report their jobs. I had to wonder just how many adventurers the guild had; it certainly seemed like half the guild was waiting in line. Some of them looked like they might head toward my line, but stopped and headed to other lines either after they saw what I was, or when other adventurers spoke to them.