Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

26. Clover Town

A/N: USD 1 = 100 Jewel, if you wanted to know how Fairy Tail's currency worked.

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Defeat the local "Mud Wizard" that has been terrorising local Rune Knights and preventing us from getting into the local salt mines—reward: 100,000 J.

The "Wizard" in question was just a man who dug a series of streams that caused the entrance of the mines and the hills to get up them to become untraversable mud lands.

Successful.

Hunt down beasts that have been destroying the cabbages of a prosperous cabbage farmer—reward: 90,000 J.

The beasts were escaped cloud mammoths from a local circus that had set up residency within the forest beside the farmlands.

Successful.

Investigate missing person cases and find any correlations that they might have with ghost sightings and a mysterious fog within the woods—reward: 400,000 J.

Totomaru and I were able to figure out that the ghosts and fog were all the results of a skilled illusionist. The people who were disappearing were all being lured into the woods without them knowing, getting trapped inside the woods to starve and be eaten by the wildlife. The illusionist was the former lord of the land who was overthrown by his people and removed from power by the government due to abusing his power. To get revenge, he collaborated with a dark guild to establish the traps.

Of the fourteen people who were brought into the forest, only eleven survived with one of the bodies not being found.

Successful, with the reward being raised by another 600,000 J for taking down a dark guild.

And this was only the first two weeks.

Totomaru and I didn't rest at all the moment we joined Phantom Lord. All of the meals we got were from restaurants we passed by, and all of our sleep was gained from camping or on the train rides between cities. The only times we bathed were when we stopped by a local inn every couple of days.

We wanted to accomplish two things as quickly as possible. First, to build up savings for us to use whenever we needed to. Second, to make a name for ourselves inside the guild.

And we succeeded in both.

The two of us quickly earned the nickname "The Hot-Footed Rookies," as well as a heavy savings of 2,390,000 J, with both it being split 1,195,000 J split evenly between the two of us.

For perspective, our monthly rent is only 40k to 50k, or 480k to 600k a year. Meaning just based on what we have now we could live fairly comfortably for a couple of years without worry.

But we weren't content resting on our laurels, with the both of us having too much fun going around on these random quests and seeing the country.

And right now, I am enjoying myself with our current job.

The two of us were in Clover Town in the middle of a festival, a small crowd was surrounding us cheering "Eat!" "Eat!" "Eat!" "Eat!" at the top of their lungs. In front of me was what used to be a fish, but all that was left now is bones. On my right was Totomaru, dry-heaving every time he took a bite of the fish we and three other pairs of people were challenged to eat.

The job description, "Me and my buddies have yet to meet a duo who could eat the infamous flying Hane-Sakana fish. The taste is so disgusting that not even the greatest fish lovers can stand it! So, grab a buddy and compete against six others to try and consume this abomination to the skies! Reward: 5,000 J for participation, 10,000 for whoever gets to finish their meal, and another 50,000 if both members of the team can finish it!"