Nexus Shorts - Lief Ranks Up

Another day starts to dawn in the nexus and the guilds Red Mage member Lief Spruce light grunts as the sun beamed through his window to hit his face and after covering his face with a pillow his body decides to do its wake up call from nature. He pushed himself and goes into his bathroom to answer said call before washing up and brushing his teeth, looking into his mirror at his messy brown hair. “Morning mister jack of all and master of none.” He yawns him himself before swishing water and spitting into the sink, next came brushing down his hair and lightly patting his face to wake up.

“Breakfast time… Lets just pop some of that pizza into the microwave from yesterday it call it good…” Still rubbing his eyes a bit he opened the fridge and opened the pizza box from last night to find two slices of Pepperoni left over but he doesn’t grab them. “Forgot the plate…” Shakes his head as he then got a paper plate before returning to the fridge, taking the two slices and placed them onto the plate, then popped them into the microwave for thrifty seconds as he sits at his kitchen table. “Lets see what new jobs are at the guild today…”

Took a quick little trip back to his bedroom he proceeds to rummage through his bag for a tablet as he heard the microwave dings so it was back to the kitchento get his reheated pizza out, set on the table, grabs a can of Orange flavored soda from the fridge, sits down to eat as he checks the guilds online jobs… These Online jobs differed more than the jobs you’d find on the guild boards as they are only accessible from rank Bronze and up and were usually tougher. Lief thumbs through a few of the jobs till he stopped on won worth a lot of points that his eyes widen a bit. “If I take this one I could actually become a Silver Rank with the guild.”

He quickly finished his pizza and rather downs his soda in a few gulps resulting in huffing hard as he accepts this Item Retrieval job and hurried to dress himself into his pants and undershirt, Red Coat, and Fancy Red Mage Hat. “To the Guild!” He says almost triumphantly as he rushed out of his home, only to turn back and lock the front door. “Not gonna have another case of home intruders like last time… Dang Zigzagoons made a real mess of my place.” he sighed then hurried right back off to the guild which was the biggest building in Town sort of the landmark you could say…

He entered into the main hall of the guild and looked around seeing all the other members of the guild which is mostly filled with various other races but not a whole lot of other humans are part of the guild and Lief himself is often the butt of a few jokes since he so prominently takes on his jobs as a Red Mage which itself is labeled as the Jack-of-all but master of nothing so too do people like calling Lief nothing which sure enough is the first thing he hears directed at him. “Well look at that, The master of nothing is here again.” someone says and a group start to laugh as Lief simply sighs but he’s grown used to it but maybe today is the time to make a change… He looked to the giant Crystal with a station built around it, The Job Changing Crystal though approaching fills Lief with nervousness, He had been a Red Mage since he joined the guild and well before they found this Crystal that could let those like him freely change their job class.

With a gulp Lief approached the Crystals Terminal a hand scanner lights up and a prompted message saying… ‘Place hand upon scanner’ and Lief proceeds to do so and another monitor pops up with a list of available jobs that Lief can change to… “Time to make a choice, Lets see I got… Knight, Monk, Ranger, Ninja, Dragoon, Dark Knight, White Mage, Black Mage, Time Mage, Sage, Red Mage...which I am already, Blue Mage, Thief, Geomancer, Alchemist, Bard, Beastmaster, Machinist, and Freelancer.” he was a bit surprised to see he meets so many different job classes and he starts to go through them which in turn shows new gear he could receive and being unsure of what to choose he picks a job wheel option.

He gulped as he sees all the jobs he has available put onto a wheel that then began spinning and when it stopped his entire gear was swapped in a flash of light, when it died down he was now decked out in… A green tunic, Green bandana, brown pants, leather belt holding a pouch, and a pair of leather boots. “I’m a Thief now, huh.” looked over himself before he goes over to a weapon desk to trade in his Rapier for something more suited to a Thief. “You know a Thief can still use a Rapier.” says the Weapon trader but Lief simply states wanting to try something new with his job. “Ok then.. You can try this then.” they says and hand to him an Orichalcum. “This is the best Dagger we have to offer since the Thief class can use Short Swords, Katanas, Daggers, and Thief Swords.” the person says but Lief simply holds the dagger. “I’ll take this for now.” he says then turns away to go talk with the Rift Master to link him to the location the job he accepted is in.

Lief flashed the job he accepted on his tablet and the rift asked him. “Are you sure… That location is currently home to some fairly nasty Eidolon in the area.” the female wolf asked Lief and he simply gave a nod. “it's time I make a change I’ve only ever been a red mage taking on simple tasks but now I’m gonna make a big change, New Class… Hard Job and a chance to rank up, I don’t want to be the but of Master of None jokes anymore.” Lief says with resolve and the woman simple nods opening the gate to an area that appears to be a raging inferno within a volcano. “All I need is a rare volcanic lilly for some alchemist, I have better speed as a Thief so I can always rely on my legs doing what I need them to and MOVE!” he shouted and ran through for the rift to then close behind him.

Sure enough the area now around him was scorching and sweat was already starting to form on his head but he had the job and all he had to do was find the item then call for a rift evacuation from the place back to the guild. “Now it's best that I keep on moving before… OH CRAP!” He had to quickly dodge as a massive fireball from an Ifrit and he keeps moving as it causes pillars of fire to burst from below him as he huff swearing tons of profanities as he ran eventually the pillars died down but he kept on moving his goal was to find the Fire Lily and get out… but with the entire area to explore and Eidolon about causing havoc to be even worse with the eruption of flames from the active volcano but with some of the Devil's own luck he happens across a Flame Flan breeding area. “Flan… these things are very resistant to physical attacks and extra weak to magic but… I don’t have the best use of magic right n-” he stopped talking to himself as he looked at a low patch of grass among the fire and flan to see a beautiful red flower, The target item!

“There it is! Time to grab it!” he shouts which got the full attention of every flan which made him realize his mistake but his resolve was starting to shine as he rushed in activating a skill to raise his evasion managing to dodge through flans normal biting skills and managing his footwork to dodge fireballs they launch until he reached the Flower plucking it from the patch and continuing to run further leaving the flan behind as he put the flower into a protective travel case as he runs onward to a spot where things seem calm. “Time to call that Evac.” Lief said tapping the button of his badge signaling for Evac until he heard a growling and gulped looking up to see four Ifrit looming over him. “Uh-oh… EVAC EVAC EVAC!” he panics just spamming on the button as all four launching balls of Hellfire at him and just before impact he was warped out landing on the floor of the guild clutching onto the capsule. “Someone get a scan of this, Preferably a person who knows flowers!” Lief shouts and someone comes over to check it and verified it is indeed the Fire Lily. “We will get in contact with the Quest Giver to come pick up this and you go take a cold shower… You sweat through your tunic.” The wolf girl says and waved her hand to figuratively say Lief was a sweaty smelly guy right now.

As Lief went to hit the guild showers the Alchemist who posted the job comes in to verify that this flower was in fact the correct item and with their agreeance on the subject the Guild Rewards Lief the points and he becomes upgraded from Copper to Silver rank and a special surprise is sent back to Lief’s home as his proof of Reaching Silver as the Guild Master a Garchomp who had once been a Blacksmith who supplied the guild its weapons gives a chuckle. “This ought to help him have a little more order in his life… As someone who shows such great focus needs to take better care of himself.” She says all while Lief was finishing his shower now heavily exhausted as he is giving his new Silver Badge and a few Congratulations.

Lief was dressed in some fresh normal clothes… Simple blue jeans and a t-shirt his movement seems sluggish and he yawns. “My legs are so sore...i’m so tired… when I get home I'm just gonna skip eating dinner and go to bed even if it means stomach pain in the morning.” he lightly groans finally making it back home and reached for the door and instinctively already turning the knob to hear a click. “Huh… did I forgot to lock it this morning, ugh… whatever.” he walks inside and smells dinner being cooked. “Huh?” he walked himself into the kitchen to see an unfamiliar Absol standing in front of his oven working on dinner and when she looked back she smiled at him. “Ah, Welcome home Sir… I’ve taken the liberty of doing grocery shopping and fixing you a proper diner so please take a seat and relax while I cook.” she says and Lief simply does so sitting at the table until the Absol puts a plate in front of him with Ham Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, and few carrots at the side. “A healthy dinner for a hard days work and the first step in correcting your diet based on the 18 pizza boxes I threw out within the hour of me tidying up.” She says as Lief was eating rather raviously then when he finished he turned to the Absol and he asked. “Just who are you?” She picked up a clipboard and straightens her glasses. “My name is Cherri and as of today I’ve been assigned as your Personal Assistant and my first task… Getting you to eat better then making sure you can keep yourself together.” She says pushing up her glasses and grins. “Guess it’s time to quit faking my life is easy outside of home.” he sighs as he puts his dishes in the sink. “I’m going to bed… You can try helping me improve my life tomorrow morning.” Lief says and returned to his room to just flop himself into the first thing he saw which wasn’t his bed but a cot. “Oh Lief then I should inform you that I have put a cot in your room for me to sleep on… And he in the cot, Guess I’ll just sleep in his bed then.” she says crawling into his bed and couldn’t help catch his scent on the sheet, the pillow, the blankets. “He needs to clean his sheets… I suppose I’ll do that in the morning” She says yet her tail lightly wags a bit as she drifts off to sleep herself holding one of the smaller pillows and wrapping herself in the blanket.