In a dense forest outside Walker City, a furtive figure was fiddling with something, occasionally letting out a string of curses.
"Damn it! Fuck you!! Why the hell did you have to hide it so well?! You just had to make trouble!!" Sweating profusely, Achill swung his shovel and angrily dug at the earth beneath his feet. His once-spotless white robe was already filthy, and frustration covered his face as curses kept spilling from his mouth.
"Holy shit! I've been at this all day?!" Achill looked up at the sky and couldn't help swearing again. "Fuck this! Is there ever going to be an end to it?!" Darkness had already fallen, with only a few stars faintly visible.
"I'm sorry, Achill. Making a distinguished Mage like you do this kind of manual labor with me... I really am sorry." Beside him, Hypnos lowered his shovel, panting, and said gratefully, "Once we find my wife's keepsakes, I'll increase your payment." As he spoke, he wiped the dust-covered sweat from his face. His slightly chubby face was filthy, and with mud covering his whole body, he looked even more bedraggled than Achill.
"No need!" Achill waved a hand dismissively. "Forget about increasing the payment! As a Mage capable of handling a job on my own, once I accept a commission, I should do everything I can to solve my client's problem! We know it's buried somewhere around here, but unless I actually find it and hand it over to you, the job is nowhere near complete! Raising the fee in the middle of a job goes against a Mage's professional ethics! If word got out, it would damage my reputation, even if you offered it voluntarily..."
"Then how about I pay a few more people to help us look?" After thinking for