Keylynn sat across from Demetra in the morning before they got to the farm today. They would be starting their rehabilitation of the mimic farm quest. She wanted to avoid pushing her too hard too fast, and this rehabilitation won’t be like the others.

  Demetra slid her untouched breakfast away. Keylynn couldn’t tell exactly what it was supposed to be. “Just smelling it makes me want to hurl. So, how do we go about resigning a quest?”

  Keylynn slid a cup of mushroom tea over. “That should help settle your stomach.”

  “Thanks.” She sniffed it and grimaced. “That smells like dirt.”

  “We rehabilitate quests by addressing their faults and implementing strategies to fix them. Think of us as consultants that get to work hands-on,” she explained, ignoring her comment. Her mushroom tea doesn’t taste or smell like dirt. Demetra was just cranky because of her disgusting meal.

  “So for this quest, that would be giving it a quest then.”

  Keylynn eyed the mug that remained on the table. “Yes.”

  Demetra sighed and lifted the mug to her nose and sniffed it. “That smells like dirt.” She took a sip and hastily set it down. “That tastes like dirt.”

  "Hurtful words aside, the farm provides a good environment for a quest." The welcome sign sets the right tone, as does the mud. I hope we can keep the mud and the run-down appearance of the farm. It lives up to the name and aesthetic of a farm overrun by mimics. I think all it needs is a simple quest that brings adventurers to the mimics.” Keylynn explained. There really isn’t that much wrong with the farm, all things considered.

  “So you’re saying we lean into the mimic farm idea. We can send adventurers to the farm to search for something. Like a hidden fortune or something,” Demetra suggested as she inched the mug away from her.

  Keylynn paused. She was right but also wrong. “Fetch quests are common for a reason. They work and can motivate adventurers, but in this case I don’t think that will work. Cleatus will have to reset the item after every adventuring team.” She couldn’t see him resetting the quest. They need a quest that he doesn’t have to maintain.

  Demetra nodded. “Right, he’s not the most cooperative or the classic storymancer that we are used to working with.” She glanced at the mug and lifted it to her lips for another sip. “Definitely dirt. Maybe we can have the party look for a specific mimic? And randomize which one they need to find? They don’t have to be their real names, just an arbitrary one. I mean, who can really tell one mimic from the other? Excluding Lucille.” It sounds like it would be a low-maintenance quest for Cleatus. He won’t have to do a thing. But what kind of quest would that be to send adventurers to try and find a specific mimic?

  “That is a hands-off quest for Cleatus, but what kind of logic does it have? Why would they need to find one mimic out of hundreds? If they ate something or someone, that would give them reason to hunt down a specific mimic, but then Cleatus would have to make sure a mimic ate the item ahead of time, and to accommodate multiple parties, there would need to be several mimics who ate the same thing,” she explained in depth.

  “I can see that.” She let out a deep sigh. “It was a stupid idea.”

  “It was a good idea that doesn’t suit this quest, that’s all,” she explained gently. Demetra might feel better if she ate something. She declined her invitation for some mushrooms for breakfast.

  “What if there’s a missing person that adventurers have to find?” Demetra asked. “And what if that person is Cleatus?”

  Keylynn smiled. “That is a good idea. We send adventurers to go check on Cleatus. He is the lone farmer whose farm is overrun by mimics.” She suggested. She didn’t want to just give a quest idea to Demetra, because she wanted her team to be as involved as possible. She will have to give each member of her team a crack at quest redesign in their own time.

  “That could work. Cleatus doesn’t have to do anything besides his farm work. And it gives the logical reason as to why they are there,” Demetra listed. “But will Cleatus like it?”

  “I doubt he will, but when he’s told the alternatives, I think he will cooperate. Besides, do you really want to deprive adventurers of the Ol’ Cleatus experience?” She smirked. She would love to watch Cleatus stand face-to-face with an adventuring team foolish enough to walk to attempt the quest.

  “Okay, but how do we know it’s a viable quest?” Demetra asked, unsure.

  Keylynn smiled. “Oh, you know the answer to that already.”

  She scrunched her nose and groaned. “We set it up and test it. But that could take days.”

  “The time frame is of no importance, unless you have an appointment that you cannot miss.”

  Demetra shook her head. “No, nothing like that. This inn doesn’t have coffee or decent food.”

  “Mushrooms are decent food and make delicious and energizing tea. But if you need the bean water, if you bring coffee beans, I can prepare coffee for you.” She said sternly. She was getting tired of being told her tea tasted like dirt. Dirt has a completely different flavour profile, and there are no two soils that taste the same.

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  “I’m not going to eat something that grew on your face.” Demetra retorted.

  Keylynn rolled her eyes. “For someone who is eager to be treated as an adult, you act like a child. Slug mushrooms are not for consumption. I don’t even know how one would eat them. They dissolve into slime mould the moment they make contact with anything. I suppose you could try mixing it into a beverage, but again, I don’t recommend it.”

  “You can really make coffee?”

  “I learned from the best desperate wizard, Dauven.” Which was true. She figured out how to brew coffee with her magic by watching Dauven’s coffee-brewing spells in action.

  “For the next assessment, I’m bringing coffee beans and backup food,” Demetra stated with a determined nod.

  “That is an excellent plan. Finish your tea, then round up the rest of the team. It’s time to get to work.” She slid the mostly full mug back towards her.

  Demetra shuddered and glared at the mug. “Do I have to?”

  “You won’t be wasting my good mushroom tea.” That and Demetra needs to get her nutrition from somewhere if she won’t eat. She felt like her mother glaring down at her insolent younger self, who refused to finish her dinner.

  “Fine! Just stop looking at me like a disappointed parent!” She exclaimed before finishing the tea in a single gulp. That would explain why her mother almost always got her way. Disappointment and shame were powerful emotions.

  Demetra slammed the mug down on the table triumphantly. “Would a child do that?”

  “Yes, actually.”

  “Demetra scoffed. “I’ll round up the rest of the team. They should be done chocking down their coffee and breakfasts by now.” She climbed the stairs to where their rooms were. She hoped their work on the farm would help the town as well. Most towns that are nestled near quests tend to benefit from the quest.

  Keylynn set her matrix tablet on the table. She submitted her team's initial assessment to Lark as well as their plans for the rehabilitation of the quest. She hoped that knowledge of what they were going to be doing would distract him from her authorizing Ragna to become both the quest lead HR and the remote storymancer for the farm.

  The email she drafted to Lark was simple and to the point.

  To: Lark

  From: Keylynn

  Subject: A new Mimic Farm

  My team successfully negotiated a new signed deal. I’m waiting for the courier to arrive and deliver it to you. In order to get the most optimal deal, we had to agree to have Ragna become the quest HR consultant and handle the behind-the-scenes storymancer duties. Please authorize everything. I will requisition a beta adventuring party, as it is protocol for quest consultation and redesign. As for our quest for rehabilitation, we went with a simple approach because of the unique situation the farm is in. Adventurers will be sent to do a check-in on the sole farmer working on the farm overrun by mimics.

  Signed, Keylynn, HR Consultant, team lead of Team Mushroom of the Annual Assessment Division, formerly known as Floor Seven

  Within a minute of sending her email, her comms device rang. Keylynn cringed seeing the name on the display.

  She sucked in a deep breath and brought it to her ear. “Salutations, Lark, I wasn’t expecting a comms call from you. How may I help you?” She adopted a cheerful voice. There was nothing to say the comms call was related to her email.

  “You know exactly what this is about. What do you mean you authorized one of your trainees to take on two key roles for the quest you assessed?” Lark asked sternly. He clearly wasn’t in a good mood.

  “Yes, that. Right. It was a stipulation for the acceptance of a deal, and Ragna offered to do so. I think with the unique situation that this quest is in, certain concessions will be necessary.” She explained calmly. Cleatus was caught in the clutches of RADAWC and now put into a precarious position: conform to protocols or lose the only home and life he’s ever known.

  He let out a sigh. “I agree. Why do you think I gave you so many different options before I went to the worst one for the farmer? It’s a shit position that none of us should be in. But assessors cannot be bound to a quest that prevents them from being unbiased.”

  “Ragna already assessed this quest, and he won’t be assessing it going forward. And his involvement with this quest won’t influence his ability to assess others simply because quests are not in competition, nor should they be.” She countered. She will not allow him to toss Ragna away. “It is perfectly reasonable for an HR consultant to work with quests.”

  “When I invited you to join my investigation team, dancing across the boundary of corporate policy wasn't what I had in mind.”

  “You had to have known it’s a talent of mine; you had portions of my file, and I can’t see Dauven lying,” she replied casually. She had a reputation for pushing limits and questioning company policy.

  “Give me one good reason to allow it,” he conceded.

  She kept her composure the best she could. She can always celebrate later. ”The farm was never a quest. It was a family farm that happened to take in and care for a mimic. That action led them to become a source of mimics for the company. At the time the deal was made, there were several corporates overseeing quests, as it was a newer concept. Anyone could be a quest master back then. Cleatus is a victim. He didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not his fault that his entire life was built upon corporate greed.” It would be a crime if Cleatus lost his farm. He was innocent in all of this. The mimic farm is the only thing he’s ever known.

  “I need to speak with Ragna.” Lark ordered.

  “One moment, please.” She placed her hand over her comms, hoping to muffle anything that Lark could hear. She looked around the small common room and found her team waiting at the door. By the looks of them, they all skipped on the coffee. She walked over to them.

  “Ragna, I have Lark on my comms. He would like to speak with you. I presume it’s regarding your remote quest HR and storymancer role that you agreed to.” She explained in a hushed whisper.

  Ragna nodded and accepted her comms and stepped outside of the inn.

  After five minutes Ragna returned, handing her comms back. “Good news, he will grudgingly allow it. On paper I’m just the Quest HR remote consultant. I don’t get the pay raise that usually comes with that. He called it the mushroom tax.” He shrugged. “If I needed the money, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

  “The mushroom tax?” She frowned.

  Ragna shrugged. “The cost of bending the rules, I suppose.”

  She nodded with a frown. Why is that labelled the mushroom tax? It has nothing to do with mushrooms. “Did Demetra tell you the plan for the quest?”

  He nodded. “She did, and Cleatus will loathe it entirely.”

  “I’m aware. I call it a bonus.” She grinned at him.

  “Let’s get to the farm then. Also, you have something on your face.” He pointed at his nose.

  She reached up and found a slug mushroom perched there. That was going to be annoying. She thought about removing the slug mushroom or asking them to move but, in the end, decided to let them be. She didn’t know what would happen if she moved them before they were ready to move.