Gideon was led by Tridev and the others to a room that was at one of the corners of the farm to get out of the scorching sun. The room looked like a resting place for the farmers who were tending to the tomato plants in the farm.
When they were nearing the room, Gideon could hear an adult man shouting in there which made him a bit nervous as he realized he was going to meet Manav's father.
He saw a skinny looking man in a casual cloth was reprimanding the farmers who were inside the room for giving wrong intel about the colony of the Bronze Teeth Rats that led to his younger son thrown into danger along with his friend and girlfriend which he considered as unacceptable.
But he stopped shouting immediately the door opened and their sons entered along with the others and smiled as if he was just casually talking to his friends and not shouting angrily just a second ago.
"Good to see you guys are okay. Hi kid, I am Manav's father, Maaran, Nice to meet you." The skinny man said looking at Gideon who was a bit surprised to see his sudden change in attitude.
"Nice to meet you too sir. I am Gideon." He said after relaxing his mind, a bit with a smile that did not reach his heart.
"You don't have to shout at them, father. This incident has given them a good opportunity to know how to tackle high Tier monsters when we go into the wild." Tridev said, looking at the 3 farmers who were standing awkwardly looking at the floor unable to face the kids who just braved the danger they were in because of them.
"Stop supporting them, Tridev. What if something bad had happened. Who will answer to your mother?" The man said, raising his voice a little, but not being too harsh on him.
"Brother is right father. Besides, we are fine. Not even a scratch on us." Manav said, which made his father look down at his armor which had a few visible scratches from the fight and Manav chuckled realizing it.
"Get back home. Your mother is waiting for you." He said to Manav with a stern voice and continued in a soft voice "You 2 also get back home. You kids need some rest after fighting higher level monsters." Which gave them an impression that they cannot say no to it and left the room and immediately without saying another word.
They went back to the farm and collected the tails of the Bronze Teeth Rats to submit as proof for completing their task. They collected all the 22 tails, even the monsters they didn't kill to inform the Adventures Association the risk in the task was more than usual level-1 tasks.
They also harvested the teeth of the monsters as it is hard and durable to be used as arrowheads and spearheads and could be sold for a good price to a blacksmith in the town.
They reached the Adventures Association sooner because they traveled in a luxurious car provided by Manav's father and went straight to Nila's desk and stood in the queue in front of it as she was the 1 who has a little concern over their welfare.
Nila smiled at them with a relief noticing they were not visibly injured in this only to be stunned the next minute when Manav dropped all the 22 Bronze Teeth Rat tails on the table with a grim expression on his face.
"What is this? How many monsters did you fight?" Nila asked with concern to which Meera responded "22 in total. 2 were Tier-1, level-2 and 3 were Tier-1, level-3."
This response made Nila's worried face turn into a face with expressions of sadness and anger mixed together. "That is not right. It was just a level-1 task." She said with a puzzled expression after a minute.
"That was where the Adventures Association made an error. Good thing it was close to the village and we got back-up on time to come out unscathed." Manav said, staring at Nila with anger.
"It is not your mistake, miss. This is in a way a reminder for us to be prepared to face anything when we go out into the wild. Besides, we got a lot of harvest from this task." Gideon said with a chuckle, trying to ease Nila's pounding heart, which didn't go as he expected.
Nila started to type something on the computer in front of her which puzzled Gideon as this was the 1st time he was seeing Nila or any receptionist use the computer for the 1st time.
Nila ignored anything else and the murmurs of the people who was standing in the line and just gestured to a security guard to come close to her and whispered something in his ears which made him look surprised and he cleared the line asking the people to go to other receptionist desks to complete or take new tasks.
Nila didn't speak to anyone for the next few minutes and kept staring at the computer screen as if she was waiting for something to happen in there and again started to type faster as if she was going to miss her bus to get out of the village if she didn't hurry.
She again waited for a minute which made Gideon look more worried than he was when he was waiting to face that many monsters in the farm that morning.
"What is the information that is incorrect Nila?" Gideon immediately heard a voice and turned back to see a woman probably in her mid 40's with an athletic physique and an authoritative look standing close to his back.
He was startled by seeing her so close to him and was unable to feel her presence till she spoke.
He sensed her and realized she was at Tier-3, level-5. Far more powerful than Nila, and was wearing a black coat with a black skirt, a white shirt inside the coat and a red tie giving her a very professional look.
"The level-1 task that these kids took was dangerous madam vice manager Azina. Equal to a level-2 task. They have submitted these as proof for it. They had to fight 3 Tier-1, level-3 Bronze Teeth Rats when they went to complete the task#13934." Nila responded to her question gesturing to the rat tails they had given to her.
"That is … not good. Who requested this task to be posted, Nila?" Azina asked while looking suspiciously at the kids in front of her, especially Manav, but did not give a 2nd glance towards Gideon which he didn't mind as this is not the first time for people to turn away from hom and he knows why.
It is because of his skin color and skinny physique.
In this part of the world, they care more about the looks and skin color than the good nature of a person.
If they have fair skin, attractive physique and are rich, they are considered beautiful and get a lot of friends and suitors.
She looked at Manav for extra seconds just because he is a child from 1 of the few rich families in the village.
But, since Gideon has dark brown skin, has a skinny physique and from a middle-class farmer family, almost everyone would just turn their heads away as if they just saw something disgusting which he has gotten used to by now.
The only people who haven't shown any indifference to him are his foster parents, Nila, Raam and now Manav, who treated him like an equal without showing any inferiority towards him till now.
"This task came from the Hanik tomato farm, madam Azina." Nila informed her without even looking at the computer or the scrolls that were lying on her desk as she had already gathered all the information regarding the task#13934.
"Hmmm … Okay, then they might not have given the wrong information and gave what they had known. It is our fault that we did not check the task properly before posting." Vice Manager Aniza said with a sigh, looked at Manav and said "As the vice manager of the Adventures Association in Kamisk, I personally apologize for this kid. You will be compensated for the trouble you have dealt with."
Then they were sent off while Aniza and Nila spoke between themselves and looked at the information gathered.
"Since they don't look injured, at most we can give them the lowest compensation we have, Nila. That is the best we can do for this mishap." Aniza said in a loud stern voice after a few minutes that echoed throughout the ground floor that made most of the adventurers turn to their side to look at the commotion.
Nila tried to argue, but couldn't as she hadn't noticed any visible injuries in the kids and had to reluctantly accept to compensate with 100 dallans each and the task commission.
Gideon after a few minutes got an apologetic look from Nila which he just waved his hand mentioning that she had the courage to argue with the vice manager of the Association guild for them and she has his gratitude for it.