Kerii exited the gym with a smirk proudly present on her face. She was so happy that she was able to prove Jay Holiday wrong. The evidence was clear on his face that he didn't expect Kerii to be able to keep up with him and his bench presses, even if he did lift most of the weight. She was sure that a professional spotter could have done a better job than her, but hey, she still did it and she still benefited from doing so as well, and she wasn't talking about the jewels. Although getting money was nice and all, and although Kerii did need some more since she bought a few items, she was certain that she built muscle from the last quest she did, even if it was only a little. In the long run, it would help. In fact, every little bit would help her. As they say, even the smallest things can make a big difference. She didn't know how well that applied to training personally yet, but she would just go with it for now.

As Kerii walked away from the gym, she could hear the high pitched squeals of girls as Jay, no doubt, exitex the gym as well. Kerii didn't understand how people could be attracted to people so easily just based on their looks. Sure, looks helped, but they weren't everything. From what Kerii could see, Jay was just a stereotypical guy who went to the beach and worked out. She saw nothing special about him, unless she counted his large muscles, but those weren't really "special," per say. It just made him stand out more and attract more ladies who he would probably never end up going out with. He just soaked up the attention without a second thought.

The request board wasn't too far away from the gym. But then again, nothing was really that far away in Hargeon. It was smaller than Magnolia and therefore much eacher to navigate. In addition, its small size made Kerii able to get to the locations for quests quicker, thus resulting in both happy clients and more time for Kerii to complete other quests. She was already going to start her third one for the day, which was not the most impressive thing Kerii had done, but it was still good. When Kerii was in Magnolia, she blew through so many requests with Videns just in one day. She didn't remember how many they did, but it was certainly a lot. She didn't know if she could break that record, but she could certainly try, and what better place to do that than a small town like Hargeon?

Kerii got back to the request board and began looking at the different quests she could take. She found one titled "Checkmate." There was a person named Bart Decker who wanted someone to play a game of chess with them. In fact, this Bart person was even going to pay whoever had a chess game with him. It was an odd request, but one that Kerii would undoubtedly be good at.

WC: 518/1000

The elven mage decided to take the request and set off towards Hargeon Park. Admittedly, she had no idea where it was, but just as how she found the request board with ease, Kerii was certain that he would be able to find the park just as easily. And as it turned out, Kerii was right. It took her roughly five minutes to find the request board and it took about the same amount of time to find the park - if that even. After it all, it was a hard place to miss. There could only be so many parks in Hargeon.

Like the rest of Hargeon, the park was preserved beautifully. Where new benches would normally be placed, old benches replaced them. Aside from the work done to prevent overgrowth, the park looked untouched. There wasn't even a lot of litter, which was surprising considering the current habits of society. Kerii, personally, would never litter. Neither she nor any elf would ever harm the environment in any way. Even if whatever she threw on the ground was biodegradable, Kerii would feel so bad about it that she would pick it up and throw it in the trash. Any elf would.

Kerii proceeded to find her client. She searched for an older man at first, but only saw one person at a chess table and that person was only a child. She approached the kid and asked, "Excuse me, but are you Bart Decker by any chance?" The kid nodded his head and replied, "Yes. I understand if you were looking for someone older, but I'm actually a chess prodigy, so I am the one who put out that request. You can go first." Bart gestured towards the empty seat on the opposite side of the chess board. "Let's begin then," Kerii responded after taking her seat. She started by moving her knight on the side closest to her king. Bart did the same. Most people would start by moving one of their pawns, but there was a special move someone could do early on in the game if they did what Kerii and Bart did which would end up protecting the king very well, so clearly neither of them were naïve to chess.

"You know, I'm only doing this to relieve some pressure." Kerii raised an eyebrow. "Chess is relaxing to you?" Bart shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant. My two older brothers are both scholars. They became chess prodigies at an earlier age than me. Challenging as many people at chess as I can will make my parents and brothers get off my back for a little while." Kerii frowned. That must have sucked. "I'm sorry, that-" "Checkmate." Kerii looked to Bart. "What?" "I said check mate. I won." Kerii looked to the chess board and he did have her in check and there was no way of getting out of it. Bart's story must have distracted her. "Well, congratulations. You can tell your parents and brothers that you just beat an elf, one of the wisest races in Fiore." She winked to him and Bart grinned. "Thank you for playing me," he said before handing Kerii her reward. "You're welcome."

WC: 1055/1000