There was a person in front of her, walking at a steady but abnormally fast pace for someone who was meant to be chilled and relaxed. If anything, and if Avery had to guess, she probably would have estimated that the person who was pacing in front of her, who also happened to be her employer for today and was a well known marine biologist in the city, was actually quite stressed about something although Avery could not really fathom as to what that could have been. The lady marine biologist who's name was ironically Raina had complained to Avery's face about water pollution, the effects of global warming and a bunch of other scientific things that Avery couldn't claim to have any in depth knowledge about; the girl, Raina, didn't blame Avery specifically or anything, but made it clear to her that it was the layman's fault why the world was so messed up. The adventurer, who did not utilize magic or anything like that, and instead preferred a lance or spear, did not get any chance to interject or defend herself or her fellow laymen, before Raina turned around and skirted off, shouting at Avery to follow her back to the lab so they could get on with the job. Apparently, Raina's normal assistant was calling in sick today, and she had a habit of doing so at least once or twice a month according to Raina. Considering Raina's boisterous attitude and the fact that everything wrong with the world seemed to be anyone's fault but hers, Avery honestly couldn't blame the assistant for occasionally calling in sick. If Avery had a job like this, she probably would have called in sick once or twice a week, forget about a month. She didn't like to be accused of things after all, and if she was, she'd like to be accused when there's actually evidence.

If there was no evidence or anything like that to convict her then Avery would just think that Raina was a cuckoo. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have heeded Raina's call that Avery follow her, and would instead turn around and skirt away in the opposite direction but of course things were different in this case since Raina was actually paying Avery for her assistance today. It wasn't in the adventurer lady's nature to pass up a pay check so, begrudgingly, she followed Raina careful not to disturb her or set her off on any sort of rant That was simply wishful thinking on Avery's part though as as soon as Avery had managed to catch up to Raina and they were roughly walking at the same pace, Raina began to go on another tirade about the environment and about how men, or humanity in general, were poisoning it carelessly and about how bad that was to be doing. Avery didn't have the heart to tell her to shut up so endured the speech until the moment they reached the labs that belonged to Raina.

501/1000

It was a fairly boring experience after that with Avery not really having much to do besides helping Raina to test her samples. Of course, it went without saying that Raina was the real scientist there and Avery was just tasked with helping, so in reality, this of course meant that even if Avery wasn't present, things would have progressed more or less the same on the same track albeit at a slightly slower pace. Avery wasn't too sure what she was doing, of course, but found that she was able to do a relatively good job provided she followed Raina's instructions to a tee. It wasn't easy, of course, since anyone who worked in the science industry knew that scientists were particularly picky and Raina most of all. Understandable though, when you realized just exactly what her goal was; that is, to ultimately reduce pollution in the city and increase the level of aquatic life in Hargeon. A lofty goal, to be sure.

Avery wasn't a hundred percent sure what testing water samples had to do with increasing the level of aquatic life in Hargeon though, but at the same time, she wasn't actually a marine biologist. Right now, she just took orders from one. "People should be more surefooted when it comes to water,
you know? Pollution is horrible. Sometimes I think the Earthland would be much better off if every human was just gone. That way, animals, whether they live on the land or the sea, could just live freely.
What do you think?" the marine biologist looked at Avery as though she were saying the most natural things in the world, and was looking towards the adventurer for approval.

Avery didn't particularly like to lie, but at the same time, she had a natural sensitivity to topics like this, so she knew that if she disagreed, then things could potentially get ugly. Since there was payment on the line, the adventurer mage decided to swallow her pride for now and nod along with the young marine biologists' delusions, as though Avery herself also believed that her and her kind should go extinct for the benefit of just about every other living thing on this planet of Earthland. When she thought about it that way, actually things might actually have been better if humans were no longer around, but Avery didn't want to die just yet, damn it.

"We're just about done, I guess," the marine biologist called Raina eventually said after the pair of them tested their, perhaps 11th or 12th sample. The marine biologist was a lot of things like kooky and wacky but she certainly wasn't stingy as she handed Avery the money that she was owed. "Well, in my ideal world, things like this won't be needed at all, so don't be too happy about this reward, you hear?" the marine biologist gave Avery this one last chilling comment before sending her off on her way. The adventurer didn't care though. She was happy as is.

1004/1000