The bumping of the farmer’s horse-drawn wagon made it difficult for Sage to steady his hand as he allocated his stat points. In an actual game, it was so easy to understand and allocate your stats because you were fully aware of what builds required what stats and if you didn’t, you could search them up online. Sage knew none of that. It was clear there were classes, but to his understanding, he didn’t fit into any of them; on top of that, even if he did, what were the classes anyway? The world held too many mysteries, too many systems that he was not yet aware of.
[Stats]
{Hp: 78 | Mp: 42 | Ess: 0}
Str: 29
End: 19
Int: 9
Agi: 21
Dex: 9
[Home]
Sage ruffled his hair. He needed to learn what each of these stats did and if he should be focusing on one, or many. For now, though, as he had no way of knowing that, he checked out what that buff he received earlier did. After wracking his brain and fumbling around with the menu, Sage found that the buffs were displayed under skills.
{Creative Thinker} Buff | 71hrs
When faced with impossible situations, many shy away and give up, you do not. For your impeccable problem-solving capabilities, your plans have their success rates greatly increased.
Even more confusion. It seemed straightforward enough, but to think that anything he came up with in his head would have a better rate at succeeding didn’t make sense. Would the world bend to his influence? That didn’t seem likely.
“Son, look. Can you see Cerando out there?” the farmer asked.
Sage rose and cast his eyes to the horizon. There, he saw a town that his eyes couldn’t quite fully grasp. It was too wide and too deep; he could see that it had a river running through it, the same river that was to the left of the road he was on. On the other side of that river was a forest, a forest that Sage ended up having to take a detour from originally, bringing him over a thousand feet away from the town. That was where he found the farmer, carrying bundles of harvested wheat and barley, and possibly other grains Sage did not know of, in the back of his wagon.
After multiple, polite refusals, Sage was forced onto the back of the wagon and treated as if he just stepped onto a tour guide bus. The kindness was touching.
“It’s the only starting town in this kingdom. Everyone there should be beginner-friendly, you can get yourself situated nicely,” he said again.
“Thank you, I would’ve been at a loss if you didn’t pick me up,” Sage said.
“No problem, not as if there's any monsters too tough for the taking around here; I can handle a goblin or boar with a pitchfork! All I’m doing is saving you time.”
The straw-hat wearing, middle-aged man swiveled his head and said, “If you knew you would be at a loss, why refuse the aide? Not a very amicable trait you got there. Going solo will be the death of you once you get outta these lands.”
“Are there people who fight solo?”
The farmer nodded his head, “You don’t see it very often this early on, as strange as that sounds, but in places across the waters, underground, and more recently, in the clouds, you’ll find a handful of lunatics soloing dungeons or exploring cataclysms. Or so I heard, not as if I get around much.”
Cataclysms, that’s the first he heard of them; he also knew nothing about dungeons either. With the farmer’s seemingly abundance of knowledge, he might know things that Sage needed to. Just as the thought to ask came to his mind, however, the wagon pulled to a stop at the stables outside of town.
“I need to have the gals tended to, this will be where we part ways son,” the farmer said.
Sage resigned to hold his questions.
“Thank you again,” he said. “I hope I run into you again somewhere.”
The farmer laughed, “I sure don’t!”
Sage felt his heart drop. Had he done something wrong?
The old man patted him on his shoulder, “By the time I’m headed back through this town, you should be off fighting creatures in places my old bones could never reach. If we meet again, it's either because I ended up somewhere I shouldn’t have, or because you let your fear keep you from moving forward.”
All words failed him so he simply nodded his head. His fear would keep him from moving forward. Why did that hit him more than he expected?
After grabbing his boots from the back, the two parted ways. Sage began following the map meter that didn’t actually direct him anywhere, but that guided him with its dropping numbers.
When he entered the rustic town, he marveled at how much it resembled a place from a video game. Taverns lined the street, emitting discordant melodies of their patrons who were probably a few drinks too deep, a few hours too early. Teller’s stood at the storefronts of clothing, weaponry, armor, and various other establishments, ringing cowbells to draw the attention of passing adventurers and travelers alike. The town, opposing what Sage assumed a starting town would be, was bustling. And he could only see what lay on the surface.
Many side streets broke off from the main one like a cracked plate. As he peered down them, he could see a similar scenery taking place there as the one here, to a smaller degree. Barely escaping the clutches of overzealous tellers, Sage made his way through the town, reaching the supposed adventurers guild in a few minutes. A few, joyous minutes.
The sign read “Cerando’s Free Guild” in a scribbly cursive. A thought scuttled through his mind but he quickly passed over it. Everything in this world was in English. The card, the spoken language, the writing. It was strange, but he simply chalked it up as another mystery.
The guild was just as bustling as the streets, perhaps even more so. People in all kinds of apparel— armors of all the typical metals, furs, and leathers, to name a few— jovially bantered with each other. Food was being served alongside drinks, making it clear it was a tavern as much as it was a guild. People carried greatswords and claymores and katanas and forms of weaponry Sage didn’t know the name of. These were adventurers. But why were such experienced looking folk in a starters town?
With his attention drawn to the dozen boards that lined the far wall, Sage wasn’t watching his surroundings, causing him to bump into a person wearing a indigo-coloured, hooded cape, covering their face.
“Sorry,” he said. But when he turned around to look for the person, they were no longer there. He bit the inside of his lip. That’s fine, people can teleport now, nothing fazed him now.
Sage felt countless eyes on his back while walking to the desk. The tracksuit didn’t seem to blend him in with the others.
“Card please,” the woman seated behind the desk said. She reached her hand under a glass panel like the ones at train stations or doctor offices. Sage stuttered nonsense before reaching into his pocket, placing the boots on the ground, and retrieving his card.
The receptionist placed his card in some large, pearl-like object that had a slit in it like a debit machine. It glowed with the same blue that formed his boots, and rattled slightly before a tiny ball of light raised off of it and entered her head. She squinted one eye and looked upward while barely nodding her head.
“Welcome, Mr. Sage Hunter. You’ve reached the destination of your first quest, congratulations,” she said.
Accepting that she just absorbed all his information using a pearl, he smiled and said, “Thank you, it’s been quite the journey here.”
“I’m sure it has.”
It has. Don’t be “sure” of anything.
“You seem to be quite familiar with the basic systems of the card; I see you can navigate the menu quite efficiently. You also know how to allocate your stats, very good.”
She acted as if she were reading a paper in her mind, looking up from time to time, probably getting a better look at something Sage couldn’t see. How much of his information did she have?
“You don’t seem to have a class yet, any reason for that?”
The question was rhetorical, she didn’t give him time to answer. He did have a class though, he was an Unknown. Was it not a class then? He was back to being lost.
“Get a trainer as soon as possible so you can get a starter class. It’s not necessary, but is highly recommended. You won’t suffer from the cost penalty when spell crafting, and you’ll have some guidance during it too.”
“Spell crafting? What’s that?” he asked.
The receptionist stared at him while drinking from her mug.
“I can give you your obligatory rundown of the basic information, you can only hear it once, would you like to hear it now?”
Was she not answering because he should know already or because it wasn’t part of his obligatory information? Spell crafting was most likely as the name suggested, and if that was the case, he needed to learn how to do it, and quickly. Wave burst wasn’t gonna do him any good, especially not now as he was out of essence. If she wasn’t going to tell him about it, he’d have to find out for himself.
“Yeah, I’d like to hear the information now,” he said.
The receptionist opened a drawer and fished out a book that read “Beginners Manual” on the front. Could they not just give that book to newbies? Why make it so convoluted?
“First, I’ll tell you about your card. What you currently have is a stock card. It is, in a way, the lowest level for your card. Cards don’t actually have levels, but they can gain power through items known as add-ons; you’ll receive your first add-on after completing this quest. Add-ons unlock new tabs and features for your card which can make you stronger, or give you better utility. You can find these add-ons spread across the world or may obtain them from tasks.”
She looked up from the book, “Are you following?” she asked.
Sage kissed his teeth, “Do I look that slow? Continue.”
He was indeed that slow, his brain was faltering trying to process and store what she said. Just give him the damn book!
She glared at him. “Next is quests. Quests are quite simple, as long as two people agree on what the quest will entail and what will be rewarded for it, the card will establish it as a quest. You don’t even need to talk in person with someone to accept their quest. At the boards to the back, there are a multitude of quests sent in by people around the kingdom. All the details have been written on the papers, rewards and all, so the adventurer only needs to accept it and it’ll be registered. All quests have a rank that the card will determine once it registers it. If it’s something the card deems your stats are too low for, it’ll be a higher-ranked quest and vice-versa. They rank from F-rank to SSS-rank. ”
That made sense, he understood that better. He prompted her to continue, hopefully politely.
“Tasks are quite simple, too. There are three types, though most will only experience two. Daily and weekly tasks are as they sound: tasks that can be completed either once a day or once a week. Even if there are multiple tasks shown under the daily or weekly tabs, you can only do one of those in their respective time periods. Special tasks are rare, very rare. Most adventurers only get two to three of these in their lifetime. These appear on their own, and often grant random, grand rewards. All tasks form based on your surroundings and your personal state. Everyone has stats and exp, so everyone will have those daily tasks. If you have skills, you’ll get a skill task, make sense?
Sage nodded his head, it was a lot of information to take in, but it was quite straightforward. He already assumed tasks were like that. But special tasks were rare? Was she sure about that?
“When is someone likely to get their first special task?” he asked.
“Not until level 30 or so. Some are lucky and get one around the late ’20s, but that’s very rare. Don’t expect one any time soon, and don’t expect many.”
Something inside him, his cautiousness, perhaps, told him not to speak of his special task. It also urged against bringing up the “Unknown” status he held.
“Thank you, is there anything else? There’s still quite a bit I’m confused about, like the maps.”
She shook her head, “You need to discover the rest for yourself, though I will give you a tip. Save some of your stat points for when you get new stats, they can aid you quite a bit.”
Noted. Gaining new stats at the moment wasn’t something he wanted though, he needed to learn what these ones did first. Perhaps finding a trainer to simply guide him would be a wise idea.
When the receptionist handed him his card back, Sage received a notification for completing the quest.
[Congratulations | Quest Completed | Knapsack obtained | 10 bronze coins obtained | 50 exp earned]
Just like with the boots, a blue light gathered and formed the shape of a sack. When it materialized, Sage saw it was the same burlap sack that Esmerelda and the others had. So it was an add-on. Inside the bag was a small pouch that jingled when he shook it, the 10 bronze coins, he figured.
“You’ve obtained your first add-on,” she says, “To activate it, you simply need to have your card and the add-on in your hands and say “Merge”. The item will connect with your card and you’ll be able to access it from your menu.”
Sage did just that. He felt power surge between his two hands that each held the two items. Their connection seemed to pass through him before entering each other.
[Merge Completed | New Functions Available]
There were two new tabs when Sage looked at his card and opened the menu: Items and Equipment. It hadn’t even dawned on him that a video game-like world didn’t have an items tab. So this was why.
“You’re all set now. Feel free to start your adventures by selecting a quest at the back of the room. Have a nice day.”
While walking away from the desk, Sage checks the items and equipment tab.
[Items] {0/50} {0 gold | 0 silver | 10 bronze}
[Home]
Fifty? Could this tiny sack hold tha— magic. It’s because of magic. Sage stuffed the boots into the bag and they seemingly disappeared. The bag hadn’t gained any weight and was still empty when he squeezed it. He reached into the bag and felt nothing. Did he just lose his boots? He opened the items menu again and let out a sigh of relief.
[Items] {1/50} {0 gold | 0 silver | 10 bronze}
Fall Boots | Lvl 10 footwear
[Home]
Clicking on the boots gave him a description of them.
{Fall Boots} Lvl 10 footwear | Def: 4
Any fall damage that would be taken is negated while wearing these boots.
[Home]
That seemed huge. He could jump off the islands with those and not worry about a thing, of course, he’d need to try them out in a less dangerous trial first. The boots were two levels above him though. However it worked, he would be unable to wear them until he leveled up some more. He guessed the boots would act as if they had a mind of their own and refuse to be put on.
He then checked the equipment tab.
[Equipment] {Track Suit Set Active | No boosts} Total Def: 0 | Total Atk: 0
Track Jacket | Level 1
Track Pants | Level 1
Running Shoes | Level 1
[Home]
As expected, his equipment couldn’t even be called such. He refused to check their descriptions.
Sage slung the sack over his shoulder and made his way out of the guild. The sky was purpling from the sun’s departure. With the quest now done, he could head home, back to his apartment. And he could sleep there, waiting for morning to come, so that he could sit around until his shift at work. There were so many things he needed to do and learn though. He needed a trainer to teach him about stats and possibly skills, he needed to learn how the maps worked and gather information on so many other things. Level 10 was also only two levels away and the supposed perks of the boots were too good to pass up on. He didn’t even learn about essence veins.
Sage gazed back up at the sky. As long as he left by daybreak he would be fine. Sleep was overrated anyway.
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