I nodded and Jared asked, "Do you mind teaming up after you've reached level 10. You see, I'm a newbie myself since I'm barely a week old. Most people already have parties and I want a competent teammate. So do you want to try partying with me?" I hesitated a little, and he continued, "Well, if you feel too uncomfortable, you could always break the party."

I thought that that made sense. So I agreed. Jared said with a smile, "Sweet. Then you'll probably hit level 10 today, so let's party up tomorrow. Are you living in the inn opposite the AG? Well so am I. So let's meet up when they stop serving breakfast, so around 10, right here. Meanwhile I'll try searching for two other party members."

I replied, "Sounds like a plan. Oh before we leave can I ask you how much exp does a normal wolf give?" Jared answered, "If you hunt it solo it'll give 25 exp. Now I got to go, I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay?" After getting an affirmative response from me he left towards the counter. I wanted to hit level 10 today, so I required 280 exp in total. Hunting 12 would give me 300 exp. So I needed 6 quests. But I could only accept 5 at a time. I could employ the same strategy… Kill first, accept quests later.

I had already accepted 3 quests. I could come back and accept 3 more. Now that I had decided, I left the AG and headed south when I heard a familiar and cheerful voice, "Megzie. Wait up, I'm also heading to the south gate, let's go together." I turned to see Jared who was briskly walking towards me. After getting my approval we walked side by side towards the south gate.

"So, wolves I presume?" Jared asked me. I replied with, "Yup. Goblins give far less experience so I decided on wolves. It'll be my first time hunting wolves, any tips?" He answered confidently, "They have the same agility as foxes and when they are on their fours, they are as tall as goblins. As for their attack power it's probably around 10. Their defence is half that so with your beginner's mace, two hits should suffice." 

I was impressed, "Wow you know your wolves!" He replied with a laugh, "Well, I've completed around 5-10 quests related to them so I know a little bit. It's been a day since I last hunted them." I asked with curiosity, "How come?" He replied, "Because since yesterday I've started hunting horned wolves. Though my speed while hunting them is much slower, they give a sweet exp of 50! As well as valuable experience and are considered a D rank quest. So overall hunting them is more advantageous."

I nodded and noticed that we had reached the southern gate. "The wolves are to your right and diagonally to our right fall the horned wolves. But they are quite a bit towards the south. Still, your equipment won't help you kill them and they are very fast so you won't be able to outrun them, so don't stray too much to the south." I thanked Jared.

Jared suddenly spoke, "Well how about I see how well you fight before I leave to hunt? After all we'll be forming a party." After I agreed we both headed towards the forest to the right. He took out both his swords from his holder, "Being ambidextrous helps a ton." He winked at me. I smiled and agreed.

A little while later I was two wolves eating a hobgoblin, the sight was quite bloody and gruesome. Jared signaled me and I quickly approached them. They noticed me at the same time. With blood dripping from their mouths they gave a low growl and looked up, ready to attack me at any moment. Before they could jump at me I used the AoE skill on them. Both got knocked back as I followed through and killed the wolf that was less injured. Then before the other, injured wolf could attack I used the CC on it and killed it. 

Jared approached me, "Impressive. Now the mana stones of the wolves are in their chests. I'll get going now, you don't seem to require any help. Good luck, see ya." I bid him goodbye and extracted the mana stones. Going towards the west I found a lone wolf and killed it in one hit. Continuing onward I killed a few more. I leveled up after a while and evenly distributed my stats. None of the battles placed me in a dangerous position. Until my seventh kill. While I was extracting my seventh wolf mana stone suddenly a wolf leaped from the bushes to my right. Thankfully I had heard the rustling of leaves so I immediately picked up my mace in my right hand. But the wolf that had caught me by surprise opened its jaws and bit down on my right hand. 

Clenching my teeth in pain, I aimed the dismantling dagger on my left hand into the wolf's eye and it let go of my hand in surprise. I quickly used the CC skill and killed it. Examining the lower right arm guard I breathed a sigh of relief as there were light bite marks on it, but it was still in one piece. Thankfully I had brought the armour for myself.

I checked my HP, it had gone down by one. Taking a deep breath I calmed myself for a minute, until my HP recovered to full, before going towards the north east direction. After killing a total of ten wolves I headed back. On my way I encountered two lone wolves and killed them without any issues. Thus successfully leveling up to 10.

The first change I noticed was my resistance. When had it reached 13? Then I noticed that my skills were blinking. 

[Skills:

Mace AoE: Hit multiple targets with a sweeping gesture. 75% chance of knock back. Proficiency: level 3. MP: 10.

Mace CC: Bash a single target with 5% chance of stun for 3 seconds. Proficiency: level 2. MP: 5.

Evade: Receive an attack with only half its power and a 50% chance of completely dodging. Proficiency: level 1. MP: 20.]

I got another useful skill, evade. But it cost 20 MP while I had 69 in total. I had to be careful while using it. It was probably 5 when I reached the gate. After getting back my card I nodded to the guard and went towards the AG. I had killed twelve wolves. Most of them were lone wolves but a few also showed up in pairs. I entered the guild and banged into the boorish newbie, "Oi. Watch it. Oh, it's you. How's it going, fellow newbie?" 

I replied, "Ah, sorry about banging into you, it's going quite good, thanks." He waved his hand, "Meh it's okay. I was also at fault. Anyway, I overheard some people say that a female newbie had reached rank E in one day. Were they talking about you?" I lifted up my eyebrow, "They were talking about me? Yes, I reached rank D yesterday."

Both his eyebrows shot up, "That's very cool. I myself reached rank D just now. By the way, the name's Kennedy. You can call me Ken." I replied, "Yes. My name's Megzie. Nice to meet you. Let me just submit my quest completion." Ken gave me a positive reply.

I headed to the completion counter and waited two minutes for my turn. This time a stranger took my card. I gave him six wolf's mana stones and he found the corresponding quest requests. He scanned them with my card before returning it to me, along with 12 silvers. My card was now deep blue. I headed back to get three more wolves subjugation quests and then went to the empty counter, for accepting quests.

After going through the procedure I went back to the completion counter. After roughly a minute I reached the counter and the receptionist questioned me, "Did you kill extra monsters?" After getting my positive response he took my card, scanned it and returned it to me along with 12 silvers. I took the, now green, card from him and looked at the quest complete column that now showed 11/11.

I approached Ken, "I'm hungry, want to have dinner together while we chat?" He replied, "Sounds great, let's go." When we entered I saw the two girls from earlier enter the AG. When they noticed Ken they looked away, but Ken didn't notice. We entered the inn and I noticed Jared sitting alone at an empty table. I silently sneaked up behind him and gave him a tap.

He looked back at me, startled, "Oh. Megzie. You scared me. Haha. Come join me." I smiled and asked him, "Is there room for my friend too?" Jared noticed Ken and replied, "Of course. Hello, I'm Jared. Rank D" Ken also replied, "I'm Kennedy, Ken for short. Rank E. A friend of Megzie's is a friend of mine." 

I rolled my eyes, "Let's shift to a bigger table." Jared stood up and all of us sat down on a table for four. A waitress came by to give Jared his food and checked Ken and my room keys and went back into the kitchen. Ken commented, "So, it's  chicken fried rice for tonight's dinner, huh. Looks good." Both of us agreed and Jared replied, "So Ken, when did you arrive?" Ken replied, "Same as Megzie, yesterday." 

Jared was a little surprised, "Even you ranked up to D in a day?" To which Ken frowned, "Nah, I ranked up today just before coming here. Megzie is the only one who ranked up in a single day. I heard that newbies come twice a week?" I suddenly got interested when Jared replied, "Ah yes, Megzie is probably the only newbie over here who ranked up in their first day itself. As for newbies, yup. The next batch will probably arrive the day after, give or take a day. Although I'm saying batch but there are times when only one newbie has shown up, apparently. The largest batch was a month ago with four newbies." I spoke up, "So when does one stop being a newbie?" 

"Good question, even I wanted to know that." Added Ken. Jared replied knowingly, "When you hit level 15 and are at least rank D. Since I'm level 13, although I'm rank D, I'm still considered a newbie." Just then the waitress arrived with two plates of chicken fried rice. 

All three of us dug into our meals and forgot about conversing, until the food was in our stomachs. As soon as we were done eating I asked, "Oh yeah, about quests, how are they evaluated if a party accepts a quest?" Jared answered, "I asked around today and apparently it doesn't matter how many people you have in a party. If the quest is for one wolf you'll have to hunt only one. The only difference is that the exp will get split. But the quest request's values itself won't change."

Ken replied, "Oh I see. So it's better to solo if you want to quickly level up but if you want to grind to a higher rank, then partying up is better?" Jared nodded, "That's why I've been trying to make a party. But the newbies that came two weeks after me are still F rank. So I'm thankful both of you are already ranked D. What do you say Ken? How about a party? Well, that is if Megzie doesn't object."

Both the guys turned towards me. I shrugged, "I don't mind. The more the merrier right?" Ken grinned, "Like the lady said. So how do we form a party?" Jared smiled, "Good. To form a party we place three of our guild cards together, with the party leader's card at the top and the vice leader's card at the bottom. And then the leader registers their quest request normally."

Both of us nodded in understanding. And I spoke, "So, we'll meet up tomorrow for breakfast. Also, I don't have a watch. Can one of you please knock on my door to wake me up?" Jared answered, "It looks like neither of you have a watch. It's 8 right now, the blacksmith should still be open, let's head there and get watches for both of you, as well as better equipment. Ken, Megzie, how much silver do you have?" "25". "47". Both of them looked at me. Ken howled, "HAA?! You. How many quests have you completed?" I honestly replied, "13".

Ken howled again, "I've done 8. What is this discrepancy? You just did 5 more quests. Why do you have double of what I have?!" Jared finally spoke, "It's possible that you did a few more F rank quests while she did more higher rank quests. As for me, I've done 18 quests and if I combine the worth of my weapon I made around 80-90 silvers. D rank quests give more money. Anyway let's head to the blacksmith before it closes."

On the way to the blacksmiths I asked Jared, "How come you've done only 5 quests more than me? You've been here a week more than me." Jared replied, "I did 3-4 quests per day and took a day off in between. Specifically my first day was practically wasted because I couldn't adapt. I'm not a monster like you doing 6-7 quests per day."

Both the guys ended up laughing at my expense. We reached the blacksmith and entered the shop. Jared spoke, "Speaking of the blacksmith, Ken you don't have your equipment holder do you? Do you keep your equipment in your item box?" Ken replied, "Is the thing Megzie and you wearing called an equipment holder? No, I don't have one. I just keep my weapon in my item box." 

Jared replied, "But it's better to keep your equipment out of your item box, as there is a two second delay from the item box. Besides, the equipment holder is free of cost. Also I suggest both of you buy an armour of at least D rank. It'll cost you 10 silvers but it can save you from a lot of injuries." Ken got his armor with a sad look on his face but when he put it on, his look changed to one that wanted us to praise his looks. So with a laugh both Jared and I praised him. He also got an E rank dismantling dagger for free.

I also took off my holder and wore a new D rank armor (that cost me 10 silvers) before wearing the holder again. I then looked at maces and brought one with two options and having a D rank, for 25 silvers. I sold my E rank beginner's mace, with one option for 10 silvers. And because I returned my old armor I got two watches for free and gave one to Ken, who profusely thanked me while accepting it.

Ken sold his beginner's sword for 5 silvers and tearfully brought a single handed sword without any option for 20 silvers. Ken complained, "I am now officially broke." To which I gloated, "I still have 22 silvers." While Ken gave me a dirty look, Jared just laughed. 

We made our way to the inn. Jared spoke, "So let's meet up for breakfast at 9:30. We'll eat together and set off together." Both Ken and I agreed. After we climbed the stairs in the inn, we realized that Jared was living in the center passage's first room to the right. While Ken was living in the leftmost room in the left passage on the third floor.

I said goodnight to the two guys and headed to my room. I felt like having a quick shower. Again, there were two magic stones. I gave the blue one 1 MP and cool water started flowing out of the shower head. When I gave the red magic stone 1 MP the water turned luke-warm. Satisfied with the temperature I quickly had a shower. That's when I realized that I had to shop for clothes. Especially for underwear. 

Putting it off for tomorrow, I set an alarm for 9:20 or 9:25 and headed off to dreamland.