{5 mins Later}
Lukas has been walking.
The brute didn't have any reason for him to lie and since Lukas couldn't understand what was clearly a measurement of distance he didn't mind walking for a bit.
So he walked...
...
...and walked.
'Where the fuck is this river,' Lukas arrived at another gate, this one was like the previous gate he went through when he walked in except it was in the opposite direction.
'Surely not right? The potions shop is outside of the village?' Lukas thought, he looked around he was in a slum-like area, and most of the buildings had some cracks on them.
'There are fewer people here than around the Inn...' The population of the village was a bit questionable now as Lukas didn't have an accurate idea but he could recognize a low-sector area at a glance. There were a couple of kid brutes playing around so he walked forwards while looking at their names and levels.
...
[Dack Shross Goppen Lv 6]
[Blodd Potsen Nemmalth Lv 5]
'Even the kids are higher level than most of humanity...' Lukas thought as he crossed the road, his movements were noticed as the lower level kid jumped into his own shadow and vanished.
'Was that a teleportation ability?'
"Hello? Can I talk to you for a bit?" Lukas asked, he went straight to the point as according to what he had seen, most of the brutes kept to themselves and didn't care about what was happening around them.
"Your name is red mister, you k-killed someone didn't you..." Dack sounded a little frightened even though his facial expressions didn't move.
"Some tried to kill me earlier today, I had to kill to survive," Lukas explained, well, for the most part, the bear did try to kill him.
"R-really? I don't believe you, all the people in Maddon's place are mean even though they say it was a mistake." Dack spoke, though his flight and fight response was gone.
'Maybe he remembered he was in a safe zone... and is Maddon like a bar or something, a shady bar would be perfect for gathering some information.' Lukas thought.
"Do you have an inventory?" Lukas asked and Dack nodded.
"Can you tell me how to take money out of my inventory?" Lukas asked, Dack's nervousness vanished at the mention of money, he looked behind him in the shadows of the alley and then he sort of shrugged.
"All transactions are under the preview of the overseer, so there is no need to ever take out any money, if you want you can open your trading tab and send or receive money that way..." Dack spoke.
'How would that even work, trading?' Lukas tried and a new window appeared in front of him. The window contained a list of people he had talked to until now, he clicked on Dack's name and noticed that Dack's expression changed as his eyes read some through an invisible text.
[Dack Shross Goppen has allowed you to view his inventory]
[Allow Dack Shross Goppen to view your inventory?]
[Yes/No]
Lukas clicked 'no' casually as he saw the weapon and two basic health potions in an empty inventory that Dack had, on the right side beneath his name was a [Give Money] button. He clicked on it adjusted the amount to 1 bronze coin and then clicked give.
Dack Shross Goppen Lv 6
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ALLOW INVENTORY [x]
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SHOW STATUS [x]
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GIVE MONEY
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REQUEST MONEY [Dagger Lv 5]
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[Basic Health Potion]
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[-]
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[-]
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[-] [Basic Health Potion]
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[-]
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[-]
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[-]
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[-]
The frown on Dack's face shifted into a happy smile, Lukas smiled as he asked, "Alright thanks for telling me how this works. What other tabs are there, I know that Status is one, skills is one inventory is one and now trading is one. If you tell me something new I'll give you another copper coin."
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Lukas could see Dack's excited face change to a frown as he shook his head, 'Alright so these are all the systems there are, on to the next...'
"What about the grade that is behind your race, what does it say there?" Lukas asked.
"Well mine says, Thorld[E]." Dack replied, he stared at Lukas almost vibrating in anticipation but Lukas shook his head and asked, "I meant how do you upgrade it, is there a certain level or something when you can upgrade?"
Dack frowned as he hesitated he looked back at the shadow again and the other Thorld kid that had teleported earlier walked out of the alley.
"The first evolution is at level 25," Blodd spoke, he was still standing behind Dack using his body as a shield.
"What about the future evolutions?" Lukas asked, Blodd pinched Dack's arm stopping him from speaking. Luckas sighed as he clicked on the [Give Money] button.
"Alright, 1 bronze for all the level brackets, otherwise I'm leaving," Lukas spoke, he wasn't about to be extorted by some alien kids...
"Well, the first evolution is at Level 25 then at Level 100. I know only two of them," Blodd replied. Lukas nodded he wasn't expecting the first evolution to be so soon, it was a little too soon if he was being honest but that could wait till later.
Rather than the race what he was more interested in was the grade of stats.
"Alright I have 3 more bronze coins left, I'll give you two if you tell me all you know about the grade of stats. How do I upgrade them?" Lukas asked, he didn't mind spending money for info but wasting resources wasn't a good idea.
Dack hesitated, ever since Blodd had walked out of the alley he had been the communicator from their side.
"F-grade is the lowest stat, basically not everyone has all the stats unlocked. Some races even don't have the [Mana] stat unlocked and during the start, it is at 0[F-grade]. Just having one point in any stat would push it to E-grade and it automatically levels up to D-grade as soon as you cross the threshold of 100 points. I don't know where the stat limit to upgrade to C-Grade is but your stats can not be two grades higher than you..." Blodd explained.
He paused then thought about it some more as he spoke, "Father says that he would tell me later."
Lukas nodded, he got what he wanted, he changed the amount to send two more bronze coins to Dack, and then closed the communications tab.
Lukas was about to walk away when he paused and asked, "Do you know if there is a river outside these gates?"
Dack's eyes widened and Blodd once again vanished into his own shadow, "Y-you are with the guys in the Maddon's bar right, why are you playing with us." He looked genuinely frightened.
'So there is a river out of there', Lukas concluded but looking at Dack's frightened face he realized that it wasn't a place he could walk casually in.
'It must be a hub for criminals, that's why the Thorld innkeeper told me to go there... this village looks like it is inhabited by just the Thorlds. I wonder if the other villages have different races living in them.' Lukas thought as he turned around and walked back to the main street.
He needed to look at the local shops for a bit before he left the tutorial village. Almost all types of progression are dependent on the levels so the best method of progression would be grinding.
'Though going out the door from the side we just came through might not be the best idea. How much could I even level up fighting level 2 bears...' Lukas thought as the streets changed once again, he walked through and arrived at the inn once again.
'Most of the natives in the village are around level 30-40, and if their kids are afraid of this Maddon's place then they must at least have similar levels...' Lukas thought as he looked at the storefronts around the inn.
'Since the inn is here the stores should be around here too,' Lukas thought as he was walking around the road.
"Pssst~"
A soft whispering sound entered his ears and it took him just a moment with his enhanced senses to locate the Thorld that was whispering and indicating him from an alley.
He made a universal gesture indicating to him to come closer, after debating for a bit Lukas walked close and peeked into the alley.
'I guess the gangster culture transcends races it seems,' Lukas thought as he looked at the Thorld in front of him. There were scars everywhere on his body and underneath his eyes. His shifty eyes were scanning all around the street behind Lukas.
...
[Thask Atter Regg Lv 42]
"Stop wasting time and get in here, someone would get suspicious," Thask said, the interesting thing to Lukas was the gleaming red name that Thask had.
The debate in Lukas's mind lasted a second as he took a step into the alley. The way the Thorld was hiding was suspicious so he asked, "Do you not have safe zone protection."
However, the question was more for himself as seeing the nervous look on Thask's face made it seem like he didn't have protection.
"I do, it still hurts, 1% of the damage goes through so if you get hunted by a mob this safe zone effect isn't that effective," Thask spoke.
'That makes sense...'
"Anyway, let's do this quickly. Information costs 1 bronze per question. And if you want to buy something my inventory is open. You can buy anything you want but if you want to sell it back I'll give you only 50% of the money back" Thask spoke and a similar request appeared in front of him.
...
[Thask Atter Regg has requested to trade with you]
[Yes/No]
...
Lukas clicked 'Yes' and another notification appeared before he could see what the options were.
...
[Thask Atter Regg has allowed you to view his inventory]
[Allow Thask Atter Regg to view your inventory?]
[Yes/No]
...
'Though this time the inventory is full...'
Lukas clicked on 'No' and then looked through the inventory.
'What do we have here, some skill books...'
...