As Cloud’s group finally dismissed from the Vanguard, they went to their lodgings for dinner. On the dining room, five of them sit around a table with several foods on it. The atmosphere of the inn’s dining room was good, although there was no music whatsoever but the talks among the eaters filled the room with liveliness. Cloud’s group who haven’t had any food since morning eating their food silently.

After the foods on the table were cleaned, they began to talk to each other. This is the first time they had the chance to talk among themselves since they arrived in the city. During the week, they given off by the Vanguard, each of them went on their own either to find more about the city and the world they are currently at. So, they rarely met during that week and only now that they had the chance to talk within the group.

“Cloud, your tracking skill was superb, even a wolverine like me cannot smell the monsters back then” (Razz)

“Thank you, Razz and Ginz fighting skills is also top notch” (Cloud)

“Well it’s natural for me and my brother since our clan valued strength above all” (Ginz)

“I admire Kaelyn because I thought that since she is from water then she would be hindered on land but seeing her proficient movement on land, I wonder how scary it is to fight her under water” (Cloud)

“Hmm, you are also decent boy” (Kaelyn)

“Why is there no one talking about me?” (Nevrel)

“Well in terms of archery, as someone who uses a bow, I admire your archery skill Nevrel. You can unleash fast arrow with high precision even under pressure” (Cloud)

“Okay, it’s enough for the evaluation of our battle skill. The problem is what we going to do from now on. As we were transported here together, I would love to stick with you guys than going on my own” (Nevrel)

“Yea, although we brother and sister thought that we are okay if we watch each other back, but now I think having you guys assisting on battle is much better” (Razz)

“Although you guys thought that my movement on land is good but I have to struggle very hard and expends more energy to do so than in the water so I would rather have someone else back me up in case I exhausted all my stamina” (Kaelyn)

“I do agree, beside we cannot leave a kid on his own, right?” (Ginz)

As Ginz gaze directed towards Cloud, he felt uncomfortable. But realizing what Ginz means by a kid, Cloud felt a little annoyed. Different from him, the other guys reacted almost the same and laugh at the same time. They pat him on his head and treated him like a small child. Although it’s a joke but it's indeed a fact that Cloud is just a child in the group.

In terms of age, Nevrel was the oldest since he was an elf that has long life expectancy. An elf life expectancy is more than 10 times of a human, about 1000 years on average. Kaelyn is 25 years old and considered a juvenile in terms of Naga. Next is Razz and Ginz who is about 20 years old, their clan didn’t see someone age as the measure, they based the hierarchy on strength. Last is Cloud who were only 12 years old and were teased by the others since he was the youngest in the group.

At first, Cloud disagreed with the notion. Although having a group is good for the others but since he holds too many secrets, It’s better to be on his own. Also, hunting on his own would gain him more experience than hunting together with other people. From the hunt, he got some experience that led him to level up a couple of time. But the lacks of knowledge of the world makes it better if he were to stick with the group than leaving on his own.

But then there is another reason why he is reluctant to stay within the group. This group main activity is hunting which means killing monsters. It’s not that he is not capable of doing that but he felt that it was pointless. So what if he killed so many monsters, yes he will get money and experience to level up by doing so. But it’s too repetitive and he cannot show his prowess just yet because he afraid that if he shows too much potential, Vanguard won’t let him go.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Can I have a word, guys?”

“What is it Cloud?” (Ginz)

“Since we decide to stick together, it doesn’t bound only for mission right?”

“Yes, but what’s the point of this conversation, don’t you trust us?” (Nevrel)

“Ah, it’s not that I don’t trust you guys, it’s just that I don’t like fighting that much. As our group main activity is dangerous, we will need information to be safe while hunting. We also need a place to sell the loot from our hunts in the future”

“Your point?” (Kaelyn)

“I volunteer myself as the informant of our group. My job will be to collect information and making the connection with this world dweller.”

“Geez, it’s such a waste to left you behind looking at your skill set. But you have a point that the group indeed need as much as information for our safe being while hunting. It’s also because we neither have connections or relatives in this world that we must support each other in anything we could possibly contribute. If Cloud think that he is better on the information gathering aspect than in battle then there is nothing I can do to force him, I agree with having Cloud as the group informant” (Razz)

The other guys eventually agreeing with Razz as well and the group finally established unofficially. As the day had become late, they said farewell to each other and back to their own room. As Cloud went back to his room, many thoughts came to his minds. There is another reason why he chose to be left behind in the city. The reason is because he doesn’t want to show his abilities to public.

Learning from the reason that he got transported to this world and separated from Elizabeth without any power to refuse makes him realize that it’s not good showing off his little prowess like that. So, he wanted to be low-profile for a while in order to make people forget his existence first. Not completely but enough to make sure that no Vanguard notice him anymore.

Because of that, from the moment he stepped into this world, he already limited his power to certain extend. The detection of goblins was a slip off because it is an emergency. But aside from the accident, he had only shown normal abilities from the test until now. If you measure it by the average abilities of the group that is. Although it’s still high, it’s not high enough to gain special attention from the Vanguard.

Although battle power is important but since he is gifted with Comprehension, then he can easily achieve that in short time. For the time being, he needs to focus on miscellaneous skill that will help him and the group. Then he just needs to train his battle skill secretly until he is strong enough. Although it’s impossible for the others, but for Cloud, it’s not impossible anymore. Now he just needs to think about what the group needs first.

The first thing is the financial problem, from small things like food, daily necessities to information and equipment, all of them need money so a good financial is a must for a group. The easiest thing is of course by completing missions from vanguard, but they only need to show the proof of subjugation, the rest will be sold to the guild or to the market. In order to avoid scam and maximize the profit, he must gather the market price for the group.

“It’s decided then, tomorrow I’ll begin researching the market. For now, let’s read the log first” (Cloud)

Because of the heat of the battle, he almost forgot to read the log from the battle this afternoon. Cloud accessed the log menu that he hide in order to not hinder his vision. Then rows of log appeared in his field of vision. For each goblin that he killed, he gained experiences making him leveled up several times. He is now level 5 and gains 10 skill points for each level, that means he got 50 unused skill points.

The so called unused skill points can be used either to level up existing skill or unlocking another one with a certain price to pay depending on which skill you want to unlock. For example, if it’s just a common skill like a farmer, it is only worth of 10 skill points. Merchant although common but due to its benefit will cost you of 50 skill points to unlock. The rare skill like magician worth of 150 skill points.

Later on, to upgrade any of these skills, you only have to spend 1 skill point for each. So for example, if you want to master farmer skill, you will need another 1000 SP which mean you will need 1010 SP to fully master 1 normal skill. 1010 SP means 101 level which is impossible to be gained for normal people. So normally people would only unlock the skill and gain all the basic skill (upgrade to rank 2) and level up through grinding the job not by using skill points.

Although most skill can be unlocked with SP, there are several unique skills that cannot be obtained using SP. For example, Clouds Comprehension can only be obtained by gaining the blessing from the God of Knowledge. So most people cannot obtain Comprehension although they yearn for it, and for that, most of the people unable to get many high leveled skills. At most, people only have 3-5 skill with all its basic skill unlocked.

For that, people usually only pick one main job that they will expertise and pick at most 2 side job in order to not become a jack of all trades master of none. For example, a head of a family using farming/hunter as his main job and choose lumberjack and carpenter as their side. A housewife will choose maid, cook, and nurse, etc. But none of it matters for Cloud, he has the possibility to master several skills because of his maxed Comprehension.