[Hyperactive Spirit]

[Rating: Innate]

[Effect: Comprehension massively boosted, Mana consumption increased by ten times]

Felix remained frozen for a moment, his eyes wide open as he read the skill.

"Fuck!"

The players still around, mostly those who were looking at their status too, eyed Felix for a moment, before going back to their self introspection.

Closing his status, Felix felt like cursing a thousand times more, but he decided to keep quiet as he sombrely walked away.

"Map!" he said, with a sharper voice than he intended. However, nothing happened.

"Map!" Still nothing.

Felix grabbed the bridge of his nose, and sighed. There was no map. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

"Inventory." Nothing.

Breathing out to calm himself, Felix closed his eyes. The game did not have any inventory, no in-game map. They really went all in with the realism!

Normally, Felix wouldn’t have really cared, but the discovery of his Innate Skill made him irritated.

Innate Skills were supposed to be helpful, but his was crippling. Even with his strong Spirit, Felix wasn’t even sure he would be able to use a single spell. And even if he was, having to fork out ten times as much MP to use a spell would be impossible to keep up with.

From the get go, in RPG games, Mages deal a lot of damage, but they also have to pay a lot of MP to use their spells, so as to balance the class. In any other game, an average mage would use ten spells before emptying their mana reserve.

So what was Felix supposed to do? Fire a single spell, and wait for his entire reserve to refill? A single spell most probably wouldn’t even kill a monster. He didn’t know the rate at which mana regenerated, but even if it was as quick as ten minutes for it to refill entirely, was Felix supposed to run around for ten minutes after attacking an enemy?

No, Felix was fucked. His Innate Skill made it impossible for him to become a Mage. Of course, Felix’s account wasn’t fucked per se, warriors would logically require much less MP to use their skills, so becoming a warrior was semi viable for Felix, but even then, he would always be at a disadvantage compared to others.

Silver lining here was that Felix didn’t have to choose his class as soon as he appeared. Otherwise, he definitely would have chosen Mage, and he would have ruined this character. That would have been terrible, because as far as he knew, it wasn’t possible to create a second character.

After a moment, Felix sighed, and looked back at his skill.

‘Comprehension boosted by ten times.’

Felix did not know what Comprehension was. Well, he knew what the word meant, but what exactly was it in the game? Was it supposed to be a hidden stat? Or the innate ability to understand things?

And what fell under the category of Comprehension? He didn’t remember there being anything he was supposed to understand in past games.

But Epoch wasn’t like other games.

And finally, after a moment, he came to a realization.

Maybe comprehension could be applied to learning how to wield a weapon!

It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but it aligned with Felix’s intentions anyway. Ignoring his absurd Innate Skill, Felix wouldn’t have gone for magic right away anyway, as he certainly didn’t have what it takes to learn a spell. He doubted they would be handed out freely by the ones who held them.

So instead, what he first needed to do was to find a weapon. A spear.

But Felix had never held one before, much less fought with one. Even if he got a spear, leaving right away to hunt dangerous monsters would most probably only result in his death. Hence, Felix's current goals were as follow:

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1. Find where to get a spear.

2. Get the money to buy it.

3. Buy it.

4. Train with it.

5. Leave the village to hunt and go questing.

Easy Peasy.

Felix knew that this would allow the other players to get ahead of him in terms of levels, and maybe even get the better quests, but as Yasue had advised him, it was better to build a strong foundation than to jump into the unknown unprepared.

Besides, this was only the beginner village, even the better quests here wouldn’t be phenomenal. The real competition would start in the cities, so Felix did not feel too bothered with taking the time to properly train.

And if he was right about his hunch over his Innate Skill, then training was the best course of action.

So without any map to navigate the village, Felix decided to ask the local populace. As he walked aimlessly, he found a group of young children. Surprisingly, their status was different from the others Felix had seen, as they only had a name, and no level.

He approached them, and asked, "Excuse me, would you happen to know where I could get a weapon?"

The children did not look perturbed by the question, and one of them even sprung up to answer, "I know!"

Following him, the others quickly raised their hands too, eager to answer. Feeling a little overwhelmed, Felix put up his hands and said, "One at a time guys, one at a time," he pointed at the first one who talked, "you, where should I go?"

The other kids looked defeated, and the boy showed a proud grin as he said, "My dad is the best Blacksmith of Red Dawn!"

Felix smiled as that was exactly what he was looking for. He wasn’t really sure about the ‘best’ part, the kid wouldn’t say his father sucked if he did, but in Felix’s case, any would do.

"Could you lead me there then, kid?"

Much to Felix’s surprise though, the kid did not simply accept, but instead took a pose, pointing at Felix’s nose as he asked loudly, "Odin, brave hero from another world, I challenge you to a race!"

[Quest Detected!]

[Race with the kids: Alex has challenged you to a race!]

[Objective: Reach the Blacksmith’s Store before Alex.]

[Difficulty: E]

Alex was the name of the boy who spoke. As for Felix, he was mildly surprised at the system prompt, but he was quick to accept the quest.

The moment he did, Alex jumped in excitement, clenching his fist above his head, "Yay! I got a quest!"

Alex titled his head at that, but Alex did not wait to explain his behavior or give any additional instructions as he broke out into a sprint.

This made Felix smile as he quickly followed behind him.

Felix only had 6 Strength, but he had 12 Agility, so keeping up with the kid was easy. Felix did notice that the other kids did not follow, not that it really mattered to him.

Since he didn’t know the way to the Blacksmith, Felix did not overtake Alex, and ran right behind him. Part of him wanted to overtake the kid when the Blacksmith’s shop came in sight, but as it did appear, he decided not to.

The Quest was the lowest of the low, and Felix doubted there would be much of a reward for completing it. So he might as well let the boy win, since he was going to need the boy’s father’s help anyway.

[Quest Failed!]

[Penalty: None]

Meanwhile, Alex, who was panting while leaning against the shop’s exterior, said between breaths, "I won!"

This made Felix chuckle as he ruffled the boy’s hair, and got inside the shop. But the moment he opened the door, he was assaulted by a wave of hot air. It wasn’t to the point where it became unbearable, but it did feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Yet, as he looked around, Felix did not see a furnace, but instead the traditional blacksmith shop in fantasy settings, meaning weapons put on display, either on the walls or in closed glass containers.

Some of the weapons looked rather mundane, while others looked more extraordinary. The crown went to the one on the back wall though, a giant sword that looked like it could cleave a man in two with ease. Felix was too far from it to inspect it though.

Not that he really had time for that, as right under the huge sword, was a man, staring at Felix with dangerous eyes.

[Chris, Level 12, Elite]

"May I know why you were chasing my son?"

Realizing the misunderstanding, Felix felt relieved it was only that as he explained, "Sorry if it looked like that. I was looking for a Blacksmith, and your son challenged me to a race here."

Chris’ eyes visibly softened as he sighed, "I see. Unfortunately, there’s no Blacksmith here."

Felix sent a pointed look at the weapons around him, and Chris grunted, "I’m a Runesmith."

Felix scratched his cheek and asked, "But you do make weapons, right?"

Chris rolled his eyes and said, "Of course I do. A Runesmith is a Blacksmith capable of engraving runes on their craft by themselves. Think of it as a better version of a Blacksmith."

Felix raised his eyebrows in understanding, and Chris asked, "So, what can I do you for? You don’t look like you have any money on you."

Felix smiled and replied, "Indeed I do not, I just arrived. I’m from another world you see, and I want to buy a spear to train. I came here to see how much the weapon was, to know how much money I need to get."

Chris looked pensive, and after a couple seconds of silence, he finally opened his mouth.

"I could use a pair of hands to help. How about this? I lend you a spear right now, and you pay me back by working for me. I’m not gonna take your whole day, so you could train in your free time."

Felix half expected a system prompt, but none came. However, a large smile appeared on Felix’s face as he replied a little quicker than intended, "I agree!"

Chris did not show any reaction to it though, and simply got up from his seat, walking towards the back door. Felix followed after him, but as Chris opened the door, his breath was cut short as an even greater heat assaulted him.

It wasn’t exactly damaging, as Felix wasn’t taking any damage, but with every breath Felix felt like he was swallowing fire. His lungs were burning. Despite that, he only stopped for a moment before following Chris.

Behind the door was a set of metallic stairs, leading to an underground room. It was larger than the shop, but most of the cave was taken by a giant furnace. It looked out of its time with its design, looking more like an industrial furnace than a Blacksmith, but what set it apart was the glowing runes engraved on it.

Within it burned a blue flame that Felix could tell from just seeing was hotter than any normal flame. It was actually so hot that the air in front of it seemed distorted.