I had expected a fantasy world to be a lot nicer. My first honest thought when I left the childhood home I had been reborn into was something along the lines of “Really? You have magic and you’re still dumping literal shit out of your windows and straight onto the street?” But perhaps that’s what I had been sent here for in the first place. The goddess hadn’t been too terribly specific with my mission, but I’d complete it all the same.
Because, you see, I’m not from here. I’m actually from a world far away, but when I died there, I suddenly found myself face to face with none other than the goddess. She gave a mission to me of all people, and I’ll never forget those words.
“Bring light to this distant world, traveler.”
A meeting less than a minute long, but I was committed to follow each and every word of it. The boon I had been granted would guide me on my journey and has already allowed me to rise up this far despite my age. You see, most people focus on levels, but they really mostly just allow you to further increase your stats.
I, however, have an evolved swordsmanship skill: Light Blade. Despite being only level fifty, I have the highly powerful class Swordsman/Light. I have slain creatures well above my level before and I’ll do it again. So I ask once more. Do you really think I can’t handle this? Would you dare to believe that some monster in a Podunk town would be my equal?
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The teenager finished monologuing, the room quiet for a moment as the nearby adventurers pretended not to listen and the nice-looking lady behind the wooden counter forced an increasingly strained smile. The boy in question had been spending the last month or so giving a go at being the next hero of Berics. Of course, like it usually did, this ended up giving him a big head.
He was right about one thing at least: a good skill and a powerful class were more an indication of strength than raw level was. What he wasn’t considering was this applied to monsters as well. The Intuit skill wasn’t like the evolved form Identify. It gave only a raw feeling on the power of your opponent. As far as the Adventurer’s Guild was concerned; however, this reading was both more and less accurate. It was primarily based on total stats which could be deceptive for a creature’s power but usually wasn’t. If a low level and a high level creature had the same stats, then it would come down to their abilities, true enough. But in both cases, the reality was that they only got those stats by killing and consuming, so if their stats were the same then it was likely that their skills were in similar range to each other too.
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He was right that level wasn’t the important part, but if a confirmed level 70 plus had such a strong reaction to Intuit, then the monster had at least double his stats. That or he had higher stats with a truly intimidating skill block, since the exact mechanics of the Intuit skill were still fairly unknown. The normally nice lady in green frills behind the well carved wooden desk could and usually would tell someone this. Especially if that someone was a teenager rushing off at the first sign of danger, ignorant and unaware of the risks.
But in the boy’s own words, he wasn’t as young as he looked. He was a legendary realm traveler, someone who was handpicked by the goddess to come to these lands and deliver them from barbarism. At least, that had been his monologue last week.
And so, the normally very nice lady kept her smile straight as she could and accepted the notice from the board, stamping it and handing it back.
“Can you please give me a name for the notice? I have to ask every time even if I know.”
The boy had already begun grandstanding before she finished, obviously ignoring what she had to say. With faux laziness, he swung his arm over to his side, swishing his long black bangs with a jerk of the head as he lifted his other hand to his chin.
“My real name is Jeremy Wallace, but my adventuring name is Weis, Blade of Light.”
Muffled laughter came from the hall some distance away as the lady behind the counter quickly ducked down to ‘grab something’ and definitely not repress any giggling. After all, who would laugh at the Blade of Light?
She ‘found’ what she was looking for after a couple moments, stood back up, and then wrote in her log after checking the time. She then wandered away to grab the detailed notice they kept behind the counter, bringing it to the desk, and reading it.
“Do you accept and understand that the reward for this mission is given out by the townspeople themselves? Meaning that you will be subject to an investigation if it is discovered that harm comes to them or is threatened to them during negotiations or if the job is found to be incomplete despite the reward being collected?”
He scoffed as she struggled to remain professional.
“I would never do something like that.”
She continued to wait, just like she had the last time he’d been given a disclaimer like this. Eventually he sighed and shrugged.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Good. Then I have everything I need on my end. It is a week of travel to get there and then a week back. If we do not hear word from you or see you in three weeks’ time then the notice will be reposted with an accompanying increase in danger level. We recommend that you visit the town before you go exploring the woods both for your convenience and for our accountability.”
He nodded along and then took another ridiculously pompous pose.
“Of course, that was my plan all along,” he said smugly while probably lying through his teeth. “And fear not, I will take care of this creature and report back to you before you know it. Now where is this town?”
Sighing internally, the lady behind the counter regrettably continued to do her job.
“The town is called Tubersville…”