The seven kingdoms in Arcane Heroes were in a state of non-aggression. No matter how much two of the kingdoms disagreed with each other, they couldn't act rashly. Among the seven kingdoms, two of them were human kingdoms. The holy kingdom, Luminous, and the matriarchal kingdom, Basara. Both are located in the northern part of the continent, neighboring each other. On the western side of Basara was the elven kingdom, Yggdrasil, while on the eastern side of Luminous was the Dwarfen kingdom, Belegorn. On the far south of the continent was the demon kingdom, Reinhell. To its west was the beast kingdom, Torian, and to its east was the aquatic kingdom, Tidalelion.

All Arcane Heroes players had to choose from one of the seven kingdoms at some point in the game. Each kingdom had a certain playstyle for characters you could recruit from them. For example, the rank one player in Arcane Heroes before I stopped playing used characters from Reinhell, which had powerful physical and magic dealers, making them perfect for large bursts of damage to end fights quickly.

Additionally, each kingdom had at least one "Heroic" ranked character. Heroic-ranked characters are the strongest characters in the game that you could recruit. They were strong, but they weren't invincible.

------

"Time for part two," I said as I began wrapping a piece of clothing on a branch. "Light this."

Star raised an eyebrow but did as she was told. I held up the makeshift torch and then tossed it into the hole.

"What's going to happen now?" Star asked.

An explosion suddenly occurred underground, making the ground above to cave in. "That."

Star ran for cover while I followed her. "What happened?!"

"When savage rats die, they release gas from their corpses. That's why they don't have a lot of predators."

"Is that why it exploded?"

"Yes. Normally, there won't be an explosion, but there were a lot of them that died at the same time, so..."

"How do you know this?"

"Someone posted it online."

"Posted? Online?" Star looked confused.

"It's an earthling kind of thing."

"Okay..."

With this, the nest was already destroyed. Even if there were savage rats that survived, they would be forced to look for a new habitat.

I and Star returned to the farm, where we saw the farmer cleaning the mess the rats had made of her crops.

"We've dealt with rats, ma'am."

"Oh, that's wonderful," she responded.

Star approached her with the commission paper, which she signed. "Thank you," Star bowed.

"Would you two like a glass of milk before leaving?"

"That would be nice," I accepted the offer.

"I'm good. See you back in the guild then," Star patted on me the back before leaving.

As the woman led me to her home, I looked around what was left of the farm. The field was ruined, that was clear. I don't know much about farming, but I was sure restoring it would take a lot of time and effort.

"Earlier... you mentioned something about helping me with my losses?"

"Yes. I wanted to offer you alternatives to use your land if it's already too late for another harvest."

"It is too late for another harvest, but I should be able to get by with what I have in stock," she stated. "But what did you have in mind?"

"Do you know how to take care of livestock?"

"I do, but not to the extent to make money out of it."

"That should be enough. Do you know about monsters called thunder bison?"

"Yes... aren't those dangerous?"

"They certainly are if you mean them harm."

"You're suggesting to have them as livestock?"

"Their horns sell for quite a lot," I mentioned.

"They'd kill me before I could even take their horns from their heads."

I smiled. "Who said anything about taking it from their heads?"

------

Around the time I stopped playing Arcane Heroes, a mounting system was added. It became so popular that even though I stopped playing, I still see people posting about it on my social media accounts.

It wasn't easy to get a mount. You needed to give it three offerings: a deal, a goal, and its enemy. It sounded more complicated than it should have been, but you should take it literally.

One of the most popular mounts was the thunder bison. One reason for its popularity was because they're easily found in Union City's territory. The second reason was that they're one of the strongest mounts you can get early on.

It only took me about an hour to find a whole herd of them after exploring the fields. Thunder bison were passive monsters. Unless you approached them intending to harm them, they would even allow you to touch them.

I carefully approached the herd, and a large thunder bison approached me.

"You must be the leader," I slowly opened the rag I was carrying to reveal the charred head of a savage rat, the enemy of thunder bison. The leader stared at the head before looking back at me. "The deal I'm offering is where you and your herd can stay."

The leader let out what sounded like a "moo". Does a bison even moo?

"As for the goal, I'll make you one of the strongest creatures in the world."

It just stared at me for a moment, making me nervous that I either failed or would die soon.

"Did it work?"

------

Michelle had inherited this farm from her father, who inherited it from her grandfather. This place held significant value to her. Much like her father, she wished to build her family here. But faith wasn't exactly on her side. She was already in her early thirties and had no luck getting into relationships.

At this point, she had already given up since she had other problems, like the current state of her land. Because she had held up on requesting help with the savage rats and how long it took for anyone to accept her request, it was delayed to the point where she no longer had any time for another harvest.

She had told the adventurers she could manage, but she doubted if she could. At worst, she might need to sell a portion of the land. As kind as the adventurer was to offer her help, his plan was far too unrealistic to happen.

Michelle didn't have the luxury to dwell on things, so she decided to get started on restoring her field. When she went outside, she was surprised to find a herd of thunder bison on the field with the adventurer riding on one of them.

"All we need now is a fence," he grinned.

------

"How did you do it?" Michelle asked.

"I asked them," I replied.

I could have died, but she didn't need to know that.

"All I need to do is let them stay here?"

I nodded. "Yes, then I'll give you half the profit from the horns."

"I still don't know how you plan to get their horns without getting killed," Michelle looked at me in concern.

As if on cue, one of the thunder bison dropped their horns on the ground before moving away from it. "Ta-da!"

Michelle looked both shocked and confused. "How has nobody found out about this yet?"

"Thunder bison don't shed their horns unless they're in a comfortable environment, then they just destroy it to leave no tracks."

"Why did that one just leave it?" Michelle pointed to the horn that was dropped on the ground.

"Because I promised them a place to stay. There's no longer any need to erase their tracks."

"..."

"What?" I looked at her in confusion.

"Would you like to live here?" Michelle offered.

"Well, I won't deny free lodging," I agreed.

Considering I didn't have much money, getting offered a place to stay was perfect. And after I start selling horns, I'll start earning enough money to buy land for my base.

"I'll prepare a room for you," Michelle left me in the field.

"Looks like I'm not the only one motivated."

I grabbed the pair of horns on the ground before following Michelle.

-------

"This is your share," Star handed me three silver coins. "The reward was only five silver coins, but you practically did all the work, so you should get more."

I handed two coins back to her. "It's fine. I won't be short on money anymore."

Star narrowed her eyes. "Why do you look more handsome all of a sudden?"

"What do you mean?"

I glanced at my status screen.

[Zed

Level 1

Title: None

Job: None

Stats:

Strength F

Agility F-

Vitality F

Dexterity F

Sense F-

Magic F-

Charm E

Luck D+

Adaptability F+]

I had used the essences I got from killing the savage rats to increase both my Charm and Luck.

Both stats had a significant impact when recruiting characters. They were important stats to get early on. And since both can't be increased in any other way other than using Arcane Essence, there was no reason to hold out on upgrading them.

"You're just imagining it," I said before heading towards Elise.

"Good morning," Elise gave me a warm greeting. "You're here early."

"I have a busy day planned."

"What can I help you with today?"

I took out a thunder bison horn from my bag. "I want to sell this."

Elise's eyes widened. "How did you get this?"

"I have my ways."

"I'll need to get a supervisor for this. Do you mind waiting?"

"Not at all. But do you think I can get a skill for it instead of money?"

"Do you have a skill in mind?" Elise asked.

"Weapon mastery."

Elise nodded. "I'll see what we can do?"

Thanks to it being so early in the morning, there weren't many people in the guild lobby. Otherwise, bringing such a rare item would have caused a scene. But thanks to Elise being so discreet, not even the other receptionists noticed until she was already carrying the horn away.

"Hey!" Star called me over. "I got a new mission."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Do we need to fight?"

"Maybe," Star shrugged. "It's another rodent problem, so I'm not sure."

"Do you have combat experience?"

"Not really."

"What kind of skills do you have?"

"I only have one skill," Star answered. "It's called performer's conjuration."

"What can you make with it?"

Star created some playing cards and a candy cane staff. "These kinds of things."

"How did you make the sparks then?"

"It comes with it," Star created small sparks.

"Do you at least know how to use that?" I pointed at the staff.

"A little."

I shrugged. "We'll manage."

"Great. The mission is for tomorrow night. Let's meet at the south gate."

I nodded. As I watched Star leave, I let out a deep sigh. "I can't believe I'm fonder of this world than my own."

-------

"I can't believe this," Michelle muttered as she stared at three pairs of thunder bison horns. "These are probably worth more than my land."

"I can't believe you only want twenty percent," I commented as I was doing the calculations.

I refused to meet the supervisor of the guild, so Elise was the one to tell me that horns were worth twenty-five to fifty gold coins depending on the size. The first one I brought was worth thirty-one gold coins. Twenty coins went to my first skill book, while I gave the rest to Michelle as the down payment for our new business.

"I can't be greedy. You could have approached any other land owner, or even bought yourself land."

"That would have taken too long," I mentioned. "Anyways, we need to invest more into security."

"What did you have in mind?"

"You already have a fence, so plan on putting danger signs on them for now."

"Would that even work?"

"Your land is still covered in savage rat holes, so we could use that. That would make it the worst place to even find anything valuable."

"That's a good idea."

"Then I need to find these materials," I showed Michelle a list.

"I don't even recognize any of these," Michelle answered in confusion.

"Well, that makes things a bit more complicated."

"You can try asking the alchemists at the market."

"Another time, for now, I need to start training."

"Good luck then," Michelle patted me on the back before walking away to do some work.

As for me, I headed to an open area to try practicing with a staff. At some point, I would need to invest in a weapon. But for now, I'll try to increase the proficiency of my skills.

[Novice weapon mastery (0%)]

It didn't sound impressive, but this skill was one of the best skills to have at the start of the game. It's even better in reality since this skill will help me use every item categorized as a weapon.

To test it out, I twirled a stick around and was amazed at how fluid the motion was. Considering I had no experience with this, it was all the skill’s doing.

"I can get used to this," I smiled.

------

"That would a 120 gold coins," Elise dropped a sack of coins in front of me.

"Well... this is quite the invitation to get robbed."

"Why don't you put it in the guild bank?" Elise suggested.

"You have a bank?"

She nodded. "We usually don't offer it to new adventurers, but you're quite the exception," Elise stated. "We store the gold in the vault, and you are given a bank card. You can use it to pay for any guild-related places."

"What if the card gets stolen?"

"The card would be locked to your mana signature, so only you can use it."

"Fee?"

"We don't charge any fee since we benefit the most from this method."

"I love this place even more," I smiled. "I'll deposit 90 gold coins then."

Elise nodded and took away the sack again to count the coins.

"She's surprisingly strong," I muttered.

"You ready for tonight?" Star tapped me on the shoulder.

"As much as I could. I did a lot of training yesterday."

"See you later then," Star ran off.

As she left, Elise returned carrying a device and a card. "Please place your hand here."

I did as told, and a second later, Elise handed me the card.

"All done."

"Thank you."

With my business with the guild finished, I headed towards the alchemist association. It's the same as the adventurer's guild but for quirky alchemists.

I approached the counter, and a tall man wearing a robe greeted me. "How can I help you?"

"Do you have any of these?" I gave him a list of items.

"We do, but this would cost a lot."

"Can you give me the total price?"

The man nodded. "Give me a moment."

As I waited, I looked around the lobby of the Alchemist Association. It was a lot less rowdy, and fewer people walked around. I probably looked out of place wearing a shirt and pants here. The few people who passed by were either wearing robes or formal clothes.

"At least they didn't discriminate based on my attire."

After a minute of waiting, the man returned. "We have everything on the list, and the sum would be 32 gold coins."

"Damn..." I muttered as I pulled out the guild-bank card.

"Should I take some items out?" the man asked.

"No, I'll take everything," I handed the card.

The man nodded. "Would you also like to purchase a sub-space bag for five gold coins?"

"Sure..."

I felt like I just spent enough money comparable to somebody's life savings.

"I wonder how the other people from Earth are doing?"

------

"What have you been doing recently?" Star asked as we made our way to the location of the commission.

"Trying to get stronger," I replied.

"You're doing quite well compared to the others," Star mentioned.

"Others?" I turned to her in confusion.

"The other humans that came from another world," she said. "Many of them got locked up for causing disturbances, while some barely found jobs."

"How do you know all that?"

"I talk to people," she answered. "That's what everyone is talking about recently."

"I didn't like my old world, so I didn't bother asking about the others. I just wonder about the topic sometimes."

"Harsh," Star reacted. "We're here."

I looked around. "What are we looking for?" everything around us was just trees.

"The commission said that something was stealing their fruits."

"I don't see any fruits to steal either."

Before we could discuss anything else further, an arrow shot past my head, barely missing me.

"You're a poor shot, dumbass," a voice was heard from the trees as a group of people came out from where they were hiding. "We got a pretty one this time."

"Maybe we could play with her a bit before selling her."

"Rookie-baiters."

"What?"

"Members that aren't wanted yet post commissions at the guild to bait new adventurers to isolated areas to kidnap them."

"Damn... unlucky," what was the point of raising my luck.

"They're all level three," Star whispered.

"How do you know that?" I whispered back.

Star didn't answer and just shot fireworks into the sky. Which surprised me since she said she could only create small sparks. "We just need to hold out until help arrives."

"How do you suppose we do that?"

"Aren't supposed to be the strategical one?"

"You want a strategy?"

"Yeah."

"Run."

Both of us took off sprinting. It came as no surprise to me that Star was significantly faster than me.

Two people from the criminal group blocked our path. They would be stronger than us so a frontal attack wouldn't work.

"Send fireworks towards them!"

"It's not an attack!"

"They don't know that!"

Star shot fireworks towards the criminals. One of them created a shield made of mana, but the bright sparks of the fireworks managed to block their vision.

"Cane!" I reached out a hand towards Star.

She conjured the same cane she showed me last time. I grabbed it as I ran past her and used the momentum of my run to swing the staff at one of the criminals' heads. The one I hit had two daggers out, but with his vision blinded, he didn't see the cane heading straight for his head.

I heard a loud crack. The other criminal jumped away, opening the path for us.

The others were catching up, but turning back to face them wasn't even an option. We continued running until they finally caught up and surrounded us again.

"You put up quite the chase."

The man who seemed to be the leader raised an axe and slammed it on the ground, creating a powerful shockwave heading straight for Star.

I didn't know why, but I jumped to push her out of the way, receiving the attack instead. It felt like a hundred stones had hit me in the gut.

I was certain my guts were crushed.

"Zed!" I heard Star yell, but my vision was already blurry.

I was seconds away from losing consciousness when I witnessed all the criminals that were still within my vision get torn to shreds by a golden blur.

------

"AH!!" I yelled as I got up from the bed.

"Is he usually this loud?"

I whipped my head towards the voice and saw Star with a woman clad in heavy golden armor that only revealed her face and fiery red hair. Star was not wearing her jester outfit. Instead, she wore a beautiful white dress.

"He's usually calmer about this," Star responded.

I pulled the covers off me and patted my stomach. Feeling no pain, I sighed in relief. "What happened?"

"Nerisa saved us," Star answered.

I turned towards the heavily armored woman. Based on her appearance and the lion emblem on her shoulder guard, she was a knight from the Basara kingdom.

"Were you expecting a more feminine armor?" Nerisa asked since I was staring at her armor.

"No? Why would armor need to be feminine?" I asked in confusion.

"Don't mind that," Star interrupted. "The guild said they would compensate us for what happened."

That was good to hear.

"We wish to thank you as well for saving our lady," Nerisa mentioned.

"Lady?" I turned to Star with a raised eyebrow.

She looked away.

Nerisa tossed me a glass ball. "That is all the Arcane Essence I obtained after killing those trash."

I stared at the glass ball in shock.

"There should be enough essence inside that glass to make you a formidable individual," Nerisa said. "Is there anything else you wish to acquire?"

"What about a weapon?" Star suggested. "Hold on... you're not going to ask who I am?"

I shook my head. "I like to mind my own business regarding higher-ups."

"Wise words," Nerisa commented.

Star just huffed.

"Instead of a weapon, can you get me anything defense-related?"

Nerisa nodded. "We'll see."

"I bet he'll use all that essence on his luck," Star whispered.

"Luck is subjective, boy," Nerisa stated. "It won't keep you alive."

"Boy?" I raised an eyebrow.

Nerisa turned to Star. "I shall take my leave, my lady."

As Nerisa left the room, I turned to Star.

"I have a question. What level are you, Star?"

"Two, but I'm pretty close to leveling up."

"You have another skill from the Performer class, right?"

"Yes, but I'm keeping that one a secret."

Star looked smug, which made me tempted to tell her that I already knew what her other skill was. Skills are rated from E to S rank, with E rank being the weakest and S rank being the most useful skill you can get. "Performer's conjuration" was a class-specific A-rank skill.

Whoever Star is, she is wealthy enough to afford a skill worth thousands of gold coins.

"I don't suppose you'd still want to go on commissions with me?" Star asked.

"I don't mind. Why are you going on commissions anyway?"

"I need practical experience," Star answered.

I shrugged, and then I realized something. "Where am I?"

"You're in a private hospital room."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "How much is this going to cost me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Hospitals aren't cheap."

"We'll cover the costs," Star assured.

"I still don't want to stay here."

"You're weird."

------

"Status on the humans from another world," a man in priest robes spoke as a servant entered the room.

"Several kingdoms have begun recruiting the other worlders," the servant reported. "We have confirmed that Basara has begun sponsoring a woman named Artemis, and she has already reached level three."

"They didn't even bother to hide it."

"What shall we do, Bishop Andres?"

"Continue monitoring them. How are the ones we tried to recruit?"

"We have already made contact with seven of them, but we have yet to receive a response."

Andres gritted his teeth. The humans from another world all held potential beyond common sense. They possessed affinity with everything. From holy magic to even demonic abilities. These humans were capable of wielding them all. The only challenge would be nourishing them. Level three is the stage where a person gets their first class, and the class they obtain is dependent on how they achieve level three. The skills and experience they have would determine what class they could potentially get. If they plan on making use of them, they can't simply give them handouts.

The greater the challenge, the stronger the class.

------

"Use everything on luck."

[Zed

Level 1

Title: None

Job: None

Stats:

Strength F

Agility F-

Vitality F

Dexterity F

Sense F-

Magic F-

Charm E

Luck A-

Adaptability F+]

[Novice weapon mastery (12%)]

It might be a dumb decision to do this after being warned by Nerisa, but I needed my luck to be as high as possible before I proceeded with my plans.

Arcane Heroes was a game that valued hard work and effort the most. It had a lot of powerful characters, but the one with the most potential was always the player character. Players always made their characters as a way to fill in the gaps in their team, but they wasted their character's potential.

But the game also valued fairness, so there was a less popular method of catching up to players who got the strongest characters first.

The Hero maker system.

It was the same as making another player character, but there were a lot of restrictions. One of those restrictions is that the stats of the hero cannot be upgraded using Arcane Essence. All the stats of the hero would start at D and will increase by one stage every time they level up.

"This looks expensive," Michelle commented as she observed the items I laid out on the ground.

"It cost more than a good quality horn," I revealed.

Michelle looked shocked. "Are you sure you're not some noble? You spend like one."

"I'm not, and this isn't just some blind spending."

The Hero Maker system has requirements that players mostly get later in the game. The first requirement is specifically a mid-grade monster core. The one I'm using is from a vampire soldier. The second requirement is a cursed item. In the game, it didn't matter what item was used, but I wasn't certain if it was still the case here. The item the alchemist association gave me was a revolver. The third requirement was a block of pure mana steel. A material found in mines with a high concentration of mana. Although it didn't cost much due to the lack of use for it, the small block of pure mana steel I bought was made using several tons of the ore. The fourth item required was an identity tag. A scroll that is used by summoners to name their summoned creatures. The last item was a fusion scroll used by alchemists.

"I'm going to step back," Michelle said as I unrolled the fusion scroll.

"That's a good idea," I replied.

To activate the scroll, I just needed to tear it. After tearing the scroll, it turned to shards of light that dropped on the items I laid out. I quickly stepped back when a magic circle appeared under all the materials, swallowing all of it. The magic circle began to glow, then a pillar of light shot up to the sky.

"Those special effects weren't an exaggeration after all," I muttered as the light began to thin down.

From the light appeared a feminine figure. Snow white hair and blood-red eyes. Her pale skin stood out in contrast to her black trench coat that hid everything underneath in a veil of shadows.

The woman kneeled. "Grant me a name," she spoke, revealing her fangs.

Based on her appearance, I guess the materials used did have an impact.

"Since you look like a vampire. What about Lilith?"

"As you wish," Lilith replied.

[You have successfully created a Hero]

[Vampire gunslinger, Lilith has been created]

[Lilith has been granted the unique stat Lethality]

[Lilith

Level 1

Title: None

Job: Vampire gunslinger (Unique)

Stats:

Strength D

Agility D

Vitality D

Dexterity D

Sense D

Magic D

Charm D

Luck D

Lethality D]

[By Lethality, your stats have been upgraded]

[Strength has been upgraded]

[Agility has been upgraded]

[Magic has been upgraded]

[Adaptability has been upgraded]

[Zed

Level 1

Title: None

Job: None

Stats:

Strength F+

Agility F

Vitality F

Dexterity F

Sense F-

Magic F

Charm E

Luck A-

Adaptability E]

"That's what I call progress," I said with a grin.