Lucas never really spent time with kids his age, with Quinn being the only occasional exception. As a side effect of that behavior, he was now at a loss as to how he would track the boy down. With nowhere else to reasonably turn to, he started walking over to Quinn's house.

He listened closely on the approach to check if either of his target's parents were perhaps out back, tending to their animals. Lucas didn't actually hear any of the adults themselves, but the relatively increased noise coming from the livestock turned his path in that direction anyway.

Lucas navigated the muddy path that bordered their respective houses without dirtying himself too much. He nearly ran straight into the immense, shaggy flank of a carolf when he finally made it around the corner.

"Maooor!" The animal swung its head around, forcing Lucas to back away.

"Woah there! You ain't running off so easily, Bessie," a man's voice carried over from the other side. "Get back here!"

The carolf's attempted escape was immediately halted as the straps of its harness grew taught. Lucas approached once more as the animal was corralled into a sturdy pen that held a few others of its kind, all by the physical strength, or STR, of a relatively smaller man--Quinn's father, Eliot.

"Every time, every single time I take one of you out for grooming, you try to wander off," Eliot complained as he closed off the pen once more, his back turned to Lucas. "It's not like you've got a hard life here--a lot better than you'd have it wandering off, in fact."

Lucas held back a chuckle at the man's seemingly genuine exasperation with the unintelligent animals. Eliot still hadn't taken notice of Lucas as his audience, so he stopped outside the bordering fence and gave a little knock on the wood.

"Ahem...Mr. Eliot?" Lucas got the man's attention.

For his part, when he turned around, the man did not show the slightest embarrassment at the possibility that Lucas heard his complaints, which only mad it funnier in Lucas's mind. Instead, his brow just furrowed slightly. "Lucas? What are you doing back here?"

"I'm just looking for Quinn, sir. I got an early from lessons with my mom and was bored."

"Right, right," Eliot acknowledged and turned back to the carolf pen for a moment. "Well, he's not here. Ran off to play around the village maybe an hour ago."

"Do you know which direction he went in?" Lucas asked.

"Not really," the man admitted. "I'd try near the south gate, if I were you."

Lucas started taking his leave before Eliot had fully finished talking, and answered back over his shoulder. "Thank you, I will!"

"Congratulations on your unlock, by the way!" Eliot called out before Lucas could move beyond earshot.

"Thanks!"

The children of the village sometimes used the area around the south gate as a stage for their games, Lucas already knew that and had witnessed it often enough. He'd never seen Quinn take part in any of those games, however, which is why he'd originally dismissed it as a place to start his search. But now that he'd discovered no solid clue to the boy's location at his house, it was a good enough spot to turn to.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

It didn't take very long to walk to the area from where Lucas lived, and once there, Lucas found several groups of kids spread out in the open space before the wall. Most of them were younger than him, but there were a few older as well. Unfortunately, a quick glance did not show Quinn to be in the area. He would have to ask around.

Starting from the closest group, he carved a path through the loose collection of kids. Lucas made sure to at least get every kid's attention while he asked each group if they knew where Quinn was, if not asking each one out right. He didn't fail to notice how each group he approached would quiet down and pause their activities in his presence. Suffice to say, he was not the most popular amongst this part of the village's population.

It was looking like he had hit a dead end and would need to track Quinn down some other way. As a final bid, he approached the oldest group of kids--those that had already unlocked.

The group only consisted of three kids, and by the time he approached them, they'd clearly seen him making the rounds. Unlike each time before, his presence did not sedate their behavior, as their attention already rested solely on him. Lucas took the opportunity to use [Identify].

[Laborer]

[Laborer]

[Apprentice]

[*ding Congratulations! [Identify] has reached level 4!]

The information the Skill gave him was nearly useless at the moment, but that was the reason he had to level it up. With this, it was one more step closer to being useful. He'd be lying if he said he didn't wish he could at least see their Class level, though. None of the kids had combat Classes, but if for some reason their conversation turned into a fight, he would not like his chances with his inevitably lower stats.

That wasn't even accounting for the possibility of any one of them having a physically-inclined Skill or two. Really, all the [Identify] Skill gave him to work with at the moment was a general idea of their nascent occupations. The day it would provide completely actionable information was far off.

"What do you want?" The stocky boy in the middle, one of the [Laborer]s, asked semi-hostilely.

"I'm looking for Quinn," Lucas simply stated.

"Well, clearly he isn't here," the same boy answered him.

Lucas turned a questioning look at the other [Laborer] and the skinny [Apprentice] girl, but neither communicated anything better. In the latter's case, however, she gave him a look closer to guilt than the confrontative expressions of the other two. He nodded his had slightly toward the closest house while maintaining careful eye contact with her, before turning back to the stocky boy with a bad attitude.

"Hey, weren't you one of the kids waiting outside my house last night?" Lucas suddenly asked him. He watched the boy's expression closely to see his reaction.

"No. Why would I be outside your house?" He lied blatantly and poorly, before doubling down on his hostility. "Now go away, no one wants to hang out with the hermit boy."

Lucas quickly backed off as the boy took a few threatening steps toward him. "Alright, alright! I'll leave. Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

The three kids watched him walk off in the direction of the nearest house, and Lucas didn't hear them restart conversation till he was out of sight around the corner. At that point, he was too far away to properly make out words, so it did him little good. Instead of wasting his efforts, he simply found a comfortable-ish seat and waited.

Nearly fifteen minutes or so later, the lack of action had him bored out of his mind and he was close to cutting his losses and moving on. That changed when the skinny [Apprentice] suddenly came around the corner in a forcefully unhurried walk. With great relief, Lucas rose from his seat and she spotted him immediately.

"It's Yenna, right?" Lucas friendlily asked. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"Yep. I know where Quinn is, and he might be in real trouble," the girl wasted no time in telling him.

"Where?"

"The basement of a house near the east wall--come on, I'll show you." She took off before the words had really left her mouth, practically dragging Lucas along.

What exactly is going on here?