After fetching his wooden spear with its gleaming metal blade at the orphanage, and getting what little money he had, one gold, 23 silver, and 47 coppers, Lariel decided he wanted to do a quest and started wandering towards the Guild. While on his way there, he noticed a little exclamation on the top right corner of his eyesight. When he focused on that, a wave of notifications came to him.
He had already been familiar with these notifications before, when he developed new skills, and when he upgraded them. But he had never been able to see them at will. It was probably something related to him obtaining a class. He started reading them.
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Physical Fitness!
*Ding* Basic Physical Fitness has reached level 2!
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*Ding* Basic Physical Fitness has reached level 25!
*Ding* Basic Physical Fitness Level 25 has evolved to Physical Fitness Level 26!
*Ding* Physical Fitness has reached level 27!
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*Ding* Physical Fitness has reached level 32!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Weapon Proficiency!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Sword Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Double-Headed Spear Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Axe Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Dagger Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Shield Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Mace Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Bow Mastery!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Mana Sense!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Mana Manipulation!
*Ding* Obtained the skill: Basic Rock Bullet!
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*Ding* Weapon Proficiency has reached level 32!
*Ding* Physical Fitness has reached level 43!
*Ding* Basic Sword Mastery has reached level 21!
*Ding* Double-Headed Spear Mastery has reached level 31!
*Ding* Basic Axe Mastery has reached level 17!
*Ding* Basic Dagger Mastery has reached level 14!
*Ding* Basic Shield Mastery has reached level 20!
*Ding* Basic Mace Mastery has reached level 18!
*Ding* Basic Bow Mastery has reached level 23!
*Ding* Basic Mana Sense has reached level 18!
*Ding* Mana Manipulation has reached level 38!
*Ding* Basic Rock Bullet has reached level 23!
These were the notifications that he could identify before today. The remaining ones had been given to him after he had entered the Guild.
*Ding* You have chosen the Seeker of Power Class as your first class. Congratulations!
You are a seeker. Of what? You do not know yet. But what you do know is that you need the power to accomplish what you want. And so power is what gives you the will to go forward and advance towards a path only trodden by those willing to sacrifice themselves for what they desire.
Class level-up bonus: +2 End, Int | +1 Will, Per, Vit | +1 Free Stat | (8 Total Stats)
Due to the nature of your class, you will now learn and improve skills 0.5% faster per each level you gain in any of your classes.
Due to the nature of your class, each skill level increases the effect of the skill slightly above what it used to.
Due to the nature of your class, you will now earn one extra Free Stat per level-up per every five levels you have in any class.
Whaaaaat?????!!! Lariel had not read anything about classes until now, but he knew that all these bonuses that his class gave were absurd! He also knew that eight stats per level was extremely good. All of that on top of an extra free stat per level for every five levels he had globally was mindblowing. How could classes like this exist?
According to the message, others had chosen this class, so this wasn't a rare unique one. One only had to wonder what other classes had been available to him, and what he had thought once he had seen this one. Musing to himself, he made his way towards the Guild, only to stop himself at the sight of a shop. A Runesmith shop, to be exact.
Runesmithing was interesting. Runes worked when the person fed them mana. They gave temporary bonuses when the rune was active. It could give a static increase of stats, or even increase the durability or weight of an object. It was very useful, but also very rare because one had to become a mage and then get himself some runesmithing skills, which besides being rare were hard to learn, to then choose runesmith in the next class upgrade.
Due to this, runes were very expensive. A Runesmith in his early career days, when his work was not that good and he only sold Basic Runes could make many gold coins per day if he worked hard enough. And working hard enough led to evolving the skills, and therefore increasing the quality of work, and making the prices skyrocket. It was hard to encounter a runesmith that wasn't working for some noble. And as such, their general work was expensive. Because to become a runesmith you needed to practice a lot and to practice with weapons and armor was not very money friendly. Most runesmiths submitted themselves to work for nobles because they signed a contract when they were beginning, due to not being able to pay for the needed materials to evolve.
Lariel was interested in runes, but not to the point of becoming a Runesmith himself. He was planning to dab into enchantments, that did not require a specific class to make. Of course, it was better to become an Enchanter for a better quality of work, but you could also become a good enchanter without the class. You just needed a lot of money and a lot of time, to buy the skill books and learn and upgrade the skills.
The only publicly sold Mythical Rune ever sold went for 875 kings. It was, of course, bought by royalty, but one could see how much money it costed to get the best stuff. It was a sword, and with that sword, a non-classer could defeat every single adventurer except the Ruby ranked and above adventurers.
But that was still very far for Lariel. Instead, he continued forward and entered a smithy called 'Fiery Anvils', close to the Guild. It wasn't that good of an establishment, from what Lariel could tell. But for what he could buy, it was probably ok. A bell rang when he entered, moving towards the counter. When halfway through the shop a dwarf came out the back and waited at the counter. He was short, just like all the dwarves. In comparison to Lariel, about 30 centimeters shorter than his 1.78 meters. The dwarf had long red-brownish hair and brown eyes. A typical dwarf, working in the forges and smithing for a living. His face was packed with wrinkles. He was not necessarily old, at least for dwarf patterns, that even without a class could live three or four times longer than humans, and with a class could live for hundreds of years without aging.
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"Awright, thare laddie. Whit kin ah git ye?" he said.
Lariel wasn't overly accustomed to the dwarf accent, but he understood it well enough to answer.
"Hi. I would like to commission a spear like the one I have, but better quality," he said while dislodging his spear from his back and putting it on top of the counter.
The dwarf picked it up and started making grunts while eying it closely and making forces in some places while flicking others. All of this with unpleased grunts.
"Ah will be honest wi' ye laddie. This spear sooks mair than goat's jobby."
Lariel knew it of course. He had practiced with it many times and knew that it wouldn't hold for much more time. That was the reason he wanted a new one. The dwarf grunted a few more times and said.
"Sae whit dae yi'll waant fur this freish spear o' yers?"
To Lariel's understanding, the dwarf had said 'So what do you want for this new spear of yours?' and to that, he answered.
"I want it to kill monsters."
The dwarf did not seem surprised that a fifteen-year-old went there to commission a spear to kill monsters. Or, if he was surprised, he did not show.
"Weel, ah wull see whit ah kin dae aboot it," he said analyzing the spear again. "Howfur muckle dosh dae ye hae laddie?"
This was a full accent phrase, and Lariel took a couple of seconds to translate it to Common, 'How much money do you have boy', was what he came up with. He knew this question was coming. He was just a fifteen-year-old. To the dwarf's eyes, he could probably not pay any spear he made. And he was probably right. But Lariel had a plan.
"I can pay one gold and 23 silvers for it," he said.
The dwarf eyed him.
"Thet onle getsya a wooden stick laddie. I won't be doing anie businesh with ya. Na ge way," he said turning back to leave to the back door where he came from.
"Wait. I need to show you something."
The dwarf stopped. Curiosity won over and made him walk back to the counter. Lariel for his part took out his adventurer plate and placed it on top of the counter. The dwarf approached. Picked up the plate and looked at it. Then his eyes widened very slightly, then he looked at Lariel, then he looked back at the plate and his eyes widened a bit more, then he looked once again at Lariel and although he thought the dwarf had stopped widening his eyes, they widened more. Then he closed his eyes, put the plate back on the desk, and slid it to Lariel.
"Whatcha want?" he said with his eyes still closed.
"I want a spear that can kill monsters," Lariel answered again.
The dwarf fell silent for quite some time. Lariel was starting to get worried.
"Wanna cut a deal laddie?" The dwarf finally said.
Lariel did not know what was coming, but the dwarf's accent had become acceptable. He was probably doing an effort to be understood well.
"Depends on the deal," Lariel answered once again. He had an idea of what was coming. Luckily the dwarf responded quickly, still with his eyes closed. To Lariel's surprise, what the dwarf said next came with no accent at all.
"I'll be honest with you. I am not the best smith out here. With that plate and your level, and age, you could probably go to a better smith and get a similar deal, so I am going to make this the best deal I can." A pause. "You are going to sponsor my shop. No need for money. Just say that you get your equipment here, and I will make sure to make you the best equipment I can. From what I just saw, I have absolute certainty that you are going to become famous. No doubt at all. All I want is recognition. If I get more customers, I will get more money, smith more, make better stuff for you, and the cycle continues. Of course, you can have your equipment for free. This is the best deal I can make you, and probably the other smithies can make the same deal. It is up to you laddie. Do you accept?"
Lariel thought it over. It was a good. No. A fantastic deal. Of course, he knew that there were better smithies here in Alca, but he did not want a famous one. He wanted an underdog that he could help build up. That way, the owner would forever owe him, and so, Lariel would have someone to come back to in case of trouble. He also intended to add another thing to the contract, which he said to the dwarf, who just responded with a laugh.
"If you can get me one, I will accept him with open arms laddie. You would be doing me a favor actually," and then continued laughing.
The contract was therefore agreed upon.
After some time, Lariel left the smithy, but only after the dwarf measured him from top to bottom with some grunts and then shooed him away so he could get some work done.
After leaving, Lariel headed to the guild, to look up quests. If there was none in the dungeon he would not bother to pick them. He wanted after all to go there, but go there and do a quest at the same time was preferable.
He entered the three-story building and took in the atmosphere. The first floor was basically a tavern, with a long line of counters to the left, the bar to the front, and the notice board to the right. But one thing he noticed was that when he entered, all the noise just disappeared and silence took over. He looked around and saw every adventurer there looking at him and then start whispering between themselves. Apparently, the dwarf, of which Lariel had completely forgotten to ask the name of, had been right, and he was already becoming famous. Someone had spilled the beans on his accomplishment. Lariel ignored them all and moved to the notice board, more specifically, to the Silver ranked quests. Although he was a Bronze rank, he had a probationary Steel plate, which then allowed him to do quests from the rank above. And since the higher the rank, the higher the payment, Lariel had no reason not to go to the highest possible quests. After some time, the noise came back, and the adventurers started speaking again, albeit a bit lower than usual, but Lariel could not know that since he had yet to come here, except when he came to pick his adventurer card.
His adventurer card was a rectangular Steel plate with specs of bronze signaling that the wearer was on the border between Steel and Bronze but was allowed to act like a Steel rank adventurer, other than those little pieces of Bronze, it came with his name and some runes and enchantments. With the Identification skill, which Lariel would only win at level 5, it was possible to see to who this plate belonged.
While he was glancing at the quests he felt someone approach him. A few moments later there was a cough and a man started speaking. Lariel for his turn turned backward.
The man was tall and had a huge cleaver on his back. But what Lariel really focused on was the bronze plate hanging from his side.
"Hello. My name is Leroy, and I - ahem - I mean my party was wondering whether you would want to join us, you being new and all we thought it was a good idea," he said while pointing to the party in question.
Lariel looked at where he was pointing. It was a typical party. The presumable warrior was the one that came to him. They had an obvious mage with a nice-looking staff with a stone on the top, wearing the usual mage robes. A scout, that had a bow and a quiver with some daggers on his side, wearing light armor that facilitated movement. Maybe Lariel should adopt that daggers style. And then there was a tank wearing heavy armor, with a giant shield next to him and a hammer in his belt.
Lariel had no intentions of joining their party, for the same reasons that he had not joined his recommended party earlier that day. And he made his intentions be known.
"Sorry, but I am currently not looking for a party. Maybe next time," he said, and then turned back to the quest board because before the warrior had interrupted him he had noticed two special quests.
The warrior looked like he was going to say something, but then he just deflated and walked back to his party. When he sat down, the scout pated his back and offered him a beer.
Lariel ignored them and picked his two quests. Then he moved downwards towards the lower leveled quests and picked the ones that complemented the ones he had. Then he moved towards the big counter with Guild workers. He deliberately avoided the ones that he knew and went to an elf that had white hair like him, but her eyes were slightly darker than his lime green ones. She seemed young. Probably sixteen. But with elves, it was hard to tell. She noticed him approaching her and gave him a beaming smile. He finally arrived and placed the quests on top of the counter.
"Hi. I would like to accept these quests," he said, pointing at them.
"Of course, please let me check. I will also need your adventurer plate," she said smiling while viewing all the papers he had taken over. Lariel, of course, took out his adventurer plate and placed it on the counter.
After looking at all papers, she looked at the plate. If she was surprised by his status, she didn't show it.
"Mr. Lariel, your adventure plate says that you have yet not completed any quests. Are you sure you are capable of performing so many quests at one time, this being your first time accepting quests?" Lariel wasn't really sure he could do them, but he was confident of himself.
"Yes. I know my limits," he answered honestly.
"Very well. Be aware that these quests will continue open to any other adventure party to take. If they finish before you then you will receive no reward for them. These quests might have already been chosen by someone. If you fail to complete the quest before the stipulated time, and no one completes the quest before you, then you will need to pay a fee of one-tenth of the quest reward. The value displayed on the quest is for both the guild and the party taking it. The Guild keeps 10% of every reward at your rank. The money will only be given to you after you complete the quest. Shall you fail the quest, that will be marked on your adventure plate. Shall you have ten failed quests of your rank or above, your adventure plate will be updated to one rank below. All benefits of your current rank will be removed," she said in one sitting. Lariel already knew this. He had done his investigations.
"Now, on another note. All of these quests require you to bring items. Are you sure you can carry all the items with you? You may rent a spacial ring for one day for one gold coin. Shall you lose that ring, you must pay one platinum coin to replace it. Do you wish to rent the ring?"
That was a problem that Lariel had not thought about, but he was sure he could find a solution for that. After all, he intended to store the bodies of every monster he killed. For that, he needed a storage, or spatial ring, as they were called. But again, he had an idea on where to get one.
"I already have that covered," he answered. He did not. But.. you know.
After that, the Guild worker gave him the quests and returned him his adventure plate with a few extra runes. Not that Lariel had noticed.
And then he went, on his merry way to complete his first quests and gain some levels to increase his power. But first, he had a ring to fetch.
On his back, the gazes of all the adventurers on the Guild, and the gaze of that Guild worker.