Novels2Search
Post-Living
Chapter 23: Rank-Less

Chapter 23: Rank-Less

To earn money, I don't just stumble into possible gold mines. I use every means possible. Starting from this building I'm currently infront at. I'm not going to rob it, there's nothing inside. Nothing, except those things in games that you have to complete in order to, like I said, earn money. This is also legitimately the best way to get money, since these things pay extremely well if I landed on an extremely hard mission. 

The said means to get easy money is to get Quests, like in games. Quests are basically people requesting you to do a certain task or service, like kill these specific kind of monster race living in a mountain, or deliver these things to a specific customer in 10 minutes. Although, the latter isn't that popular, but hey, those quests are popular in games. One more thing, these quests are only for adventurers which means they have to check your Rail.

My own rail, which for some reason, has ??? on all of its attributes and therefore cannot make me an eligible adventurer, as it doesn't even know what my purpose is. I am also a fugitive, hunted by the 5 order of what-not, so that basically denies all my right to get these quests. 

That's why I prepared for this by using the last remaining diamonds on that bag. I bought a mask, and pierced a knife that I bought in my eye so it wouldn't regenerate. That would distract them from my real appearance, I think. Next is the Rail, which is the hardest thing to get. I had to hunt down newcomers that just got their Rails, and, of course, end their life. I had to wait outside a Rail Station, hunt 5-6 people to get an adventurer Rail, and hide their bodies. That must be the most psychopathic thing I have to this day.

And that leaves me here. Outside the Quest Hall. I don't really know what the hall is called, so I'll just call it the Money Tree. My naming sense isn't always the best, but I always try.

Adventurers keep going inside and outside the Money Tree. Some were equipped with armors that shines more than the actual sun, and some were equipped with no armors at all. They just brought a sword, or a dagger.

Now, the Adventurer job class doesn't always mean one class only. It branches off to 4 main classes: The Warrior, Rogue, Mage, and Ranger. They're the starting point of all the classes. Then, the 4 main classes branches off to more and more classes, which causes the variety among the people who has the Adventurer job class. The people with those shiny armors must have a rare class, or they must be stupendously rich. 

The Rails show you a class that suits you more, and you choose from that but in order to get that class, you must be able to excel in the main class that your suited class branches in. That's what I gathered from how these Rails and how the system works here. Apparently, it took me 2 years to find out that these quest halls even exist. I thought the main way for adventurers to get money is by treasure hunting. I should've expected this...

Ah, it seems that I made quite a commotion.

"Hey, look at that guy! He's getting weirder every time I took a glance at him!"

"Yeah, why is he just standing there staring off the building?"

"And, and look! Look at his eye! Is he some sort of a zombie?!"

"I-isn't that a knife?! I-is he dead?!"

And the rude comments just kept going and going. I shrugged them all off, and went inside the Money Tree. It was big and it was crowded. It was a hybrid of a hall and an office. There were 5 floors, according to the guide map in the wall inside. The 1st floor was labelled B+, the 2nd floor was labelled A+, the 3rd was S+, the 4th was SSS+, and the last one was O. 

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

....

"..O???"- I thought, because the letter O was the only one unusual in a string of letters I was familiar at. B+ means Beginner and above, the A+ was Advanced, the S.. I forgot, so I had to ask someone to tell me what the remaining last 3 letters were.

"Oh.. uhmm, the S stands for Super."- said the Mage. She's a girl, and I could tell she's a newcomer as well. From the first glance of her clothes, she's what you call a noob in game terminologies. But hey, you don't judge a book by it's cover. I know that better than anyone now.

"So does the SSS rank mean Super Super Super?"

"Not really.. I don't know what it means but it's higher than the S-rank."

"Ok, then what does the O mean?"

"Overwhelming.. or something like that. I'm not sure.."- said the girl. This is why I should've asked some other, more experienced adventurers (Based on the shininess of their armor) but almost everyone avoided me with a terrified expression on their faces. It was understandable, but only this girl turned and helped. She wore a hood, so I couldn't really see her face.

"Alright, thanks. Hey, what's your name?"

"Mira.."

"Ok.. uhhh, see you later, then?"- said I, who didn't know how to respond. She seems depressed so I just left and went to the quest board. There was a large board in the end of the floor with a big "QUESTS" sign on top of it. There was a massive amount of quests posted on the board, countering by a massive amount of adventurers getting those quests as well. It keeps getting updated every minute, as a lot of people comes in and posts quests on the board.

You can only acquire 2 quests per day as a beginner. The amount of quests that you can accept gets higher when your rank gets higher as well.

Seeing as I got this Rail from a newcomer, I am considered as a beginner. I approached the quest board, and saw a lot of adventurers move to the corner to avoid.. me. Is my costume really that terrifying?

I looked at the quests carefully, and determined the quest with the highest reward.

- Need Help: Undead -

That was the title that the poster of the quest displayed. There's no additional details to what the quest is, but this is the highest reward for a quest that wasn't taken yet. The quest was vague but.. I don't have a choice. I took the quest and went to register it. The registration for the quests are beside the board. Good thing, there are enough people on the quest registration so the line flows smoothly. It was finally my turn, and I gave them the quest. They all looked at me and said -"Hey, maybe this one will be successful. He seems dead as well,".

...Great. Is there prejudice here or something?

"Well, uhh, sir? You need one more adventurer to get registered for the quest. It's a two man quest, since one adventurer can't do this alone."- said one of the registrator.

"There's a lot of adventurers here, so why not go ahead and cooperate with one? The reward of this quest is high, after all."- said the other, with a big smile on his face. So far, he's one of the people who wasn't terrified by me, along with the girl earlier.

...

"WAIT, THE GIRL EARLIER! I COULD TEAM UP WITH HER!"- I said loudly. The adventurers on the registration booths all looked at me with mixed expressions on their faces. Stop looking at me already, it just slipped.

I went out the line and tried to find the girl. I poked every adventurer that wore a hood until I  I tried to convince her to join me.

"The.. reward is high?"

"Yeah! We'll share it, 50-50."- I'm not scamming the girl, if I did, she's going to be more depressed than she already is.

She reluctantly accepted, and I dragged her to the front of the line. She showed her Rail to the man who was registering the quests, so I copied her and showed my stolen Rail, as well. Luckily, I put my stolen Rail on the pocket where my original Rail was at. The pocket was deep, so the fact that I have 2 Rails won't be seen. My pocket lit up, and her Rail lit up as well. The man said it was confirmation that your quest was accepted. I went and grabbed my original Rail from my pocket, and it showed the quest. Which means that the quest was registered on my Original Rail.

...

...Wait..

Considering that I'm using this stolen Rail as a mean to get quests.. then this card wouldn't rank up.. 

...

Does that mean that I'm a beginner.. forever?!?