As Nulla walked, he noticed a minor problem. He might over use the time stop, or use an unregistered power. With a dash of effort, Nulla whipped up a simple solution.
Skill Gained: Limiter (Uncommon)
Now the fake status was perfectly real.
Arriving at the bustling guild, Nulla headed to the receptionist desk, and asked how to sign up.
“Let me give you a brief rundown,” the receptionist said with a smile. “You’ll start at F rank, which will allow you to get used to the quest system. The quest system has you pick a quest from the available list provided you are of the rank or above. You will then complete it, show us proof, and receive your reward. You can advance after certain criteria are met, allowing for riskier but higher paying quests. For F to E rank, it’s just completing 3 quests. Would you like to sign up?”
“Yes please,” Nulla replied, keeping his excitement in check. The receptionist pulled out an apparatus that had a crystal ball held up by a ring around it and 3 stands. The stands connect to a base, where the receptionist slid a blank card on.
“Touch the ball, and it’ll record your mana. The card will fill out with the relevant information.”
Touching the ball, it flashed a bright light before having the card rapidly filled.
Name: Nulla
Mana Quality: S
Mana Quantity: S
Rank: F
The receptionist recoiled in shock, before quickly regaining their composure.
“Congrats on your registration. You can immediately take quests. Would you like me to show you some recommendations?”
“No, but thank you,” Nulla answered, keeping his answer curt to keep a smile from breaking out on his face.
Nulla sped over to the quest board, and scanned the F rank section. After a fair amount of deliberation, he picked up three quests, “Please return my cat to me”, “Deliver my medicine”, and “Clear my basement of rats”. Grabbing them from the board, Nulla quickly checked in with the receptionist before heading out.
Visiting the home of the first requester, Nulla asked for a description or the cat; a long, thin brown spotted cat with a red sigil on its back. Thanking them for their time, Nulla headed to the apothecary, keeping an eye out for the cat. Picking up the medicine and the delivery location, Nulla went over to the rat clearing request. After confirming the location, and how to deal with the bodies, Nulla went into the basements. Seeing the mass of rats, Nulla set down the medicine and froze time, snapping the necks of every rat before restarting time, exhausted from the skill.
“So… that’s the difference… the cost…” Nulla mumbled. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Nulla informed the requester they were all dead and left in the glowing blood red circle. After picking up the medicine and leaving the place, Nulla saw a long thin brown cat with a red sigil on its back. Stopping time for a minute and scooping up the cat, Nulla ran to the requesters house, leaving the medicine on the ground again. Handing over the cat and getting the signature as confirmation, Nulla ran back to the medicine, breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t stolen. Finishing the last task by handing over the medicine to an animate rotting corpse at the door, Nulla got a signature and headed back to the guild.
“All done!” Nulla told the receptionist after waiting in line.
“In just a day? Are you a summoned?”
“Yes… I think. I’m not native to this world if that’s what you’re asking.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“That would explain the S/S mana…” the receptionist muttered.
“But it doesn’t? All I got was three skills, nothing else.”
The receptionist's face twisting in confusion, eyebrow raising far further than it should be able, before snapping back to normal.
“I’m sorry. I should not have asked. As there was no need to answer anything, I’ll stop asking questions now. I’ll take your quest forms now.”
Mildly put off by the personality shift, Nulla traded the signatures for money. The receptions subsequently asked for his guild card, which he handed over. Taking the card and murmuring some words under her breath, the rank changed from F to E.
With the quests done, money gained, and his rank upgraded, Nulla headed to an inn, the Sleepy Boar. Checking the prices and quality, and finding it to offer rather good food and beds for a relatively cheap price, Nulla quickly booked a room for a week.
Tossing himself into bed, Nulla wondered what the future held for him. He couldn’t wait to find out.
∅∅∅
Heading back to the guild, Nulla thought about getting equipment. Should he buy some? Make up a skill? Just make some secretly? Nulla began to ponder, what would be best? Powerful equipment? No, would just get stolen, and would break the “balance”. Whatever he chose, it couldn’t be too powerful. Shop for it? Not enough money. Deciding to make some secretly, Nulla slipped into a back alley, and after using Town Spanning Vision to make sure no one was watching, Nulla started, before suddenly stopping. Nulla made a new skill to start with instead.
Skill Gained: Hidden (Epic)
Breathing a sigh of relief that the gods wouldn’t notice him, Nulla made some equipment. A sword that’ll never be damaged, and will only grow strong if the wielder does. Armor that repairs itself, and grows more durable alongside its wielder. A backpack that grows the space inside itself along with its wielder, and like the others it repairs itself. Satisfied with ordinary looking, not excessively overpowered items, Nulla set off to the guild.
“You have equipment? Not flashy, function over form… you should be physically prepared for a forest quest. Are you prepared knowledge wise? Do you know what monsters you’ll face? What traps might be lying around? Ingredients?” A receptionist, different from yesterday, asked.
“I’ll learn enough here, and learn more there! What monster hunting quests do you have?”
“If you die, it’s not our fault. For quests, we have goblin culling, goblin harvesting, and goblin grass harvesting. Would you like those?”
“So, kill them, harvest something from them, and some grass from nearby?”
“Kill them, harvest their mana cores, and take the grass they grow. You can ask Airst for more details.”
“Who’s Airst?”
“This guilds teacher. He’ll teach you how to kill a monster, harvest the core, how to find goblin grass, and how to bring it back. He’s in the third room on the left in that hallway,” the receptionist pointed at a large hallway, with a couple people trickling in and out. “It’s across the prayer room.”
“Prayer room?”
The receptionist looked at Nulla strangely, before their mask of professionalism reappeared and they said, “for praying to the gods, mostly Ars, God of Adventuring.”
Nodding with understanding, and concluding he wanted nothing to do with that room, Nulla headed over to Airst’s room.
∅∅∅
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Airst. I teach Adventuring, usually the basics like monsters hunting and harvesting. What’s your name?”
“I’m Nulla! I’ve come to learn harvesting!”
“Of cores, or alchemical ingredients?”
“Both! I got a goblin core and goblin grass quest!”
“Alright. So first you’ll need certain tools…”
∅∅∅
Nulla watched carefully, memorising everything he saw. Every tool, every stroke, every word. With the base knowledge obtained, Nulla began to extrapolate. Why? Why cut this way? Because it harms the rest of the least. Nulla kept repeating this, asking and answering questions. The purpose of learning to Nulla wasn’t to learn how to butcher a goblin. It was how to butcher anything. After hours of learning, it was time to learn plant harvesting. In several more hours, Nulla thanked Airst and headed back to the inn. Might as well be in the best condition.
∅∅∅
After eating dinner, Nulla lay on his bed and noticed he missed some skill notifications.
Skills Gained: Butchering (Uncommon), Harvesting (Uncommon), Learning (Super Rare)
With a useful addition to his skill repertoire, Nulla slept.