“Should I leave the key here with you, or can I take it with me?” Before his words even had time to fade away she gave her answer, “You leave it with me. That’s common sense. What if you left and didn’t give the key back, then we’d have to call a locksmith and change the lock to that room. You have until set to return, otherwise you’re stuck on the streets for the night.” Her tired voice echoed throughout the entrance before begrudgingly moved her right arm and opened her hand. Ingram swallowed his follow up questions and placed the key in her hand before leaving.
Outside, Ingram saw a few small groups of players. As for how he knew they were players, perhaps it was a game design, but when players see one another, they just know. Of course, Ingram had no intention of getting involved with other players, however one person was on his mind. ‘I wonder where John_Doe2619 ended up. Should I log out and shoot them a text? Now that I think about it, how long have I been playing? A day, or more? How do I log out?’ As soon as those questions appeared in his head, a system prompt appeared,
{Do you wish to log out? Y/N
[Note: Your body will be left in an unconscious state until you log back in.]}
Ingram silently selected {No} before he began to wander around, ‘If I knew, I would have logged out before I left. If I go back now, I’ll definitely get a stern glare from the receptionist for disturbing her rest, again. I’ll wander around a bit, create a mental map of the town before I return.’ Ingram walked down the main road, with the voices of stall owners advertising their goods filling his ears. He spotted a large group of players surrounding a small stall and he let his curiosity lead him and he stood behind the group.
“Where did you get this potion?” A feminine voice said from in front of the stall and Ingram’s curiosity was ignited, but he restrained his impulse. He continued to listen to the voice, “How much are you selling it for?” After a moment of silence this point a deep male voice spoke, “Go away, not selling.” Ingram’s eyes narrowed, ‘That voice sounds familiar.’ With that thought he began to listen much more intently.
“Why set up a stall and place them there if you’re not going to sell them?” The woman asked, but the man ignored her, and she stormed off with a glare. Ingram finally saw the woman, but after a curious glance, he tried to look through the crowd to see the man, but the crowd surged and a different man’s lighthearted voice, “What are you selling? From what I learned, setting up a stall isn’t cheap. You have to pay at least five copper a day.” this time instead of a long pause, it was a brief one before the familiar voice spoke, “Potions. Five coppers for a HP potion, six coppers for an MP potion, and a limited deal of one silver for a Stat Boost potion.” At his words the crowd was stunned, even the lighthearted man, but he recovered fast, “I see. By how much do stats increase after drinking the Stat Boost potion?”
At his words, the crowd exploded into a flurry of murmurs, but the stall’s owner gave a detailed explanation, “Vitality is doubled, Strength is doubled, Endurance is doubled, Agility is doubled, Intelligence and Wisdom increase by 50%. I’m only selling five bottles today.” After he finished, the stall owner fell silent and the lighthearted man spoke, “I’ll take them all.” Seemingly unsurprised, the stall owner said, “That will be five silvers.” The lighthearted man spoke up again, “No, I said I’ll take them all. All as in all potions you have. How much would that cost?”
“Okay. Just so you know that you will be buying forty HP potions, forty MP potions, and five Stat Boost potions. That will be nine silver and forty copper.” The stall owner said, and the kindhearted man gave him the money without blinking. The stall owner took out a small bag and began to pull out potions one at a time until the entire stall was filled with them. “Here’s what you paid for.” The stall owner said before walking away with his money. The lighthearted man immediately spoke up, “I’m Sam. What’s your name?” The Stall owner spoke without stopping, “Adams. I’ll see you later, Sam.”
The lighthearted man, Sam, watched the Stall owner, Adams, leave with an amused expression. With no more potions to be sold, the crowd began to dissipate with people who knew each other leaving together, but they all were discussing the bag Adams used to store his potions. “If I had a bag like that, it would be so much easier to carry monster parts back.” A person said, with his friend deliberately speaking loudly, “I know what that bag was. It was a magic pouch, it’s sold by the magic tower for one gold or if you join you get can purchase it at a discount with contribution points. There are several kinds, with the smallest being four square meters.” His friend spoke up with a hint of agitation, “Why would you say that here? The more we know, the wider the gap between us and them.” His friend shrugged off his questioning tone with a single sentence, “I had an advertising quest, I have to tell at least ten people about the magic tower’s newest product. This was the fastest way to complete my quest.” His friend was speechless as they walked away.
Ingram’s eyes flickered as he silently memorized the appearance of Adams and the information about the magic pouch. ‘I’m not sure if that man on the phone was Adams or not, but their voices sound the same. Note to self, never help this Adams, mostly because I don’t like his voice.’ After making an unreasonable decision, Ingram continued his leisurely walk, mostly because he had no money to spend. After observing the street with calm gaze, he saw a shop with a wooden sign depicting a hammer and anvil, the universal sign of a blacksmith.
Standing outside the smithy, Ingram watched the cycle of a player entering the smithy before suddenly walking out with a dark expression. After seeing this scene multiple times, he walked away while humming a random tune. ‘I don’t have any money, so I don’t feel any disappointment at sky high prices. Is this the pleasure of window shopping? No, this is clearly market research… Who am I justifying my poverty to?’ Ingram sighed as he continued his walk, his eyes locked on to a massive tower near the center of the city, ‘That must be the Magic Tower. I wonder what the requirements are for joining the Magic Tower, having a strong backing would be ideal. However, with this backing comes responsibilities and tasks. Gains and losses.’ Ingram’s whimsically thought as he slowly walked down the street, enjoying the strange new sights that came with the concept of magic the closer he got to the Magic Tower.
Once again, Ingram was standing out of a building he wasn’t going to enter. This time, he saw a small group of players get magically kicked out of the Magic Tower like a floating trash thrown out a door. “How can they treat us like this, just because we didn’t awaken our innate magic and don’t have a copper to our name. This way my guild members, we don’t need their stinking magic items to level up. I’m going to go decimate an entire ecosystem.” A man with very red hair and piercings said to other flashy individuals before stomping away. After watching the show, Ingram was going to start on his walk back to the inn, but a soft voice called out to him, “Sir, please wait.” Ingram turned around and saw a petite woman with brown hair and black eyes wearing a deep green mage robe quickly approached him.
Those quick movements seemed to exhaust her, and she tried to catch her breath as Ingram silently waited for her to recover. After a few minutes of labored breathing, just as Ingram began to think she was hyperventilating, her breathing evened out and she spoke, “Sorry for suddenly calling out to you. Our Magic Tower is designed to monitor everything within a certain radius of the town to ensure no sudden rouge elements appear and disturb the peace. Anyway, the tower master has requested your presence. She said you have information on a sudden magical fluctuation early this morning. Please follow me.” Just as she took a step, she suddenly stopped, turned around and spoke in a serious voice, “She also told me to tell you, “Don’t try to run. You won’t be able to escape. If you try, I’ll label you a violent suspect and place a large bounty on your head.” That was all, now follow me.”
Ingram’s mind wandered back to the first magic circle he had seen before the Magic Emporium vanished before releasing a sigh of resignation, “I didn’t plan on even trying to run. As if sure you can see, I’m not very good at physical tasks.” The small mage nodded and led the way, with Ingram following closely behind with an air of nonchalance, as if this were a sightseeing tour. This nonchalance was disturbed when he saw the massive staircase that the small mage had begun to climb. Lowering his head, Ingram did his best, but after six floors, his legs were giving up on him. While he was sweating profusely as he leaned on the wall to support himself as he climbed the stairs, the small mage’s breathing was steady as she steadily climbed the stairs like this was just a normal amount of exercise.
When she finally heard Ingram’s labored breathing she glanced back and saw Ingram was barely standing as his legs shook like a newborn fawn. “What’s wrong? If nothing's wrong, then please hurry up. There are only three more floors until we reach the Tower Master’s room.” At the words, “Three more floors” Ingram felt like dumping his extra stat points into strength and endurance, but he suppressed that tempting impulse instead asking a question that was on his mind, “Isn’t there a faster way up?” The small mage nodded as she spoke, “Of course, we have a space magic circle that moves people and objects between floors, but that’s reserved for Mages of the Magic Tower. Outsiders have to use the stairs.” Ingram sighed as he looked at the seemingly never-ending stairs, but the higher he climbed the more a bad feeling filled his heart.
In order to take his mind off the building feeling of dread, he decided to make a new magic circle in case the Tower Master wants to harm him. Configuration: Mixed Mana, Magical Block, (20%) Sphere, Hard, None, and 2 meters as he finished and started to fill the created magic circle with 408 (407.6) MP, a system prompt appeared,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 86.67% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 13.33%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 1,029.30 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 892.09
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
This makes a Magical Block Barrier that can surround his body that requires 408 MP to cast. The more magic circles Ingram makes, the faster he can put them together. Because Ingram was tired and had to focus on not falling down the stairs, it took him until he was on the eighth floor to complete it. At this point, Ingram was covered in sweat as he sat on a stair like a defeated boxer, “Give me… just… a second. There’s just… so many… stairs.” Ingram panted out as he looked down the grey stairs as his magic circle rapidly materialized itself with his MP.
The Short Mage looked down on him from the bottom of her heart, but at this point Ingram was used to disappointing people, “It’s only nine flights of stairs and you’re already tired. Pathetic.” Ingram ignored her sharp tone and continued to stare absentmindedly as his body recovered. Soon outside of her view his magic circle appeared but he controlled it to hide under his shirt. When they touched, Ingram felt the magic circle, but it wasn’t hot or cold. It just was, like how your arm and elbow are connected, you don’t really feel the connection unless one or the other moves abruptly.
Ingram stood up and swayed for a bit before he continued to climb under the small mage’s disdainful gaze. ‘It seems the closer I get to the Tower Master, the bolder this mage gets. I wonder what they really want.’ Ingram lowered his head and decided to make another magic circle for a physical block barrier, just in case. Configuration: Mixed Mana, Physical Block, (20%) Sphere, Hard, None, and 2 meters, a familiar pattern, after he started to create the magic circle that was also worth 408 (407.6) MP, another system prompt appeared with similar content,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 86.67% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 13.33%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 1,029.30 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 892.09
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
However, by the time he created his Physical Block Barrier magic circle, he had reached the top of the stairs where only a set of sealed stone doors resided. He decided to hold off on filling it with MP until he needed it, mostly because the small mage was keeping a constant eye on him. ‘Finally. I’ve reached the top.’ Ingram felt like his legs were going to fall off, before he could catch his breath, the small mage knocked on the door. Under Ingram’s empty gaze, the two doors opened, and the office of the Tower Master was in sight. Inside wasn’t much different from a normal office, with the occasional magic related item sitting on the shelves. Ingram remained outside under an unfamiliar female voice spoke from inside as he was violently dragged into the office, “Come in, let’s have a little chat.” Once Ingram was past the doors, the force pulling him vanished without a trace as the doors slammed shut as he fell to the ground.
Sitting behind a seemingly normal desk was a woman with black hair that was tied into a bun with a pair of silver glasses that hid a pair of sharp green eyes that were locked onto Ingram’s pathetic state. “As long as you answer my questions truthfully, I’ll let you go. If you tell even a single lie, I promise you won’t walk out of this room. Understood?” The Tower Master said as she sat up, her cyan robe shimmering in the light as she looked down at Ingram, while one of her earrings began to glow white. Ingram tried to stand but felt a sudden pressure than forced him back down to his knees. Giving up on standing, mostly due to the ache in his legs, Ingram obediently nodded.
“That’s good. I was afraid you outsiders would challenge my authority. While I’m not afraid of trouble, it would take me away from my duties and that can’t happen. Anyway,” She readjusted herself in her chair as she got down to business, “What happened at six thirty-seven this morning in sector 3? A sudden activation of a grand scale magic circle alerted the magic tower’s automated defense systems, but they were bypassed in just an instant.” Ingram thought back to the Magic Emporium again but didn’t know how to explain what happened. As if sensing his hesitation, the Tower Master said, “Just tell me exactly what happened, and we can go from there.”
Ingram took a moment to organize his thoughts before he explained the events that happened earlier that day, “Sector 3? I don’t know where that is. I’ll tell you what I know. I was walking around…” After he finished, the Tower Master unfolded her hands and stood up from her chair before walking in front of Ingram. With a grave expression she asked, “Are you sure the store’s name was Magic Emporium and those events happened in the order you said?” Ingram nodded before quietly sighing, “Why do annoying things always happen to me?”
The two women ignored him, as they had a hushed conversation. Ingram’s eyes wandered around the office, but all he noticed was a severe lack of windows and only one entrance and exit. ‘This room is a fire hazard. Then again, this is a magic tower, so I doubt fire safety is on their list of priorities.’ Ingram’s mind began to wander, but he kept a cautious eye on the two women, and he kept most of his attention on his Magical Block magic circle.
Soon the two stopped conversing and looked at Ingram at the same time, making the hair on his arms stand. “Thank you for the information.” The Tower Master said with a stern face, one mirrored by the small mage. Soon the atmosphere got too oppressive to ignore, so Ingram spoke up, “So… Can I go now?” The two women looked at each other before the Tower Master took a seat again and answered, “No, we have a bit more to talk about. First of all, you must not tell anyone else about happened in sector 3. It’s connected to a group of individuals you don’t want to cross and before you ask, that’s all I can tell you about them. Secondly, your mana is strange. It doesn’t appear on the map created by the magic tower’s monitoring system. If that were it would be fine, but you create a dead-zone around you. While you are much easier to track, you are also a huge liability. How our automated system works is any magic activation above a certain threshold would be forcibly suppressed and your location would be revealed to all Magic Tower enforcers. You see the problem, right? Your very presence can conceal someone else’s mana signature, even if they go above the threshold we set.”
Ingram smiled bitterly, once again his mana has gotten him into trouble, before he could explain himself, the Tower Master’s stern voice echoed throughout the room, “Because our automated systems wouldn’t detect your magic’s activation, you are a threat and threats must be eradicated. No instability can arise during this critical time, sorry, if this were during peaceful times you wouldn’t have to die.”
Ingram hastily spoke up, “I can’t use magic like that.” The dangerous aura the surrounded the Tower Master dissipated slightly and after waiting for a while nothing happened. “What do you mean?” She asked with a hint of curiosity, but Ingram channeled his bitterness from when he first arrived, “Yeah, I tried, but I can’t use magic. I think my mana is weird or something, I don’t know. When I heard you say my mana signature was like a dead spot I gave up all hope on being able to use magic. I mean if even the advanced magic tower, the home to some of the smartest people in the world, can’t sense my magic that means I have no hope of using magic in my lifetime.” Ingram gave his all to his performance, even revealing unshed tears. Ingram abandoned all forms of pride mostly due to a sudden system prompt,
{[Sudden Quest (B): Escape]
The Yonder Tower Master (Level 100) has revealed animosity towards you due to a characteristic of your Mixed Mana.
You are not strong enough to survive even one of her attacks.
Escape the Magic Tower within Ten Minutes.
Reward: A 50% chance to improve your Innate Skill.
Failure: You will lose One Life Level, One Class Level and a Permanent Curse that brands you a threat to All Magic Towers.
{Hint: This curse reveals your location to all Magic Tower associates at all times.}}
‘This is an unwinnable game. I just escaped a perma-ban and now I’m on the verge of being labeled a threat to the Magic Tower. Is this what being a protagonist feels like?’ Ingram’s unshed tears were real, mostly towards his unfortunate life. The Tower Master remained silent as Ingram felt the seconds tick by. After thirty seconds, she spoke, “Prove it.” Ingram sighed as he realized he was half-way to his goal of walking out of the tower alive.
“I don’t know how I can prove I can’t use magic like that.” Ingram said honestly, but the Tower Master narrowed her eyes before she waved her disciple over and whispered something in her ear. After she finished speaking, the petite mage walked into a wall and vanished, slightly surprising Ingram. After another few seconds of painful silence, the Petite Mage walked back out of the wall with a familiar crystal orb.
“Place your hand on this, it will scan your body for any magic circles and magic residue. If you cast magic within twenty-four hours, it will light up. If nothing is found, it won’t, easy.” Ingram swallowed hard before he took a gamble, he gambled that the nature of his mana wouldn’t let his magic be so easily revealed. When he touched it, he felt a strange suction, but his Mixed Mana refused to move after sensing it was non-lethal. After a minute of holding the inert orb, the petite mage took it back and held it for a few seconds before it began to glow, proving it wasn’t broken.
Ingram let out a mental sigh of relief, but he still put on a complicated expression, like he held a bit of hope inside that was just completely extinguished. The Tower Master was closely observing his expression and her eyes trailed across this frail body and felt she would never see him again. With a disinterested expression, she waved her hand as she spoke, “You can leave.” Ingram let out a sigh of relief before showing a hesitant expression as he spoke up, “Um, Tower Master, do you have anything that might spare me from being interrogated by another tower master. As you said I’m a liability, so everywhere I go will questioned like this. So, if possible, I’d like to avoid it, I don’t want anything else to do with the Magic Tower.” As he finished Ingram put on a crestfallen expression, like a long-held dream was completely crushed.
The Tower Master looked at his expression and felt a bit guilty. She did just pull a person off the street, threaten to kill them if they could use magic only to realize he couldn’t, completely shattering his dreams of magic in this lifetime. ‘I suppose I owe him a little bit of compensation.’ She opened her desk and pulled out a palm sized badge with a miniature magic tower that was tied with a cyan cloth. “This is a badge that connects to the Magic Tower, give me your hand. I will warn you; this will hurt.”
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Ingram didn’t have a choice, so he held his hand out. The Tower Master firmly grasped his wrist before placing the badge on his outstretched hand. Above the badge a small map appeared, revealing what Ingram looks like to the Magic Tower. “That small dark grey spot is you, while my disciple is the green spot. Now, watch, Linda get closer to our guest.” Upon hearing her master’s orders, she approached Ingram and inside the map, the bright green spot suddenly vanished when she was within five steps of him.
“Whatever is wrong with your mana can completely obscure a Tower Master and her disciple. There are three ways to solve this problem, One, you die, and your mana returns to nature. Two, you stay outside of the Magic Tower’s range, which is unlikely. Finally, three, I integrate your Mana into the Tower Nexus, it's basically the database where all Magic Towers store data on multiple different mana types and stuff like that, it’s not important.” Ingram mentally linked it to a computers cloud storage.
“Since I have realized you're not a threat, and you are too weak to remain outside of the Magic Tower’s range, I will take a portion of your mana and make a new entry in the Tower Database, thus solving this dead spot issue or at the least it will allow for the Tower to mark you with a color and it will calculate where those around you would be instead of letting you remain as a walking dead spot. I might even gain a few merit points for perfecting the Tower’s coverage.” She muttered the last part and before Ingram could respond he felt a sharp pain that made his legs feel weak.
The small badge rapidly drew his blood for a minute before suddenly stopping as Ingram grew lightheaded. Suddenly the small map underwent an update and the Tower Master and her disciple, Linda, reappeared with Ingram being a small dark grey dot instead of a dead zone. “There we go… You can leave with peace of mind now.” The Tower Master said as she let go of Ingram’s wrist and walked back to her desk. Ingram sank to his knees as he looked down at his uninjured right hand as he mentally muttered, ‘Status board.’
{Name: Ingram
Race: Human
Mana Type: Mixed Mana
Experience: 208
Life Level: 2 (Experience required until next Life level: 99)
Main Class: Basic Barrier Mage [Level: 1/600] (Experience required until next Class Level: 99) [Press to see learnable Magic Circle Components] [10/20 Learned]
Hp: 90/150 | MP: 9,084/9,900
Stamina: 10/100 | Satiety: 67/100 | Thirst: 62/100
Physical Attack: 0 | Physical Defense: 0 | Movement: 4
Magic Attack: 495 (514.65) | Magic Defense: 495 (514.65)
Stats:
Vitality: 6 |Strength: 3
Endurance: 5 |Agility: 4
Intelligence: 33 |Wisdom: 33
Free Stat Points: 14
Free Class Points: 0}
‘I lost 60 HP, that explains this feeling of weakness, I lost almost half of my HP. On the other hand, I regained most the MP I spent to create my Magic Circles back in the inn. It looks like only my new magic circles have been taken out of my MP. That was pretty fast, I wonder how high my passive mana regeneration is? I’ll have to test it later. I’ll never willingly enter a Magic Tower again.’ Ingram didn’t forget about his quest, so even though his legs felt numb he still made his way out of the Magic Tower under the gaze of the two women in the sealed office. Linda stepped forward to help, but stopped herself, while the Tower Master went back to the important paperwork she had yet to finish due to Ingram’s appearance.
Facing his first major obstacle, the nine flights of stairs, Ingram rose to the challenge by… sticking firmly to the wall and carefully taking each step. Once he reached the bottom of the large staircase, a strong force swept him off his feet and tossed him out of the front doors, like those he saw earlier. He landed on his back and decided to lay there for a second as he saw his quest pop up,
{Quest (B) [Escape]
has been successfully accomplished.
Reward: 50% chance to increase Innate Skill
Would you like to accept your reward now?
Y/N}
‘It’s always easier to leave then to enter it seems. I will never enter a Magic Tower if I can help it. It’s not like their magic can help me research my own, even the Magic Tower didn’t know what my Mixed Mana is. Yes, accept reward.’ Ingram thought as he sat up and awkwardly dusted his back off. While he momentarily wonders if his face was pale or not, he decided against caring about it. Getting back on his feet, Ingram looked back at the massive tower before walking away with his hands in his pockets.
In the Tower Master’s room, “Master, why didn’t you help him down? You know the aftereffects of mana registration are exhausting.” Linda asked as she watched Ingram’s dark grey dot slowly walk away. The Tower Master stopped working and put down her pen before looking deep into Linda’s eyes, “He was stubborn, just like my old traveling companion and the thing people like that hate the most was being helped by someone without asking first. Perhaps I’m biased, but that’s how I see it. I wonder how his business is doing. I heard if you mention you’re a friend of his son you might get a discount in some places, I think that fact alone drives him insane.”
Linda tilted her head out of confusion, “What are you talking about?” The only answer she got was a gently breeze the pushed her out of the Tower Master’s office. After trying to work for a while, the Tower Master got more distracted, so she decided to take a break. She stood up and stood in front of the wall behind her desk, when the wall turned transparent and revealed a view of the entire city. “By now his injuries should have made him into an old man. How long has it been since I thought about those reckless days of mine. The gale of change blows once again, I wonder if it will be a gentle breeze that brings comfort, or will it grow into a squall that destroys all it touches.” The Tower Master sighed as she watched the clouds drift in the wind.
Once again, Ingram stood in front of the receptionist of Pheasant’s Rest. She looked mildly annoyed but handed him his key before shooing him away. Not a word was spoken between the two of them, perhaps that was also due to her laziness. ‘I wonder why she took a job as a receptionist if she hates it so much.’ As he climbed the stairs, he heard her chipper voice, “Welcome to Pheasant’s Rest. How can I help you today?” Ingram froze and was tempted to rush back to make sure that voice belonged to the same receptionist, but decided it was none of his business.
‘Maybe she just dislikes me, that’s understandable. I just randomly showed up in the dead of night right before closing time, said I’m a friend of her boss’s son, and got a room right before closing. From what I overheard from workers, people that show up right at the last second are the worst.’ Ingram still hadn’t noticed that his thoughts have gotten much faster when compared to before.
After a few minutes of thinking Ingram came up with the message he’d leave his friend if their still online. ‘Alright, I leave the town I’m in and where I’m staying. Hopefully they are nearby and if not, then we’ll have to find a way to meet up later. While I’m outside, I can also see how much time has passed so it won’t be a complete waste of time. Though, I wonder if we’ll get some kind of forum or an addition to the system so us players can communicate with each other when the game truly begins in less than seven days.’ Ingram laid back on his bed before thinking, ‘Log out.’
{Do you wish to log out? Y/N
[Notice: Your body will be left in an unconscious state until you log back in.]}
With a quick confirmation, Ingram woke up in the pod in his bedroom. After regaining his bearings, he opened the pod and sat up. ‘I feel kind of woozy, but its manageable. Where did I leave my phone?’ Felix thought as he climbed out of the pod looking for his phone, only to remember he had it with him in the pod after searching for a while. After silently staring at the ceiling for a second, he walked back to the pod and saw his phone sitting on the soft cushioning.
‘I’m so forgetful sometimes… Wait its only 2:01 in the morning? I was in the game for a little more than half a day in total, this is rough estimate using the sun’s original appearance in the sky when I appeared in that cursed courtyard and following it’s rise and fall as time measurement. I’m not adapt at measuring time this way, but… dad taught me a little when we went camping that one time.’ Felix looked at the empty room and listened to the empty house that only seemed to echo his breathing.
Swallowing the lump in this throat, Felix sat in his computer chair as he tried not to pay attention to the memories that threatened to flood his mind. ‘Going based off of my estimation, I can roughly conclude that there is a major time difference between the real world and the game world. That time difference is going to let the first hundred get a major head-start when compared to those who will come after. I should make this quick, oh, I should also tell them about my findings, so they don’t waste too much time in the real world. I guess my gym arc is going to have to wait.’
Felix quickly typed out a message, {I don’t want to waste much time, so here’s where I am and the information I found so far. First, I’m in a medium sized town/city named Yonder in the Empyrean Empire. Second, I’m currently staying at an inn named Pheasant’s Rest. Third, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, it seems there is a major time difference between the game and real life. From when we logged in to now, only been roughly more than half a day in game, but only two hours and ten minutes have passed in the real world, so keep this in mind. I’ll log out in… roughly five hours in game as another experiment to calculate the time difference, so if you’re online then, shoot me a text.} After re-reading his text a few times, Felix hesitated before clicking send. ‘I hope this information helps them avoid too much time loss, I’m not hungry, so let’s go back in.’ Felix plugged his phone in and sat it on his desk, peeking at the time as the screen dimmed, 2:06 am, before reentering the game.
Instead of seeing the void, he woke up in the bed he rented. Ingram looked around for a clock but didn’t see one. ‘I have never felt the need for money more than now. I need money to stay in the inn, five copper to be precise, but that’s only for the room with no other benefits. I need money to buy a clock or a watch also I need money to buy adventuring gear. That reminds me, I was so distracted by my magic I forgot I still have to repay Tod ten coppers, in other words, in other words, all my current funds. I guess I was lucky enough to gain my Class for the low price of five coppers, well according to others, the First Chapter of the
He felt the gaze of the receptionist was getting more annoyed with him when he handed her the room key for the third time today. As he left, she muttered, “I wish he’d just stay out until the sun set.” Ingram heard her but ignored it in favor of concentrating on his noisy surroundings. ‘I hope there aren’t any pickpockets here, I shouldn’t lose the only coins I have to my name.’ Thankfully Ingram arrived at the gate safely, but he didn’t leave, mostly out of fear of not being able to get back in. As he stood there, he peeked out to see if Tod was there when suddenly he felt a gloved hand clasp his shoulder. Reacting quickly, Ingram slightly crouched and dodged the hand before turning to face the person who touched him.
When he saw the familiar face, he froze and put on an awkward expression before clearing his throat like nothing happened, “I was looking for you Tod. Are you on patrol right now?” Tod pulled his outstretched hand back as he answered, “Yeah, I lost lots today. I have to patrol the main road and a few alley ways. Anyway, what did you need me for?” Ingram pulled his right hand out of his pocket along with the cloth bag he was using as a coin pouch. “I came to pay you back.” Ingram poured out the rest of his savings, exactly ten copper coins, before holding them out towards Tod.
Tod had a slightly surprised expression as his gloved hand took them from Ingram. “I didn’t expect you to pay me back so fast. Most people I lend money to never pay me back, so I wasn’t holding out much hope for these ten coppers.” Ingram nodded with just enough understanding revealed on his face, “I understand, but I prefer to stay out of the debts of others. If not for those extreme circumstances, I wouldn’t have asked for help. On a different note, I have one question before I go, where is the Adventurer’s Guild in this town?” Ingram asked with a slightly helpless expression.
Tod gave him an odd look before he pointed behind Ingram, “It’s right there. It’s always near the entrance of towns and cities so adventurers don’t make a mess on the roads with blood and the like, it would make them look bad. I stood still long enough, I have to go back on patrol now, I hope you find your merchandise in the forest, but I recommend getting your badge reissued before you leave, mostly so you don’t have to pay to re-enter a city you took a task from, one of the very few Adventurer’s Guild’s perks, at least in the Empyrean empire, I’m not sure for the other nations. See ya later.” Tod walked off after he finished his words.
Ingram turned around and looked at the Adventurer’s Guild with a dark face, ‘I sounded stupid. Whatever, a moment of embarrassment for important information is worth it in my book.’ He didn’t enter right away, instead he looked at the simple building, the only sign it was the Adventurer’s Guild was the small hanging sign, that said, [Adventurer’s Guild- Yonder Branch]. ‘How low-key, while I wasn’t expecting a bright neon sign, I thought the sign would have been bigger. I guess in this world it's like a normal business, but why is it so quiet? I thought I would have seen people coming and going. I’m getting nowhere just standing here.’ Ingram stopped thinking about other things and walked towards the building with a hint of curiosity.
Thankfully the inside was what he expected, groups of armored and armed individuals having hushed and loud conversations at tables filled with food and possibly alcohol. He quickly scanned the room before landing on the counter with a group of three, two women and one man where sitting, as if they were waiting for something. Deciding he had nothing left to lose, he walked over to them. Unlike in the novels he read, there were no rude adventurers, everyone mostly stayed within their own small groups.
When they saw him approach, he was inevitably judged with their eyes, with the guy losing interest before he spoke to one of the women as the other stood up with a perfect customer service smile. “Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild, how can we help you today?” Ingram put on a polite smile as he responded, “I was wonder how someone can join the Adventurer’s Guild? I’m in dire need of money after an unfortunate event happened on my way to town and I heard from the owner of Pheasant’s Rest that there was a branch of the Adventurer’s Guild in this town. Is this the proper place to inquire about this matter?”
The woman’s polite smile never faltered, “You’re in the right place, I’m responsible for registering new adventurers, responding to questions, and job requests. Now, as for your question, you have to do some paperwork, basic stuff like your name, where you came from, whether or not you have any combat experience, etc. We have many ways for new adventurers to grow rapidly in a short time frame. However, due to a sudden influx in newcomers, headquarters halted most of our services since they are running low on training resources at the moment. It’s odd that so many people want to become adventurer all of a sudden. Sorry, I got distracted, it costs 10 copper coins to join, this is mostly to pay for your Guild Card, but if you don’t have the money at the moment, a portion of your quest rewards will be taken to pay this fee and until this fee is paid you are unable to enjoy some of our benefits. If you agree to these terms, I can get you started right away.”
Ingram silently digested her words before quietly nodding. With practiced ease, she reached down into a hidden drawer and pulled out a contract, “This is your guild contract, I need you to thoroughly read through and sign it before we can go any further. It basically states that if you die while working on one of the guild’s requests, we won’t be held responsible.” Ingram carefully read the contract, and she summed it up perfectly, but to ensure there aren’t any hidden loopholes he read through it multiple times before signing it. ‘I mean, this contract is worthless to player, because we’ll just keep coming back, I think. I mean with my abilities as long as I don’t go fight something overwhelmingly stronger than myself, I don’t think I could die, forever I mean. I still have to figure out how to kill monsters with my unique magic, because my physical damage is a big fat Zero.’ Ingram mentally sighed while he kept his polite smile on his face as he handed the contract to the guild receptionist.
After making sure it was signed, she placed it on something hidden out of his view and it vanished in a silver light. “Alright, now here is the form you have to fill out to get your Adventurer’s Identification. If I’m being honest, we only really need your name and combat experience, it’s impossible to follow up on each and every adventurer to ensure they’re telling the truth. As long as you don’t offend the guild or damage its reputation, we’ll look the other way.” Ingram hummed in agreement as he read through the form, only to realize it was pretty bare bone, it doesn’t ask for a class or mana type. After filling out the form and looking over it to ensure there weren’t any spelling mistakes, he handed it back. Once it touched the guild receptionist’s hand a system prompt appeared,
{You have joined the Adventurer’s Guild.
All Adventurer’s Guild requests will be transformed into System quests when accepted
[Mission] Tab has been unlocked.}
Ingram didn’t show any surprise to the sudden system prompt, but he still felt excited that his thoughts were proven correct. After carefully reading through it to make sure all the important data was properly filled out. Much to Ingram’s relief, she didn’t comment on some of the less important sections being left blank. After two consecutive flashes of silver light, Ingram had his adventurer’s identification in his hands.
“Thank you for joining the Adventurer’s Guild. You have been assigned the lowest rank of {F}. Due to an overwhelming number of complaints from new adventurer and experienced adventurers, we created a few a way for you to be quickly assigned to a rank worthy of your strength, but only up to C Rank. Any higher you have to have another adventurer of a high rank vouch for your character and strength due to the high-ranking adventurers being in contact with nobles and other powerful parties. This condition does not apply if you rank up through normal means. If you wish to be properly tested to gain a higher rank, please tell me know and what rank you feel you are worthy of, and we’ll get back to you within at the end of the month. Please forgive the delay, this is to make our jobs easier by testing all the applicants that wish to be tested all at once.” After she finished her clearly scripted response, the guild receptionist bowed with a customer service smile before standing up straight again.
She looked into Ingram’s eyes and patiently asked, “Do you have any more questions?” Ingram slowly nodded before speaking, “Just one, where can I accept requests of my rank?” The guild receptionist pointed at the far end of the Guild building as she spoke, “We have dedicated boards for each rank. On the first floor there are the request boards for Ranks F through D. On the second floor, are the request boards for Ranks C through A and on the third floor, are the request boards for S through SSS.”
Suddenly she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “If I’m being honest due to Yonder’s desolate location, we only have request at B Rank at the most and most of those are only during times of great distress. We don’t even have a dungeon within 100 miles of our city, so it's considered a relatively safe city. You’ll have to go to another town if you wish to enter a dungeon, but be warned, cities with dungeons are much more dangerous due to the occasional dungeon overflows. Do you have any more questions for me?” Ingram shook his head, “Just one, thank you for your assistance, miss?”
“Ruby. I hope you have a great adventure.” the guild receptionist, Ruby, said with a deadpan expression, that slightly shook when she didn’t hear the usual follow question because Ingram just walked away after asking a single question. Ingram watched the other adventurer for a while until he saw a few groups go upstairs and as another, much smaller party stood in front of the board with a large D carved on a large wooden shield pinned on the middle-top of the board. Ingram’s eyes landed on the only board he could accept requests from and only saw a few people. Before he could walk over to the board holding the F rank quests, a tall thin man ran into the guild building covered in blood and was missing an arm, “A large beast tide is on its way.” After he finished, the adrenaline faded, and he collapsed on the spot. One of the guild members sitting at a nearby table stood up and hastily made their way over to the injured man as a gentle light erupted from his staff.
Suddenly a loud voice spoke up from the area about the receptionist desk, “I’m commissioning all available adventurers, for each E rank beast defeated, the guild is willing to offer one copper. This reward increases by ten coins per rank. If the C Rank beast from the nearby valley appears, the guild will offer an additional ten silver coins to all those who assist in its subjugation, with an additional ten silver going to the one who slays it.” Ingram looked in the direction of the voice and saw a fit brown-haired, green-eyed woman resting a large axe on her left shoulder with her foot on the railing with a ferocious smile.
After she finished speaking, the adventurer’s all put on serious expressions as they stood up. The group of three that climbed the stairs came down and the rest of the adventurers fell silent. A large man with red hair and green eyes covered in dense crimson leather armor along with a large white spear tied to his back stepped forward from the group of three and spoke up, “The Burning Blades shall take on this request. Will you all help us protect Yonder?” All the adventurers stood up and the large man smiled before walking out of the building followed by the rest of the adventurers. Watching the scene play out, Ingram didn’t really feel anything. ‘I thought there would be more of a speech, but I guess time is of the essence right now.’ Ingram looked up at the Guild Master before lowering his head and walking over to the F Ranked board. With a glance, Ingram realized everything was just chores around the city. [Help Johnson pull weeds. Reward: 10 Copper], [Assist the church during Sunday mass. Reward: 15 Copper], [Find Mr. Mittens. Reward: 1 Copper and a batch of freshly baked cookies]. Ingram looked at the new tab on his System Menu and fell into thought,
{Mission Tab:
Current Mission: None
Available Missions:
1. [EX] Locate the rest of
2. [C] Urgent Request from the Guild Master {More Details}
All F Rank Adventurer’s Guild Missions [To accept, please check the Adventurer’s Guild’s F Rank Board]}
With a sigh, Ingram pressed on the Guild Master’s quest and walked out of the front door. ‘Time to look for a disguise. I don’t want any unfavorable rumors following me. Oh, yeah, I have a special barrier characteristic that might help. I guess it’s time to level up my Class again. I have to be careful, I only have so much experience, getting more at this point is nearly impossible. I can think about raising my adventuring level after this Monster Tide is over.’