*ding ding ding*
A groan escaped from a bundle of sheets. An arm disentangled itself out of the sheets, and tapped the cellphone on the bedside table to make it shut up. When no sound reached the arm's owner's ears, they allowed themselves a sigh.
*ding ding ding*
The sheets went flying, revealing a young man with a murderous look on his face. He turned his dark-green eyes to the bedside table, and saw that the phone was not the cause of the incessant ringing. The man looked around his bedroom, trying to understand who – or what – wanted to get hurt early in the morning.
Good morning, Gamer!
The floating screen in front of the man's eyes was not what he expected in the slightest. The screen pulsed in front of him, causing the noise from before.
"Maybe if I…" he muttered, and brought up a finger to tap the screen. The screen changed immediately, enlarging itself as the text on it changed.
Due to a long number of universal variables and casualty, you have been deemed a satisfactory host for the Game System. Consider yourself lucky.
[OK]
The condescending tone of the screen grated a bit on the still-awakening man's nerves, but he though against acting upon his thoughts. If the… System was anything remotely similar to what he understood, then he could deal with it.
You see, this man wasn't stupid… or at least, he didn't consider himself such. He had read a certain web-comic featuring a similar situation happening to a Korean teen. Sure, in the comic the System didn't actually speak to the host, but it still looked rather similar.
There were two options: he was either still dreaming, in which case anything he did now wouldn't matter, or it was real, and in that case… good things would come.
"Alright then, let's see what you're good for," said the man. He pressed the OK button, and brushed some of his shoulder-length black hair out of his face.
You are taking your situation well. Impressive.
At any rate, a quick explanation of the System's capabilities is in order.
To access the different screens, just think the command:
Status – shows a numerical quantification of your power, health, and mana reserves;
Inventory – allows access to a sub-dimension in which to store your belongings;
Mastery – a list of your more theoretical skills;
Combos – a list of your physical skills;
Spells – a list of your magical skills;
Options – different ways to adjust the System for easier access and aesthetics.
That is all the commands. When accessing them, you will be given more information on them.
The man read carefully the list, committing the commands to memory. When he was done, he decided first and foremost to get breakfast before doing anything else.
While he watched the pancakes cooking, a new screen interrupted his line of sight.
New Mastery:
Cooking – rank F – 0/50
User's proficiency in preparing food
5% chance to prepare good food
Importing previous experience…
Cooking – rank C – 37/500
User's proficiency in preparing food
100% chance to prepare good food
When the screen updated its information, the man sighed in relief: cooking was one of the few things he prided himself in, so losing all his progress in learning it would have hurt.
Finally, after serving himself a plate of pancakes, the man took the time to check all the intricacies of the System… or at least as much as he would need in the immediate future. First, of course, was the Status screen.
Name: Evan Hughes Jr.
LV: 1 (0/5 EXP)
HP: 50/50 (+0.5 HP/sec)
MP: 50/50 (+0.5 MP/sec)
Health: 5
Mana: 5
ATK: 5
DEF: 5
HIT: 5
SPD: 5
MAG: 5
RES: 5
Status Points: 0
Please, tap the stats you need an explanation on.
Evan took the invitation, and tapped one by one the stats.
Health – dictates how much damage your body can take before giving out. Increasing it increases HP and HP regeneration
Mana – dictates how big your mana pool is. Increasing it increases MP and MP regeneration
ATK – How much physical force you can apply (Physical damage)
DEF – How easy it is for you to shrug off blows (Physical defense)
HIT – How easy it is for you to hit your target (Ranged damage)
SPD – How easy it is for you to evade attacks (Speed and reaction time)
MAG – How potent your mana is (Magical attack)
RES – How resilient your mana is to outside disruption (Magical defense)
He took note of all his stats, and closed the screen. The rest of his breakfast went as such, opening screens and taking note what they were for. At one point, he took also a notebook to write down his observations. When he was done, he had written as such:
The Combo and Spells screens were empty for now, I need to check later.
Spells don't increase in rank on their own. Combos can be combined, aptly enough, and a Spell's rank depends on its components, whatever those are. The options aren't really interesting, though changing the screen's color is nice. If I master a Combo, I can unlock an 'evolution' of sorts.
Questions:
1)How to gain Combos
2)How to obtain components
3)How to craft a spell with said components
Satisfied with his findings for the day, Evan washed his plate and decided to speak directly to the System.
"What am I supposed to do with you?"
The screen, this time dark green like Evan's eyes, appeared with an answer.
The System's main focus is to aid its user gain power. The System grows with the User's power, so it is a mutually beneficial relationship. What the User chooses to do with the power is not the System's concern.
That wasn't the kind of answer Evan expected, but he was not really against it. Power free of consequences? Sign him up any day! Though, that did bring up another question.
"How am I supposed to gather power, though? This world isn't such a great place for it… even if it's pretty bad as it is."
The System has a solution for that. On its way through the multiverse, the System has passed through a large number of universes able to support the User's growth. System has enough power left to transport the User to one of the closer worlds, though the User will need to amass more power to leave afterwards.
Evan paused a moment. It was true that he enjoyed the thought of becoming powerful, but was it actually worth leaving everything behind?
…Yeah, it was. Evan could live without his job easily, and his family… he didn't like thinking about them. He cared about them, sure, but ever since he failed University they all got colder towards him. His friends could live without him. Maybe they'd miss him, but he was sure they would pull through.
Thus, Evan went around his apartment, collecting things he would like having with him, or could be useful… which included pretty much everything except the furniture.
"Alright," Evan said an hour later "I'm ready to go, System."
Fantastic. Now, please wait…
After a few seconds, Evan's mind became fuzzy and he felt the floor disappear from under his feet.
When Evan felt himself return to consciousness, the first thing he registered was something poking his abdomen. He instinctively swatted his hand at it. Some shuffling came from the direction of the poke, meaning there was something or someone moving there.
Evan finally mustered up the energy to open his eyes again, and was met with a wooden ceiling, reminiscent of a cabin or an old tavern. He pulled himself up and observed his environment.
It seemed that his previous assessment was correct: he did find himself inside an old-fashioned tavern. Kneeling next to him, was a woman.
"Sir? Can you understand me? Are you feeling well?" She asked, probably worried about Evan's wellbeing after he… crashed into the place, considering the broken table he was sitting on.
Evan shook his head slowly, more to get some time to get his bearings than anything. "Yeah, I can understand you, and I'm fine… where are we right now?"
The woman's face grew a relieved smile. "I'm glad to hear that. We're in Axel Town, the Adventurer's Guild to be more precise."
Evan furrowed his brows. "Less specifically?"
"…The kingdom of Belzerg?"
Evan shook his head again. "No, doesn't ring any bells. Then again, I'm not entirely sure how I got here in the first place."
The woman's smile washed away, to be replaced with a more somber expression. "You might be suffering from amnesia. Your best bet would be to wait for your memory to return, unless you have anything on you that might jog your memory. Do you remember your name, at least?"
Evan put a finger to his chin for a moment, taking it away to snap his fingers a second later. "Evan. That's definitely it. And…" he patted himself down "…I don't think I have much of anything on me as it stands."
"That's unfortunate, Evan. I am Luna, the Guild's receptionist. As for how you got here, you just appeared in a flash while we were closing up for the night and crashed into that table… You should probably get up if you can."
Evan nodded, and pushed himself off the ground and debris. A quick look at his HP showed that he had taken a small amount of damage from the impact. When he was up on his feet, Evan looked back to Luna.
"I don't think you have any idea of any place where I could spend the night, right?" He asked, hoping against all hope that the woman would be willing to help.
Luna took a minute to think. "Well, if you became an adventurer we could let you sleep in one of the empty rooms for a few days, but that's a rather risky job. I don't honestly know if you have any alternatives, though."
Eric sighed. "I think I'll take my chances with this. Better than nothing, I suppose." He gave a quick look around, noticing some other people who he assumed to be Luna's coworkers. "So, how would this work?"
"I'll give you the quick version: you complete a quest, you get paid. There's normally a fee for joining the Guild, but we can let it slide for now. You'll pay when you can…" Luna covered her face and grimaced. "I hope, at least."
As much as she was complaining, Luna's stride didn't falter one bit. She walked behind a counter on the far end of the tavern, and waved Evan over. When he got closer he could observe an interesting piece of machinery on the counter. The best way he could describe it would be as a blue crystal sphere held up by several metallic sticks with a moving lens underneath it. A piece of paper was placed underneath the contraption.
"Place your hand on the orb, please," said Luna without much excitement.
Evan did as told. The sphere gained a shine to it, and a beam of light emerged from under the sphere. The beam was directed by the lens, and it started leaving text on the paper. After a few moments it was done, and Luna gave a once over to the card.
She gave Evan a dry look. "You're absolutely average, in any way. It's almost impressive."
Evan returned the dry look just as easily. They held the look for a few minutes, seemingly staring into each other's soul.
"I suppose it will do," relented Luna. "We'll gear you up tomorrow. For now, go get some sleep… Eris knows I need some too. Room five."
"Will do. Have a good night, Luna." Evan left quickly, going up the stairs.
Evan closed the door to his room, and released a breath. His acting actually worked!
New Mastery:
Acting – rank F – 0/50
User's proficiency to pretend being someone they are not
10% chance to put up a convincing performance
Importing previous experience…
Acting – rank E – 98/100
User's proficiency to pretend being someone they are not
25% chance to put up a convincing performance
…He had been very lucky. Very, very lucky. If he got discovered, that would spell a lot of trouble for him. At least, he had a rather simple part to play: an amnesiac. As long as he pretended to not remember anything from before that day, he would be ok. And who knew, maybe he would be able to increase that skill enough to not have to worry about others.
Unfortunately, Evan wasn't tired in the slightest. The main reason why? He had woken up not even two hours ago.
User can sleep at will, but can skip that along with other bodily functions if desired.
System suggests trying to use a weapon and work on the related Mastery. It should be useful soon.
Well, the system hadn't steered Evan wrong yet, and its reasoning had no faults that he could see, so he scoured his Inventory for anything that could be used as a weapon. His eyes fell on a long knife he would normally use to gut fish. That would work.
He pulled it out of the inventory, and gave it a once over for safety. As he did that, a screen appeared in his line of sight.
Cooking knife – rank E
A knife good for cutting tender flesh off the bones
+5 ATK, +1 HIT
Evan was rather surprised: items would add to his base stats? That had the potential to be very useful later on! For now, he'd take all the help he could get.
He stood in the middle of his small bedroom, and gave a few swings to the knife, trying to get a feel for it.
New Mastery:
Short blade combat – rank F – 0/50
User's aptitude for fighting with short blades
10% extra damage when using short blades
New Combos:
Slash – rank F – 0/50
5 MP
Hits: 1
A quick slash with a blade
10% extra attack speed
Stab – rank F – 0/50
5 MP
Hits: 1
A strong stab with a blade
10% extra damage
Evan was elated at the few new skills he'd gained in such a short time, and felt more than ready to put some practice in. At least enough to combine the two Combos… maybe get some practice in the one that resulted too.
Well, he managed. He may have gone a bit over the top, too.
Quick Slash – rank E – 3/100
10 MP
Hits: 1
A quick slash with a blade
25% extra damage and attack speed
Power Stab – rank E – 5/100
10 MP
Hits: 1
A strong stab with a blade
25% extra damage and chance to inflict [Bleed]
New Combos:
Slash 'n Stab – rank E – 36/100
20 MP
Hits: 2
A quick slash followed by a stab
25% extra damage, attack speed, chance of [Bleed]
Speed Jab – rank E – 7/100
10 MP
Hits: 1
A quick jab with your fist
25% extra damage and attack speed
Power Hook – rank E – 3/100
10 MP
Hits: 1
A strong hook with your fist
25% extra damage and chance to inflict [Stun]
Comet Punch – rank E – 13/100
10 MP
Hits: 1
A fast punch with all your power
25% extra damage, attack speed, chance of [Stun]
Updated Mastery:
Short blade combat – rank E – 94/100
User's aptitude for fighting with short blades
25% extra damage when using short blades
Unarmed combat – rank E – 73/100
User's aptitude to fight without weapons
25% extra damage when fighting unarmed
Yes, he'd definitely gone overboard. His arms ached, but after resting only for fifteen minutes he was perfectly fine again. Another perk of the System, he assumed.
When morning finally rolled around, Evan went downstairs to meet up with Luna. The tavern, which last night was deserted, that morning was bustling with activity. The tables were full, people were laughing, chattering and eating, and… Luna noticed that Evan finally got downstairs.
"Good morning Evan! I hope you had a good sleep!" Luna began, gesturing for the man to follow her. "Now, we need to get you some gear. You can borrow some from the Guild, but you will need to buy some of your own when you have the money."
Evan nodded, and followed along.
"Do you have any ideas as to what you would like to try first?"
Evan pretended to think it up a bit before giving an answer. "I think a dagger might be decent as a start. I think I used one before… probably? It's fuzzy, but I definitely remember using something light."
Luna gave a content smile at seeing Evan's memory 'returning' to him, and ushered him over to the rear of the tavern. There, among most other things, he saw a nice dagger sitting on a table. He immediately went for it, and inspected it.
Hunting dagger – rank D
A dagger made to dish out some damage
+10 ATK, +3 HIT, +1 SPD
It really was a nice dagger. Evan kept handling the dagger, getting used to the slightly different balance from his knife, when Luna came up to him with a leather chest piece.
"Would you mind trying this on?" She asked.
Evan gave a thumbs up, and picked up the armor. After some directions from Luna, he was able to wear the armor over his clothes.
Leather armor – rank D
A slightly worn chest piece.
+10 DEF, +2 SPD, +2 RES
It fit very well all things considered, and it boosted his stats rather well for being starter gear.
"Thank you Luna, I think I'm ready to get to work now."
Luna gave him a once over with a critical eye, and nodded. "Yes, it seems you are as ready as can be at the moment. Well, let's get you started on something easy."
Evan followed Luna once more back to the counter, and she produced a sheet of paper from underneath it.
"You have three days to kill five giant toads. You can find them easily around town. Be careful, though. They are immune to blunt force. If you lose your dagger for whatever reason, run away," she warned.
Evan gave a small salute and took her words to heart. He didn't want his story to finish before it had an actual chance to start yet, after all.
He was finally out in the open, away from the people's eyes, and it felt good! Hiding like that would really take a toll on his mind, unless he got used to it fast enough. No time to think about what-ifs, though, as he could see a giant toad coming for him. He quickly pulled out his dagger and waited to see what the frog would do.
Name: Giant Toad
LV: 2
HP: 80/80
MP: 10/10
Health: 8
Mana: 1
ATK: 10
DEF: 15
HIT: 8
SPD: 4
MAG: 2
RES: 2
A Toad. It's slow and dumb, but can take some damage. The tongue is very sticky.
Evan really appreciated the System's help in those moments. The toad opened its mouth and threw its tongue at Evan, who evaded it just in time. The frog tried again, and this time Evan rolled under the tongue. He used the roll to get close to the frog, and used his Slash 'n Stab combo. He slashed the frog's skin open, far faster than he would've moved normally, and stabbed his dagger into its gut. It wasn't deep enough to inflict [Bleed], but it still dealt some damage… 7, that is.
Evan moved back quickly, and avoided another hit from the tongue. How was he supposed to bring down that thing when he could barely deal damage to it?!
As he dodged another attack, an idea popped in his head. Quickly, he pulled out his knife, and plunged it in the frog's tongue when it tried to attack. With the tongue pinned to the ground, Evan rushed in again and used Power Stab as fast as he could. The first hit did nothing, but on the second he saw blood spurt out of the wound. He quickly moved back, and assessed the situation again.
HP: 63/80 [Bleed: -5 HP/sec]
Perfect. Now he just had to waste time and cut down the stupid frog!
The frog was trying to remove its tongue from the ground, so Evan decided to give it some help. He leapt up, and slammed down his dagger on the tongue. It was easily sliced in two. On the edge of Evan's vision, a small notification popped up, informing him that he had performed a Critical Hit, dealing a lot of damage.
Evan stood and watched as the frog lost more and more blood, to the point where it couldn't hold itself up anymore. He kept an eye to its HP, and counted down.
3…
2…
1…
HP: 0/0
You gained 12 EXP! You leveled up!
Evan opened his Status Screen, and noted that he'd gained 10 Stat Points… He mulled over what to do with them. Last night he'd easily exhausted himself multiple times, yet he didn't gain a single point in any stat. That pointed towards the possibility of Stat Points and equipment to be the only way to modify his stats. Since there was no reason to hoard, Evan distributed his points.
Health: 5 +1
Mana: 5 +2
ATK: 5 +2
DEF: 5 +1
HIT: 5 +1
SPD: 5 +3
He was very close to gaining a new level, and it would take… just a bit more than a minute to recover his MP and HP, so he could allow himself to kill another toad. In the meantime, he gave a look to his other notifications:
New Combo:
Flying Slash - rank E - 1/100
10 MP
Jump up, and slash down.
25% extra damage and chance for Critical Hit
Mastery Upgraded:
Short blade combat – rank D – 0/250
User's aptitude for fighting with short blades
50% extra damage when using short blades
That proved that it was possible to gain a combo of a higher rank if done correctly. It was good to know.
The next toad proved to be much easier, as he already had an idea of the Toad's basic patterns. The only reason why he wasn't able to immediately defeat it was that it was level 3, and as such its stats were higher. He still managed to bring it down with the same technique: Power Stab the tongue into the ground, and rake in damage along with [Bleed].
It had given him less EXP than the first toad, but he chalked it up to the System giving him a boost for the first kill.
Evan felt rather confident in his ability to finish the quest in one day, thus he rushed off again to defeat the last three toads.
It took no more than an hour between finding isolated toads, killing them, leveling up, and recovering. In the end, he amassed a decent bit of power:
Name: Evan Hughes Jr.
LV: 4 (10/64 EXP)
HP: 80/80 (+0.8 HP/sec)
MP: 90/90 (+0.9 MP/sec)
Health: 8
Mana: 9
ATK: 12 (22)
DEF: 10 (20)
HIT: 8 (11)
SPD: 10 (13)
MAG: 5
RES: 8 (10)
Stat Points: 0
All the frogs combined had been just enough to give him an extra level, but he wasn't really complaining. Even the slightest bit of extra power helped, as it stood.
Whistling a jaunty tune, Evan returned to the Guild and made a beeline for Luna's counter. He placed the leaflet for the quest down. "Quest complete! Five giant toads are now dead."
Luna rose a skeptical eyebrow. "You wouldn't mind if I were to check your card to be safe, right?"
Evan shook his head, and pulled out the aforementioned card. "I'm not sure how that would help you, though."
Luna didn't answer, instead she kept staring at the card in shock. "Unbelievable… it took you less than two hours to kill those Toads?! And your stats have increased greatly, to boot!"
He looked on, a bit concerned. "Well, yeah? I did. The bodies should still be where I left them if you want to check…"
Luna shook her head. "No, no, the card records all of your kills anyway. Still, to be done so easily, and with such average stats… is unheard of!"
"What can I say-" Evan puffed his chest out a bit "-I'm great like that."
The blonde receptionist gave him a small smile, chortling at his antics. "I suppose you do deserve some praise, but don't let it get to your head, ok? Adventurers much stronger than you fell because of pride."
After Evan calmed down, Luna gave him his pay for the quest: 25000 Eris. Immediately, Evan gave part of it back to Luna. "To fix my debt," he said. Luna graciously took the money and put it away.
Quest Complete:
Kill 5 Giant Toads in three days (5/5)
Reward: 50 EXP
Caught by a bout of inspiration, Evan asked if he could be allowed to cook his own lunch in the Guild's kitchen. Luna directed him to the actual cook, and returned to her work.
The cook was a kind fellow, allowing Evan to use the kitchen as long as there was no big need of it and that he didn't waste ingredients. After paying a few Eris for the ingredients, Evan got to work on making himself a nice steak.
After a nice, uneventful lunch, Evan went into town to see if he could maybe get an extra dagger, or some more equipment in general. His knife was decent and all, but it didn't hold a candle to an actual weapon. Maybe he could invest in some toughened gloves to complement his unarmed combat?
He remembered a forge which he had passed by earlier on the way to his quest, so he made that his first stop. A bell rang as soon as he opened the door, and the sound of metal striking metal stopped for a few seconds.
"Just a moment! I'll be there soon!" Came the sound of a woman's voice from the back.
Evan decided to give a look around the shop and see what weapons caught his fancy. Something that he enjoyed about the System was that the skills were generic enough to not care about the specifics of a weapon, as long as it fit certain criteria. For example, Short blade combat affected anything from daggers to knives to kukri. And that was, in fact, what caught his eye: a kukri blade. It had a wooden handle wrapped with leather, and the blunt part of the blade was painted a deep black.
Black steel kukri – rank C
A kukri forged specifically to rend flesh and bone
+25 ATK, +7 HIT, +5 SPD
The boosts from that weapon alone were amazing! He needed it, stat.
A door closed behind Evan, and he turned to see the cause. Clad in brown and grey robes, and with a black apron, was a woman. She was rather stocky, with defined muscles from working the forge. Her red hair was cut short, probably to prevent it from catching on fire, and her face was covered in soot.
"Welcome to Elzi's Forge, lad!" The woman greeted Evan with a bright smile. "If you didn't guess, I'm Elzi. Now, I see that something already caught your interest," she commented, pointing at the kukri. "You have some good eyes on you, that's one blade I'm rather proud of!" She paused. "…Not that my other blades are any worse, of course, just personal preference."
Evan was finding Elzi's attitude rather nice to be around. He'd definitely enjoy swinging by again when he had more money. "Yeah, this is a rather nice kukri. How much for it?"
"Eight thousand Eris, lad."
He withdrew the necessary amount from the Inventory, making it look like he pulled the money out of a pocket, and handed it over.
"Since I'm already here, would you happen to have any light-to-medium armor? This is nice and all, but I do need to return it soon."
Elzi showed Evan to a side room, in which were several sets of armor exposed. She gave him an overview of several sets, ranging from 10.000 to over 40.000 Eris. He settled for a set of studded leather armor, which came with shins and bracers too. It wasn't full armor, but it was already better than nothing.
Studded armor set (incomplete) – rank C
A set consisting of chest, forearm, and shin protection.
+20 DEF, +2 ATK, +1 SPD
The set was 12.000 Eris, which Evan could barely afford. As it stood, he only had left 4.000 Eris. They would tide him over until tomorrow, but he didn't have enough money for big expenses.
Bidding goodbye to Elzi, Evan decided that he might as well ask the System how to get some magical components. He wasn't going to start flinging fireballs anytime soon with his low MAG, but it was good to cover his bases.
There are two main components: Elements and Shapes. Combining the two types in different ways can give wildly varied effects. To obtain an Element the general rule is to experience a place with a lot of that element, or a lot of that mana. For example, fire would be found near a volcano.
To obtain Shapes is harder, as normally shaping mana would take years of experience. The System allows the User to learn Shapes at the cost of some EXP. Specifically, the next TOT amount of EXP would be nullified until the quota was met. Higher-rank Shapes take more EXP.
After a quick inquiry, and learning that the weakest Shape costed 100 EXP, he opted to not get into magic for a while. Maybe around level 10 would be a good time to start investing in Shape Components. That way, he would have the time to get a couple of elements… hopefully. At least one.
Without much else to do for the day, Evan decided to pass some time improving his skills, and maybe come up with a couple of new combos. Northeast of the town, outside of the walls, was a small zone in which monsters didn't seem to go for whatever reason. Thus, he went to train there.
A couple of hours later, Evan found himself rather happy with his efforts: he had chosen to concentrate his training each day on a different skill, to capitalize on the big amount of time he had. For that day, he used Quick Slash, hoping that its 'evolutions' would allow him to slice and dice his enemies lightning-fast.
Flashing Blade – rank C – 309/500
50 MP
Hits: 1
A quick slash with a blade
100% extra damage and attack speed
Short blade combat – rank C – 418/500
User's aptitude for fighting with short blades
100% extra damage when using short blades
Now, Flashing Blade cost more than half his maximum MP, but it definitely had a high damage to make up for it! Running the math in his head, he came to the conclusion that all his boosts together would deal around 117 raw damage! Also, he was incredibly fast when using that skill, his arm and kukri becoming a literal flash to the eye.
Once again, he went and cooked himself dinner before the rush of adventurers coming to eat their fill at the guild came, and he went to sleep immediately after. No reason to bother people after all, and Evan already felt like his skills were good enough as it stood.
The day after, Evan went downstairs to meet Luna once more.
"Good morning Luna! Any quest for me today?"
Luna seemed bewildered by what he said, but nodded nonetheless and gave him the same leaflet as the day before. Evan furrowed his brows a bit at that.
"How come it's the same quest as yesterday?" He asked.
"I'm sorry, but as it is your level isn't high enough for other quests. When you reach level seven or eight I'll be able to give you some other quests. Well, either that or you find yourself some teammates." Luna gave him a pointed look. "I'd honestly suggest you find a team soon. Solo adventurers don't do very well against stronger monsters."
Evan nodded thoughtfully. Luna wasn't wrong, having someone else with him would help out if he ever got surrounded. As it stood, he was best to dealing with single enemies rather than hordes.
"I'll see if I can find anyone, it would help a lot… you wouldn't happen to have any suggestions, would you?"
Luna pointed at a notice board a few meters away from the counter. "You can put up an ad there saying that you're looking for teammates, or you can see if there's any teams looking for an assassin like you."
Evan blinked. He was very much certain he hadn't killed people, so why would Luna call him that? And with such calm, too?
"Assassin?" He asked, trying to get an explanation.
Luna gave a sheepish smile. "Right, I hadn't explained that. Normally when making an adventurer's card you'd chose your class, but with your average stats I wasn't sure where to put you except as an adventurer. I was tired, and forgot to do it. When you came back yesterday, your class was already set like that."
After a quick glance to his adventurer's card, Evan had to admit that she was right: he was, in fact, declared as an assassin. It did fit, all things considered: he was fast, hit hard, and tried to kill as fast as possible. He might have to invest a bit more into speed, though. Maybe get a bow as well?
Evan shook his head of all the random plans, and asked one of his last two questions. "Is me being an assassin good, or bad? I'm not sure how this class compares to the others."
"It's actually rather good! I'd say that you fall into the middle-to-high category. Your class is the next level of the 'thief' class, and the last rank would be a 'shinobi'. So, I'd say you're quite lucky with how things turned out."
Evan nodded, deciding to keep his last question for later. He then thanked Luna for her time, took the quest, and went over to the notice board.
On the board were several leaflets for many difficult quests, which he realized from the fact that his only had one skull on it, and the lowest on the board had eight. It must've been pretty dang dangerous.
The only notice requesting teammates seemed to be made by a small child, and asked specifically for advanced classes. He was pretty sure that an assassin wasn't really an advanced class, so he opted against it. It looked like his best choice was to make a notice of his own.
We went back to Luna, asking about the procedure for it.
"There's no real procedure, just write down who you are, what you're looking for, and where you can be found. Put it up, and wait. Someone will end up picking it, and if not there's parties looking for new members coming in every two weeks or so."
"Alright, go it… you wouldn't happen to have anything I could use to write down the notice, would you?"
Luna passed him a sheet of paper, a quill and an ink bottle. Evan took all the stuff and went to sit down at a table. Without being noticed, Evan pulled out a piece of paper of his own from his Inventory and tried writing something decent with a quill.
New Mastery:
Penmanship – rank F – 0/50
User's proficiency in fancy writing
10% chance to write something readable
Importing previous experience…
Penmanship – rank E – 37/100
User's proficiency in fancy writing
25% chance to write something readable
Evan felt insulted. His calligraphy wasn't that bad!
…though, looking at the results, he was inclined to agree. It was bad. Quills weren't really great when you were used to pens or keyboards.
He had work to do, it seemed. He chose to put off the ad until he could write decently, and instead went on to deal with the quest and get his daily income.
This time the Toads were even easier to deal with this time around: stab the tongue, use Flashing Blade, and most died there. If not, one extra hit or two was all that he needed.
Name: Evan Hughes Jr.
LV: 5 (38/125 EXP)
HP: 80/80 (+0.8 HP/sec)
MP: 90/90 (+0.9 MP/sec)
Health: 8
Mana: 9
ATK: 16 (41)
DEF: 11 (31)
HIT: 10 (17)
SPD: 13 (19)
MAG: 5
RES: 8
Stat Points: 0
None of his skills gained anything new, nor did he gain new skills. He was still happy with his new level.
He turned in the quest, and like the last time he left half the payment to cover his debt. Just one more day, and he would be clear.
Instead of swinging his kukri around, that day he went in his room and practiced his Penmanship. Every word written counted to his progress, so he decided to keep writing a notice on the paper he had until he had it written just how he liked it. After he had it down, he could keep repeating it until it was readable.
After some trial and error, he had his ad ready:
Assassin-class adventurer looking to form a party
Preferably required:
-Magic casters
-Ranged support
-Tanks
If interested, ask for Evan. I will be available around dinnertime at the Guild.
It wasn't the best by a long shot, but he was ok with it. If it didn't work, he could change it.
Interestingly, his skill only counted words longer than two letters for advancement. He had to write that thing twenty-one times to finally get rank C in it, and make something decent.
Penmanship – rank C – 32/500
User's proficiency in fancy writing
100% chance to write something readable
Now that it was done, Evan felt ok with going down and putting up the ad. After that, it was too late to make his own lunch, and as such Evan resigned himself to order something.
While eating… toad meat, ugh, Evan caught wind of a discussion coming from the notice board. He was sitting close enough to hear it, and had also a clear view of what was going on. Two girls, one looking about six/seventeen, and the other looking around thirteen were talking. Well, more like the smaller one was talking; the older meekly tried to reply.
"There's no reason for you to even try, Yunyun! As soon as they see the greatness that is my explosion magic, they will immediately choose me over anyone else!" Boasted the smaller girl.
The older one, called Yunyun apparently, tried to defend herself. "B-But they might prefer me! I'm still an archwizard too, remember?"
"Hmph!" huffed the small child. "As if anything you do could overshadow the magnificence of explosions! Here, instead of wasting your time-" she plucked Evan's ad and shoved it in Yunyun's hands "-why don't you try another party? This guy looks about right for you, too! Neither of you has any friends, after all!" With her piece said, the small girl left.
"B-But…" Yunyun weakly tried to call the other girl back. "It's not true that I don't have friends…" She murmured, just barely loud enough for Evan to hear.
Evan had heard enough. He pushed back his plate, and went over to the sulking girl.
"Hey, are you feeling ok? Want me to go tell a few words to that other girl?" He asked, hoping to make Yunyun feel better.
"No, no, it's fine!" She responded quickly. "Megumin's my friend, we always end up bantering like that! It's all fine!"
Evan gave her a flat look. "I just heard her berate you and make fun of you. That isn't really friendly banter."
Yunyun's face fell. "Oh… you heard…"
He nodded.
Evan's lack of words made Yunyun fidget a bit. "You see… I have a bit of a hard time opening up, so people usually don't want to deal with me… I suppose she wasn't wrong; I don't really have friends…"
Evan put a hand on Yunyun's shoulder, making her look back up to him. "Hay now, no need to be so down. I'll be your friend if you want."
Yunyun's face brightened up considerably. "You mean it?"
"Yep," answered Evan. "If you want, you could join my party. I was looking for a teammate anyway."
Yunyun looked down to the ad in her hand. "I was actually thinking to try and join this Evan person's party…"
Evan grew a cheeky grin. "Well, look no further, because I am the fabled Evan!"
Yunyun looked at Evan. Then back to the ad. Then back at Evan. The note again.
"You're not like I imagined you."
The flat look returned. "And how did you imagine me?"
"Er… a hood, scarf covering your face, a lot of knives?"
"…The stereotypical assassin, then. Understandable. I assure you that my skills are up to par nonetheless."
Yunyun started panicking. "I-I didn't mean to offend you! I'm sure that your knives- I mean, your skills are sharp- They're good! I'm sure your skills are good!"
A small, amused smile grew on Evan's face. He quickly booped Yunyun's nose, making her snap out of her rambling. "It's all cool. I like defying expectations, anyway." He went to go back to his lunch, when he turned to Yunyun again. "Care to join me?"
And that was how Evan found himself sitting at a table in another world, eating lunch and chatting with a girl around five years his junior.
And here we go: you asked, and I delivered.
P.S: this chapter has exactly 6969 words. Nice.