"... Let's proceed to the intro scene then."
"Skip."
"Okay... Put a name you wanted it to be."
A screen popped up again. With a virtual keyboard screen.
He submitted his name. 'Arceede'
"I'll go with this."
"Okay, I'll verify the name.
"For additional info, you will get to choose your path at level 1 and have to pass the trial in the village to pick a class. You will be advanced to level 2 after you get your first class."
"Ah, this is mandatory information that I should get in the section that I passed."
"Yes, you skip 90% of the character creation. Your name should've been entered in the intro video."
"Ok, let me enter the game."
"I will confirm your Character profile.
"Name: Arceede
"Race: Human
"You will be transferred automatically to the beginner village. You can call me anytime when you want to ask something.
"Okay Mr. Re I hope you will enjoy our second game, 'Ranker's Quest: Path'."
The scene around Arie changed of a sudden. His view looked like he was being sucked by the world itself.
His field of vision became all black. The view regained its light gradually.
It came from a blur, changed slowly to his normal view. When he regained his sight completely, he saw natural scenery, trees, livestock behind the fence, houses. Harmoniously become one. These were really good although it has a cartoonish style.
[System] Welcome to Begie Village. You have been assigned to Begie Village #SWI001.
[System] Talk to the people around and enjoy the game!
A notification box popped up.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the first one who enters the village. Hm.. 'Begie Village #SWI001'. Is this divided by channel?
"Silv, are you there?"
"Yes, you can summon me to physically visible to anyone, only physically visible to you or talk to me via voice transmission."
"Hm... Okay, let's talk via voice transmission.
"Is this village assigned by channel? I'm pretty sure the previous game gathered all the players in one big city."
"Yes, the village has assigned by channels. All of the villages have the same NPC, the same building, everything. You can ask around the village for further information."
"Okay, how can I display my status profile, menus, and anything like that."
"It's the same as before."
"Okay, nice."
Arie began to think to show his information.
'Profile status' He said in his thought.
.....
[Arceede]
-Info-
[Race] : Human
-Attribute-
[HP] : 1000
[EP] : 1000
[STR] : 150
[DEX] : 150
[INT] : 150
-Stats-
[P. Atk] : 31 - 59
[M. Atk] : -
[P. Def] : 90
[M. Def] : 75
[Luck] : -
[Dmg. Reduce] : -
[Debuff Resist] : 7,5%
[Crit Resist] : 22,5%
[Crit Dmg] : 165%
....
"This... I start with 1000 HP and over 100 attributes. The previous game starts with a single-digit attribute.."
Arie began to think deeply. But not even a minute, he shook his head.
'Let's just skip this thought, I skip a lot of the character section because I want to have a lot of time talk around the village.'
'Arceede' starts to enter the village through a gate. He notices a 'Royal Guard' next to the gate.
"Morning Visitor! Welcome to Begie Village."
The 'Royal Guard' had a red plate armor covering his body. A medium armor wore by any 'Royal Guard' in the previous game.
His face showed a charisma of a middle-aged man. With his brown hair, he exuded a friendly but strong aura.
"Ah hi! Are you a royal guard?"
"Yes! I can guarantee that."
"But.. you are in a.. village?"
"Yeah, Begie Village is a central place for the visitor from any place. Before you reach the Mainland."
Arie thought for a while.
"You don't even have your weapon now?"
"Well, apart from any wild beast that going rampage, there won't be any threat to the village that can pass me." The Royal Guard said with confidence.
"But how? Are you that strong to overcome any threat?" He asks while tilting his head.
"Well, apart from my strength and a kingdom's back up. When I said that a village is a central place for visitors from any place, it means it can only receive a 'visitor'."
"Visitor?"
"Yeah, you don't know about 'visitor'?" He asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Am I a 'visitor'?"
"Yeah, hm... I guess it has a different term in another world. Because it never happens that the process of 'rebirth' makes memory loss."
'Ah, is it.. the character creation intro?' Arie thought.
"Is it a process for any person that enters Greylhad? I think I got some different term here." Arie tried to make a guess from any info he has gathered.
"Ah! It's a relief! If the "rebirth" process really makes memory loss, I have to report it immediately!" The royal guard answered with a sigh.
Then he continued to explain.
"Greylhad has officially opened to the worlds. One of the requirements for you, 'visitor', is to take a 'rebirth' process. The one you got in the 'Verification Section'.
"And so, only level 1 people can enter the Begie Village who also usually will leave the village once they are level 10.
"Since the Begie Village is a one-way pass to the mainland. There should've been no high-level threat enough for me." Again, he exudes a high confidence aura.
"But since you're allowed to go her-"
"I get what you mean. What I mean is high authorized permission needed to come here apart from going through the 'rebirth' process."
"I see.. by the way, my name is Arceede. You can call me Ar."
"Ah hi Ar! Name is Grizram, call me Griz."
Griz the royal knight responded in a very friendly manner.
Arie left Griz and started to look around. He found an inn, housing complex and merchant store filled the village.
A lot of merchants sold adventurer equipment.
'Hm... Let's look around the equipment store.'
But not long after, before he decided to ask any salesperson of the shop. He found a big building after he passed a junction.
The building had a thick smell of iron.
"A blacksmith guild!" He exclaimed.
"Sorry, Vi! I might support you while playing as a blacksmith. This building comes into my sight just when I'm about to look for my adventurer weapon. Wait, isn't it supposed that I have my own customizable beginner weapon!"
He recalled that he was supposed to get a customizable weapon as his top-ranked reward from the previous game.
"Silv, did I not get my beginner weapon?"
Silv answers him through voice transmission.
"Since it doesn't have a mandatory feature, and you ski-"
"Okay, I get it."
Arie realized it. Since he skipped most of the character creation, he also missed his beginner weapon reward.
With a forced smile, he started walking to the blacksmith guild.
'This might mean that I'm not supported by fate to play as an adventurer. Well, I'm the one who chooses to skip it tho.'
He only left out a sigh in the blacksmith guild entrance.
'Well, since the information regarding civilian occupation leaked. I said that I want to play as one of them. Words are power.'
After he left out a loud sigh, he finally entered the building.
The first impression he got is that it looks like an office place. He found a receptionist counter right after he entered the building.
"Welcome to the blacksmith guild. How may I help you?"
A female receptionist asked him.
"I want to.. look around." After pondering for a few seconds, he rephrases his word.
"Actually I don't know what to do here. It's my first visit and found this building interesting."
"Ah! You come to the right place for your first visit. Blacksmith guild is the biggest guild under 'The Crafter Guild' in the Begie Village."
"Hm.. I actually have wonder when I enter this village. How can this village is actually so big but still called a village? In my world, it is enough to be called a town."
"I don't know how big villages in your world are. But it is completely normal here."
"Ah okay, sorry for the trivial matter."
"No problem! If you still haven't decided your mind. You can enter through the door right there to the stall area. They sell a variety of adventurer equipment."
"What's different from the merchant store outside?"
"You can check it by yourself. I'm sure it won't disappoint you."
"Okay then, thank you."
Arie began to follow the receptionist's instructions. He entered the door she mentioned and he directly noticed the difference to the merchant store outside. The store here was run by the blacksmith.
The store was also the blacksmith workspace. What's on display was their own craft. The equipment sure came with variety.
'It sure sells a variety of weapons and armors. But, isn't it more interesting to window shopping outside compared to this place.'
To confirm his thoughts, he was asking a human teenager who was working on his own.
"Ehem, can I ask something?"
The young man turned his head and surprised to notice Arie on his stall.
"A customer! Sorry! I just too focused on my work. How may I help you?"
"I want to ask how different is the item here compared to the merchant stores outside?"
"The stores outside are selling the weapon, armor, and items looted from the dungeon or monsters. While here, we sell the equipment we crafted.
"Is that mean.. the quality here is better?"
"Compared to the common loot. We have higher quality and I am sure of that! The merchant outside usually has a better artistry value compared to us." The young man's mood swings drastically in just a few words.
"Hm... Is that all?"
"Well, it's actually because most of us here are a blacksmith apprentice. So, we are mainly focused on the contribution and increasing our proficiency as much as possible to become a level 1 blacksmith.
"The equipment we crafted here, if not bought by the visitors, will be sold to the guild for a contribution point." The blacksmith apprentice explains further.
"What does the guild need it for? It should be a quality made for low-level adventurer isn't it?"
"Yup, exactly! That's why they need it. The guild bought it to the natives' young adventurers in the mainland."
"Ah, I see."
"How about you? Do you have your weapon?"
"As you see, I don't have one." Arie just replied with a smile.
"Yes, but you could have stored your weapon in your personal place."
"Personal place?"
"You didn't know? Just try 'logout'. You will get a notification about the personal place." He seems confused by Arie's question.
Arie then started voiced 'Menu' in his head and a screen popped up. There were tabs with different names. 'Profile', 'Equipment', 'Logout'.
He pressed 'Logout' and a confirmation box pop up.
[Are you sure you want to logout to your personal place? You will appear in your last checkpoint the next time you log in.]
"Hm.. Where is the login checkpoint here?"
"The only login checkpoint on Begie Village is in front of the gate. I advised you not to logout now since it will be troublesome."
"Why is it troublesome by the way?"
"You can only visit the guild you are not joining to once a day. The next visit will cost you some currencies and procedures."
"Hm.. Actually, Am I not bothering you? You stop your work just to answer random questions from a random passerby."
With a chuckled he said. "It's about contribution. I get a contribution if I serve customers visiting my stall. By the way, you can call me Jur. How may I address you?"
"Does it need to know the name of your customer to claim the contribution?"
"..."
"..."
"Hahaha. You are really interesting. No, it doesn't. Any conversation or transaction here is recorded and calculated automatically by 'The System'.
"System?"
"The God who believed to ruled over any procedure and principle in the world."
"Hm? Interesting. My name is Arceede. Call me Ar. How about this entity, how many Gods are there?"
"I don't entirely sure. But the most famous are: 'System', the adventurer path God such as 'Fervor', and the civilian path God such as 'Maker'.
"Basically every path has its God that master their respective rules. But no one sure what rules there are."
"Okay, so I guess it is just trivial matters that aren't important to any of us."
"Yeah of course. I can actually get more contribution if we are talking about blacksmithing." He said with a grin.
[System] Affinity with
!?
A notification popped up in the left bottom corner of his vision. He just read it briefly and continued in the conversation.
"Haha, sorry for that. I actually have a mind to become a blacksmith. Do you have any advice?"