Kirou was currently in his wolf form walking up to the village head of Elderwood Village, Old Wolf. He was originally planning to do this before he logged out in the morning but he had some things to think about that took the whole day.
The reason he was so out of it while working was due to his discovery of a certain item equipped on him that shouldn't even exist in the game. That isn't a correct statement as the item in question shouldn't even exist in this world. The item in question was a certain mysterious bead.
The mysterious bead took up one of his accessory slots and he couldn't check its details. What was even weirder was that whenever he tried to unequip the bead, he kept getting the following message;
[System Message: Item is soul-bound and cannot be unequipped.]
This message kept bugging Kirou as he tried removing the bead. He had no idea how the bead followed him into the game or became an item. He wasn't even sure how it got him to another world in the first place.
After messing around with it a few more times to no success, Kirou gave up on the bead and went up to greet Old Wolf.
"Hello Senior. I have returned to report on the quest that you have given me." Kirou said this while cupping his hands and giving Old Wolf a polite bow.
When Old Wolf turned to Kirou, he noticed that Kirou was currently in his Lycan form and couldn't help feeling slightly shocked at this. Lycan Transformation for half-lings requires them to condition their bodies a bit before they can pull it off (In this case getting to level 5). The fact that Kirou was able to do so in such a short amount of time surprised Old Wolf greatly.
"My my, young one. It seems that you are the hard-working type. I didn't expect you to have already completed cultivating your body to this level as of yet. You've given this old man a wonderful surprise." Old Wolf said this while showing a gentle expression on his face. Apparently, it's been a while since he's met such a talented wolf cub, let alone a mixed one.
Hearing Old Wolf's words caused Kirou to raise an eyebrow. Since he was already aware of the conditions needed to unlock Lycan transformation, he was aware of Old Wolf pointing out the fact that he got to level 5 so quickly. 'This is the second time today that someone is surprised at me getting to level 5 so quickly. Just what is it that's so surprising?'
"You overpraise me, Senior. I only did what I was asked by you and the other villagers have asked of me. By the time I was done, I was already like this without even noticing." Kirou said this while scratching his chin. He was telling the truth as that is how it went for him.
"I am only telling you what I personally see young one, nothing more. With the speed of your training, it's almost as if you are doing so under more pressure than the other young cubs we have had in the village recently," said Old Wolf with a peculiar glint in his eyes.
Old Wolf's words cause Kirou to immediately think of a possibility. 'What if the gameplay mode even affects the amount of experience one gets from battle? Wouldn't taking it that far be too much?' Kirou shelved that thought momentarily as he had no way to test it.
What Kirou didn't know was that Immortal Era was set up exactly like that. The developers of the game had set it up so that those using 'automatic mode' would get lower rewards and experience for everything they did as compensation for leaving the brunt of the work to the system itself.
As for those playing on 'semi-automatic' and 'manual' modes, they would get double and triple rewards and experience respectively as they wouldn't be using the system's assistance as much or at all. This was especially so far 'manual mode' as players using this setting would have to rely on their own personal knowledge to do anything. Whether it be fighting or crafting, their success and failures are rewarded and punished equally. If they do good they benefit greatly but if they don't, they suffer major losses.
That was the developers' plan when they created the gameplay modes. Some of the top brass were against this setting but the developers were adamant about it and refused to budge. As a compromise, the developers made it so everyone starts out with 'automatic mode' and would be given hints about this much later on after everyone cleared the second level cap. How were they supposed to know that someone would have been crazy enough to try it out so early and profit so well from it?
"Well, I thank Senior for his kind words. I'll do my best to meet your expectations in the future," said Kirou while scratching his face.
"Very good, young one. Oh right, you came to me because you finished my mission, right? Let me see," said Old Wolf as he approached Kirou.
"Yes, Senior." Kirou allowed Old Wolf to approach and examine him. After Old Wolf was done, he nodded his head and tapped Kirou's shoulder. This caused Kirou to be enveloped by white light and he received a few messages from the system.
[System Message: You have completed the quest
[You have acquired the long lost lifestyle class
[Fame +1000]
[200 gold]
[You have acquired the first advanced class on the server.]
[Fame +1000]
[500 gold]
[As the first to unlock an advanced class, a server-wide message will be displayed. Display name?]
[Y/N]
When Kirou saw the line for displaying his name in the server announcement he immediately selected 'N.'
'No way in hell am I creating troubles for myself so early. I just want to be a crafter, nothing else.'
The announcement went off three times, shocking all the players online across all the currently available continents.
"Who the heck did it?"
"Which continent is that player on?"
"What class did he get?"
"Someone check the leader boards."
"No info is being displayed on the leader boards. What the hell?"
"..."
Those were messages all being sent out on the world channel at the moment. Many players were interested in who got the first advanced class, which continent he's on and what class he got.
As for Kirou, he was currently ignoring all of that as he was looking at another message from the system.
[You have reached level 6.]
{Name: Kirou}
{Race: Werewolf(Lycan/Human)}
{Class: Weapon Master}
{Subclass: Crafting Master} (Basically takes the role for all other sub classes owned/will receive)
{Level: 6}
{HP: 204/204}
{MP: 170/170}
{Str: 16}
{Int: 14}
{Def: 15} (Def and Mag Def are the same unless otherwise stated.)
{Const: 17}
{Dex: 12}
{Agi: 12}
{Luck: 55/100}
{Skill Points: 25}
{Fame: 2000}
{Money: 700 g/21 s/50 c}
Kirou looked at his current stats with a smile on his face as he felt himself getting stronger. It was still weak by his standard but it was another step forward for him.
Kirou also made note of the 2 new columns that became available to him. Money was self-explanatory. He curious why that column only came up now but guessed it had something to do with the amount of gold he was walking around with.
As for fame, that was something new for him. He searched through his, or rather, Wang Xu's memory to see if he could come up with an answer. That search ended in failure. It seems Wang Xu wasn't much of a gamer in life.
'Looks like I'm gonna have to ask Shang Yin about this tomorrow. I only hope he doesn't have a nervous breakdown when I ask him.' Kirou could still see the look on Shang Yin's and the other guards' faces when he told them his level earlier that day. He still found it funny as he never expected them to react like that.
After looking over the messages once more, Kirou noticed that Old Wolf was still looking at him. He had a patient expression on his face as if waiting for Kirou to finish looking at his display.
Kirou couldn't help scratching his neck before speaking, "My apologies, Senior. It seems like I got too excited and momentarily ignored you." Kirou wanted to give Old Wolf a polite bow as an apology but was stopped by the old man, er, werewolf waving his hand.
"It is fine, young one. It is only the youth that lacks patience." When Old Wolf said this, he had a gentle smile on his face, as befitting of an elder speaking to a junior.
"Does Senior have something else for this junior to do? I will not hesitate to accomplish it as long as it is in my power," spoke Kirou while straightening his back with confidence. At this point, he wouldn't find it hard to accomplish any quests that require him to work around Elderwood Village. He did leave some room to negotiate in case he had to travel further though.
"You are indeed correct, young one. I have a request that requires you to deliver messages to both the village of the elves, Thousand Wood Village in the west and the village of the dwarfs, Stone Mount Village in the east. Will you accept this mission?"
[System Message: You have been given the quest
Quest:
Rank: C+
Level Requirement: level 6+
Description: Old Wolf has seen that you have grown strong enough to make a trip to the neighboring villages and happens to need someone to deliver packages for him to those villages.
{Packages delivered:
Thousand Wood Village, City of Elves: 0/1
Stone Mount Village, City of Dwarfs: 0/1}
{Rewards: }
Wolf Carving Knife
Dwarf Mining Pickaxe
Elf Plant Storage Kit
[Do you accept: Y/N?]
It only took Kirou a second at looking through the quest details and rewards before he spoke up, "I accept, Senior. I will finish this mission as soon as possible."
"Very good, young one. I knew my old eyes didn't fail me when they saw you." Old Wolf said this with a gentle smile. "This request doesn't require you to complete it right away so I suggest you get some equipment for this trip. Though you may not need it, it's better to be safe than sorry." After saying his piece, Old Wolf went back to his chair, ignoring Kirou completely.
Hearing his words caused Kirou to look at his equipment and freeze. He only just realized that unlike everyone else in the village wearing some kind of fur or leather armor, he was still in his beginner coarse linen clothing.
Kirou gave a brief bow to Old Wolf before he made his way to the north of the village. He was going to gather some materials to craft his armor. Since he had the class and skills to do it, why waste money buying the armor from the village when he could make his own. It would also give him the chance to compare his personally created gear with that of the village tailor when he goes to check out the store later.
As he left, he failed to notice the light shining in Old Wolf's eyes.
'Very good. With just a hint, he's already gone to make preparations. Instead of using the Tailor Sam's armor he plans to make his own. Seems like it wasn't such a surprise that he could inherit that class from me.'