Other than the guards barracks, there was also several shops, for different professions: Blacksmith, Alchemist, Engineer… And of course, there were the inhabitants of the village. In total, there should be around 600 NPCs in the village.
At the start of the game, there were two ways to level up: kill Monsters, or do Quests. Quests rewarded way more XP, but there were only a few of them. And some asked certain requirements. That's why, some chose to hunt instead of doing quests.
That was especially the case for guilds. If enough guild members gathered in a town, they could form groups and hunt large amounts of monsters.
But that was none of Adam's concern. Right now, he would rather do quests. Every NPC had a yellow exclamation mark above their heads, so it was easy to find a few quests.
But they were several hundreds to have spawned in this village, so the few NPCs Adam could see were already swarmed with players, and he would waste a lot of time if he queued waiting to get the quest.
So, Adam headed for the village chief's house. As the most important person in the village, he would also give the best quests. Unfortunately, Adam was disappointed. The village chief didn't give out any quest, he couldn't even speak with him.
As Adam was about to leave the village to hunt for monsters, he saw a big group of players leave a NPC. Adam was curious, he could understand if players who got the quest left, but here even those who didn't get it left.
That's why he approached one of the players who left and asked "Hey, may I ask what's the problem with this NPC?"
The player looked at him and said "Don't waste your time, his quest is impossible and has a time limit. If in an hour no one has completed it the quest will disappear."
Adam asked "Why not try? Even if you fail you will just have wasted an hour." The player rolled his eyes and said "If you fail the quest you will be reset to Level 1. Moreover, you won't be able to level up for one natural day. Now, if you want to waste your time, feel free to do so, but stop wasting mine."
Seeing the player's attitude, Adam wryly smiled. He was just asking a question, no need to get upset… Adam looked at the old NPC who was looking at his feet, while sitting on his tool, and decided to go see him. Others may see this as a waste of time, but he didn't. The harder the quest, the better the rewards.
As Adam approached the old man, he was able to see his name, his level and his HP. Above the head of every NPC and monster, those three stats would appear, as well as their rank. For example, this old man.
[Harold] (Level 5, Iron)
HP: 200/200
NPCs and monsters had different ranks to them. For NPCs, their ranks represented their jobs' advancement, while for Monsters it simply represented their strength. And the first Rank for players and NPCs was Iron, followed by Bronze. As for Monsters, they begin at Common, followed by Elite.
Adam arrived near the old man, and saw a few people come too. Apparently he wasn't the only curious one. Harold lifted his head and sneered "Still here? Get out of my sight, you bunch of cowards!"
The players were surprised, this NPC was able to hold a grudge over the other players? A young guy on Adam's left side tried to calm him down "Chill old man, we just want to hear about your quest. It won't harm you to tell us, right?"
Harold groaned something incomprehensible, but still said "It's my son. He wants to become an adventurer, and he isn't a coward like you bunch of… Anyway, Arno went to hunt a monster in the forest, a strong one, but I fear he is in danger. Bring him back alive, and I'll reward you."
[Ding! New Quest detected, 'Save Arno'!]
Quest Detail: The old Harold asks you to save his son and bring him back.
Quest Level: 5
Quest Difficulty: B
Objective: Bring Arno back, alive. Can only be done alone.
Deadline: One hour
Reward: [Hard Fists], ??
Failure penalty: Reset Level at 1, and makes it impossible to harvest XP for 24 natural hours.
The players around sweated. The quest itself was very difficult, as it was B. In the game, every quest, like the skills, has a rating to it. The lowest being F, then E, D… But this difficulty didn't take into account the strength and level of the player.
So this was B difficulty, assuming the player is Level 5. That meant, for a Level 20 player this quest wouldn't even be F difficulty, but for a Level 1 player it is at least A, or S, maybe SS… (Definitely not SS but he's a newbie.)
And with the time limit of 1 hour, they wouldn't have the time to level up. Just going to the quest location and coming back would probably take at least 30 minutes.
Coupled with the terrible penalty in case of failure, no one would accept this quest. After all, the players' perception of time was modified by a factor of two, meaning 24 natural hours was 48 hours in game. Although players needed to make pauses and couldn't go and play for two days straight, they would still get far behind if they couldn't get XP for 48 hours.
That modification of the perception of time was a big revolution in gaming, and it had been instated for years already. At first it was problematic, because the modified perception of time gave headaches, but since then it has been perfected, and for those who really wanted to play on extended periods of time there existed special nutriments that nourished the mind like the body.
As not to make their games pay to wins though, the price of those nutriments is quite low, so what people dreaded the most was still buying the 9000$ cabin. Fortunately, you only got to pay one in your whole life as after that the cabin could just upgrade itself through updates.
Back to the game, the players dispersed because they would lose too much by accepting this quest as recreating an account during the first week was impossible.
Seeing this, Harold lowered his head again, but didn't say anything. Even though he called the others cowards, he knew that his quest was too much for those rookie adventurers. But the life of his son was on the line, so of course he was disappointed.
"I can help you." Harold lifted his head in shock, one of them actually stayed behind? He looked at the young man up and down, and immediately recognized him. The adventurer in front of him was easily a head or two taller than the rest.
So he asked "Is your dad a giant or what?" Adam was shocked by the question, he had read the realism would be pushed by a notch, but that was a whole other level. It really looked like the NPCs were people, and not just rows of data.
Still, he shook himself out of his shock and said "He is no giant, just that I drunk a lot of milk. About your son, can I have some more information?"
[Ding! Quest 'Save Arno' accepted!]
Harold sighed and said "He went in the forest to hunt an Elite Monster, but I fear it is too much for him…"
As Harold finished Adam saw an orange point appear on his mini map. That was his quest's objective. He nodded to the old man and said "I can't promise you I will bring him back, but what I can promise you is that I'll try my hardest. See you soon, I hope."
However, before he could leave Harold got up from his stool and took out a bag "Wait a second… Here, take this."
Harold presented a small vial filled with red liquid to Adam.
[Basic Health Potion]
HP: +100
Adam accepted the potion, putting it into his inventory, and said "Thanks, that will help me fetch your son. Now, I shall go before its too late."
Harold nodded and started shooing him off, making Adam smile. Harold actually reminded him of his grandfather. Thinking of him, Adam couldn't help but sadden. He hadn't seen his grandparents for a long time as they got in an argument with his parents when he was young. Adam didn't remember why they fought as this happened when he was a young kid, but he still remembers he liked his grandparents a lot.
Adam shook his head and stopped thinking of that, and instead opened his inventory. In there, there was of course the [Basic Health Potion], but also some other things.
There was 10 [Bread] regenerating 25HP over 7 seconds. This was something everyone would get, and mages would even get 10 [Juice] additionally for their MP. Even though he had MP too, Adam would only use it later in the game if he gets magical skills.