"Stop, stop!" Darren blurted out as he found himself backed into a wall by the marshmallow offense dummy, prompting for the dummy to cease its advance.
Apparently, Darren had options to the 'skill' of the dummy and was able to modify the dummies to a certain extent. For example, he could turn on the [Shock] feature that causes slight pain everytime the offense dummy lands a hit.
Such features helped Darren greatly with his training, but he complained a lot about how he only discovered it while the timer only had a dozen or so hours left. As such, when the timer ran out, the only proficiencies he managed to advance were [Throwing] and [Evasion]. The two were now labelled as [Passable].
He also got two new proficiencies: [Parrying] and [Blocking]. Both were [Poor].
But Darren was nowhere near satisfied. He felt like he wasted a lot of time in the training area, so he wanted to go at it again. But the problem was that he didn't have any Coins. If he needed to do the 3-day training thing again, he needed at least 400 Coins.
And so, when he teleported back into his world, he was about to call out to the system to ask for quests with rewards of money, but when he looked at the Quests Tab, there was already a quest.
▬▬▬▬▬▬
◄[Quests]►
▼Postknight I
Deliver a medicine to the village mayor's ill daughter.
Rewards: Postknight's Chestplate, 200 Coins
▬▬▬▬▬▬
Still, Darren was confused. What village mayor's daughter?
He knew no village, he knew no mayor, and he knew no mayor's daughter.
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
Some quests are entirely made through the system. All scenario's involved are induced using the system's power, and usually, to prevent various problems, all quests of this sort take place in a different world.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Ah," Darren nodded, understanding. He then clicked on the [Postknight's Chestplate] icon on the rewards column to see what exactly was it, prompting for an item details panel to appear.
▬▬▬Item Details▬▬▬
►Postknight's Chestplate
The chestplate of a postknight.
(+1 VIT)
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Wanting to know more about the quest, Darren next clicked the only quest available to expand it.
It prompted for aa Quest Details panel to appear.
▬▬▬Quest Details▬▬▬
►Postknight 1: Deliver a medicine to the village mayor's ill daughter.
A village mayor needs a special medicine that can only be made by a wizard from another village, but the forest between the two villages is too dangerous for ordinary villagers.
[Accept] [Trash]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Say . . . system." Darren began to speak after he finished reading the expanded details, "You have the power to send me to other worlds, create weapons and . . . animated objects, and give me powers and stuff, so are these people . . . like, did you create them too or something?"
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
Negative. That would be a waste of energy.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
". . . Figures." Darren smiled wryly, unsure about why he even asked that question to begin with.
Without anything else to do or ask the system, Darren clicked on [Accept].
♦♦♦
When Darren regained consciousness, he found himself in the middle of a forest. However, this forest seemed much thicker and bushy compared to all the forest he'd been in his life. The trees also looked menacing in his eyes, and the shrubs and vines growing everywhere seemed to have thorns.
To his right, he could hear the faint sounds of human settlement.
Before he could make any move, a beep sounded in his head and a Notice Panel appeared.
▬▬▬Notice▬▬▬
When the user is asked about their identity, the user must tell them that he is an adventurer.
A special item can be found in the inventory from now on, and will be available when present in other worlds.
[Open Inventory]
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Darren opened his inventory and found an item he wasn't familiar with.
▬▬▬Item Details▬▬▬
►Fake ID - Only available while in other worlds
Morphs itself to match the adventurer ID in the present world.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Ah, so this is to verify my identity."
Satisfied, Darren began to weave and push his way out of the shrubs of the forest, and as he did repeated stat update panels appeared before him.
▬▬▬▬
-1 HP
-1 HP
-1 HP
-1 HP
-1 HP
▬▬▬▬
"Tsk, what . . ?" Darren clicked his tongue, surveying his arms and legs to find dozens of fresh, but shallow scratch marks. They didn't hurt or anything, and the collective damage wasn't huge, but he was still surprised-- especially by the fact that the thorns didn't make him feel pain.
"Is this poisonous or something?" Darren asked the system.
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
If the user has a foreign element or ability inflicted upon him, a corresponding buff or debuff will appear.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Right."
After a few minutes of continuously gaining scratches, he finally got to the huge clearing in which the village was situated in. The villagers who were there, upon seeing him, began whispering among themselves frantically, before one of them ran away.
Darren figured that they sent one of them to notify others of a stranger's presence . . . or something.
'Er, so what am I going to do?' Darren asked the system.
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
Approach one of the villagers who saw the user, introduce yourself with only the first name, and ask where food and lodging could be found.
Once they know that you are an adventurer, the village mayor will come to you himself.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
"Got it," Darren nodded solemnly.
♦♦♦
"Axel!" The old, but vigorous village mayor shouted as he exited his house, "Have you sent a message to the guilds?"
There wasn't a trace of panic in his voice, but the light in his eyes was wavering. He was truly worried.
"N-No, mayor." The man named axel meekly answered, "Our messenger fowls are . . . no, all the messenger fowls have returned, with our letters ripped in two. They all have returned immediately too, so none of them . . . reached the capital."
"By the gods . . ." He pressed his palm against his forehead and groaned, his expression one of despair. "I have no choice to . . . cross the forest myself, don't I?"
"B-But mayor! The--" Axel was about to protest, but if he was in the mayor's shoes, he'd do the same. Still, what else was he supposed to say at thist point?
"Village mayor!" Another villager shouted as he came running to them, "An adventurer has stumbled upon our village!"
The mayor's eyes widened upon hearing this, and he immediately straightened his back, "Where is he at?"
"At the village resthouse, mayor."
♦♦♦
After a few minutes of Darren waiting in the village resthouse, all his scratch wounds had already healed completely.
Usually, when outside, he noticed that it took about ten minutes to recover even 1% of total HP. But when inside, a buff that doesn't get announced by the stat updates was present. It was the [Sheltered] buff, and it makes natural HP and SP regen go on 5x faster than usual.
After he had healed, he heard a knock on the door. He knew that now was the time to activate his skill [Pokerface]. Because the skill consumed 1 SP every three seconds, he couldn't use it willy-nilly, despite its wonderful effects. Since he only had a maximum of 120 SP, the skill could only last for six minutes.
And since actions also consumed SP, and low SP meant being exhausted, he could only really use the skill for three minutes at most.
As he activated the skill, a cold feeling spread throughout his body. His emotions became dulled, and his thinking became clear. "Enter."
With a click, the wooden door opened, and an old but fairly buff person came in. He had a bag in his hand, and his eyes were full of resolve.
"Sir adventurer, can I ask what rank are you?" The mayor began, skipping introductions.
"E-rank." Darren answered based on what was on his ID.
The mayor gritted his teeth but didn't let it show to Darren. The forest might be too hard for an E-rank to traverse. To add, the adventurer didn't seem to be properly equipped.
Still, with the way the guild's quest and reward system worked, there would be no issue with giving quests to adventurers that didn't seem to be up for it. It was up to the adventurer to accept after all.
The only matter was, whether this adventurer in front of him would do it, and whether this adventurer could do it.
"I'll get straight to the point," the mayor continued, placing the bag on the table and making dull, clinking sounds, "To the west of this village is another village, and there's a medicine I need from there. But the forest around us are dangerous, so we can't exactly just march there and buy what we need."
Darren just looked at the man with crossed arms and an unwavering gaze.
"I have here 2000 aria as a reward . . . so please." His expression softened as he continued, "Please go to that village and fetch me the medicine I need."
There were a lot of missing details, but Darren could tell that he would be told more once he agrees. Still, there were things that he was curious about.
'System, is 2000 'aria' a lot of money?'
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
Affirmative. The amount is very generous for a quest of this calibre.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
'And can I convert this 'aria' into Coins?'
▬▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬▬▬
Affirmative.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
With a cold expression, Darren uncrossed his arms and told the mayor, "I accept."