It didn't take him long to reach Eddie's place, and he entered through the front door, which was unlocked. He heard some sounds coming from the dining area, so he went to check it while on guard.
In the end, the source of the noise was Eddie. Who tried to clean up the small mess from the wine spill.
"You can use this" Zarin offered him the enchanted tool.
It still had some mana, even if almost a full day had passed since its last charge. After learning [Mana Regeneration], Zarin's senses and understanding of mana were greater, so he could fill the mana in the tool.
Eddie accepted the offer, and it looked like he was experienced in using tools like that.
After they finished cleaning, Eddie sat at one of the chairs, the same one he had his meal before he got kidnapped, and offered Zarin one to sit to. Of course, Zarin accepted and sat as he looked forward to speaking to him.
"First of all, I want to thank you for saving me."
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QUEST COMPLETED - EDDIE'S KIDNAPPING
Rating: B-Rank
Reward: 1250 Exps, +100 Eddie Reputation, 1x Random Item
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Congratulations! You reached level 10
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Your reputation with Eddie changed into FRIEND
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CHALLENGE COMPLETED - A SOCIAL MAN
Description: Reach your reputation level with another person at FRIEND level
Reward: 1x Persuasion Die
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PERSUASION DIE
Description: Using this die, you can temporarily raise your reputation with an intelligent creature you aren't in unfriendly terms. The chance of success is increased by the user's [Mind] but can also be decreased by the target's Mind if the difference between the two is over 10. The amount of increase will depend on the result of the die
Die Type: D4
Roll 1: +10%
Roll 2: +20%
Roll 3: +50%
Roll 4: +100%
Uses left: 5
Duration: 1 hour
Cooldown: week(s) equal to the result
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Zarin read all the sudden notifications, and for a moment, he ignored what Eddie said next.
Before the quest, he wasn't far from leveling up, so it wasn't unexpected that he leveled up. He wasn't far from level 11, just a bit less than 100 more exps, and would have done so.
He still didn't know what the reputation was about, as there was no mention of it in the Journal, and of course, Ais never mentioned it. As for the new item, since he wasn't sure how useful having a good reputation with someone would help him, he didn't know how great it was.
'Maybe it will be useful to persuade a tutor to teach me.'
He planned to find someone to teach him new skills, but he had to leave this village since there was nobody here who would do so. Or at least that was the plan.
"…and that is why she kept asking me to join her. Thankfully you came before she would deal with me. I must admit that I knew that Oriel was crazy, but not that much."
Zarin turned his sight towards Eddie and realized that he heard none of the explanation.
He wanted to ask him to repeat, but it was too awkward.
"Then… what do you plan to do now?" Zarin decided to ask, hoping their future plans of his would also reveal some of the information he missed.
"Hmmm… well, some of the guards had seen me getting captured by Oriel, so when they find her or if they see me, they probably will try to put me behind bars or worse."
Finishing his sentence, Eddie put his right hand under his chin as he had some time of deep thinking.
"We need to leave this place, I guess," he said after finishing his thoughts.
Hearing that, Zarin's excitement rose, as he wanted to leave too as soon as possible. With Eddie, who was more knowledgeable of this world than him, it was what he was missing, or at least one of the things.
Zarin knew that the way wouldn't be safe, but Eddie had mentioned in the past that he was a traveling merchant before he decided to make a place here.
Even if Eddie looked to be in his mid-twenties, he was almost a hundred years old. Since he was half-dwarf, he could live a couple hundred years, meaning he was still relatively young for his race. But, of course, if he was a full dwarf, his maximum age would be more than four times what a half-dwarf had.
Each race had its own age rate, with humans similar to the humans back on Earth. Fortunately, the chance for a human to reach more than five decades in life wasn't that rare in this world. If one had access to magical ways of keeping themselves healthy, they could leave for almost a century.
For a human to live more than that was difficult, but not impossible. It needed a lot of resources, though, and access to powerful ways of Arcane Art.
"Where will we go then?" Zarin asked Eddie, as even if he didn't know much about the world, he had read about a few towns in the Journal.
Eddie thought about it a bit before giving a definitive answer.
"We have to visit Nyl. She needs to know what happened to her sister. Maybe we will find who she worked for."
Zarin recognized the name, as she was Lady Emlyn's older sister, the one that had gifted her the Mana Battery and the rest of the Enchanted Tools. But unfortunately, Zarin only knew her name and that she didn't live in this village, but other than that, there was nothing he could find out about her.
"What about the Mana Battery. Wouldn't it be a waste to leave it here? Even if Oriel is out of the picture, maybe somebody else will try to get it."
Eddie let out a chuckle as he heard Zarin's sentence.
"You don't need to worry about it. As you said, it is a waste to leave it here, so we will go to pick it up. I have a way to do so after all."
"You do? What is it? Is it that chest in your closet?"
When Zarin finished his sentence, he realized that he had said something he didn't want to mention. He didn't know why Eddie had that chest or what it was about, but he was confident that he didn't want others to know about it.
Eddie raised one eyebrow as he looked at Zarin, but there was no anger in his eyes.
"I am planning to use it, but not to remove it. It is a good place to put it afterward unless you want to keep it charged like that tool."
Eddie raised his hand that still held the Enchanted Tool to give it to Zarin.
Zarin didn't take it yet but instead opened his Status Window.
He noticed that his MP was filling itself at a much faster rate, with a point every couple of seconds instead of minutes.
'Was it sucking my MP?'
He had the tool on him during his bath and when he escaped the Demon Bear, as it was too precious to leave behind.
He noticed that his MP replenish rate slowed down once again as he touched the tool.
"I see that you didn't notice before that instance. I am curious, though, how did you make it consider you as its source? They normally only do so to the Mana Batteries connected to, and it is hard to do with people."
Zarin didn't need to consider it for long, as he knew the reason.
'It seemed like that visit didn't benefit me as I thought.'
"Mr. Eddie… do you know a way to make it stop?"
He didn't get to read that tool yet as it had its uses. He also was sure that Eddie was a Mage as he could tell that easily his problem.
Even if Eddie was even lower level than Oriel, that didn't mean he was weaker than her. Their knowledge calculated Mage's true power, but that didn't necessarily raise their power aura or level. Furthermore, Eddie had lived many decades over Oriel and had traveled for most of that time, meaning he possibly knew many things.
"Nothing I can do, but we can find someone to help us with the right price. But we need to make some money first, but that shouldn't be that hard with you around."
Zarin didn't know what that last comment was about, but he looked forward to his future travels.
"Mr. Eddie… may I ask what class you are in? I can feel your power aura to be different than normal people,"
Even if Zarin was sure he was a Mage, he considered it better to hear it from the man's lips.
Eddie let out a grin as he opened his mouth to give his answer.
"I am a Shaman."