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Dale returned to the Guild where he saw the old man putting up a wooden board on the wall.
The man saw him and said:
"Took you long enough kid, now, help me in making this place presentable."
"What are those?" Asked Dale as he saw a pile of papers on Misgurd's hands
"Oh these? This is your work as a mercenary."
[Your quest has been updated]
[Welcome to Resko
Pass the Mercenary Guild's test 1/1
Become a Mercenary 1/1
-Pass Misgurd's personal test 1/1
Talk with Testros 1/1]
[Quest completed!]
[You have become a Mercenary
Mercenary Guild Branch(Resko) has been partly reactivated
Resko Reputation +2
25% Level xp ]
While he read the notifications, Dale went to help him place the contracts on the board.
"I'll quickly explain how things will work around here. See all of these papers? They are mostly old requests and other problems that have been accumulating in the village over time."
"These are the most recent ones, and I made sure to remove all the ones I knew were fixed. I may be old but I never took my job lightly."
"Pick whatever mission you want, but only one at a time, if I see you getting more than that you will receive a penalty, 3 penalties make a strike, 1 strike and you will be put into probation, 2 strikes and it's a long term suspension, 3 strikes and your Mercenary identity will be revoked."
But he let out a sigh and said with a smile.
"That would be in the case if we were operating normally… But we aren't, so pick as many as you want, there is something to do everywhere so it's best to pick as many as you can instead of wasting my time having to process your missions every time you finish one."
"Especially since most of these don't have time limits."
Dale picked one of the missions and asked:
"Who issues these?"
"Everyone really, and the paying is written over there. Normally, I would be the person to do these contracts, but my time is short and my age is catching up to me, and in the past decade or so, I have only hunted the dangerous monsters that come too close to our village."
"Don't worry about payment as, despite our condition, money is the last thing we lack…"
"If so, why is everything so…"
Misgurd let out another sigh.
"Rundown? Simple kid, we are in the middle of nowhere, we have the money but merchants have long stopped coming here, and everything we have was inherited from the people that came before us, that is why everything here may seem expensive to you, it's just because that is the amount we are used to."
"From time to time merchants arrive in big droves, but it's only once or twice every few years… And I suspect they may not come this year either."
"In any case, focus on doing these, and soon enough, your Mercenary rank will be increased, don't think I will take it easy on you just because you are the only mercenary here, so get in there and start working."
Misgurd smiled and patted Dale's shoulder, while the other was ecstatic.
So many quests to do… And the rewards… Most importantly, the XP. Quantity and quality... Perfect for a start.
Dale scratched his chin and thought:
'I see it now… So this is the "Scenario".'
'I got into the village but someone coincidentally arrived to help me inside, I used my social skills and helped the old lady, and she directed me here, I finished this guy's quest and this is now open to me... It was all part of one big chain quest.'
'This village is a Development type Scenario. Meaning that most of the quests are directed towards improving the condition of the land they are performed on.'
'Look at this… Clear up monsters on an old farming field… Fix this, collect this… Scout this place… And even lengthier missions like clearing monsters from the road.'
'By doing these, my reputation will slowly rise to the point one day I will be within the inner circle and at that time I will probably get the important missions that will lead to this territory becoming something.'
'The bigger problems... There is no need to even think about it, they are probably the monsters, merchants, the desert, and food... Oh yeah, and the supposed heavy rain.'
'For now, I lack what it takes to do some of these bigger quests… But I do not lack quests to do anyway…'
Dale went through the papers, selecting many simple quests like fixing fences and removing weeds and rocks, there was an overwhelming amount of these and Dale could with confidence that it wouldn't be impossible for him to reach Level 10 today.
"By doing a simple estimation, I would say it would take a week for the elite players to reach Level 10 and double that for normal players, I am not counting the special or unique players since they surely will level up a bit faster than this…"
'Worse, I need to keep an eye out for the vultures that will come to this village after me… There are millions of players, at least a few dozen will be brazen enough to check out this high-Level area. The biggest problem is the tourist players...'
'So I need to make myself part of this community and monopolize the best quests before someone arrives… I will make it impossible for any new player to grow in this place!'
"There is only one thing I am surprised about… This was supposed to be a Chain quest, did I miss anything?"
Dale thought deeply as he made his way out of the Guild…
…
The hours passed, Dale continued to do his quests, and he eventually saw something interesting, or better put, he learned a bit more about what his privilege did.
When he chose this area, he could see the number of quests and their rarity, but only for those within Level 10 and below.
At the start, he was confused about how a Level 10 quest could have such high rewards, but it was then that he realized… It didn't.
What had happened was simple, this place was filled with low-level quests, but most of them were… Chain quests.
And since he could see all info below Level 10, he could see what was the next quest and the final reward of this chain quest, and that was what appeared on the Spawn selection screen.
Although this feature seems to have been removed now that he is in the game itself, he can still infer from what he has experienced so far, Dale is, after all, a veteran gamer.
And now, he only needed to start as many Chain quests as he could and finish them until he found the good ones.
Dale used his super Human body to complete as many quests as fast as he could.
He fixed fences, cut grass, removed broken rubble from the ground, and even swept the streets.
His speed was completely inhuman, the returning villagers would have quite the surprise when they came back…
His increase in reputation was starting to have some effect since as he fixed everything, some of the older villagers that stayed in the village came to offer him some extra rewards.
An old man gave him a hammer that gave him a temporary Skill, Furniture repair 0.5-Star...
An old lady gave him a broom with the temporary Skill, Sweep 0.5-Star...
The first old man, seeing him work non-stop, came back and gave him a toolbox with many tools inside.
And when Dale put the hammer he got previously inside of it, the toolbox description changed and it allowed Dale to use the Skill, Wood, and Iron repair 0.5-Star, making him almost cry in happiness.
Seeing Dale happy, the old man also smiled and went back home, if he couldn't work anymore then it was time to leave it to the next generation.
Sometime later, kids even passed by him and played with him a bit before he finished a hidden quest and got another Reputation bonus.
Dale quickly accumulated 10 Reputation, and it soon surpassed 30, he did not know what it meant, but he was sure it was good.
The effects weren't immediate, as if an increase in the number would make everyone love him...
Like in real life, rumors and information take time to travel, and soon enough everyone would hopefully treat him like the old man that gave him the tools...
When Dale felt tired, he sat on the ground and used some of the consumables he kept in his inventory.
He looked at a selection of potions in the corner of his inventory bag and said:
"... Not yet, I don't have enough yet..."
'I need to find a Trade Center...'
And with a smile, Dale went back to work.
But Dale wasn't the only one working hard…
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Notes