Nothing much to say, I hope you enjoy it.
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After separating from the others, Dale took his time to read the System notifications.
So after finding a comfortable seat somewhere nearby, he opened them.
[You were the first player to reach Level 20!]
[You have achieved Level 20, your current Special privilege has been worn off]
[For being the first to reach Level 20, all rewards prevenient from hunting have been doubled!]
[This privilege will last until the player reaches Level 30]
[Would you like to leave your name in the Hall of Fame?]
'Once again, no… There is no reason for me to publicize that, even if I use my proxy name.'
'The last thing I want to do is give other players motivation for them to grind faster...'
'It feels strange to be at the lead of millions of players... But this is reality.'
Dale let out a small sigh.
"As expected… It's time to say goodbye to my fast Reputation increase and embrace the next privilege…" Dale said as he closed his eyes to think
'Instead of Double Reputation, it's now Double rewards from hunting...'
'I would've liked it to remain with me for a little longer, I can see that my future quests are going to reward me with a lot of Reputation… But good things don't always last long.'
'At least I reached the next Reputation cap, though I'm unsure how this is going to affect me in the future...'
He reopened his eyes and gazed at the messages.
"So it's hunting this time… Should I say it's right on time?"
'Is there a pattern to this? At the start, I was able to see information below Level 10, not that useful here since this place is of a much higher level. But it had its uses.'
'After that was the Double Reputation increase and the 20% XP boost, those really helped me cut off the grind.'
"I wonder how much the 'all rewards prevenient from hunting' affect."
'This isn't bad at all.'
'If it says exactly what it does, I am definitely getting double XP from hunting. Having high Stats means I can fight these stronger creatures, and that pretty much means I am Powerleveling myself.'
'Not only that, if I do have a 2x boost to my XP… Won't it be possible to Level up to 30 within this week? Perhaps even faster.'
'Overall, they don't seem to have that big of a connection, apart from the fact the end reward seems to be growing more and more 'impactful' to me.'
'A better word may be 'Tangible'... Since now, all rewards associated with hunting have been doubled, while previously, only Reputation and XP gain were affected.'
'If item drop rates and similar things increase...'
'Though, it may say rewards, but could it also affect the spawn rate of rarer creatures?'
'If so, this may be a double-edged sword...'
"Hum… I'm getting ahead of myself, in the first place, I have no idea how the environment outside is or how this privilege works."
'I can't make a prediction if I don't even know how the hunting ground is…'
'As they say, don't count your chickens by your eggs… Wait, something is wrong?'
Dale's least favorite school subject had always been literature…
"In any case, my next target is Level 30."
'And I have an entire day available to me, but I am too bored to do more of those contracts… So what do I do?'
Considering his options, Dale stood there thinking…
And he eventually made a choice.
"I'll visit the other old guys and see what they have to say to me. I think this is the best I can do while I wait for the night to come and the villagers to come back."
'Perhaps I will even have some time and energy to make some of those contracts... But to be honest, I am not too keen on that.'
Dale smiled, getting up from his bed.
"I wonder how they will act now that my Reputation has increased to this extent?"
'Will they welcome me with open arms, or will they frown at me?'
'I doubt the latter would happen even if I was to go there with my previous Reputation but...'
…
/Later that day, somewhere in the village…/
The outsider, Rodi, was currently sitting on top of a low stone wall, gazing into the ruins of the village.
"Things aren't looking good for me…" He said with a sigh
'This place is simply… Too uneventful.'
"As I had expected and planned for, today's Livestream broke all of my previous records and at its peak, I had over 17 times my average live viewers count…"
'But that was only because of how I advertised this place… The hardest starting point! And bla bla bla.'
'However, this Village is only so big, in the Livestream, I showed most of the village itself and a few quests… But what about the next one? And the one after that?'
'What should I show my audience in order to keep them entertained?'
Rodi stayed there thinking, he looked around the place and let out a sigh as he raised his head to stare at the sky.
'There is a lot to show, such as the other parts of the village like the inside of the houses, the church, and the ruins...'
'But this isn't a historical documentary! It's a gaming channel! People want some kind of action every once in a while!'
Rodi frowned as he scratched his head in frustration.
'The problem is that I am too weak to go outside, and in this place where quests are already hard to get, it would be suicide for me to venture outside and lose a Level.'
'That would only make things worse.'
"I can get by with one or two more Livestreams, but people are going to lose interest soon if I don't do anything."
'I am recording everything I'm doing in the hopes I can edit everything and at least be able to release one or two edited videos every day...'
'But I need to get something… Be it an interesting quest, or even an interesting NPC to showcase, perhaps even someone to play together with…'
'Anything to keep the viewers entertained…'
"In these cases, going to a raid, a Dungeon, or something of the like would be the ideal scenario, but since I am the pioneer of this place, I would have to find them on my own..."
'Not that I would be able to do any of these even if I found one. This place has to be properly balanced after all and it would be strange to see a low-Level area or Dungeon in an end-game area...'
'The players would find it annoying and useless unless there was something like a Lore explanation or an incentive from the developers to have new players spawn in that area.'
"But it would be ideal if I could have the luxury of keeping some things secret…"
'The worst possible scenario for a streamer like me is when people start to imitate you and compete with you…'
'If I show my tactics and my items constantly, this can make it easier for people to PK me through stream snipping or to simply copy my idea somewhere else and in a more interesting way, making me lose viewers...'
'I am sure that there will be some people that will choose this village as their starting point, and I don't want to compete with them when I barely have enough for myself.'
"My body is already sore from doing these terrible quests, but it's true I leveled up twice in just a few hours, and it isn't impossible for me to Level up to 10 before the sun rises."
"The gold gain is also simply insane! Perhaps it's because this is a high-level zone, even meager quests like these have such abundant rewards..."
'If these quests weren't so physically taxing, I would've been able to do them all day and perhaps even Level up again.'
"But here am I, resting my tired body…"
Rodi looked around and noticed something interesting.
He saw Dale, walking around the place with a broken and worn pair of gauntlets in his hands!
"That is… Dale?"
'What is that on his hands?... Gauntlets?'
He had already grown used to him, this man called Dale.
At first, he believed he was a player due to the timing of his arrival, but he came to understand that this assumption was simply impossible.
First, it was precisely due to his time of arrival.
He arrived exactly when the game servers opened, and unless he completely skipped the tutorial, there was no way for him to be so fast.
Another thing is his strength, Rodi had already understood that Dale was in another league, not only did he pass all of the tests from the Mercenary Guild head, but he also has quite the reputation in the village.
And how can a player who skipped the tutorial be strong enough to do all of that when he barely managed to do so?
He even saw Dale carry around massive boulders and logs easily...
As for the rest, he learned it from the old people around the village.
These old NPCs love to talk just like their real-life counterparts, but unfortunately, they never say everything, leaving many gaps in their stories.
But when everything is put together, it was enough for Rodi to understand that Dale was probably an important NPC tied to the development of this village.
And one of his end plans is exactly that, to further the development of Resko, the place he chose as his spawn point!
The only problem is his Reputation. Most of the villagers are either neutral or wary of him, and some are even openly hostile.
Few are friendly enough to talk with him…
And this included Dale, he could see the yellow text above his head, indicating that Dale was wary of his presence.
This was another reason why he believed Dale to be an NPC.
"..."
'This is my chance. I need to learn more about this place, find something to do or explore...'
'And the best way to do that is by building a connection with the 'main character' of Resko's storyline!'
After connecting all of the 'clues' Rodi came to the conclusion that Dale was the main character of this place's storyline.
From his experience, these quests would oftentimes have a theme to revolve around.
Ranging from many things like an idea to an event that happened in the past or will happen.
Among those lies the main characters, NPCs that are at the center of these conflicts.
And everything pointed towards Dale being the main character of Resko's storyline!
What would this storyline be?
The reconstruction of Resko of course!
Be it from the way the villagers act, to the missions in the mercenary branch, all of it pointed towards it.
"I can't miss this chance!"
Rodi got up and rushed towards Dale!
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Notes
What do you think of these POV changes?
I wanted Rodi to be something like a nice secondary character, one that is built around an interesting misunderstanding that may benefit the Mc.
And I have some extra ideas...