"Do you have to hit me that hard?" Kell whined, a bump on his head showed Ian had hit him there.
"Yes, do you actually learn anything useful?" Ian asked, glaring at the bigger boy.
"Well," Kell stuttered, sweat forming on his forehead, "I did learn of the country we are in and where we are," he almost ran into Ian, who stopped suddenly.
"Tell me," Kell nodded before reciting what he remembered, "Thrine City is under the control of the Melun Kingdom. It is also referred to as a medium-tier town, because of the lack of resources to create a larger city.
Thrine City is also referred to as one of the many beginners town. Medium-tier towns are called beginners' towns because it often located near a low-level leyline. Leylines are like veins of the world, pouring energy into where it was located.
It also varied in strength, from low, to high. Leylines provided ambient mana to the world, allowing more resources like minerals to be formed and causing production, from farming to animal husbandry to prosper.
Yet, these leylines are also what caused the monsters and beasts to appear. The magic from the leylines essentially gave birth to the monsters and mutated the animals into beasts. However, it also allowed special resources, like Light Grass to grow as it required mana to grow or mutate from regular grass.
Low-tier towns did not have any leylines, only being an area of residence with small resources. While medium-tier towns are located near low-level leylines. These medium-tier towns are often referred to as beginner towns by adventurers as most adventurers that started from being commoner goes there to start their journey,"
Ian looked at his friend with an awestruck look. "I almost forget, despite you being an oaf, you are smart, just more focused on sport and physical activities than anything else,"
"Hey! Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"
"Think it whatever you want,"
-x-
The journey to the forest took them half an hour, which is neither too long nor short. But before they could begin, the two did some stretches to relieve their sore legs, well, Ian especially.
"Actually, now I think about it, we never look at our status," Kell reminded him. Ian stiffened, almost forgetting about the topmost option on their screen.
"We should check it now before we enter the forest," Ian decided.
"Sure," both agreeing with the decision, they opened their system's screen and chose the Status option.
< Status - A guideline to determine your abilities. It also tells one race and age. There are several attributes, which are Strength, Speed, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Mana Level. The attributes are from E to SSS. E is equal to regular people while SSS is equal to a demigod >
"Looks like I have a good stat," Kell said out loud.
< Name: Kell
Race: Human
Age: 16
Strength: B
Speed: B
Agility: A
Stamina: A
Intelligence: E
Wisdom: E
Mana Level: D >
"What about you, Ian?" when he did not receive a reply, Kell turned towards him. But the miasma surrounding the shorter boy almost made him change his mind, the terrifying aura making him want to bolt right in that instant.
"D-dude?" Kell asked cautiously, tiptoeing as he walked behind him. There, he could see Ian's stat and he did not know whether to show pity or laugh out loud.
< Name: Ian
Race: Human
Age: 16
Strength: E
Speed: D
Agility: D
Stamina: E
Intelligence: A
Wisdom: A
Mana Level: B >
"Hahahahaahah!" unable to hold back, Kell let out body-shaking laughter, his hand on his stomach as he tried and unable to stop himself from laughing.
Ian merely turned towards him and lifted his staff, getting into an executioner pose.
*Whap*
-x-
"Sorry, dude, but your physical stat, it just to, phhff," Kell almost laughed but he stopped himself, not wanting another beating towards his head.
He was not that smart, to begin with. Any more trauma to his head and his intelligence might drop from E to F if it is possible.
"Try to have such a pathetic stat and see how you like it," Ian grumbled.
"I just saying, you need to exercise more, dude," Kell teased him.
"Fine," Kell stopped in shock. "I am going to exercise so my stat will at least be at D, or C. Hap-"
His words were muffled as he was given a bear hug by the bigger boy, who had tears of joy in his eyes.
"I am so happy, you are finally seeing the advantage of having a healthy and strong body!"
"Let me go your oaf or you will receive another booking!"
-x-
After Kell calmed down, they entered the forest and began their search for the Light Grass. It was supposed to be the easiest out of all the commissions they take but they did not find any yet in the span of 20 minutes.
"We should head deeper, maybe some other rookies already take the one here," Ian deduced. Kell nodded as the two entered deeper.
True to his deduction, they found the Light Grass on the outer edge of the forest, but already far from the outskirts.
"Looks like this is it," Ian said, before pulling out the Light Grass. However, at that moment, a screen popped up in front of him.
< Announcement - User has gained the skill, Appraisal. If the user wants to check the skill, please head towards the Skill section >
"Oh, looks like I gained a new skill," Ian told Kell, who rushed towards him.
"Show me," he did not know why his friend was more excited than him, the person who got the skill but he did not mind. He is also excited to see what the skill can do.
< Appraisal - Whenever you spot something you have prior knowledge of, a screen giving proper detail of the object shall appear. Users can determine things such as gender if the object has one, age, and properties of the object. This also works on monsters, beasts, and other people except for the stronger ones.
Note: This skill depends on the knowledge of the users. If users want to raise this skill level, users need to know more, allowing the object details to be shown to the user >
"So this is more of a support or knowledge-based skill. As expected of the genius in the academy, but he still needs a long way to go before he could run a mara-" Kell was shit up by Ian's elbow hitting his gut.
"Still, this is a useful skill. With this, we could collect the Light Grass and find the Horned Rabbit easier,"