At the break of dawn in the town of Initium, located at the fringes of the human kingdom of Crestelia, began the daily routine of a young man.
Leaving a small house at the southern edge of town was a young man with short, dark brown hair. He was skinny, but it could be seen that it wasn't from malnourishment, as evidenced by his well developed muscles. He had no outstanding features besides a thin scar that started from his left cheek and ended at the bottom of his chin. The cause of the scar was an accident that happened many years ago, and while he had the chance to remove it, he chose not to for the memories it contained. He was wearing cheap everyday clothes and was equipped with a backpack and a worn down sword given as a gift by a shop owner out of pity. This young man was Sol.
He was heading out to do the same thing he had been doing for the past four years. He started by heading to the Adventurers Guild.
As he passed by a bakery owned by an elderly couple, the elderly woman saw him walk by and couldn't help but sigh under her breath. She turned towards her husband inside and said, "It's a pity such a hardworking young man was given such a fate."
Her husband poked his head out from the kitchen as he was tending to the oven. He glanced at Sol and shook his head. "Not much we can do about it. Life sometimes just screws certain people over. We can only hope he moves on and stops risking his life daily."
The elderly woman knew Sol wouldn't give up anytime soon.
"It's been four years since his leveling ceremony, and he hasn't stopped yet. I don't know what level he is now, but he has surely surpassed level 10. No one has ever unlocked their talent after that. Even the legendary talents are obtained at level 5."
The elderly man shrugged. "Can't blame him for trying. I don't know what I would do if I never got my talent," her husband replied as he continued to watch the young man go on his way.
The elderly woman watched as well until she smelled a slightly burnt scent from the kitchen.
"Dear?! The bread!"
"Oh!"
As his wife called out to him, the elderly man's focus returned to the oven. He noticed the bread he was baking had been cooking for too long and was slightly burnt on the bottom.
"Looks like it's still good."
Sol, who was oblivious to the conversation that took place, headed towards the Adventurers Guild with a determined look. He kept opening and closing his status page, looking at the experience required for his next level up with a determined expression. Being too focused on his status screen, he suddenly bumped into someone and fell to the ground.
"Ah! Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Sol apologized as he looked up at who he bumped into and immediately regretted having chosen this path to the guild.
The man in full body armor and a tower shield strapped to his back was still standing unfazed. His gaze shifted downward as he looked at Sol and, upon realizing who it was, smirked, "If it isn't Mr. Talentless. What are you up to today? Going to gather some herbs? Kill a goblin if you're lucky?"
The man looking down at Sol was Jayce, who was the same age as him. He knew this because they both took their leveling ceremony together alongside other kids in the town. Town guards brought weak monsters that allowed the children to easily kill them and gain their talents. That day Jayce unlocked the rare talent of [Iron Wall], which specialized in defensive skills, making him one of the best shieldbearers in the town. That day, all the kids got their first talent, which marked the beginning of their journeys, all except for one.
Sol was the only child unable to unlock his talent even when he was helped all the way to level 5, which annoyed many guards who had to keep heading into the forest to find easy creatures for him to slay. This wasn't the first time this had happened; there had been extremely rare cases where children didn't unlock their talent at level 5. Children who couldn't discover their talents were simply regarded as the Talentless, their numbers even fewer than those with the rarest level 5 legendary talents.
People treated Sol as a lost cause, unlucky to not have any talent. He became the black sheep of the town as he was considered more useless than someone with a common talent like [Boot Shining]. But most simply treated him like an unlucky child; some even had pity for him and helped him out when they could. Most didn't go actively out of their way to belittle him, except for Jayce.
Sol stood up and laughed it off, "Haha, maybe Jayce, let's talk some other time. I have to get to work."
Jayce scoffed, "Work? You call what you do work? How about I offer you a real job." From a bronze colored ring he wore on his right hand, multiple items ranging from backup weapons to tools were dropped on the ground. "Carry my stuff for a day and I'll pay you 20 copper. It's a good offer, no? Four times the amount you get from your so-called work."
Clearly, Jayce didn't need Sol to carry that for him as he already had a costly spatial ring that carried it all for him. If he accepted the offer, there was no doubt in his mind Jayce would actually pay him to carry that but it would be just to humiliate him in front of his party and anyone else they met on the way.
'Gods, how do I get out of this?' Sol thought to himself as he looked around.
Luckily, he didn't have to look for long as he saw a group of people heading towards them: a wizard, a huntress, and two swordsmen.
"Hey Jayce, let's get going. We don't want to lose that monster to another party," said one of the swordsmen.
Jayce looked back and said, "Yeah, yeah. Let's head out."
He walked past Sol, intentionally bumping him into the ground again as he met up with his party.
A few party members frowned as they saw Jayce's actions but turned a blind eye to it to prevent conflict just as they were about to head out.
Sol waited for the party to walk away before standing up once more and heading towards his destination, the Adventurers Guild.
As he entered the building, he saw it full of people either drinking or talking with other adventurers, while others were looking at the quest board for their next job.
'Drinking in the morning… That's adventurers for you.' Sol thought to himself as he saw a group already wasted before the day even began.
Sol looked around a bit as he made his way over to a short, red haired receptionist who instantly recognized him.
"Hey Sol! Same quest?" the receptionist asked him.
"Yep, thanks Annabel. Also, you don't have to tell me the details. I already know them."
Annabel grabbed a paper from under the desk she had prepared for him ahead of time and handed it to him, saying, "Nope, too bad, rules are rules. 5 copper per Laturn Herb you find. You need to find at least five, and they can be found outside the west gate and a bit north from the road."
Sol nodded as he received the quest paper from her. He already knew all the details by heart.
"Alright, thanks as always. I'll see you later."
He turned around, ready to head out, until he heard her calling out to him.
"Wait! Before you go, can we talk for a minute?"
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Well… I'm worried about you. Doing this every day for the past four years. I've always admired your dedication, but eventually, you won't be able to overcome the difference between skills and talents. You might even be killed with one attack by some creatures even when you're the same level."
Sol wasn't a fool; he knew the risk he faced increased with each level he gained as he needed to fight even stronger enemies to reliably level up. But even so, he just couldn't give up.
"I know, but for some reason, I feel it somewhere inside of me that I do have a talent and that if I keep at it, eventually it will appear."
Annabel sighed and said, "But Sol, you have been at this for years. Maybe it's time to consider other paths, you know? What level are you at right now anyways?"
"19, almost 20."
"What?!" Annabel exclaimed, causing a few adventurers and receptionists to look over in curiosity.
She glared at them to look away. Those who knew how she could get when she was angry, which was all of them, immediately looked away. Seeing everyone was minding their business, she turned to Sol again and asked in a hushed tone, "Sol, you are much closer to that limit than I thought. After level 25, even the most common monster will have multiple skills and start gaining special talents that weaker monsters don't have. You won't be able to defeat them at that point; please don't do anything rash."
Sol looked at the sincere concern on Annabel's face for a minute in silence. Though he didn't want to give up, of all the people he knew, no one cared more about him than her. Her concerns made him realize that maybe his hunch was wrong. After all, he never had any concrete reason to continue leveling besides his belief that there was such a thing as a talent after level five.
He took a deep breath and said, "You're right, I don't want to worry you any more. Okay, Anna, how about this: this next level up will be my last. If I don't unlock a talent, then I'll give up."
Annabel stared at Sol for a minute. She would rather him stop now but eventually agreed with an added condition, "Okay, fine! But if you don't unlock anything, you will apply to work here as a receptionist."
"As a receptionist?"
She nodded, "You have practically spent most of your free time here when you are not on this quest anyway and know much more about how the guild operates and this area than the average adventurer. Trust me, you'll be perfect for the job!"
He never really thought his time spent helping her in the guild and researching the area for easy monsters to slay would make him great receptionist material. But now that he thought of it, it did make sense.
"Alright. If I don't obtain a talent at my next level up, I will apply for the job."
Sol got ready to leave, and before he went, he looked back at her once again.
"Thank you for always believing in me, Anna."
Hearing his sincere words, Annabel ran out from behind the counter and smacked him on the back of the head.
"Why are you talking like you're gonna die?! Go and come back quickly!"
"Ow… Okay, I'll be back soon."
Sol made his way through the streets and straight to the west town gates, this time uninterrupted, and handed the quest paper to the gate guards who gave it a quick glance and let him through.
'Can't leave town without a quest or merchant order. Thankfully, this simple quest can be taken by anyone even if they haven't unlocked their talent,' Sol thought to himself as he walked out of the town.
Most towns and cities implement these measures as it was very dangerous to leave town and venture into the wilderness. Monsters could appear at any moment, and if one wasn't strong enough, they could only accept their fate. This didn't mean that people were unable to leave if they wanted to; like with the adventurers guild, there were other loopholes one could use to gain passage out of the town. This obstacle mostly functioned to prevent children and those unprepared from leaving the town.
Sol headed out on the road, and once far enough away from the town, instead of heading north like Annabel advised for the quest, he headed south, towards the forest called Direwood Forest, named after the dire wolves that reside in it. Before entering dangerous territory, he checked his status page one more time.
[Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: N/A
Level: 19 Exp: 19880/20000
HP: 200
MP: 100
Str: 27
Vit: 20
Agi:28
Int: 10
Wis:10
Available Stats: 0
Talent Skills:
Passive Skills:
[Basic Swordsmanship] Lv 2, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1
Active Skills:]
[[Basic Swordsmanship] Lv 2: Increases sword damage by 10%]
[[Basic Trapmaking] Lv 1: Increases trap effectiveness by 5%]
'It took so much effort to gain just these two skills,' Sol thought to himself as he remembered how it took him a full year to learn swordsmanship, and it took even longer to gain trapmaking. If one doesn't have a related talent, the skill grows much slower, and some skills are impossible to attain without a talent for them.
"I'm just a little short of level 20, so I only need to kill one or two wolves," Sol told himself as he walked into the forest.
Sol slowly made his way into the woods and searched for a good place to set a trap. Thirty minutes later, he found a gap between two trees that looked like it was often used by dire wolves in the area based on the tracks he found. Sol took out some rope from his backpack and looped it over a branch of the tree above him, then pulled down on the branch to create tension. Identifying where on the ground Sol believed the dire wolves step on based on the tracks, he made a noose and disguised it with leaves and dirt.
"Now all that's left is the trigger."
Sol grabbed another piece of rope and tied it between the two trees so that when stepped over, it would release the mechanism to pull the dire wolf who stepped on it into the air, making them unable to attack.
After setting the trap, Sol climbed up the tree and began to wait patiently. After waiting around 20 minutes, Sol was alerted by the movements of the bushes. He held his breath to not alert whatever creature was coming and patiently waited.
What came out of the bushes was, in fact, the dire wolf Sol was hoping to catch, in its mouth a recently killed rabbit, and it seemed to be making its way back to its group following the path it originally took. As it slowly approached the trap, Sol's body tensed and prepared his sword to kill it as swiftly as possible.
'This dire wolf looks pretty big. Should be around level 21, maybe even 22,' Sol thought to himself as he got ready.
The dire wolf passed between the two trees and stepped directly over the trap, instantly triggering it, and the rope yanked on the dire wolf's leg, sending it up to the trees. In shock, it dropped the rabbit it was biting onto and looked around in panic, but before it could even howl, a shadow swooped down and slashed at its throat.
The dire wolf, still alive, tried to bite and claw at Sol but was unable to do so thanks to the trap. It was unable to put up any real resistance and was repeatedly stabbed and slashed by Sol. Many attacks later, the dire wolf perished under his blade, unable to retaliate even once.
[You have slain a Lv 22 Dire Wolf! Gained 160 Exp (160%)]
[You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points]
"Nice! I thought I would have to kill two, but luckily, this one was a higher level." Sol exclaimed. For every level under the slain creature, the experience gained is increased by 20%.
Sol quickly checked his talent screen, but once he did, his excitement was completely gone. He sighed, "Still nothing. Guess I'm the crazy one for believing…"
Not in a great mood after failing once more, he packed up the trap and moved to harvest parts from the dire wolf so he could head back to the town. He planned to talk to Annabel later about that receptionist job.
Sol tried to look at the bright side of it all. 'Who knows, maybe I'll enjoy it.'
Just as he finished packing up, he heard a loud howl and explosions not far from where he was. Wanting to get away as quickly as possible, he ran in the opposite direction until he heard howling from where he was running towards. It was the sound of a dire wolf pack!