As the ranks of the quests were all E-rank, Sol did not have a hard time completing them. When he found the targets of the quests, he could kill them in a single attack. The only problem he faced was taking too much time finding the enemies to kill for his quest, but when he did, they were killed easily. On the bright side, it gave him a lot of time to use [Foraging], finding all the herbs to turn in all his gathering quests; some could even be turned in twice with the amount he found.
[Foraging] Lv 7: Ability to find food, herbs, and other wild plants. Range of detection: 7 meters.
For every level up, it increased the range he could detect, and combining it with [Analysis], he quickly found all he needed.
Sol would have gathered more, but his backpack was already full to the brim, and trying to stuff any more would crush them.
While he was done with the gathering quests, it took Sol 3 more hours to complete the monster slaying quests.
As an additional benefit from using [Siphon], he gained a few new skills, mostly thanks to the goblins.
[Basic Bowmanship] Lv 2: Increase damage with Bows by 10%.
[Sprint] Lv 2: Temporarily increase base movement speed by 10%. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 3 minutes.
Surprisingly, the giant termite gave Sol a good skill.
[Harden] Lv 4: Hardens the user's skin, increasing defense by 20. Duration: 40 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes.
'When active, it will be the same as wearing leather armor.'
Defense is a stat that is commonly seen in armor, with a full common leather set usually providing around 20 to 25 defense. Sol sadly had never been able to buy armor as it was expensive, and he never had the funds to spend on what he used to consider a luxury.
In addition to gaining new skills, he had leveled up old ones too. Repeated use of [Analysis] had brought it up to level 2, increasing its potency. At higher levels, [Analysis] could even work on those higher levels than him and penetrate through skills like [Block Perception]. The only thing that [Analysis] wouldn't work on was the equipment people were actively wearing.
From the skills he has siphoned, [Leap] and [Agility Up] leveled up once, but sadly the number of wolves he killed was not enough to raise [Cross Slash].
"All in all, the gains from this one trip are great. If I do this a few more times, I should also be able to rank up."
Sol then made his way back to the guild to turn in the quests, once again seeing Trevor alone while the lines for three beautiful receptionists have at least 15 people in each of them. At this point, Sol feels that it has to be more than just their beauty, right? Even women line up for their line instead of other shorter ones.
"Hey Trevor, I'm back. I have been meaning to ask, but why are most people lining up at their lines? It can't be just because they are beautiful."
"Well, that may be the reason for some of them, but the majority line up for their talents."
"What talents do they have?"
"They all have the [Nurturer] talent."
"All three of them have the talent? Isn't [Nurturer] a rare talent?"
Rare talents are talents people unlock at level 3. While talents are not officially ranked by the system, people have implemented the same ranking of items to them as it seemed appropriate. Level 2 talents are common, level 3 is rare, level 4 is unique, and level 5 is legendary. This does not necessarily mean that higher-ranked talents equal more powerful, but generally are considered better by most.
The [Nurturer] talent is especially rare even for its level as it gives them the talent skill [Nurture]. The skill increases the growth of skills and makes them level up much faster. There are only two downsides: the first being that it will eventually run out, having to be reapplied every 24 hours and the other is that it has a level cap on who it can be applied to. As the skill level increases, the growth percentage rises, and it also increases the level cap.
"Yeah, our guild branch really lucked out in discovering those three; currently, they can give their buffs up to level 50 people."
'Wow, that's insane, I am a little tempted to line up now as well, but it would not do much for me.'
As Sol's talent only made leveling [Siphon] and [Analysis] possible there was no real reason to gain the buff. Instead of lining up, he could spend it spamming [Analysis] or using [Siphon] the dead.
Trevor asked Sol with some resignation. "Do you plan to line up as well?"
"I thought about it, but no, I don't think it would be worth it for me."
Hearing his response, Trevor was elated.
"Really?! I'm glad!"
"Huh? Why?"
"Well, it's because I rarely get to do anything whenever it's their shift. So I just spend it doing nothing. While at first I was fine with getting paid to just sit here, eventually, it just became so boring that I started to hate it."
"Damn, sorry to hear that, man."
"It's okay, luckily a few people still come to my counter. Speaking of which, how can I help you?"
"Oh yeah. I plan to turn in my quests."
"Sure, which ones?"
Sol opened his backpack showing it packed full of herbs,
wolf teeth, goblin ears, and termite antennae to Trevor.
"All of them."
"Woah, you really went all out. Are you past level 10?"
Sol nodded.
"Ah, I see, well, let me get this processed real quick."
After verifying the parts and counting them, Sol in total completed all 23 quests and 6 repeat completions.
"Alright, the total reward is 78 silver and puts you one fourth of the way over to D-rank."
Sol received the reward and asked Trevor.
"Really? So I just need to do three more rounds of these quests and I rank up?"
"Yep, soon you'll be able to take better and more lucrative quests."
"Sounds great! I'll see if I can rank up in the next few days then. Thanks, Trevor."
"No problem, Sol."
Leaving the Adventurers Guild, Sol grabbed something to eat before heading back to The Rusty Bed to rest for the night.