Next day, Sol felt much better and, with renewed energy, headed over to the Adventurers Guild to check out the new quests.
Looking through the available quests, Sol noted that they were generally meant for adventurers who were around level 15 to 25. While he was within that range, he felt that the difficulty increase didn't go up by much, but the real issue came with the time it took to complete them. Some required clearing out encampments, others obtaining items from dungeons, and a few were to hunt down bosses or variants.
'Overall, these quests look rather easy, but that's because of my current status, which is much stronger than the average D-Rank.'
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner]
Level: 25
Exp: 14,430/35,000
HP: 400
MP: 100
Str: 40 (+10)
Vit: 30 (+10)
Agi: 30 (+10)
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Available Stats: 0
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 2, [Analysis] Lv 3
Passive Skills:
[Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 3, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 3, [Silent Steps] Lv 5, [Parry] Lv 5, [Quick Cast] Lv 4, [Agility Up] Lv 2, [Foraging] Lv 7, [Basic Throwing] Lv 6, [Basic Unarmed Mastery] Lv 3, [Strength Up] Lv 2, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 4, [Basic Axemanship] Lv 4, [Iron Stomach] Lv 2, [Tracking] Lv 5, [Vitality Up] Lv 2
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 1, [Leap] Lv 8, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 1, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 5, [Harden] Lv 6, [Power Shot] Lv 2, [Concealment] Lv 3, [Wide Swing] Lv 4
'Sadly, I cannot take the rank-up test to skip this, as they will also check my status page to confirm if I qualify. On the bright side, the number of quests needed to rank up from D-Rank is much less than E-Rank because the quests take longer to complete. I can also take on dungeons, but currently, I don't need to level up; I need to rank up and gain more skills.'
Starting at D-Rank, adventurers' combat capabilities were proven enough that they could challenge dungeons. These dungeons were created by the God of Transformation, Proteus, by using the raging mana in the atmosphere and focusing it into one location. The end result was dungeons, semi-sentient creations that produced monsters and traps. These places, while dangerous, were perfect for people to level up. They just had to be careful not to be killed and consumed by the dungeon.
After looking through all the options for a while, Sol eventually decided to take the Goblin Camp Extermination quest. His reasoning was that goblins are humanoids and tend to use weapons, so their skills would be related to them, and it would be more beneficial to Sol to [Siphon] those than clearing out another monster nest. In addition to that, the quest stated that the group was led by a goblin shaman, and Sol hoped to obtain its magic skills from them.
After accepting the quest, Sol headed out, and before leaving to the location, he decided it was best to spend some money buying armor and a new weapon. Even if it was an easy quest killing goblins, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Stopping by an armor shop, Sol outfitted himself with common leather armor, increasing his total defense by 25. Common rarity gear did not provide any skills or special traits, but it was relatively cheaper, only costing Sol 3 gold.
With the rest of the gold in Sol's possession, he decided to spend it on acquiring a rare weapon and headed to a blacksmith to see their selection.
Overwhelmed by the number of weapons at first, Sol used [Analysis] on them all to find the best weapon that suits him. After going through them, he found two that stood out the most.
Warhawk's Talon
Rare
Attack: 50-60
Durability: 750/750
Skills:
[Sharpness] Lv 4, [Penetration] Lv 4
Crystal Blade
Rare
Attack: 45-50
Durability: 600/600
Skill:
[Spell Focus] Lv 4, [Mana Regen] Lv 4
Warhawk's Talon was focused on pure physical damage. The skill [Sharpness] increased damage by a further 40%, and [Penetration] ignored 20% of the enemy's defense. If Sol wielded this weapon, his damage would increase by more than double.
Crystal Blade, on the other hand, was created for swordsmen who could also use magic. [Spell Focus] increased magic damage by 40%, and [Mana Regen] increased the regeneration speed by 40%. This weapon would make magic much more viable to cast more during combat as he was currently only able to cast it once or twice.
After deliberating the options, Sol ended up buying Warhawk's Talon. Sol's current strength lay in his swordsmanship and physical skills. While magic has the potential to be incredibly useful, Sol doesn't have the current stats and skills to use it like a proper mage. He is lacking important skills that increase regen, empower spells, and doesn't even have [Intelligence Up] or [Wisdom Up].
The sword ended up costing him 32 gold, being one of the better rare-ranked weapons in the store. This left Sol with a little over 18 gold. Taking the chance to look around item stores for any interesting tools or items he could use, he ended up buying nothing. The only item he found he truly wanted was a rare space ring that had a pocket space that one could store whatever they wanted inside. Sadly, the cost of the cheapest 1-meter cube space ring started at 100 gold.
The only item of similar nature he could find with his budget was a porter's backpack with a spatial enchantment cast on it. The weight of the backpack didn't change, but it could hold triple of what his old bag could hold. It only cost him 5 gold for the backpack, so Sol took the deal. With his newly increased carrying capacity, Sol went and bought a few more things he would need on the road and left to complete his first D-Rank Quest.