Reed showed the inside of an empty cloth pouch to the shopkeeper.
"Nothing inside, see?"
"Umhmm."
Reed placed the pouch on the table and rolled his sleeves up, then displayed his hands front and back.
"Nothing in my hands either, right?"
"Right."
Reed placed his right hand into the pouch, and his left face down on the table.
"Blink and you miss, Ready?" He asked the man, who nodded.
"And 3, 2, 1... boom!" He flipped his left hand over to reveal two gold coins.
"Eh... Wait a minute!" The man barked.
"Something wrong?" Reed asked with a smile on his face.
"I... You... Argh fuck it! Take your things and go!"
The man appeared frustrated.
"Of course. of course." Reed picked up his sack and as he was leaving, he heard the man tsking.
...
He lugged the sack to the guild, where he got a few wayward looks, but nothing else.
"How may I help you?" The woman, polite as always, asked.
"Can you point me to a training ground?"
"A training ground? I don't know much about how adventurers train I'm afraid, but... Hey Brunot!" She called out to someone behind him.
"Need something, Miss Bur?" A young voice sounded behind him, accompanied by heavy footfalls and clanking metal.
Reed looked at the one who responded.
Dressed in full chainmail armor, and carrying a shield and sword, was a young man with dark brown eyes and black hair.
"Brunot here is our cities rising star, with both money and power, this kids got a bright future!"
The one named 'Brunot' blushed and looked away, and 'Miss Bur' chuckled.
"You called?" Brunot asked, trying to divert the topic.
"Yeah, this gentleman wants to know if there is any place where he can train. I figured you'd be able to help him out."
"Good afternoon." Reed greeted in a formal, even tone.
"Good afternoon, sir. A place to train, you say? Let me think."
He rubbed his armored hand on his chin.
"His father is a tier 5 adventurer." The receptionist whispered to him.
Reed nodded, an experienced parent would explain his quality equipment.
"There really isn't a public training ground anywhere, but there are a few clearings south-west of the city, old goblin camps about a kilometre or so, there isn't a proper road leading there though, so you would need to walk through the forest, maybe you can find a dirt path the goblins used."
"I see, thank you." Reed nodded to him.
"No big deal, maybe we can go on a raid sometime." Brunot offered a handshake, which Reed accepted.
"If it is our fate."
...
It was too late to go looking for the clearings, so Reed just decided to read and rest for the remaining part of the day.
...
[Skill Tree unlocked]
...
The next morning, Reed sat in the bed and looked at the extra part of his panel.
"Record." He called out.
"At your service." The black ball promptly materialized.
"Tell me about this function." He commanded.
"The skill tree function enables you to learn use abilities and magic without needing to learn them first."
"A skill tree will automatically appear if you have reached it's requirements, otherwise you will not even be informed of it's existence."
"Some skill trees will have hidden sections that you can unlock."
"The skills you obtain can be used unlimitedly."
"Any skills you have learned or will learn that have a corresponding section in the skill tree, will unlock that portion of the tree for you."
"You can obtain skills using skill points, which you can obtain from leveling up, obtaining achievements, completing challenges and events, etc."
"Any questions, sir?"
Reed tapped the panel, opening it, to display a selection screen.
[Combat Master]
[Magic]
[Chef]
He opened the chef tree.
The chef tree was small, with only a dozen or so unlockable skills, out of which he had 3 unlocked. The three being:
[Knifework],
[Cooking expertise] and,
[Ingredient appraisal]
He took a look at their descriptions.
[Knifework: You are proficient at using the knife to process ingredients.]
[Cooking expertise: Years of cooking have given you a keen sense knowing what to do, how to do, and when to do, when cooking. Also keeps your food fresh for longer.]
'That doesn't make sense. How does being able to cook keep my food fresh for longer?' Reed asked his assistant the same question.
"This is a part of the skill tree, it will attach buffs to some skills." Was the reply, to which Reed raised an eyebrow.
'Oookay... That's a good thing at least.'
[Ingredient appraisal: You can tell which ingredient is better and which worse, and what goes with and against what.]
He then took a look at the unlockable skills.
[Cooking mastery: The level of cooking that can only be obtained by a master chef.]
[Recovery cuisine: Food made by your hands provide small amounts of vitality to the consumer.]
[Flying knifework: Your knifework will be so fast that it will appear to be flying!]
[Ingredient appraisal 2: You are better are appraising ingredients.]
The other skills were blocked off, he couldn't see their descriptions until he unlocked the previous skill.
'Recovery cuisine... Sounds important, not to mention it has two more skills behind it. Something like Healing cuisine, perhaps? That could be very useful.'
He exited the chef skill tree and entered the skill tree named 'Combat Master'.
'That's... a lot.'
This tree had at the very least, more than fifty unlockable skills, with 8 unlocked.
[Excellent Swordsman]
[Proficient Spear user]
[Proficient Staff user]
[Beginner Archer]
[Expert Marksman]
[Master Martial artist]
[Body Control 2]
[Conditioned body]
Most of the unlockable skills were separated from the main tree, meaning that they were not like the others, such as:
[Flying Slash: The ability of using mana to let out a flying slash.]
The skills he had unlocked were within the scope of a human being, but these were involving magic and as such, were impossible for a normal person to learn.