Thomas made his way over to the request board and began to look through them. Fortunately for him, the requests were grouped by their ranks so he only needed to look over the section that had requests from rank one to rank ten. The low-level requests were about what anyone would expect. Simple tasks like fetching things, killing some pesky normal animals, and even deliveries. Thomas had a suspicion that even a millennium from now MMO's would primarily consist of fetching, hunting, and delivery quests.

Thomas wanted to do some fighting so he focused in on those quests. There were two kinds available. The first was to enter the dungeon in the city and hunt the monsters within for their magic cores or other item drops. The second kind was to head outside of the city and hunt animals that were annoying the local farmers, boars mostly. Thomas only had a single day and he had to be back in the city and in Hekrin's shop before it closed to turn in his quest. He wasn't sure how long any given quest would take so he couldn't take too many. After browsing a bit longer, Thomas picked out three quests.

System Notice: New Quest! You have accepted a quest to hunt down 10 wild boars that are plaguing the fields south of Ulvstad. Collect 20 boar's tusks as proof of your conquest.

Rewards: 250 Exp, 10 gold

Time Limit: None System Notice: New Quest! You have accepted a quest to collect five complete boar pelts.

Rewards: 200 Exp, 10 gold

Time Limit: None System Notice: New Quest! You have accepted a quest to gather 5 White Tullin flowers and 10 Orange Bloom flowers which can be found near bushes and trees in the wood south of Ulvstad.

Rewards: 150 exp, 10 gold

Time Limit: None

After picking the quests and registering them with the same beautiful receptionist that helped him sign up, Thomas left the guild building and asked a guard for directions to a couple of places he needed to stop at first before heading south out of the city. He was pretty happy that he had scored three quests at once that were all in the same general area. The pay and experience were mediocre, but that mattered little right now.

His first stop was a general supply store. He didn't need much for just a day of hunting, especially since he planned to use his kukri for the majority of the work. He did need to grab a days rations though for his lunch as well as a sturdy leather bag to carry the tusks and hides of the boars in. He also grabbed a simple wooden box to store the flowers in so they wouldn't get crushed in the bag. Thomas seriously lamented the lack of an inventory to store the items inside. Surprisingly, the final item Thomas purchased was a matchbook. Apparently, Alchemists could make matches. All in all, he spent twenty gold on his purchases.

His next stop was a store selling armor. This decision was a little hard for Thomas. He knew that if he went to Rock's place he would be able to find similar, or maybe even better, armor but he was also 99% sure Rock would try to give him the armor for free. Most people would think that was a great thing and would gladly take advantage of the situation and accept the free items without batting an eye. Normally, Thomas would be the exact same but after interacting with Rock over the last two weeks his attitude towards the man had changed. Rock very clearly treated him like a friend, and Thomas was starting to feel the same way. NPC or not Rock felt like any living and breathing person Thomas had ever met, add in friendship and there was just no way Thomas would take advantage of the man.

Thomas spent very little time in the armor shop and only purchased a set of iron arm guards and a small breastplate that would only protect his heart and lungs. His intention was to dodge or avoid as much damage as possible while still being able to use his arms as shields and rely on the breastplate for protecting his most vital organ. The purchase cost him 75 gold.

With all his shopping done, Thomas made his way to the southern gate of the city. He didn't pay too much attention to his surroundings, only memorizing the way he came so he would be able to find his way back to Hekrin's and The Swans Nest when he returned. When Thomas stepped out of the southern city gate he stopped and took in the sight before him. Huge fields of various crops were spread out as far as he could see, only broken up by groups of trees every now and then. The tree's acted as windbreaks to prevent the wind from growing too strong and harming the crops.

After taking in the sight of the fields swaying in the breeze underneath the bright sun and light blue sky, Thomas started to make his way towards a larger grouping of trees off in the distance. He thought of heading towards the nearest trees but figured there were likely to already be players there. Thomas started out walking at a quick pace. Until he had a thought and grinned broadly. Without any hesitation, Thomas took off at his fastest speed.

He ran faster than any human being on earth could naturally run. His arms and legs pumped furiously while the bag on his back bounced like up and down constantly. His speed easily approached 60Kph (37Mph). As he ran the fields became a blur in his vision, his eyes locked only on the goal in front of him. The speed he was running at felt magical and thrilling. He'd never run this fast before, not in any game ever. Those other games all accelerated players by using mounts, this was the first time he had ever moved his own body at such speeds. He felt moving like this could easily become addictive!

It only took Thomas a little over 30 seconds to reach the group of trees that had previously been a little over 600 meters away from him. After coming to a stop, Thomas wiped the sweat from his brow and let out a hearty laugh. The run had been draining and he was gasping for breath while supporting himself by placing his hands on his knees. It was absolutely thrilling to run so far so fast! He felt like he could easily become addicted to the ability to move at such speeds! He was almost tempted to dump all of his currently racked up experience into his Agility and Stamina attributes just so he could run further, faster. If he just upped his endurance a little bit more, only maybe close to double what it was, he would be able to run a kilometer in a single minute!

Thomas didn't let his flight of fancy go to his head though. It was currently a little difficult for him to earn copious amounts of experience at the moment. Part of him, only a very small part, wanted to just give up the quest for Magitech Engineering and never see Hekrin again. However, a much larger and far more stubborn part of him refused to give up and made him force himself to continue. He didn't know how or why, but he was sure that he would be able to do many many things once he got access to that profession. Besides, he'd planned to learn at least one of the two professions he'd been 'forced' to learn anyways!

After catching his breath, Thomas started to scan the small section of the tiny forest that he could see. Aside from trees, bushes, and the sounds of birds chirping, nothing stood out to him. Thomas adjusted the bag slung over his back and pulled his kukri out of its sheath to hold it in a firm grip. It was time for him to do some hunting. Stepping into the forest, Thomas came to an abrupt stop and slapped his forehead with his palm. In his rush for adventure, he'd forgotten to find information on the flowers he was supposed to find! He had no earthly clue what they looked like aside from their colors, assuming the color in the name wasn't a euphemism for something!

Thomas turned to look back in the direction he had come, he wasn't very far from the city and could get back to it in less than a minute. He was just too embarrassed to do so! The quest had no time limit, he would just figure out what the plants looked like and come back to pick some next time. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea! Next time. Nodding to himself, Thomas moved further into the woods to begin his hunt.

Thomas spent an hour wandering through the woods, in that time he'd decided to just collect whatever orange or white flowers he happened to spot and grouped them together by how they looked. There were two or three different various flowers in each color so he had collected quite a few of them so far. However, after exploring for that hour Thomas had finally found signs of boars in the area. It was time for him to do some serious hunting. He wasn't the least bit afraid, instead, his heart was hammering with excitement. He might not be a combat junkie, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy a good hunt!

Thomas stopped where he was and observed the situation, he knew he'd entered the territory of at least one boar and would need to fight it when he saw it so he prepared himself. He closed his eyes for a moment to recall what he could remember about knife fighting. Thomas had always firmly believed that a blacksmith should know how to use any weapons they forged so they could have proper insight into how to make them. True to his thoughts he spent time practicing with every kind of weapon he had ever forged, and because of this he had never mastered any of them and only had a passing knowledge of the basics.

After his little refresher, Thomas started to calmly make his way towards the sounds of what he thought might be a boar. After peaking around a tree he finally laid eyes on his first target. It was... normal, really, really, normal. A wild boar with dark bristly fur and two large tusks curling out of its snout. Its weight was likely nearing a hundred kilos and it seemed rather placid at the moment. While smiling to himself, Thomas made sure his grip on his kukri was tight enough and stepped past the tree and into the sight of the boar.

Thomas wasn't a rogue or thief type player so attempting to sneak up to the boar would just be a waste of time. he figured it would be better to get the boar to charge and perform a counterattack instead. True to his expectations, the moment the boar saw him it turned highly aggressive. The boar gave out a loud squeal and charged directly at Thomas with the intent to mow him down and gore him to death. Thomas bent his knees slightly and waited for just the right moment.

Once the boar was too close and moving too fast to change directions quickly, Thomas shifted to his left while chopping down at the boars head with the kukri in his right hand. The boar attempted to change the direction of its charge toward Thomas's new position, which only put its head into better position for the descending blade. Thomas wasn't sure what the damage would be like but he knew he was about to get a solid hit. The heavy belly of the kukri slammed into the head of the boar... and instantly cleaved the boars head in half!

Thomas stood dumbfounded as the boar collapsed to the ground and skid a few meters while blood and brain matter leaked out of it's wrecked skull. Thomas looked at the kukri in his hand, it was still gleaming and clean without a spec of filth on it anywhere. He'd felt barely any resistance when he'd hit the boar and just the sight of the cleaved and shattered skull of the animal was a testament to just how much power Thomas had hit it with.

Thomas sheathed the kukri for the moment and looked himself over while pondering. Was he the equivalent of a high-level character hunting mobs in a newbie zone? He also hadn't gotten any notification for gaining experience so he probably wasn't going to get any for the hunting portion of his quests, only the quest reward. Well, whatever, he just wanted to have some fun!

After unsheathing his kukri once more he approached the very much dead boar and started to very slowly and carefully skin the animal. He took his sweet time and paid very close attention to the details. He didn't want to move too fast and risk ruining the pelt, he needed it for one of the quests. Fortunately, the kukri helped significantly with the process. It only took him about twenty minutes to skin the animal completely.

System Notice: You have gained the Skinning skill.

After being sure to scrape the hide as clean as he could of any excess bits of flesh, Thomas rolled it up tightly and stuck it in his bag. With the skin collected, he turned to the shattered head and grimaced. With two quick chops of his kukri, he collected two of the twenty tusks he needed and stuffed them in the bag as well. Thomas almost felt it was a waste to leave the boar carcass as it was, but without an inventory, or something equivalent, he could only carry so much with him at once and there was no way he could carry what would likely become several hundred, or even thousand, kilos of boar meat. Well, it was just a game so the boar would probably disappear and respawn before too long anyway.

Thomas turned and headed into the woods again while sheathing his kukri. Given how fast he'd dispatched the first boar he wanted to give himself something of a challenge for the next boar. Grinning to himself Thomas walked deeper into the boar territory to begin his hunt. A nightmare for all boar kind was about to unfold...

Spoiler: Character Sheet Name: Thomas Darkrose Experience Gained: 5,848 Experience Spent: 4,390 Experience Remaining: 1,458 Power: 15 (+) 160 Exp Endurance: 15 (+) 160 Exp Agility: 15 (+) 160 Exp Magic: 15 (+) 160 Exp Innate Abilities: Transmutation ( A ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Quick Learner ( C ) // Rank 14 // 125/150 Exp All Seeing Eyes ( S ) // Rank 7 // 75/80 Exp Skills: Serenity // Rank 7 // 67/80 Exp Blacksmithing // Rank 25 // 93/260 Exp Tailoring // Rank 25 // 258/260 Exp Skinning // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Abilities: Weapon Mastery (Knife) // Rank 1 // 0/20 Exp Titles: Magical Blacksmith Guild Card Name: Thomas Darkrose

Rank: 1 // 0/20 Pts.

Power: 15 Endurance: 15 Agility: 15 Magic: 15 Quests:

Hunt 10 Wild Boars and Collect 20 Tusks // 2/20 Gather 5 Complete Boar Pelts // 1/5 Gather 5 White Tullin and 10 Orange Bloom Flowers // 2/5, 5/10