Chapter 3

…The greatest rewards

are the ones earned through hard work and effort…

Hard work and great effort will be rewarded.

-Excerpt from the Book of the Favored

It had been…a long month. Very, very long. Crimson had spent the month working. Day in, day out working all day. After he’d finished his four days working at Boss’ place he’d used the money he’d earned -which was quite the pretty penny- to move to the capital of Aldea, called Falst. It was just a day’s worth of walking away, but it was mostly uphill since the capital was situated on a mountain. It taken him a little less because he’d run quite a bit of the distance, but he’d still arrived at sunset and had been forced to sleep outside the gate.

Once the sun rose -and Crimson with it- he’d entered the city Raften had worked his magic yet again; Crimson was on the citizenry roster and had been allowed to enter without any issues. He didn’t even need to pay the toll!

Falst was a dense city and definitely wouldn’t exist anywhere outside a fantasy world. The first thing he noticed was the castle, and it was simply monstrous, he didn’t even want to try and estimate the highest point, not to mention the fact that after he walked through the gate he was immediately under a portion of the castle. The whole castle had platforms and arches that extended over the whole city, it still allowed sunlight in, but essentially you could reach any point of the town from the castle.

If he had to guess the design was to allow magic casters to bombard enemies from above. He’d been a little curious about how they dealt with flying monsters until he learned about the magic barrier that covered the entirety of the capital. No problems on that front, the only way in or out was the gates, the only publicly known way in or out. If he had to guess there were a few secret ways out.

The town itself wasn’t much to write home about, at first glance. It was like a wheel with the spokes being main streets each leading to a total of eight gates into the city, all leading to a great courtyard in the center where trade was hosted outside the walls of the main castle area. The side streets appeared to be very haphazard and irregular, but after becoming acquainted with them he’d discovered that they were laid out in a fun and intricate pattern; he’d figured it out working a delivery job.

Once he’d figured out that pattern, he could get anywhere in the city extremely fast. That, and he’d discovered several secret passages that led him to other parts of the city. It was practically a dream city for anyone who’d read Hairy Potter and loved Higwarts’ secret passages. In his own opinion he actually had a pretty good knack for finding them.

He’d learned that not only was Falst a secret passage filled city with a completely insane castle, it was also a strong trade city. It was situated fairly close to the center of the continent and had several great trade routes that allowed it access to most of the continent, because of that it had several huge plazas with shops and stalls set up for trade, the biggest one being the one next to the castle walls. That particular market was funded, hosted, and protected by the king.

Crimson didn’t visit that particular market very often in his free time, it didn’t sell very many products that he was interested in, and it was more expensive than a few of the other plazas. Not to say that he didn’t spend much time at the King’s Plaza, but his visits were all because of work.

The very first day he arrived in Falst he went straight to the Adventurer’s Guild, admittedly, he’d had to ask several guards for directions, so it wasn’t directly to the Adventurer’s Guild, but it was the first place he intentionally visited. Nothing particularly interesting happened during his visit. He hopped in line and registered at the guild, the most interesting thing that happened was when someone accidentally stepped on his foot, but that wasn’t a big deal.

The guild had some interesting rules. Crimson had been allowed to register, but he wouldn’t be allowed to move above ‘Brass’ rank if (until) he got a [Blessing of the Gods].

The ‘[Blessing]’ was simply a Status. It allowed the person who received it to take on a [Class] and Level Up. Crimson had spent pretty much all of his free time collecting information about the status and the world he lived in to help prepare for when he would get one himself.

Now, about his rank in the guild: ‘Brass’, it was non-combative or dungeon diving and the lowest possible rank. It was there for people under 16 and allowed them to get general work (chores). There were a few unique rules surrounding Brass rank:

1. At least one job must be accepted every week (Crimson had taken on at least one almost every day, more if he had the time)

2. If, after turning sixteen, the Brass member does not receive a [Blessing] then they would be removed from the Guild. (Not a problem for Crimson, Raften had practically guaranteed that he would have a [Blessing])

3. Brass ranked members may not accept any requests that will result in a fight of any kind, nor may they enter any dungeons. (Crimson didn’t have a problem with this rule he’d be beaten to a pulp in any fight as is, but the second half of it was kind of funny; dungeons have a barrier that prevents anyone without a [Blessing] from entering. After looking into it a little more there were a few cases where children without a [Blessing] were able to get into a dungeon, but they were rare.)

4. Brass ranked members must attend classes hosted by the guild to better acquaint them with dungeons, and their potential [Blessings]. (The lessons were seriously invaluable, he’d personally pay to attend them, but they were free and mandatory.)

There were a few other minor rules, but those four were the interesting ones. He found the rules as more of a help than a hinderance in this situation. Especially that fourth one.

In between that class and his time in the guild sponsored library. It was an interesting thing with the Adventurer’s Guild: They provided a lot of resources, but for the most part the members weren’t forced to use them. It was kind of like going to school in that way: you could study and do well, or muddle your way through it.

The mind blowing part of the resource availability was how few members took advantage of them, the class and the library were available to everyone with a membership, even the clerks, but Crimson was often the only one in the library aside from the librarian -who he’d quickly befriended- and it was almost a shock to see someone else. In the offered class he was one of just four students, all of them Brass rank, and they don’t pay attention at all.

If he had to guess the reason why most people didn’t take advantage of these resources probably came down to something like a social stigma, or peer pressure. There seemed to be this attitude about the class being a ‘waste of time’ and ‘why spend time reading a book when you could just kill the thing’. It was the closest thing Crimson could see to a train wreck waiting to happen, and it did happen often. Just by asking a few simple questions he’d learned that most of the deaths in dungeons resulted from a lack of information.

Guild members wouldn’t enter a dungeon with the right weapons, armor, general gear, medicine, and that was before even setting foot in a dungeon! They also wouldn’t research what kind of traps or boss encounters to look out for, the most they did was buy a cheap map -the one that was barely passable as anything more than a bunch of scribbles- and clomped right into the dungeon!

Just watching the lot of buffoons made Crimson want to bang his head on the wall.

That’s all not to say that there aren’t any sensible people at all, occasionally he'd see other people from the guild in the library, but he didn't know them in the slightest, so he didn't care about them but, one of the other Brass ranks spent her time studying with Crimson. Her’s was a weird exception, she did have a [Blessing] and she -from all appearances, but he couldn’t be 100% certain- had a [Class] of some kind, but she had requested to be a Brass rank. When he’d asked her she said something about ‘starting from zero’ and ‘wanting to work her way up’.

Well, her reasons aside she completely fascinated Crimson to no end. She was the first Elf he’d had any ‘close’ relationship to before. The most he’d ever seen elves outside his time in the library and in class was when he was out working.

The Elf, who’s name was Verity, was actually quite the interesting character. She had golden hair and it took him a while to find out her eye color because her eyes always looked like they were closed, but they were green. She reminded him of…a duck. At times it felt like she was just toddling after him like she was a duckling who thought the first thing she saw was her mother, and the first thing she saw was him.

Crimson didn’t actually find it that annoying. She was a wellspring of knowledge and answered a lot of his questions, and he was able to help her find the answers to her questions, and most of her questions were about magic. It was a proper ‘Give-and-Take’ relationship.

He knew quite a bit about magic for someone who could only use two spells -[Campfire] and [Fire Light]- so it did make at least a little sense why she’d ask him. As for why he learned magic? It was a process of elimination thing.

When he first started researching [Classes] he gave some serious thought to being some kind of magic class, turns out it’s possible to learn some of the weaker magic even without a class so he gave it a whirl. He quickly discovered that he hated it to high heavens.

Learning magic takes a lot of time and effort in addition to complete and utter focus. The problem with that? It reminded him of his time stuck in a wheelchair with weak and malformed legs. Just the thought of that irritated him to no end, at least when he was researching info for literally anything else he could at least jog in place or do push ups -not an easy feat while reading, but he made it work- but he had to hold absolutely still while learning magic so that he could properly memorize what was necessary.

That was the other thing about magic: it was almost entirely route memorization, completely boring! If it was at least a puzzle or something he might have been able to stomach it, but it was just simple memorization. While Crimson was pretty proud of his memory even he couldn’t stand that much memorization on top of what he was already studying.

After all that he decided that under no circumstances would he get a magic type class.

That left a few other options. The classes are broken up into roles like an RPG (Tank, Healer, DPS, etc.) the classifications are as follows:

The [Assault] type Classes: DPS. They included stuff like [Spearman], and [Executioner].

The [Defender] type Classes: Tanks. The poster child of this type was the [Defender] class, but there were a few more.

The [Magic] type Classes: Duh. They were any Classes that primarily used magic. Everything from [Priests] to [Pyromancers], and everything in-between.

The [Support] type Classes: Buffs. Support types rarely engaged in direct combat, they focused on strengthening allies, or weakening enemies. Stuff like the [Leader] Class, and [Bard]s would fall here.

The [Production] type Classes: They make stuff. Production types are also a non-combat class, they create stuff for others to use. Classes that fall under this: [Blacksmith], [Enchanter], [Alchemist], and more!

The [Enigma] type Classes: everything else. If if didn’t work anywhere else, then it goes here. Crimson didn’t find any good examples for this one.

Running through the list he nixed [Magic] types from previous experience, said ‘nope’ to [Support] Classes, and decided that he didn’t want to be a meat shield, so he discarded [Defender] type Classes as well. He actually wasn’t too against a [Production] class the thought of creating something with his hands was satisfying, but he definitely wouldn’t get one for his primary class, maybe a sub-class.

That left [Assault] type classes. He liked the idea, but he wasn’t too sure which one to pick, so he left that final decision to ‘future him’ and just researched the different [Assault] Classes.

Speaking of thing he researched, he spent a lot of time researching magic. He had learned his lesson with the two spells he knew, so he wasn’t STUDYING magic, but learning about which magic spell exist and their uses. Just in case. Crimson was the type to overstudy for every test, just in case.

He quietly kept telling himself that as he studied things that he really didn’t need to.

Interspersed with all that studying, classes, training, and work he even slept a few hours. Fortunately the inn was pretty cheap, so it didn’t take too much of a toll on his far-too-small-for-his-tastes: wallet.

With all he’d saved from all his jobs, and working for Boss he had enough to buy a weapon after he choose his class, but he was really worried that he didn’t have enough, despite checking the prices several times. To save money he lived in the cheapest reasonable inn he could find, ate very simple meals that covered enough nutrition to be healthy, and walked everywhere instead of riding the magically powered transit system. His knowledge of secret passages made up for his decision not to ride the Magic-line.

That all covered his first two weeks in Falst. The third and (current) fourth weeks he’d also started training with a sword which really narrowed down the [Assault] classes quite nicely. The type of sword he’d started training with was the dream of every weeb: a Katana. There was a pretty interesting story about how they were introduced to the continent by a man with unusually shaped eyes who a large amount of women were mysteriously attracted to. It made him think that he’d found one of the perverts who asked Raften for a harem. Fortunately the guy had passes away 50+ years ago, so Crimson wouldn’t run into him.

The fighting style he’d started learning was one that focused highly on speed: attacking fast, moving fast, and adapting fast. Personally, Crimson was really proud of it, but it made him feel like a glass cannon. Fortunately he could find party members in the future to cover for him.

Speaking of party members Verity had asked to join his party if he got a status on his birthday. Apparently with all the time they spent helping each other a bit of trust had built up and she was willing to work with him. The fact that he’d never made a pass at her probably helped things. It turned out that she had a [Magic] type class that focused on healing, but she wouldn’t tell him which one yet. Not until they’d had the chance to work together for real. He was personally fine with it.

Based on the way everyone treaded around their [Blessing]s it was like revealing a dirty secret. He had literally met some guys who would happily reveal their fetishes, but wouldn’t say a word about what was on their [Blessing]. Thinking about that day still made him want to gag, things had been revealed that never should have been revealed. Crimson would never understand how it was possible to consider..’stuff’ like that…attractive. Moving on from that thought, he couldn’t take it anymore.

It was kind of a given that some stuff on the [Blessing] had to be revealed, but a lot of important information wouldn’t be given out until the party was ‘permanent’.

Well, he and Verity were essentially in a party together from that point on, but it was like test driving a car more than anything else. Not even a rental.

He looked up from the desk he’d been studying at and mentally reviewing the month.

“Verity.”

“What is it?”

“My birthday is tomorrow, we’ll know if I’ll have a [Blessing] then.”

“Yes, I know that, you’ve told me five times already,” she reached up and halfheartedly covered the big smile that crossed her face, “A bit excited are we?”

Crimson ignored her, she’d start teasing him again and he wasn’t very good at dealing with it.

“The sun’s going to set soon, so I’m going to turn in.”

“Will you even be able to sleep tonight?”

“Yes! No! Maybe! Probably!”

Verity put her chin in her hands and partially opened on of her eyes as her grin grew big enough to start showing teeth, “You’re so honest when you’re excited. What class are you going to pick?”

“I’m torn between [Assassin] and [Swordsman], I should have met the requirements to unlock them both, but I’m not sure which one I’m going to go for.”

“Pick [Assassin].”

“Well, that answered my question, I’ll pick [Swordsman].”

Verity dropped the grin and puffed out her cheeks, “Are you trying to spite me?”

“No, no I’m not,” he waved his hands in the air as if her accusation was a pesky fly, “Have you ever done that thing where you flip a coin to make a decision and weren’t happy with how it ended up, so you chose the other thing?”

“No, but I can see the logic behind it.”

“Right, well then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Hold on a sec.”

“Hmm?”

Verity actually looked serious.

“I finally understand how to learn magic now, that whole memorizing thing is hard, but what spells should I learn?”

“Well, you said you had a [Magic] type class that focused on healing right?”

She nodded.

“But you still won’t tell me which one.”

“That’s a secret for now.”

“So just learn the basic [Lesser Healing] spell for now. If you picked the [Priestess] Class then learn Purification. It’s a big hard to learn, but there’s a pretty good pay off, and it should be one of the few things you can effectively uses with your low stats.”

“You know nothing about my stats.”

“Just guessing, you did tell me that you are Lv.1 after all.”

“That I did, continue good sir!”

“Yeah, yeah. If you choose the [Pure-Hearted] class then pick [Reduction Barrier] it’ll be super useful because we don’t have a tank, and it’s easier to learn than [Purification]. Finally if you chose [Druid], learn [Detoxify] it’ll see more use than petrification in our first dungeon and it’s easier, but don’t downplay [Purification] because-“

“You’re blabbing again Crimson.” Verity had a weirdly content look on her face as she said that.

“You’re the one that asked! I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Night!” She said with huge full arm waving as he walked away.

He turned and looked at her from the door way, “*sigh* Yes, good night.”

He needed what little precious sleep he could get. Tomorrow promised to be an exciting day, and Verity’s hyper nature tired him out. Weren’t elves supposed to be super mature and calm?!?!