Blonde hair and blue eyes were the most important factors in the nobles. Usually, if there was a noble who did not have these said features, they were either a rich merchant who became noble by literally paying their way through or a mere knight, who managed to rise through the ranks and achieved their titles.

Blonde hair and blue eyes, however, meant that the person was of noble birth. It was unknown as to why but all “pure-nobles” as people called them, were born with these features. Nobles had great access to resources. Books, equipment, personal training, they had it all. It was no surprise that out of 10 successful mages, 8 were nobles while the other two were usually commoners backed by some noble. This also resulted in the common knowledge of “if someone has blonde hair and blue eyes, they are a mage.” throughout the continent.

Connor, by some luck, had blonde hair and blue eyes. Since he teleported near the village, everyone treated him as a noble because of that specific reason. While the lie could hold up for a while, eventually, he would need to say something.

‘House Ironheart…’ Connor questioned himself. In the medieval ages, a house was basically the family. House Ironheart meant that as his last name was Ironheart, he belonged to the Ironheart family. But the issue was that Connor was not sure if there were any “Ironhearts” in this world. If he admitted he was not a noble, that could cause some problems, if the guards, or anyone, asked for any kind of proof, he would not be able to provide anything. If he was quite unfortunate and a family called Ironheart did exist, he did not want to be the person who would impersonate a member belonging to a noble family.

‘Fuck it. Each choice is worse than the other anyways.’ Connor steeled his resolve.

“Yes. Although we are a noble family, our family is quite small and originally not located in the Kingdom of Aure. When I turned 19, I decided to go out and experience the continent before taking over the mantle of the family head.” Connor told Felix, avoiding any titles on purpose. This was the best story he could come up within just a matter of a few seconds. Connor wanted to scratch his head. He was not sure if this would work.

“Aha. I see.” Felix said while nodding his head. “Understood sir, I hope you safely explore and return to your family.” He continued before leaving the room once again. Just a few moments after Felix left, a new box appeared in front of Connor.

New Character Stat Unlocked:

Charisma - Increases persuasion, increases the opinion of others towards you.

Connor was surprised, this stat was not included in the tutorial. Reading over the description of the stat, he could understand why this was unlocked.

‘My lie might’ve just worked, apparently.’ He thought to himself as he checked his character sheet.

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Charisma: 10

‘Nice. The basis is 10 in comparison to 5 for ot- wait. There used to be one more stat here.’ Connor tried to remember. When he first checked the character sheet yesterday, there were 5 different stats. Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Dexterity and… ‘Accuracy. What happened to Accuracy? Does this mean I will never be able to land any shots?’ Connor thought before grinning, the idea of not being able to land any shots sounded funny… but what if it was true? ‘Hopefully a bug. Probably a bug. Definitely is a bug. Yeah. Yeah…’ Connor affirmed himself.

Connor looked at his weapon and shook his head. This was a thing that needed some trying but the gunshots were drawing too much attention. He needed to go somewhere away from the town first.

About a minute later, Felix walked in.

“Everything is done sir, you may leave should you wish to.” He said to Connor. The record-keeping was done, the charges were cleared. Connor moved up to shake Felix’s hand, which surprised Felix for a split second before they shook hands. After that, Connor was given the dagger he looted from the mugger.

The case was closed, the noble defended himself with a family artefact and a bad guy was wiped clean off of the streets. It was basically a win-win situation for the guards. Connor walked out of the barracks and checked his quests once again. Unfortunately, the explore quest was still there and was shown as “In Progress” in the quest screen.

Connor went to the closest guard and asked for some directions to the interesting places throughout the town. According to the guard, even though this was a relatively small town, it was divided in itself. The Inn, Adventurer’s Guild and most shops were located in the Outer District, the Barracks, Town Hall and other government-related buildings were located in the Inner District. There was also a Center District, where the Lord’s mansion was.

“Sir, if you keep heading this way” the guard said as he pointed at one of the streets. “You will eventually arrive at the Verhelm Fountain. It is a glorious piece of work with a 20-meters high statue of our Lord himself.” The guard told Connor.

‘Huh, the man really likes himself I guess.’ Connor thought, after chatting with the guard for some time and learning about various shops, alchemists, armoursmiths, leatherworkers, he left the barracks and headed straight for the fountain.

Connor’s goal, in this case, was, if he actually discovered a “piece of work” as the guard had described, he would be able to finish the exploration quest. At least this was his hope.

Connor started thinking about his plans as he was walking towards the fountain.

‘Being an adventurer for income… check.’

‘Lying about being a noble… check.’

‘Training skills… in progress.’

‘Leveling up… in progress.’

‘Being able to log out… unknown.’

‘Better get used to it, they will probably log me out eventually.’ Connor resigned himself to his fate, it was mid-day already. About 36 hours, if not more, and he still could not log out or contact any GM. He was bored of constantly trying out to logout and did not want to bother with it anymore. Sooner or later, the developers would realize he was trapped and log him out forcefully anyways.

‘Too many things I need to do…’ most of the things that Connor had mentally listed required him to either gain experience to level up or use his weapons. On a regular MMORPG, this meant you needed to finish quests or kill some mobs. ‘The quests look half-assed, I don’t even know how I can get one so the best choice is the mobs… Mobs. Right! Did I get any XP from killing that guy?’

Even though he checked his character sheet, he just glanced at the stats and did not even bat an eye at the experience. Quickly giving it a look, it was just as he thought. Apparently killing that man actually yielded him some experience… the amount, however, was quite low.

‘25? Really? I need 2500 and killing a huge guy like that only gave me 25 XP? Are you kidding me?’ he growled. Connor was sure that if he did not have his weapon back then, it would be impossible for a guy like him to even run away from that huge mugger. But the system thought 25 XP was an adequate reward. ‘What a scam.’ He thought while growling.