“Hmmm, Level 5 Villager, good, what’s your name kid?” asked the clerk behind the counter after his class was confirmed.

“David,” he answered while pulling back his sweaty hand from the black stone tablet.

Luckily, it only did what the good man had said it would do, it only checked his class and level. Nothing too fancy but it was already nerve-wracking and a bit intrusive he might add.

“Okay,” the man jotted it down, “do you have any good combat skills? You’ll get the iron plate instead of wood if you do and combat training if you need it.”

“I have [Lightning Flux],” he continued with a smile. “I can prove it to you if you want.”

“Well, what the kraken are you waiting for?”

Adrin demonstrated by using fingers and letting a few jolts of electricity leap between them. The man’s eyes open wide before narrowing and looking at him up and down.

“How can a village kid like you get such a skill?”

“Inspiration point, sir. A lady mage decided to show off her skill, and I got a spare point.”

“So you are saying you’ve pissed off a mage and she zapped you for a lesson?” The man chuckled before he paused. “Wait, how are you even alive? You don’t only have to see her doing it, for something like elemental skill, it must hit to get the skill.”

Adrin was taken aback, “I- I don’t know?”

The man chuckled in disbelief, “good job at saving the point, almost nobody thought of doing that, and furthermore, you get the skill before the point expires. The lady-luck probably had smiled at you,” the clerk shook his head. “How much affinity do you get from the shock?”

“Eight percent only,” he half-lied with a shrug.

“That’s about right,” the man nodded a few times. “You won’t get any higher in this way. Just get a class with an affinity slot to get it to rise faster, you get me?”

“Oh, okay, but do we only get one affinity slot?”

“Of course not, kid, but your head villager should have already told you this,” the man sighed deeply. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered under his breath.

“I’ll explain it to you then,” he began. “The [Villager] class is a tier-zero class, you don’t get much compared to [Settler] or [Citizen] but its [Inspiration] points total is more than others. All tier-one classes give you three slots, and tier-two gives another two slots. Unique classes will only appear at this tier and above based on the skills you chose to slot. But you can consider yourself very lucky to get to tier-three without dying,” the man pointed at his wooden peg leg. “Most Delvers you see running around are stuck at tier-one dual-class.”

“Is it fine to pick the [Mage] class though?”

“What, you think someone will care about your eight percent affinity?” the man scoffed. “Stop dreaming, if you tell anyone, they will only laugh at you, lad. Tier-one classes only make the related skills level up quicker, and much easier to get related skills, nothing fancy.”

“Thanks, I don’t know all of that.”

“You don't have to,” the man chuckled. “This town’s dungeon is a mellow newborn, but make sure to have a team of five if you want to dive, I don’t care whatever skill you have, you hear me, lad?”

“Yes, sir,” Adrin answered before the good man handed him an iron plate.

His name, David, was stamped on it. The iron was the second-lowest rank in the Delver’s Association and he loved it. He hadn’t started with wood just because of the single skill. That was how valuable the skill was, and the young blood in him also had a rare chance to brag. It felt really satisifying to do that.

And after he knew the [Inspiration] points had an expiring date, he had to figure out what skill he should steal next. Maybe making golem had a specific skill? He had one more to waste and he didn’t think he had much time.

Too bad, but this vacation might need to be cut short.

Adrin turned around to the clerk, “can I ask how long the aspiration point lasts? I’m just curious about it.”

“Ten days for points gotten from kills, much longer if you don’t kill anything to level up,” someone else answered, and Adrin turned towards her.

“I’m Aela,” a dark-haired, athletic girl introduced herself. “I’ve heard you have a very nice skill, do you want to join my team? A man with your skill will be a great addition.”

“Thanks for the answer and offer, but no, thanks,” Adrin replied.

“But why? I’m not pretty enough for you?” the girl chuckled. It was obviously just a joke.

She might not have flawless skin like the rich girls, but the tan and wild smile had their own charms. The girl had a sword and shield with her, and they didn’t look like they were just for show or ornaments. Clad in body-fitting leather armor, Aela was still as feminine as the barmaid.

“It is not that,” Adrin replied, “I’m not looking to dive or for any team right now, sorry. I’m going to focus on solo quests for now.”

“Would you at least consider it?”

“Yeah, sure, see you around, Aela.”

“Okay, Dave,” the girl answered while trying her best to not look irritated.

At least, she didn’t double down and curse him or something. The older girl was smart enough to not sabotage any chance of poaching him later. He was right about [Lightning Flux] being something rare or sought after, but he didn’t expect some would notice it already.

The girl went back to her all-girls team before one of them waved at him. The team might have a very good listener to hear him from that far. A skill perhaps? They didn’t look like troublemakers but girls would only distract him, or worse, honey-trapped him.

And unlike most men, women had a way to tell if he was keeping a secret. Especially for a terrible liar like him. There was no way he was going to join such a team, and he hated all male team too.

Adrin sighed inside as he walked towards the quest board. The quest board was divided into five sections for different ranks and the name of the town was written on top of it.

“Town Bluedust,” he muttered under his breath.

At first, he was going to pick a nearby town at random, but this town’s odd name had piqued his interest. Adrin had never thought of going out this far from the city but something had happened during his time in the Mirage dungeon.

He decided to escape the academy after someone had visited his locked chamber while he was in the virtual reality dungeon. He didn’t know who but the extra flimsy [Alarm Shell] had broken by the time he woke up. His hand went to check his neck on instinct.

That was a huge no-no to him. He didn’t want to wake up with a metal collar around his neck, even if he had the skill to melt it away. The others might have someone capable and trustworthy to watch over their defenseless body but who could he trust to watch over his?

He might be paranoid but he had learned to trust his own guts. He had ignored it in his past life and what did he get from that? Betrayal of the worst kind. His stomach still turned whenever he thought about it.

And that happened when he was in a relatively peaceful world. Who knew what humans were capable or willing to do in this world? One could always blame monsters for any heinous crime they had committed and no one would think twice about it.

“Collect ten glowing mushrooms from the abandoned mine,” he mumbled to himself before writing down the quest number.

A simple fetch quest like this would be perfect for him and it also met the other reason he was here.

He headed back to another counter to get it registered and get additional information about the quest. The pretty lady behind the counter didn’t even look at him as she read the name of the requestor before giving him a card and shooing him away. The woman got three out of ten points of professionalism compared to the crippled man.

“Jerry’s Apothecary?” he mumbled as he turned around. “I guess, I’ll ask around,” he shrugged.

Unlike Littledove, this town was developed enough to have two layers of walls protecting its lucky citizens. The streets were busy with people walking around but not nearly as busy as the towns in the central city.

Also unlike Littledove, there were even food stalls here selling all kinds of tasty-looking treats. He just couldn’t help it to sample every shop he found from the inner gate until he arrived at his destination, the Delver’s Association building. Unlike the guilds, the association was funded by the Kingdom, hence the different naming.

“Hey, kid, want more of my lizard tail barbeque?” asked his favorite stallman as he got close.

“You bet old man, I can eat this all day every day,” Adrin laughed.

“How about clearing the last twenty skewers then? I’ll give you a discount,” the old man chuckled and shook his head.

“Sure, if you tell me where Jerry’s Apothecary is,” Adrin took out forty tokens from his pocket.

The old man’s eyes bulged, “you mean it? I was joking, you know, I don’t think anyone could finish it all.”

“Well, it depends if you know where the shop is,” Adrin took one skewer and took a bite.

The old man was right because each of them was almost the size of his arm. A lizard farm where lizards shed their re-growable tail would be an awesome thing to experience.

“The shop is along this road,” the old man pointed, “you can’t miss it.”

“Thanks,” he placed the tokens on the tray, “You are right though, I don’t think I can eat more than one skewer,” Adrin laughed and turned to walk away.

“But what about the other skewers!?” the old man shouted.

Adrin turned, shrugged at the old man, and continued walking. He heard the voices of kids cheering from behind but that had nothing to do with him.