Adrin was too used to games and their hand-holding. That was why he still didn’t pick a class while hoping for a better one. He didn’t need the class to stay alive, but he knew he would lose the rat race if he delayed it much longer. It was a huge relief to reconfirm that the special class would only appear at a higher level.

He pushed the door to the shop open with a relieved sigh. The establishment was pretty big compared to others around town and it was pretty hard to miss it. Inside the shop was filled with all kinds of vialed liquids, but two types stand out more than the rest. Red and green, health and stamina. He already had plenty of them in his [Storage] ring, just in case anything went wrong.

Most were kept in glass cabinets or casing, and there were some ingredients offered for sale by the counter. Like most places, a smart shop owner would use a pretty woman to attract customers and this shop was no different. The long-haired brunette with big sky-blue eyes smiled at him with a big business smile as he approached the counter.

“Can I help you?” the lady said.

“Yes,” Adrin pushed the quest card to her. “I’m told to meet someone here first.”

“Oh, the glowing mushroom quest?” She said as she looked at the card. “I thought no one will pick up the quest, it has been there for weeks.”

“Well, here I’m,” Adrin said.

“Just wait for a second, okay, love?” She said, “Honey, there’s someone here for your quest!” The fine lady shouted to the back.

‘So, she is that kind of person?’ he mused. The overly friendly kind.

Somehow the lady had reminded him of Emi, but the girl should already know why he had suddenly disappeared. Emilia didn’t talk as sweetly but she was much wiser than any youth Adrin knew. She must know that he would never leave her behind and he just needed some time.

“I’ve told you not to call me that, Elina,” a man’s voice came from further inside before the tall dark-skinned man showed up through a door. “You’re not my wife or anything.”

“Well, you didn’t complain about it last night,” she shot back.

The man groaned, he was honey-trapped. The lady had probably worked her way up to this point for a quite long time. The man appeared to be very comfortable around her.

“What the grin for, kid?” the man turned his attention to him. “Are you a virgin? I guess it’s fair with that kind of look. You remind me of myself while I am at your age.” The man noticed the card on the counter, “so do you have any experience or skill to harvest the mushrooms?”

Adrin didn’t think he was that tanned. “No, but the quest didn’t mention-”

“I know, I wrote the damned quest,” the man said. “I’ll provide some tools to harvest them if you don’t have the skill, that’s why you are here in the first place. Wait right there,” the man said as he went to the back of the shop.

“Don’t mind him, love, I’m sure there will be fine girls willing to share the experience. Who wouldn’t want regular night fun in this harsh world, right? Well, if you aren’t as brute as an orc.”

“I heard that!” the man shouted from the back.

The lady giggled, “aww, don’t give me that look, love, I’m young once too. No one wants to die a virgin, and it’s a dangerous world out there,” the lady said.

“Yes, ma’am, it is,” he said.

Adrin didn’t know what ‘face’ he had made, but he had to agree with her.

A simple villager would never get any further than a few hundred meters from the walls. Not without running into huge animals or monsters who would want a piece of him.

This town was among the few close enough to the capital city to have a safe trade route, but the caravans were still guarded fiercely. Mercenaries who guarded them were armed to the teeth. The show of force was used to ward off most monsters but a safe trip rarely without any casualty. Adrin had witnessed a fierce monster raid himself.

There was no doubt that it would have taken him much longer to get here if not for his new method of travel. It turned out applying [Magni Flux] on his [Shell] had an unintended yet magnificent effect. He had done it to try if he could make some sort of magnetic field but got something else instead.

Adrin had found himself floating a few inches from the ground when he applied the skill to the [Shell]. He wasn’t sure if he was using the planet’s magnetic field to levitate, or maybe the [Shell] was pushing him up against gravity, but he was sure of one thing.

Flying in the sky was one hell of crazy fun.

He had just needed to use his will to move around in the air, and the [Shell] also worked as an excellent windscreen when he sped up. He had definitely broken a few sound barriers on his way to this town.

Elina sighed as if she was lamenting her past. “It’s better to find a good man to rely on than to be taken by force,” she added in a lower voice. “And you looked like a fine man to me,” she purred.

Adrin smiled as the man appeared by the door and walked to the counter. He slapped down a glove and a bag while giving Adrin the stink eyes. He wondered what the man's problem was, the lady was a fine-looking woman.

“This is [Skilled-hand] glove, it will help you to pick the mushroom better,” he pushed the glove forward. “This is a [Storage] bag for the mushrooms and I’ve made it to store mushrooms only, so it is worthless for sale. No one will want a mushroom only [Storage] bag and I’m one of the only two [Alchemist] in town.”

“Yes, sir, loud and clear,” Adrin said, grabbing them both. “Have a good day, ma’am,” he turned around to leave the shop.

“Be very careful on the way there,” the lady waved as he opened the door.

Adrin headed out for his first quest ever. He had a big smile plastered on his face as he walked towards the gate. An average start for an average man.

Though what the lady said had made him think. Elina probably knew what she was talking about as this world wasn’t as safe as the old world. It wasn’t safe enough for girls in the old world, let alone in a world filled with monsters.

Anyone who acted like a privileged dumbass wouldn’t last long in this world. Attributes, skills, and classes did help to balance it, but he had never heard of any skills or attributes that make someone braver. The ability to think rationally during duress was still something men were mostly better at.

High scores in school or magic academy didn’t reflect decision-making in the real world. How many times already he had seen people break under stress and simply quit their job?

You couldn’t just quit it while fighting monsters, you and your team would be dead. Reality spoke for itself. How many male guards, a life-risking job, compared to females?

Of course, women had their own gender-specific advantage, he had never denied that. The fact was, EQ was just as important as IQ. Good emotional support would keep the team working together and stay sane while deep in the dark scary dungeon.

The guards ignored him as he passed as they only cared about people coming in. He had even had to bribe his way in when he first entered the town. The lack of a universal way to identify yourself has its own pros and cons.

The abandoned mine wasn’t as far as he thought after learning its location from the quest. The path towards it was well-used, well, once upon a time ago. Nature had begun to reclaim it after years not being used.

Anyway, the abandoned mine was the real reason he had chosen to come here and why he picked the quest. He could have searched it himself but he would rather not waste his time if there was a better way.

Also goofing around acting like peasants was refreshing.

Adrin was only wearing leather armor on top of his peasant clothes at the time, but he wasn’t worried anymore. He could safely enjoy the experience to his heart’s content.

He called out his stats and checked everything. Nothing had changed much since the last time he checked. The available classes popped up when he thought of choosing one.

Fighter - You have trained your physical body and fought to survive the harsh world. Offer three slots of stamina based skills. Crafter - Crafting was your destiny and violence was the last thing in your mind. Offer one slot for crafting skills, one for stamina-based skill, and one for affinity skill. Cook - You simply find joy in preparing food. Offer one slot for knife skills, one slot for cooking skills, and one slot for any stamina skill. Rogue - Shadow is your ally and stealth is your weapon. Offer one stealth slot, one stamina-based skill, and one affinity skill. Mage - You have learned to bend mana to your will and wielded it as your weapon. Offer three slots of either affinity or mana based skills.

“What, no bard?” Adrin chuckled.

As he had expected, it was hard to make a decision. He was leaning towards [Mage] but he had to consider everything. The slots were limited for a good reason, he didn’t know exactly what yet, but it has to be something or it wouldn’t make any sense.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to rest easy without [Shell], and he loved both [Metallurgy] and his latest [Magni Flux]. [Rogue] would be good too because he had found himself using [Sneak] many times after he got it. Knowing whether someone noticed you or not was invaluable, but he also still could use spells even if not slotted.

The lack of stamina skill option in [Mage] also worried him. What if he ran out of mana marbles or couldn’t concentrate enough to gather them? What was he going to do if he couldn’t use magic for some reason?

The [Fighter], on the other hand, only offered zero affinity or mana skill slot, but it probably would help a lot to slot stamina skill. He still could use [Shell] all the same.

Like he had said, it was hard.