Marcus soon became proficient with the twinblade. Twinblades looked as if two short swords had been joined together at hilt to make one long blade. It could be used one handed and two handed and the forms for using it melded the two. It was beautiful. Or it would have been if anyone other than Marcus was wielding the twinblades.

Marcus had a new passive, [Twinblade Proficiency], and he sucked at it. It took him some time to master them but slowly and steadily his proficiency increased. The extra classes with Sawar helped.

As the month passed, he got to know other members of his training group. In particular, he got to know why each one of them was undergoing training when they were already proficient with their selected weapons and seemed to know much more about adventuring and Una than Marcus.

Nadia was the most dangerous fighter of the group. However, she did not like to kill anyone. Adventuring led to killing of certain creatures and her psych profile indicated she might not be able to do so. She needed to be sensitized or desensitized regarding killing as an adventurer. Marcus found that kind of sad.

Orin was a good fighter. Marcus also found out he was a prince, last in the line of the throne though. He was undergoing training as a method for anger management. He had anger issues and from the snippets he caught of Orin’s life from Orin himself, Marcus understood why he would have anger issues. He was definitely a big ball of anger which needed to be calmed down by quite an amount before he was released into the adventuring wilds.

Noron was there to support his brother. Tymon was undergoing treatment to get his voice. He had been mute since childhood and Una provided him with the opportunity to get his voice back. They had the combination of magic and technology to make this happen. Tymon would be speaking for the first time and he would definitely need help. Noron was here to provide and support his brother. They were also going to be adventurers together.

Yes, this was another nugget of information that Marcus had gleaned with his research. Adventurers can form a team of maximum three people while questing. There were certain quests which would require a certain number of adventurers to complete but general quests can be done by either a single adventurer or a team consisting of a maximum of three adventurers. The division of experience was complex if it was a team of three adventurers so a majority of the adventurers usually formed a team of two. There were some adventurers who did adventuring solo but they were rare. The same was the case with a team of three. Mostly the adventurers did questing in a team of two.

This presented Marcus with a conundrum. He needed to find a team member. Nadia was going to team with her husband. Yes, she was married and it came as a surprise to the group. Orin was going to team up with one of his brothers. Noron and Tymon were an already decided team. That left Marcus alone. He hoped he would get a decent adventuring partner when he started officially as an adventurer.

However, that was a matter for later. For now he was focused on his training. The month passed faster than Marcus had anticipated. He had reached level 5 in [Twinblade Proficiency] by the end and Sawar had declared it adequate. After the month, all five of Sawar’s students were declared to be fit for officially adventuring on Una. It was now the 60th of Sessar. It was a Decaday and the five soon to be adventurers partied all night. Marcus learned a new passive that night [Alcohol Tolerance]. He was amused by it.

The next day, Marcus woke late. His head felt as if someone had passed it through a grinder. There was a knock on the door and he fell out of his bed with a groan. He slowly made his way to the door and opened it. Krona stood on the other side looking all cheery and energetic. That was rude.

“Good morning finally Marcus Blank”, said Krona with a cheery voice, “Come on then. You have fifteen minutes to get ready. Today you will get your official Adventurer Batch. Come on. Come on. Get dressed fast. I will wait for exactly fifteen minutes and then take you in the state you are in.”

Marcus slammed the door on her face saying, “Fuck off.”

Then he complied with what Krona had said. Ten minutes later he opened the door to find Krona grinning. She had a glass of some green liquid in her hand.

“Hangover cure”, Krona explained.

Marcus shuddered. He expected that green bubbling drink to be horrible in taste. He drank it. Strangely, it was not bad. It had no taste. But it was effective. Moments later his head felt good.

“Halle fucking lulah”, he muttered.

“What was that?” Krona asked.

Marcus shook his head, “It was nothing. Come on.”

Krona led him to one of the administrative offices. There she gave him a badge. The badge was golden in colour attached to a black square leather piece. The badge was shaped like a bird and had Adventurer written on it. The leather piece had Marcus’ name stitched on it. It was simple and about as large as his hand. Convenient.

Krona said, “That is your emergency identification which you can use if you do not want to share much of your details with the other party. The badge also gives you access to adventurer’s guilds and special adventurer inns. You can also use it at a NAIF facility to get help. Keep it in your inventory at all times and take it out only when needed. Do not give it to anybody. If it is lost, there is a large fee of ten thousand units to replace it. So, do not lose it. Are there any questions?”

Marcus shook his head and placed the badge in his inventory. It was placed in the Other Items category of the inventory. Cool.

“Now what?” asked Marcus.

“Now”, said Krona, “You are officially an adventurer. Get out of the facility and start adventuring.”

“Wait a minute. What about my equipment?”

“What equipment?”

“You do know that I…”, Marcus stopped at the expression on Krona’s face. She burst into a laugh.

“Sorry”, she said, “Could not help messing with you. You shall be given a basic armor coat but that is all you get. The twinblades, the weapon of your choice, requires at least 8 strength to wield. I am talking about the base version of the twinblades which are the iron twinblades. So, until you level up and get to that strength, it would not make sense to give you that weapon. We can give you an iron dagger if you want thought. However, that would be charged at ten thousand units as that is not your primary weapon registered. NAIF has already provided you with 10,000 units as your initial expenses. Your current debt to NAIF is 130,000 units. Do you wish to add to it?”

Marcus refused. He did take the free armor coat. He equipped it. He opened the equipment menu and saw what all armor he could equip. The first was the chest armor which he had equipped. It had an armor rating of 2. Then there was helmet, bracers and leg wraps. They were primary armor that could be equipped. Other than that, he could equip two necklaces, four rings and something called an artifact. However, artifacts could be equipped after reaching level 50. So there was time for that.

He thanked Krona and asked about the others. He then exited the facility and took a deep breath. It was now time to be an adventurer. The others were waiting for him. Marcus met Nadia’s husband Nassir Shortclaw. He was a nice feliur. Marcus liked him.

They said goodbyes to each other. Nadia and Nassir were going to start their adventures from a city near Solaris. It was called Ticity. Orin was going to find his brothers first. They were in Solaris and they would soon be questing from Solaris itself. Marcus felt a bit glad about it. The Bladeluster brothers were going to start their adventures from an underground city which was quite far from Solaris. The travelling adventurers were going to take the portal which was present in Solaris. Marcus had learned about the portal. It was expensive to use.

As they all left, Marcus felt a bit sad. They had gotten close over the month and now they were going to be questing separately. They had promised to keep in touch and would do group quests if it was possible.

Marcus started walking. He opened the map from his utility belt. He entered his destination, the adventurer’s guild. He touched the command which would show him the route to the guild from his current location and started towards it. It was a long distance on foot but Marcus had no option. He had no money, no proper equipment and was in debt with NAIF. This was going to be fucking fantastic.

***

Silas was on a call with Charles. He was giving him an update about Marcus Blank.

“So he has finally started his adventure?” asked Charles.

Silas sighed and said, “Yes. Are you sure we need to send him off without giving him any equipment? I mean, we just gave him a basic leather armor coat. That is nothing.”

Charles said, “Lord Shadowfang’s instructions. He seems to be invested in this anomaly for some reason. We do not argue with him. Much. Lord Shadowfang is confident that Marcus Blank would find his way easily.”

“I admire his optimism but he has not evaluated him. Did he even look at the file I sent?”

“Yes. He was still adamant.”

“Very well. Now I wanted to ask about something else. What is this I hear about the War scenario?”

Charles gave a long sigh as he heard the question. He said, “Please do not ask me about that right now. I am gorking frustrated about it already. Lady Lightweaver is trying to convince Lord Shadowfang to not take this course but for some reason Lord Shadowfang wants to have a War scenario as the next major quest plot. The arguments I have been to. I feel like shit Silas. The stress is gorking killing me. I have put my team to come up with a plan which would please Lord Shadowfang and not cause the chaos that a war scenario would cause. I tell you, I have not slept properly since Lord Shadowfang declared, I gorking tell you, declared that he wanted the War scenario as the next main quest plot.”

Silas could feel the stress and frustration in his head’s tone. He pitied Charles at that moment.

Silas said, “Do you need help with anything?”

Charles said, “Not with the War scenario thingy. But can you gorking keep regular tabs on this Marcus Blank. It would help reduce my workload.”

Silas frowned and replied, “You do know I am restricted to the NAIF facility at Solaris. I can do till the time he is here. After that he is out of my hands.”

Charles was silent for some moments. Then he said, “Gorking fantastic. Do not worry. I am forming a new small team to track the progress of Marcus Blank. Congratulations. You are the new team leader. Start packing your gorking bags. You are coming to the capital.”

Silas was ecstatic to hear the news. He always had the ambition to reach a stage where he would be working from Melancholia, the capital city of the landmass Turanous. This was a great opportunity for him.

He said, “Thank you Charles. I won't let you down. I shall start packing immediately.”

“You better not”, came the reply, “And it will take some time but I will start the formalities. We have time till Marcus is questing in and around Solaris.”

They discussed the logistics of Silas’ transfer and Silas’ replacement after that and it was a long call. When he disconnected the call, he was grinning.

“Thank you Marcus Blank”, said Silas, “You have made me very happy today.”

***

Marcus reached the adventurer’s guild. It looked like an inn from the outside. Then Marcus read the sign. The Flying Sow. He groaned. It seemed that in Solaris the adventurer guild and an inn were the same.

He entered The Flying Sow. In front of him was a reception like area. There were stairs going upstairs to the left of it. There were three doors and they were closed as of now. Marcus wondered as to where they led.

He went up to the reception. It was managed by a short humanoid. The person was about three feet tall, old considering the greys of his hair and beard, and had a sharp face. The person was standing on a stool to be seen over the reception table.

The person smiled as Marcus entered and said in a rich booming voice, “Welcome to The Flying Sow my dear Adventurer. I am Destiduous Drire, the proprietor. What can I help you with? Do you require guild services or inn services?”

Marcus tilted his head subconsciously as he spoke, “Hello. I am Marcus Blank. I am a new adventurer and do not know much about Game World. I do have some questions.”

Destiduous nodded and gestured to Marcus to continue.

Marcus asked, “If it is not so rude, could you tell me what species you are?”

“Can’t you see?” asked Destiduous.

“How do I see?”

“Press your utility belt and think of Options. There are certain User Interface or UI features you can enable or disable. Look at it.”

Now this was something Marcus had neither explored nor known. He did so. He saw a bunch of options with a box at their right for tick marks.

Marcus ticked the following:

Display Health

Display Mana

Display NA Name

Display NA Race

Display NA Level (cannot see levels higher than 5 levels of adventurer)

Display A Name

Display A Race

Display A Level (cannot see levels higher than 5 levels of adventurer)

Display Spell Slot

Display Weapon Slot

Display Enemy Name

Display Enemy Race

Display Enemy Level (cannot see levels higher than 5 levels of adventurer)

Display Enemy Health

Display Enemy Status

Display Enemy Buff

Display Damage Numbers to Enemy

Display Damage Numbers to Self

Display Damage Numbers to Allies

Display Healing Done

Display Healing Received

There were others which showed damage numbers, buffs active, passives active and some others but Marcus was not interested. As soon as he saved the options his vision changed. To the left top corner he could see his health and mana. The bottom centre portion held spell slots. There were ten of them which were all crossed out. The weapon slots were beside the spell slots at a distance from them. There were two of them as of now and both crossed out. He could understand that. Two hands, two weapon slots. However, he could learn ten spells as of now. Or was it so? Because in his Status it was shown that he had zero memory slots. So was ten the potential?

Marcus looked at Destiduous now. Above his head was shown:

Destiduous Drire

Gnome

Level ???

So Destiduous was over five levels higher than Marcus even though he was a non-adventurer.

“Fucking fantastic”, said Marcus, “This is sweet. Thank you Mr. Drire. It is Mr. Drire right?”

Destiduous nodded and said, “Destiduous shall do. Or just Drire. Whatever you are comfortable with. Now what shall I help you with Mr. Blank?”

Marcus replied, “I want to set the guild as my respawn point.”

Destiduous nodded. Adventurers could die while questing. When they die, they respawn at their respawn point. For that they need to set a respawn point and the Adventurer’s guild is a default respawn point for the adventurers. However, the adventurers do need to set the guild as their respawn point, otherwise it would not work. If they did not, then they would be trapped in a limbo before being brought back by NAIF personnel. The NAIF personnel tracked the limbo space and they charged the adventurer for their services.

Marcus thought, Are NAIF actually for adventurers if they charge for every fucking single thing? Well, they did give me this travesty of an armor coat for free. He did not expect much from them. However, with the armor coat, his Physical Resistance had increased to six.

Destiduous let Marcus in through the door which was beside the stairs. It opened into a large hall filled with sofas, tables, fancy chandeliers and a bar at one side.

Destiduous said, “This is not the common room but a place for adventurers to gather and discuss business. You can get some drinks here if you are interested.”

They walked past the tables and the bar till they reached the far end of the hall. There Marcus saw a monolith as tall as the hall.

Destiduous said, “And here is our Resurrection Stone. Please place your hand on it and the guild shall be your spawn point.”

Marcus did as he was told. When he touched the monolith, he could feel the smoothness of the stone. It was light cyan in colour and glowed with a faint blue light when Marcus put his hand on it.

“It is done”, said Destiduous.

Marcus nodded.

“Was there anything else?” asked Destiduous.

“I had a question. Is the internet the only source of information? I mean there are many topics available and so many things to explore. How can I verify the accuracy of the information? Are there any other sources of information?” asked Marcus.

Destiduous told Marcus about libraries and Marcus’ face lit up. He decided to go there next. He thanked Destiduous and exited the guild. He again took out his map and charted a path to the library. It was a standard rectangular building, two floors in height. Marcus entered. His adventurer badge gave him membership to any library on Una by default.

Marcus felt like a kid in a candy shop in the library. There were so many books. He had researched the area around Solaris but decided he wanted to read some books on the same. He asked the librarian for help. The librarian gave him a long list and told him where he could find them. Marcus picked up three of them and started to read.

He checked into the adventurer’s inn after that and formed a routine. Every morning, he would wake up, get ready and have the complimentary breakfast the inn would provide. Then he would go to the library and read till lunch time. He would then have lunch at a nearby cafe. After lunch, he would go to the quest board at adventurer’s guild to look for a quest which he could do without weapons.

He did find a few quests like that. They included delivery of letters, passing of messages or general escort quests in which the non-adventurers were usually old ladies looking for company.

After questing, Marcus would wander around Solaris, exploring it, getting the sights till dinner time. It was not a big town but Marcus had no memories of living in a town or a city for that matter and this exploration was new for him. He enjoyed it. After dinner he usually spent time at adventurer’s guild common hall before retiring for the night.

His questing did not yield much units but it did yield good experience. In about fifteen days he had levelled up twice doing mundane quests. Each level up gave him two points to spend. He put in three points in strength and one point in vitality. His health increased by two as he put points in vitality. He did not feel like this was good growth.

After fifteen days Marcus’ funds were running out. He had now exactly 1,500 units left to spend. He needed a quest which would give him more units. He needed them to buy a twinblade. An iron twinblade cost 5,000 units. An iron dagger had cost 2,000 units only. Marcus had checked. Which meant that NAIF had been looting him. He had also compared the lodging and food expenses outside NAIF with NAIF expenses and had found that NAIF charged double of normal rates. He was not surprised.

He looked at the quests on the quest board at the adventurer’s guild. All of the quests required some form of fighting. All the high paying ones did. There were few escort someone around the town quests and there was also a quest to settle a dispute which was weird. No quests which were high paying and did not require much fighting.

Then he glanced at one of the corners and stopped short. There was a tiny quest. The quest was to retrieve a necklace from outside Solaris. The reward was a weapon of choice. The experience provided was 100 points. This was too good to be true. Marcus needed more details. He clicked on the quest to accept it. If it did not pan out as he required, he could cancel it later. However, he may suffer a penalty. It was usually in units and Marcus could think he could handle it.

Marcus looked at the location of the quest giver. It was a blacksmith. The blacksmith had his workshop at the edge of the town.

“Must be not a well known blacksmith”, muttered Marcus as he set up the route towards his house.

It took him an hour to reach the blacksmith’s house. He read the sign on the workshop, The Tools of the Trade.

“That is a fucking weird name for a blacksmith’s workshop”, decided Marcus, “I don’t have any idea but this should not be a name.”

He entered the shop area. There was an old Umaru polishing a shield as Marcus entered. Marcus read the name over the Umaru’s head. Sinanan Siantin.

Sinanan’s face brightened as Marcus entered. Sinanan said, “Welcome to The Tools of the Trade. One of the best blacksmiths in Solaris. How can I help you?”

From the voice, Marcus guessed Sinanan was a female. Although, as he observed closely, certain features gave it away.

Marcus said, “I am here about the quest.”

“Ah”, Sinanan said, nodding her head, “Yes. I did put up the one on Adventurer’s guild quest board. You will be needing the details I believe.”

Marcus nodded. Sinanan continued, “As you are aware, I am a blacksmith. Sinanan is my name. I am sure you would have read it by now, adventurer as you are. I was in the forest North of the Solaris. I had an errand to conduct. You need not know the details. I lost my necklace while I was in the forest. I tried to search for it later but now that region of the forest is slowly getting infested by goblins. I could search but the goblins are now a bother. I am looking for a brave adventurer to go and retrieve the necklace. Are you that adventurer?”

Marcus thought for a moment, “Do I need to fight those goblins?”

“No.”

“Just retrieve the necklace.”

“Yes.”

“And if I run into goblins?”

“It is your problem.”

Marcus thought for a moment. Then he said, “Do you have a description of the necklace?”

Sinanan sent him a photo of the necklace. Fucking convinient. Marcus observed it. Something rubbed him the wrong way about this quest but it was too good of an opportunity to pass by. The quest provided him 100 experience points and he currently had 20. He did need 100 to level up and reach level 4. Also he would get a free weapon of his choice. But was going into a goblin territory without a weapon to retrieve the necklace worth it?

He thought for some time. Sinanan was waiting for him. She had an expectant look on her face.

Marcus asked, “Were adventurers not keen on taking this quest? I saw the quest date. It is a month old? Are you sure the necklace is still in the area where you lost it?”

Sinanan’s face fell. She said hesitantly, “There is a goblin encampment near where I lost the necklace. So it is just not a few goblins but a horde of them.”

“What were you doing near a goblin horde?”

Sinanan’s face fell, “I was dealing with them.”

Marcus was surprised at that declaration. He said, “Care to elaborate?”

Sinanan took some time before answering, “I inherited this shop from my father. He was not a great blacksmith but he did well. He taught me in the arts. He passed away some ten years ago and I inherited the shop. Initially, it was well. I did some minor jobs, repaired equipment, made some weapons and armors for adventurers. Business was good. Not great, but good. Then about eight years ago, a new blacksmith came to town. You would have seen his shop, The Fire Forge. The owner started cannibalizing the blacksmithing market. Soon every other blacksmith had no choice but to work for him. Everyone did except me. You have no idea the slander I had to suffer. These days I am barely making enough to survive another day. I was desperate. I made a deal with the goblins living in the encampment. I was a fool. They betrayed me, betrayed our deal and I had to run away from there without the weapons I had prepared. I was not paid what I was supposed to. And I lost my necklace while running. It is not expensive but it has sentimental value. Normally, I used to give all the details but the adventurers simply rejected the quest. No one wants anything to do with the horde. I ask you. Are you interested?”

Marcus digested what he had heard. The words escaped his mouth before he could stop, “What the fuck! This is suicidal.”

Then he took a deep breath and said, “I am sorry. But what the fuck is wrong with you? Is working for another blacksmith so bad that you risk your life and deal with goblins rather than a fellow blacksmith? Are you fucking crazy?”

Marcus was now shouting and could see that Sinanan flinched at his tirade. He started taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Fucking perfect. Scare the Umaru who is giving you the quest. Fucking perfect.

Sinanan said, “I know what I did was wrong. And I am planning to join The Fire Forge. However, I do need that necklace. Are you willing to help or will you reject the quest like other adventurers?”

Marcus snorted and said, “Fuck me but I accept the quest. However, I have a condition. You give me a weapon beforehand. I am weaponless. I cannot go against a goblin hoard unarmed.”

“What!” exclaimed Sinanan. Marcus repeated what he had said.

“I gorking heard you. I am just surprised”, said Sinanan.

Then she thought for a moment and said, “What weapon do you wield?”

“A twinblade.”

She brought one out from the inventory and gave it to Marcus. Marcus touched the twinblade on his utility belt to check its information.

Iron Twinblade

Physical Attack: Base 10 + Strength 2 + Dexterity 5

Magical Attack: 0

Block: 20%

Critical Attack Chance: 1%

Critical Attack Damage: 10%

Requirements: 8 Strength, 10 Dexterity

Description: A simple iron twinblade. Twirl it to slash many enemies.

Marcus rolled his eyes at the description. Then he looked at the additional damage. Other than base damage it seemed that the iron twinblade he held gave 25% additional damage based on his strength rating and 50% percent additional damage based on his dexterity rating. So the total physical damage was 17. Adding it to his 13 base damage, his total physical damage was 30 with the iron twinblade equipped.

The critical attack chance and damage for the twinblade was pathetic according to Marcus. Adding his base critical attack chance and damage, it turned out to be 6% and 17.5%. He shook his head.

Sinanan said, “This is the basic twinblade. I am letting you borrow it for this quest only. Please return it to me after the quest is over. I will reward you with a higher version once the quest is over.”

Marcus thanked Sinanan as he put the twinblade in his inventory. He had his first major quest. He exited the shop. Time to embark on a fucking suicidal adventure.