Chopping Wood

Dante nodded and did as he was told. He was not too surprised by this process, it seemed to be quite similar to established fantasy settings on earth.

The card glowed as a drop of Dante's blood fell on it and the blood was absorbed. The card then showed Dante's name and photo, as well as a singlular small five pointed star.

"What is this star?" Dante asked.

"Adventurers are ranked based on the number of stars. When you register, you start out as a one star adventurer. As you complete tasks, you will get experience points. Once you reach a certain threshold, your stars will increase and you can accept more difficult tasks." The receptionist said as she adjusted her short black hair.

"What is the highest number of stars?" Dante asked the natural follow up.

"I am not sure. But you begin with grey stars. After grey five stars you can level up to a green one star adventurer." The receptionist explained generously. "Almost all adventurers who registered here are white star adventurers. There was only one person in Lily city who became a green adventurer."

"May I know who that adventurer is?" Dante asked.

"You are the traveler staying at Paradise Inn aren't you? The adventurer who has a green star is the Innkeeper's son." The receptionist said.

"How do you know where I stay?" Dante asked warily.

"This is a small town and this is the off season for adventurers, merchant caravans and explorers. You are the only traveler here at this moment. Most of the town has heard about you." The receptionist said with a knowing smile, as she returned to her book. "You can look at the notice board for quests, when you complete a quest you can register here for the rewards."

Dante took that as a signal for the end of the conversation, nodded and walked towards the notice board as he put this adventurer's card in his zip pocket.

Looking at the quest board, he found that there were all kinds of quests. However, he couldn't do most of those quests at all. Dejected, he looked at the bottom of the board and found tons of tasks which were inside the town.

[Task (No Difficulty Limit) - Help repairing the external structure of the Paradise Inn.

Payment - Free lodging and food.]

Dante nodded. So Martha had actually posted a task here in the adventurer's guild. Dante had already taken up this job in a personal capacity, so he took a look at the other quests.

[Task (No difficulty limit) - Chopping Wood to make firewood.

2 copper per 50 wood blocks.]

Dante saw that quest and decided to accept it. He touched the quest scroll which was pinned on the board with his adventurer card, which glowed, a sign of the quest being accepted, as the receptionist had explained to him earlier.

After leaving the tavern, Dante followed the directions to the woodcutter's lodge, where he found a powerful muscular man holding an axe with his eyes closed. Dante observed that the veins on the muscular man's biceps were pulsating, and the woodcutter was letting out a mist from his nostrils like a snorting bull.

Dante coughed, which caused the muscular man to open his eyes and look at the slim young man in front of him. He saw the tender skin that the young man had and was immediately disgusted.

"Who are you?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Good afternoon. I accepted your task at the adventurer's guild to chop wood." Dante explained.

"Did you see the reward? I don't want you to grumble later that the reward is too low. Your body seems too weak." The man said like it was a matter of fact.

"I will try my best." Dante said.

"Very well. It doesn't seem like you've ever chopped wood before. I will demonstrate one time. I have to go to the forest to cut trees, in the meanwhile, you can cut the wooden blocks here." The woodcutter said.

He then walked towards a stone platform, lifted a large cylindrical block of thick tree trunk and slammed it onto the stone platform. Then he lifted his axe and in a rapid swing, split the wood into two up to half way. Then he rotated the wooden block by ninety degrees, and then used even more power and split the block again, but this time completely. As a result, the cylindrical trunk split apart into four long cuboidal blocks.

"Did you see it clearly?" The woodcutter asked, to which Dante nodded.

"Very Well, you may begin. Use that axe there." The woodcutter said, before leaving the lodge with the axe in his hand.

Dante nodded and walked towards the shed that the woodcutter had pointed at and took the axe that was left there. The moment he gripped it, his face paled. The axe was heavy!

Sighing, Dante walked towards the stone platform with the axe. Leaving the axe there, he walked to the pile of chopped tree trunks and took out a big cylindrical block of wood. He grit his teeth as he lifted the heavy block of wood and placed it on the stone platform. He then took a deep breath, lifted the axe and slammed it just like the woodcutter had done. The axe struck right in the center of the cylindrical block, but barely made a dent about a fifth of the way in.

The woodcutter had been silently observing the scene and nodded before deciding to head out. "This boy has very good hand to eye coordination. His strength is quite weak, but that can be honed." He thought with a nod.

Dante spent the day struggling to chop wooden blocks. As the sun began to set and darkness began to shroud over the town, Dante finally saw the woodcutter appear again, this time with a large cart full of large tree logs. Dante looked at his chop count and to his dismay found that he had struggled and managed to only chop 15 logs.

The woodcutter told him to return tomorrow. Dante agreed and returned to the inn. His entire body was in pain. Today he realized how hard a woodcutter's job was.

"Damn, how is this world so unfair? I was suddenly brought into this world and I didn't get any special transmigration gift pack? I have to struggle like a manual laborer." Dante mourned his fate, as he gorged on the dinner prepared by Martha.