First Skill, First Quest

Rico and Anastasia looked out onto a huge courtyard with a large number of people. Behind them was the temple and on all sides were two story long houses made of the same white walls and red tile roofs. The flagstone underfoot were gray in color much like the mountains that surrounded the village. Rico took all this in quickly and focused more on finding enemies within the crowd. But no one was running to hurt them it seemed like. Instead, there seemed to be a busy trading day going on as vendors and merchants sat behind booths calling out to pedestrians.

"Hey the Ultimate Quest popped up. And it looks like our first skill was given!" Anastasia said looking off to the side. Rico was confused and looked around wondering how she knew. He then heard a "Ding!" and a small blue window appeared. Looking over to it he saw what was written

{4 new messages (view)}

{ Ultimate Quest Update (view)}

' Wow, no wonder I have such a low perception, I didn't even notice the system notifications. Now I have four built up message and I only just noticed the new one' Rico thought.

"Tell me what the Ultimate Quest is and any general notifications" Rico asked her. He didn't want anyone to ambush them while they were busy checking what they had received. With one of them on lookout they should have time to escape if anyone seemed to be out for them.

"Ultimate Quest," Anastasia started to narrate, "Goal: reach the 100th floor of Dreamscape and complete the Soul Trial. Reward: automatic entry into Heaven. Damn this is pretty good. Let's see, there's also another notification with the timer for our grace period. The other one is your skill."

Rico counted how many notifications she apparently had and he realized he had 2 more then her.

'I wonder what those could be? But first we have to find a safe place.'

Rico led Anastasia over to one of the buildings that seemed busy. He looked at the sign and saw a sword and arrow crossed over each other with words underneath: Quest House.

He entered and looked around the room. It was a large hall made of pine wood with glowing lanterns on the wall and hanging from the ceiling. There were around 50 round tables able to hold 5-6 people each. At the far end was a counter with a group of green robed men and women serving customers. Rico found a table close to the door and sat there with Anastasia.

"Keep a look out for people who approach us." he said. They stuck out a bit in their completely white clothes. Everyone else seemed to be wearing shades of brown, green, red, and gray except for a couple of old men in white robes.

Rico pulled out the guide they were given and flipped to the Table of Contents. But what he saw puzzled him as he read:

< Table of Contents>

Since this guide book is magical, this table of contents is more like a suggestion page. To view certain info, just open to this page and think about the section you want to go to. You can also bookmark pages and they will appear here.

[ Suggestions]

1. Getting started

2. Stats

3. Titles

4. Geography

Rico was puzzled but decided to focus on the Getting Started section since that was what he was looking for. The book suddenly flipped a couple pages and the title: Getting Started appeared. Rico quickly started reading. He hoped to find information on where to get equipment, shelter, and money. After reading for a bit he flipped to the Stats section and looked for Charisma. There was a lot of information, spanning at least 5 pages but the really important information he was looking for was on the 1st one.

[Charisma]

Charisma in this world is not only how likable you are to other intelligent beings. Charisma is much like Perception in that it examines a deeper level of your environment, specifically social cues and interaction between others. The higher your Charisma points, the more you will understand what a person will do, what they're thinking and how you should respond to achieve your goals. At some point the Charisma stat will allow you to even control large amounts of people simply by your presence and you may even gain telepathy if it is high enough. A lot of the generals and commanders of Dreamscape have high Charisma and that is one of their key factors in leading armies and formations.

Rico was impressed by the info. His charisma in the short term would help him identify enemies much more quickly but in the long term it seemed even more impressive.

'I have to level up this stat. But first let's focus on Dexterity and Perception since those will help me immediately and are currently deficient.'

Rico told Anastasia to follow him and he went up to the counter with the people in green robes. According to the guide book, these were your typical quest handlers from the Quest House. He went up to a burly man with a brown mane of hair. His robes seemed a little too small for him like he had gotten them before he hit puberty. There was a badge on his chest: [Quest Giver Nathan]

"Hello, there I would like to see if there are any Beginner or Level 1 Quests." Rico asked Nathan. The man smiled and pulled out a gray stone tablet. He started to poke it like it was a computer and then he frowned. He turned the tablet to Rico and said in a deep baritone, "It seems that you two are really unlucky, all the Beginner and Level 1 quests have been completed or already taken."

Rico looked at the tablet and was surprised to see that the tablet had a blue screen just like his Character sheet. On it was a search bar with the info he had given in it. Underneath was a list of those quests but all of them had either a check mark or a taken symbol beside them. Rico thought for a second as he decided what to do. According to the guidebook, the first thing anyone should do is go to the Quest House and receive either a Beginner or Level 1 quest. There were usually plenty for the day and they were essential for people who had just arrived in Dreamscape as they gave basic equipment or money.

However, there were none now. The guide book indicated that to try a level 2 or 3 quest immediately would leave you seriously injured or you would rack up a death and respawn at the temple with lower stats. Neither were favorable and that was why there were usually plenty of Beginner quests. Rico thought this over for a bit and then asked Nathan to put in a search for level 2 quests, specifically ones dealing with people. Rico was going to bet on his Charisma stat to help him out since his fighting stats were low. He also hadn't checked his skill yet so he couldn't tell whether it would help him in a fight.

Nathan looked through the Level 2 quests and there were 3 of them that didn't deal with fighting. Rico looked other them and realized glumly that he couldn't do any of them. Two of them were escort type quests and the other one involved helping a merchant with money problems. He thanked Nathan and walked back to the table with Anastasia.

"I know that your skill is kinda personal, but would you mind telling me? I need to know if it is something we can use to fight since all the other quests are taken." Rico said to Anastasia. She gave him a puzzled look before finally nodding. At this point they were each considering the other to be a team mate even if it was temporary. They would need to pool their abilities if they were going to survive.

"Sadly my skill that I received isn't a combat type. It's called Angelic Healing and I can use it to heal others in a certain radius or use it to remove a curse." she explained. She then tapped at the air for a bit and then Rico received a new message.

[ Team Request received]

[Sent: Anastasia Knight]

[Accept: Y/N?]

Rico looked at it and then her. She nodded and then he accepted the request. He felt deep inside of himself a sudden tug. After it subsided he realized he could vaguely feel an indicator of where Anastasia was even if he closed his eyes.

'Cool, a team indicator. This world really is like a video game.' Rico thought, pleased with this new development. He felt like his soul was tied thinly to hers and thus he could always find her, it was a new yet pleasant feeling. Anastasia then scooted closer to him and pulled up her Skill List. This time he could see it.

[Skill List]

[1. Angelic Healing (lvl 0) Healing: A+]

Rico saw the grading of A+ and was impressed. According to the guidebook, skills were divided into tiers starting at the lowest F all the way to S+. Anastasia's skill, despite being low level, would have a multitude of benefits. He tapped the skill and a new window pulled up over the old one.

[Angelic Healing (lvl 0) Healing: A+]

[Description: A light emitted by holy beings that heal those around them and remove curses.]

[Healing: 5% of of health every 10 seconds]

[Range: 2m]

[Consumption: 1 MP]

{Bonus Effects}

[Remove Lvl 1 curses (upgradable)]

[+10% Health to all targets (upgradable)]

[+5 exp for 1 minute of healing]

Rico was very impressed with all the effects that the ability gave. The extra exp and health benefits were particularly eye catching and he knew that they would come in handy very soon. He didn't understand what the upgradable indicator meant. Did it upgrade with the level or was there a specific requirement to upgrade it? He asked Anastasia since she seemed to know more about skills than him. At this point he vaguely remembered that she had been reading as he had looked for quests.

"According to the guide book, the upgrade feature requires the user to consume a specific elixir to upgrade those portions of an ability. Each elixir is separated by class (combat, healing, communication, etc) and they give 1 upgrade point each. The main parts of the skill change with the level of the skill" Anastasia explained to him. " Now I want to see your skill. Let's hope it's a combat one or else we are screwed."

Rico pulled up his Skill List and opened the only skill in there.

[Demigod's Will (lvl 5) Passive: S+]

[Description: The will is a strong force that all living things possess. The Demigod's Will is only second to God in terms of strength and ability.]

[Effect 1: +10% to all stats]

[Effect 2: Curse Removal (level 3 and below)]

[Effect 3: Bends the world to the user's will]

[Consumption: Will power]

{Bonus Effects}

[After lvl 10 the Superior Soul Sword is summoned]

[-10% Health to all enemies (Range: 200m) (upgradable)]

Rico and Anastasia gasped at the list of information. Despite it being a passive skill, it had a ridiculous amount of good features as expected of an S+ class skill. The only confusing thing was the third effect and the consumption.

"Do you know what the third effect means?" Anastasia asked. Rico shook his head and pointed at the Consumption description.

"This thing is also weird. If it consumes will power then it could be dangerous to use since we don't know the the effects of a loss of will power. I think though that if I use this briefly then we have a chance to complete a Level 2 quest without any adverse effects. This, along with your healing, should give us at least a surviving chance. Not to mention our unique abilities."

Anastasia frowned and said "I know that right now we are team mates but let's keep our unique abilities to ourselves. From the guidebook I learned that you should only share that with those who are extremely close to you and we really aren't that close."

Rico agreed with her quickly, not wanting to share what his was considering he didn't know himself. Instead he focused on the abilities they knew and which quest they could do with what they had. After some debate, the two of them went back up to the counter to chose a specific quest.

" Can you please give us the Level 2 quest: Rampaging Orthanak?" Anastasia asked sweetly to Nathan who was helping them again. Nathan eagerly pulled out the quest page and handed it to her. He then put them down as the quest recipients and wished them good luck. Anastasia pocketed the page and walked out of the building with Rico. They walked from the plaza towards the southern gate. Beyond there was a bit of pastures that ran up to the foothills of the mountains. The beast that they were hunting lived in the wooded sections of the foothills. It was a level four beast that appeared much like a boar but twice as big and with six legs. It wasn't very dexterous but it had good defense and decent speed. It was going to be incredibly hard for them at their current unknown damage rating to kill it. Neither of them had obtained a weapon so the damage indicator on their stat charts hadn't been unlocked.

As they had traveled closer to their destination, Rico had decided to read up more on monsters. At this point knowledge was power, and it was all they had. He also made sure to keep an eye out for dangers, so it took him a long time to read. He had gained a lot of understanding of the monster world and its hierarchy after reading for most of the journey. Monsters were divided into 4 main categories: Element, Rank, Blood, and Type.

The element portion was pretty self explanatory as it dictated the types of attack a monster would deal. The monster they were hunting was a physical element making its physical attacks stronger.

The rank of a monster was divided into 10 levels. The higher the level the stronger the monster. The levels were exponential in terms of power such that a level 6 monster was several magnitudes stronger than a level 5 monster.

The blood of the monster was actually the most important feature Rico had learned. The quality of the blood determined a monsters max level, if it had special abilities, and its intelligence. The blood ranks were divided into 5 types: Ordinary, Greater, Mutant, Royal, and Demigod. Rico was worried about this part since the quest didn't say anything about the blood. He was pretty sure they could do an Ordinary type but if the Orthanak was a Greater blood type than they would have to run. He also learned that blood mattered a lot in the social hierarchy of the monster world but he didn't really concern himself with the large amount of text that went over this. It wouldn't really help him for now.

Rico had skimmed the type section also since there wasn't a lot of information. There were only three categories: water, earth, and sky. This section had some confusing text. Most of it dealt with the interaction between monsters of the same and different types. Rico didn't find this particularly useful for them right now so he went back to the level section. This part had some diagrams and charts in it that showed approximate damage rating multipliers, health approximations and max skills that the level could use.

After reading for a bit, Rico put away the book and let his gaze wander over the tranquil landscape as he mulled over what he had learned. This world was more complex than he imagined a video game usually was. For one, the monsters also competed to upgrade along with people and therefore a small time beast that you hunted one day could be hunting you the next time around. Two, the world was not the rule of the strong like most video games were; you could be physically weak but if you're Charisma was high enough you could be a king. Rico decided to stop trying to solve problems here like it was a video game. While this world incorporated a system and other video game elements, it's problems were more situated in real world dilemmas.

Take the quest they were given. On the surface it was to kill a monster that was terrorizing the woodsman and disrupting travelers. However if Rico looked deeper, it meant a lot more. The Town of Beginnings was situated in a mountain range and crops would be small due to the terrain. So the town required trade of food to feed itself and with this monster there would be less food and higher prices.

This concerned Rico since he would have to buy food in town . He couldn't afford a price hike at this early point in his journey. So not only would this monster benefit him through the quest rewards, it would help in the long run.

But no matter how he viewed things, the best way to solve the problems thrown his way for now was to become stronger. While strength wasn't everything here, it would help him get started.

Rico looked over at Anastasia and he noticed that she was also reading the guide book.

'I wonder what her unique ability is?' he thought. He smirked at himself and realized that he didn't even know his own. Rico then remembered all the messages that he hadn't read through. He had 5 total if he remembered correctly but he didn't know how to access them.

'Maybe I just call out random things like "mailbox" or "messages". Hopefully something will activate then.'

He looked back at Anastasia and thought that maybe he should do this quietly; he didn't want to look like ridiculous to his new team mate. After some muttering under his breath, he found that to pull up previous messages, all he had to say was "notifications". A small light blue board appeared in front of him with five different message heads:

[Skill received! (view contents)]

[Ultimate Quest received! (view contents)]

[Title received!(view contents)]

[Ultimate Quest update. (view contents)]

[Grace Period Activated! 46:55:42]

Rico looked through the skill one and first quest messages quickly. The skill one gave the same description as in the Skill List but when he opened it a little animation of a 10 cm figure flexing appeared. The figure went through several poses before it burst into a thousand glittering lights that slowly disappeared along with the message from the inbox.

"Cool." Rico thought and then skimmed through the quest message. It was what Anastasia had described and so he moved on to the update.

[Quest update]

[Due to the your status an extra reward will be given upon completion]

[Extra Bonus: Reinstatement of memory]

Rico felt himself go cold and a nasty shiver ran up and down his spine. Reinstatement? That meant someone had taken them in the first place! This scared Rico. He didn't really know who he was before but now it appeared someone did and they had decided to completely cut him from his past self.

'Who is it? Are they an enemy? I mean obviously but how dangerous are they? Could they be here or are they still alive? Whatever I do I have to get to the top, even if it's only for my memories.'

Rico's mind flashed with many thoughts and he came to an even stronger will to complete the quest. No matter what, he was going to get his memories and his past back.

He turned back from his musings to the messages and opened the title one. He was really curious about this one since a) he had no idea what a title did in this world and b) that he had received one and his companion hadn't.

[Title received!]

[Title: The First Reincarnation]

[You are the 1st reincarnation. Your odyssey starts here and all other incarnations will draw from you glory and strength.]

[ Effect 1: Next incarnation +10% final Stats]

Rico was really confused about this but it didn't seem to provide an immediate benefit. Apparently it would only help if he reincarnated, which he didn't know was possible, and he didn't know how to go about doing it. But it looked from the description that if he did manage to do it, his new self would receive 10% of his stats before he died on top of his starting ones. This would be amazing if he reached a high level and then reincarnated, but since he didn't know how to do that it was useless to him.

As he was mulling over this title, Anastasia stopped. He stopped too and looked at her. He had been keeping track of where they were going and they were still about five to six hundred meters from the wooded part of the foothills.

"What is it?"

" It's coming towards us."

"What is?!"

"The Orthanak. It's coming towards us just a little from the right. And it's moving fast."

Rico looked over into the woods where she was pointing and saw an indistinct mass of brown appear within the brush of the woods. It quickly broke the tree line and it was fully visible. It was exactly like it was pictured on the quest sheet with its long tusks, dense brown body and six powerful legs that kicked up the ground. The Orthanak paused for a moment as it left the forest, adjusting to the brightness from its surroundings. It then saw Rico and Anastasia. Its two black eyes grew harsh and it turned towards them pawing the ground with one of its back legs as it gave off a murderous aura.

"Run for the woods!" Anastasia cried. They started to run left and towards the woods hoping to gain the defense of the strong trees to hide behind. The Orthanak growled and then with a massive force ran to intercept them.