Chapter 9

As Vergil was fighting the Carnivorous Arachnids, a silent shadow peeked out of the branch of a tree without making a sound. Unlike the shadow hunters, this person looked very much like a human but was dressed in a black tuxedo and a top hate fedora, a dressing style completely alien to the world of Gaia. This person adjusted the singular monocle hanging on his right eye and carefully observed Vergil's actions.

As an observer, the unnatural interaction between the five shadow hunters outside of their territory and a human who seemed to have recognized them, caught this man's eye. More than the curious activities of the shadow hunters, he was puzzled by the actions of this young commoner and more things were puzzling him these days. First was the arrival of the immortals or undying ones in various parts of the world, just like the young man in front of him fighting the spiders. The second was their odd behavior. The man adjusted his top hat, shook his head and slightly touched his walking stick to the branch he was standing on, and a black whirlpool like vortex appeared behind him and swallowed him away. No one in the world would notice his presence in this world. It was as if he was never there.

Meanwhile, Vergil just finished slaughtering the spiders. As they turned into drops, he quietly collected them. Carnivorous Spiders couldn't weave webs, however, they did drop spider silk when killed. While the material from this species was not useful for tailoring, it was an important alchemical ingredient. Vergil stored it in his storage space and approached the three survivors from the caravan. Through the broken planks, he was able to ascertain their identity thanks to them being green NPCs and also the damaged insignia on the carriage.

"Are you from the Oswald Trading Company?" Vergil quickly asked the fearful individuals. He then realized that the three were not, in fact humans, but rather fox beastkin. The leader of the trio got up and steeled herself. She nodded and made a bowing gesture. "Thank you hero for saving us from death. We are indeed belonging to that caravan. I am the caravan leader, Berda."

Vergil nodded. "I was sent here by the Mayor of Red Leaf Town. He is awaiting a package from your caravan." Berda heard that and nodded. However, she pleaded to Vergil for help. "Could you please escort us to the town? Our caravan has been destroyed and all our warriors died fighting those spiders." Vergil noticed that the final subquest of the Mayor's attaché had activated. This was a simple escorting quest. On the way back, the group of four was attacked by carnivorous spiders multiple times and Vergil had to fend them off.

The quest completed when the four finally reached the gates of Red Leaf Town. Vergil heard the ding of the quest completion and noticed that his level had finally increased to 2 as well as an increase in comprehensive strength and intellect stats. When he checked his status to notice the changes, he found that he had an unread notification.

[You have been marked "an odd curiosity" by The Phantom Stranger]

"...?"

[You gain the title "An Odd Curiosity"]

[Title effects - When equipped, dramatically increases the 'Mystery' hidden stat. Opponents of a cautious type are more likely to avoid entering conflict.]

The Mystery stat was a hidden substat that every player had. A lot of quests and hidden areas were affected by chains of regulation that were triggered by the value of hidden substats. So any increase in a hidden substat was extremely valuable. However, Vergil was puzzled by the other half of the alert. "The Phantom Stranger..." Vergil had only heard about this enigmatic NPC before and never managed to meet him in his past life, yet he was already marked by this individual in this one and he didn't know why. "I need to grow stronger." He thought to himself.

Vergil looked into the private discussion server he had created and saw that the auction had finally stabilized. The leader of the Noisy Silence, one of the bigger guilds succeeded with the auction with a bid of two thousand dollars. Vergil knew that selling the sets now was a bad business decision, for once the open beta began prices would sky rocket. However, he needed to collect fifteen thousand dollars by the end of the week to secure his house from the bankers, so he could only clench his teeth and accept the trade. Vergil sent the guild leader a code for a private transaction in game and logged back into Stellar Ambitions.

"Mate, will you have more products lined up for auction?" The guild leader, a player named Sven asked casually. Vergil replied in the affirmative within the group. "There will be a new item on auction tomorrow."

After completing the transaction directly, Vergil made his way to the courthouse to meet the Mayor. While he completed the escort mission, he still had to collect the reward from the Mayor's assignment. This time, he was freely allowed into the courtyard, much to the chagrin of other players who were desperate to enter as well. Inside the courthouse, Vergil saw the mayor discussing matters with the three fox beastkin and patiently waited for him to finish. When the mayor noticed Vergil, he immediately beckoned him closer.

"Commoner, you did your job well! Thankfully I received my package in time!" The mayor guffawed. "Tell me what prize do you desire?"

"I wonder if the mayor can provide me an introduction to the mage tower?" Vergil asked cautiously. He noticed that completing the quest had not improved his relationship with the mayor and he silently abused the NPCs in the game for being so finicky. NPCs had their own traits and greedy ones like the mayor were not likely to easily give favors.

"This..." The Mayor was perplexed by the request. In theory the Mayor should have been able to give such an introduction, but the player asking it was a commoner. Mages were a stratified social class who disdained the commoner class and the Chief Mage of the tower in Red Leaf was a particularly difficult customer to handle. "That would not be possible, citizen. However, I can write you an introduction to Mage Mustang. He is a Tier 1 mage who works in the tower and you could meet him when he leaves the tower. Perhaps he could help you out."