26 Picking a Mission and Training

"Hmmm.. What should I choose?"

Nex contemplated as he stared at the mission board. He wanted a stress-free mission that he could do leisurely, so he can still have enough time to cook every now and then.

The heavens must be going against him. Almost all of the missions available involve either fighting or defending. The other ones were mostly inside the city area and not actually outside.

*Bzzz*

While he was in deep in his thoughts, the tattoo in his hand began to shine and slightly vibrate.

"Hmm? What is this?" His attention shifted to his tattoo.

He knew this tattoo wasn't normal but since it didn't do anything out of the ordinary, he just let it be and didn't really mind it.

Now, it suddenly moved. Moreover, it seems to draw Nex's attention towards a certain direction in the mission board.

"You want me to take this mission?"

The tattoo led him to a particular mission. Its content involves delivering magic stones used for crafting to a dwarf settlement located on the western side of the city.

Normally, a delivery mission like this one won't be issued to the guild. This time, however, due to the package being precious magic stones, the delivery should be done by someone with good strength so that the consignment will be completed as fast as possible.

*Bzzz*

The tattoo vibrated once again as a response of affirmation.

Seeing the tattoo's reaction, Nex checked the location and details of the settlement. Upon studying the particulars of the mission, he quickly deduced the routes he could take and calculated his travel time.

If he goes through the forest and mountains, he could reach the settlement within a day. Then if he continues on, he could reach the Western City in just a few more days.

'This is great! I can go do this mission and continue forward to the Western City where I could meet Jane and Eddie. By this time, they probably have reached the area already. It will be hitting two birds with a stone!'

"Good job!" He petted the tattoo like a pet while making his way towards the reception.

♦♦♦

After leaving the guild's building, Nex looked at the sky in satisfaction. As the magic stones weren't ready yet, he couldn't start the mission and has to wait for more than 24 hours. This suited him perfectly for he has been in the game for over 36 hours already. He needed to log out and go train Jane.

"Hey! Can you wait for a second?"

While he was about to go offline, he suddenly heard a voice calling him. Lifting his head, Nex saw a bow-wielding player approaching him with a friendly smile. Behind him was a group of players with different classes.

"What is it?" Nex asked.

The Archer smiled, "Nothing. I just wanted to know if you are interested to join my party when you log back."

"Sorry but I like to play solo." Nex replied, wondering why, out of the blue, he was asked to party.

It was then that he noticed that he still had his sword on him. Not the wooden one, but the fancy-looking [Fallen Hero Sword].

'Damn. I was too focused on getting a mission!'

"Oh... Is that so?" The archer said in dejection.

This lasted for just a second before perking up once again. "Then at least let's register as friend---"

"What?"

Nex acted like an old man with difficulties in hearing. His body began to glow.

"I can't hear you over the sound of me logging out. Oh well, farewell young ones!"

And with those words, he disappeared.

"That a*shole!" One of the people from the Archer's group cursed. "Boss, why did you even bother talking to someone like that? You should have just told him the name of our Guild so he will have no choice but to agree!"

"Shut up!" The Archer's face contorted, turning fierce as he yelled at his subordinate. "What do you even know? That man has just left the Adventures Guild! Do you know how only a few managed to join there so far? Not only that, but all of them are legendary players who had made a name for themselves! Not to mention that that man had a badge with a silver star! It's completely different from the other ones that only managed to get green or blue!"

The Archer then looked at the spot where Nex was just at, his eyes narrowing.

"More importantly, that sword… You have to defeat at least an Elite Rank Boss to get it. Whoever that person is, I want you to find out everything you can about him. You absolutely can't offend him, no matter what the circumstance may be. There is no way that this man is just a normal solo player."

♦♦♦

"Did he pick a mission?"

"Yes." Stacey answered the Guild Master. "It is a normal delivery mission. He also said that he will continue from there to Starshine."

"Is that so?" The middle aged man said while looking at where Nex just logged off from. "This sure is an impatient man. Not even two days since he arrived in this city and he is already itching off to go to another one."

"Guild Master…" Stacey then voiced out what had been bothering her.

"Now, can you tell me why did you give him a Master rank? Even if he managed to hit you back, you were just using the peak of the First Awakening power. Even if he is a genius, he should still get only an Advanced rank."

Hearing her words, the Guild Master smiled and shook his head.

"What that man displayed earlier wasn't talent. If it was just talent, then Armstrong would not have given his recommendation."

"What?" Stacey is confused. "Then what was it? How did he manage to do that?"

"With experience." The Guild Master's eyes turned sharp.

"From the moment he entered the room and saw me, he was already prepared for what I would do. And at that moment I made a move, he reacted like he had been in this situation for about hundreds, if not thousands of times. No talent can do that. Not without the experience of having to fight with his life on the line for a few years."

He further explained what he had observed.

"Not to mention that crest. To be able to get that means that he has defeated Lords when he was still Unawakened. Maybe even Royals. So someone with his capability is more than worthy to get a Master rank. One thing is for sure. This man will do great things in the future."

♦♦♦

'What Profession should I learn next?' Nex pondered while effortlessly blocking Jane's offense.

'Maybe Blacksmithing?'

He deflected a punch.

'Nahhh… I would have to be confined in a workshop all day. Boo-ring…'

He dodged a kick.

'How about a Bard?'

He lightly kicked Jane's leg, causing her to lose balance.

'Not that either. I hate to sing and I will always have to play for people. Nope. They should be the ones singing and playing for me!'

He evaded another punch.

'How about taming?'

He used some force to flick at Jane's forehead, causing her to fall.

'Hell, no! I would constantly be surrounded by pets that I have to take care of. They should be the ones taking care of me and my needs!'

'Hmm… Maybe…'

"Hey, you jerk!"

Jane's angry voice woke him up.

"If you are going to train me, at least don't do it while thinking about something else with a blank face!"

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking about the game." He apologized and then remembered something.

"The things that I have taught you, did you apply them inside the game?"

"Yes, I did." Jane's anger went down a little as enthusiasm slowly flooded her. "I still can't believe that it actually succeeded. Not only that, it even turned into a real skill!"

"Of course, it did." Nex smiled. "The system recognized it as a skill because it had fulfilled the necessary requirements. It has a working way of manipulating and channeling mana like the breathing technique that I taught you or the mana affinity skill in the game. It has a proper trigger, which in your case is the chant. And most importantly, you could visualize what you wanted to happen and turn it into reality. So basically, you just need these three conditions done and you can create any skill that you want."

"What? It's that easy?" Jane was both confused and shocked. "I thought that creating skills is supposed to be very hard and only possible by using extensive experience and practice?"

"Of course, it is." Nex nodded seriously. "I only explained what you need to do for the game to declare a skill as created. In order to truly create a skill or technique from zero, you have to do research first and go through a long process of trial and error until something that works properly will be created. Other players that don't have a working trigger along with a complementing breathing technique or a manual knowledge of how to channel the mana will have to practice bitterly and raise their mana affinity skill until they can succeed in creating something useful."

"You speak like you know how the game works." Jane said with narrowed eyes.

'No, it's just that I know how Perias works.' This remained in his thoughts as he verbally replied to her, "Again, it's because I spent a long time in a place with the same environment and did some testing myself inside the game. So it was easy for me to find out about simple things such as these."

"You also said something familiar before." Jane became curious. "Just what exactly is that place?"

"That place…" Nex's gaze became a little gloomy. "It's a place where I lost too much compared to what I gave."

Seeing the ever-smiling Nex having an expression like that, Jane understood that she touched a sore spot and quickly apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean to---"

"It's fine." Nex cut her off with a smile. "I can now put that in the past."

"Besides…" His tone then changed as a smirk formed in his lips.

"What are you doing now when we should actually be training? Gossiping like the old ladies in a tea party, 200 punches while using the breathing technique!"

"Damn it, you a*shole! You said you will stop training like that!"