21 Bearth's Continents...

'Madam Soledad... I hope I see her...' Pedro ran as fast as he can towards the village chief's office.

Skill-maker NPCs were the rarest type of NPC on bearth. Every Kingdom in Bearth has one or two Skill-maker NPC, however, they were at least at the apprentice level. The "eccentric five" were well-known not only because they roam around continents but also because they were at least Master Skill-Makers.

The ranks start at Apprenticeship, like apprentice forgers. Next, is Beginner ranked, just like Beginner forgers. followed by Intermediate ranked, like intermediate forgers... Advanced rank, like advanced forgers... Master ranked, like Master forgers... and finally, Grand Master ranked, like Grand Master forgers. In the NPCs, those who exceed the Grand Master rank were called Legendary. In the case of players in Pedro's past life, no one was even able to reach the peak of Grand Master rank.

Regardless, NPCs with such talent were so rare that the Kingdoms treasure them much, in some cases in Pedro's past life other countries had Kingdom wars over these NPC skill-makers. It was only when the war broke that these NPCs became well known.

The World of Bearth was composed of five major continents. Though there were five major continents, there were three more continents that were considered. The Dark Realm Continent and The Bearth Central Continent were continents that were limitedly explored by human NPCs for the magic concentration in these areas was too huge for human bodies to bear, hence they were called the god continents, where humans believe that this was the continents where either the gods reside or forsake. The third continent was only existing in the stories and lore the player unlocked in Pedro's past life. But no one, not even the NPCs knew its exact location.

...

It was only said that a hundred years ago, there was once a god who had resentment over other gods. With his power, Etoros, the god of jealousy, secretly made and develop mutated humans and animals that had extraordinary strengths capable of fighting even the gods.

When the other gods learned about it, it was too late and Etoros and his army marched towards The Bearth Central Continent or formerly known as the gods' continent.

Etoros and his army successfully conquered half of the gods' continent. The gods were caught in surprise and had difficulty countering back. The reason for this was although Etoros' army was weaker, their numbers kept increasing despite the war. Etoros was able to successfully manipulate some countries in the northern continent and using humans and animals to create more monsters and strengthen his army.

Since the force of the gods were already weak, they decided to grant a human their blessing. This human was called the Legendary swordsman! He stormed his way in the dark realm continent and was able to reach Etoros.

The Lore said that the legendary swordsman struck his divine sword, Baia, to Etoros and successfully struck him. Unfortunately, on his last breath Etoros sucked up all the magical energy he had and shot a powerful beam that sliced through the lands of the dark realm continent and the gods' continent.

The legendary swordsman died but there were rumors that his body, that was blessed by the gods, emits a power that a human can inherit and become the strongest human that can match with the gods and complete the purification of the dark realm continent.

The location where the remains of the legendary swordsman were located was considered as the third continent on the three non-major continents. This was already existing in the humans' history as a "Symbol" of the heroism of the legendary swordsman and encourage other humans to avoid evil.

With the lack of validity and considering that it was only an NPC history that was hundred years ago and was only read today at some libraries, only a few NPCs and players tried to search for it, to no avail.

...

Due to the adventurers/players appearance, their extraordinary growth of strength showed the development capabilities of the human race, and soon when players reached a certain level they would explore these areas.

These were only possible for players who only played to have fun. There was a high fatality rate of going to places unknown to players. This was especially true to the Dark Realm Continent where strongholds of trolls, dragons and such were located.

The professional players and top guilds were especially tempted to explore these areas, of course, the more the area is unexplored the more treasures were waiting for them to be harvested. However, In Pedro's past life, guilds even the small ones had already constructed small villages to kingdoms rivaling the NPC kingdoms in their continent of origin.

Hence, going to explore the dark realm continent was not a good idea. They will definitely lose their territory from other players or NPC army. At the same time, they had a very high rate of dying and starting all over again.

These allowed players who played just for fun to take advantage and enter the dark realm continent. Among these players, only 5% came out with Legendary weapons and treasures and rank among top players.

Upon successfully establishing the Undying cycle, Pedro has set his sights on the dark realm continent. Hence, He needs to increase his strength fast and be unkillable. Only through this, he would rain over kingdoms, then countries, later on, the continent and the whole world of Bearth.

Luckily, he was on the same continent and the same country where he was in his past life and he can fully utilize the knowledge he had. As for the Madame Soledad, she was among the only two skill-maker NPC who showed up in his continent, Aquari, the eastern continent.

Aquari continent was one of the two continents isolated by miles and miles of ocean from the other continents. These made the travel of the other three skill-maker NPCs a bit impossible since there was only a small amount of ships, which was at the same time requires a large amount of magical energy to operate.

...

"This is a chance of one in a billion... At best, I could become Madame Soledad's skill-maker apprentice!" Pedro started to began dreaming of all the benefits he could get if he would become one. In his past life, there was no known information about a player becoming a skill-maker, however, It was well-known that players can become forgers or potion makers by becoming apprentices of different NPCs.

...

The special thing about Bearth is that there was no limitation of the number of "specialties" one player can specialize. There was a case where a player was a master forger at the same time an alchemy master and was able to create a unique weapon called the Gas thrower. It blows a large amount of sleeping gas like a flame thrower that mixes in the air and spreads around the area. This allowed that player and his guild to conquer an NPC village in five minutes with no casualties.

Sad thing is, it became well-known and Pedro knows how and what to do to achieve it...

"Sorry, bro... It's mine now!"

...

Just as Pedro reached outside the village chief's office, the door went open and a woman on her thirties and looked like a Filipina, went out of the door with the chief, his daughter, and wife.

"Aunt! aunt! thanks for the gift! Visit us again!" The chief's daughter who was holding a doll and gleefully bowing to the woman.

"Ah... Cherry behave!" ... "Madame, my apologies!" The chief corrected his daughter, then bowed apologetically.

"Please raise your head... This is nothing!" Madame Soledad gestured and approached the child.

"Cherry, be good to your parents ok... be sure to follow them and help them always! In return, when I came back and visit, I'll bring you more dolls!" Madame Soledad fixed the hair of the child with her hands.

"Cherry will! Cherry will!" the chief's daughter nodded happily.

"Well then, I must depart now... It's dangerous to be in the wilderness at the dark!" Madame Soledad stand and started walking, but before she could step another meter, a man was bowing in front of them.

"The great Master Skill-Maker Madame Soledad Laparas! Please make me your apprentice!" Pedro shouted at the top of his lungs while bowing in a perfect forty-five degrees angle.

"????" Madame Soledad was astounded and rendered speechless by the boldness of Pedro. A Sudden silence and shocked filled the Chief and his family.

"Big brother savior..." Cherry uttered silently as she starred to the familiar looking man

"Adventurer Death?" Chief shouted in question as he recognizes Pedro.