"Hm hm hm. So you're looking for a task to get paid for? How many coins are you asking for?" She asked.
"Not necessarily money, if it is something useful that I can use then of course, I would love to do anything." He said. A quest was a quest, and the reward could be anything good as long as he had some kind of use for it.
"Well, I don't necessarily have anything I need at the moment... Hmm..." The woman seemed to fall into deep thought as if she was trying to remember something. Then, her eyes seemed to light up as she smiled. "Wait. I do have something I need."
"Really? What is it?"
'Potential quest triggered!' He thought to himself.
"Well, I have been making some soup, you see. But, I have run out of Blue Vaper Mushrooms. They aren't essential for the dish, but they add a really good taste and I was a little lazy to go out and gather some from the forest. I would appreciate it if a strong, capable boy would do that for me, hm?~" She whispered seductively.
"Hmm, mushrooms, huh? Sure, how many do you need?" Although Arthur was excited to try to fight monsters in this world, he knew he had to start with simple stuff first and then make his way up slowly.
"Ten mushrooms."
"And what is my reward for that?" He asked again.
"Well, why don't we keep that a surprise? I'm sure you will like it when you come back~"
The boy stared at the smiling woman with squinted eyes before he nodded slowly. "Ok, I will trust you."
[Quest Detected!]
[Difficulty: E
Objective: Collect 10 Blue Vaper Mushrooms. (0/10)
Reward: Unknown
Penalty: None.]
The Divine Realm had added this amazing charm to the forest. He didn't know what made it look and feel better, but Arthur was certain of it. The forest was far more beautiful than any other forest on Earth, at least from the ones he had seen.
"They really put extreme love and care into building this world. This is far beyond meticulous and even exceeded the realm of perfection." He muttered as he walked deeper and deeper into the forest.
On the way, he kept looking around him, searching for any animals. However, the forest was as quiet as it could get. There were some exotic plants and flowers he noticed along the way but they didn't seem that important or interesting.
Ten minutes later, Arthur stopped and looked at his map. That was when he realized something.
"Oh, some of the maps had been revealed to me." He muttered. Looking closely at it, a particular part of the map, precisely the part he had just passed through was now visible, with clear topography and details. "I guess anything that I lay my eyes on, becomes a part of the map."
The sheer precision of this mapping was quite surprising too as it precisely only showed him where he was and where he looked and nothing else.
"Ok, let's see... Blue Vaper Mushrooms..." He muttered as he started looking around and walking in the area. Eventually, the boy found several blue plants scattered around the bases of many trees. Picking up one of them, he looked at it. The mushroom was quite small with a round clear blue cap and a darker blue base.
[Name: Blue Vaper Mushroom.
Type: Fungi
Description: A common mushroom, grows around Silver wood trees. Has no side effects.]
"Hmm, yeah, these are very normal mushrooms. Even the system can't find anything interesting about them." Arthur muttered as he started picking them up and putting them in his inventory. There was no shortage of these things around him so the process was swift and quick.
After he was done, he turned around to head back. Although he wanted to explore more of the forest, he wanted to finish the quest first and then get busy with that. After all, whatever he acquires from Nina could give him another boost of strength.
At that moment, Arthur's vision suddenly shifted a little. Right in the top left corner of his vision, three bars appeared. One was red, one was blue, and one was green. Next to the red bar, he saw '437/437' and next to the blue one which was considerably shorter he saw '70/70' and finally, next to the green one which was a little longer than the blue one, he saw '98/98'.
"Oh, is that? That's my health, mana, and stamina bars, aren't they?" He frowned. He could easily recognize those three colors as they were quite common to use in RPG games. However, what made him confused was.
"Why did they appear now? They haven't been there the entire time." He muttered. He already heard some players saying that the health bar would only appear if the player themself thought of it. However, the only time it does appear on its own was...
"When the player is in combat." Muttering those words, he heard a rustle in the trees and bushes behind him.