It only took half an hour to finish the quest, and that was with me being careful.
That was something I should have been thankful for. Easy quests were good. Safe quests were better.
But the part that kept bothering me was what that ease seemed to imply.
This was not meant to be life.
It was not meant to be real progress either.
At least, not long term.
The world was making it very clear that these fights were temporary, a stepping stone more than anything else. And if that was true, then sooner or later humans would end up fighting things that actually mattered.
Or fighting each other.
There was an ugly little thought sitting at the back of my mind, one I tried very hard not to look at directly.
If killing monsters gave rewards, then killing players probably gave better ones.
That was the kind of thought I needed to ignore. Fast.
The stolen cloth was easy enough to find. The gnolls had dragged the cart off the road, broken it apart, and left the bundles strewn all over a clearing in the forest like they had no idea what any of it was worth. Getting it back was as simple as stuffing the cloth into my inventory.
After that, I spent a while clearing out gnolls.
Then I cleared them out again.
And again.
Eventually the System stepped in.
[100 Level 8 Gnolls killed. You will no longer gain XP for killing Level 8 Gnolls.]
[100 Level 7 Gnolls killed. You will no longer gain XP for killing Level 7 Gnolls.]
[XP: 78/100]
It had taken most of the day, but the work was too easy to pass up.
The good part was that while I ground away at gnolls, people had started using Local Chat more.
Nothing too dramatic. Mostly observations, complaints, and people comparing notes. My group, my former group, and another group from the same layer were talking about the differences in their tutorials.
Apparently not everyone had gotten zombies.
Some of them had been dropped into a jungle instead. Their final test had been trekking all the way through it and leaving behind the tribe that had taken care of them.
Personally, I was glad ours had been zombies.
After finishing the last of a stew I had tucked away in my inventory, I got up and started back toward the city.
My mana was at zero again from all the spell experiments, so there was not much else to do besides walk.
It was a nice walk back, same as the walk out.
Calm, quiet, and just open enough that I could think without feeling boxed in.
At some point along the way, I decided I wanted to learn Cooking when I had the time. It would be nice to eat good food here. Most of the food the NPCs made was bland enough to qualify as punishment.
Probably a balance thing.
Still.
There were a lot of trade skills I wanted to pick up eventually.
Enchanting, obviously. Alchemy too. Maybe Runesmithing, if something like that existed. Maybe whatever else this world decided to hide behind enough levels, money, and prerequisites.
This place seemed made for exploration.
That was exactly what I wanted out of it.
The walk back into the city was different from the first time.
There were more people now, a lot more, filling the roads in loose waves as they moved between shops, inns, and side streets.
[Layer Population 267/1000]
Still not full.
But filling.
I made my way back to the tailor, turned in the quest, and claimed the robe.
I had to admit, it was nice. Soft, smooth, and a little cool to the touch in a way that made it feel more expensive than anything I had ever worn back on Earth.
The extra point of Intelligence was harder to notice.
At the same time, completing the quest pushed me to level ten, and a new screen appeared in front of me.
[Class Advancements
Mage
Spearman
Magic Spearman]
I stood there looking at the choices for a while without picking one.
My best option, I thought, was probably to wait.
I was not sure being a Mage was actually what I wanted, at least not by itself.
And I definitely did not want to be a Spearman.
I wanted something that felt more specific than that.
Something that felt like mine.
With that in mind, I headed back to the enchanting shop.
This time, the guard outside did not stop me. He simply opened the door.
Inside, a sharply dressed man greeted me with the kind of polished enthusiasm that usually meant expensive prices.
"Hello! How can I help you?"
"Can I learn enchanting?"
"Of course!"
A window appeared immediately.
[Learn Enchanting Skill for: 1 Gold]
[Enchanting is the skill of adding intrinsic magical properties to items after the item's creation.]
[Accept] [Deny]
That was a little disappointing.
All the hours I had spent grinding had earned me less than five silver. At that rate, saving up a gold would take forever.
Which meant direct grinding for money was terrible.
Maps, on the other hand, might get around that.
And according to the new help menu for advanced classes, profession choices seemed like they could influence later class options. Not that I particularly wanted to become some kind of map-themed class, but it did make me curious.
The problem with waiting was simple.
I was a level ten Adventurer being offered a level one advanced class.
I still needed one hundred and ten XP to level, and soon enough I would need to be killing enemies way above my current level just to keep progressing at all.
The longer I waited, the better the class options might become.
But the longer I waited, the more progression I might be wasting on the the adventurer class
And not just levels.
Time.
An advanced class would probably make leveling easier, faster, safer, or all three. Every delay was another stretch of time spent progressing under a weaker setup than I might need.
There were too many factors to judge properly.
Still, I had to believe it would work itself out.
Nothing in the system had been truly unfair so far.
Or at least, it had been as fair as anything like this could reasonably be.
So I was forced to assume it would continue being fair, at least to some extent.
By then it was getting late, and I decided to call it for the night.
A guard pointed me toward three inns in the city.
There was a ratty one for five copper a night, a nicer one for fifty copper, and a genuinely good one for five silver.
Considering how much money I had made in a full day, the choice was basically made for me.
The middle option.
Even that was a huge improvement over the tutorial inn.
The room had a desk, proper walls, and a mattress that felt made for comfort instead of simple survival.
Lying there and staring at the ceiling actually felt good this time.
Even though I had not gotten everything I wanted out of the day, it had still been a good day.
I had gotten more familiar with Cartography and made a little money.
I got my first real magic item.
I started working on a new spell.
I gained a level and even unlocked a few class choices.
My group was probably doing fine without me, and my family...
I froze.
I have a family.
And they are not here.
Not that I have seen.
I have not gotten any messages.
No one asking for me in World Chat.
No sign.
Nothing.
Is...
No.
I shut the thought down before it can finish forming.
It will work itself out.
It has to.
Things will work out.