'I think it was around here…'
Moments after leaving the tower, Seojin could see Neraid from a distance.
He smiled as he felt a kind of nostalgia and strode up to the warehouse keeper.
"Morning."
"Oh, it's you. I heard the news. You said you were leaving Movelon."
"That's right."
"Yeah, it's a shame, but it wouldn't be right to cling to a young adventurer. I'd like to give you a small piece of information as an elder, would that be okay?
"Yeah, sure."
Seojin didn't mince his words.
Neraid was in a passive state now. He would act the same no matter how Seojin reacts.
And as expected…
"There are many settlements on this continent, but I can recommend you three for now."
Main Quest!
* Select a settlement: After completing your mission in the Tower of Choice, you are qualified to leave Movelon.
* It's time to find a new settlement to grow up in.
You have three options:
* Altagon
* Ilynea
* Berne
'Hmm?'
Seojin was given a choice.
The fact that there were routes meant there had to be clear differences between them.
"Do I have to choose right now?"
"Of course not. Think hard before you decide. You don't have to let me know straight away, so leave whenever you want."
"Thank you."
In the end, Neraid's role was simply to give him options. That meant that the player should gather the information on their own and then decide.
And of course, Seojin had a reliable source.
Opening the Community window, Seojin grinned as he spoke.
"Yo. Busy?"
* * *
It didn't take long for Merhen to reply.
He seemed busy as he didn't join the voice chat, but instead, he sent Seojin a quick message.
-You really should steer clear of Altagon, and it's not about the quests. I think the quests are the easiest among the three settlements… The whole place is a PK area. It's a psychopath's paradise! They don't give a shit about anything else. When you want to fight, you go there.
-Ilynea is ordinary. The quests are about right, and so are the rewards. I'd like to recommend it but I know you wouldn't listen, of course. Berne will be right up your alley. The quests are hard, but the issue is the rewards. The quests are so difficult, yet the rewards are less than what's given in Ilynea.
Merhen gave him a rather objective assessment. Then he buzzed off, saying he had to do another raid, but he'd told him enough already.
'I like the sound of Berne.'
What Merhen was saying was that while the difficulty was high, the rewards didn't keep up with it. Seojin was boiling with motivation just from hearing that.
He had gotten tons of rewards in the starter town, yet somehow Berne's quest rewards were underwhelming? It sounded utterly ridiculous.
The developers put their blood, sweat, and tears into designing every town in their game. That would mean that the developers wasted their efforts making one obsolete town, according to what Merhen had told him.
"Hailstorm ain't fools."
They were famous for making every feature of their games meaningful.
'Pretty sure nobody just had met their bar.'
The town must have some kind of advantage, and Seojin assumed that would be a tremendous reward.
Selected "Berne" as next settlement
He decided quickly and started moving again.
He had one last thing to do in Movelon.
And a little later, he was stood at the east side of Movelon Square.
Seojin curled his lips as he scanned the people filling the training ground.
'There are so many people here, it's too crowded…'
A sword split the scarecrow in half as a large flame ball landed on the exact same spot.
"Did you see that? This is how you do Wizard!"
"I destroyed it beforehand."
"But look at the effect!"
As the name suggested, this place was designed for players to check the damage or effects of their skills.
Numerous scarecrows were lined up one by one, it was the first place to visit for people like Seojin who had just completed their mission in the Tower of Choice.
At that very moment, a huge crack in the ground ran beneath a scarecrow. The player who cast the skill was surprised, and the people around him were not much different.
The crowds began to whisper.
'That's a real Wizard!'
Soon, other classes started to cast their skills like it was some kind of competition.
The more flamboyant and unique the effect, the easier it was to catch the crowd's attention.
Since they were all newbies who only just chose their class, they were even more captivated by the show, and that meant Seojin couldn't test out his skills yet.
'I'll draw too much attention.'
The name of the skill "New Face" was already crazy unique. His clothes were also flashy.
Using that kind of skill would attract the players to him at once, and naturally, his information would be exposed.
'It'd be troublesome if anyone recorded it or something…"
Seojin pondered. He needed to check the effects of his skill, but he would have to be discreet.
He soon came up with an idea.
'I don't need to completely hide the hidden class. I can just conceal that the hidden class is me.'
* * *
"Wow, who's that guy?"
"Dunno, maybe he's driving the bus for his guild members."
"I don't think he's a newbie…"
Players all over the training ground halted their practice and hesitated.
They were all looking at the player who had come out of nowhere.
He was wearing a mask, and his attire looked extremely gorgeous too.
The general rule of Midgard was that the higher the level of the gear, the flashier it became.
That meant he was definitely high-level… at least that was what the other players thought.
'Except for the fact that high-level players can't come here… oh, well, I wouldn't have known that either if it weren't for Merhen.'
Seojin smiled as he passed by their gazes.
Some players didn't care about Seojin at all and put their focus back on their work. Hiding his identity was definitely a good choice.
"Then…"
<LV10: Scarecrow>
Seojin picked a scarecrow and stood before it. The buzz grew.
"He must be showing off his skills."
"I think so."
"I can't even guess what he'll do."
The crowd was full of anticipation.
However, instead of casting a skill, Seojin picked up the wooden sword placed next to him.
His surroundings were deadly silent.
Everyone was staring at Seojin.
And… the wooden sword began to strike the scarecrow.
"…What, that's it?"
"He's just a noob."
"He must have a high-level friend who gave him that gear…"
Their expectations quickly turned to disappointment.
The people around him clicked their tongues and went back to minding their own business.
Seojin grinned in satisfaction behind the mask.
'It's even better than I expected.'
People's interest in him had diminished quicker than he expected.
It made sense.
They're all merely beginners.
They couldn't see the uniqueness of the gear. To them, it just looked expensive.
It meant that simply looking over-geared would no longer draw their eyes to him. Since it was a starter town, they must have seen many players who paid a fortune or asked their friends to get over-spec gear.
'This should be enough… right?'
Seojin examined the scarecrow before him. He had already beaten it to a pulp with the wooden sword. Its hat was crooked, and the straw inside it was peeping out.
It was at that moment, Seojin spoke the words he'd been anticipating.
"New Face."
'Will it work?' Seojin waited in nervousnes.
Equipment Skill: Noble benefits cannot be applied.
The target recognizes you anew.
Effective: 60 minutes
'It worked!'
Seojin clenched his fists.
Now the Scarecrow had recovered completely.
'It works for monsters, too…'
The skill window stated that it could be used against NPCs. But from the looks of what just happened, it seemed monsters were also categorized as one.
In Seojin's mind, the value of the skill has increased at least ten times over.
If it only worked against human NPCs, its usage would be quite limited. However, the Scarecrow had completely recovered from the damage Seojin had just inflicted on it.
'This means that its aggro was reset…'
The monsters of Midgard would accrue aggro towards players who hit them first. But if the player vanished, it would immediately switch from combat status to idle status.
The same thing just happened to the scarecrow.
'Now I have an escape skill…'
Seojin dropped the wooden sword and smiled.
The cooldown for New Face was twenty-four hours.
Which meant he could escape any monster that was the same level as him once a day.
'I expected that there'd be no bonus effect from my equipment. Coming here really paid off.'
Checking skills and equipment was one of the basics.
"Well, then…"
His first task has been completed.
However, Seojin still had work to do.
"One at a time…"
He had to find out more about the thing he encountered in the cave.
Thanks to it dropping the ore, Seojin was able to clear the quest. But it then ran away, unfortunately.
Why did it run away though?
'Because it'll give you a handsome reward once you catch it?'
The game was made by human design, so every feature must have been created intentionally.
That thing couldn't have popped out for no reason.
Seojin had lost it before, but things had changed since his stats grew dramatically.
'Well, it's dead end if it disappeared. But if it still is in there, I could get a clearer view and maybe even get a new achievement.'
"Let's go."
He headed over to the East Gate, where the mine was located.
* * *
'It's the same here…' Seojin looked around.
The clanking sound of the pickaxes reverberated around the cave, and he could even see some players screaming in pain.
'They're too unmotivated, weirdly enough…'
Honestly, Seojin couldn't understand the dreary atmosphere.
'…Well, not everyone is like me. Why should I care?'
Seojin quickly headed deeper into the mine, leaving the others behind.
He walked for about an hour.
'I think this was the place.'
Seojin put his hand on the wall and stone dust fell to the floor.
He slowed down and stared at the right side of the wall.
After carefully examining the never-ending eruption of iron veins, Seojin stopped walking.
"Foundit."
He was staring at the gray iron vein that had a subtle red light to it.
Seojin raised his pickaxe high and struck the vein.
Then, Seojin arrived at his destination through the collapsing floor.
"Ugh! It's in my mouth"
He spat out a handful of dust and looked around.
"…"
The dim cave had ore veins glowing like gems all over it
Fortunately, it was the same structure as last time.
After looking around for a while, Seojin warmed up as he spoke to himself.
"…Okay, shall we get started?"