Upgrades!
A Title? Nice! And I earned a lot of Potential Points just from using Magic once. William was surprised at the chain of System messages he received. Menu, he called out mentally. He expanded the tabs and took a look at his gains.
———
INFO: ( - )
—Name: William
—Race: Human
—Age: 20
—Lifespan: 45 Years (Medium physical health)
TITLES: ( - )
—Manamatus (Uncommon): ( + )
STATUS: ( - )
—Health: 100/100
—Mana: 51/150
—Cultivation: None (No suitable techniques)
TALENTS: ( - )
—Magic: ( - )
-Fire: E (Cost 5PP to next rank)
POTENTIAL POINTS: 11
SYSTEM RANK: F- (25PP to next rank)
———
I have enough points to upgrade my Fire Affinity. I don't really have much else to spend it on unless I want to save up for the System upgrade.
William didn't like the idea of relying on what he might get from the System later, so a decision was quickly made. System, upgrade my Fire Talent.
-UPGRADING TALENTS...PLEASE WAIT...
William felt his hands heat up rapidly, until the sensation became painful. His hands started shaking, and his eyes teared up. William felt as if he had grabbed the end of a hot poker, yet there was no visible tissue damage. The pain remained for almost 5 minutes before slowly subsiding.
———
TALENT UPGRADED
Fire Magic: (E --> D)
Next rank up: 25PP
POTENTIAL POINTS: 6
SYSTEM RANK: F- (20PP to next rank)
———
William noticed that the cost of the System Rankup went down after the upgrade, but was too focused on the pain in his hands to think too much about it.
Wow, that really hurt. Are you trying to burn me alive System? Can't you just make it painless, or put me to sleep? Do you take me for a masochist?' William launched a slew of curses at the System with no response. Forget it, let's just test my upgraded Magic.
With a wave of his hand, a second fireball appeared and launched into the distance, noticeably faster than before. An explosion of about a meter in size followed, creating a similar scene to before. My casting speed and the spell's speed nearly doubled, but the power only increased slightly... Will analyzed the results.
"Awesome!" he shouted, throwing his fist into the air. William always wanted to control Magic, so having this ability now has given him the ecstasy that makes him want to set things on fire. Spoken like a true arsonist.
William threw a few more fireballs, causing his excitement to grow.
"You get a fireball! You get a fireball! You too, and you! Everyone gets a fireball! You-" he was in the middle of another fireball when he stumbled and rolled halfway down the hill.
Status
———
STATUS: ( - )
-Health: 98/100
-Mana: 6/150
———
I almost screwed up. Who knows what will happen when I run out of mana again so soon? Obviously the last guy wasn't too lucky. There's no way I'm going to mess this up when I just got my ticket out of a boring life. William sat down and lamented at his slow mana recovery.
Half an hour later, William stood up and started walking down the hill. Now that he had learned how to use Fire Magic, it was time to leave the makeshift training area. The village wasn't too far away, but Will was starving and Misha had already made lunch. He grabbed a few potatoes to munch on during the walk, since that was all they had to eat.
The first thing on my list has to be making better food. I can't survive eating potatoes my whole life. Too bad I spent most of my life eating snack cakes and chicken nuggets and never learned to cook, although I could probably make a decent meatloaf. he pondered while walking down the path.
When William arrived at the entrance to the village, he was surprised to see no one waiting for him. Isn't there supposed to be a first-class beauty or an arrogant young master here? They're probably just late. Oh well. Will shrugged it off and wandered in.
-Entered Thin Creek Village: +1 Potential Point
"Thin Creek Village...not the worst name I've seen." William commented out loud. A nearby villager overheard him and showed a frown, but said nothing. William continued forward, looking left and right at the various homes and shops.
He saw a Blacksmith, an Alchemy Hall, and a Guild Hall. One shop was selling armor and weapons, but most of the buildings seemed somewhat derelict except for the Guild.
Standing outside the lavish Guild Hall's exterior, William spotted over a dozen individuals with excited looks on their faces rushing through the thick wooden double doors. He followed after the group and pushed open the door that seemed to lock and unlock itself. There was no time to inquire about the wondrous locking mechanism as the view before Will made his jaw drop in awe.
While the outside of the Guild Hall looked to be only about 100 square meters, the inside was nearly ten times that size. On the right-hand side was a bulletin board loaded with various Quests, and just to the left of the bulletin board was a young woman in a simple green uniform showing a kind smile. There were also several tables on the left side of the Guild Hall, where some burly men were laughing and drinking.
The main attraction of the Guild was a massive arena of roughly 400 square meters, which one would notice immediately unless they were blind. The ground was made of tough marble, but there were still a few noticeable cracks.
Inside the arena, two individuals were clashing at an inhuman speed. William tried to follow them with his eyes but could only make out two colorful streaks of light fighting for dominance. There was a red streak that currently seemed to have the advantage over the deep purple as sounds of metal on metal rang out in the Guild Hall.
"You must be new here," sounded a voice from one of the tables. A young man with fiery red hair and eyes that were light green in color stood up and walked over. He wore a suit that didn't belong to this region of the world and spoke with a touch of pride, "It's better to stop trying to watch the fight. Those two are the best in the region, and a Commoner like you with no Cultivation wouldn't see anything even if they were at half the speed." the youth finished his sentence with a smirk.
"Oh, that makes sense." although William thought the young man was rude, being the bigger person seemed like the right idea today. After all, the youth seemed important, and William was in a good mood because of his recent upgrade. He turned to the side and started toward the Quest board, yet his path was blocked once again.
"You're trying to look at Quests now? You could barely lift a hundred pounds, how are you going to kill Magical Beasts?" the youth had never seen such a bold Commoner.
"Can't I just take a look? I've never been here before."
"Hmph, don't say I didn't warn you. When you're torn apart by a Dire Bear or eaten by a Sand Snake, no one is going to send out a search party." the youth replied in annoyance before walking away.
William ignored the fool and headed over to the Quest board. On each page of the board was a list of Quests with basic information. Each Quest had an assigned number of stars representing the difficulty, and he would have to talk to the staff at the counter for more details. The Quests were divided into a few types that William could see: Gather, Capture, Slay, and Special.
* [Gather: 10 Lifeshrooms]
** [Capture: 3 Spirit Pigs]
****** [Slay: Nascent Soul Lightning Drake]