15 Sudden Changes
Nolan woke up early in the morning, even before sunrise.
While everyone were asleep, he took three bags of grain out of the inventory and placed them on the ground.
"Wake up!" He shouted.
"What?" A beggar asked sleepily.
"Wake up!!" Nolan shouted again.
The beggars slowly woke up one by one.
Nolan saw that Stephany woke up, so he walked to her. "Can I trouble you to prepare breakfast?" He asked, pointing at the three bags of grain on the ground.
"No problem," She said and stood up.
"Nolan, what's this? Why did you wake us up so early in the morning?" Alfred asked.
"We would need at least an hour to cross the mountain. Once we cross, we need to start building the village." Nolan said and took a paper rolled up in a scroll out of his sleeve.
'How did it even fit there?' Alfred thought as his eyes widened in shock when he saw Nolan taking the scroll out of his sleeve.
It's not like it was under his sleeve. He just took it out of the system while his hand was in his sleeve, so it looked like he took it out of the sleeve. He did the same trick when he took a large amount of money from his sleeve.
"What's this?" Alfred asked.
Nolan opened the scroll and passed it to Alfred.
"This is!" Alfred's eyes widened in shock again.
It was a village construction drawing. And a very detailed one at that.
"This drawing is very detailed, but I'm afraid there is no mason between the beggars," Alfred said as he passed back the drawing to Nolan.
"Let's ask first," Nolan said.
He and Alfred stood to the side while everyone gathered around the fire they just started for Stephany to cook.
Nolan and Alfred walked over to the group of beggars. There were hundred of them.
"Everyone, is there a mason between us?" Alfred shouted. "If there is, please step out!"
The beggars looked at themselves to see if someone would step out.
"Amm..." Someone lifted a hand in the middle of the group. The person who lifted the hand stood up. It was a young boy. "I was just an apprentice before, so I know the basics. But it still counts as being a mason. I think." The boy said as he walked toward Nolan and Alfred, who stood in front of the group.
The boy had short black hair, and like everyone else, he wore dirty, torn clothes.
'Inspect.' Nolan used his skill.
[Name: Perun]
[Age: 21 years 8 months]
[Personality: Shy]
[Occupation: Beggar-In use, Basic mason]
[Martial arts: None]
[Strength: 9]
[Stamina: 7]
[Agility:6]
"What's your name?" Nolan asked.
"P-Perun." The boy replied in a low, barely hearable voice.
"Perun, take a look at this." Nolan passed the village construction drawing to him.
Perun didn't need more than a glance.
"I-I can't do this." He passed the drawings back to Nolan.
'Now, this is troublesome. I thought there would be at least several masons in such a large group.' Nolan thought.
He still struggled to decide what to do. The sun was raising, and with that, the time was shortening.
[Ding]
[You completed Quest 1: Funds of the chain quest: Build a village]
[You successfully opened a business in the city]
[You received: New occupation- Hidden business owner, 75 Exp]
[Ding]
[You leveled up]
[You received: 3 allocation points]
'Perfect timing!' Nolan screamed inside.
"Perun, can you build temporary houses?" Nolan asked.
"I can," Perun replied.
'He speaks so quietly, truly befitting his shy personality.' Nolan thought.
"Then I would trouble you to build temporary houses behind this mountain," Nolan said and turned to Alfred.
Before he could say anything to Alfred, Alfred asked: "Nolan, what are you going to do?"
"Please call me boss from now on. It feels uncomfortable to address each other by name. And from now on, I appoint you as the tactician of the village and second in charge, only after me.
As for what I would do, I would go back to the city. I saved a mason before so he would help us." Nolan replied.
Alfred's body shivered for a moment. Did Nolan find out he was a tactician, so he appointed him as a tactician of the village?
Before Alfred could say anything, Stephany called.
"The food is ready." Stephany had already started filling the wooden bowls with grain porridge one by one.
"Boss, we can cross the mountain on our own. After you eat, you should head to the city." Alfred said and took a bowl of porridge.
"I thought so too. Behind the mountain are two hills, and behind them is a forest. We will build the village between the hills. Also, there is a river before the forest, so think of a way to cross it." Nolan took a bowl too.
"I will eat alone. Please discuss the plan with the brothers." Nolan said and walked away from the group. Actually, he was not hungry. How could he have an appetite when his heart was beating in excitement?
He barely restrained himself from going crazy.
He sat on the ground and placed the bowl beside himself.
'Status window.' The bluish status window appeared before his eyes.
[Name: Nolan]
[Age: 19years 19days]
[Personality: Mentally unstable]
[Occupation: Beggar who knows basic swordsmanship-In use, Hidden business owner]
[Level 4]
[Exp: 65/100]
[Martial arts: Basic swordsmanship]
[Strength: 16]
[Stamina: 16]
[Agility: 16]
[Allocation points: 3]
'System, I've seen it before at Nara and now at Perun. Does the 'In Use' next to the occupation mean I could only have one occupation in use at a time?'
[Yes]
[You could use the skills and the bonuses that come with the occupation only if that occupation is in use]
'I see. Show me the details of my new occupation.'
[Hidden Business owner]
[Active occupation skills: None]
[Passive occupation skills: information gathering lv3]
[Occupation bonus: 25 percent recruitment boost]
[Switch the occupation in use: Yes/No]
'Yes.'
[Occupation: Hidden business owner-In use, Beggar who knows basic swordsmanship]
'Perfect. System, put all the allocation points into stamina.' Nolan ordered in his mind.
[Stamina:19]
Having finished everything, he had calmed.
Nolan took the porridge and drank it in one gulp.
"It's time to move." He said as he stood up.
[Ding]
Just as he stood up, another system message arrived.
[Chain quest: Build a village]
[Quest two: Find a territory to build your village and secure the area around]
[Reward: 50Exp, 10 normal spears]
'Spears? Well, it's not bad.' Nolan thought.
[Ding]
[The host has already found a place to build the village]
[You have completed quest 2 of the chain quest: Build a village]
[You received: ?!?!?!?!!?!??!?!?!?!.....ERROR]
The awful red screen "ERROR" covered Nolan's vision.
Nolan felt like something cut his legs.
His legs couldn't support his body anymore. He fell on his butt, though to everyone else, it looked like Nolan didn't fall and instead just sat again.
"A-Alfred. If everyone had eaten, don't waste any more time." Nolan said to Alfred, who was a few meters from him.
He tried his best to cover his panic. But Alfred was a clever man. Even if he didn't notice anything weird just now, If he stays any longer, he would take notice of the change in Nolan's behavior.
"Alright, we will leave once we pack the pots, the two bags of grain left, and the bowls." Alfred said.
Nolan couldn't say anything to this. If he rushed them too much, Alfred would think something was weird.
While the beggars were packing their things, Nolan was biting his nails anxiously.
Alfred was too focused on lining up the beggars who were not picking up anything so they could move more efficiently later and didn't notice Nolan's behavior.
It didn't take long for the beggars to pack all the things, but to Nolan, it felt like an eternity.
His back was drowning in a cold sweat because the red window was still before him and was still floating.
He was afraid. Though it was his second time experiencing this, Nolan didn't know what might happen. But he still couldn't stop thinking of the worst-case scenario. And that was the system disappears.
Nolan was afraid of this more than anything else.
After all, losing the system, he would have no cheat, and though he knows basic swordsmanship, he is far from omnipotent.
With the system, he could at least distinguish the good from the bad, and the strong from the weak.
"Boss, we are leaving," Alfred said, and together with the large group, he started moving up the mountain.
[The host has started his first steps in building the village]
[The system detected that the difficulty level is not appropriate]
[Changes will occur...]
With this message, for now, Nolan stopped worrying about the system disappearing, but now he was worried about another problem. And that was that the system said something about the inappropriate difficulty level.
[Ding]
[The chain quest: Building a village has changed]
[New chain quest: Village]
[Complete all five quests]
[Reward: Exp 270, 200 bags of rice, level 2 village construction drawing]
[Quest 1: Build a village]
[Time limit: 1 month]
[Penalty: Death]
[Reward: 20 percent agriculture boost within the village's territory, 20 percent defense boost]
[Difficulty: Hard]
"You are kidding me? How is it possible to build a complete village in one month!?" Nolan screamed in anger. "And the penalty is death! Why the fuck would I die if I don't build the village?!" Nolan threw a fist at the quest window before him.
[Ding]
[Quest 2: Defend]
[After one month, mountain bandits would launch an attack on your village]
[Defend the village]
[Enemy troops: 1000]
[Time left: 29 days, 23 hours, 59minutes]
[Difficulty: Hell]
[Penalty: Death]
[Reward: Advanced swordsmanship manual]
Nolan's face turned grim.
Swoosh!
He stood instantly and stormed toward the city.
'Fu.ck,Fu.ck,Fu.ck,Fu.ck! The system wants to kill me! I'm going die!' Nolan screamed inside. At the moment, his head was a mess, and his heart raced in fear.
