Chapter 6 - Backstory

Chapter 6 - Backstory

"Hohoho, thank you, young man. You don't need to worry about payment but if you can upgrade my pet beast, I will pay you handsomely. I am a businesswoman and I have a lot of money," the aunt spoke in delight.

Even so, Glen was shocked by the notification.

[You are now part of the storyline, Maru South Village: Rising

Role – Upgrade Specialist Wannabe

Participant

Beast Trainer – 75 players

Beast Adventurer Wannabe – 10 players

Beast Hunter Wannabe – 3 players

Beast Tamer (Medical Specialist Wannabe) – 3 players

Beast Tamer (Farmer Wannabe) – 1 player

Beast Tamer (Upgrade Specialist Wannabe) – 1 player

Upgrade Specialist Wannabe's Main Mission

Mission – Beast Upgrade

Description – Upgrade Specialist' main job is to help tamer to upgrade their pet beast. As the situation of Maru South Village is getting worse, upgrading the villagers' pet beast will help alleviate the situation a bit.

As an aspiring Upgrade Specialist, you can use this chance to gain experience in this profession. Upgrade at least 20 pet beasts in Maru South Village. The beast upgrade can be from the NPC and Players.

Completion – 0/20

Time Limit – 7 years and 6 months [Spring Season]

Reward – Complete data on 30 common materials]

"Uh… Okay," Glen replied but his focus was on the notification. He did not know that Beast Life had this feature. He was unaware of the 'storyline' feature where players would be able to participate in the many storyline or plots in the game.

So, Glen was a bit surprised by the notification. He knew that he agreed to participate in this storyline because he agreed to the inn auntie's request.

"I am Bertha. You can call me Aunt Bertha," Bertha introduced herself.

Glen dismissed the notification and focused on Bertha. Since he was part of the Maru South Village: Rising storyline, he wanted to know what the story was about.

"You seem eager to upgrade your pet beast. Is something happening to the village?" Glen asked.

"Sigh~" Bertha sighed and she sat at a bench nearby. Glen followed her and sat beside her while Bubbly continued playing as he knew Glen was busy with something.

"This village is losing talents. Many young people in this village have left and now, most of the people left in this village are older people. You may not know this but the area this village is currently located has its limit in Beast's Stage," Bertha spoke.

"Maru Prairie housed 9 villages and this village is located south of this prairie. Maru Prairie can only hold Colorless Stage beasts and the location of the nine villages is in the area of Rank 1 beasts. You can only find Rank 1 beasts around this area," Bertha continued.

"If you want to find Rank 2 beasts, you need to go further away from the villages."

"But, do you know what it means when this prairie only holds Colorless Stage beasts?" Bertha asked. Glen shook his head because he did not know anything.

"No matter what the potential your beast has, they will never be able to advance to the next stage if they keep staying in this village," Glen was shocked.

"Then, do you mean no one staying in this village can advance their pet beast to the next stage?" Glen asked.

"Yes. If you want to advance your pet beast to the next stage, you need to go to the area where the higher stage beasts reside. After that, you can come back here and continue your life," Bertha spoke.

"And here is the problem. Once the beasts advance to the higher stage, they can only use resources from the same stage. Lower stage resources are useless to them and thus, this prairie is useless once your pet beasts advance," Bertha added.

"So, the young people of this village left after their beast advanced to the next stage. There are no resources for their beast here and thus, only us, old people who love this village that is left here," Bertha smiled bitterly.

When she talked about young people, she looked sad. "I can understand them leaving but I cannot understand them for not trying to better this place with their power," Bertha added.

'Is powering the village is my mission???' Glen was confused. Even if he upgraded the pet beast of the NPCs, if they advanced, the result was the same as the young people that left.

"Well, the problem with resources is not your thing. You are an Upgrade Specialist, so, you are not related to this but with your help upgrading our pet beasts, we will be able to solve the next big problem," Bertha spoke.

"Now that there is no powerful tamer and not enough of them in this village, we are in danger. Extreme danger. Every season, there will be a massive beast tide happening all around the world. Since we don't have enough workforce, your work of upgrading our pet beast will be the key to defend this village," Bertha smiled.

"Beast tide…" Glen mumbled. "Every season… wait! Will it be soon?" Glen was shocked.

"No, it will be the next seven years. In this world, a season lasts for seven and a half years. 90 months. We lost a lot of people last winter but with the help of the players, we may be able to win this season's beast tide!" Bertha was pumped up.

"…90 months…" Glen understood immediately. The season in Beast Life followed the season in the real world. One day real-time equals 1-month game-time, a season has 90 days and thus, 90 months.

"You will have a lot of time to help us upgrade our pet beast and sharpen your profession's skill," Bertha smiled. Glen nodded. Seven years was indeed a long time and with his Data Saver skill, he might be able to complete the mission in much less time.

"I am curious but you said that the young people of this village did not help with their power. Do you mean they refused to defend this village during beast tide?" Glen asked because he was curious about it.

"Many of them refused because their family is not here but the one with their family is still here just forcing their family to leave the village. Also, since they are currently residing in another place, they need to help the town or city they are living in. So, they cannot help this village," Bertha replied.

"But we managed to recruit a lot of players and we saw that you guys have a lot of potential. With you guys here, we will be fine," Bertha was happy.

"Still, if the players advance to the next stage, they will leave this village too," Glen spoke. He knew that all the players were opportunistic. They played this game for adventure and stuff and since there was a limiting power in an area, once they became stronger, they would leave the village too. Even Glen would be like that too.

"I know but for now, we are in a better position. Maybe there will be some players who will love this village and stay here," Bertha was hopeful.

"Furthermore, if there is a player who can fix the village's teleportation device, this problem will be solved instantly," Bertha added.

"Teleportation device?" Glen was surprised.

"Yes, we did have a teleportation device a long time ago but it was broken by a beast tide a few seasons ago. We don't have any resources or money to fix it. It is hard to travel to nearby cities to ask for a professional to fix it too due to the danger."

"So, the device remains broken till this day. It will be nice if any of you can help us fix it. With the device, we can travel to many towns and cities around the world."

"…" Glen did not say anything but he also hoped that someone would fix the device too.

"This village's future is going to get better and better with you guys here. We have Beast Adventurer, Hunter, Medical Specialist, Farmer, and best of all is you, Upgrade Specialist," Glen was surprised.

"I am the best? Why?" Glen asked.

"What else? It is not easy to become an Upgrade Specialist. They need to study and study without stopping. They need to do continuous research without stopping. They need to experiment and hypothesize on the upgrade method and many more," Bertha spoke.

"Since you can upgrade the Bubble beast," Bertha looked at Bubbly, "You have the potential to become one. No one knew the upgrade method for the Bubble beast but you found it. I may live in a village but I know this stuff a lot because I visit other places a lot," Bertha spoke confidently.

"Medical Specialists need to study too," Glen spoke.

"They focus on one thing but the Upgrade Specialist focuses on many things at once. They need to try everything from every point. For example, a beast with a fire element does not mean all the material needed for the upgrade is from the fire element."

"Even if an Upgrade Specialist decides to focus on one species of beast, they still need to research everything because as I mentioned earlier, everything is a possibility to upgrade a beast."

"Then, since my job is hard, can you waive the debt?" Glen asked.

"Hmm? I am a businesswoman," Bertha replied and Glen knew that meant no. "But I will give you more time. Five days. Go hunt something and you can sell the material in this village."

"…Okay," Glen replied.

"Study hard, young man! I cannot wait to upgrade my pet beast," Bertha patted Glen's shoulder and got back inside the inn.

"Bubbly, let's go. We need to settle the debt," Glen left the inn with Bubbly behind him. "Maybe I should exchange some money? That will be easier to settle this debt. It is only a few cents anyway…" Glen mumbled.

Even so, he decided against it. He decided to play the game the way the game wanted him and that was by hunting and selling the material he got from hunting.

As such, Glen left Maru South Village and went hunting.