Cheating?

"Sure, but you're going to have to lay them out. I'm not touching your nasty bedsheet." Jenny said coldly.

William nodded and laid out the Lifeshrooms on the Reception counter. Even though the counter was big, William was going to have to submit the Lifeshrooms in batches.

Jenny was stunned. How did he find so many Lifeshrooms?!?

Most people that enter the forest will easily find a dozen or two, but Jenny could count 50 Lifeshrooms on the counter alone. Even worse, William looked to have over a hundred more in the bedsheet. If Jenny didn't know better, she'd have thought William robbed an Alchemist!

Jenny shook her head and counted out each of the Lifeshrooms before marking the Quest complete for each group of 10.

-Completed a Quest: +1 Potential Point

-Completed a Quest: +1 Potential Point

-Completed a Quest: +1 Potential Point

-Completed a Quest: +1 Potential Point

-Completed a Quest: +1 Potential Point

(+11 More)

...

-Completed a total of 5 Quests: +10 Potential Points

-Completed a total of 10 Quests: +25 Potential Points

"Congratulations on gathering so many items for your Quest. Here is your payment." Jenny converted the 80 Silver to 8 Gold Coins and handed them to William. "Also, it appears you are eligible for a promotion to Bronze Adventurer. Show me your Guild License so I can update it."

-Own 10 Gold coins: +10 Potential Points

--Upgraded Title: +1 Potential Point

-Moneybags (Common -> Uncommon): You have earned (or scammed) a total of 10 Gold Coins. Fame is increased by 3.

William's eyes widened upon seeing the massive number of Potential Points, but he didn't want to ruin his image any further in front of the receptionist. William took the coins and gave the License to Jenny, then quickly asked, "Can I sell the Liffox that I left outside?"

"Uh no, the corpse is in terrible condition and even its fur, the only valuable part for this beast, is almost unrecognizable. Did you drag the body all the way here?" She looked at William with a mix of shock and disgust. "Next time you want to sell us a Magical Beast, bring it back in one piece."

"Oh okay.." William was a bit disappointed that he wasted so much effort, but it couldn't be helped.

"Do you know where I can buy a backpack?" he asked.

"There's a general store deeper in town. Just follow the road and look for a campfire symbol on the left." She gave the License back to William with a bronze star in the corner instead of the brown dot from before.

-Adventurer Rank (Bronze): +3 Potential Points

Despite ranking up and becoming a real adventurer, William did not receive much attention besides a second glance from the receptionist when he turned in his Quest. Isn't everyone supposed to freak out because of my fast rank up speed? This is nothing like the books!

Jenny spoke up again. "Oh and before I forget, if you want to be promoted to Silver rank you will need to complete a total of 25 Quests."

"Thanks!" William shouted on the way out of the Guild Hall. His figure exited the building, while Jenny continued her work.

A buzzing noise came from beneath Jenny's desk, which turned out to be a hidden communicator. "What happened?" She asked the other party.

The voice of a middle-aged male sounded in her mind. "The Livingwood Forest is losing energy."

"How?"

"It appears someone has absorbed one of its Cores. The natural Array preventing Magical Beasts from spawning has weakened. I've never seen anything like it. Do you know who has visited the location recently?"

"There was a Commoner today, and Briar was there." Jenny didn't know what the Guild Master meant when he said the Core had been absorbed, but didn't ask further.

"Briar huh...his family could give us some trouble...what about the Commoner?"

"He has no Cultivation, but when I looked at his background I found that he is a Manamatus with an E Rank Fire Affinity. He also brought back a Liffox corpse today, which is the second Magical Beast spotted in the Livingwood Forest in two days."

"Hmm, although impressive for a non-Cultivator, he's much too weak to have an effect on the Core." the Guild Master stated.

"We won't fight with Briar's family on this matter, but be prepared for some trouble from the Livingwood Forest. I fear those won't be the only Magical Beasts we see this month." he warned.

"Yes Sir."

Click.

Jenny set down the communicator and leaned over the desk, seemingly lost in thought.

A burly man entered the Guild Hall, "Hey Jenny, there's a nasty beast corpse outside."

"F*ck...William!!"

***

William quickly located the general store that Jenny described. He entered the store and looked through the shelves for a backpack that suited his taste.

Most of the items in the general store ranged from a few Silver to 1 Gold, so William decided to buy a brown backpack and a few sets of clothing. The most expensive item was a notebook costing 2 Gold, with an additional 2 Silver for a pen.

William paid 3 Gold 6 Silver for the items, leaving a total of 8 Gold 8 Silver for later. He stepped out of the store and immediately bought a bowl of soup from the nearby market for 6 Copper Coins.

"Ah! It's so refreshing to taste real food again!" Despite being somewhat bland, the soup tasted much better than the potatoes William had eaten for four consecutive meals.

He wolfed down the food, then looked at the system screen. It has been a while since I last checked the Status. System, show me the Menu.

———

INFO: ( - )

-Name: William

-Race: Human

-Age: 20

-Lifespan: 45 Years (Medium physical health)

TITLES: ( - )

-Manamatus (Rare): ( + )

-Loot Goblin (Uncommon): ( + )

-Moneybags (Uncommon): ( + )

-Savior (Common): ( + )

STATUS: ( - )

-Health: 100/100

-Mana: 62/150

-Fame: 3

-Cultivation: None (No suitable techniques)

TALENTS: ( - )

Magic: ( - )

-Common:

--Fire: C (100PP to next rank)

-Rare:

--Life: D (75PP to next rank)

MONEY: 8 Gold, 7 Silver, 94 Copper

POTENTIAL POINTS: 83

SYSTEM RANK: F (202PP to next rank)

———

83 points! I must be cheating!

Taking advantage of the repeatable quests seemed to be a shortcut to quickly gaining Potential Points. Who knew that turning in 160 mushrooms would be so profitable?

William was quite happy with his current progression speed, but also knew it would be much more difficult later. He was also growing accustomed to the System. The multitude of features somewhat overwhelmed William at first with the titles, talent upgrade, potential points, and milestones, but it wasn't too complicated when the System always did the math for him.

The most difficult aspects to understand were the intricacies of Magic. His Affinities were quite high but after watching part of Briar's fight with the Wind Wolf, William realized he was still an amateur. He felt like he had wings but only knew how to glide. The Fire Element can do much more than just create fireballs, and Will wanted to explore this path.

The Life Element should work the same way. Right now, William was using the Magic in the crudest way possible. To become stronger, he would need to become more familiar with how to use the different Elements.

Of course, William had the question function which might be able to help with his research. He had 83 Potential Points which would be enough to upgrade the Life Element again, but making the upgrade wouldn't be as helpful right now. William decided he would save some points to ask the System some questions about the functions of Magic.

William finished his bowl of soup with this thought and took his new items back to the house. He also made sure to buy a few more vegetables from the market with 30 copper to bring back to Misha.