Chapter 10- Rustling

"Hm hm hm. So you're looking for a task to get paid for? How many coins are you asking for?" She asked.

"Not necessarily money, if it is something useful that I can use then of course, I would love to do anything." He said. A quest was a quest, and the reward could be anything good as long as he had some kind of use for it.

"Well, I don't necessarily have anything I need at the moment… Hmm…" The woman seemed to fall into deep thought as if she was trying to remember something. Then, her eyes seemed to light up as she smiled. "Wait. I do have something I need."

"Really? What is it?"

'Potential quest triggered!' He thought to himself.

"Well, I have been making some soup, you see. But, I have run out of Blue Vaper Mushrooms. They aren't essential for the dish, but they add a really good taste and I was a little lazy to go out and gather some from the forest. I would appreciate it if a strong, capable boy would do that for me, hm?~" She whispered seductively.

"Hmm, mushrooms, huh? Sure, how many do you need?" Although Arthur was excited to try to fight monsters in this world, he knew he had to start with simple stuff first and then make his way up slowly.

"Ten mushrooms."

"And what is my reward for that?" He asked again.

"Well, why don't we keep that a surprise? I'm sure you will like it when you come back~" 

The boy stared at the smiling woman with squinted eyes before he nodded slowly. "Ok, I will trust you."

[Quest Detected!]

[Difficulty: E

Objective: Collect 10 Blue Vaper Mushrooms. (0/10)

Reward: Unknown

Penalty: None.]

[Accept] [Refuse]

'Accept.' After tapping the button, Arthur turned around and started walking to the door. "Where are the mushrooms exactly?" He asked as he opened the door.

"Leave the village from the northern gate and walk 10 minutes north and you shall find them. They are very noticeable and easy to harvest. So, it shouldn't be that hard." She said.

[Ding!]

[Map marker has been updated!]

The moment Nina finished her sentence, a notification appeared in Arthur's retina. Reading it, he quickly opened his mouth, only to realize that a red marker had appeared in a particular area not that far from the village. However, the map itself hasn't revealed any of the grey areas yet.

'I guess I have to go there and reveal it myself.'

With that in mind, he bid Nina farewell and walked out. "Well, that was a fruitful encounter, I think. Let's see what this quest will give me. Hopefully something useful.'

He moved out of the small alleys and back into the main streets of the village. Then, from there, he headed straight north. He eventually found himself in the bustling area of the village again where all the players were. Everyone seemed to have already started forming teams and talking about quests and stuff they found.

'Humans and their abilities to quickly form social relationships are such fascinating creatures. I could never understand that for the life of me.' He mused as he watched the different groups of players around him.

Arthur had some social skills that helped him be a normal person, to some extent. But, apart from a few friends he made in school, he had never actually found any meaningful relationships that lasted a long time. No best friends, and certainly no girlfriend.

He wouldn't say he didn't want to have either of those things, but he simply never found the incentive to actually do that. People his age seemed to have this laser focus on achieving both of these goals for some reason that he could never understand.

"Oh well, who am I to judge them? I barely talk to anyone myself." He shrugged as he continued moving toward the main gate. There, he saw many players already heading out, clearly going to explore the forest and perhaps start their grind.

"We're going to go out and hunt some monsters!" One player said to his group. "I've heard some already went out and found weird-looking wolves roaming the area. They seem like an easy target so we might get a few levels."

'Wolves, huh? That sounds interesting.' Noting that information, Arthur left the village and found himself right in the embrace of Mother Nature. The beautiful greenery and the giant, sky-piercing trees filled his vision with their giant leaves. Rays of light pierced through the cracks, casting a divine hallow on the glistening blades of grass.

The sound of birds chirping in the distance and the subtle wind that moved through the entire forest. It was a picturesque scenery of nature in its purest, most natural form. No, far more than that.

'This is… gorgeous.' 

The Divine Realm had added this amazing charm to the forest. He didn't know what made it look and feel better, but Arthur was certain of it. The forest was far more beautiful than any other forest on Earth, at least from the ones he had seen.

"They really put extreme love and care into building this world. This is far beyond meticulous and even exceeded the realm of perfection." He muttered as he walked deeper and deeper into the forest. 

On the way, he kept looking around him, searching for any animals. However, the forest was as quiet as it could get. There were some exotic plants and flowers he noticed along the way but they didn't seem that important or interesting.

Ten minutes later, Arthur stopped and looked at his map. That was when he realized something.

"Oh, some of the maps had been revealed to me." He muttered. Looking closely at it, a particular part of the map, precisely the part he had just passed through was now visible, with clear topography and details. "I guess anything that I lay my eyes on, becomes a part of the map."

The sheer precision of this mapping was quite surprising too as it precisely only showed him where he was and where he looked and nothing else.

"Ok, let's see… Blue Vaper Mushrooms…" He muttered as he started looking around and walking in the area. Eventually, the boy found several blue plants scattered around the bases of many trees. Picking up one of them, he looked at it. The mushroom was quite small with a round clear blue cap and a darker blue base.

[Name: Blue Vaper Mushroom.

Type: Fungi

Description: A common mushroom, grows around Silver wood trees. Has no side effects.]

"Hmm, yeah, these are very normal mushrooms. Even the system can't find anything interesting about them." Arthur muttered as he started picking them up and putting them in his inventory. There was no shortage of these things around him so the process was swift and quick.

After he was done, he turned around to head back. Although he wanted to explore more of the forest, he wanted to finish the quest first and then get busy with that. After all, whatever he acquires from Nina could give him another boost of strength.

At that moment, Arthur's vision suddenly shifted a little. Right in the top left corner of his vision, three bars appeared. One was red, one was blue, and one was green. Next to the red bar, he saw '437/437' and next to the blue one which was considerably shorter he saw '70/70' and finally, next to the green one which was a little longer than the blue one, he saw '98/98'.

"Oh, is that? That's my health, mana, and stamina bars, aren't they?" He frowned. He could easily recognize those three colors as they were quite common to use in RPG games. However, what made him confused was.

"Why did they appear now? They haven't been there the entire time." He muttered. He already heard some players saying that the health bar would only appear if the player themself thought of it. However, the only time it does appear on its own was…

"When the player is in combat." Muttering those words, he heard a rustle in the trees and bushes behind him.