Level Is Everything

Ryou and Luna walked to the village's chief hut. By the time they arrived, the village chief was eager to see them. He immediately asked the other player to go out of the hut and once again closed the door of the hut.

"So, how is it?"

The village chief is asking in anticipation with some worry. After all the result of the quest will determine the future of his village. Ryou replied to him while describing the situation.

"I have checked the area. It was occupied by monsters and the closer I got to the cave, the more crowded it was. As soon as I arrived there, I lure the monster away so I can investigate inside the cave. When I got in, I need to walk for a while before I finally see Yaga. Yaga is a big monster with a white fur and he is still sleeping. I tried to wake him up and see if there's some movement but there's no reaction. I can tell you that Yaga is still sleeping and will probably stay asleep for a long time."

Ryou is telling the village chief all of the details without waiting for him to ask the small details. Hearing that, the village chief seemed to be relieved. After all it can be said that a calamity has been avoided.

"I couldn't thank you enough young man. Please take this as a token of my gratitude."

The village chief hands out two small badge. Ryou and Luna each got one and then, a notification ring in his mind.

「You have completed the quest 'investigate Yaga'. The village chief believe your investigation and Yaga isn't planning to attack the village. The peacefulness of the beginner's village is preserved. 」

「You gained 1000 EXP. You have leveled up. 」

「You earned 'The beginner's village badge'. Increased 50% chance to receive rare quest from NPC and 10% discount when buying item from them. 」

Ryou is happy to receive the badge. Not to mention the increased chance to receive rare quest, the 10% discount is really helpful. Because as an archer, his expenditure of arrows is quite a lot and the discount helped even if it's just 10%.

Luna's notification on the other hand is a bit different from him.

「You gained 5000 EXP. You have leveled up. You have leveled up. You have leveled up. You have leveled up. 」

「You earned 'The fortune badge'. Increasing the effect of "fortune in misfortune" skill. Increasing your luck attributes by 5. You will have lower chance to be targeted by 'mini-boss' monster on the field. You can now choose 'nightmare' difficulty level dungeon. 」

The experience itself sends her to level 7, just one level behind Ryou who got himself leveled up to level 8. The most important thing for her, is the badge. This mean that she will be able to experience more of the world of Aaru. She won't be targeted by mini-boss monster such as the tempest wolf and the black garuda as soon as she stepped out of the beginner's village to the field.

Ryou on the other hand didn't know what benefit she got from the badge because its color is different from the badge given to him by the village's chief. However, the level up that she gained really make him jealous.

「I have to go out, facing all that monster and have to risk my life. While she didn't have to do anything, just sit around waiting at town and she earned 5 level after I completed it. F*ck! Life is not fair. 」

Seeing that the village chief seemed to be finished with them, Ryou and Luna decided to leave his hut, but Ryou make one last request to the village's chief.

"Sir, is it possible for me to see the records of the beginner's village? I want to make sure that there's no chance that Yaga will wake up and go on a rampage."

After thinking for a while, the village chief agreed to his request. He was brought to the forbidden section of the village's library and he start to read the records. Luna who isn't interested on the record are roaming around to see if there's an interesting book to read.

From the records, Ryou found out about what Yaga did in the past. 15 villages are destroyed with the casualties reaching 4000 people. There's almost no record about Yaga's son except for one line which makes him suspicious.

"The village chief, 'Barnak' is missing before the incident with Yaga. It is suspected that he does something to anger Yaga. He has a relatives living in 'Rubis town', we need to find him after the incident is over."

Ryou suspected that Barnak is the one that is tricking Yaga's son. However, the records show no other information following up about the investigation of him. Maybe it was all forgotten when the villagers are busy recovering from the incident. With that, Ryou have achieved what he needed to find out from the records. He decided to leave the library and on his way to find Luna to go back together.

"Hmmm, not this one. This book doesn't seem to be interesting. Not this one either."

Luna on the other hand is busy exploring the library. She only looked at the title and move on to another since nothing catches her attention.

"Luna, we're leaving."

Hearing Ryou's call, Luna was surprised a bit and turned her body. In the process, her foot was hitting the edge of the bookshelf and immediately, some book falls upon her. Ryou was too far from her to protect her from the falling book so there's no choice but to watch the whole scene happening.

"Ouch. Eh, what is this?"

Luna was covering her pained head that suffered from the books. When she opened her eyes however, a book was laid open in front of her. In the middle of the book, she found a letter. She took it out of curiosity but she didn't open it yet. Ryou helped her to reorganized the book back to the shelf before they finally exited the library.

They decided to sit at the village's square before Luna decided to open the letter out of curiosity.

"Tonight, 12.00am, village's chief son, kill."

It was a weird letter but she knows immediately that it was full of malice. She also hears a notification on her mind and she accepted the quest immediately. Ryou who is her party member also received the notification.

「You have found a quest 'mysterious letter'. Do you wish to accept? 」

「You have accepted the quest 'mysterious letter'. Quest rank: unknown. There's a mysterious letter found in the library, and you found out about their devious plan. Quest rewards: unknown. Time remaining: 6h 30m. 」

Ryou and Luna immediately looked at each other and they need to come out with a plan. Telling the village chief about it won't do any good because it might have alerted the other party. They also didn't know whether the enemy will follow up with the plan because they have found the letter. Because of that, there's two things that they need to do.

First, put the letter back inside the book in the library. They can also watch who come and who goes out of the library easily since it was a place that have low interest from the people. Second, they can watch over the village's chief son. The only problem is they didn't know who is the village's chief son and they need to search around for him first. Of course asking around the people in the village might arouse the attention of the other party that is planning to kill him.

Ryou also know that this quest can only be found because of Luna's skill. Although it brings her some misfortune of falling books, there's a fortune of a quest within. He also decided that it was better for him to take a look out at the library while Luna will be tasked to find the village's chief son. He hoped that with Luna's 'luck' she will be able to stumbled upon the village's chief son accidentally. It was also because he knows that Luna doesn't have the patient to be on the lookout.

"Okay, I will search around the town while you keep watch in the library. Roger that!"

Luna is making a silly salute while saying that. It was because she is happy to do this. Another quest is another adventure for her and she have decided to play the game to the fullest and be happy so she can tell her mother about it later.

"Right, don't forget to send me a message if you found a clue. I will also send you a message if I found someone suspicious in the library."