Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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Dale returned to the Guild, entering the main Hall where he saw the old man putting up a new wooden board on the wall.

Misgurd also saw him, saying:

"Took you long enough kid, I almost went back there to fetch you myself."

"Now, help me in making this place presentable, we wouldn't want our future clients to think we're playing around."

"What are those?" Asked Dale as he saw a pile of papers on Misgurd's right hand

"Oh, these? They are your work as a mercenary."

[Your quest has been updated]

[Welcome to Resko

Quest type: Chain Quest (Slightly Rare)

Requirements:

Pass the Mercenary Guild's test 1/1

Become a Mercenary 1/1

-Pass Misgurd's personal test 1/1

Talk with Testros 1/1

*Optional* Impress both Misgurd and Testros with an outstanding performance 1/1

]

[Quest completed!]

[You have become a Mercenary

Mercenary Guild Branch(Resko) has been partly reactivated

Resko Reputation +2

25% Level XP ]

While he read the notifications, Dale went to help him place the contracts on the board, using a small nail to stick the contracts in place one by one.

And before he even had the chance to ask...

"I'll quickly explain how things work around here."

"See all of these papers? They are mostly old requests and other problems that have been pilling up in the village over time."

"I used to do them in my free time, but what can I do? My back can't handle going around the Village all day."

"These are the most recent ones, and I made sure to remove all the ones I knew were fixed, but they're not all as I still have some left to confirm."

"I may be old but I never took my job lightly."

"Pick whatever mission you want, but only one at a time, if I see you getting more than that you will receive a penalty."

"3 penalties make a strike, 1 strike and you will be put on probation, 2 strikes and it's a long-term suspension, 3 strikes, and your Mercenary identity will be revoked immediately until a trial can be held."

"Of course, you can receive penalties through other means such as unjustified aggression to your contractor or violence within the Guildhall."

"There is a long long list of things, in short, just stick to common sense, you can always come back to me if you wish to clarify something, as I'm aware you may not understand our customs very well."

"Though if I see you getting even a single strike I'll kick your ass!!" He said loudly, the air blowing back Dale's hair

"..."

He let out a sigh and said with a smile:

"Though that... Would be the case if we were operating normally… But we aren't."

"So pick as many as you want, just make sure to finish the job once you accept it."

"There is something to do everywhere so it's best to pick as many as you can instead of wasting my time having to process your missions every time you finish one."

"Especially since most of these don't have time limits."

Dale picked one of the missions and asked:

"Who issues these?" He asked as he read the contract

'Help needed, back garden fence broke in the previous flood... Reward... To be discussed?'

'It shouldn't be high, however, as my rank increases... Things will likely change.'

Misgurd replied to his question as he put his pile of papers on a table nearby:

"Everyone really, and the paying is written over there as you've already noticed."

"As I said before, normally, I would be the person to do these contracts."

"But my time is short and my age is catching up to me, as such, in the past decade or so, I focused all of my efforts on hunting down the dangerous monsters that come too close to our village."

"Don't worry about payment as, despite our condition, money is the last thing we lack…"

"If so, why is everything so…"

Misgurd let out another sigh.

"Rundown? Simple kid, we are in the middle of fucking nowhere."

"We have the money but merchants rarely stop by, and even then, it's not for long."

"Even then, who would bring back construction materials all the way to the South?..."

"Everything we have was inherited from the people that came before us, that is why everything here may seem expensive to you, it's just because that is the amount we are used to."

"And even if we wanted to fix the Village, we cannot."

"Just farming takes almost all of our combined effort, if we were to try and set up a group focused on gathering such resources... We might starve soon enough."

"The only thing an old man like me can do now is to hunt some meat to lift their moods... Sigh."

He kept sighing, despite his looks, he felt very bad about their current situation.

"From time to time merchants do arrive in big droves, but it's only once or twice every few years… And I suspect they may not come this year either... And the years after as well." <subtxt> . </subtxt>

"In any case, focus on doing these, and soon enough, your Mercenary rank will be increased, don't think I will take it easy on you just because you are the only mercenary here, so get in there and start working."

Misgurd smiled and patted Dale's shoulder, while the other was ecstatic.

So many quests to do… And the rewards…

Most importantly, the XP. Quantity and quality... Perfect for a start.

Dale scratched his chin and thought:

'I see it now… So this is the "Scenario".'

'I got into the village but someone coincidentally arrived to help me inside, I used my social skills and helped the old lady, and she directed me here, I finished this guy's quest and this is now open to me... It was all part of one big chain quest.'

'And this Chain quest revealed to me the troubles, necessities, and even a bit of this place's past... The direction the story seems to be going is more than clear.'

'This Village is a Development type Scenario. Meaning that most of the quests should be directed towards improving the condition of the land they are performed on.'

'Look at this… Clear up monsters on an old farming field… Fix this, collect this… Scout this place and bring back that… And even lengthier missions like clearing monsters from the road.'

'Alone, I won't make a difference, but if there were 10000 players doing this at the same time, this city will completely change after a few weeks.'

'But I won't get ahead of myself.'

'By doing these, my reputation will slowly rise to the point where one day I will be within the inner circle of the Village, and at that time I will probably get the important missions that will lead to this territory becoming something rather interesting.'

'To fix the bigger problems... There is no need to even think about it, they likely are the monsters that prowl these lands, the merchants that bring in goods from beyond the desert, the desert itself that keeps growing and forcing them back...'

'Followed by the sustenance problem... Oh yeah, and the supposed heavy rain.'

'For now, I lack what it takes to do some of these bigger quests… I have no idea how I'll even tackle them all, but it's not like I lack quests to do anyway…'

...

While Misgurd stuck more contracts on the board, Dale went through the papers, selecting many simple quests like fixing fences and removing weeds and rocks.

There was an overwhelming amount of these and Dale could say with overflowing confidence that it wouldn't be impossible for him to reach Level 10 today.

"By doing a simple estimation, I would say it would take a week or more for the elite players to reach Level 10 and double that for normal players."

'This is by taking into consideration the Starting Villages and the time it took for us to Level up during the Beta.'

"I'm also not counting the Special or Unique players that'll appear soon enough since they surely will level up a bit faster than this…"

'People that'll find out ways to Level up at speeds that don't really make any sense to people that'll be Level boosted by other's efforts...'

'Worse, I need to keep an eye out for the vultures that will come to this village after me… There are millions of players, at least a few dozen will be brazen enough to check out this high-Level area, be it for fun, curiosity, or something else.'

'The biggest problem is the tourist players... As they are almost unbeatable through PVP and they start with high affinities with the NPCs...'

'I need to make myself part of this community and monopolize the best quests before someone arrives and takes them from me… It doesn't matter if they can complete the quests or not, it'll be obvious that they won't be able to.'

'But I can't guarantee that I'll be able to get a quest if someone receives it first merely because their affinity was higher than mine.'

/Clench.../

Dale clenched his left fist quietly.

'I will make it impossible for any new player to grow in this place!'

And while he thought about his plans, Misgurd left somewhere else, leaving him all alone...

"Hum... There is only one thing I am surprised about…"

"This was supposed to be a Chain quest, did I miss anything?"

'It's a shame to have no more quests to do... Perhaps I lack something...'

'The reward for this chain quest was XP and the Guild branch, so I'm not really complaining.'

Dale thought deeply as he made his way out of the Guild…

…

/Later.../

The hours passed, Dale continued to do his quests, and he eventually saw something interesting, or better put, he learned a bit more about what his privilege did.

When he chose this area, he could see the number of quests and their rarity, but only for those within Level 10 and below.

At the start, he was confused about how a Level 10 quest could have such high rewards, but it was then that he realized… It didn't.

What had happened was simple, this place was filled with low-level quests, but most of them were… Chain quests.

And since he could see all info below Level 10, he could see what the final reward of these chain quests would be, and that was what appeared on the Spawn selection screen.

Although this feature seems to have been removed now that he is in the game itself, he can still infer from what he has experienced so far and the fact he can see those low-level quest grades.

Dale is, after all, a veteran gamer.

And now, he only needed to start as many Chain quests as he could and finish them until he found the good ones.

Dale used his super Human body to complete as many of them as fast as he could.

He fixed fences, cut grass, removed broken rubble from the ground, and even swept the streets.

His speed was completely inhuman, the returning villagers would have quite the surprise when they came back…

Big boulders that would be impossible to take out by hand? Come on! Dale could easily roll them out of the way, or break them into pieces to allow him an easy fix...

A rotten tree trunk on the ground? Dale can just pull it out. If the trunk doesn't give in and shatters on his hands of course...

His increase in reputation was starting to have an effect as some of the older inhabitants that stayed in the village came to offer him some extra rewards for his efforts.

An old man gave him a hammer that gave him a temporary Skill, Furniture repair 0.5-Star...

An old lady gave him a broom with the temporary Skill, Sweep 0.5-Star...

The first old man, seeing him work non-stop, came back and gave him a toolbox with many tools inside.

And when Dale put the hammer he previously got inside, the toolbox description changed, allowing Dale to use the Skill, 'Wood and Iron repair' 1-Star, making him almost cry in happiness.

Seeing Dale happy, the old man also smiled as he went back home.

If he couldn't work anymore then it was time to leave it to the next generation.

Midway through his work, kids even passed by him as they played around, trying to pull him along.

Although he didn't want to waste time, he followed them and tagged along, and after a few minutes of playing tag, he completed a Hidden quest, getting another Reputation bonus.

Being kind played it off!

As such, Dale quickly accumulated 10 Reputation points, and in no time at all, it surpassed 30.

He did not know what it meant, but he was sure it was good, at least it meant something.

The effects weren't immediate, since it wasn't realistic that an increase in the number would make everyone love him unconditionally...

Like in real life, rumors and information take time to travel, and soon enough everyone would hopefully treat him like the old man that gave him the tools...

Even if not, he at least expected to not be treated in the same way the guards did to him when they first met.

Later on, when Dale felt tired, he sat on the ground and used some of the consumables he kept in his inventory specifically for this moment.

He looked at a selection of potions in the corner of his inventory bag and said:

"... Not yet, I don't have enough yet..."

'I need to find a Trade Center...'

And with a smile, Dale went back to work, hammering away and clearing the path, making a small corner of the city a bit more bearable...

But he wasn't the only one working hard...

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Notes

I think you should take a look at re.o