Ultimate Level 1

Breakfast was much better than expected, and the small dessert that Big D had given him to go with the eggs, meat, and bread was the icing on the cake. It was an actual cake with icing. A small strawberry cake, moist and fluffy, with just enough icing and a wedge of real fruit to be eaten in one bite. He had savored that flavor for far too long and gotten a few looks from the other patrons eating breakfast when a moan escaped his lips.

Once done with breakfast Max started writing down things he had come up with in order to succeed in town.

Farm orcs a few more times - No packs of three

Buy better gear - 4 gold

Find a book store - List of skills for people and monsters

Start searching for a party

He tapped the pen he had bought from Linda against his chin and considered what else he might need to do while in town.

As he sat there a gentle breeze came in through the open double doors, bringing the scent of baking bread.

Smiling he wrote one more thing on his paper.

See if I can practice baking!

The orc dungeon became his best friend that day as he made it without getting struck once by any of those massive creatures. He stopped at the entrance of the large room and, after seeing three orcs in chain armor and with shields and random melee weapons, turned around and left.

He could only make one attempt at the dungeon that day, as it reset every morning.

After turning in the orc ears and items, Max managed to earn eleven silver, not the amount he had hoped. The bonuses he had received the day before for being an F rank had spoiled him. Today, the money could have been better.

Not as good… how much bread would I have to sell to earn eleven silver…

After waiting for a few minutes in line at the equipment section of the guild, Max was finally able to torture an attendant, asking dozens of questions and walking away with a lot of notes but no money spent. He had seen the frustration on the dwarven man's face when he left.

Finding books to read with a list of skills he wanted was next on his agenda. As he prepared to head out of the adventurers’ guild, Max saw Dawn standing near the doors, directing people who walked up to her and appeared to ask her questions.

“Dawn!”

The young woman turned around and after a second, her face lit up, somehow remembering who he was.

“Seth Pendal,” she said, giving a playful bow and then motioning toward the tapestry near the door with her head. “How can I help one of the greatest heroes of our land.”

A random adventurer laughed as they heard Dawn say those words, glancing at Max as they kept walking.

“Glad you didn’t forget me,” he replied, giving the best grin he could as he got closer. “I got a question and was wondering if you could help.”

She tilted her head to the side, and her eyebrows furrowed for a moment before returning to normal. “I’m listening.”

“I’m trying to study up on the different creatures I might face as well as any skills they might use. I don’t want to find out the hard way a monster can cast a spell or see when our rogue is trying to sneak by. I would also like to find a list of all the recorded skills the members in my party might have so I can try to plan what ones to seek out as we target certain creatures.”

Dawn’s mouth fell open before she quickly shut it, and a smile stretched across her face.

“Why, that’s… impressive,” she said, her voice failing her for a moment. “Most of the adventurers I have met over the years just rush in and hope to survive. A few do a little bit of preparation at your level, but what you are asking for is typically something we don’t see around here.”

After she finished talking, Dawn glanced toward one of the counters and scrunched her nose. She then turned back to face Max and he saw her absently tapping her fingers together at her side.

“Is that possible here in town?”

She nodded, holding her hand up to stop Max as she closed her eyes for a moment.

They popped open and she gave a smile and snapped her fingers.

“I know just the place. What we have here that you could get is limited in detail. What it sounds like you want will require a specific book.”

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Turning, she motioned him to follow, and she went to the quest board, tearing off a low-level gathering sheet and flipping it over. Retrieving a pen from her pocket, she wrote down something on it and, once done, handed it to him.

“This is on the south side of town, but there is a bookshop called All Things Written,” she paused and chuckled for a second, “and if you tell the someone there what you are looking for, I am sure they will have it.”

Looking at the paper she had given him, Max saw a few lines drawn with the main street marked going south and a few side ones.

“How do you do this? I mean, how do you know where everything is?” he asked, utterly amazed at how easily she had recalled that.

She chuckled and tapped her forehead.

“There are lots of skills given. Each one has different uses. Mine will be in the book they should have but its an uncommon skill.”

He waited to see what more she would say and, after a few beats of his heart, realized she wasn’t going to say anymore.

“If I come back later and guess what it is, will you tell me?”

Dawn shrugged her shoulders as she smiled. “Maybe. We will have to see. Anything else?”

Shaking his head, he gave a deep bow and gave his best grin as he rose up from it. “I am set. Thank you, as always, for your help.”

Dawn had not been joking when she said it was on the other side of town. It had taken him almost two hours of walking to reach the shop, but Max was amazed as he stood outside it.

Unlike most storefronts, which had small shops fighting for space in the inner part of the city, All Things Written was an actual warehouse right on the edge of town that led to the warehouse district. The outside of the building was almost laughable as someone had taken columns and formed them into the spines of books with titles written on them. Each column had the title of an epic story most people would have heard of or read. There was a decent amount of traffic going in and out of the glass doors, and the most impressive part of this building was that every inch he could see from the outside was stone.

I guess wood would be bad, one spark would destroy everything…

Going through the glass door, Max almost tripped as he saw what he imagined was at least a hundred bookshelves running in rows, every one of them stuffed with books. Never before had he seen even a fraction of this many books in one place.

“Looking for a book?” a gruff voice called out from his left.

Turning his head, Max saw an older dwarf with a beard whiter than snow that ran down to the ground. It still dragged along the carpet he was standing on, even with it tucked in his belt. His face had more wrinkles than Max had imagined possible for one person.

“You going to stare at my good looks, or do I need to wait for you to propose to me first?”

Chuckling, Max moved closer to the dwarf.

“Sorry, I was just impressed by your beard. I haven’t seen one that long or white before. It is a thing of beauty.”

Clearing his throat, the dwarf began to stroke it a few times as he puffed out his chest and bobbed his head slightly.

“Either you’re looking for a date or have had a dwarf friend or two. Words like that spoken to dwarven women might find you out back and experiencing a whole new world,” the dwarf joked, his voice a little more raspy now than gruff. “So tell me, what are you looking for?”

“No date! I promise!” Max replied, trying not to laugh. “I was told I should come here to find what I was looking for.”

Twenty minutes later and ten silver poorer, Max was putting eight books in his backpack before returning them to the temporal storage.

“Now, after you are done with those, if they are still in good shape, I’ll buy them back at half what ya paid. You still want to wait on the other books?”

“Yeah, I doubt I’ll need to study the skill knowledge of dragons, demons, and those other creatures anytime soon if I’m lucky.”

The older dwarf began to laugh and handed a receipt to Max.

“Remember to ask for me next time you come back, and I’ll make sure to give you a deal.”

Stuffing the receipt in his pouch, Max nodded and held out his hand.

“Thanks for everything, Sam. This will be a big help.”

Back in his room, Max sat on his bed, leaning against the wall, and looked at the first book he felt needed to be read.

“Low-Level Monsters and Their Abilities,” Max read the title out loud. Turning the book over, he shook his head as he saw how thick the book was. “Never in my life would I have imagined studying this stuff.”

Letting out a sigh, he opened the cover and began to read.

Two hours later, Max was downstairs, sitting at the bar, drinking a cup of ale. His mind wandered to what he had just read.

The book had not been a fun read at all. He had to skim through chapters on each creature deemed a lower-level one that talked about its history and other boring details. Tucked away in paragraphs were mentions of skills and how rare it seemed for creatures to have them.

He had learned that rare spawns almost always had a skill, but due to how rare they were, the list was considered unfinished for some of the creatures.

Turning back to the owners of the inn, he couldn’t help but smile as he watched Linda and Big D discuss something about dessert choices.

The two of them were funny because Big D didn’t have any real muscle mass or fat on him and his wife was obviously not missing any meals. She would growl and say some very crass things, pointing her thick finger in her husband's face and he would just smile, gently grasping her hand and kissing it.

In no time, they were in an embrace, kissing each other as if they were Max’s age and hiding behind a barn somewhere.

“Quit staring,” Big D called out when he caught Max watching them again. “You’re too young to be watching this.”

Linda started laughing and kissed her husband before moving off to the kitchen.

“Trust me, I don’t want to watch that at all, but you two are doing that all the time,” Max replied. “I actually don’t think anyone else seems to notice.”

Walking to where Max was, Big D bent over and pulled a tray out from under the bar. On it were three different desserts.

“Why don’t you do me a favor and try these? Tell me which is the best, and I’ll ensure it's on the menu with dinner tonight.”

His mouth began to water, and Max looked at the old man who was nodding his head.

Not waiting, Max bit into the desserts one at a time, sighing with satisfaction after each one.

“Well?”

“I can’t choose, all three of them are great.”

“Exactly!” Big D exclaimed as he pounded the bar with his fist. “That’s what I told my wife, but she doesn’t believe me.”

Max took another bite of each, licking his fingers, and the old man chuckled.

“Do me a favor. Run across the street and tell Baker Wright to give me forty of each.”