Quote:Then he looked up still red like a tomato to see who was that woman.

“You…what? What happened?! Wh, wh, why are you here” He stuttered embarrassed.

On the bed smiling at Paul was Nori.

-“I figured you would be lonely and I did say I would help you however I can for you. And you seemed to enjoy it.”

-“That that’s….”

-“Relax…I’m only joking.”

She said while grinning with her eyes fixed on Paul like a hunter looking at it’s prey.

After dressing up they went to the inn together to eat. While heading to the inn Paul could feel the stares of every man and even some killing intent. Then Nori locked arms with Paul and the killing intent increased. Paul could hear the men swearing and cursing him.

When they reached the inn Nori ordered some food for both of them. Paul looked worried when he saw the food. It looked expensive.

“Don’t worry. My treat” said Nori enjoying seeing all the expressions Paul made.

While eating, Paul told her that he wishes to learn some crafting skills and all the skills that he needs to survive in the wild. Hearing this Nori gave Paul some advice.

“Paul, I know you wish to learn the skills but people don’t trust strangers. Especially if you want to learn from the best you will need to learn from the dwarfs and elves. And they don’t like humans that much, especially trusting them with their skills.

First you should do some quests for them. Look at the quest board. It’s filled with H rank quests since the guilds don’t really do those quests since they don’t pay well. The only ones doing it are the young kids and some quests are impossible for them. These quests will help you know the village and the people and most importantly the people will get to know you and in turn trust you.”

She had a point. Paul planned this to a certain extent but hearing it from someone else was reassuring.

-“Thank you Mrs.Onca for you advice”

-“Call me Nori!”

-“Thank you..ehmmmNori”

Hearing her name said by a man she blushed. Paul didn’t know why but seeing her blush he was feeling happy. Then NoriHould out her hand touched Paul and said “Register friend”

The bracelet showed a window in front of Paul.

You received a friend request from OncaNoriAccept by saying YES or deny by saying NO.

Paul looked at Nori. She was smiling.

-“YES”

-“Ok Paul…now I can talk to you anytime I want. If you need anything from me just think of me and say Contact and we will be able to talk”

Nori kept grinning like a child that received a present.

After finishing Paul left Nora at the inn since she said she has some business there.

Paul headed to the quest board. The quest board was huge, there were hundreds of quests on it. He started looking at the different H rank quests. Some were to help with cleaning, some to gather apples, some to cut some wood, all sort of boring thought Paul.

Paul then remembered he doesn’t know how to accept quests. He knows that he has to absorb them but doesn’t know how. Paul put his hand on a quest and said –Absorb--. Nothing happened. Then he tried ---Quest Accepted--. Again nothing happened. Then a young kid appeared next to him. He looked around 10 with brown hair and brown eyes. He reached for a quest, put his hand on it and said

“H Rank quest…..” Then he whispered something. Paul didn’t hear the last part but then he saw that the quest disappeared from the board and the kid ran off.

Paul then put his hand on the board and said. “H Rank quest” All of a sudden all the H rank quests got accepted by Paul. The board was now almost empty, only about 50 quests remaining and only because they were a higher rank. A window appeared in front of Paul and his jaw dropped.

H Rank Quest’s acceptedYou have accepted 265 quest’s!

You have two weeks to finish the quest’s before you lose the quest’s.

Warning: Not finishing a quest will make the familiarity with the quest giver to drop.

"265 quest’s for 153 people. Great just great…how did this happen? Don’t I have a high luck stat?"

Everyone that was around was looking at Paul with their mouth open , thinking that they must be dreaming, no normal person could finish that many quests in a month.

Paul then got alerted that he got

+30 Fame

Paul looked around and when he saw everyone staring at him he ran into a back alley. There he sat on the ground having a bit of a panic attack.

Then he remembered. "Jonathan’s pills" He got the pouch out of the ring and looked inside.

Inside the pouch there were pills that looked like black peas. He then realized that there aren’t 50 like Jonathan said.

There are only about 20 of them. Jonathan probably forgot, he was old after all

He then realized that he had a skill that can help him. He used Identify on one of the pills.

Limit PillIngesting this pill will eliminate the need for food, water, sleep.

Will also increase stamina regeneration by 300%

Duration:7 days

Warning: After the 7 day you must sleep or you might lose your life.

Then he checked the ring

Storage RingDurability: InfiniteThis ring can store any item by opening a pocket dimension and preserve it in the same condition that it was absorbed in since time stops in this dimension.

Able to send and bring back anything from this dimension.

Living things cannot be absorbed.

Bond to Paul Silver.

He got up and while looking at the number of quests yelled.

“CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”

Paul ingested one of the pills put the rest back and for the next 5 hours he ran around the village finishing as many quests as possible. He did 4 quests before stopping. The first 3 were easy, and Paul finished them in about 3 hours. The last one was hard. He had to clean a large garden full of weeds and didn't have any tools. The only reason he stopped it’s because the army arrived in the village. Paul stopped for the next 30 minutes to check out the army to rest his mind and eyes from seeing weeds.

There were about 60 soldiers. The soldiers were all wearing identical shiny white armor. Some were wearing swords and some spears. The only exception were the 5 people leading them. 3 of them were huge and looked like barbarians. They had 3 large sword and were sitting on their horses. In front of them there was a man with a brown robe on. He didn’t have any weapons.

he must be a mage

And finally the one that looked like their leader was a tall man with huge muscles. He had golden short hair. His sword was black with a silver edge. He was on the biggest horse. It looked like the horse was given steroids.

They stopped in the center and with a voice clear and loud like thunder the leader yelled.

“We are here to prepare for the possibility of an advent!

Starting this moment no one is allowed to leave the village until the second sun disappears!

We will start checking the stats of everyone suspicious once the second sun appears!

If you do not follow my instruction I’ve been given permission to throw you in prison or kill you on the spot. That’s all!!!”

The soldiers then spread around and closed the village gates. 20 of them and one of the barbarians made camp at the entrance. The other one in the village center and the last one in the crafting district.

The leader with the possible mage headed towards the inn probably to get a fancy room.

Paul then decided to get back to the quests since he didn’t have time to waste on the captain yet.

For the next 10 hours Paul continued doing quests like a mad man but from the perspective of the villagers he was looking calm, with a polite smile on his face. While doing the quest’s he had his Aura Shift activated all the time. He finished another 15 quests. For the quest’s that were for the blacksmith Teo, the tailor Jinx, the cook Archie and others he thought he could learn useful skills from he paid extra attention.

Paul was using Aura Shift to be perceived as hardworking, happy with a small mix of nobility to make them feel like he was doing doing a bigger favor for them, than he actually did so that he got a better reward for the quests and increase the familiarity with them.

When he stopped to relax he noticed that it was dark and only a few people were outside. Most of them were sleeping. While relaxing he checked his stats since the bracelet kept sending him notifications.

Stats updateBecause of your actions since the last time you checked you increased your following stats:

+10 health

+5 mana

+15 agility points

+10 strength points

+25 stamina points

+5 intelligence

+10 wisdom

+15charisma

+1 luck

+50 fame

Quest’s updateYou finished 19 quests and received in total 50 silver coins and 40 guild points.

246 quests remaining.

Time remaining: 13 days.

Skills updateBecause of your actions since the last time you checked you increased your skill level of:

-Aura shift to Beginner LVL.3 (50%)

-Identification to Beginner LVL.7 (11%)

- Perception to Beginner LVL.4 (58%)

- Running to Intermediary LVL.2 (5%)

- Focus to Beginner LVL.9 (76%)

“Running reached intermediary? I think that’s good. Show skill running”

Running(active)- Intermediary LVL.2 (5%)You can run 50% faster and consume less stamina by 50%

On rough terrain you won’t trip.

Your steps while running don’t make any noise.

Since the people went to sleep Paul didn’t have much of a choice and had to do the quests that need him to gather, clean, cut anything that doesn’t need the quest giver to be present.

So for the next 8 hours he started doing those quests. And thanks to his perception skill, he could see in the dark pretty well, even without the torches that were present from place to place.

In those 8 hours he did 12 quests. Almost all these quests were quite easy the only problem was that they were similar and very repetitive.

He saw that the sun started to rise and people started to wake up. So he sat down on a bench in the village square and watched the people preparing for the day. Even the soldiers became more active and started to walk through the village. Paul avoided them since he didn’t want problems, and at night when he saw a soldier he hid since it would seem he would seem suspicious.

He decided to not check his stats and skills until he finishes the quests. The only time he saw a window from his bracelet was when he looked at his next quest.

For the next 15 hours or so he did another 20 quests. At night he did 13.

The next day he saw that there were two suns just like he heard there will be and the soldiers became more vigilant so he had to be more careful with his movements. At night he used to sneak, jump and climb a lot to avoid the soldiers. All this became a routine, doing the similar amount of quests every day.

After the week was over Paul and having left 63 quests, went to his room and sat down on the bed. He wanted to check his stats but he promised himself not to, until he finishes the quests.

That will be my reward for all this work. Now I must go to sleep. I already told Nori to not be disturbed for the next 24 hours so I should be OK.

Mentally exhausted from focusing all the time he dropped on the bed

That day, while Paul was sleeping like he was in a coma, rumors started appearing about him. Of course the rumors were spread by the people he did the quests for. At the end of the week, when they met in the inn they started talking about their last week. They all mentioned someone was helping them. They all described the young man that was helping them. When they shared the stories, they realized that it can’t be the same man because that means that young man didn’t rest for a whole week and he helped 118 people by doing about 150 quests by himself. They all agreed to call this person the hardworking noble because for some reason they felt like someone with noble blood was helping them with chores.

Fortunately the villagers didn't trust the soldiers and didn't tell them about Paul. That day they kept looking to see if the hardworking noble was working hoping to catch a glimpse to see if the rumors were true or not. After all the rumors sounded kind of like a lie.

The next morning Paul woke up. Since he felt rusty form sleeping 24 hours he started stretching for about half an hour when he saw interrupted by Nori with a huge plate of food. Paul didn't need to eat food for a week but now all that hunger struck him. He started eating, grabbing and putting in his mouth as much as he could. Nori was watching him staring at the smiling. As soon as he slowed down a bit she said

-“There is a rumor about someone that looks like you….you know”

-“Mhhm, and what do these rumors say?”

-“That there is a someone who helped a lot of people for very little for a whole week without sleeping. .”

-“So?”

-“Sooo….i want you to know that if you need help just ask. I’m your…….friend you know.”

Paul looked her in the eyes and said with a grin like he knew something

-“I know and just so you know you can also ask me for help”

-“Wha, what? How do you know I need help?”

-“I didn’t say that you need help, I just offered. Was I right?”

She blushed a bit and a bit angry that she was tricked and said

-“Well it’s true that I have a problem but I don’t think you can help me after all you are not powerful enough”

-“Maybe not…I know you are powerful and can’t solve it so maybe I can help another way. Just tell me and maybe together we could work something out”

-“Welll….”

-“I’m more dependable than I look….after all I’m the famous helper hahahahaha”

-“Allright I understand…I have a problem with…*mublemuble*”

-“Sorry? Didn’t quite get that”

-“I said, I have a problem with Rocka.”

-“Huh?Rocka? Who is….ohhhh…you mean the army captain. What is the problem?”

-“Well since I run the brothel, he thought that i am, you know….”

-“I know you’re not. You only run the place instead of your friend. And?”

-“Well he tried to buy me, but when I refused he got angry and started shouting. Thankfully there were many people around and he left, promising that I will be his.”

-“Hahaha, really?”

-“Yes…now stop laughing and help me out”

-“Ok, ok. To be able to help you I must know a few things….about you.”

-“What do you want to know?”

-“I want to know who are you exactly…You are definitely not just a regular person. You are very strong and when we first met I didn’t even see you move.”

-“Ahmm….I will tell you if you promise to keep it a secret.”

-“I promise”

-“Well I am…one of the lieutenants of a guild that specializes in….how should I put this….information gathering.”

-“So you are thieves?”

-“NO! Well…sometimes. We use our skills to gather information that was requested, and sometimes assassinations. I only gather information, just so you know.”

-“Wow….and what are you doing here?”

-“I am watching a branch of one of the guilds from the capital. You know the only one in the village, but sadly only a few low level members are present at the moment”

-“I see…..anything else I should know?”

-“No….that’s all”

-“I hope so….”

Paul looked at her and started to run different plans and simulations in his head when suddenly he got it.

-“I have a plan to help you, but you will have to use some of you particular skills.”

-“Already? Do tell”

-“Well I’m sure you have a few people under you.”

-“Yes, I have around 5 girls, one of them who you already met”

-“I met one already?Who?”

-“When you first came to me you talked to a girl…”

-“Really? Oh well…either way I need you to ask them to spread rumors about you being engaged to me and also spread different rumors about how I look”

She looked at Paul and with a small smile appearing on the corners of the mouth she asked

-“Are you asking me to marry you?”

-“What? No! It’s part of the plan”

-“I see, I see….then continue”

-“When Rocka approaches you again say that you are engaged, confirming the rumors he definitely heard. He will then try to find me. Since he doesn’t know how I look it will take some time. While he is searching for me I will try to gather some information about him and see what are his weaknesses.”

-“What about when he finds you?”

-“Don’t worry, I will have something then. For now try to always be surrounded by people”

-“I sure hope this plan of yours works…”

Paul then took another Limit Pill and went back to doing quests while avoiding Rocka and his soldiers.

For the next week Paul did quests…and at night he spied on the soldiers and Rocka. The last quest took him the longest…the first 62 he did in 3 days but the last one he had to catalogue all the books in the library. The library wasn’t that big.. but it still took him a long time to finish.

This week Paul avoided having his stats read, by soldiers who were randomly asking people for their stats. Paul then went to bed and slept like a baby.

Paul being mentally exhausted didn’t realize the transformation se suffered for the last 2 weeks.