Days passed by like flipping the page and months as if they were simple chapters in a book. The years felt like books from the village's library leaving permanent memories on Reece.
Four whole years have passed since he first visited that library and he's been busy with a certain thing... Side Quests.
Reece is warmed by the large stove in an amber lit bakery as he's tirelessly watching bread rise from the heat- Then ping! His system screen popped up for him.
[Ping! You've completed Joys of Living: 6! Rewarding you with (1 Coin)]
'Whew... Helping to bake 60 batches of any bread type was a lot harder than I thought...' Reece took a cloth from his front pocket on his apron and cleaned some sweat off his forehead. He smiles in satisfaction before his pointy ears perk up at the door opening.
"Wolfhard sweetie, could you please get Volker? He needs to help out in the bakery too." A hearty gnome lady stepped into the bake-house with a troubled expression before perking up seeing the oven. "Oh, I can handle the last batch while you go find him."
"Thanks, Miss Spellmeyer! I was about to head out soon." Reece waved while walking into a narrow in-between room that holds various baking tools and supplies. He takes off his apron to hang on an old coat hanger placed by the bake-house room. "I'll come back for this later, Mom made it too cute."
Reece turns away from it before moving into a store front of the bakery. A familiar gnome girl is handling the counter, it takes a moment for her to notice that he walked in. He was taking in the sweet scent of the baked goods made by the skilled baker like Miss Spellmeyer.
"Heya Wolfy!" Jana Spellmeyer announced, waving towards him from over the front counter of her family bakery. She couldn't help but smile at her friend. "You're done sooner than usual."
"Oh yeah! Miss Spellmeyer wanted me to trade duties with Volker." Reece's eyes scanned the room, Volker isn't out here clearly... He'd at least hear him outside. "Where is he??"
"Volker? Uh... He's probably playing with his friends in the outer fields around the village." Jana's expression sours for a moment talking about her brother. "Was he supposed to stay around for that?"
"I don't think so? Ask your mom, she was the one that wanted this." Reece shrugged before walking towards the bakery's front door and waved to Jana. "Anyway, See ya! I'll go find him."
Reece stepped out into the cool breeze of this pleasant summer day. He takes a deep breath of this fresh air, the cleanest air that's incomparable to his old world's smog filled cityscape. It's something he'll take for a long time to get accustomed with even after so many years so far.
He steps forwards a bit lost in thought about where Volker could be at the outer fields. It's the general ring of grasslands around his village then the small farmlands start from there. 'Volker is probably playing at the fields behind his family bakery'
The walk through this village was always pleasant with the friendly neighbors and kindly shop owners. Currently, Reece is on the side of the village that holds the businesses which cater to the travelers coming through that thick forest around them. Every clearing in the sea of trees in this section of this world bears value to any village who makes home there.
"Volker! Over here!!" A Kobold boy yelled, raising his arms facing his friend.
"Hey Volker, Your Mom asked-" Reece speaks up once entering the hearing range of Volker's group.
Volker had wound up a throw towards his friend but hearing Wolfhard's voice causes him to flinch and the ball's path goes wildly over the kobold kid's head. It flies for an honestly impressive distance before landing behind tall riverside grass with a watery impact. Volker's face fills with dread seeing it disappear.
"W-Wolfhard! I need to get it, can Mom wait?" Volker turns to Wolfhard and back at the river that had cut through their village's outer fields.
"Nope! However... I can get it while you guys go back home." Reece smiled at the group of kids and pointed his thumb back towards their village. "Miss Spellmeyer really wants Volker to help out in the bakery now."
"Sorry everyone... I have to go home." Volker wilts speaking towards his friend group. He turns back to Wolfhard with a serious look. "Wolfy, Careful about leaving the clearing, One of Dad's hunting friends said he heard weird sounds out there!"
"No worries, the river gets rocky when in the forest! I'm sure it's just at the edge of the clearing by now." Reece makes a confident wave to dismiss Volker's worry as he walks toward the nearby stream. `If it comes to a dangerous threat, I have the castle as a hiding place.`
The group of kids behind Reece look at each other with worry but go to follow Volker back into the village. He felt their eyes at the back of his head, their worry about some monster being out in the sea of trees is obvious. It wasn't his business to really judge at all.
'System, Pull up my status screen, I need to check my general stats currently.` Reece walked alongside the riverbed into the forest to the south of his village.
[Okay! You've gotten a bit stronger since last time :D]
[True Name: Reece Ashworth
Current Name: Wolfhard Wirth
Species: Kobold
Stats -
Might: 1.4 (1)
Agility: 1.5 (1)
Endurance: 1.3 (1)
Spirit: 2 (1)
Sense: 1.7 (1)
Personal Skills: Reading lv, 4 [T], Writing lv. 4 [T], Understanding lv. 3 [T]
Innate Skills:
Item Skills: Wonderland Pocket Castle lv. 1 [S]
Coins: 16
Quests: Defeat the Demon King Vine [MAIN]
(Key: [S] - Soul, [P] - Physical, [T] - Technique, [E] - Ethereal)
(Stat Cost: 5 Coins)]
'I'll never get over how books increased my body's spirit stat but man, I feel like the god of this place has been a cheapskate since the first quest.' Reece frowns seeing how low his coin amount has been. 'I want to save coins but increasing my sense stat might be helpful if anything is out there-`
All his thoughts were thrown off when a crunch was heard as he stepped into the forest's mouth. He looked down to see... Bones? A cluster of small animal bones has piled up in this area. There's a feeling crawling up his spine seeing this oddity
[Ping!! New Quest created]
[Wandering Quest 1: Ball Retrieval
Details: A simple task has gotten more complex than one would've thought, capture the ball and leave the forest without dying.
Coin Reward: 5
Bonus Reward: Rank-less Treasure Box lv 1]
'These quests are issued by the gods, right? I have no idea what a treasure box means for this.' Reece narrows his eyes at this quest menu, there's clearly something that doesn't sit well with him.
[Yup! Gods may send you items or materials along with coins but the boxes are from the system network support shop, Rank-less is the lowest level of treasure boxes and lv 1 means only one item is inside.]
'I'll trust that it's something good but the details implies I might die out here.' Reece sighs before focusing in on his surroundings continuing his trek into the forest.
The light around him slowly fades to a dim glow from above as the canopy of trees devours sunlight from this world's heavens. Reece only knows this forest as the sea of trees and walking through it always reminds him why. From afar, each tree looked massive but up close revealed all of them matched city buildings in raw scale.
He shudders, stepping on the mossy ground as the oppressive air washed over him. The strangeness of this world will always surprise him as he passes mushrooms that are comparable to people in size! There's only a few around him but they're honestly crazy to see outside books and old scrolls.
He pauses mid-step realizing something, in the leaf litter and moss. There are bones along the river... Those aren't animal bones...
"Oh shit... I made a mistake coming out here." Reece stares down at a person's skull that he nearly stepped on.