It was morning yet again. The sun shone as if it hadn't lost the battle just yesterday night. Shyam, who only got a wink of sleep last night, still woke up as he had planned to go on a real adventure today.
To a new place. A new village. Kamalgram.
"Goodbye," he said to the innkeeper, who had taken care of him this whole time—from his food to his needs. Not much, but enough to form a
"caring" relationship.
Shyam went to the adventurers' guild, and surprisingly, even though he was alone today, Arna was present.
"I had a question I wanted to confirm. Is that okay?" Shyam said and sat down on the chair.
"Of course, what's the question?" Arna replied.
"What if I pick up a quest here and send the report to a different guild—would I still get the reward?" he asked. From now on, he'd be adventuring from village to city. He couldn't possibly complete every task in one place, unless it was required.
"It depends on what quest you've picked. For instance, if the quest requires you to defeat a monster troubling both guild areas and they want it killed, then you can report the completed quest to either of the guilds. But if it's a quest like collecting herbs, then most of the time you'd have to report it at the same guild you picked it from, because mostly it's a local request."
Arna explained as she took a book from below the counter and put it on the desk.
"You could buy one of these to know everything about the guilds," Arna said as she handed Shyam the book. It was massive. Did it hold the information about the guilds—or was it a book about one's life? From when they were one year old to a hundred?
He touched the book, and suddenly:
[ Knowledge acquired - Book of Rules by / Adventurer Guild HQ ]
A system window popped up in front of him, which had the same cover as the physical book. Fortunately, the people of this world couldn't notice his system windows.
So he put that tab aside and said to Arna,
"No thanks, I'm currently trying to save up as much as I can."
After that, he left the adventurers' guild and reached the entrance of the village—which for Shyam was now the exit. From here, he would continue his journey to the far north, around fifty kilometers from here.
But before he could take a step forward, Pallabi shouted from behind.
"SHYAM! WAIT!"
Shyam stopped as soon as he heard her voice. She, unlike any other time, now wore a white dress tied with a red ribbon. Two more people walked behind her—bodyguards, or maybe not.
"What's up, Pallabi?" Shyam said.
The two people behind her spoke,
"That's Miss Pallabi to you!"
But Pallabi shut them down, saying, "He is my friend," and that man stepped back again. It was clear Pallabi now held authority—with responsibility.
Shyam hadn't known her long, but the time they had spent together meant a lot to him.
"Shyam, take this. As thanks for being with me thus far," she handed Shyam an old-looking book titled:
{ Basic Fireball Technique Guide }
"It's not much, but I hope this can bind us together no matter how far you go, Shyam. Take care."
Shyam at first wanted to decline, but seeing her so serious, he couldn't say no.
He took the book and put it in the bag he had bought with the copper coins from the herb collection quest.
"Thank you. You take care as well, Pallabi. Goodbye," said Shyam as he turned around and walked away. Pallabi stood still for a few moments as tears fell down her cheeks.
She turned around and whispered,
"Until we meet again."
And so, a journey of only three days ended in a way no one could call a happy ending… nor a sad one. It was both.
---
After leaving the village, Shyam walked for three hours straight. He decided to rest under a tree with hanging vines. Before he left, Pallabi had given him a book of some sort.
Shyam took it out to see what kind of book it was, but the moment he touched it, the same thing happened as when he touched the adventurer guild's rule book.
[ Knowledge acquired - Basic Fireball Technique Guide by / Muchi the 'Olcham ]
"What is this?" Shyam asked Raitha, as he hadn't seen or heard of this feature before.
"It's a feature that lets you read the content of a book just by touching it. It'll then show up as a tab where you can read and memorize it," Raitha said as she transformed into her real fairy form.
It had been two days straight since she last took her physical form. What she did while not in her physical form was unknown to Shyam, but he didn't question her.
"Is that so?" Shyam said and opened the book.
It had information about how to transfer energy from one's mana pool to their palm, creating heating energy that could be used to make fire.
Shyam couldn't understand much of it, as it spoke of things he hadn't even known.
But he kept reading. It seemed fun reading about this new world. Even in his old world, he would read novels, manga, or watch anime about magic and stuff. They all brought him joy. That's also why he chose to become a programmer—so he could create things of his own.
Around four hours later, he had finally read through the entire book. It wasn't very thick, but it explained the basics of the mana pool and how to convert mana into magic—mostly focusing on fire magic.
The moment Shyam read the last line of the book, a different system window appeared:
[ Element unlocked - Fire & Heat ]
[ Skill learnt - Fireball / Form / Yellow, Red, Orange / Mana Need - 100/T ]
"I learned fireball just by reading this book?" Shyam whispered as he stared at the system window. He didn't understand much of what he read, yet he learned the skill?
"Doesn't matter if you understand it or not. Whenever you read a technique, your system—meaning me—converts it into a skill for you to use. And unlike other humans, you don't need to focus your mana into a specific point. You can just use it like your other skills," Raitha said, eyes closed, finger raised like a teacher lecturing a student.
"Should I test it on you?" Shyam said, pointing a finger at Raitha.
"Don't! My hair will burn!" said Raitha as she hid behind the tree, looking genuinely scared.
But… what hair? She didn't have any. So how could it burn?
Shyam put the book inside the bag again and continued his journey to Kamalgram.
---
After buying a sword, he hadn't had the chance to test it. He had his Field Sense activated the whole time, yet it sensed nothing.
Shyam walked for another three to five hours, and the sun had already set. He still had half the way left to travel.
But for now, he decided to lie down, take a good sleep, and continue tomorrow.
Suddenly, his Field Sense sensed a dangerous monster—stronger than him.
Shyam stood up and gripped his sword as soon as he saw the alert window.
Suddenly, a brown boar with golden stripes appeared from behind the bushes. Its red eyes shone even in the dark night. Its gaze locked onto Shyam.
"Okay, time to see my real potential," Shyam said and ran toward the boar with the sword he had bought from the blacksmith.
"DASH!" he shouted, and suddenly flashed right in front of the boar.
Before the boar could react, the sword had already pierced through its head. But it still didn't give up.
The boar pushed Shyam until he hit a tree and fell down. He looked up and saw the boar charging toward him at a speed he couldn't calculate.
"DASH!" he shouted again and narrowly dodged.
Shyam gripped his sword tightly and ran toward the boar again with a roar.
But before he could reach it—the boar suddenly fell. Maybe from the first strike to the head. Whatever it was, Shyam had finally defeated it.
Seeing it die, Shyam took a deep breath and lowered his sword.
"Night time is dangerous in the wild, huh?" Shyam murmured as he walked toward the dead boar.
"Should I test my Shadow Capture?" he said, checking if the boar was truly dead or just faking it.
After confirming its death, Shyam shouted,
"SOUL CAPTURE!"
After the skill activated, a shadowy figure floated above the boar—almost like a clone was being made.
Once it finished, the shadowy figure vanished with a faint sound and reappeared beside Shyam.
Shyam looked at the shadow boar and whispered,
"Let's fight together, alright?"
Then he deactivated Shadow Capture.