Chapter 5: A Plan

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. And you seemed to enjoy it.”

“Th-th-that’s….”

“Relax…I’m only joking,” she said, grinning and fixing her gaze on Paul like a hunter eyeing its prey.

After dressing up, they went to the inn together to eat. As they walked, Paul felt the stares of every man and even sensed some killing intent. When Nori linked her arm with his, the killing intent intensified. Paul could hear men swearing and cursing him.

When they reached the inn, Nori ordered food for both of them. Paul looked worried when he saw the spread; it looked expensive.

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

While eating, Paul mentioned that he wanted to learn crafting skills and other skills necessary for surviving in the wild. Hearing this, Nori gave him some advice.

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“Paul, I know you want to learn these skills, but people don’t trust strangers. Especially if you want to learn from the best, you’ll need to learn from the dwarves and elves. And they don’t like humans 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—they don’t pay well. The only ones tackling them are young kids, and some quests are impossible for them. These quests will help you get to 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 had planned this to some extent, but hearing it from someone else was reassuring.

“Thank you, Mrs. Onca, for your advice.”

“Call me Nori!”

“Thank you…ehmmm, Nori.”

Hearing her name from him, she blushed. Paul didn’t understand why, but seeing her blush made him feel happy. Then Nori held out her hand, touched Paul, and said, “Register friend.”

The bracelet displayed a window in front of Paul.

**You received a friend request from OncaNori**

Accept by saying YES or deny by saying NO.

Paul looked at Nori. She was smiling.

“YES.”

“Okay, 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’ll be able to talk.”

Nori kept grinning like a child who had received a present.

After finishing, Paul left Nori at the inn, as she mentioned having some business there. Paul headed to the quest board. The board was enormous, filled with hundreds of quests. He started examining the different H-rank quests—some were for cleaning, some for gathering apples, others for chopping wood—mostly boring tasks, thought Paul.

Then Paul remembered he didn’t know how to accept quests. He knew he had to absorb them but wasn’t sure how. Paul placed his hand on a quest and said, “Absorb.” Nothing happened. He then tried, “Quest Accepted,” but again, nothing happened. A young kid, about ten years old with brown hair and eyes, appeared next to him. The kid reached for a quest, placed his hand on it, and said, “H Rank quest…” then whispered something Paul didn’t catch. The quest disappeared from the board, and the kid ran off.

Paul placed his hand on the board and said, “H Rank quest.” Suddenly, all the H-rank quests were accepted by Paul. The board was now almost empty, with only about 50 quests remaining, due to their higher rank. A window appeared in front of Paul, and his jaw dropped.

**H Rank Quests Accepted**

You have accepted 265 quests!

You have two weeks to finish the quests before you lose them.

Warning: Not finishing a quest will decrease your familiarity with the quest giver.

“265 quests for 153 people. Great, just great… How did this happen? Don’t I have a high luck stat?”

Everyone around was staring at Paul with their mouths open, thinking they must be dreaming. No normal person could finish that many quests in a month. Paul then received a notification:

+30 Fame

Paul looked around, and seeing everyone staring at him, 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 retrieved the pouch from the ring and looked inside.

Inside the pouch were pills that looked like black peas. He then realized there were only about 20, not the 50 Jonathan had mentioned. Jonathan probably forgot; he was old after all.

Paul then used his skill, Identify, on one of the pills.

**Limit Pill**

Ingesting this pill will eliminate the need for food, water, and sleep.

It will also increase stamina regeneration by 300%.

Duration: 7 days

Warning: After 7 days, you must sleep or you might lose your life.

Paul checked the ring:

**Storage Ring**

Durability: Infinite

This ring can store any item by opening a pocket dimension and preserving it in the same condition that it was absorbed in, as 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, seeing the number of quests, yelled, “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!”

Paul ingested one of the pills, put the rest back, and spent the next 5 hours running around the village, finishing as many quests as possible. He completed 4 quests before stopping. The first 3 were easy and took him about 3 hours. The last one was hard; he had to clean a large garden full of weeds without any tools. He stopped because the army arrived in the village. Paul took the next 30 minutes to check out the army and rest his eyes from the weeds.

There were about 60 soldiers. They all wore identical shiny white armor. Some carried swords, while others had spears. The only exceptions were the 5 leaders. Three were huge and looked like barbarians, wielding large swords and riding horses. In front of them was a man in a brown robe, who didn’t have any weapons. He must be a mage.

Finally, the leader, a tall man with huge muscles and golden short hair, rode the biggest horse Paul had ever seen, which looked like it was on steroids.

They stopped in the center of the village. With a voice as clear and loud as thunder, the leader announced, “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 instructions, I’ve been given permission to throw you in prison or kill you on the spot. That’s all!”

The soldiers then spread out and closed the village gates. Twenty of them and one of the barbarians made camp at the entrance. Another was stationed in the village center, and the last was in the crafting district. The leader, along with the possible mage, headed towards the inn, probably to get a fancy room.

Paul decided to return to the quests since he didn’t have time to deal with the captain yet.

For the next 10 hours, Paul continued doing quests like a madman, but from the villagers’ perspective, he looked calm, with a polite smile on his face. While doing the quests, he kept his Aura Shift activated. He completed another 15 quests, paying extra attention to those related to the blacksmith Teo, the tailor Jinx, the cook Archie, and others from whom he could learn useful skills.

Paul used Aura Shift to appear hardworking, happy, and slightly noble, making the villagers feel like he was doing them a bigger favor than he actually was. This approach earned him better rewards and increased their familiarity with him.

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

**Stats Update**

Because of your actions since the last time you checked, you increased the following stats:

+10 Health

+5 Mana

+15 Agility

+10 Strength

+25 Stamina

+5 Intelligence

+10 Wisdom

+15 Charisma

+1 Luck

+50 Fame

**Quest Update**

You finished 19 quests and received a total of 50 silver coins and 40 guild points.

246 quests remaining.

Time remaining: 13 days.

**Skills Update**

Because of your actions since the last time you checked, you increased your skill levels 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 50% less stamina.

On rough terrain, you won’t trip.

Your steps while running don’t make any noise.

Since the people had gone to sleep, Paul focused on quests that didn’t require the quest giver to be present. For the next 8 hours, he completed 12 quests, which were mostly similar and repetitive

.

As the sun began to rise and people started waking up, Paul sat on a bench in the village square, watching them prepare for the day. Even the soldiers became more active, walking through the village. Paul avoided them, not wanting to raise suspicion. At night, he hid from soldiers to avoid drawing attention.

He decided not to check his stats and skills until he finished 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 completed another 20 quests. At night, he finished 13. The next day, he saw that there were indeed two suns, as he had heard, and the soldiers became more vigilant, so he had to be more cautious with his movements. At night, he used to sneak, jump, and climb a lot to avoid the soldiers. This became a routine—doing a similar amount of quests every day.

After a week, with 63 quests remaining, Paul returned to his room and sat on the bed. He wanted to check his stats but had promised himself not to do so until he finished the quests.

“That will be my reward for all this work. Now I must go to sleep. I already told Nori not to disturb me for the next 24 hours, so I should be okay.”

Mentally exhausted from focusing all the time, he collapsed onto the bed.

That day, while Paul was sleeping like he was in a coma, rumors started spreading about him. The rumors were spread by the people he had helped with quests. By the end of the week, when they gathered at the inn, they talked about their experiences. They all described a young man who had been incredibly helpful. When they compared notes, they realized that if the young man was the same person, he hadn’t slept for a whole week and had helped 118 people by completing around 150 quests on his own. They agreed to call him the “Hardworking Noble” because they felt he had the demeanor of someone with noble blood.

Fortunately, the villagers didn’t trust the soldiers and didn’t inform them about Paul. That day, they kept looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Hardworking Noble to see if the rumors were true. After all, the rumors sounded almost too good to be true.

The next morning, Paul woke up feeling rusty from sleeping for 24 hours. He started stretching for about half an hour when he was interrupted by Nori, carrying a huge plate of food. Paul hadn’t needed to eat for a week, but now he was ravenous. He began eating voraciously, grabbing as much as he could. Nori watched him, smiling. As soon as he slowed down, she said, “There’s a rumor about someone who looks like you…you know.”

“Mmm, and what do these rumors say?”

“That there’s someone who helped a lot of people for very little, for a whole week without sleeping.”

“So?”

“So… 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, with a grin as if he knew something, said, “I know. And just so you know, you can also ask me for help.”

“What? How do you know I need help?”

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

She blushed a bit and, slightly annoyed at being tricked, said, “Well, it’s true that I have a problem, but I don’t think you can help me. After all, you’re not powerful enough.”

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

“Well…”

“I’m more dependable than I look… After all, I’m the famous helper, hahahaha.”

“All right, I understand. I have a problem with… *mumble mumble*”

“Sorry? Didn’t quite catch that.”

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

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

“Well, since I run the brothel, he thought 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 would be his.”

“Hahaha, really?”

“Yes… Now stop laughing and help me out.”

“Okay, okay. To help you, I need to know a few things… about you.”

“What do you want to know?”

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

“Ahmm… I’ll 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’re thieves?”

“NO! Well… sometimes. We use our skills to gather information that was requested and sometimes perform 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, running different plans and simulations in his head when suddenly he got an idea.

“I have a plan to help you, but you’ll need to use some of your particular skills.”

“Already? Do tell.”

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

“Yes, I have around 5 girls, one of whom 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, a small smile forming on her lips, and 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 has 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 his weaknesses are.”

“What about when he finds you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have something by 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 resumed doing quests while avoiding Rocka and his soldiers.

For the next week, Paul continued doing quests, and at night, he spied on the soldiers and Rocka. The last quest took him the longest—the first 62 he completed in 3 days, but the last one, which involved cataloging all the books in the library, took a while 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 soundly.

Paul, being mentally exhausted, didn’t realize the transformation he had undergone over the last two weeks.