Chapter 7 Instead of Becoming an Adventurer I Chose to Fish

There seemed to be a lot more information about how the Adventurer Guild operated. The information density was a bit too much, and I also didn’t have my notes with me. So instead of reading everything line by line, I flipped the pages, giving them a cursory look to see if there was anything that jumped out.

One of the first interesting things I found out was that the Adventurer Guild framework and what it did was laid out 11,000 years ago. It had operated ever since. Its job was to protect worlds from monsters.

Sitting back on the chair, I thought about that. The fact that this organization has operated for so long just tells me that it is truly needed. Otherwise, there’s no way it would not have fallen to corruption.

A few more pages, and I learned that the Adventurer Guild stayed out of any diplomacy amongst nations, although it seems that in every inhabited world, every nation needed to accommodate their presence.

Everything else in this book seemed quite unimportant for now. Later, I will need to learn how it all works, as there was a pretty good chance that I might end up as one, as over 50% of the population seemed to choose to become an adventurer.

One thing I didn’t understand was the defending against monsters. The fish here and other animals didn’t seem to become monsters, and if animals mutated into monsters as fast as they did back on Earth, then only two outcomes would result. Either the monsters won, or the entire animal population was wiped out.

Probably I will learn about that in some lecture. Really wish I had my notes with me. Can’t even make a note to keep my notes always on me. There was probably a place to get writing utensils and paper here, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable talking with anyone right now.

I turned my attention toward the section that proudly proclaimed that it contained the comprehensive guide to 15,000 worlds.

Walking in front of it, I noticed that every book kind of resembled a manga volume. The pages were quite thin, but I guess you would need that to fit 15,000 books here, as each one was for a different world. The bookshelves themselves were 5 metres in height. There was a convenient ladder that you could move to get the books at the top.

There were four bookshelves like this, all of them filled with similarly designed spines. Pulling out one randomly, I saw on the cover an image of the world. There was also the date the world was discovered, which was nearly 7,000 years ago. It also stated that the book was written in the year 11,208.

It took me a moment to remember, but right now it was the year 12,102, almost 900 years ago. Pulling out the book next to it revealed that it was written in the same year as the last, with only a few years’ difference in its discovery year.

Taking a step back, I marvelled at all this information. Each book seemed to contain detailed information about each world—its geography, plant life, animal life, nations, if it had sapient life or not, who colonised it.

Of course, they didn’t have everything, and it was obviously out of date, but still, amazing work. Someone must have dedicated their entire life to this.

There would be no point in going through even some of these. Maybe later, perhaps when I’m looking for a new place to go. I’m guessing there’s more up-to-date information out there after I found a destination.

One thing did interest me, and so I went and found the very first books. Each planet had a number that designated its order of being found. That led me to the first six books. These ones didn’t have an order number, instead, on them was written “One of the Six.” That was curious.

The fourth book I took out froze me. The world it described was named Earth, later changed to Earth 1A. Each one of these books described a world where a humanoid race used to live. Grabbing all six books, I went and sat down behind one of the tables nearby.

It seems that these detailed the earliest remembered history there was. Now these ones I read through from cover to cover. The story didn’t end with these six books. The first proper record of a world was the world that was the 15th to be ever found and visited. It seemed to be quite a lifeless place, barely habitable, but that was exactly what was needed back then.

My eyes were bloodshot as I continued to read. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw one of the librarians.

“If you continue like this, you’re going to get a Keeper and a Scribe level. You look like someone new. Have you gone through the build lecture?”

I shook my head, still unable to speak. I had read such history that it more seemed like a fantasy story. She closed the current book that I was reading. I was about halfway through it, but she was right, the story had come to an end; now I was just continuing to read what came next.

Standing up, I swayed a bit. That story really hit me emotionally. It was so similar to what I experienced, but so much worse. It was difficult to accept that their suffering eased my own quite a lot, as I now knew how bad it could have been.

She guided me, but I stopped her. “It’s fine, I can go on my own.”

“Are you sure? I could take you back to your apartment.”

“No, no, I’m fine,” I managed to get out, but I wasn’t truly fine.

My footsteps took me towards my apartment, but I soon found myself changing direction, going towards the lake. The Fish Master was already there with a few other people already fishing. It was morning, so that made sense.

He looked at me with a little bit of worry, but I waved it off. What I needed most right now was something tranquil, and fishing was exactly that for me.

They was the bait box with worms, but I decided to go with bread. It would get me less fish, but once again this wasn’t about catching fish, and I also didn’t want to level any further.

So, like that, I fished for a few hours, digesting all that I had read. Now I also understood what the Adventurer Guild symbol meant.

It was to represent the six original species who eventually managed to set themselves up on that rocky planet so they would have time to understand mana and magic and to make the system to help them survive.

Their planets didn’t rise as fast as my Earth did, but as I understand, back then planets rose a lot faster than now. Each of them was devastated by a mana apocalypse when they first touched this mana-filled reality.

All of them managed to survive, adjust, and rebuild. But their worlds didn’t stop rising. Without the system, child survival rates were lower, as most succumbed to the corruption.

It got worse and worse until monsters started to push back civilization once again. Most likely there were plenty of instances of different Earths and other homeworlds of other species rising up, but none of them were successful in surviving until those six.

Even they wouldn’t have survived if they hadn’t abandoned their homeworlds. Like that, each species found a new planet that was easier to manage, but soon even those got too dangerous.

It was during the next jump that the six original species started to meet each other, as they had chosen the same worlds. At first there was conflict, but soon they found help in each other.

A few migrations later, all six found themselves on a planet that they could barely survive in, not because they were too weak, but because they were too strong. Most of them had fought for their entire lives, getting stronger and stronger.

In the world that they were comfortable in, the only way to survive was to constantly move, but that was no way to raise children or build a civilization to solve all the problems they were facing.

So they made an incredibly tough decision. They passed on all the knowledge they had and sired as many children as possible in as short of a time as possible. Then they sent them all to that rocky planet, while they themselves stayed behind. They were never heard from again.

All of this happened in a span of about 1000 years. Only about 8000 colonized that rocky planet, that was all that was left from six civilizations, as they constantly fought to survive the mana corruption and the monsters. As a planet with little life, it stayed in the lower layers for a long time.

“Is it safe now? Not like in the beginning?” I asked Aaron as he was lazing on his chair. It took him a moment to understand what I meant. He stood up straight and looked me straight in the eye.

“While every would is still dangerous. The incorporated worlds are nowhere near as dangerous nowadays.” He then patted me on my shoulder.

“Sorry about all of that. Didn’t expect you to immediately go and search out the history of our beginnings. Don’t worry, the truly difficult work has already been done by those heroes back in the day,” he ended with a genuine smile.

All of that made me feel really young. I couldn’t imagine the hardship they must have gone through, but I was incredibly thankful for all that they did. Next, I headed to get some food and then finally some sleep.

When I woke up, the sun was still high in the sky. One nice shower later, I headed out to get some more food. Luckily each building had a clock somewhere. I still had about an hour until the skill lecture. I spent it just relaxing on a bench, soaking up the sun.

“Hello everyone,” the lecturer said to nearly 20 people, most of whom seemed to be from my Earth. Once again, I sat by myself, as I didn’t want to be part of any drama going on there.

This lecturer had a blackboard that he started to write on.

“Each of you has 20 professions. They start from level 0 and go all the way to level 100. At level 10 you will get a choice for a skill or an ability. We will talk about the differences a bit later. Also, most of the time, both types are just called skills.”

He looked at all of us, trying to see if anyone wasn’t following.

“Your professions will give you another choice at level 25, 50, 75, and finally 100. That means that you can have altogether 100 skills if you ever reach the end of all of the professions. Only a small percentage ever do.”

He then talked about how the choice of skills for every profession was based upon the profession and what you did during the previous level-ups. Your overall build also influenced those choices.

He also referred to another lecture that would explain why even there were skills, but he did mention it was something to do with managing the mana corruption and its want to change things.

Eventually, we reached the point where he started to explain the difference between different skill types.

“Skills are something that you improve over time, making you more capable in that skill. These are designated as Novice, Apprentice, and so on, until Grandmaster. These are, in most cases, the most desirable skills, as you can over time grow them to be stronger.”

“Then we come to abilities. These come in two different formats and are usually a lot stronger than skills at the beginning. They usually cover a smaller instance, like for example Heavy Blow, that would increase your weapon’s striking capability. You could have Heavy Blow just as it is, or Heavy Blow I that ends in a Roman numeral.”

“Those are more desirable because they are influenceable and upgradable. To make this very clear, an ability without a Roman number behind it is the least desirable, and you should avoid it when picking it if possible, unless it truly fits what you want.”

“The next is an ability with a Roman number behind it. Now, depending on the ability, it could definitely be more desirable than a skill, but on average you would still want a skill, as you can continue to improve it without having to rely on outside sources.”

“When you finally pick your class, know that no class—even if the name is the same—will have a similar path. Some might gain their first pick of a skill at level 5, some at level 10, some every level, although those usually only get to choose between simple abilities.”

“In the end, every one of you will be unique. Even if the skills are universally similar, all of them don’t come from an identical origin. The system only helps shape those skills and your class, you are the ones who gives the raw resources and the direction.”

The lecturer talked really fast, and everything he said was information-dense. It was hard to keep up, but I started to understand what types of skills there were and what I would want.

It seemed quite important to stack skills, especially if you wanted to improve your fighting capability.

Having multiple skills that improved what you could do with a sword would be a lot better than more spread-out skills. Although you could never truly focus only on one thing, otherwise you would have too much of a weak spot.

Then finally, he wrote on the blackboard:

Pick above any other skill.

Inventory I

A murmur started as soon as he finished writing that. I already knew from that name what that skill would give. It would basically give anyone who had it a game-like inventory where they could keep stuff. The way it worked would depend on the person, but it was one of the most desirable skills out there.

Next, he wrote Looting I. Another murmur. He waited a bit for it to die down before continuing.

“Looting is a very unique ability. Its main function is to help reduce mana density by turning leftover mana membrane into random materials and to help dungeons function. You can learn why this is important in another lecture. In the build guide lecture, you will learn what are the best ways to get these chase skills.”

He showed a few more desirable skills, but those two were the true chase items that everyone would want. Basically, if you got the looting ability, you would never have to worry about starving, as you would always be desirable.

The chances to get one, however, was quite low. I guess it’s time to go to the build lecture and see if I had already messed everything up.