Chapter 51: The Level Zero [Hero] Chapter 50

[To integrate into the System, please choose one of the following Class(es):

[Worldwalker Hero of Vacuos] - An otherworlder who has arrived in Vacuos to save the world from destruction. As a unique Class, the [Worldwalker Hero of Vacuos] is unrivaled in strength, skill, or mastery of magic. Benevolent and full of grace, you will forever devote your life to protecting the System from the Void’s corruption.

Do you accept this Class?

There are no other Classes available for you to choose from.]

 

I stared at the blue box as it flashed before me— it appeared whenever I defeated someone in battle, or killed a monster. Occasionally, it would show up when I was jumping around or casually swinging my sword. I would always dismiss it quickly with a thought, since ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away.

But today, I actively sought it out. I wanted the System to show itself to me. So I woke up early— before dawn— and headed outside of Wolfwater, searching for a monster. Once I was far enough away from the farmlands, it didn’t take me too long to find what I wanted.

I had found a large boar rampaging through a bush and skewering a bunch of smaller animals. It had been the size of a small car. Like if a boar was a moose. It charged at me the moment I saw it, and I just flicked it.

It crashed into a nearby thicket, before rolling to a stop, dead. And that was when the blue screen flashed before me. That was how I ended up here, sighing at what I saw.

“You know what? I’m not even going to curse you out,” I finally said to the blue screen. “I should have expected this. I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy.”

I dismissed the blue screen with a thought. The System was clearly against me. Either that, or I was going crazy. Because I was more than certain I had hit the criteria for a [Farmer] Class yesterday.

I shook my head as I made my way back to Wolfwater. “Whatever. I don’t need a Class to enjoy living on a farm, anyways.”

It wasn’t like Vacuos was a world that was desperately in need for more [Farmers]. After all, with Skills alone, they were very much capable of producing the same output as many modern farms back on Earth. And that didn’t account for the fact that magic existed too.

In addition to [Druids], there were [Mage Farmers] and even [Geomancers] who were capable of altering both the landscape and the weather to counter droughts or natural disasters. I also heard of some [Alchemist] concoctions that could instantly grow a field of crops, but those were incredibly rare and expensive.

Anyways, Vacuos wasn’t an agrarian society by any means. It was only vaguely similar to medieval Earth, and that was mostly in terms of aesthetic. Even then, the way cities were designed and built differed quite a bit depending on the part of the world. Alius was, as far as I could tell from reading books and whatnot, a far more developed continent than Laxo.

While Laxo was more medieval-esque, Alius was more industrial-esque. Not only that, but their focus on industry was entirely different. Laxo had a robust economy revolving around adventurers and monsters, Alius focused more on trade and magitech. After all, Alius was far less densely populated with monsters than Laxo, and their historical focus on war amongst each other due to the various different races living there led to a lot of innovations which continued in today’s peace after the dwarves pretty much conquered the whole continent.

Now that was not to mention the fact that the elven continent of Drazyl was nothing like any culture or society on Earth. The closest comparison would if there were thousands of foraging tribes that all fell under a single banner. And even more alien were the merfolk in the sunken continent of Mare.

Not much was known about how merfolk society functioned. They were just an eclectic variety of different races that adapted to living underwater and grew gills after their continent was destroyed a long time ago. There weren’t even very many historical records or accounts that dated back that far in history, and there were a lot of conflicting sources that led to various different unconfirmed theories being touted by the [Scholars] of today.

So there was no reason for most of the world’s population to be made up of farmers. There really just wasn’t any reason for that to be the case. Not in Laxo, nor in Alius. Definitely not in Drazyl either. Maybe the merfolk of Mare subsisted mainly through growing and farming vast seaweed forests, so they could potentially be an agrarian society. I didn’t know.

But with magic in this world, and the abundance of other food sources such as monsters, most people didn’t need to live and die working on a farm to produce food for their families like it was in medieval times on Earth.

The sun was rising by the time I arrived back at Nolan’s farm. The middle-aged man was already up and about, ready to work in the fields when I got there.

“You’re up early today,” he commented with a smile. “Ready to take a look at my magical crops?”

“Maybe tomorrow,” I said as I shook my head. I yawned, walking up the front porch back to the house. “Didn’t get much sleep last night. I’m just going to take the morning off. I’ll join you after lunch.”

I wasn’t actually that tired. Mostly annoyed. And because I was annoyed, I wanted to lie in bed and waste away for a few hours. It felt like everything I’d done over the last week was for nothing. Even if I logically knew that it didn’t matter— I didn’t need a Class to be a farmer— I still was mildly irked because I had gotten my hopes up.

Nolan just nodded understandingly as I mulled over my broken System predicament. “Well, you’ve been working hard for the past week. Enjoy your time off, Amelia. But before you go, make sure you say bye to Noele. She’ll be gone for the next few days.”

I blinked. “Wait, what?”

 

—--

 

“I had no idea you were leaving,” I said as I raised a brow at Noele.

She just waved a hand dismissively as she sat on a chair, putting on her boots. “Just for a bit. Garron and I are escorting my Mama to Whiteridge. She’s going to be there for a few days, so while we’re waiting, we’ll take a look at a few of the jobs they have around the city.”

“I see.” I glanced past her at the burly man who was standing behind her.

Ever since Deon and Skye left, Garron had been staying over at the farm as well, but we hardly even spoke much since I brought him here to Wolfwater. He averted his gaze slightly when I looked his way, scratching his cheek. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to say something, so I saved him the trouble and walked past the two of them.

“Well, good luck. I’m gonna take a nap.” I waved at Noele and Garron, starting towards my room.

Noele nodded at me as she got to her feet. “Take care, Amelia. See you in a few days.”

I quickly said goodbye to Nicole as well. She was in the kitchen, preparing a Bag of Holding with a few different bundles of grain. There were some of the magical crops thrown in there too— I hadn’t taken a good look at it, but in addition to growing regular old wheat and barley, Nolan specialized in producing things like arcana seeds en masse.

Nicole was going to sample these out to [Traders] or [Merchants], and spend most of her time arranging shipment deals while in Whiteridge. After bidding her farewell as well, I returned to my room, collapsed into my bed, and promptly fell asleep.

 

—--

 

Noele knew Amelia well enough at this point to be able to tell that her mentor was annoyed. Which was quite difficult to tell considering that Amelia always seemed annoyed. But no— this was genuine annoyance. An annoyed Amelia would spend less time quipping or making snarky remarks, and spend more time getting things done.

For example, Amelia wanted to be left alone, so she briskly spoke with everyone she needed to speak with before locking herself up in her room.

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Now, the Noble Spellsword had been spending most of her time with Garron over the last week, sparring with him, showing off both her new skills and Skills, and bringing him around Wolfwater. But she was vaguely aware of what her mentor had been doing— which was farming.

So Noele could infer why Amelia was annoyed. It was something the blonde girl couldn’t empathize with, but understood enough about to feel bad for her mentor. After all, Amelia had done everything she did over the last week to become a [Farmer]. And yet, no matter how hard she tried, she always failed.

There was just something wrong about the whole situation. Noele was almost certain that Amelia shouldn’t be struggling this much with getting a Class, unless it was actually… the World System’s… fault….

The Noble Spellsword paused as her eyes glazed over. Her mind trailed off, and she just sat there at the back of Nicole’s cart in a daze. She only snapped out of her stupor when Garron leaned over with a frown.

“Are you alright, Noele?” he asked, and she blinked.

“Sorry, I blanked out,” the blonde girl said as she sat up straight. She glanced around with furrowed brows. “How much longer until we arrive at Whiteridge?”

“We’re already here,” Garron replied, gesturing around them.

And Noele froze. She swept her gaze over her surroundings, seeing the streets of Whiteridge around them. She tried to work her jaw as she saw the tall buildings of the city rise above the growing white blanket of fog covering the cobbled roads.

“Wait… when did we…?” she started. “I don’t remember—”

She cut herself off. It made no sense to the blonde girl. The Steel Tank just shrugged as he leant back against the cart.

“We arrived about five minutes ago,” he said as he glanced back down the road, staring into the thin white veil. “Took a while for us to get through. The entire city is on high alert for some reason. Not sure why. Perhaps due to the war?”

“That’s…” Noele opened her mouth, but stopped herself.

She saw the mostly empty streets of the city. The normally bustling roads of Whiteridge were sparsely populated, mostly patrolled by guards and adventurers. A dour atmosphere permeated around her, only emphasized by the layer of white mist.

Mist.

In the afternoon? When Whiteridge was neither near a body of water, nor high atop a mountain?

Noele slowly processed this. And she spun around, calling out to her mother.

“Mama—” she started, only to be calmly interrupted.

“I know, sweetie,” Nicole said, closing her eyes. She continued driving her cart down the deserted streets of Whiteridge. “But there’s no need to panic. We’ll be safe here in the city.”

Noele paused. She felt her heart hammering in her chest. Her hands were shaking. Her lips trembled. Garron peered into her with a worried look.

“What’s going on? Are you alright, Noele?” he asked.

“I’m… I’m fine,” Noele said as she took a deep breath. “It’s just— they’ve returned.”

“Who has returned? What are you talking about?” The Steel Tank didn’t know what was going on. Of course not. He wasn’t here on that day, ten years ago. He knew nothing about what happened back then.

But the Noble Spellsword would never forget that day. The day her sister died. The day they arrived.

So Noele just held Garron’s gaze and spoke slowly.

“The Miststorm Riders,” she said as the mist grew thicker. “They’re here.”

 

—--

 

“So this is Whiteridge.”

Odell the Monster of the Mist eyed the city in the distance. He watched as the sea of mist encroached on the city, threatening to cover it completely. He sat atop his horse as over a thousand of his men waited eagerly behind him.

But he didn’t give the order to attack just yet. He simply glanced back to Ray. His second-in-command.

“I want you to choose a hundred of our best riders,” Odell said as he raised a torch. He handed it to the young man and spoke casually. “Bring them with you, and burn down the farmlands.”

“Boss?” Ray blinked, confused by the order.

Odell explained. “This city… I don’t ever remember passing through it. But apparently we did, ten years ago, ever so briefly. And now, it boasts of the great feat of repelling us— the Miststorm Riders. It ruined our reputation. I cannot let this stand.”

The leader of the Miststorm Riders shook his head as he glanced back towards Whiteridge.

“Every woman and child living within its walls shall die, and every village surrounding it shall be razed to ashes. I want every living being— whether person, monster, or animal— within a ten mile radius to be slaughtered just to prove a point. Is that understood?”

Odell turned to Ray, and the young man nodded.

“Yes, boss!”

And with that command, the Miststorm Riders rode into Whiteridge, destroying everything in their path.