Chapter 4: The Price of a Page

What Soohyuk wanted to ask about was the library’s location and what was needed to enter it.

“The library?”

“Yes.”

“There’s a map in the guidebook. And you can buy a library pass at the library for 50 gold.”

Was it because Kaz was a guide? The answer came without a second’s hesitation.

“Okay, take care.”

Responding to the intense stares from the users behind him, Soohyuk moved toward a chair in the Central Plaza, opened the guidebook, and checked the quest.

Open the Guidebook!

Open the guidebook you received from Kaz!

Quest Reward: 1 Gold, Hard Bread

This quest, generated right after receiving the guidebook, was as simple as it sounded—open the guidebook to complete it. Soohyuk opened the guidebook in his hand.

[Quest ‘Open the Guidebook!’ has been completed.]

[You have received the quest reward.]

[Quest generated: Open the Character Window!]

A message appeared as he opened the guidebook.

One after another, huh?

Looking at the message and the guidebook’s table of contents, Soohyuk thought to himself. The guidebook’s first section explained the character window, and the quest generated from opening the guidebook was to open the character window. It seemed quests would follow the guidebook’s order.

Next up is the inventory, then.

The guidebook’s next section was about the inventory. If Soohyuk’s guess was right, the next quest would involve the inventory. He opened the character window.

[Quest ‘Open the Character Window!’ has been completed.]

[You have received the quest reward.]

[Quest generated: Open the Inventory!]

As expected.

Just as he predicted, the next quest was about the inventory. But Soohyuk didn’t open it right away—he hadn’t finished reading the guidebook’s explanation about the character window. He started reading.

“Strength affects physical attack power and the character’s health. Agility affects physical defense and critical hit damage. Stamina affects health and satiety efficiency. Wisdom affects magical attack power and mana. There are these four stats, plus several others. No magical defense?”

The guidebook first explained the four basic stats. While reading, Soohyuk checked his character window.

Level: 1
Experience: 0%
Health: 60/60
Mana: 0
Satiety: 97%
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Stamina: 10
Wisdom: 10

It’s a bit different.

The character window in the guidebook differed slightly from his. His window lacked nationality and occupation, likely because he hadn’t set them yet. Soohyuk continued reading the explanation.

“When satiety reaches 0%, all stats are reduced by 50%. At -50%, you die.”

Soohyuk frowned as he read.

All I wanted was to sit and read books.

He just wanted to sit in the library and read. But satiety was an issue. A 50% stat reduction at 0% satiety wasn’t a big deal, but death at -50% was a problem. If you died, your level and stats would decrease—level by 1, and stats randomly by 1 to 3. The real issue wasn’t the stat or level loss; Soohyuk didn’t care about those. The problem was that dying made you unable to log in for a set time.

I’ll need gold to keep satiety up.

To maintain satiety, Soohyuk would need to buy food. He wasn’t about to cook, so gold was necessary.

No way I’m spending real money.

He could buy gold with real money, but Soohyuk had no intention of doing that. His allowance was for books.

Not now, anyway.

Besides, in the early stages of the game, gold was incredibly expensive. Even if he wanted to buy it, it’d be better to wait until the gold market stabilized. After reading the character window explanation, Soohyuk closed it and opened the inventory while reading its explanation.

Having read the entire guidebook and completed all its quests, Soohyuk was now heading north.

Find the Training Instructor

Having mastered the basics through the guidebook, you must now make a choice. Find a beginner’s training center in the east, west, north, or south, and speak to the training instructor!

Quest Reward: 2 Gold, Training Armor

This quest, generated after completing the guidebook quests, was to find a training instructor. The quest could be completed at one of four locations, likely to spread out the players and avoid congestion.

I’ll check out the library on the way.

Of the four training centers—east, west, south, and north—Soohyuk chose the northern one because of the library.

Through the guidebook quests, he’d earned 15 gold. But a library pass cost 50 gold, so he was 35 gold short and couldn’t use the library yet. Still, he wanted to at least see what it looked like.

There it is!

Following the guidebook’s map, Soohyuk soon reached his destination.

Wow.

The library was impressively large—far bigger than his school’s library.

It’s full of books, huh?

He was already excited. What kind of books were inside? After staring at the library for a moment, Soohyuk started walking again.

Gotta collect it fast.

He wanted to gather 50 gold quickly, buy a pass, and read in the library. His anticipation was growing.

Just then, a message appeared.

[Satiety has fallen below 50%.]

Already?

Surprised by the message, Soohyuk opened his inventory and took out the hard bread he’d earned as a quest reward.

I thought this would last longer.

He’d received 30 pieces of hard bread as rewards. He thought they’d last quite a while, but it seemed they wouldn’t hold out as long as he’d hoped.

This’ll drain my stamina.

Raising stamina would not only increase health but also improve satiety efficiency, allowing him to last longer with less food.

Ugh, it’s so hard.

Soohyuk started eating the hard bread. True to its name, it was tough—almost like chewing a rock, though not quite that bad.

No flavor either.

If it at least tasted good, he might’ve enjoyed it. But it was bland. Frowning, Soohyuk forced himself to chew and swallow.

One piece restores 30% with my current stamina.

After eating a piece and checking his satiety, Soohyuk saw it had risen by 30%. The hard bread restored 30% satiety, which he calculated.

If I eat three a day, I can last about ten days.

He wasn’t sure how many he’d eat daily, but assuming one per meal, he could last ten days. After calculating how long his food would last, Soohyuk closed his inventory. A few steps later, he reached his destination.

So many people.

Was it because he’d taken time reading the guidebook thoroughly? The training center was already crowded with users attacking scarecrows. Passing by users swinging swords at scarecrows, Soohyuk approached someone who looked like the training instructor.

“Hello.”

Arriving in front of the instructor, Soohyuk greeted him first.

“Name?”

The instructor didn’t return the greeting, just staring at Soohyuk with a blank expression and asking for his name.

“Soohyuk.”

[Quest ‘Find the Training Instructor’ has been completed.]

[You have received the quest reward.]

As he answered, the quest completed.

“Soohyuk, take the armor from your inventory.”

Even as an NPC for beginner training, the instructor knew about inventories, unlike regular NPCs.

Following the instructor’s words, Soohyuk opened his inventory and took out the training armor he’d just earned.

“Destroy two scarecrows with that sword.”

The instructor spoke as Soohyuk pulled out the sword. As soon as he finished, a new quest appeared.

Destroy the Scarecrows!

Destroy 2 scarecrows at the training center.

[Training Scarecrows: 0/2]

Quest Reward: 2 Gold, Crude Leather Armor Top

So that’s why they were doing it.

Now he understood why users were attacking scarecrows.

“Okay.”

[Quest ‘Destroy the Scarecrows!’ has been accepted.]

Soohyuk responded, accepting the quest. The instructor, without another word, nodded toward the scarecrows, signaling him to go. Soohyuk turned around, approached an unoccupied scarecrow, and started swinging his sword.

Thwack!

Was it because it was a training sword? It lacked sharpness. Swinging at the scarecrow felt more like bludgeoning than cutting.

Huh?

Just then, something caught his eye.

What’s that?

While swinging at the scarecrow, Soohyuk noticed a glint under its armpit and tilted his head.

Swish!

To satisfy his curiosity, he swung at the glinting spot.

Thwack!

As his sword hit, the glint vanished, and a message appeared.

[Critical Hit!]

[Agility increased by 1.]