The Sixstones Town

In Faea, Freshlife Continent, a river bank...

In front of the hastily made campfire, Khael bit the big skewer of roasted meat in his hand with a gusto. It actually tasted better than what he had expected, although he just roasted it over the fire without any other ingredients.

Khael hadn't used any tool so far, except for the wooden skewering stick, which he simply made from the branch of a tree. He made a campfire easily with the classic hand-drill technique on pieces of dry wood and leaves. To get the meat. he violently tore the monster's meat from its body with just his bare hand, shocking the four paragons who were watching him.

All of those things were a piece of cake for Khael now, as his hands and fingers' strength and speed had became extremely powerful . The radically changing landscape for his physical combat training often required him to grab things, climb, hang on a cliff, and dismantle objects only with his hands and fingers after all.

"What is your name, little brother?" The only woman of the group finally break the uncomfortable silence.

After swallowing the meat in his mouth, Khael answered, "Me? Oh, I am Khael... Khael Seven. You, big sister?"

"My name is Yaera Mahogany. This is my husband, Calven. He didn't like to speak. Sorry about that." She patted the shoulder of the [Martial Shooter] beside her.

Khael quickly scanned the appearance of the husband and wife pair.

Yaera looked like a typical neighborhood auntie: a little plump body shape, fair skin that was a little rough, a friendly face which was always smiling, and black hair tied in a loose bun at the back of her head.

Her tall and lean husband, Calven, looked really like a capable hunter. He had tanned skin, long pony-tailed black hair, and short black beard.

"Bode... Bode Bangize." said the [Martial Wielder] who used sword and shield. This guy actually looked quite scary with his thick muscles, a big scar on his face, wild black hair, and also wild thick beard.

The last paragon grinned and said, "And I'm Davada Jethand." He looked the youngest and smallest among the four. And he was also the weirdest in appearance with his beardless face, shaved eyebrows, and red-bleached mohawk hair.

Khael could see that racially, all four of them were the same as him, beastkin human. It could be seen from the catlike pupils of their eyes. It was not surprising as Freshlife Continent was the homeland of the beastkin. About seventy percent human inhabitants in this continent were beastkins.

"Why are you here, little brother?" asked Yaera.

Calmly Khael replied, "I'm on the way to Sixstones. It's that way, isn't it?" He pointed to one direction.

"That's right," answered Yaera. "We're from there. We'll go back there after we finish harvesting the monsters. Do you want to go together with us? We've got a truck being parked not too far away. You are walking, aren't you?"

"Can I? Really?"

"Sure," said the wild beard Bode. "As long as you don't mind being a little uncomfortable. Anyway, what were you doing, looking so wild like that? You're doing those ascetic pilgrimage things your kinds do? But, aren't you suppose to wear no shoes for it?"

"What? No!" Khael quickly replied. "Well, actually in some way... yes. I've done the wildlife survival part of the ascetic training. I didn't do the severe self discipline part though."

Ascetic pilgrimage training was a kind of severe training that certain groups of [Ascenders], [Sanctifists], and [Morpheans] did to temper themselves. It was extremely hard. In the most extreme way, the pilgrims needed to survive the wildlife bare naked, without carrying anything.

"Were you from Sixstones?" Bode continued asking.

"Nope. My hometown is the Oaktree Village. Er... my hometown was the Oaktree Village," said Khael, showing a tint of sadness in his voice and expression for a second, and then returned back to his original calm expression quickly. He did not want to overact. His character was supposed to be a cool youth with dark past, not a pitiful spineless protagonist carried away by sorrow.

"The one that was..." The words that was about to come out of Davada's mouth was stopped by a sharp glare of Yaera's eyes.

"The one that was destroyed by the monsters," said Khael, with calm voice. "I was probably the only survivor."

"Sorry," said Davada.

Khael smiled bitterly without any word.

"You have anyone to visit in Sixstones, little brother?" Yaera quickly changed the topic.

"Nah. I just want to go to Paragon League to register and get some jobs."

"What kind of job?" Bode asked curiously.

"Anything is fine. Hunting, guarding, delivering things..."

"What about investigation?" asked Bode eagerly. "Do you want to join us... er... Davada and me, I mean. We're planning to take some investigation job."

Khael raised his eyebrows at that invitation and then looked pointedly at the Mahogany's couple.

"This hunt should be our last job. For a while, at least," said Yaera, explaining. "We're going to the capital and will stay there for about two to three years... Well, it's a little complicated family matters."

"Which means that our team will be lacking members for now," continued Bode, grinning. "Hence, the invitation... What do you say?"

Khael thought for a few seconds, and then said, "Can I join your team a bit later? I want to try some individual jobs first if possible."

"Sure, no problem," answered Bode easily. "You've got an efcom?" He took a palm sized circular object from his waist bag and showed it..

"Not at the moment. Sorry," said Khael easily. "I'm planning to get a new one later, once I've got enough money, probably after finishing one or two jobs."

The "efcom" that Davada mentioned was actually an F-COM, a device that had pretty much the same functions as advanced cell phones from his past life... for communication, entertainment, and information sharing.

However, compared to his old cell-phone, F-COM was quite more advanced since it could use 3D holographic projection instead of just a 2D screen. Better still, the battery could be charged in many different ways, including electricity, solar power charging, or even energy transmission from any of the seven types of energy [Construction] stage paragon possessed. This means that a paragon like Khael could simply charge it himself by directly transferring his primal energy to the battery.

Bode didn't seem to mind Khael's answer. "Well, no matter," he said casually. "Once you've got yours, just ask the Paragon League for my efcom contact information. Alright, just continue your lunch. We're going to harvest those monsters."

---Time Skip: the next day---

In Faea, Freshlife Continent, Sixstones Town...

The sun was almost disappeared in the western horizon when a small, yet heavily reinforced, truck moved slowly past the town gate. The guards of the gate simply ignored it as they could see the Paragon League symbol, which looked like a bio-hazard symbol, painted on the left and right sides of the vehicle.

The truck slowed down to a stop in front of a huge building with the same bio-hazardlike symbol. A young man with clean yet worn out clothing and bag jumped down from the truck.

"Thanks for the ride, everyone," said Khael, the young man.

"Contact me when you've got your efcom," said Bode, the driver of the truck, as the other passengers just smiled and waved casually in response.

"Sure," answered Khael. As he waved his right hand, the truck started to move again, leaving him there.

Khael quickly checked himself. He was much cleaner than the day before. They had taken several stops near several different sources of water for multiple bathing and washing, not just for their bodies and their clothes, but even also for their truck. That was because Yaera did not want them to enter the town in dirt and blood.

That [Demolitionist] lady had surprisingly mastered many useful magic spells for housework like cooking, cleaning, washing, and drying. She was truly an ultimate housewife. Khael could not help but pity her choice of paragon class. She would likely be much greater [Alterist], one that focused on manipulating objects' shapes and materials; rather than [Demolitionist], one that was supposed to focus on damaging things.

Khael casually walked to and entered the huge building with the strange bio-hazard symbol. It was the Paragon League branch in Sixstones Town.

Paragon League was an independent international organization. It had pretty much similar functions to the Adventurer Guild in Japanese isekai stories: registering members, assigning ranks to members, issuing mission, and the likes. The only difference is... well, nothing actually. They were practically the same in essence. Paragon League was just the modernized version of the other stories' Adventurer Guild.

Once Khael walked in the main hall of the League, the first thing that caught his attention was a massive colorful painting on the wall. It showed various monstrous beasts facing against armored men and women who were protecting helpless people.

Underneath the great painting, there was a large plaque with a written quote: "We are the humans who call ourselves paragons, thus we shall be the paragons of humanity. Protecting the weakest of humanity is our privilege, combating the threat to humanity is our duty." ~ Lord Alk Ashada, the Founder of Paragon League ~

"That was nice," commented Khael, impressed, as he kept walking to the counter which had the sign: Registration.

"Good evening, how can I help you?" asked the friendly-looking lady at the counter.

"Well, I'd like to register myself as a paragon under the Paragon League. Can you tell me what I should do?"

"No problem. It is just a simple process," the woman smiled and professionally placed an open box-like device with rectangular indentation inside. "Can you please put your civilian ID card here?"

Khael took out the ID card from his bag and placed it in the indentation. He knew that it would be required. Luckily he purchased the <<Forged Paperwork>> during the avatar creation.

The woman, still smiling and without any comment, flipped the card. It seemed that Khael placed it in the wrong direction. She then closed the box and put it on the counter.

She then took out a transparent card of the same size as the ID card. "Please drop your blood on the registration card if you are in [Foundation] stage, or inject your energy to it if you are of higher level."

Obediently, Khael injected his primal energy to the card. The card immediately turned reddish.

"Place the card on top of the box, please," the woman gave another instruction, which Khael followed without any question.

The reddish registration card glowed for a few seconds and then disappeared without any trace. The registration lady calmly opened the box and took the ID card which had changed significantly.

She handed the new ID card to Khael. "You are now a registered paragon of the Paragon League, Sir. Your basic data has been recorded within the League's network. If you have any question about this, please feel free to ask. You can also now use your card to access the Paragon League network and ask questions there."

Khael inspected his new ID card. It was black in color. On one side, there were two pieces of information in silver color; Name: Khael Seven, and Rank: Novice.

On the other side of the card, there were five pieces of what-supposed-to-be information; Age, Class, Energy, Stage, and Origin. However, they were all marked with triple question marks (???).

"Is the data supposed to be question marks like this?" asked Khael.

"Many paragons do not like to show their information to others, Sir. So, the default setting of the additional info is designed to be hidden. Only name and rank are required to be permanently visible. Since you have been above the [Foundation] stage, if you want to show the content of the hidden information in your card, you can simply adjust it by using energy injection directly."

"Alright, then. Thank you very much. Do I need to pay anything?"

"For first-time registration? No. But re-issuing ID card because the old one is missing will cost you 500 veens."

"I'll try not to lose my card then. Thank you, ma'am."

Khael was glad he didn't need to pay anything. He knew from the <<Common Sense Guide for Dummies in Faea>> that registering to the Paragon League was supposed to be free, but he was still afraid that it might be different in real situation. The 10 bronze coins he possessed was just 1000 veens in total. As one veen was approximately equal to one cent, his money was basically just 10 dollars in value.

'Let's get some money first,' Khael thought as he walked out of the League.

Khael had a few valuable items in his bag... well, he hoped they were valuable. They were just fancy looking rocks for him, rocks without any magical property... which were useless for his ritual crafts. But they were gold ores, and according to the <<Common Sense Guide for Dummies in Faea>> gold was almost as valuable in this world as it was in his past life.

He found plenty gold ores near one of the rocky waterfalls in the Sanctuary actually, but as he wasn't sure whether they could be sold easily or not in Faea, he just took about seven smaller pieces.

The sky was already dark now. Street lights, powered by arcane energy rather than electricity, were all turned on. Quite a lot of people were walking on the sidewalks. The wide asphalt road was quite empty though... no private cars, motorcycles, or other kinds of personal vehicles. Only medium sized buses passed by occasionally.

Transportation was indeed radically imbalanced in the world of Faea. There were advanced transportation vehicles, but very few were sold for personal use. Traveling within one town or city usually was done through scheduled public transportation. Going from one settlement to the others was also usually done via a large scale public vehicle. These kinds of vehicles were usually fortified heavily due to the threat of monsters' attack.

Only very powerful individual paragons, paragon teams, or big companies possessed their own land vehicles. And their vehicles were usually in the form of strong practical trucks. Luxury vehicles were almost like myths for most people.

It didn't take long for Khael to reach a mid-sized gold and jewelry store named "Golden Spark". He had made many inquiries about the town's layout to the talkative Yaera and Bode. From the information, he created a mental map of the town to guide him where to go in this town if he needed anything.

As he entered the store, Khael could see a beautiful shop attendant sitting idly, watching a holographic scene of what looked like an outdoor exploration done by a group of young adventurers. Hearing the door opened, the shop attendant quickly paused her device and politely greeted, "Good evening Sir. How can we help you?"

Khael was glad that so far anyone he encountered was reasonable people, not arrogant pricks nor ridiculous characters. He smiled and answered, "Sorry to disturb you. But... does this store buy gold ores?"

"It depends on the quality usually," answered the girl. "You need to talk to the owner for that. Would you like to?"

"Yes,"

"Please wait for a minute." The girl knocked the door to the room a the back.

Not long, a fat man in sloppy clothing opened the door, "What's wrong?" he asked impatiently.

"Someone wants to sell gold ores," answered the girl politely.

The man looked around the store quickly and stopped his sight at Khael who was calmly waiting.

"Gold ores?" The fat man asked Khael. And seeing Khael nodded his head, he quickly opened the door widely. "Please come in. We'll discuss it inside."

---Several minutes later---

Khael walked out of the store with a thin smile on his face. He was five gold coins richer now. Five gold coins were equal to 50 000 veens, or about 500 dollars, good enough for a while.

The coinage concept of the world's currency was pretty simple actually. The types of coins, arranged from the lowest to the highest in value were: iron, copper, bronze, silver, gold, mythril, and diamond. For each type of coin, the value was ten times higher than the previous type. Ten iron coins were equal to one copper coin; ten copper coins could be changed into one bronze coin; ten bronze coins were worth one silver coin; and so on.

For his trade with the store owner, Khael indeed suspected that he was cheated, as he estimated that the seven gold ores he sold for five gold coins could be smelted into at least twelve gold coins.

But he didn't really care about that. He had never really cared too much about money in his previous life and he didn't plan to change that in this life. As long as he had enough to live comfortably, that should be fine. Fussing over little things like wealth and money was not cool at all,