Reborned Top Gamer: Spell-Swordman Rule the World

13 THERE IS A HIDDEN PROFESSION

For two weeks, the three of them search the entire village and around the village for the source of the strong mana but found nothing. Anytime Ailsa felt like she had the trail and took Walt and Jenny with her to search, it always ended in nothing. It was frustrating and was driving Walt up the wall. He decided to use some of their money to buy rare equipment that could be used to detect mana levels. It was expensive so he bought only one and gave it to Jenny. That way, they could have two teams searching at once. 

One day, Jenny went on a search by herself through a route where they had not passed yet. It was around their inn, past the open field into the forest beyond. As she reached the forest, she noticed that there was a hidden path that seemed to not have been used in a long time because tree branches had covered it up. She looked at the equipment Walt had given her but there was no spike in mana level, so she shrugged and followed the path.

At the end of the path, there was a series of steps that led to a huge building that seemed to have ominous undertones. It was in the style of a temple, with two large columns holding up the a-shaped roof, the walls were white and overgrown with ivy, it had an entrance but no door and space within were dark and eerie. She looked up and saw some type of text etched on the covering above the entrance but she could not discern what it meant.

Summoning all the courage that she had within, she walked into the building and came upon a tomb. That was when she realized that she was in a mausoleum. The tomb was made entirely of gold and on top of it was a design of a sword clasped by strong-looking hands. It must be a tomb for a knight. She placed her hand on the cold surface and admired it, then something glistened and caught her eye. She looked up to see some type of medal at the very top of the tomb, it was glistening even though there was no light hitting it directly.

She took a cautious step forward to look at the medal, it was a knight’s medal and it started to glow brighter like it was screaming at her to touch it. Clutching the mana detector to her chest with one hand, she tentatively reached forward with the other. Immediately after touching the medal, she was taken into a trance.

“Congratulations, Jenny. You are the first to discover ‘Tomb of the Paladin’. Paladin is a stronger knight profession; they have control immunity and great defensive skills. Upgrading to paladin will use a lot of your EXP. Do you accept?” the system prompt announced to her. Even though she was in a trance, Jenny was immediately eager and excited.

“Yes,” she replied and was brought back to the tomb. She looked down and saw that she was now wearing armor which was nothing like her knight’s armor, it was made of gold but did not feel heavy, it had inlaid intricate details, the shoulder had wings made from silver and a silver-colored cloak hung freely behind her. Strapped across her back was a new and improved sword which was huge but felt as light as a feather when she drew it from its sheath and swung it. Excitedly, she ran out of the mausoleum and headed to the inn with her cloak trailing behind her.

“I’m the first paladin!” Jenny screamed as she slammed the door of the tavern near the inn open. Curious customers glanced at her as she stood at the entrance, breathing hard. She ignored everyone and looked around until she found Walt and Ailsa who was waving at her in her usual perky manner. She dashed over to their side and looked so wide-eyed and excited that Walt was a little bemused. He then took a moment to look at her and saw that she was wearing something different than what she had left with. In fact, her whole appearance was different, she seemed fiercer.

“You guys!” she started in a high-pitched tone and the fierce image in Walt’s head shattered “I was walking, and the, a tomb, knight’s medal-”

“Whoa, whoa,” Ailsa stood and held her shoulders “sit down. Okay, now drink water…there. Okay, so what happened?”

“Okay, okay…” Jenny said and let out a breath. Then she explained to them how she was going on a routine search and stumbled upon a path that led her to a mysterious building that turned out to be the burial place for a knight.  She explained in unnecessary detail about how she touched a medal and was put in a trance where the system told her she had become the first paladin.

“The only issue, now that I think of it, is that upgrading will consume a lot of EXP and we have a task to finish,” she said and sagged into her seat, feeling less excited than she had a minute ago. Walt and Ailsa became excited though, especially Walt because an upgrade of a member of the team is an upgrade for the whole team.

“Okay, well, first of all, congratulations! The first paladin in the game, that’s a big deal!” Walt said causing Jenny to blush “secondly, the EXP thing is no issue because Ailsa and I are here for you. And lastly, we are going to have to suspend the task until after your upgrade.” That was precisely what Jenny was afraid of, but Walt reassured her by telling her that her upgrade would give them all a chance to build their skills and that would give them a higher chance of defeating whatever was exuding the mana.

So, they all took a toast to Jenny’s success and started to chatter about how they planned to train and what else they should do while waiting for her upgrade. They agreed that they should look for other adventures, so they have enough practice.

The next day, they told Luuk about Jenny’s upgrade and the stall in the progress of the task. He was a bit disappointed but he said he understood and told them about other little problems that troubled their village that they could help them solve for EXP. There was a pest control issue on one of their farms where giant locusts where disturbing the farmers. The three of them helped to get rid of the locusts and realized that because of the huge level of mana around that area, a lot of evil creatures were drawn there. By the end of that day, they had destroyed a lot of low-level monsters and gained some EXP.

“Thank you so much, our village is slightly better with your presence,” Luuk said to them as they walked back to the inn together.

“Happy to help,” Walt said with a huge grin which was there because he had insisted that the village leader pay them for the small services they rendered. Luuk shot daggers at him with his eyes then cleared his throat.

“Well, we appreciate it. Tomorrow, I would like it if you investigate the disturbance in the east village, a lot of complaints have been coming in about snakes.”

“Snakes?” said Ailsa.

“Yes, rattlesnakes to be precise. It seems a tribe of them are trying to take over that part of Echo Corridor. Please help me get rid of them,” he said as they reached the entrance to the inn. Walt accepted the task with his usual clause of payment, Luuk grumbled but accepted and they got some sleep.

The rattlesnake tribe turned out to a small collection of low-level snakes who had a low-level boss rattlesnake. They were terrorizing the occupants of the east village but shaking their tail which made deafening noises that irritated the villagers to no end. The rattlesnakes were also disturbing the livestock of the villagers and one almost attacked a child. Walt felt a little insulted and annoyed that they had to fight the monsters but the pay was good.

“Small fry,” he muttered under his breath as they were being led to the snakes’ nests. Ailsa and Jenny rolled their eyes at his complaint. The rattling sounds from the snakes got louder as they approached the nest, so the villagers taking them there asked to leave because the sounds gave them migraines. It had little effect on Walt and the girls though, except for being really annoying. When they reached the entrance of the nest which was more like a cove, Jenny drew her huge sword from its scabbard strapped to her back and was about to go in when Walt drew her back.

“Wait. Let’s draw them out instead,” he said and they put a plan in motion. Ailsa used her powers of forest control to mimic the smell of a deer and wafted the scent in front of the cave. A few seconds later, a giant rattlesnake crawled out of the cave, with smaller snakes hanging on it and trailing behind it. It was the boss. Walt, who was hiding, ran out with his sword and used Scimitar (a single attack for a single opponent) which almost immediately cut the snake in half, and ended the loud rattling sound.

“Well, that was fast,” Ailsa said and Walt looked up to see that she and Jenny had rounded up the rest of the rattlesnakes without killing them.

“What are we going to do with them?” Jenny asked. Walt looked at the carcass of the boss and smiled at his girlfriend.

“I got you a present,” he said and she frowned. It turned out that the skin and bones of the snakes were used by elves to make strong bows and arrows that distinguished them from regular archers. They used their shrinking equipment, rounded up the rattlesnakes, and took them to the central village where they collected their fee and Walt used part of it to pay for the extraction of the bones and skin. They agreed to use all the materials for Ailsa and Jenny had no problem with it since everyone was helping her upgrade. A new bow that was blue and two dozen arrowheads were made from the materials for Ailsa. She named the bow Eclipse.