Conditions (4k)

The Thin Mist Forest stretched vast and boundless. The dense Magic Power in the air allowed this mysterious land, filled with thick woods and shrubs, to nurture countless living creatures.

Four Rust Monsters, five adventurers—a tense and fierce battle that could determine life or death.

Yet within the entire forest, it was merely one of the countless cycles of predation, hunting, eating and being eaten that occurred every second.

The campfire flickered.

Its orange-red light seemed to melt into the night, turning into a hazy mist that drifted lazily through the air around them.

After the battle, Xia Nan and the others hurriedly packed their belongings. Under Wood's direction, they swiftly relocated their camp before the sun had fully dipped below the horizon.

"Ah! Easy, easy."

Larry's forehead was covered in sweat as, with Doris's help, he carefully unwound the bandages that had been hastily wrapped around his arm to save time.

Rust Monster venom was the bane of metal equipment. Just a few tiny drops, if left untreated, could corrode a large patch of holes and dents into it like ants building a nest.

On the human body, however, its toxicity was much weaker.

It was like a burn—just a searing patch of pain, not fatal.

Faced with Larry's dramatic behavior, as though he had suffered some terrible injury, Doris looked disgusted and muttered under her breath, but she still carefully changed his medicine.

At the center of the camp, the Half-Elf was quietly discussing tomorrow's route with his Guard. The atmosphere between them was no longer silent, and their earlier argument seemed to have been forgotten with the end of the battle.

Xia Nan was still alone, leaning against a tree beside the fire.

Only now, he was not tending to the Beheading Longsword at his side, which had been polished to a gleam.

Instead, he was intently roasting the dried meat before him.

After such an eventful day, he needed food to replenish his strength.

As a novice adventurer who had barely completed any commissions and stood at the very bottom of the profession,

even if his values from modern society in his Previous Life, along with his once-decent family finances, made him willing to spend a few extra coins on supplies,

what he had brought for this trip was only a stack of hard black bread, several large chunks of smoked meat, two throat-drying salted fish, and some other miscellaneous food—about five days' worth in total.

It was not that Xia Nan had been particularly stingy. The Thin Mist Forest simply had a unique environment, where fresh food spoiled far faster than usual.

Besides, he had thought he was only gathering some Firefly Garlic Vine and would spend, at most, one night outside. So he had merely followed the Adventurer's Manual's recommendations and bought supplies from the General Store according to the list.

Thinking about it now, perhaps he should have spent a few more Silver Coins to see whether there was anything else he could bring along.

Xia Nan used his dagger to cut up the warmed smoked meat and put it into his mouth.

"Mm... at least it's hot."

Feeling the indescribably strange taste in his mouth, he consoled himself inwardly.

Yet he could not help recalling the feast he had enjoyed at the White Tit Tavern a few days ago, where he had spent the "huge sum" of three Silver Coins.

"That bowl of Mushroom Soup really was delicious."

He smacked his lips unconsciously.

Come to think of it, though he had never seen one himself, this world definitely had proper Mages.

There might even be things like "spatial rings" or "storage spells."

If he ever had the chance to get something similar, not only would it make carrying supplies much more convenient, but spoils like today's Rust Monster Carapace should also be easy to bring back to the city.

At the thought, Xia Nan suddenly laughed at himself.

He felt like the protagonist of that old joke from his Previous Life about the emperor's golden hoe.

"Xia Nan? What are you thinking about?"

A deliberately lowered voice sounded beside his ear.

Xia Nan came back to himself and looked over. Larry had somehow already finished changing his medicine and come over to him.

He was carrying a small basket.

"Here, this is for you."

Before Xia Nan could respond, the basket was forcibly stuffed into his arms.

Glancing inside, he found a palm-sized glass bottle and several bundles covered in thin cloth.

"Twin-Sting Bee honey. I bought it from the Leaf of the Elves bakery. It's famous—you should try it."

Larry pointed to the glass bottle filled with thick golden liquid, his animated expression making him look like a salesman from a livestream in Xia Nan's Previous Life.

"And these chunks of Goat Cheese were made by Doris's family. They taste great, especially with dried meat. Tsk, that flavor..."

"Oh..." Xia Nan hugged the wooden basket, looking somewhat surprised, but he still nodded in thanks. "Thank you."

He had intended to exchange a few more pleasantries and perhaps talk about this commission.

But Larry seemed to have come specifically to deliver the food. Leaving behind only, "Once we get back to Newm, I'll treat you to a good time in the city for a few days," he hurried back in tiny steps at Doris's urging.

Sizzle—

Under the fire's heat, the cheese sliced thin with his dagger half-melted over the reddish-brown dried meat, releasing a rich milky fragrance.

When he put it into his mouth, the salty-sweet flavor of the otherworldly cheese made the dry, bland meat seem like an entirely different ingredient.

Xia Nan's eyes lit up at once, and even his weary body and mind eased considerably.

He looked toward Larry and Doris, who were whispering to each other in the distance, his gaze complicated.

When he had first joined the party, he had thought they were simply the clichéd, all-too-common kind of "pursuer" and "pursued" pair from his Previous Life.

After all, Larry's fawning manner and Doris's indifferent attitude made it difficult not to think that way.

But after spending the whole day with them,

Xia Nan had realized that while Larry always acted ingratiating, he was not the sort to flatter without any bottom line. And although Doris often showed disdain, she did not seem quite so distant at certain moments.

"I don't get it."

He shook his head in puzzlement.

"Strange, isn't it?" Seemingly noticing Xia Nan's gaze, the Half-Elf smiled faintly and spoke.

"What if I told you that they actually grew up together?"

Hm? Childhood sweethearts?

Xia Nan became even more confused and asked instinctively,

"Then why do they..."

"They look awkward together, right?" Hai An watched the pair from afar, lowering his voice. "The actual situation is indeed rather complicated."

"Larry's father is a well-known wealthy merchant in Newm. As for Doris's parents, before they opened their cheese shop, they were once stewards for Larry's family."

"That's why they knew each other from childhood. And afterward..."

At this point, the Half-Elf seemed to realize that what he was doing was inappropriate, so he stopped and concluded,

"What happened afterward was one of those stories you see in stage plays."

Xia Nan still did not understand.

But since Hai An did not intend to continue, he did not press further. Instead, he turned the topic back to Hai An himself.

"What about you? Why did you come to the Thin Mist Forest?"

At that, Hai An's body stiffened.

Light flickered in his Silver-grey eyes. He hesitated for a moment, then seemed to let something go as he released a long breath.

He took out the jet-black Wooden Token from his waist pouch.

His fingertips gently rubbed across its surface as he spoke softly.

"When I was little, I always pestered my mother to tell me stories before bed."

"There were only a few stories, told over and over, and she wasn't as vivid as Aunt Polly."

"But..." The evening breeze brushed past him, revealing the long pointed ear hidden beneath the Half-Elf's silver hair. "Those stories all came from my mother's homeland."

"Flower Elves who loved playing pranks, treants who guided lost travelers, a Dream Woven of Jade and Emerald..."

"Only on those nights, listening to my mother's gentle voice, could I stop thinking about the way others looked at me during the day. I didn't have to care about... myself."

The Silver-grey eyes unique to Elves reflected the flickering firelight before him.

Hai An suddenly turned and glanced at Wood beside him, who looked as though he wanted to speak but could not.

He sighed.

"I know that the design of this Wooden Token differs from the style passed down through my mother's clan."

"But this is my last chance. I have to try."

"After this commission ends, whether I find anything or not, I probably won't be able to leave home again, will I?"

"You will, Young Master!" Wood replied resolutely. But then, as if recalling something, a trace of hesitation and struggle appeared on his face. He repeated softly, "You will."

It had only been a casual question, yet Xia Nan had unexpectedly made the party's atmosphere fall silent again.

He looked between the two of them, his mind racing as he changed the subject.

"Right! I've been meaning to ask—Wood, you're a Professional, aren't you?"

"A real one who has obtained a Profession Level," he added.

Wood's expression turned rather strange.

"You didn't know? I thought you had figured it out long ago."

"Haha, this is only my second commission, after all." Xia Nan scratched his head and laughed.

"I've never had any contact with a true Professional before, so I was curious."

"Your second!?" As though he had caught some crucial keyword, the Half-Elf's ears instantly perked up.

"So when you told Larry that you were a newcomer, you were telling the truth?"

Before Xia Nan could answer, Hai An looked at the iron-grey Beheading Longsword beside him with astonishment.

"That Combat Skill you used just now was not something a newcomer should have."

Hearing that the Half-Elf seemed surprised by his [Whirlwind Slash], Xia Nan could not help feeling puzzled.

"What's wrong? Don't all of you know Combat Skills...?"

Upon hearing that, Hai An looked as though he had discovered a whole new world.

"Wait! Your mentor never taught you these things?"

"Mentor? I never had one."

"Then where did you learn that Combat Skill?"

Xia Nan did not see anything worth hiding about the previous owner's experiences. As for the half of the Skill Book that recorded the training method for [Whirlwind Slash], it had long since been fed to the Old Ox in the shed after the whole family had made no progress for years.

So he told the two of them everything: how the previous owner had obtained the Skill Book, and how, after years of hard practice, a sudden change had occurred.

!?

"So you waved a sword around for years while looking at half a sheet of paper, and you actually learned it!?"

Wood wore an expression more spectacular than any he had shown during the battle.

Hai An beside him had stopped speaking altogether. He simply stared at Xia Nan without blinking, as though looking at an Alien—

Not entirely inaccurate. In a sense, Xia Nan really was an Alien.

By now, no matter how slow his reaction might have been, Xia Nan understood from their behavior that there was something unusual about this body.

In his Previous Life, he had merely been an ordinary office worker who had barely fought at all. Yet after transmigrating, he could immediately trade blows with all manner of Monsters.

Though he was somewhat inexperienced, whenever he reviewed a fight afterward, the instinctive choices he had made in battle had often been correct and precise.

Then there was [Whirlwind Slash], which had already been nearly trained to full Level when he first arrived in this world...

Could it be that this body, and perhaps even his Previous Life self, really possessed some talent for combat?

Seeing that Xia Nan's reaction did not seem fake,

Wood still looked astonished, but he quickly returned to his usual calm and took the initiative to explain the knowledge of "Combat Skills" in this world.

According to Wood, due to differences in professions and effect types, the number of Combat Skills on the Aifala Continent was as countless as the stars in the sky.

Yet neither the Adventurers Association nor any other organization had established a clear and definitive ranking system for these Combat Skills.

They only roughly divided them by proficiency into three grades: Beginner, Proficient, and Mastery.

Even the boundary between "Beginner" and "Proficient" was especially vague.

"Then what about 'Mastery'?" Xia Nan asked with a slight frown.

Having already let down his guard and accepted Xia Nan in his heart, Wood gave a vivid smile and said mysteriously,

"Compared with the first two, Mastery-level Combat Skills are actually the easiest to distinguish."

"Because once you temper a true Combat Skill to the level of Mastery, all the effort you have put in before will be returned to you in that instant."

"Simply put, the moment you train a Combat Skill to Mastery, you will clearly feel that some aspect of your body's abilities has surged dramatically."

"Some Combat Skills may even grant you certain special techniques in related areas once they reach Mastery."

At those words, Xia Nan immediately thought of the two Attribute Points he had received a few days ago after raising [Whirlwind Slash] to its maximum Level 5 against the Bear Goblin, along with the Feat called "Slicing Master."

So Level 5 on the System Panel corresponded to what people in this world called "Mastery"?

Then accordingly, Level 1–2 was "Beginner," while Level 3–4 was "Proficient"?

Xia Nan understood, but he could not help asking further.

"So are Mastery-level Combat Skills rare?"

The moment he finished speaking, Hai An's eyes widened.

"Of course!"

"Training a related Combat Skill to Mastery is one of the necessary conditions for obtaining a Profession Level!"

Profession Level!?

A wave of excitement rose within Xia Nan. Even his breathing grew heavier.

"What else? What are the other conditions?"

"How does one become a Professional?"