[Would you like to start the quest - A Hero's Journey?]
Cane looked at the system screen before he made an official decision. He had already agreed to the chief's request, so he wasted no time in selecting the option on the screen.
Cough
"You might have the courage to undertake a journey like never seen before, but you need to be prepared for what is to come. First, go and strengthen yourself a little more. Then, we will tell you the location of the first temple."
The chief told Cane. There was likely a level cap on this quest, and as Cane looked at the system, his suspicions were confirmed.
[Chain Quest #1 - requirement level 35]
He was currently level 30, so it was not a high requirement to ask him to get to level 35. What the main problem here was the fact that he had no way to level up.
Since he could not do the main story quest, he was stuck. It had not been a problem up until now, but he was wondering what to do next.
"First, I should go and get more skills. I have 6 empty skill slots to use, but I need to be careful to cover my weaknesses before it gets too late."
The skill selection could only be made at a Combat Academy. Combat Academies were located all over the map. But Cane only had access to one of them right now.
"I do need my skills. But I have a feeling that if I head back to the academy, I would be in even more trouble than before… should I make my way to another Academy? That will help me unlock new areas as well."
With his mind made up, Cane made his way to the next part of the map. Once he found a safe 'saving point,' he finally quit the game for the day and looked at his phone.
"Holy shit-! Have I truly been playing for over 10 hours? Why did the alarms not go off? Ugh, my body hurts."
Cane complained as he pushed himself to stand up and stretched his body. He was also hungry, and he quickly devoured the sandwich and the bottle of juice in his fridge.
Once he had enough, he decided to check his social media. A lot of new followers had been added to his list, which made him happy.
He also had a lot of new mails, asking for him to be sponsored, which he took some time to look through. But halfway through the second mail, his head started to hurt, and he had to take a break.
"I need to get a manager for these things. But I don't want to make a post online and give my private information away."
That was a dilemma. Cane had never been as big as he was now, and for the first time in his life, he felt like he was in need of someone else to manage his schedule and his incoming messages.
Just as he decided to get legal advice, he got a message on his phone.
He blinked as he looked at the name he had not seen for a long time… coincidentally, she was also the one person he had a crush on a few years back.
But Rhea had moved on to college and started going out with a new boyfriend she called 'the perfect person' for herself. And just like that, Cane had never been able to confess.
They had lost contact soon after that, so it was a surprise for Cane to hear from her again.
[Rhea: Hello Cane. It's been a long time since I last talked to you, right? I just… thought I should check up on you… just to see how you were doing.]
That message sounded caring, but Cane felt his eyes narrow. He knew his friend well, and because he knew Rhea so well, he knew that her messaging him could not be a coincidence.
Rhea was someone only interested in the 'big fish.' Every boy she dated, every friend she made, she did it because she wanted to be 'cool' and in the 'big leagues.'
The only difference had been him — her childhood friendly neighbor kid her mother had forced her to 'play nice' with. But she had ditched him as soon as she could without it being too suspicious.
He knew that such a person could not have contacted him without a reason that benefited her.
And she proved herself with her next message.
[Rhea: Hey, I recently heard about Clash Online and wanted to know whether you played or not… Don't think too much about it. I was just… worried for you. You know, since your name is so close to this viral player and all.]
And there it was — the reason he had been contacted by Rhea.
She was pretending to be innocent and soft to get him to let his guard down, but Cane was not going to fall for it.
He had already gotten over Rhea a long time ago once he was sure she would never return his feelings.
Since Rhea was pretending she did not know his identity, he was going to do the same to her.
[Cane: Rhea, it has been a long time… as for Clash Online, I'm sorry to say that I don't play it. Maybe you got me mixed up with someone else?]
Cane asked, and he could picture Rhea seething as she did not get what she wanted from him.
"Oh well, time to get back to work… huh-! Another message so soon? Did Rhea learn how to swallow her pride or something?"
Cane questioned as he opened his phone once more.
But this time, it was not Rhea who messaged him, but one of his other long-time friends — Daniel Smith. He was a hardcore gamer and also extremely good at games.
But he did not stream, so he was only known by players by his name and nothing else. He was also known to only play female characters.
Daniel had not contacted Cane up until now, and Cane felt interested as to why he was being contacted by Daniel, especially since Daniel did not care about fame or wanting to profit.
'Hmm, this could be interesting. I better message Daniel back.'