Here they came—the beautiful ladies walking straight toward me.
They chatted among themselves, "Why is there suddenly a new quest here?"
"Maybe the game just glitched."
Well, I'll be honest—after all these years, I'd never been this close to such beauties. This yellow circle thing was something else! They stopped by me, fiddled with the circle on my head for a while, then frowned.
"What's the quest exactly? Has this... um, is there a bug?"
They spoke in strange words—so many I couldn't understand. But I knew one thing: they were here for a quest. These folks were seriously hardworking. The moment they landed in our village, they wanted a job.
Trying to sound like the old chief, I said, "Go to the back mountain. Hunt five wild boars and five wolves."
No questions asked—they just got to it. And with moves that matched their looks, they didn't take long. Soon enough, I was staring at a small mountain of carcasses. I didn't know whether to be proud or terrified.
The ladies asked again, "And then? What else do we need to do?"
"Anything?" I asked.
They nodded without hesitation, "...Yeah?"
I stared at those gorgeous ladies, my mouth practically watering.
"I've never eaten meat before. I want to try some pork."
The ladies said their levels were too low—they still didn't know how to cook.
Levels? I had no clue what that meant. All those weird words they kept saying, I couldn't make heads or tails of them. But that didn't matter. I told them I just really, really wanted to eat some pork.
They immediately fetched backup—a cute little girl who was so tiny she couldn't reach my knees even if she jumped. This little girl could do magic tricks. Right then and there, she set up a cauldron and poof—in the blink of an eye, wild boar meat turned into sausages. That kind of cooking skill? No one in our village had ever seen anything like it!
The girl who cooked said, "The quests changed? They weren't like this before."
"Don't know." The ladies shook their heads and handed me the sausages, not saving a single bite for themselves. I felt bad and asked them to eat with me, but they shook their heads.
"This stuff doesn't restore health or magic," they said. "It's useless."
What a strange bunch… Meat's supposed to taste good. Who cares about all that? It's not a miracle potion.
To thank them for cooking me a hot meal, I skinned the wolf I'd hunted earlier and handed over the pelt. The women took it with delight, chatting happily as they left.
Peace lasted all of five minutes before another group of outsiders wandered into the village.
As long as I had that yellow circle on my head, every outsider who entered the village headed straight for me, like moths to a lantern.
My stomach was full, so I thought, Well, might as well put them to work.
Far on the horizon, dark clouds were gathering, heavy and low, and the air carried that faint, damp smell that always comes before rain. I glanced at my crooked little hut, the roof patched more times than I could count.
I turned to the nearest adventurer.
"Could you lend a hand patching up my roof?"
They didn't even blink. In no time at all, not only had they fixed the roof, but they'd swapped out my old, splintered beams for solid new ones, and even mended my crumbling courtyard wall for good measure.
I was too poor to offer any real reward. No gold, no treasures—just the odds and ends of a humble life. How could I repay them?
After some thought, I carved up the last of the wolf meat, divided my homemade sausages, and offered them as thanks. They waved it off without a second glance.
Oddly enough, what did catch their attention were the weathered old beams they'd just replaced—the ones that had held my roof together for years.
I chuckled. "If you want them, take them. I won't be needing them anymore."
They lit up like children on festival night.
"Oh man! Novice Village finally drops weapons! This quest update is amazing!"