I Reject Quests

In front of a small shop, three teenagers and a man with a cat in his hand were talking. 

"Thank you for finding my cat. As promised, I will give you this Potion."

"Received 'Mana Replenishing Potion'!"

"30 EXP gained!"

Two screens were displayed in front of Rewen's eyes.

"Thank you, Good Sir." He smiled, then walked away from the shop along with Sam and Vinia.

"Are you done?" Sam asked with a tired voice. "We have been walking all day. The sun is about to go down. Let's go home."

Vinia also agreed. "Yes. It's getting late."

"I was planning to do that anyway." Rewen had a good harvest today. He had completed three "Lost Items" quests which had given him three Mana Replenishing Potions as well as 90 EXP in total.

***

[1500 EXP gained!]

"You have gained a 'Middle-Silver Ranked Unnamed Spear!'

---

Stage: Rank 2 Upper Grade (2387/8000)

Proficiency: 53.601%

Expertise: Spear

Best Product: Rank 2 Unnamed Spear

---

'How am I supposed to name it?'

[You haven't reached the level high enough to name it.]

'Good to know.'

Rewen went to the nearby forest without telling anyone. 

It was night. "Let's light up this place." A palm-sized ball of fire shot out from his hands.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Dust was all over the place.

---

Level: 20 (90/100)

Class: Simplified Mage

Social Status: Peasant

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 8 

Constitution: 9

Intelligence: 8

Charisma: 7

Luck: 7

MP: 0

Passive Skills: None

Active Skills: Variant Fireball Lvl. 1 [15/20]

Equipment: None

---

Rewen drank a bit of a Mana Replenishing Potion and tried out [Variant Fireball] again. "MP restores itself after midnight. I feel a bit wasteful using the Potion right away but well…"

*Boom*

*Boom*

Rewen stopped. "This should be enough."

---

Active Skills: Variant Fireball Lvl. 2 [0/40]

---

He wanted to try out the Level 2 [Variant Fireball] but he didn't have any MP left.

***

When he got back home, he saw his family sitting in the living room. 

"Rewen, where did you go?"

"I went out for a stroll."

"That's nonsense." Mrs. Klofar snorted. "Right, I heard that you are going to take the General Knights Exam?"

"Yes."

"When did you ever want to become a knight?"

"I thought it would be a good idea." Rewen casually said, taking a seat beside Vinia who was studying a book.

"Which book is it?" With the help of her, Rewen had bought some of the books to prepare for the exam. He looked at some of the books but the one Vinia was reading was never one of them.

"This is an advanced book."

"Advanced? I have to go through this book after I finish the other books?"

"Exactly. Becoming a Knight is not as easy as you thought, right?"

"I thought it's just physical strength and skills."

"General Knights Exam is one of the hardest exams in the kingdom. For the papers, you need to learn Geography, History, and at least two of the Old Era Religions. If you pass, you will go through the selection process which changes every year."

"Sounds like a lot of work. I better start preparing. However, do you think that at this stage I could do anything?" Rewen was serious. There's only a month left for the exam and he hadn't even touched a book in his entire life. The only reason he knew how to read was that it was deemed as necessary education by his mother.

Vinia didn't answer immediately. She stared at his eyes and got a glimpse of his determination. "You could." After saying that, she giggled.

Rewen didn't take offense to it. He merely smiled. "Was that mockery? I'll have to be serious."

"Good to see both of you get along." It didn't take two seconds for Mrs. Klofar to destroy the atmosphere.

Rewen sighed, then headed back to his room and started reading one of the books he had bought.

"People come to the virtual world to get rid of the stress in daily life. Children come here to play. Adults come here to play. Teenagers come here to enjoy and play. I, on the other hand, come to the virtual world to study for the exam. A sad life."

Studying for about four hours without rest, Rewen felt sleepy and fell asleep. Early in the morning, he woke up and logged out.

***

Rewen looked at the time. "11:17 p.m."

"It's pretty late. I should sleep." He yawned. Even though he had just woken up after a long sleep in the virtual world, he was still sleepy in the real world. "Hm? The PC is still running." 

He went to turn off the PC when he saw the screen. It was the anime he was watching before going to the Club. He hesitated to turn off the system. "I'll complete the episode that I was watching." Eventually, he gave into temptation.

A few minutes later.

"I can't possibly sleep on a cliffhanger. I'll turn off my system at 12! It's decided!"

Time passed.

***

Denny yawned while wearing her uniform. "I didn't sleep well last night." She exited her room and went to the door. 'Rewen didn't go yet?' She saw his shoes were at their place.

"Rewen!" She shouted.

Not getting any response, she went to the door and knocked. "Rewen! Are you still sleeping?"

A few seconds later, the door opened and she saw a red-eyed young man staring at her. "W-why are your eyes red?"

"I didn't sleep," Rewen answered with a straight face. 

"Go wash yourself!" Denny couldn't believe him. Is he still a child?

Rewen gave no response. Seeing him, Denny got even more furious. She grabbed his hands and pushed him out of the room. 

"When will he ever grow up!? I always need to push him. Aunt should have taken him." Despite raging, she went into his room and started arranging his uniform. As she was packing his bag, she noticed a piece of paper. 

"Huh? What's this?" She picked the paper and started reading it.

"..." Denny froze up. Just then, she heard light footsteps and hurriedly kept the paper at its original place.

"Hurry up!" She raised her voice.

"Don't shout. I'm getting ready." After washing his face, Rewen finally got his senses back. 'I stayed up all night just to watch anime. What's wrong with me?' 

"What were you doing all night? Did you not sleep?"

"I was watching anime."

"You were what? Please don't tell me that you stayed up the entire night just to watch some silly cartoons!?"

"Hey. They aren't cartoons."

"I don't care! I'm telling this incident to Uncle and Aunt."

"Okay, let me wear my uniform."

Denny slammed the door.

"Why is she so angry?" Rewen shook his head. Glancing at the bed, he saw a paper and did not react.

A minute later, both he and Denny got out of the house.

"Denny! What took you so long?" A female voice came. 

Rewen recognized her. She was Bianca, the girl whose smartphone had been broken due to him.

Behind her stood two men and a woman of similar age. They were Alfred, Evans, and Mel.

"Isn't this Rewen? How have you been?" Seeing Rewen, Bianca didn't say anything and ignored him but Evans stepped forward with a bright smile.

"I'm good." 

"I'm sure you are. Who would have thought that you would have sudden newfound powers and even beat up Alfred?"

"Yeah, do you want me to beat you up as well? I haven't forgotten what you did."

Evans' smile faltered. He had heard from Denny that the current Rewen was very different from what he appeared to be a few days ago. He also heard that he had defeated a Rank 2 mage. Due to this reason, he had come here to make amends peacefully. "Rewen, people can change. While there were negative emotions involved, the main reason I bullied you is that I wanted to see you grow strong. We bullied you, sure. But we never went over the limit."

Rewen didn't say anything and walked to Denny. "Let's go." He was too lazy to waste words on waste like him. He felt that Evans was a very ugly human being. If possible, he wanted to use violence but what could he do with violence? Sure, he could make Evans submit to him but even if it is fully justified, how is he any different from him? He firmly believed that two wrongs do not make a right. 

Of course, if the other party doesn't let him go and continues annoying him, he wouldn't be polite.

Denny nodded and walked towards the academy with Rewen by her side.

Looking at the back, Evans had various emotions but he couldn't put them into words. 

"This much should be enough, right?" Alfred asked him in an uneasy voice.

"I don't know." Evans shook his head.

Mel rubbed his hands. "You have done enough." She and Evans were childhood friends and this was the first time she had seen him speaking so humbly.