The Achievement Junkie

"Hero, please take a moment to understand the situation more fully," the king tried to soothe Jack's unruliness.

"You know I'm right. Besides saying that your Royal Court is the strongest force in the kingdom means that there are other forces. Surely you aren't trying to tie me down before I can truly understand the situation more fully, right?" Jack stated.

Internally the king was furious at the gall of the newbie hero in front of him. He was certain that no other king before had to deal with someone so difficult, at least not immediately after summoning. "You mistake my intentions hero. Of course, you'll be able to align yourself with whoever you feel fit, I just don't want any misunderstandings or bad intentions to exist between us. Like you said, it's best for all of us to allow you these things you've asked of me."

After speaking, King Leodoro snapped his fingers. A line of servants entered the room from the smaller side entrances, holding various gifts for the hero. Jack was pleased to have won the dispute and accepted them gratefully. "Thank you, King Leodoro. I'm confident that this will help me to fulfill my duties as a hero."

"Now, before we bestow these gifts upon you Sir Jack, please inform us as to what your specialty is," asked the king.

Jack was taken aback by that, not fully understanding the meaning. Seeing Jack's confusion, the king continued, "You may not know this, but you summoned heroes are different than us mortals. We must rely on our efforts to grow stronger, but it's recorded that all heroes arrive with a certain special set of skills or abilities. For example, a hero's natural physical strength will be enormous or their affinity for magic will be beyond our mortal comprehension."

"How can I find this out for myself?" asked Jack.

"Records say that heroes come with something called a 'hero menu' and can access it with a simple thought. I have no clue what that means, but give it a try," answered King Leodoro, somewhat baffled himself.

Like the king said, Jack easily opened up his hero menu. He noticed that it was the same menu from "A Hero's Tale," the only difference was the missing buttons to save and log out. Jack immediately opened the status screen and saw his current stats, which didn't seem like anything amazing to him. What caught his attention was his class, a lv. 1 Hero. Never in all his time playing "A Hero's Tale" did he ever hear about a class like that.

"What does it say hero?" the king could tell that somehow the legends were true, and Jack had accessed his hero menu.

"According to this, my stats aren't broken at all. Give me a minute," said Jack, who confused the king with the use of the word "broken."

Exploring the menu led Jack to something interesting, he already had a sub-class. Selecting his class in the status menu led him to his new class tree. In the game, there were two different class trees that you selected when creating a character, that of a mage or a warrior. From there you could eventually choose a sub-class to specialize in a certain weapon or type of magic. Each class would offer different skills, either passive skills that self-occurring or active skills that had to be used manually.

However, under his new class as a hero, there was only one sub-class and it was already selected for him. It was labeled as "Achievement Junkie" and had a massive skill list. The downside, all of them were listed as "???" and had yet to be revealed. Jack also saw an additional button inside the "Achievement Junkie" sub-class that he had never seen before. It was a personal achievement board. Like the skill list, all the possible achievements were labeled as "???" and left Jack wanting to know more.

"Hero?" King Leodoro spoke up, annoyed at Jack's feigning ignorance.

Jack remembered where he was and exited the menu to speak. "It seems that my class and sub-class have already been chosen for me. Have you heard of the 'Hero' class King Leodoro?"

"I haven't. The legends always talked about how each hero was a unique swordsman, sorcerer, necromancer, and the list goes on. But I've never heard of one with such a class. Are you sure that you don't have any special strengths or abilities?"

"Who knows?" replied Jack, his leisurely attitude annoyed the king even more. "I'll figure it out soon enough. For now, I'll need those things I asked for."

"Hero, can I really trust you?" King Leodoro asked seriously.

"What do you mean?"

"Just that. According to legend, the summoned heroes have always accepted their responsibilities without complication and always have some specialized skill to offer in return for everything we give them. But you have no such skill or ability, what kind of hero are you?" the king spoke his mind, everyone present was thinking the same thing.

"So, you're saying that unless I can provide some specialty, I won't receive your help?" Jack cut to the chase.

"Check again, I'm sure that you must have something special to offer us," King Leodoro would've loved to reject helping Jack, but it was exactly like what Jack said. By helping Jack start his journey, he would be helping his kingdom grow stronger and better protect his kingdom's people, including himself.

"Screw it," Jack said as he turned and began to walk towards the main exit.

"Hero!" King Leodoro yelled, his patience with Jack wouldn't hold up any longer.

Jack could tell that the king would soon lose his patience and possibly accuse him, so he decided to be the one to walk away. He didn't want King Leodoro to have the chance to cast him out like a faulty hero, so why not leave on his own terms? Without looking back, Jack said, "I'll figure it out myself. You can keep your gifts, I'm sure others would jump at the chance to have a hero among them."

The furious King Leodoro yelled and barked orders at Jack, but Jack paid him no attention and left the throne room. He convinced a guard to show him out and made sure to leave a sour taste in King Leodoro's mouth. Jack thought to himself, "That's what you get for not accepting my terms. If you can't accept them all exactly how I ask, then you're not worth my time. I can still help that jerk's kingdom with their problems, but he'll never be my king."

After exiting the palace, he followed the path into the city. He was surprised by the immensity of the city's center and had to give some credit to the arrogant king. Looking around he noticed a few shops that he knew he'd be visiting a lot; they were the weapon, medicine, magic, and general shops. But he didn't plan to stop there first, why would he without any money?

On one of the street corners, there was a town guard in steel plate. Jack asked him about the best organizations to join as a new adventurer and where he could find them. To his surprise, the guard gave a long list of names.

According to the guard, adventurers could join one of the many noble factions hosted by noble families and receive a lot of monetary gains. If an adventurer wanted more connections with powers outside of the Reinolt Kingdom, then they should join the Adventurers Association which was an international power with branches inside of the various kingdoms.

There were also many guilds specializing in certain things, like a swordsmen guild or an enchanters guild. Another international power was the Religious Council, the head of one of the world's most powerful churches. And finally, the guard proudly suggested joining the Royal Court.

Not giving it a second thought, Jack excused himself from the guard's pitch for the Royal Court and made his way towards the Adventurers Association. Confident in his intuition, Jack determined that the Adventurers Association was by far the most lenient with their members, even if they might not offer any new member a lot, to begin with. But maybe being a hero would change that.