The God of Liar

The Roosevella Inn in Moonstone Village was rather empty.

Most of the guests had checked out already, and there was still some time until lunch.

It was a typical medieval inn, filled with some neat wooden tables and a bar. It would usually be calm and quiet by now, only disturbed by the sound of the innkeeper wiping down cups, but not today.

Seojin headed straight to the inn and began to ask questions relentlessly. As a result, he found himself sitting before the smiling innkeeper and two empty plates in front of him.

”Anything else you need to know?”

”No, I think I got everything! Thank you, kind ma’am!”

It was more than enough, actually. After fully utilizing his friendly, outgoing disposition, he was able to gather a rich amount of information, and lunch as a bonus.

”I knew it! They wouldn’t just throw me here for no reason.”

Seojin grinned as he returned to the plaza.

He was in a tiny miner’s village called Moonstone. While the place was rather remote, the town was pretty rich thanks to the moonstone quarries. According to Roosevella, adventurers rarely visited this place as well.

However, Seojin thought differently: what she said must have just been in-game lore.

’There’s no way there’s settlement without any players.’

This was a very realistic game, and allowed for a big cash grab as long as a player found a decent item, or even some decent info for that matter, so a ’remote village’ like this should have a steady influx of users.

’It’s highly likely that it’s a village exclusive to Silver Tongue, or other hidden classes. It’s like a replacement for a tutorial or for a beginner’s quest.’

He came to a conclusion quickly. While there wasn’t any detailed explanation, Seojin was privileged enough to be a hidden class. It wouldn’t be too weird if his starting point was different from normal.

’The keyword is Moonstone. A remote, rich village and kind folks thanks to such fortune.’

Seojin kept thinking. Even if it was a part of some quest, he was sure that he wouldn’t be stuck here for too long.

”Interesting.”

The grin on his lips never wore off. Seojin then started planning like a kid preparing for summer vacation. This remote town earns its riches by mining moonstones, which means there should be caravans coming here occasionally, through which they sell the ores.

He could easily leave the town if he followed those caravans, but he couldn’t leave so early.

’I gotta gather some items and info first. These NPCs aren’t kind for no reason, and… Oh, why didn’t I think of this earlier?’

”Add friend. Merhen.”

Currently in Tutorial Mode.

The Community Menu is locked

Minhyuk told him to register him as a friend as soon as he started. Recalling that, Seojin tried to do it, but the system blocked his attempt.

’Eh, whatever.’

He was only going to confirm a few things with him. In fact, he was rather relieved to see the message. It confirmed he was in the tutorial.

Seojin stood up. He now found out what was happening and had formed his plans. Above all, he had an abundance of time; more than enough to search the entire town.

After briefly looking around, Seojin set his course.

’He obviously looks like he’s willing to give something out.’

He headed straight to the smithy filled with the sound of beating iron.

Seojin walked right to the blacksmith with a gentle expression.

* * *

-Is he even coming?

-Dunno, no word from him.

-K, I’ll go do some raids. Ping me when he comes.

-Yeah, thx.

Minhyuk, aka Merhen, closed the chat screen.

”What the hell is he doing?” he inadvertently expressed his displeasure.

Seojin seemed eager to play the last time Minhyuk contacted him, but that was already two days ago. He hadn’t even called Minhyuk after that.

Minhyuk had already got his hands on the best gear for starting players and recruited a ’Bus’ whose skill was on par with Minhyuk himself.

He couldn’t believe his whole plan was suspended just because Seojin didn’t access the game.

’I get he’s a former top ranker, but isn’t he being too audacious here’

Minhyuk was a Level 143, and his class was a paladin with a focus on weapon mastery.

Any raid leader would welcome Minhyuk into their party, considering his specs.

Such a free express ticket to the top was waiting for Seojin, yet he hadn’t even shown his face.

Minhyuk had even checked his phone and messengers, wondering if Seojin had forgotten how to add a friend. Unsurprisingly, there was one unanswered call.

He called back albeit a little late, but this time Seojin didn’t pick up.

’Should I just do some raids too?’

He couldn’t just stand here and wait forever. He was planning to babysit Seojin for a while, but Merhen had a tight schedule too after all.

Even with his specs, four million per month was the payment for ”full-time” work.

’Do I really go visit him?’

Merhen pondered for a moment but gave up immediately. It’s only been two days at most. That’s not how you deal with a grown-ass twenty-seven-year-old man.

”Okay, I’ll just clear a lower-level dungeon to kill some time…”

Friend request

Lv. 1 Seojin, Silver Tongue

Accept/Decline

”He’s here!”

The message popped up only a moment before he was about to give up.

Merhen accepted the request and turned on a voice chat before screaming.

”AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

-Oh gosh, what the heck was that for, punk!

”That was two days’ worth of my anger.”

-What’s this about two days? Are you really Minhyuk?

”Yeah, but let’s just roll with Merhen. I know it’s kinda cringy, but you know, immersion.”

-Whatever. By the way are tutorials here usually this long? I liked it but I’m not sure about the others.

”The tutorial is long?”

Merhen was confused. Tutorials in Midgard usually took thirty minutes max. Merhen believed Seojin could complete it in even less time.

-I cleared an entire village. It was a bit awkward though… I’ve gotten rusty.

It turned out the rabbit hole was even deeper than he expected. Merhen tilted his head as he heard Seojin’s excited voice.

”It’s me have no idea what you’re talking about.”

-About what?

”When did you start the game?”

-Uh, after you left, I did some chores and dived right in.

”I feel like this happened once before… Do you know what day it is today?”

-Hm, around early Monday morning?

Merhen facepalmed.

”It’s Tuesday, 6 p.m.”

-No way.

”I mean it. just say ”clock.” The game will tell you the time.”

-…Clock.

There was a moment of silence. Merhen shook his head.

”How have you not changed s ingle bit from when you were playing Asgard?”

-Ehem, people don’t change that easily, you know?

Back in the days when Seojin was top ranker in Asgard, Seojin always immersed himself in the game while even skipping sleep. Playing for two days straight was normal for him, and his record was three days and three nights in a row.

The most mysterious thing was that even after that, he was like a new man again after only six hours of sleep.

’I still wonder how he’s healthy right now, but… well, I guess he’s a kind of a special case.’

”So, you haven’t slept a wink until now?”

-I guess?

”Why? For what reason?”

-I told you, the tutorial.

”For two days in a row? …Maybe hidden classes have different tutorials.”

Merhen pushed his curiosity aside. At this point, he had no choice but to accept reality as it is. There was no way Seojin was lying, and there was even less of a chance that Seojin was mistaken. Such a person would never become a top player after all.

It was more plausible that he cleared a seven-day-long tutorial in just two days.

”What should I do now? Quests?”

”Uh… sleep?”

-Not yet. I still wanna look around.

”…Where are you now?”

He seemed to be overdoing it, but he couldn’t stop him either way.

”Movelon Town.”

”At least that’s the same as others. I’ll be there soon, so wait at the meeting square.”

-Square?

”Yeah, it’s a town for beginners, so higher-level players can’t do anything there. Go and find it. I’ll only be able to meet you there.”

-Alright. See you soon.

Merhen sighed as he headed to the portal.

* * *

Movelon Town.

It was one of the numerous starter towns in Midgard.

The plaza was lively and boisterous as you would expect from a place full of new players.

”Armor! Good quality armor! You’ll want one when you get bitten by kobolds!”

”Newcomers, come here!”

”Haven’t you heard the phrase ’when in doubt, go for a melee’?”

”Nah, why play a fantasy game if you don’t go full wizard?”

The sounds of NPCs yelling out and the players having discussions led Seojin to one impression.

’What the heck is all this reaction? It feels like a newly launched game…’

Seojin thought to himself while waiting for Merhen. It didn’t feel like a game that had already been out for a year.

’Well, no wonder… Even the tutorial was fun. How interesting will the main episodes be?’

Moonstone Village had a rather complicated story. While the NPCs were kind and offered a lot of starter items like any other tutorial, some puzzles required critical thinking to solve them.

Seojin enjoyed every last bit of it, though.

’Let’s organize some things before he comes.’

Seojin arrived at the meeting plaza and squatted. As a latecomer, every second counted for him.

He wasn’t playing the game for fun. His goal was to making a living out of it.

Seojin pulled up the holographic screen and scanned it as if he was decoding a treasure map.

Seojin: Lv. 1

Title: Hero of a bygone era (+10 to all stats)

Class: Silver Tongue (Hidden)

STR: 15 DEX: 15

INT: 15 LUK: 15

*All stats are penalized due to class adjustment.

”This hologram is the most fascinating thing,” Seojin murmured.

Having a chat with a drill instructor in the tutorial unlocked the status screen for him. There wasn’t anything too interesting when he looked at his Level 1 stats, except for two things.

”Title and class adjustment… I don’t think that’s normal…”

For the title, it was possible that everyone had the same one as him as a part of the worldbuilding, but he couldn’t look over the word ’penalized’ easily.

”It should be related to the hidden class, but I wouldn’t know anything about that yet.’

He checked the text below, there was a skill list.

Stanceshift

* Allows user to shift stances.

* Available stances: Immature Threat | Unpromising Persuasion | Clumsy Swindler

* Use skill points to upgrade each stance.

* Press Details to check the details of each stance.

* Stance duration: 10 minutes.

Seojin had only one skill: Stanceshift.

It may look useless at a glance, but Seojin realized how good the skill was in Moonstone Village.

”Details.”

Stance: Childish Threat

* Applies a small advantage when threatening someone. Affected by STR.

* Cooldown: 60m

Stance: Unpromising Persuasion

* Applies a small advantage when persuading someone. Affected by DEX.

* Cooldown: 60m

Stance: Clumsy Swindler

* Applies a small advantage when deceiving someone. Affected by INT.

* Cooldown: 60m

These were the basic skills for a Silver Tongue.

’I can understand the others, but Clumsy Swindler sounds a bit…’

”Hey.”

Seojin exited the status screen and looked up at the voice.

A knight clad in white-gold plate armor was standing there.