"Chip Chip Chip!"
Quiet chirps were heard as the rays of light of the morning sun banished the darkness from the room. Li Wei slowly opened his eyes and grunted. It had been an agitated night. He immediately went to look for an inn to spend the night after leaving the house of the old man; the moment the door was closed behind him, Li Wei could not help but threatened.
Fortunately, it only took a dozen minutes to find an appropriate one where Li Wei could safely sleep. The last words said by the old man resonated through his mind as he was walking along the street of Verdan Town.
"That guy is definitely a member of that faction... D*mn!"
Although the words of the old man were quite ambiguous; Li Wei could not help but associate it with the fact that the potions came from the evil cult. He was suspecting that the old man might actually be a secret member of the evil cult! It did not feel like the old man was planning on harming him, but it was definitely worrying to find that these factions actually had members everywhere.
It was not an impossible scenario and so, Li Wei did not dare drink the potions immediately. He wanted to go to the Warrior Association to look for another identifier. In the end, he would still have to ask someone from the Association to confirm the safety of those potions. He felt that the old man cheated him some gold but what could he do?
Unfortunately, it was already too late at that time; Li Wei could only push back the identification to the next day. He focused on finding a shelter and preparing himself for his stay there. He did not have any specific plan but hoped to see more of the city and its surrounding.
Li Wei quickly got out of his bed and walked down for a quick breakfast. There was not much difference between this inn and the one at Algate City. The only difference was that here, he needed to pay for everything while at Algate City, the guild provided everything.
"Time to go to the association! While I am there, I might as well have a look at the quests!" thought Li Wei.
It was still early in the morning, but people were already busying themselves. The streets were full of carts rushing to deliver the items before the opening of the shops and a few players could even be seen preparing to go hunting outside the town.
Li Wei quickly walked to the Warrior Association. The town was not as large as Algate City and even though Li Wei was not familiar with this place, the inhabitants of the town gladly directed him towards his destination.
...
"Good morning, I would like to ask if there are any identifiers available?" asked Li Wei as he arrived at the Warrior Association. The receptionist did not look very happy to see him. He just wanted a quiet time after spending the entire night sitting at his desk. The Warrior Association was open 24/7 but that also meant that receptionists needed to work on shifts and sometimes, it was inevitable to end up spending boring nights there.
He grumbled for a second before answering. "Yes, may I ask what grade of items you are looking to identify?"
"Just Grade 2!" answered Li Wei.
The receptionist nodded, "I will call a master. Please wait for a moment. He should be here soon!"
Li Wei quietly waited at the waiting area before being called by an old man, "Are you the one who requested an identifier?"
"Yes! That's me"
"Then please follow me," said the old man while leading the way to his private office.
...
A few minutes later, Li Wei came out of the office, completely relieved. The identifier confirmed that these potions had nothing abnormal. Although the identification process cost a few contribution points, it took a weight off Li Wei's shoulders; he could finally drink them and increase his strength safely.
And the first thing he did was precisely to remove the caps of the bottles before downing them. A series of system prompts appeared and all of Li Wei's stats increased by one. Although they were Grade 2 Potions, they only gave one bonus stats each but that did not stop people from paying massive amounts of money for them.
With the potions out of the way, Li Wei went to the quest section of the Warrior Association to look for interesting things to do. On the board, many quests were available, and the most popular ones consisted of helping in the orchards.
Verdan Town was found in the Algate County and was also one of the main contributors to the empire's food market. But compared to Algate City, Verdan Town focused on fruits. The orchards next to the town literally looked like forests. They were situated in the direction opposite to the Verdan Woods.
Different types of fruits could be harvested all year long and right now; it was time for berries and apples to be picked. Unfortunately, there were so many fruits that the owners could not pick all of them and needed help. The important part was also that the fruits were the targets of not only thieves but also several wild animals.
Insects would constantly fly across the orchards and during the nights, bats would often come and steal the fruits. Quests were put up to quicken the harvest of those fruits and the pay was more than decent.
Li Wei made a mental note to accept this quest and to visit the orchards later today. He quickly browsed through the rests of the quests until his eyes landed on the quest at the very top of the list.
[Quest: The Grave Robber (Unique)]
[Information]
The town's graveyard has been the victim of raiding over the past few weeks. A reward of 50 gold will be given to anyone who succeeds in capturing the grave robber(s) in addition to the quest completion rewards.
Task: Capture or kill the Grave Robber(s) for 100% of the rewards. Provide information about the identity of the Grave Robber for 30% of the rewards.
Time limit: 3 nights
Reward: 20000 exp, 2000 contribution points
Note 1: Due to special circumstances, only one player may attempt the quest at a time. The graveyard guardian is wary that the grave robber might use the identity of an investigator to roam freely through the graveyard and act freely.
Note 2: This quest has been attempted 11 times and has yet to be completed. With each failure, more and more tombs are raided. Due to the citizen's dissatisfaction, a 5 gold fine will be paid for each night if the quest fails. This is to prevent incompetent people from repeating the quest and blocking the sole available spot.
"What a strange quest! Only one person can take it at a time? And it was failed so many times?" thought Li Wei.
The conditions of the quests were definitely strange but at the same time, the rewards were enticing. If he succeeded, the work of 3 nights might be equivalent to that of a whole week. But the problem was it was not normal for people to have failed the quest 11 times.
"If the players thought they were close to catching the grave robber, they would definitely try again. But to have 11 failures like that..." thought Li Wei.
He was itching to accept the quest. The rewards were exceptionally good, but it took place at night. This would without a doubt mean that he would have to sleep during the day. It was a gamble; losing 3 days' worth of hunting against the possibility of getting a whole week's worth.
His eyes once again looked at the other quest he was interested in:
[Quest: Request for help at the Orchards (Repeatable)]
[Information]
It is the harvest season of the orchards, help the owners to collect and protect the fruits.
Task 1: Collect 100 fruits
Task 2: Kill 10 Giant Mosquitos
Task 3: Kill 1 Fruit thief
Reward: 1000 exp, 100 contribution points
Completion: 0%
Note: Complete just one of the 3 tasks for the rewards. This quest is repeatable, completing two tasks would double the rewards and completing all three tasks will triple the rewards.
Li Wei was comparing the 2 quests. He could naturally take both of them but this way, he would not be able to focus and make the most of the quests. One of them was a high risk high reward quest while the other was safe and provided decent rewards. One could even earn a lot if many tasks were completed simultaneously at the orchards.
Li Wei weighed the pros and cons of each one and finally took a decision. He would first try the quest of the orchards and if nobody took the graveyard's quest, he would then attempt it.
"It is better this way!" thought Li Wei.
He quickly went to the receptionist in charge and asked to accept the quest of the orchard.
"Sure! Please present your Identify Crystal!" said the receptionist.
Li Wei complied and waited to receive a confirmation. He would technically receive some sort of item to prove to the orchard owners that he came from the Warrior Association to help them. At the end of the day, the owners would then give something to Li Wei to present at the association to receive his rewards accordingly.
"Wait a minute! I see there that you participated in the escort mission from Algate City," said the receptionist.
"Yes?" said Li Wei with a confused expression. The surprised tone of the receptionist clearly indicated that something was not normal.
But fortunately, it was nothing bad. "After an investigation, it was found that this quest was posted by members of the evil cult. This mission was bound to fail, and the Warrior Association apologizes for failing to identify them. In order to make up for it, all those who participated in the missions are awarded 1000 contribution point as compensation!"
"1000 contribution points?" Li Wei's expression brightened.
"Yes! We were at fault and posted that quest. Please wait a moment as I transfer the contribution points! I will also transfer the new quest. It will just take a moment!"
Very quickly, the receptionist gave back the Identification Crystal to Li Wei along with a piece of paper, to show to the orchard owners, while bowing to apologize one last time.
"It looks like they take this kind of things seriously," thought Li Wei. He was feeling even worse since he got entangled with the evil cult; it was better to keep these things hidden.
"How much Contribution Points do I have now? It had been a while since I checked"
Li Wei quickly looked at his balance and let out a gasp. "4413 Contribution Points!"
"Wow, I really saved quite a lot!" thought Li Wei. He did not need to spend a lot of his contribution points recently and simply let them accumulate. He was provided all the food he needed by the Fleeting Clouds Sect and spent most of the gold he had on the items he needed. As a result, the contribution points at both the Warrior Association and the Fleeting Clouds Sect were piling up.
He was now almost broke but thanks to Moody Writer, that situation should change soon. For now, Li Wei was thinking about what to do with all these points. He was naturally thinking of buying skills!
There was no need to buy items or equipment right now and skills were special since they could only be bought at the association against Contribution points. They were one of the things that gold could not buy.
The only skills he bought at Algate City was [Impale] but there were still a lot of skills that could be bought. It was just a pity that despite having the necessary contribution points, he could not purchase those skill meant for level 20+ warriors. Those were blocked behind a wall that he needed to surmount by leveling up.
But he still had a large pool of skills to choose from. Li Wei quickly went to the trading area of the association and browsed through the skills. All the skills below level 20 were as Bright Sun said, they were simply normal movements which were empowered by the use of mana. Li Wei could perform all of them but having them as skills could be very useful.
After a few minutes, Li Wei finally made his choice and only one new skill was added to his skill lists. One skill would usually cost about 2000-2500 Contribution Point but this one actually cost 3200 Contribution Points but looking at its effects, Li Wei felt that it was worth its price.
[Counterstrike (level 0)]
The user can block one physical attack using his weapon and reduce the damage taken to 0. Next attack deals a bonus damage equal to 50% of the damage of the blocked attack.
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 30 seconds
'A skill that is both offensive and defensive,' thought Li Wei. The mana cost was definitely something. He was just a warrior and yet, it looked like investing in a larger mana pool was inevitable.
Li Wei still had quite a lot of contribution points and he could save them to purchase better skills later. But there was something he had always wanted to try at the Warrior Association. He remembered that when he received an introduction about the Warrior Association, the receptionist mentioned providing tutoring about fighting.
Li Wei never learned how to fight before and even though he was faring well for himself, he knew that there was a lot of room for improvement, especially when it came to the dual sword style he was practicing. He was intrigued by what he could learn there. It might just be what he needed if he wanted to improve his swordmanship.