The Gray Stone Forest was still quite famous among the low-level maps. Although many adventurers have not been to the Gray Stone Forest in person, the name of the Gray Stone Forest was almost universally known. After all, there were only so many NPCs one was able to interact with at the beginning phases of the game, so it was difficult to avoid finding out. Now that they heard that a mission had been triggered at the Gray Stone Forest, adventurers who saw the forum post were eager to find out what was happening.
"Why is it a Restricted Regional-Type Mission? I'm not that far away from the Gray Stone Forest!"
Learning that it was actually a Restricted Regional-Type Mission, many adventurers were disappointed, and even more lamented in despair.
"It was actually a mission triggered by the Warring Dragon Guild. Its reputation as the top Guild in the Oriental Region is truly well-deserving."
Within the forum post exposing all the details, it not only described the task about the Stone Tribe's Totem in detail but also from the appearance of the Warring Dragon Guild in the Gray Stone Forest, it speculated that the mission trigger was the Warring Dragon Guild.
"The mission may not necessarily be triggered by the Warring Dragon Guild, it is just speculation."
Although the Warring Dragon Guild was the top Guild in the Oriental Region, it was not without opponents, and far from having a monopoly. Obviously, other guilds did not want to give this limelight to the Warring Dragon Guild without any challenge.
"Thank you, adventurers, for your attention. The Restricted Regional-Type Mission triggered by the Gray Stone Forest is triggered by the Warring Dragon Guild. This mission is the first quest of an Independent World Quest Chain. The Warring Dragon Guild has made ample preparations for this mission, and we believe that this task will be completed soon."
However, the Warring Dragon Guild will miss not this excellent opportunity for free publicity. After the post garnered a lot of attention on the forums, it immediately showed up and directly admitted that this mission was indeed triggered by them.
"It's actually an Independent World Quest Chain? Fuck your Grandma, who can stumble upon such dog-shit luck?!"
Adventurers actually didn't pay too much attention to who triggered the mission. Still, the post issued by the Warring Dragon Guild representative spokesperson gave a crucial piece of information.
Independent World Quest Chain tasks were divided into multiple rounds of independent missions. The results of the previous round of missions had little effect on the next series of missions, but they affected the final rewards. As long as a certain number of rounds were completed, one would expect generous remunerations. If every single round of tasks was completed, the rewards would reach the maximum, and the rewards would be so bountiful that it would drive anyone crazy!
Judging from the mission description of the Stone Tribe's Totem given by the post leaking the news, this Independent World Quest Chain was still rather arduous. Otherwise, it would not be classified as a Restricted Regional-Type Mission, and the reward of the opposing side would not be so generous!
As the opponent of the Dragon War Guild, winning meant an exceptionally rare skill!
The rewards had left many adventurers of the corresponding level feeling regretful, lamenting why they did not have such good luck. But when these adventurers remembered that the opponents were the amply-prepared Warring Dragon Guild, their mentality gradually regained their balance.
"Playing against the Warring Dragon Guild is just a waste of time."
"Exactly!"
...
With a sour grapes' mentality, many adventurers took to the forums with various salty posts, while Ye Chen continued to wander around in the Gray Stone Forest alone.
Gray Stone Forest could be said that it was not big. Nor was it a small area, but Ye Chen seemed to be down on his luck. After looking for a while, he still didn't find where the materials mentioned in the mission were. This led him to believe that he was either in the wrong place, or the system was too stingy. They already had a small number of people in the opposing camp, and they even cut corners with the number of given materials.
Ye Chen was unable to find any of the quest materials. However, as Ye Chen turned around a big boulder, he discovered that behind it, there hid some people who gave off the impression that they were shadily doing something not meant to be done in public. That woman did look sort of familiar though…
"Ahem. I didn't see anything. I didn't see a man and a woman secretly hiding behind a stone. I didn't see a woman and a man hiding behind a stone. Please carry on!" Ye Chen saw that the two looked at him in shock as though they wanted to initiate PK, and he immediately touched the back of the head embarrassedly. He hurriedly backed off and turned to leave.
These two people were not members of the Warring Dragon Guild. In this confrontation mission, the enemies were clad in an attackable reddish overlay, and Ye Chen did not want to be overly nosy.
Ye Chen wanted to leave, but the woman actually stretched out her hand and pulled Ye Chen back!
What the hell, what the hell?! Ye Chen couldn't figure it out at all.
He didn't mind three adventurers, four adventurers, five adventurers, or something. When he was still a rash youth, he had frantically fantasized about such a scene. But it must be at least him being the only male and the other party being a female. As for two males and one female, that was too disgusting to even contemplate.
Ye Chen's face turned stiff, and he wanted to sternly reject them and lecture them on how wrong this kind of beastly behaviour was!
"Don't go out, the people from Warring Dragon will chase up to us soon!" But before Ye Chen could start disciplining the two, the woman spoke.
"Oh, so that's the case." Ye Chen suddenly nodded, as if enlightened.
"Otherwise, what do you think it is?!" The woman shot a cold glare towards Ye Chen, her eyes extremely unkind!
"I thought you were having an affair," Ye Chen nodded and answered honestly.
"YOU…!"
"Brother, you are a good person."
The female's eyes suddenly blazed with fury, but the young male adventurer nestled on the other side looked over gratefully.
"No need for thanks, no need for thanks," Ye Chen said modestly, glancing at this poor fellow. This guy must have been in love with this woman, but this woman must have paid no heed to his advances. Hence, this guy got great psychological satisfaction from Ye Chen's sentence.
This woman… was wearing a pitch-dark robe with her long black hair tied behind her head. No wonder she looked a bit familiar from his hurried glance. Wasn't she the Queen of the Night who was utterly trounced by him once in the Hero Arena?
No wonder this man would fall in love with her. With the devilish figure of the Queen of the Night's entrancing curves, her uniquely lustrous hair and cold face that gave people the forbidden sensation of wanting to be conquered, to the youths brimming with impulsiveness, few could bear the temptation.
But how could the Queen of the Night appear in such a place? To say that it was a coincidence, then it was really a coincidence.
And she was actually holding a black magic wand that could only be equipped at Level 16. Obviously, her level had risen to Level 16 or even higher. In the mere two days since he last saw her, her Level had soared by four levels compared to the time in the Hero Arena. Her levelling speed was too freakish.
"Night, the team is already lacking in people. Although a Botanist has no damage output, his character is quite good, let's tag up with him to complete the mission," the young male adventurer said to the Queen of the Night.
The first impression of a person was really too important! As Ye Chen listened to the young male adventurer's words, he couldn't help feel this deeply.
Ye Chen merely said something pleasing to the youth's ear, and he gave the evaluation of Ye Chen having a "good character"!
The Queen of the Night listened to this guy's words and couldn't help being speechless for a while. But she had a deep understanding of Ye Chen's strength and not bothering rebuking the youth, she directly added Ye Chen to the team.
"Hello, hello, welcome to join our elite squad set up specifically to destroy the Warring Dragon Guild. My name is Dharma Master Summum Bonum, but you can just call me Dharma."
Ye Chen joined the team, and the young male adventurer immediately expressed his warm welcome.
Listening to the brain-dead name of this guy, Ye Chen already understood why the Queen of Night ignored him.
Regardless of appearance and other factors, this game ID alone gave female adventurers a psychological barrier.
What was wrong with picking any other names? Why did he actually get a name that smelled like a monk?
The most important thing for a woman was dignity, but if she were to boast of her boyfriend to others, and when others heard it, their only response would be: "Wow, your boyfriend is a monk!"
He could estimate that as soon as the woman heard this, she would immediately turn around and dump the guy.
If one were to want to woo beauties in the game, one should at least have a majestic game ID, or at the very least, a profound name that nobody could understand!
However, this idea of cringey thought merely flashed in Ye Chen's brain. Ye Chen cared more about the "elite squad" that Dharma mentioned. If there really was an elite squad, that would save him the time to find a team. It couldn't be better!
"An elite squad set up specifically to destroy the Warring Dragon Guild... What about the rest of the elite members?"
Ye Chen looked around, but he did not see anywhere the elites could be hiding. He then looked at the team members and counted. One, two, three, yep, he didn't count wrongly! Including him, there were a total of three people!
"We just fought with the people from Warring Dragon once, and the rest all died! Fortunately, Night and I ran quickly and survived!" Dharma happily boasted, but as Ye Chen listened, sweat instantly matted his forehead. A profuse amount of sweat, Lushan waterfall amount of sweat!
Almost entirely wiped out in one battle, this team was indeed "elite" enough!