After the brief episode with the protagonist and the villain, he looked around the market some more. After silently taking care of the opportunists who considered him a weak sheep, he went to the mission hall of the admin office to look for some quests.
As he stepped inside, he noticed the commotion inside. The mission hall was filled with explorers both players and NPCs.
He found that all of them were either standing in front of one of the quest boards or were around the receptionists taking the quests they found on the quest board. Everyone was excited by the quests in their hands. They talked with their team members or friends animatedly about the quest.
The rest of the quest boards were devoid of any presence or had one of two explorers who glanced at them sparingly.
He was intrigued by the quest that was so famous that everyone was taking it. He went to the quest boards and after some struggle reached it.
After reading the quest he finally understood why everyone paid so much importance to the quest.
He found out that they were two quests, not one quest, posted by the kings of two kingdoms in the Ravencrest Territory.
The contents were the same. It was a mercenary-type quest. The two kingdoms were at war and needed manpower, hence they posted the quests.
The reason for the war was the Ferronite ore mine found on the border of the two kingdoms. There were various small-scale skirmishes but the owner was still undecided.
The Ferronite ore was used to make Mortal weapons inferior to only Extraordinary weapons.
No matter how many Extraordinary a kingdom had, the vast majority was still made up of Mortals. The soldiers in any army were all mortals, with the Extraordinary taking the place of commanders, generals, or similar higher ranks.
In that case, it was essential to provide superior weapons to the army to increase the army's strength and thereby increase the kingdom's strength.
As expected, none of the kingdoms were ready to give up control of the mine because of its importance to their kingdoms.
Both the kingdoms were rather lucky as the other kingdoms were situated too far away, otherwise they wouldn't just be competing with each other.
To decide the owner of the mine, the kingdoms decided to start a war. But it was postponed due to the Monster Tide World Event. They decided to start the war after the event.
Even though the event was meant for players that didn't mean it had nothing to do with the Aboriginals. Rather it was much more dangerous for them.
When the event was announced, the various rulers of the various territories also found out about it from the players. They were also secretly preparing for the monster tide.
They wouldn't receive any reward but they couldn't let it go. For them, it was a matter of life and death. For the players, if they died, they would not be able to log in for two days then they could play again. But the aboriginals had no such buff. If they died, they would stay dead.
Other than the loss of lives, there was the danger of damage to infrastructure, environmental damage, impact on the economy, loss of livelihoods, etc. Hence, unlike the players who considered the event as a game, for them it was a serious affair that might even result in the downfall of weaker territories and even the stronger territories might need many years to recover from the damage if they didn't prepare properly for the war.
For the war, the kingdoms decided to enlist the help of mercenaries. They posted the quest notice in all the kingdoms and even the empire to hire explorers and other strongmen as mercenaries.
It was the rewards of the quests that made everyone excited. There were two types of rewards. The first were the common rewards of money, land, title, etc. These rewards excited the explorers but those rewards were not the real reason for the popularity of the quests.
The second type of reward was the reason for that. It promised that the best performers would be given Mortal skills, and Ranks 1 and 2, Extraordinary potions. Just the word potion was enough to boil the room. But that was not the end. If the previous reward was the gasoline, then the last reward was the matchstick.
"Rank 1, Extraordinary potion formula shall be granted to the individual who distinguishes themselves through remarkable valor and service to the kingdom's cause."
That reward was the spark that ignited the explorers' fervor, compelling them to eagerly join the quest."
If the mortal skills improved strength and the potion helped an individual step into the Extraordinary, potion formulas were the key to establishing a power centered around self.
Everyone was dreaming of being the best in the war and then getting mortal skills, potions, and the potion formula as rewards. They would be awarded with riches, land, and titles. Then they could live the life of nobles. That would be the start of their domination. Many were even thinking about conquering the Ravencrest Territory and becoming the coveted ruler of a territory.
"Everyone, listen. Our Cute Puppy Explorer group has to do our best. We will win as many rewards as possible and become the strongest explorer group of the Windmere Kingdom."
"I am so excited about the war, I can no longer wait to kill as many enemies as possible and earn many rewards."
"Fools, they think war is a child's play."
"Listen up you fools, we cannot let those bastards of the Cute Puppy Explorer group get ahead of us. Our Bouncy Bunny Explorer group will show them in this war that we are better than them."
"Doesn't the empire care about the mine?"
"Naive, every natural resource available in the territory technically belongs to the empire, specifically the emperor who is the owner of the territory. No matter who will win the war, more than half of the output of the mine would be given as tribute to the empire."
"This is my chance to become a noble. I will make many achievements and fulfill my dream of becoming a noble."
"Mother, I finally got an opportunity. I will work hard and earn money as fast as possible for your treatment."
"That potion formula is mine. Our Chubby Cheetah Guild will acquire this formula and become one of the top guilds among the players. No one will be able to stop our ascent."
"Remember other than the promised rewards, our aim is the war stragglers, other soldiers who are not very loyal to their kingdoms, and even other NPC mercenaries who will participate in the war. Those are the sources of potential followers. As long as we get good followers, it doesn't matter if we don't get a good ranking in the upcoming rankings. We can try later. But those followers would be a great help in our exploration, hence our second aim will be them."
"Heh, idiot dreamers. All these rewards are prepared for me so that I can become the number one player. After I become the number one player, I will see how dare Letisha ignore me. She will regret going to that swinger orgy without me. Hahaha."
Drake found the quest interesting, so he decided to take it. He randomly decided on one of the kingdoms. Other than the name of the kingdom, the rest of the contents were the same. They knew if they increased the rewards, their enemy would do the same, and in the end, it would be a loss to both kingdoms.
Drake left the quest board hearing the chatter of the various individuals standing near it. Other than the useless fillers, he heard some valuable pieces of information from some groups who were talking in hushed whispers. He thought that he heard something crazy at the last but brushed it off as merely his imagination.
He decided to take one more quest as the mercenary quest would start after the monster tide event which still had five days remaining.
As he looked around other quests, one quest piqued his interest. It was posted by the guard's office.
The guards were like police officers in the real world. They enforced the laws locally in the city, town, or village. And like the police officers in the real world, they were swamped by many cases and had no time to solve all the cases.
In that case, they put up quests to solve the cases for cases related to poor people or those without much influence. Other than that, they also put bounty hunting quests sometimes to hunt strong criminals.
Many private detectives in the territory liked taking the quests to solve various cases. Many times the guards would approach those individuals themselves to ask for their help in solving a difficult case.
Drake had come across such quests in the Black Forest Kingdom but he found none of them interesting. But he finally found an interesting case.
It was about some strange murders happening in the countryside. The guards didn't find a clue so they posted a quest for it.
Drake thought that the quest was different than the quests he usually took, so he decided to take that quest.
Drake went to the receptionist to accept the quest. He had to get a new ID for it. The ID that he had was for the Black Forest Territory and was not usable for the Ravencrest Territory.
After he got his ID, he registered both the quests under his name and left the admin office.