"Hey, have you heard about the quests that are being offered right now?'
"Of course! I heard the rewards are extremely generous, and there's an insane amount of them as well! The Viscount sure is a good person!"
Lorian could hear other people conversing as he walked throughout the street, heading towards the building.
The sun had just started to rise, its sunlight breaking the delicate layers of air within this city. Like usual, the Viscount had used this opportunity to gain reputation.
Whether it was for his own ego or for political reasons, it couldn't concern Lorian in the slightest. The only thing that mattered much to him was the fact that the rewards were generous; Lorian only cared about the benefits.
As he walked down the streets, he could often hear voices talking about this recent change.
A long moment later he could finally see the building. On top of the building had changed overnight; there were words that were etched into the building.
"The Moonlight Sanctuary."
The name was the same as his previous lives; the name carried quite a heavy depth towards the background of the Viscount; it was obvious that he himself made up the name for this building.
The building was also changed in a slight way; the building was a bit paler than before; they had finished polishing everything, and the building looked beautiful.
Lorian walked into the Moonlight Sanctuary; when he entered, the inside was extremely busy. He had woken up extremely early and got here a couple of moments before dawn.
But even then, the building was filled with countless people; if he were to come hear a bit later, the amount of people would be uncountable.
You had to first walk up to the people at the front of the desk; from there, they would check your token, give you your daily coins that were promised, and let you into the main room of the building.
Lorian waited patiently in line; he wasn't bothered, unlike the other people here; he could wait patiently for as long as possible.
After some time had passed Lorian had finally checked in and entered the main area of Moonlight Sanctuary. Up ahead, there was a huge table surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, of Path Masters.
On the table, there were Rank 1 artifacts that contained information on them. These artifacts were easily produced and didn't hold much value overall but could hold some information on them.
By picking up one of these scroll-like artifacts, you could find the mission inside once you use some mana, then you could decide whether you want to take the quest or not.
But of course, there were higher-level and harder-ranked quests made for more advanced Path Masters, consisting of different rules.
But the main idea was to pick a quest, complete it, and return it to the front desk of the Moonlight Sanctuary, and they would give you the quest reward.
You had to both give the artifact and the quest content back; if the artifact gets destroyed in the process, you'll have to undergo an entire investigation on whether that quest you picked up was real, and then afterwards you would have to pay a fine.
Lorian walked up to the scrolls on the table; most people could simply deduce the general quest for each scroll but had to inject their mana into the specific details.
Lorian looked around for the one that he wanted for now, a simple quest that could fit into his schedule.
He looked around and finally found the artifact he was looking for; as always, it was skipped over by the other Path Master due to its simplicity, but the ratio of rewards offered from completing this mission was quite good.
Lorian quickly picked it up and used some mana to inspect the artifact, making sure it was the right quest.
Picking it up, Lorian looked around the room before leaving; there was no point in him grabbing multiple quests at the same time.
Not only did he have to worry about somebody potentially stealing one of the artifacts, but he could just simply grab another one once he finished the one on hand.
With more quests, not only is it harder to focus on one at the same time, but those quests might also conflict and turn out worse for you in the long run.
Most of the Path Masters were narrow-minded like this and picked up as many quests as possible with the highest rewards.
Lorian had no such intentions and wanted to take it efficiently and fast, preferably without external or internal conflicts.
Before that though, Lorian quickly checked his progress.
Race: Human
Strength: 6
Speed: 8
Stamina: 8
Intelligence: 100 [MAX]
Path: Time
Aptitude: D
Mana: 35
Path Rank: 1
Path Progress 8/450
Skills: [Heavenly Hourglass (EX)]
Path Attributes: [Perception of Time (SSS)]
Blessings: [Blessed by Fate]
Curses: [Cured by Fate] [Curse of Chaos]
Artifacts: Quest Scroll [Rank 1] (Borrowed)
Everything seemed to be going well for Lorian for the time being; everything was going smoothly, and the next thing he needed to focus on was the quest information.
He poured mana into the artifact that he had grabbed, and a screen suddenly popped up in front of him.
[Quest, Rank 1]
[Collect 10 drops of Lumina Dew]
[Reward: 50 silver coins]
This was quite the easy task for Lorian that he could simply do in a short amount of time.
His plan for today was quite simple: refine his path and collect the Lumina Dew after he finishes.
Lorian headed towards the mortal market first to pick up multiple small glass vases to store the dew that he was going to collect.
Afterwards, Lorian started to walk towards the city gate that separated the city and the forest. Once again, he saw two familiar faces standing guard.
The 2 guards looked over and also saw Lorian again, greeting him as he walked towards him.
"Yo, going back to the forest again? What do you even do out there?" One of the guards asked in a friendly tone,
"Nothing much; I just enjoy being around nature when I refine my path; it's quite calming and relaxing than being holed up in one place every single day."
"Oh, makes sense; now that we talk about it, it does seem pretty nice."
Lorian conversed with them with a wide smile on his face, just like your average teenager.
After talking for a while, the guards quickly let Lorian go to do his own thing; they bid each other farewell and parted ways soon after.
After a while, Lorian was soon surrounded by trees once again; like usual, he chose to head north, towards the Lake of Sorrow.
The mana there was dense and easy to refine; it allowed him to progress at a fast rate, calmly and steadily.
After a quick moment of running, Lorian eventually found himself at the same rock that he had sued multiple times. Climbing up, he sat down on the rock and began using the Nature Refinement Method.
Time ticked on as Lorian spent his time accumulating mana and using it to refine his path.
After a while, the sun began to lower and the sky began to dim. Lorian opened his eyes and stood up, jumping down and taking a long drink of water from his flask.
The sun hadn't set just yet; there were around 30 more minutes until the sun would set. Lorian gave himself enough time to collect the Lumina Dew that he needed.
Lumina was a type of flower that was most commonly found in shaded places under the tree. The petals of the flower were round like the moon, and the dew produced from it is mainly used for making potions.
It was a material that was sought after and especially useful for people that were a part of the Moon Path.
In order to get the dew from the plant, you first had to find it. Even though the plant itself is not that rare, the method of harvesting it is quite the special one.
You first had to carefully remove some petals from the flower in order to expose the center of it. Then, by using a tool or another object, you had to squeeze this sac of dew that it naturally produced.
The sac was extremely delicate; even just the smallest amount of pressure would cause it to burst, killing the plant, and the dew that was needed would lose the special traits.
Lorian had tons of experience with this, not just from his previous life but also from his time as a scientist on Earth.
He was used to making the smallest moves during experiments and paying the upmost attention; this made collecting Lumina Dew a breeze for Lorian.
Around after around 30 minutes had passed, Lorian not only collected 10 drops for the quest but also collected more in case of a future quest or future needs from himself.
Selling it was also an option, but it didn't offer as big a reward compared to turning it in as a quest.
After the sun had set, Lorian quickly secured the dew into his backpack and ran at a fast but smooth pace, making sure that the glass vases that contain the dew don't break.
Eventually he finally makes it back to the gate; this time the guards recognized him again and just simply let him back inside without looking at his token.
Lorian took his time before entering the room that he rented out to live in; after checking the room, he quickly pulled out his dagger and started to work on something.
He moved the nightstand and used the razor-sharp dagger to cut a small hole in the ground; it was cut in a way that it seemed to be normal when the wood plank was put back into place.
This small hole that he had made was just a place for him to temporarily store his items; once he finished storing them into the small hole, he grabbed the wood plank hat he had carved out and carefully placed it over it.
Making sure not to crush anything, afterwards he put the nightstand back to its original space, covering up any small traces that he had left.
Satisfied, Lorian quickly went and washed himself before quickly heading to bed, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.