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Quest Requirements
Chen Mo walked towards Elena and her gaze lit upon him.
Elena looked Chen Mo up and down, then nodded. “You’re not bad. Much better than those earlier. Better than those three people I saw a few days ago too.”
The three people she saw a few days ago?
Chen Mo was a little surprised. That meant three people had come before him and left a good impression on her.
This was not an easy thing to do.
When he got close to Elena, Chen Mo confirmed that the good impression she had of him was not just due to the Hoodlum title. She was not like Gleason – her blue eyes held no hate. She must have been willing to let him approach because of other factors.
He had human prestige points, favour points and honour points so maybe the Hoodlum title worked too but it was not the main contributing factor.
“Master Elena, I heard of you from Boboa,” said Chen Mo respectfully.
“Pah! I knew it, it was that fatty! Nobody else in Shadow City would have remembered me other than him.” Elena scoffed, then looked at Chen Mo. “What did you come looking for me for? I’ll say this first – you humans are weak and small. I’ve got nothing for you to help me with.”
Did that mean you would need my help when I’m stronger?
Chen Mo grumbled to himself, then spoke of his purpose, “Boboa said that you know a very special Medicine brewing skill.”
“You want to learn it?” Elena squinted at Chen Mo.
“Yes!”
Elena was quiet, as though thinking about it. Chen Mo did not speak, lest he interrupt her. If Elena was not willing to teach him she would have rejected him right away but her taking time to think meant that there was a catch.
After a bit of thinking, Elena said, “It is possible to teach you but I’ve suffered over the years because of this skill. I’ve seen many ungrateful people so I won’t teach you for free. I have two requests and I will teach you if you manage to fulfil either one of them.”
“No problem!” Chen Mo replied quickly. It was perfectly natural to have to do a quest in order to learn a skill. He’d never expected to learn a skill just by chatting with Elena.
“First, Boboa has a blood-red cat’s eye stone that I want. Second, I’ve been low on funds these days so I need 100 gold coins. You just have to bring me either the blood-red cat’s eye stone or 100 gold coins and I’ll teach you the skill!” Elena spoke lightly.
Chen Mo thought it wouldn’t be too difficult since it was one of two, but after hearing her words, he found that it was the opposite.
The blood-red cat’s eye stone must be a rare and valuable item, and he had to get it from greedy Boboa’s hands! He sold a Level 13 purple necklace for 188 gold coins – the blood-red cat’s eye stone would go for at least a few hundred gold coins! Even if he got a quest from Boboa to get the item, the quest would probably cost him a few hundred gold coins. A Level 10 player like himself would surely not be able to meet the requirements of the quest!
The second request was much more straightforward, but asking him for 100 gold coins was no different from robbery!
The only ones able to come up with 100 gold coins now were the real-life rich people. Even those people would find it difficult to gather the money since players had very little money. It was not something you could have just because you wanted it.
Elena had mentioned that the skill was called ‘Blood Refinement Technique’. The skill sounded quite powerful so if it were another player, he or she would have been very willing to pay 100 gold coins to learn it.
However, this skill was not one you could learn because you wanted to. Many players had come to plead with Elena and she had ignored them.
“What, you regret it now?” Seeing Chen Mo stand silently, she arched an eyebrow.
“How could I? Master Elena, please wait for my good news!” Chen Mo replied immediately.
“Good. I’ll give you three days. If you can’t fulfil either requirement, take it as I’ve never said a word about this.”
Elena set a time limit for the quest.
System prompt: You accepted the quest ‘Elena’s Request’
Quest: Elena’s Request
Quest difficulty: Unknown
Quest details: Attain ‘Blood-red Cat’s Eye Stone’ or ‘100 gold coins’
Quest time limit: 3 days
Quest reward: Elena will impart the skill ‘Blood Refinement Technique’
Chen Mo let out the breath he had been holding when the system prompts pinged.
Quests were roughly sorted into two categories in the game. One was like this, where all the details were listed and rewards were guaranteed.
The other was a promise with the NPC. The reward you get in the end could be different from the reward agreed upon in the beginning. There were even cases where the NPC backed out of the deal, as evidenced by some players on the forums. However, these quests sometimes gave you way better rewards than the rewards first agreed upon.
After accepting the quest, Chen Mo turned to get ready to look for Boboa.
He did not think it very possible to get the Blood-red Cat’s Eye Stone from Boboa but he had to try anyway.
Just then, three players approached.
They were two males and one female, all with quite good equipment sets, especially the male and female who were closer together. These two looked like they had green, or even purple equipment.
The other male had worse equipment. From the couple’s attitude towards him, it looked like he was their lackey.
The lackey stepped forward and blocked Chen Mo’s way. “What did you just speak to Elena about?”
“None of your business,” replied Chen Mo brusquely. This person did not even have basic courtesy so there was no need to be polite with him either.
The lackey’s expression changed and he looked about to pop a vein. They were not close enough to hear but what they saw of her stance told them that something definitely happened!
At that moment, the refined man next to the female player waved his hand dismissively, and the lackey moved away.
“Ah, bro, I apologise for my servant’s attitude – he doesn’t know how to speak well. Let me introduce myself. We are from the guild Lofty Clouds. I’m White Feather and you can say that I’m one of the core members of the guild. She’s Waxing Moon, leader of Lofty Clouds and from Ling Clan Financial Group in real life.”
White Feather introduced himself and Waxing Moon but said nothing of the lackey. When he introduced Waxing Moon, her chest rose very obviously in pride.
Lofty Clouds was not well known in the game but Ling Clan Financial Group was very well-known indeed in real life. Normal players would have felt smaller when they hear and are faced with a person of such a mighty background.
However, Chen Mo had never been awed by the people from powerful families.
“So, what does this have to do with me?” Chen Mo was not affected by White Feather’s approach.
“Bro, you’re mistaken. We aren’t trying to show off. We are just trying to tell you that if you know some information that others don’t, we can pay you very handsomely for it!” White Feather smiled.
“I don’t know anything. I wouldn’t tell you even if I did.” Chen Mo was not bothered to waste time on them. He turned and left.
The lackey was fuming. He stepped forward to intercept Chen Mo.
Chen Mo’s gaze grew icy cold and his killing intent was plain.
This bastard must be so used to getting his way in real life that he plans to do the same in-game.
“Stop it!” However, White Feather called off the lackey.
With no one to block him, Chen Mo couldn’t be bothered to get entangled with them and simply left.
“Moon, you should change your servant. If you keep going down this path you will only disappoint your older sister.” After Chen Mo had walked a distance, White Feather glanced at the lackey and spoke calmly to Waxing Moon.
Waxing Moon’s expression changed and she spoke coldly to the lackey, “Qi Mo, you can get your pay from HR tomorrow!”
Qi Mo was flustered upon hearing her words. “Lady Ling, please give me one more chance! I will not do this again!”
“You don’t have to fire him. He should be capable since he was deemed suitable to be by your side. Give him another position.” White Feather shook his head.
“Thank you, Brother White!” Qi Mo quickly thanked him but in his heart, he cursed the guy from earlier. If it were not for that guy, he would not have nearly lost his job!
… … …
Ten minutes later, Chen Mo walked out of the Jewellery Shop.
He had gone to ask Boboa about the Blood-red Cat’s Eye Stone but Boboa had pretended to completely not know about it and claimed he had never heard of it. From Boboa’s attitude, Chen Mo could tell that not even a bribe would loosen his tongue.
He had no choice but to go for option two.
100 gold coins was a large sum of money but Chen Mo could get his hands on it.
He had killed the Mutated Slime King BOSS in the beginner village more than ten times after all so he had over a hundred Blue and Green Grade equipment. If he sold them all, he should get over 100 gold coins, no problem.
How can he enter the City if he activates his ‘Despicable’ title? It can only be unequipped after 3 days.
Oh my bad. It was the ‘Hoodlum’ title, not the ‘Despicable’ one.