Tasks and Players

Personal Side Quest: Streamstone Rift—Lost Cargo

Quest Description: Black Wind Fang's mercenaries had lost important cargo. This seemed to be significantly connected to Dark Dawn and the Moon Worshippers, and the cargo had been lost in Streamstone Rift. It was suspected that the mages of Sunday Secret College were responsible.

Objective: Recover the cargo.

Li Wen put away her Spellbook and was about to leave the Tavern when the young bartender at the counter blocked her path.

The man dropped to his knees and desperately begged for mercy, even offering up all the tips he had received. He looked terrified that Li Wen would retaliate against him.

Li Wen was not so petty as to do something like that over a penny. She ignored him and left the Tavern.

Since she had decided to take a look at Streamstone Rift, she needed to make preparations.

She was only Level 1 now, and the only ability she could use was Prayer Incantation. Though this Divine Art was highly versatile, its three-second casting time was far too fatal. If her opponent were a mage proficient in combat, Li Wen would likely be killed before she could even cast a spell.

Players could revive at any time after dying, but the death penalty was too severe. Li Wen still hoped to avoid dying if possible.

Quickly raising her level was unrealistic. Every advancement in the Radiance Spectrum required not only mastery of one's abilities, but also devout daily prayers maintained over a long period.

However, Li Wen had other ways to improve her strength. Though she was only Level 1, she possessed memories from her previous life. Besides allowing her to see through and grasp the future, the most important thing those memories gave her was knowledge.

Back when she was in the Strategy Group, Li Wen had mainly been responsible for compiling and organizing rituals. In other words, she had committed most of the rituals controlled by the Strategy Group to memory, or at the very least retained some impression of them.

Of the twelve major spectra, she could reproduce the basic rituals, large-scale rituals, legendary rituals, and forbidden rituals of eight of them one by one, as long as she had sufficient magic power, enough materials, and ample time.

Li Wen currently lacked all three, but materials were the easiest to solve, so she decided to prepare those first.

Most basic rituals required only ordinary ingredients, perhaps with an additional synthesis or refinement step. But once higher-tier rituals were involved, materials imbued with magic power were needed.

Those materials were usually difficult to find in ordinary society. If Li Wen had been in a large city, she could have bought them at a Black Market specializing in magical items or commissioned an association that provided such assistance.

But Ake Town was merely a remote border settlement. It clearly lacked such conditions, and up to this point, Li Wen had only ever seen one supernatural being: Pastor Mog.

Then I'll ask him for them, Li Wen thought.

After all, Mog had asked her to take on the task. It was perfectly reasonable to make him contribute more effort and treat it as an advance on the quest reward. It was time to fleece him properly.

"Magical materials? I don't have anything like that."

In the church's main hall, Pastor Mog was replacing the candles on the altar. Under the wavering candlelight, Mog's pale face looked especially eerie.

"But I can tell you where to get them."

Li Wen was not surprised. "Just tell me."

"There is an old man named Sem living in the Orphanage southwest of town. He is one of the Duwei people, and he should have what you need."

Li Wen understood as soon as she heard that.

The Duwei people were a nomadic people whose homeland had been conquered by the Yalijia people two hundred years ago. Since then, they had wandered throughout the Western Lands. They did not farm or raise livestock for food, instead making a living off the residents of towns and villages.

They were a people shrouded in mystery. Because they had no fixed home and wandered everywhere, many believed that the Duwei people commanded ancient and terrifying dark witchcraft.

Nor was that entirely unfounded. The older Duwei people all knew some secret knowledge to varying degrees: they knew how to find their bearings on starless nights, how to predict and avoid disasters, and how to communicate with and tame wild beasts.

"I understand, but I don't have any money." Li Wen thought she had made herself clear enough.

"He won't charge you..." Mog fell silent in thought after saying that. Then he took a purse from his pocket. "There are five gold pounds in here. That should be enough for you."

Li Wen took the purse and headed out of the church, while Mog watched her figure gradually disappear into the night.

Li Wen had only taken a few steps away from the church when she realized someone was following her. Without showing any reaction, she changed direction and headed toward a dimly lit alley with few people around.

After entering the alley, Li Wen stopped and pressed herself against the wall to hide. She gripped her shortsword and waited quietly.

When she heard hurried footsteps, Li Wen stuck out her foot and tripped the person.

"Who told you to follow me?"

"Ow, damn! Are the characters in this game all this smart?" The person struggled to get up, grumbling nonstop.

A player?

Li Wen frowned. She had thought it would be someone from Black Wind Fang, or perhaps Pastor Mog had sent someone to keep an eye on her because he did not trust her. She had not expected it to be some player from who knew where. Judging by the voice, it might even be a female player.

"Who are you?" Li Wen asked coldly.

The moonlight was fairly bright that night, allowing Li Wen to barely make out the other person's features. By appearance alone, this female player could hardly be called unattractive. After all, players could make minor adjustments to their looks. As long as they were skilled enough and not too ugly in real life, they would not look too bad in-game either, unless they deliberately made themselves ugly.

The other possibility was that she was using someone else's identity, like Li Wen herself. It was impossible to say whether the player in front of her was actually male or female in real life.

"Ah, another girl..." the player muttered softly. "Um, well, about quests... I wasn't trying to stalk you! Whatever task you have, I can do anything!"

So she thinks I'm an NPC, Li Wen thought.

When she had left the Tavern earlier, it was probably not just the natives who had seen her. There should have been plenty of players watching as well.

What a nuisance.

"No." Li Wen refused without hesitation. Players could not issue quests to other players. At most, they could trade money, equipment, or other items to get other players to do things for them.

"Please!"

The female player promptly dropped to her knees.

"We haven't eaten for two days! Our Hunger debuff has already stacked several layers! If we don't eat soon, we'll die! Saving a life is worth more than building a seven-story pagoda—please, kind miss, have mercy!"

Li Wen was rendered speechless. Were players these days really this shameless?

If players went twenty-four hours without eating in the game, they would receive a debuff called "Hunger." After that, the debuff gained another stack every ten hours. Each stack reduced physical attributes by 10%. Once it reached five stacks, health would begin to drain by 2% per hour until death.

What the female player said might have been true, but there was one thing worth noting. Li Wen did not believe she truly had no money for food. The game had already been open for two days, which amounted to four or five days in-game. Even if she did nothing but beg, she should have earned her first bit of money by now.

In other words, she simply could not bear to spend money. She would rather endure a health-draining debuff than eat? How could such a bizarre player exist?

Li Wen had been about to dismiss her casually, but then another thought occurred to her. Players who had just entered the game might be worthless in every other regard, but their unlimited revives were absolutely real. Who could refuse a perfect disposable worker who feared neither death nor hardship and would work tirelessly for even the slightest reward?

This opened up a new line of thought for Li Wen.

"How many people do you have?"

The female player froze. Could it be... a team quest?

"Hard to say. I could probably gather five or six."

Li Wen nodded. "That will be enough. Wait for me at the church entrance at noon tomorrow. This is the deposit."

She tossed down several copper coins, then turned and left.