Quest and Players

[Personal Side Quest: Streamstone Rift – Lost Goods]

[Quest Description: The mercenaries of Black Wind Fang have lost important goods. This appears to be closely related to Dark Dawn and the Moon Worshippers. The goods were lost at Streamstone Rift, suspected to be the work of mages from Sunday Secret College.]

[Objective: Retrieve the goods.]

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

He knelt on the ground, begging frantically, and even confessed all the tips he had received, clearly terrified that Li Wen would retaliate.

Li Wen wasn't about to do something like that over a single penny. She ignored him and left the tavern.

Since she had decided to check out Streamstone Rift, she needed to prepare.

She was only Level 1 now, with just one usable ability—Prayer Incantation. Though this Divine Art had broad applications, its three-second cast time was fatal. If she faced a combat-savvy mage, Li Wen would likely be killed before she could even release a spell.

Players could respawn anytime upon death, but the death penalty was too severe. Li Wen hoped to avoid dying whenever possible.

Raising her level quickly wasn't realistic. Every upgrade in the Radiance Spectrum required not only mastery of abilities but also devout daily prayers maintained over a long period.

Still, Li Wen wasn't without other ways to boost her strength. Though she was only Level 1 now, she had memories from her previous life. Beyond letting her see through and grasp the future, the most important thing was that "knowledge."

When she was in the Strategy Group, Li Wen was mainly responsible for organizing and summarizing rituals. In other words, she had most of the rituals the Strategy Group controlled memorized, or at least had an impression of them.

Of the twelve major spectrums, eight of them—from basic rituals to ultra-large-scale rituals, legendary rituals, and forbidden rituals—Li Wen could replicate one by one, as long as she had enough mana, sufficient materials, and ample time.

Right now, Li Wen lacked all three. The easiest to solve was materials, so she decided to gather them first.

Basic rituals mostly required only conventional ingredients, at most needing a synthesis or refinement. But once it came to higher-tier rituals, mana-infused materials were necessary.

Those materials were rarely seen in ordinary society. If Li Wen were in a big city, she could buy them at a Black Market specializing in magical items, or commission a guild that provided such assistance.

But Ake Town was just a remote border town. Such conditions obviously didn't exist. So far, Li Wen had only met one supernatural being—Pastor Mog.

Then she'd ask him for it, Li Wen thought.

Since the quest was Mog's request anyway, making him contribute more was only fair. Consider it an advance payment for the task. It was time to fleece him properly.

*

"Magic materials? I don't have that kind of thing."

In the main hall of the church, Pastor Mog was changing the candles on the altar. Under the flickering candlelight, his pale face looked especially eerie.

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

Li Wen wasn't surprised. "Go ahead."

"There's an old man named Sem, living in the Orphanage southwest of town. He's a Duwei. He should have what you need."

Li Wen understood immediately.

The Duwei people were a wandering nation. Their homeland was conquered by the Yalijia people two hundred years ago, and since then, they had roamed the Western Lands. They didn't farm or raise livestock for food, instead relying on towns and villages for their livelihood.

They were a people shrouded in mystery. Because they wandered without a fixed home, many believed the Duwei possessed ancient and terrifying black witchcraft.

This wasn't entirely baseless. The older generation of Duwei knew some hidden knowledge: how to navigate on starless nights, how to predict and avoid disasters, and how to communicate with and tame wild beasts.

"I understand, but I have no money." Li Wen thought she was being straightforward enough.

"He won't charge you..." Mog paused to think, then pulled a money pouch from his pocket. "There are five gold pounds in here. That should be enough for you."

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

*

Li Wen hadn't gone far from the church before she noticed she was being followed. Without changing her expression, she altered her course toward a dimly lit, sparsely populated alley.

Once inside the alley, Li Wen stopped, pressed herself against the wall to hide, and gripped her short sword, waiting silently.

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

"Who told you to follow me?"

"Ow, damn, are the NPCs in this game this smart?" The other person struggled to get up, muttering complaints.

A player?

Li Wen frowned. She had thought it might be someone from Black Wind Fang, or perhaps Pastor Mog had sent someone to keep an eye on her. But instead, it was some unknown player. From the voice, it might even be a female player.

"Who are you?" Li Wen said coldly.

The moonlight was fairly bright that night. Li Wen could barely make out the other's features. Appearance-wise, this female player couldn't be called ugly—players could tweak their looks, and with good skill and a decent real-life appearance, the in-game avatar wouldn't turn out bad, unless deliberately made ugly.

Another possibility was using someone else's identity, like Li Wen herself. It was hard to tell whether this player was male or female in real life.

"Oh, it's a girl..." The player muttered quietly. "Um, well, quest... I wasn't following you on purpose. Do you have any quests? I can do anything!"

So she thought I was an NPC, Li Wen realized.

When she left the tavern, it wasn't just the locals who saw her. Plenty of players must have been watching too.

What a hassle.

"No." Li Wen refused flatly. Players couldn't assign quests to other players. At most, they could trade money or equipment to get others to help.

"Please!"

The female player dropped to her knees without hesitation.

"We haven't eaten in two days! The hunger buff is stacked several layers deep! If we don't eat soon, we'll die! Saving a life is worth more than building a seven-story pagoda—please, kind-hearted miss, have mercy!"

Li Wen was completely speechless. Were players nowadays really this shameless?

In the game, if a player went 24 hours without eating, they'd get a debuff called "Hunger." After that, every ten hours added another layer, each reducing physical stats by 10%. Once it stacked to five layers, health would start dropping by 2% per hour until death.

What the female player said might be true, but one thing stood out: Li Wen didn't believe she was genuinely too broke to afford food. After all, the game had been live for two days—converted to in-game time, that was four or five days. Even doing nothing but begging could've earned the first bit of gold by now.

That meant she simply didn't want to spend money, preferring to endure the health-draining debuff rather than eat? How could there be such an absurd player in the world?

Li Wen was about to brush her off casually, but then she reconsidered. New players at launch might be worthless in every other way, but their infinite respawns were the real deal. Who could refuse a perfect tool—someone unafraid of death or hardship, willing to work tirelessly for just a little sweetener?

This opened a new line of thought for Li Wen.

"How many of you are there?"

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

"Hard to say. I can scrape together five or six."

Li Wen nodded. "That's enough. Meet me at the church entrance tomorrow at noon. This is the deposit."

She tossed down a few copper coins, then turned and walked away.