Milly was used to it, but the esteemed Master Ai was not. Having come from a later age, when had he ever had a chance like this, with a beautiful woman keeping him company over a glass of wine?
Fortunately, counting both lives, Aige was well over forty. He quickly settled the restlessness stirring inside him and chatted calmly with Milly, asking about the Diafei thieves along the way...
"After lunch, I'll spend a little time meditating. Don't disturb me. It won't take long. I'll bring you enough masks as you asked and take care of your problem, so don't worry!"
He burped and gave the girl his assurance. She obligingly gazed at him with great anticipation...
Milly, in fact, had a little more life experience and had gained a general sense of the young mage's character. He was innocent and adorable, and the presence he unconsciously gave off showed that he was strong. At the very least, he should have little trouble completing the tasks she had given him. A powerful mage without the slightest pretense of superiority was a rare find... She liked him very much!
The ones causing trouble on the estate were clearly a group of peripheral members of the Defias Brotherhood. Their numbers were unknown but certainly substantial, and they included both men and women. Their leader, however, was a level 5 silver elite thief... That was what Aige had learned after spending some time scouting.
Milly was only a merchant... or rather, a farmer. The tasks she gave offered only money, along with a reward hidden by the system: some experience. Neither task rewarded a card, but each offered an additional 10 Arcane Dust... That amounted to a basic card of his choice, since 20 Arcane Dust was just enough to craft any basic card he wanted!
But... there was a problem!
Neither of Milly's tasks mentioned the level 5 silver elite thief at all. Why was that? Could it be that there was no reward for killing him?
Honestly, though, even without a task requiring it, Aige intended to take out the silver elite monster...
Why? Anyone who had played World of Warcraft might know the feeling. If you ran into a rare silver elite monster in the wild, could you resist attacking it? The esteemed Master Ai couldn't. Even if he knew it wouldn't drop anything he wanted, he still had to kill it... What did you call that? Mild obsessive-compulsive disorder! He wanted to kill it just looking at it, so he'd casually slash it down. It wasn't like it would hurt anything!
Besides, he had a vague fondness for Milly and personally wanted to help her settle this trouble once and for all... So he'd do it!
After estimating their relative strength, he saw that the thieves were mostly scattered. Many were alone, and few appeared in pairs. The level 5 silver elite wasn't an elite monster either, and his current strength was more than enough to fight them. So the young master decided not to waste cards summoning any more minions. Right now, one-mana cards could only last a day, so using them meant losing them. That was no good, far too wasteful. Saving what you could was a traditional virtue!
These Diafei thieves were humanoid monsters averaging level 4 or 5. Unlike beast monsters, they didn't have much health. Their attack power was a little higher, but that only mattered if they could touch Young Master Ai. He was a ranged magic class, after all, and had a natural advantage!
He didn't even need Frostbolt, greeting them with Lesser Fireballs instead. Frostbolt dealt slightly less damage than a Lesser Fireball, but it had an additional slowing effect that lasted around ten seconds; each spell had its own strengths and weaknesses. When the thieves were about to close in, the two wisps swarmed them and finished them off in a few blows. Following a gamer's rule, Aige tried not to let his mana or health get too low in the wild. Whenever his mana dropped below half, he spent a considerable amount of time drinking conjured spring water, then resumed killing thieves once his mana had risen...
This was great! It was a good place to level up: the monsters were stupid, and nobody was competing with him for them! Most of them liked playing the lone hero rather than gathering in groups, which made clearing them out easier without their realizing it. The experience was decent, but the best part was the plentiful loot. It wasn't that he had gotten more good cards or equipment; humanoid monsters generally carried plenty of money, and most dropped linen cloth. That was great!
He worked hard here for a whole day before finally killing every thief he could see in the fields, wiping them out completely. Along the way, he also completed the task of destroying the thieves' grape barrels. Some of the large barrels were already full and ready to be carted away. If the thieves had succeeded, Milly probably would have cried; a year's hard work would have been taken away by those damned bastards for nothing... Were these even thieves? They were all fucking robbers!
By then it was late, no longer a suitable time to attack the distant thief hideout. Besides, there were quite a few thieves in the camp, as well as the silver elite minor leader. He would turn these things in first and leave the rest until tomorrow. At worst, he could help the beauty deal with it for free. It wasn't all that difficult!
"Heavens! Just how many thieves did you kill?" The girl looked at the stack of bloodstained red masks Aige handed her. There was no need to count them. This was far more than the eight required by the task, several times as many, wasn't it?
"I'm tired today. I'll help you clear out that camp another day. There's a thief leader in there who doesn't look easy to deal with." Aige rubbed his fingers together, signaling that she should settle the bill first.
To his surprise, the beautiful girl didn't take the hint at all. Anxiously tugging at his sleeve, she chattered on, "You've already found their camp? How many of them are there? I was getting gold coins ready to hire the authorities to send troops after them. I have to stop them from running away and deal with this threat once and for all. Oh, I'll have to spend another fortune hiring those beasts..." The girl fell to muttering to herself.
"Hey... I'm talking to you! Pay me first! I've completed the tasks you gave me!"
"Oh, sorry! The reward is two silver coins. I'll go get them right away!" Coming to her senses, Milly hurried into the inner room and soon settled this "debt of sin" with Master Ai...
Notification: Completed Milly's two tasks. Received a task reward of 2 silver coins, 20 Arcane Dust, and a large amount of experience. Mage level increased to 5.
Level 5 didn't unlock any new skills, but there was no need to rush; there would always be bread eventually! The esteemed master was in a good mood after leveling up. Thanks to the task rewards and the monsters he had killed earlier, his Arcane Dust had accumulated to 65, enough to craft new cards. After thinking it over, however, he decided to save it for now. Crafting cards with a purpose was much better than spending it aimlessly.
"Since you're so generous, you can give me another task if you need to. I can help you deal with the remaining problem and save you the expense of supporting a pack of ungrateful wolves. What do you say, beautiful?"
In high spirits, Aige watched Milly pacing around, probably trying to figure out how to deal with the thief leader, and decided to ask her for a task. He was only asking casually and hadn't thought much of it. As noted earlier, the silver elite was within his capabilities, and he could take it down, level up, and get loot from it. Even without a task, it was worthwhile. He urgently needed to increase his strength, so of course he took it seriously...
But this casual act moved the beauty. Who would have thought that in this money-first age, there was still such a warmhearted knight-errant?
"Sir Aige, from what you've said, that's a thief leader and an entire camp of Diafei thieves. I've seen the official Warriors try to wipe them out several times without success..."
Seeing the young man produce his signature fireball, she hurriedly waved her hands. "No! I'm not doubting your strength, but it's too dangerous. I'm worried about your safety!"
Aige laughed confidently. "If I dare tell you I can do it, then I really can!"
His heartfelt confidence infected the girl, and she nodded firmly. "In that case, I'll leave everything to you, Mage Aige. I'll prepare the finest food and wine at home and await your triumphant return!"
Notification: Accepted Milly's task to completely eliminate the threat to the vineyard estate. Kill all the thieves and their leader, and bring back the token on his person! Upon completion, you will receive the Wine-Stained Cloak, a reward of 3 silver coins, and a large amount of experience. In addition, after turning in the task, one card will be randomly drawn from one-star basic, white, and blue cards and added to your Hearthstone card pack.
What the hell was this? Good deeds really did get rewarded!
He hadn't expected tasks to be issued this way, with someone volunteering and asking for one! And this was clearly a system-recognized task, complete with a card reward at the end. Missing a task like this would have been like refusing a gift from heaven and inviting trouble instead.
It seemed he had underestimated the fused Warcraft Hearthstone System. It was now quite user-friendly, and there were more ways to receive tasks. If he hadn't demonstrated enough strength earlier, he believed Milly would have passed him over and chosen to spend a fortune hiring those imperial Warriors instead, enduring a great deal of exploitation...
And if he hadn't kindly volunteered, the task wouldn't have fallen to him either. After all, he had only asked casually at first because he wanted to level up and help her; he would have done it even without a task. That was why he said good deeds got rewarded!
This wasn't a simple game world, after all. Aige reminded himself that this was a real world. There wouldn't be NPCs standing foolishly in one spot, lighting up question marks for fear you couldn't find them, waiting for you to come accept their tasks. These were all living people of flesh and blood, with thoughts of their own. Although their behavior was somewhat similar to that in the game world, if he let himself be restricted by those rules and conventions, the one who suffered would definitely be Aige, not anyone else.
But...
"Young lady! Even if you look at me with such admiration, I, the young master, won't be lured in by your beauty. It's pitch-dark this late at night. I'm not stupid enough to go onto their turf and throw my life away!"
In a cheerful mood, he loudly teased the girl he had grown fairly familiar with... Her face turned red, and she lowered her beautiful head in embarrassment!