Chapter Forty-Two: Reveling in the Hidden Quest
After the shadow took over the deputy city lord’s authority, it immediately summoned one of the five patrolling skeletal guards and stationed it casually in a corner. The city had only just been established, and with no proper NPCs available, the skeletal guards had to suffice for now.
The shadow fixed the skeletal guard in place, added a silver-grey exclamation mark above its head, and set a fixed exchange rate for the equipment and gold coins they brought. Thus, the hidden soul-collection quest was ready. This was merely a temporary measure—a kind of compensation for those two fortunate yet somewhat unlucky fellows. The soul exchange rate was set exceedingly high, so they were bound to make a hefty profit.
Watching the shadow swiftly configure everything with expert precision and complex operations, Li Ren frowned slightly. Thank goodness the shadow was here; if he had to handle all this himself, it would have been a nightmare. Calculations and accounting were never his forte, nor did he have any liking for such tasks.
The skeletal guard placed in the corner happened to stand exactly along the path where the two brothers, Tianya and Haijiao, were heading. Li Ren, the shadow, and Landis watched intently from the lord’s castle as these first two adventurers entered Fallen Cloud City.
“Hey, Second Brother, look at that—could it be a hidden quest NPC?” Tianya finally spotted the skeletal guard the shadow had specially placed for them. The silver-grey exclamation mark was distinct from the usual yellow ones, meticulously crafted to entice them into an exchange.
“Looks like it, Big Brother—let’s check it out!” Hidden quests were highly coveted by players; getting such a quest almost always meant considerable rewards. Of course they’d care about it.
The two hurried over to the skeletal guard.
“Quest: Soul Exchange. Do you accept?”
“Yes!” Naturally, they chose yes. Only a fool would refuse at such a time.
Once they accepted, a new entry appeared on their status panels: Soul Quantity.
“Whoa! So many level 80 items here! Let’s do it! And golden ones, too! Damn! You need souls to exchange for these? Second Brother, how many do you have?” Tianya, dazzled by the exceptional attributes and at least blue-quality items before him, asked Haijiao in a daze.
“Big Brother, check your stats—see how many souls you have. We might just hit it big!” Haijiao, more rational, immediately noticed the new soul count in his status.
A level 30 player would have slain countless monsters on their journey, easily numbering in the tens of thousands. Unlike Li Ren, who could skip levels, they accumulated far more in sheer quantity.
Combined, the two brothers had over twenty thousand souls, and each item required only three thousand souls to exchange. They were overjoyed.
They haggled and calculated for quite some time, muttering under the skeletal guard’s gaze, before finally deciding what to exchange. One piece was an 80-level purple shield for warriors with powerful damage reduction; they also exchanged for several 70-level purple items. The remaining souls were all traded for gold coins—after all, equipment at level 80 or 70 was still out of reach for most players, but gold was always useful. They exchanged as much as they could.
Once they’d spent all their souls, and after a few more rounds through Fallen Cloud City without finding anything else of value, the brothers boarded the teleportation array that cost them 100 gold, grinning in satisfaction as they returned to Bright City.
Li Ren checked Fallen Cloud City’s income. There was already a revenue entry: Teleportation Fee Tax: 30 gold.
He considered the current player income levels and realized the 50-gold teleport fee was a bit steep, so he used his city lord authority to forcibly reduce it to 30 gold. Only with more visitors could their city thrive. Souls meant little to players, but to them, they were invaluable.
Contented, Li Ren gazed at the Death Wish altar, where the soul count had increased by twenty thousand, planning their next steps.
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In Bright City, an item at the auction house sparked endless speculation. How had this level 80 equipment been obtained?
Though its price was astronomical, most were more curious about its source than its value.
No one was able to contact the seller, and the origin of the item became the subject of wild conjecture among players.
It wasn’t until a post titled “A New City—Neutral Fallen Cloud City” appeared that players realized there was an unmarked neutral city on the map. At the same time, countless players discovered the teleport fee was as high as 30 gold, but after the first batch revealed the mysterious exchange NPC, the small fee could no longer dampen their enthusiasm for Fallen Cloud City.
Meanwhile, Li Ren, accompanied by the shadow, had arrived outside Fallen Cloud City, within a cave in the Illusive Mountains.
Centipede Cave—an unremarkable name, but the creatures inside were anything but ordinary.
The cave’s first three levels were densely packed with Iron Saw Centipedes, all averaging level 80.
For Li Ren, now level 68, these ordinary centipedes held no challenge. The disparity between ordinary monsters, elite monsters, and bosses at the same level was immense—something everyone knew.
Li Ren intended to slaughter his way through with the shadow, collecting gear and gold to replenish the treasury and exchange for souls. As he fished for weapons in his backpack, he remembered he hadn’t consumed any of the blood essence he’d obtained after massacring the three-headed dog with the Dark Portal!
The shadow didn’t mind waiting a little longer. Without further ado, Li Ren tossed the blood essence into his mouth one after another like candy, paying no heed to the shining white light enveloping him. He’d simply eat them all and worry about the effects later.
After the last “candy” was swallowed, Li Ren wiped his hands with satisfaction, as though he’d just finished a sumptuous meal. Glancing at his stats, he exclaimed in delight, “Damn, the Dark Portal really is something! I absolutely love this thing!”
The shadow standing nearby pursed its lips. Was it really that surprising to get a boost from eating “candy”? Was that necessary?
Li Ren ignored his taciturn companion, poring over his stats again and again, counting on his fingers, finally breaking into a blissful smile right where he stood.
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