Chapter 133: The Bug Quest
Kartacol was the last stop, and only Ren got off the Hog. He was the only player in the city since the others were still busy elsewhere, and he was in the far south of the Dwarven continent. And most didn’t have the required ATP to enter towns yet, much less waste time traveling overnight to a faraway place.
Ren entered the city without problem when a notification popped on his screen.
It came from Silvia.
Ren was surprised because he thought that Silvia wouldn’t ask for his help anymore.
Come to think of it . . . This should be the time to say goodbye to his mercenary job while his face was hidden. As long as he wore the cloak, he would be Ren the Merchant and not Ren the mercenary.
And it would be dangerous to associate his merchant self with players. His plan was to get a middle man to sell his items in the future. Preferably an auction house.
While his cloak was on, less association with players was the safest while he sold his items in the future.
Ren the merchant and Ren the mercenary should have separate lives.
Ren checked Silvia’s message just to be sure about what the woman wanted right now.
[Silvia: Ren, I know that I promised not to ask for your help, but . . . do you know of Howling Canyon?].
Ren slightly shook his head. Silvia and the others might be attempting Howling Canyon about now.
They sure had guts. Ren applauded them for that.
Another mid-difficulty cave, just like Icy Cave. They’re probably contesting with Black Lion and the other guilds.
Now that Guilds were but days away from incorporating into the game, all of them were working nonstop to put their names on the top, or they’ll be drowned by the many guilds who were sprouting left and right.
To maintain their standing in people’s eyes, they had to get firstblood left and right in order for their guild to echo in all corners of the world.
The competition was intense even this early on.
Ren could only sigh. That must have been exhausting.
Ren shrugged. Not his problem, and he replied to Silvia.
[Ren: I don’t]
He lied and closed his message box before he went to Siv. Even if he told her about Howling Canyon, they still couldn’t defeat it like Icy Cave.
Ren thought that Silvia would have gotten by now that Caves in COVENANT couldn’t be cleared with just ATP or sheer numbers alone.
Ren slightly shook his head and pressed onwards.
Siv was found standing just outside of the Mine. He was checking every kilo of stones and ores that were transported throughout the continent.
“Hi,” greeted Ren.
Siv looked over at Ren, and his face lit up. “Ah! Perfect timing! A player! Do you want a quest stranger? I can compensate you handsomely.”
“Sure.”
[Your Relationship Level with Siv increased!]
“Good. Here are the quests available.”
A notification popped on Ren’s screen. There were at least four quests plastered on there, but Ren didn’t bother with those and directly pressed [Pest Control] without even checking the description.
“Ah, that. Yes. We’ve been having problems with Burrowing Rats in our mines recently. These rats are pests. They disturbed our miners and stole our stones. You see, those rodents are attracted to sparkly objects, and they’re bad for business! They dig multiple holes and confuse our miners too! They have to be exterminated at once!
“Please kill as many Burrow Rats as you can within a day. The price waiting for you depends on how many rats you killed.”
Ren accepted the quest without a second thought, and Siv gave him a [Kobold Trinket] to use.
“That trinket of ours allows you to be a Kobold for a day. You can’t fit in those holes after all looking like that.” Siv laughed.
“Good luck,” he said before he went back to his work.
Ren didn’t disturb Siv anymore and went on to his next stop. This quest was the only way for him to become a Kobold and enter the mines without paying a thousand gil to dig for stones.
But of course, he wouldn’t be exterminating those rats as he would be busy mining nonstop. A zero Rat killed wouldn’t be a problem, and Siv gives that quest without limit.
Ren could just accept that quest again and again. It was a bug that he could exploited. He could enter the mines without paying for a [Kobold Trinket] and the entrance fee without limit.
Ren didn’t know when the developers would fix it, but they surely would in the future.
However, right now, Ren would take advantage of that bug. He thought and laughed a little.
Ren shop for a [Silver Hammer] in the marketplace. This was the mining city, so they already sold a [Silver Hammer] for a staggering five thousand gil. It was expensive because it was a Silver Tool.
The [Silver Hammer] was enough to hammer those stones containing jewels like Lapiz Lazuli and Pink Zircov. His loss gill would surely return to him twice or even a hundredfold once he was done in here.
Too bad that Gold and Platinum tools couldn’t be bought but only acquired through quest or . . . if he made it himself.
No matter. Ren smirked.
He already had a Gold Pickaxe and it was enough to mine even Orihalcon and platinum ores as well as stones containing jewels.
It was time to start his idle life of doing nothing but mining for money.
—-
After half a day, while Ren was mining nonstop in the Mines, Black Lion arrived in Kartacol. There were only two of them, but both were Scar’s right-hand man with a high position in the guild.
That was how Scar gave high importance to recruiting Ren into Black Lion.
Hidey was an Orcish woman with muscles rippling on her arms and legs while her orange hair was tied in a bun over her head clipped with a bone.
The other one was Sid, with beads of silver hair and ashen-colored eyes. He was an Elven Sniper and his cold appearance was the exact opposite of his character.
“How are we going to find that guy here?” Hidey didn’t expect that Kartacol could be so huge and so little at the same time. What she meant by little were the houses and their inhabitants, of course.
“That guy could be everywhere or worse . . . he is not even here,” she complained and added, “If I knew this was going to happen, we should have bought at least ten members with us to search.”
Sid yawned and honestly wasn’t motivated to find the player named Ren. But since it was Scar who said to search and recruit the guy, there would be repercussions if they didn’t do it.
However, finding Ren in the middle of an enormous city was like finding his chocolate in the Ref that miraculously disappeared without a clue on who took it.
“Should we call for reinforcement?” Hidey asked.
Sid grinned and lazily yawned. “Go ahead and see if someone would come.”
Hidey grumbled. All their members were either on a raid or doing some quest for the guild. They, too, were in the middle of a raid when Scar asked them to find and recruit Ren.
“What made that guy so special anyway?” Hidey didn’t like Ren already. So much trouble for just recruiting a single player?
“Scar said that he might be a beta tester.”
“No wonder he is so arrogant.”
“Let’s just start searching for him and get this done and over with. I still have a date later.”
Hidey rolled her eyes, and they eventually split to cover more grounds.
However, no matter how hard they searched, they just couldn’t find Ren anywhere.
Where could he be?