“And what quest might that be?” asked Dimitri.
Ren gave a half-shrug. “You can ask Orakh if you want. Maybe he’ll give you one too.”
Dimitri’s lips rose at the corner, and he stared at the intimidating Orc. He hadn’t opened his mouth when Orakh stopped him before he could say anything.
“You don’t fulfill the requirement. You’ll just be a hindrance in our mission.”
Dimitri’s tongue shortened inside his mouth, and his face burst red. The others who heard snickered while Ren hid a mocking smile behind his fist. Everyone knew that it was short for Dimitri lacking in strength or ATP.
Dimitri’s face reddened even more, and he pierced Ren with his glares. A malicious glint crossed his eyes before he realized that he was out of character and a smile immediately broke the frown on his face.
“Is that so?” Dimitri’s attention shifted to Ren. “Mind telling me how you acquired the quest? It’ll benefit our school greatly.”
Ren inwardly held a condescending laugh. Everything Dimitri said was always for the honor of the school. He had a golden mouth that made anyone feel ashamed of themselves for not aligning with his righteous behavior.
Ragnar felt like Ren was going to attract a lot of trouble, so he excused himself and went near the lake. At the same time, Evie got drawn to Golden Phoenix at the side, which seemed like they were arguing with Dark Python, which consisted of Trixie and Robert.
Ren was left alone with Orakh to fend off the approaching opportunistic people that came their way.
Ren crossed his hands and looked over at the sky with faked confusion. “I don’t know, really. I did a lot of things yesterday that I couldn’t remember most of them. Something I did yesterday must have triggered Orakh’s quest. What could it be . . . hmm . . .”
“. . .” Dimitri’s face darkened. If Ren was lying, then he was a good liar. If only he could tone down the mischievousness in his eyes and he would have believed him. But he knew that Ren was making it obvious just to spite him.
Dimitri leaned a little closer to Ren, eyes in his, and whispered, “Maybe if I offer something, your memory will jog a little, and you could recall it.”
Ren’s eyes twinkled. “Hmm . . .”
When Ren was seriously considering it, Dimitri’s face brightened.
Ren’s head then tilted to the side and beamed, “Nope. Still can’t recall.”
Dimitri’s smile dropped. He realized that Ren was just toying with him, and his anger was surging. But he could do nothing but take it in with gritted teeth lest he wanted his carefully built persona destroyed in front of this so many players.
“Is that so? A shame then.” Dimitri turned and took his first step back to Rayna and his group when Ren’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“I wish that you get Sharina’s axe, though. Know that my hope is all on you. For the honor of our school.”
Dimitri’s fists clenched, but he faced Ren with an amiable smile. “Thanks. Best of luck to you too.”
Watching as the man go with stiff shoulders, Ren’s lips rose in a smirk. He didn’t have anything against Dimitri. It was just, through his culmination of experiences from his past to the present, he could detect fiendishness from miles apart. He merely replied in kind.
Watching at Ren from afar, Roni and his rich friends remained as a spectator from the side.
“I thought that you knew what you were doing. I paid you thousands for Sharina’s Axe. I better have it by the end of this night,” said Hugo. He was one of the core members of Great Dynasty and acted as the leader of their group of friends.
Fren wasn’t disturbed. However, he had to admit that he was threatened when he saw that there was an extra quest in Twin Moon Axe Clan. One that they hadn’t gotten, nor anyone for that matter.
“Relax. I know what I’m doing. By tomorrow, the Twin Blade is yours,” Fren reassured.
“You sure?”
Fren nodded in confirmation, and Hugo’s tight face loosened a little.
“To get the Twin Moon Blade, we must make sure that it is us who saved Sharina later from the Night Thing. Our timing has to be perfect.”
“The only problem is, it seemed that it’s not only us who thought of the same thing.” There was an uncertainty in Hugo that wouldn’t go away as he roved his eyes at the players present in the lake.
He was sure as hell that the others also paid thousands to get that information. Hugo knew that Black Lion was one of them, as evident by how they squeezed themselves into Sharina’s group last night.
“Don’t worry . . . you paid me thousands to get you that Twin Moon Blade, and I will get you that axe no matter what, or I’ll refund you half the money. Wasn’t that our deal?”
Hugo didn’t comment, and Fren continued as he eyed Ren. “Though I have to say that I’m curious at what quest those bunch trigged.”
“You don’t know?” that was only when Roni squeaked in with an anxious voice. Was Ren going to get ahead of him again just because of a special mission that only his group had acquired?
Was his luck that good?
Fren scratched his head and took a deep breath. “Look around you. It’s not only me who didn’t know. All the others wanted to acquire how those groups came together here with the two most important NPCs in Twin Moon Axe Clan.
“Most quests we acquired are mostly errand quests. This is probably the first time that we saw a group together with an NPC doing some kind of a quest and its definitely not an escort mission from the looks of it. That’s why it received so much attention.”
Hugo snapped at Roni. His anxiousness was showing on his voice and face. “You know that guy, right?”
Roni was stunned at the desperation in Hugo’s ton of voice that he nodded without thinking.
“Y-yeah.” When Roni saw the relived on Hugo’s face and their group, he had the strength of heart to bluff, “Ren is my neighbor, and we know each other since our diaper days.”
“That’s good.” Hugo grabbed both Roni’s shoulders, and he looked straight into his eyes while the latter leaned back.
“Go and ask on how he acquired the quest.”
“. . .” Roni pointed a finger over his chest with a gaping mouth. “M-me?”
“Yes. You.” Hugo frowned and spat, “is anyone here knew who the guy is besides you?”
“. . .” Roni clamped his mouth shut.
“Go now before the others beat us. That quest might be important and led to something that will greatly benefit our guild.”
Roni didn’t have much choice when the guild practically pushed him over to Ren.
As he walked over to Ren, Roni kept looking over his shoulder. He didn’t want to bend the knee and begged in front of Ren again, but it seemed like he was destined to do it –– which got him angry even more at the guy.
But what choice did he have but follow Hugo’s orders so that he wouldn’t throw him out of his group? He had to show him that he was useful and that the pod he gifted to him was all worth it in the end.
He knew that he was licking their boots and wagging his tail at their orders, but at least he had gotten something from it. Free delicious food. Free expensive things. And sometimes, even money.
So who was he to complain?
An evil glint crossed Roni’s eyes, and he hid a sinister grin. It was only for now. Once he became a top gamer or even a top Monk, money would pour in. And once it did . . . he no longer had to bend his knees and lick boots in the future.
For now . . . he had to endure.
Roni was only a few meters apart from Ren while memorizing his lines when something happened that halted him from proceeding further.
There was a boy with the name Zack over his head that attacked Ren from the shadows, but before he could land anything on the man, Zack was flung back by a giant axe.
What’s more, Orakh didn’t seem to be satisfied with just that as he went after Zack’s flying form and performed a series of feral attacks mid-air that instantly made Zack burst into particles.
—-
A/N (Doesn’t Consume Coins)
Only one chapter today because I was busy preparing and organizing the whole day for our on-the-spot vacation of seven days 😅
We will leave tomorrow and come back next week, so the schedule of update are as follows:
One chapter from Oct 19 to 23.
Oct 20, there will be no update since it’s my birthday. I’m going to enjoy that one day 🤣ğŸ™�
BONUS Chapters will resume publish next week, Oct 24, and onwards
Thank you for the love and support, everyone �🤗
Cheers! 🥂