Chapter Twelve: Mission Reward

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After glancing at my inventory, I saw that I had already collected fifty wolf fangs and completed all three quests. My equipment’s durability was also running low, so I nodded and set off with Xue Han to head back. By now, she could handle level nine monsters on her own, which would greatly speed up our leveling. Xue Han returned to her own village to turn in her quests, while I went back to my own.

“Young man, did you really wipe out all the wild dogs around the village? My goodness, you actually did it! Please accept this reward!”

Ding~!

System message: You have completed the Village Defense quest. Gained 1200 experience, 10 silver coins, and 10 reputation!

So much experience and money! And reputation too, but that didn’t matter to me—what I wanted was the money!

I headed to the west side of the village to Ah Hua’s house and handed over ten tomatoes.

“Heavens, you really picked the tomatoes! Thank you so much, brave warrior. Here’s your reward!”

Ding~!

System message: You have completed the Tomato Gathering quest. Gained 2800 experience, 40 silver coins, 20 reputation! As the only player to complete this quest, you receive a special item: Ah Hua’s Homemade Tomato Sauce x30!

Ah Hua’s Homemade Tomato Sauce: For 30 minutes, increases the user’s HP by 100, with a regeneration of 3 HP per second!

Looking at these thirty bottles of tomato sauce, I was so delighted I didn’t know how to let out my excitement. Such precious medicine! Though later on, 3 HP per second wouldn’t seem like much, for beginners this is an excellent item for leveling and saving your life!

Suppressing my excitement, I made my way to the village chief’s house to turn in the wolf fangs, curious to see what surprise awaited me.

The village chief, his beard snowy white, carefully examined the wolf fangs I handed over before exclaiming, “Young man, you actually did it! Now the villagers can go back to the mountains to work. You truly are the savior sent by the gods to our village!”

I held back from pointing out that the wolves would respawn on the mountain. The chief continued, “Young man, to show my gratitude, I’ll give you the relic of our late captain of the guard—the brave warrior Amy. I hope you can fulfill his last wish and slay the leader of the wild wolves, so our villagers can live in peace!”

A follow-up quest?

Ha! Jackpot!

Ding~!

System message: You have completed the Bloody Counterattack quest. Gained 10,400 experience, 80 silver coins, 30 reputation! Received item: Soldier’s Armor!

Quest accepted: Amy’s Last Wish! (Unique)

Congratulations! You’ve reached level 9!

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Surprise after surprise—I didn’t even check my level before eagerly pulling out my new gear.

[Soldier’s Armor] (Green Equipment)

Defense: 22
Stamina: +4
Strength: +3
Required Level: 8

Wow! This armor is incredible—not only does it have frighteningly high defense, but the bonus stats are amazing. It’s practically tailor-made for melee fighters! Right now, there’s not a single villager wearing green gear, yet I’m already decked out in three pieces. If anyone saw me, they’d be green with envy. Understanding this, I decided to avoid crowded places as much as possible. Not that I liked noise anyway—I preferred to be alone.

Equipping the armor immediately made me feel invigorated. I dumped all my newly earned stat points into strength, and my personal stats almost made me dizzy!

Green Veggie Soup

Level: 9
HP: 304
Attack: 30-48 (Beast Sword 7-12)
Defense: 43 (Soldier’s Armor +22)
Reputation: 60
Luck: 0
...

What more can I say? In two words—absolutely awesome!

Next, I checked my newly received quest:

[Amy’s Last Wish]

Quest Objective: Fulfill Captain Amy’s final wish by killing the Cang Wolf in Wolf Valley, retrieving its head, and bringing it to the village chief!
...

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After wandering around the village, I realized there was nothing else for me to do. It seemed the ultimate quest of this novice village was to slay the Cang Wolf.

I repaired all my equipment, which cost two silver coins, but that was nothing. I now possessed a fortune of two gold coins—those two silvers were a pittance. I wondered if Xue Han had money to repair her gear; after all the monsters we’d killed, she should have at least fifty silver coins!

I headed back to Wolf Valley. Xue Han and I had agreed to meet at the valley entrance, and sure enough, she was already waiting for me.

“Let’s go—continue the quest and kill the Cang Wolf!” I said, full of vigor.

Xue Han looked puzzled. “What Cang Wolf? I don’t have any more quests.”

Suddenly I remembered the uniqueness of the follow-up quest. The system must assign it to the first player to turn in the quest. Xue Han hadn’t turned hers in right away!

Worried she might feel left out, I quickly said, “Oh, it’s nothing. I just got a quest that takes me deeper into the woods. You go ahead and fight the level nine monsters around here—you’ll still level up quickly.”

“Okay, be careful,” she replied.

I nodded, watching Xue Han head toward the level nine monster area, then made my way into the forest’s depths. According to the quest description, at the end of Wolf Valley resided the legendary Cang Wolf leader, commanding its pack to invade the villagers’ land and prey upon their livestock.

Beep beep~ Another call—Xinyu again.

“Sweetheart, I’m a bit sleepy. I’m going to bed now. Remember to call me for dinner~”

I replied immediately, “Geez, do you need to report everything to me? At this rate, will you tell me every time you change your pad?”

Xinyu opened voice chat with a laugh. “Don’t be mad, I just thought you might be bored grinding levels, so I came to tease you a bit. Don’t be stingy.”

“Fine, just tell me what you want. I’m busy with a quest right now!”

“Nothing, really. I just wanted to say goodnight. Remember our plans after dinner—don’t forget. See you later, bye~”

“Later~”

I calmed myself and pressed on. The forest ahead grew darker, and faint wolf howls echoed in the distance.

I continued forward until I finally reached an open area. Suddenly, the view widened, daylight seeped in, and the weather brightened—another sunny day.

In the distance, a pack of Cang Wolves moved together. These wolves were noticeably larger than the level nine ones, and their fur was even paler.