Chapter 7 Chapter 7: The Hidden Quest and Two More Ancient Immortal Pieces
Mayor Holloway leaned forward on the porch steps, hands clasped, voice dropping to something heavier than a concerned old man ought to sound.
"Adventurer, I imagine you've already seen what lies beyond these town walls. Monsters everywhere. The wilderness crawling with things that would kill a man without a second thought."
"It is only because of this town's defenses that any of us have a safe place to stand."
He exhaled slowly.
"But three weeks ago, our patrol teams discovered something stirring in the Darkfall Ravine to the east of town. Something old. Something dark. And it's growing."
"With the forces Maplewood Town has available, we cannot face it alone."
"So I sent Commander Harris, captain of our town guard, with the Military Command Token to the Ironhold Military Camp south of here. The plan was to mobilize reinforcements, bring them back, and crush this threat before it reached our walls."
He glanced at the token in Ethan's hand, and the hope in his eyes curdled into grief.
"That token was with him. The fact that it ended up inside a Wolf King in Silverwood Forest means Harris never made it out of the wilderness alive."
A long pause.
"But the darkness doesn't care that he failed. It's still coming."
He looked up.
"Will you carry that token to Ironhold in his place?"
Ethan didn't hesitate.
"Consider it done."
He clicked Accept.
【Ding~ Hidden Quest accepted: "Guardian of the Valley", Unique, Common Grade. Complete according to quest objectives!】
He opened the quest panel and read through it carefully.
【Guardian of the Valley】
Hidden Quest, Common Grade, UNIQUE
Difficulty Index: 100
Time Limit: 23:59:57
Objective: A dark force is awakening in Darkfall Ravine east of Maplewood Town. Carry the Military Command Token to Ironhold Military Camp in the southern wilderness and mobilize reinforcements to defend the town.
(Core objective: Deliver the token to Ironhold.)
Rewards: ???
Failure Penalty: Rank -3. For the next 7 days, EXP gain -30%, monster drop rates -30%.
Ethan stared at the failure penalty for a moment.
Rank minus three. Thirty percent reduced gains for a week.
In the early game, where every hour of grinding mattered and falling behind meant staying behind, that penalty was basically a death sentence for your development arc. You'd spend the next week watching players who failed nothing slowly pull ahead of you, and there'd be nothing you could do about it.
But the difficulty index told the other half of the story.
Every standard starter quest in Maplewood Town ran between 10 and 20 points. The hardest regular quest in the whole zone topped out around 25.
This hidden quest sat at 100.
"The harder the quest, the harsher the penalty and the bigger the reward," Ethan thought. "Those question marks aren't hiding something small."
He closed the panel and pulled up the map.
Ironhold Military Camp, due south. Sitting squarely in the middle of a Level 10 wilderness zone.
To reach it, he'd have to walk through territory that would shred a Level 2 player into confetti.
"No wonder a simple delivery quest has a difficulty index of 100."
He wasn't worried, though.
He had 24 hours. And he had something more important than time, he had a plan.
"Level up first. Fuse better gear. Then go south."
"Every step forward. No shortcuts that cost more than they give."
He spent the next ten minutes circling Maplewood Town's NPC district, reading quest boards and talking to townspeople.
Two quests caught his attention.
【Grandpa's Lost Axe】 Level 5 Standard Quest
Difficulty: 20
Old man Harold lost his favorite axe somewhere in the Deadwood Forest while chopping wood. Head to the Level 5 Deadwood Forest, kill wild boars until the axe is recovered. (0/10 boars)
Rewards: EXP +500, Copper +20, Reputation +1, Level 5 random equipment (White Common to Green Fine)
【The Weasel Problem】Level 7 Standard Quest
Difficulty: 25
Something keeps raiding Martha's chicken coop at night. Head to the Level 7 Shadow Cave and eliminate the weasels. (0/30 weasels)
Rewards: EXP +800, Copper +30, Reputation +1, Level 7 random equipment (White Common to Green Fine)
Ethan accepted both and mapped out the math in his head.
Quest rewards combined with monster kills along the way, he'd land somewhere around Level 6 or 7 by the time both were finished. At that point, with properly upgraded gear, he'd be ready to push into Level 10 territory and deliver the token.
In his past life, taking a Level 10 quest at Level 8 or 9 solo would have been insane. Suicidal, even.
At Level 6 or 7, with Ancient Immortal gear?
He was genuinely looking forward to it.
---
He headed west out of town toward the Deadwood Forest, following the map markers.
The Level 1 and 2 zones along the path were a complete disaster.
Every small clearing was packed, four, five, six players all trying to kill the same Level 1 rabbit simultaneously, swinging their starter swords in a chaotic tangle of limbs and frustrated shouting. Half of them couldn't land a hit. A few of them were dying to Level 1 chickens, which Ethan found both impressive and a little sad.
And everywhere players died, which was often, their starter gear scattered across the ground.
Wooden swords. Cloth shirts. Cotton pants.
Lying in the grass. Sitting in the dirt. Completely ignored by everyone too busy fighting over the next monster to bother looking down.
Ethan slowed his pace.
An idea that had been forming since the forest crystallized into something specific.
He picked a cluster of players near a Level 2 deer, watched the chaos for a moment, and then raised his voice with the casual authority of someone who definitely knew something they didn't.
"Hey, aim for the deer's left flank, just behind the front leg. There's a weak point there. Extra damage."
A player looked up. "Wait, seriously?"
"Try it."
Thwack. The player landed the hit. The deer flinched visibly, the game's hit reaction animation was slightly more pronounced on weak point strikes.
"OH. OH THAT WORKS"
"What about chickens?!" someone else called out.
"Base of the tail," Ethan said confidently, already walking.
"BRO THE BASE OF THE TAIL"
"THERE'S AN EXTRA DAMAGE TICK"
The cluster erupted into excited chatter. Players started repositioning, retargeting, laser-focused on landing the new technique.
Nobody looked at the ground.
Ethan crouched and started collecting.
【Ding~ Starter Cloth Shirt obtained!】
【Ding~ Starter Cotton Pants obtained!】
【Ding~ Starter Cloth Shirt obtained!】
【Ding~ Starter Cotton Pants obtained!】
He moved through three more clusters the same way, drop a useful tip, create a moment of excitement, collect while everyone was distracted. Simple. Clean. Nobody felt robbed because nobody noticed.
Ten minutes later, he stepped off the main path and checked his inventory.
49 Starter Cloth Shirts.
51 Starter Cotton Pants.
He counted twice to make sure.
"That's enough."
He started walking again toward the Deadwood Forest and opened the fusion interface with his free hand, running the upgrades in parallel.
【Ding~ Green Fine Starter Cloth Shirt obtained!】
【Ding~ Green Fine Starter Cloth Shirt obtained!】
【Ding~ Blue Rare Starter Cloth Shirt obtained!】
The quality tiers climbed steadily as he walked, White into Green, Green into Blue, Blue into Purple, Purple into Orange, each fusion consuming the previous tier, the progression clean and inevitable as a staircase.
He'd done the pants first, then circled back to the shirts, running both tracks in parallel wherever he could.
The final fusions hit as he reached the outer edge of the Deadwood Forest.
【Ding~ Congratulations! SSS-Rank Talent: Infinite Fusion, you have obtained a Level 0 Gold Ancient Immortal Qualit
y Chest Armor:
Eternal Coat!】
【Ding~ Congratulations! SSS-Rank Talent: Infinite Fusion, you have obtained a Level 0 Gold Ancient Immortal Quality Leg Armor:
Heroic Trousers!】
