"Ah! You have returned!" The instructor beamed brightly as soon as he spotted Liam.
"I am glad that you have returned safely." He paused for a second and then added. "Even if you have not succeeded in this quest, your safety is all that matters."
Did this guy sniff me out or what? Liam bitterly smiled.
"Can we talk somewhere more private?" He then whisked the guy away from the prying eyes of the crowd who were unwilling to leave empty-handed.
However, seeing the instructor walking away, the other players couldn't do anything. In the midst of this commotion, someone suddenly shouted.
"Hey! Did you guys see it? That player's level was question marks! It has to be one of the high-rankers for sure!"
"Oh, you are right! What is a high ranker doing in a newbie village?"
"Maybe there is some sort of secret treasure or hidden item? That instructor should be the key!"
The word started quickly spreading around.
Liam, on the other hand, had taken away the man to the training hall of the town and the two of them sat inside one of the rooms.
"What is that you wanted to talk to me about?" The instructor then asked Liam with curiosity.
Liam smiled and took out the four vials from the inventory slot. He had prepared two batches of the elixirs. One he had given to Rey and this was the second set.
"Sir, even though I did not manage to finish the quest perfectly, using my skills I accomplished a part of it. With this medicine, I am sure that your condition will be cured."
"Oh?" The guy raised a brow and stared at Liam for a moment before taking all the four vials and inspecting them one after the other.
Liam waited and watched him with anticipation.
This was technically a partial completion of the quest so would it be considered a success or failure, it all depended upon his luck and probably what this man felt at the moment.
Which way was the coin going to land? Heads or tails?
"This… I need some time to think about this." After a few seconds, the instructor unexpectedly replied.
Ah. Liam had truly not expected this outcome. But whatever. It was a worthy try.
"I will take my leave then, Sir. Since you are not satisfied with this, I will continue to do my best to obtain the original elixir for you." Liam sighed and said and prepared to leave.
"Aren't you taking these with you?" The instructor called him to return the set of vials.
Dang. He doesn't even want this? Bastard! Liam nodded and was about to take them back when he suddenly had an idea.
He retracted his extended hand no longer intending to take back the elixirs. "No, Sir. You should keep these with you. These days the demons are attacking our lands relentlessly."
"Being a cripple, you are useless and good for nothing. What will you do if a group of strong demons suddenly attack you?"
"You!" The instructor stood up in anger.
"Ah. Forgive me. I don't mean any offense. I am only worried about your safety. Forgive this little brother's impudence." Liam put on a pitiful face that he learned from Luna and continued talking.
"Even if you are angry with this little brother, you should at least keep these elixirs with you. They might help you in your time of need."
He then somehow made his face even more sad, depressed and pitiful and walked away from the instructor after a small bow.
"Sigh. These martial artist guys are always too much of a perfectionist. What he won't take it unless it's a complete elixir? Let's go, Luna. We did our best."
He hopped onto the ballooned up fox and the two of them quickly departed.
They were on a tight schedule at the moment so Liam did not want to waste too much time on something that might or might not work.
The duo soon reached their next destination the trade city. Berat was waiting for them there and waved his hand seeing Liam walking in through the city gates.
"Boss, I have managed to gather 10 recipes." He quickly announced as soon as he saw them. He looked very nervous and only relaxed when Liam did not seem upset with that number.
"You did well." Liam patted him and he meant it.
Their ever-growing guild members had only gathered 15 recipes but Berat alone had gathered 10 by messing around with the auction houses so it was indeed very impressive.
"Ok, then I will be off. Continue to keep a lookout." Liam mumbled while he started ruffling through the recipe scrolls to see if there was anything extraordinary.
"Oh! Boss! I almost forgot this. Here." Berat took out something else from his inventory and handed it over to Liam.
It was a white-colored card similar to the black metal credit card of the real-world version.
Several small letters were inscribed on this white card but they were not very visible. One could only see the vague outlines.
"What is this?" Liam asked. He had never seen anything like this before. There was also the system prompt [Do you wish to bind it?] while he examined the card.
"Boss, I am not sure. But there was a beggar outside the auction house and I used to feed him every day because I was bored simply sitting at the same place."
"A couple of days back, he gave me this card and told me to accept this as a payment."
"I searched around to see if I could find any clues but no one knows anything about it. It looks like we can only find out after binding."
"And you didn't bind it?" Liam was once again surprised.
"Ummm. Boss, I thought it might be something special. So I decided to give it to you first to bind."
Liam stared at the guy not knowing what to say. Even someone like him was touched by such strong loyalty. "I appreciate it, thanks. I will find out what this is about and let you know."
"Alright boss, good luck." Berat wished with a smile.
Suddenly, Liam couldn't help but feel like a villain when surrounded by guys like him, Derek, and Rey.
"Heh. I guess this works too. People like him need someone like me to look after them." Liam chuckled and waved him goodbye.
He and Luna then walked into the city entering the PVP tower one more time.
Though the charm was working, for now, he had no idea how long it was going to work so just to be safe, he decided to start the next agenda for the day inside a well-guarded place.
"I need to gather more recipes, make more potions, and somehow understand how to make this elixir."
Liam settled inside the same room that he used last time and paid for a whole day, 48 hours in advance.
Alchemy or for that matter any other profession was a terrible time sink. He did not want to fall into that pit but now it looked like he had to. There was simply no other choice.
This elixir was too good to pass up and he couldn't bring himself to take the modified version while the real version could just be another day of hard work away from them.
"I guess I can't blame that instructor. Even I don't want to take the half-assed version." Liam chuckled helplessly and took out all the recipe scrolls.
He also took out the white card and once again the system prompt popped up. "Fine, let's see what happens if I bind this card."
[Do you wish to bind it?]
Liam clicked [Yes]
The next second the white card started shining brightly.
