"Sis, we are here…" Rey mumbled as he looked around at the forest surrounding them nervously. "Ughhh… I don't have a good feeling. Do you really think that this meeting will go well?"
Considering whom they were meeting, Rey couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling he had. However, the red-haired woman next to him appeared more confident.
"Hmph. I am fine either way, whether it goes well or not. In fact, I would like it more if it doesn't." Feeling the violent aura coming off of his sister, Rey backed up a little. "Don't go over to the dark side, sis." He mumbled under his breath.
"What nonsense are you blabbering now?" Alex immediately snapped. However, before she could beat up the poor guy, thankfully, the person they were waiting for emerged from the side.
"Ha Ha Ha. You brother and sister pair are as lively as ever." Madan chuckled. His beady eyes then looked around as if he was fondly searching for someone. "Miss Shen Yue did not come?"
"Why? Are we not enough?" Alex crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave the guy a cold stare.
"Of course. Of course. More than enough, my goddess. Ha Ha Ha." Madan awkwardly laughed, ruffling his head.
He nodded at Rey in pity as he understood the poor guy's plight a little too well. He also had a cold, frigid woman riding him at all times.
I feel your pain, bro. The two guys exchanged glances, making Alex flare up even further. "If you have nothing else to say, we are leaving! NOW!"
"Ah! Wait, sis. Please. Wait. Wait. Here. I have brought some gifts for you." Madan hurriedly took out the good stuff because of which they were meeting here today in the first place.
"Shit! This is!" Rey instantly gaped. Alex also looked shocked. "May I?" She asked and inspected the three arrows that Madan had on his palm, one after the other.
<Ding. Freezing Arrow>
<Ding. Exploding Arrow>
<Ding. Zap Arrow>
"How did you imbue these elemental attributes into arrows? I have never heard of hunters being able to do something like this. Did you learn how to forge?"
"Ha ha ha." Madan chuckled, seeing that he had finally caught the attention of the red-haired beauty. "I can't tell you all my secrets now, can I?" He answered in a mysterious way to show off.
However, this only bought an eye roll from Alex, so he quickly changed his answer. "Aha ha ha. Just joking. Forging is too much of a hassle for me. This is a special hunter's skill book that I picked up."
This immediately caught Rey's interest, and his ears perked up, "Bro, where is this skill book? Where can I farm for it?"
Madan was speechless. The sister gave him the wolfish glare, but the brother gave him the puppy dog look. Are they purposefully trying to play him?
Not wanting to lose his edge, the chubby hunter shrewdly brought the topic back to the main discussion. "Bro, that's why we are here, right? That skill book is very rare, but we can do regular trading. Potions, weapons, or gear in exchange for these arrows, how about it?"
Alex silently glared at him for a few more seconds before nodding in agreement. They needed this extra boost in the upcoming days, and if what she predicted came true, these small things could play a huge role.
The two of them then discussed a few more details about the cost and the delivery, and then before Madan could rejoice about the sweet deal made so easily, Alex opened her mouth again.
"Of course, you will only sell these exclusively to our guild."
"Fuck! I knew this was too easy. Miss Alex, that's not very fair. Live and let live, please." Madan was not a pushover, so he was not going to accept such a bad deal.
Unexpectedly, Alex smiled and nodded, saying, "Alright, if you feel this is unfair, then go ahead. Feel free to sell it to whomever you please." However, along with this, she also added… "Let me just quickly update Liam about this."
Ah~ The guy was now speechless. He saw the redhead opening her system interface and typing something. It also seemed like she was just about to press send, so he hurriedly blurted it out.
"Exclusive it is. Exclusive. Exclusive. I swear. Please let's not bother boss Liam with these small details, sister."
Immediately, Alex revealed another pretty smile and shrugged. "If you say so."
"You are too brutal!"
"You don't know the half of it." Rey shook his head on the side, to which Madan bitterly smiled. The two of them were ready to whine again, so Alex impatiently ended the meeting.
"Let's leave now. There might be ears in this remote place too." She turned around to leave, grabbing Rey along with her.
Madan called out to the two of them when he saw that they were really going to leave. "Miss Alex, one last thing."
"Hmmm?"
"Consider this a bonus from me." Madan laughed and added. "There will be several new developments in the next few days. The Gresh Kingdom is not the only kingdom in this game."
"What do you mean?"
"There are other kingdoms and other powerful guilds. They cannot do anything right now because the game has sealed different kingdoms and guilds to their own territories, but what if all of that is changing?"
Alex's face turned serious. This was indeed big news, but it looked like Madan was not done talking.
"Your big boss stepped on a lot of toes and caught the interest of many special people. They won't forever stay in the shadows and allow you guys to grow, so if I were you, I would start making preparations."
Alex frowned, "Assuming this is true, why are you helping us?"
"Of course, it's because I want to be on your good side. I might not look like it, but I am very smart." Madan winked and knocked his head with his finger. "He He. I know whose side to take."
"Hmph." Alex scoffed. "You are just an opportunist."
Madan shook his head, laughing. "There's nothing wrong with being one as long as I don't betray you guys. Trust me. I have no intentions of doing that."
…
…
…
Liam stared at the half-done staff in front of him with displeasure. He had tried his best, but he could only forge it to a semi-epic level. The final epic grade weapon was just not materializing.
"Hmmm. This is my first time trying to forge a staff. Is that why this is so difficult?" He looked at the weapon again and shook his head, as he was too tired to think about anything.
After sinking so many hours into this, he wanted a break before continuing. Leaving the little fox with Lyana, he left for the outskirts of the elven territory again to catch more barbarians and stretch his limbs.
This time he also ventured even further, taking his soul army out for some good old fashion grinding. The problem with having a lot of minions is that they have to be constantly fed experience points, or else they start to lag.
Besides, when all else fails, this was the army that was going to stand by his side when the tutorial ends and the apocalypse begins. Naturally, he had to polish them as much as possible before then.
After spending a few hours in the wilderness, Liam hurriedly returned back to the elven territory. It was time to resume the reputation grind once again.
But seeing that he was not any closer to forging the epic ranked weapon, he decided to pay another visit to the shop.
He glossed over everything again and finally landed on a gold grade unique rank weapon, the highest rank weapon under the epic and semi-epic grades.
This was not as expensive as the previous purchase, but it still cost a pretty penny. More importantly, the ingredients required to forge the item were available for purchase in excess, so he wouldn't run out of these as long as he had the gold coins to burn.
Liam brought this new set of items to the room and once more plunged into the non-stop forging madness. The two guards assigned to him couldn't handle the pressure anymore and switched out because they became too tired.
Lyana as well only showed up every now and then as she also couldn't continuously remain cooped up in the heat and the loud, ear-piercing sounds of the hammer.
As for Liam's inability to forge the epic ranked staff, no one thought too much about it as they expected this result from the beginning.
Even among the elves, only experienced elders close to achieving the Grandmaster title were able to craft such powerful weapons.
Liam being able to craft semi-epic weapons was already an achievement for them. To expect him to go further than that was simply a fool's dream.
