4 Hidden Condition

After the system acknowledged his nod and established the friendship between him and Baron, Alden immediately started a call.

In no time at all, Baron picked up.

"You're Alden, right?" Baron's voice was distinctly deep, so Alden had no trouble recognizing him.

"Yeah. Where are you at right now, Baron?"

Baron went silent on the other end, only responding, "Please call me by my username in the game! And, I'm in Oak Town. I've been grinding, and believe it or not, I'm already level 2!"

"I know that, your level displays by your username in the call interface, Death Knot. You sure you wanna be called that...?" Alden chuckled.

After a bout of coughing on Baron's end of the call, Alden finally got a response.

"You... you can just call me Baron... but only privately. Wait- you're level 3?!"

Baron's face was overcome by a shade of red, but Alden wouldn't be able to see that. It was too embarrassing to brag and then be face-slapped.

"Yeah, anyways, come over to Cedar Town! I know it'll take a couple of hours, but I'll prepare some high-level items for you. It'll be worth it." Alden's tone seemed to hold no room for negotiations. After 11 years in Realms Online, he learned that if you told instead of asked, you'd get what you wanted more often.

"Err... no problem. Seeing as you're the highest level I've heard of, I'll trust you on this one. Can you at least lend me some coin for the carriage?"

"Alright, see you soon!" Alden ended the call. After the "click" sound when the call ended, Alden received a one-word private message from Baron.

"Stingy."

Alden simply ignored the message and organized his inventory. Every Dire Boar dropped a boar pelt, which was especially useful for crafting a multitude of low-level items. Leather armor, leather bags, and more. Most common, leather items require this material.

"Should I get the leatherworker proficiency skill? Then I could put this to use..."

Alden immediately decided not to. Such a skill wasn't remotely useful to him unless he somehow obtained dragon leather. But mythical monsters such as dragons were few and far between.

He was better off hiring a leatherworker NPC in Cedar Town. Alden did a count and he had 13 pieces of boar pelt, a little over what he needed for a second bag and an upgraded set of armor.

After discarding a few useless items, Alden made his way back to town. There, he needed to find the little girl once again.

'According to the magician in the past, the little girl wasn't in the same spot as before. You needed to go to her house in the Cedar Town slums, which wasn't far from that alleyway. Shouldn't be too difficult... I'll just ask around.'

When Alden arrived in town, people couldn't stop staring. This time, it wasn't because of his class. After all, he looked like a warrior with the battle axe at his waist.

If Alden had to guess, it'd be the glaring "level 3" above his head. People at this level didn't typically have the ability to grind Dire Boars as easily as he did, so level 3s would be rare for another few hours.

As if he was a celebrity, Alden only smiled and waved.

"Tsk, look at that guy. He has an edgy username like Faceless and he still dares to brag?"

"I agree, does he simply have no shame?"

Alden's eye twitched as he listened to them, and he rushed back to the alleyway. "They could have at least whispered..."

After arriving, Alden explored the alley system a bit before finally arriving in front of an old man. 'It's my only lead, I guess I'll ask.'

"Hey oldie, have you seen a young lady anywhere? I collected some sonita herbs for her, but she moved from her spot."

The old, homeless man seemed a bit on the drunken side as he slurred, "Anya... eh?" He burped, before continuing, "Her place be down the uh... the road... alley! You'll find 'er in da wooden shack..."

Alden gave a shallow bow and went on his way. 'This alley system is as creepy as always, what with the wind blowing through and creating eerie sounds... the black cats and all these rats... maybe there is an event to unlock here?'

He never heard about anything like that in his past life, so the upstart creator doubted it.

Soon, he arrived in front of the only wooden shack in the entire system. It almost seemed like a dog house, only less luxurious.

Alden called out as he knocked on the miniature door, "Anya, are you there?"

Since he picked up the girl's name from the old man, he may as well use it.

'I'm getting a feeling of deja vu... is it because of her name?'

There were too many Anyas in the future to be able to tell.

The door creaked as it opened and Alden heard a soft voice come from within the wooden shack, "Mister...?"

Alden knelt down and put on his most charming face, ignoring the musty wet-dog smell pervading the shack. Within the doghouse-sized shack, he saw a blanket and sheets, with a worn-out pillow and a small, makeshift table. In the corner, with barely enough room, there was a puppy.

"I've brought the herbs, why don't we heal that puppy of yours?" Alden suggested.

Anya nodded, her greasy brown hair barely swaying as she did. "I got recipe... but not good at cooking... can you?"

Then, Alden heard the sound of a notification.

System: "The system has detected that you are of the 'Creator' class. Hidden quest unlocked."

-[Create a healing potion for the puppy]-

Description:

Anya is horrible at cooking! If she makes the potion, it might work, but you can do better.

Objective:

(0/1) Craft a healing potion.

Reward:

?????

-[Close]-

Alden was shocked. There was absolutely no mention of such a situation from that magician!

'The system says it's because I'm a creator... and since only one person can receive this quest... that magician wasted an opportunity meant for creators!'

Alden, although shocked, responded, "Of course, Anya. Show me the recipe."

The little girl shuffled beneath her pillow and grabbed a book. On the cover page of the book, there was the title "Grandma's Recipe Book."

Immediately, Alden used the initiate appraisal skill available to every player.

-[Grandma's Recipe Book]-

Rarity: Epic

Description: The illustrious Madame Charlotte passed this book down to her granddaughter, hoping that the child could become a powerful alchemist.

Usage: Access to every common alchemic recipe

-[Close]-

'An epic item?!'

Epic items were the third most rare items in the entirety of Realms Online! Even 11 years later, as one of the strongest warriors in the game, Alden only had 3 epic items. Relentless, his guild, only had a dozen!

'But, that magician sold plenty of copies and they were only rare items... were his forgeries not able to grasp the full intent?'

This quest line was bringing him surprise after surprise. Once Anya handed him the recipe book, Alden was immediately greeted with hundreds of new panels. Each of these was a recipe for already known, common alchemic recipes.

Meaning, that if a player crafted a new type of potion or compound, it wouldn't be included here.

Still, he had to complete the quest before this became his. Alden pulled up the recovery potion interface. The recipe was especially simple.

-[Recovery Potion Recipe]-

Recipe:

15 Sonita Herbs

1 bucket of water

Method:

Extract the essence from the root of the sonita herb and boil it in water, with a unit of life force pushed into the cauldron as soon as the mixture hits boiling point.

-[Close]-

"Easy enough. Do you have a bucket of water, Anya?"

Anya reached out and handed Alden a bucket of water. Then, Alden voiced out, "Cauldron."

Most skills in Realms Online were voice-activated, and Cauldron was no exception. Suddenly, a flame appeared in between Alden's two hands. He instantly figured out how the skill worked.

"Alright, Anya, please drop the bucket of water into the flame."

Alden's intuition told him that the so-called "cauldron" was invisible, a structure built purely from the player's mana. So, theoretically, the water shouldn't just put his fire out.

Her frail arms struggled, but soon, a bucket of water was falling into the fire. Then, the water paused, floating formlessly above the flame.

"Orb." Alden commanded the water, and it quickly transformed into a complete orb.

Although it wasn't especially well known, the cauldron skill had various commands that creators could use to make their work easier. Alden himself only knew because of his passion for the class in his last life.

"Anya, pick off the blades of the herbs and throw them into this water, okay?"

Anya agreed, "Okay..."

And soon, a large collection of roots was within the water. Alden dabbled in alchemy in his previous life, so he knew exactly how to extra the essence of the root.

'Basically, I let it sit in warm water for a few seconds. This is so easy...'

After the duo removed the roots, Alden abandoned the flame just as the water was beginning to boil, grabbed his axe, and slit his finger.

'1 unit of life force coming right up!'

A drop of blood fell into the water, and the orb transformed into a blood-red compound.

System: "You've crafted a common recovery potion! Alchemy Proficiency +1!"

Alden allowed the orb of recovery potion to fall inside the bucket, and he immediately received two notifications.

System: "Quest completed! Calculating reward..."

System: "Hidden Quest completed! Calculating reward..."