29 I Accept The Quest

"A few hundred years or so ago, A man named 'Ruth Wakado' came to this place and stole my most important treasure, 'the stone of Ice king' from me."

"And you want me to retrieve that for you.", Lin Fang asked as he once again thought of how lazy the game developers were to come up with such a name for the treasure of an ice statue. He also wondered about who in hell came up with the surname Wakado.

The statue nodded as it continued, "I learned from various humans who sometimes arrived here accidentally that someone with the same name had built a city nearby. Coincidence, I think not. He must have left my treasure for his future generations. It should be kept in a well-guarded location in the city. Your job is to get it back for me."

"Why do you think he would leave it for his future generations, couldn't he have taken it with him to his grave or use it during his lifetime if it was something consumable." Lin Fang asked with a confused expression. If he had a treasure, he would surely use it to his heart's content. Even if he did leave it behind, who could be so sure that it was still in the city and not somewhere else?

"Hoh-Hoh, you do not need to know that, all you need to know is that you will find the stone inside the city.", The statue said mysteriously. Lin Fand wondered if the game designers were being lazy again by playing it mysteriously to hide the truth of their unimaginative brains.

A quest menu appeared in front of Lin Fang

{The Ice Statue lost his treasure to a human who built a city nearby by the name of Greenwood City leaving behind his descendants to rule over the city. Your job is to break into the castle in the center of the city and take back what was lost. Help the Demon side and make them stronger so as to fight back against the advent of the players on the side of the Human Faction.

Difficulty Level: A

Reward: Ice element Sword, Ice armour, Experience points dependent upon the performance of the player

Will you Accept}

Lin Fang looked at the quest menu as his face was slowly drawn into a frown. Stealing something from the castle was no joke. Even though according to the map of this world, Greenwood City was a backwater place, all the guards in the castle should be above level 5.

Besides, he didn't know the limits of his Human Appearance ability and somehow, he didn't want to know them either. The reward was also too low when put on a weighing scale with the risk. Main quests didn't have difficulty levels as they were played over a long time.

Most other quests did have a difficulty level normally, of course, there were exceptions to this rule. Difficulty levels were split from E to A with the difficulty rising as we move up. An A class quest would surely be terrifyingly hard. Not to mention the current reward, Lin Fang would still think about it twice before taking the quest if the reward was doubled.

Looking at the hesitating Lin Fang, the statue realized that its reward wasn't exciting enough for him to draw his feeling of greed out and reduce his fear. He bit his lips as he thought of what he would be able to do if he could just have the stone back, obviously, since he was a statue his bite produced a weird kink like sound.

"I am sor-", As Lin Fang started to refuse the statue's quest, he cut of him of midway.

"5 gold and a rogue skill. I will also provide you with a way to enter the castle. That is the highest I am willing to go.", The Statue was hoping, hoping that Lin Fang would give in to the temptation and forget about his fears. If he could just get out that stone, then the reward he gave will be worth nothing...

Lin Fang couldn't read his thoughts, nor was he looking at the statue whose eyes flashed with a weird light. His eyes were focused on the quest menu where the rewards had increased with the Statue's words.

Lin Fang once again stood in front of the same scale, one side the risk and another side the reward. The reward the statue offered this time was far greater than the previous one. He could use the gold itself to buy quite a few sets of nice armours and weapons. Even though skills were cheaper since not many players had the capacity to earn too much right now, some of the rare but useful once were still priced in golds. He would surely be able to improve his skills quickly if he got a good skill book.

Thus the deciding factor became the skill book if it good enough, he would take the quest if not then...

When the statue heard Lin Fang ask about the skill book, its expression finally changed as pride covered his whole face. He pulled out a book from his ice amour and showed it to Lin Fang. The moment Lin Fang saw the skill book, he started breathing heavily as his heart was filled with greed. He wondered what kind of storm would appear in the virtual world if word of this skill book spread.

The statue looked at his face and seeing the effect it desired, it quickly kept the book inside. Lin Fang only came back to reality after the skill book was back in its position. His heart was filled with pain as he cried in his heart about why he impulsively used the transformation spell. If he still had that, he could force the statue to cough up that skill book. He was quite strong himself but he knew that the other side wasn't weaker than him. It even felt a bit stronger than the level 5 Greenwood Spirit for some reason.

The last shred of hesitation in Lin Fang's heart died after seeing the skill book as he said," I accept the mission."

The Statue seemed so happy with his answer that it almost seemed like it would dance right in front of him. He seemed to remember something as he pulled out a token from one of the pockets on his armour and gave it to Lin Fang.

"Before I forget, take this token, I don't know how it works in the human world but the human to whom this belonged said that a person can enter the castle if he uses this token. But obviously, since you aren't a human, it would be safer if you aren't seen by anyone during the theft so I hope you choose wisely between whether to enter through the front door or in stealth from the back."

Lin Fang nodded his head to show that he understood and turned to leave the place impatiently. Seeing this scene, the statue couldn't help but shake his head, this kid still had a lot to learn. The brat didn't even notice that he was being tracked and yet, this kid was its last hope. I will help you this once kid, whether he can survive or not after leaving this place is up to him, the statue thought in its head.

The Statue waved its hand and ice in an area of the upside-down dome shattered to form a doorway.

"This will lead you straight out of the forest to an open space near that Greenwood City."

Lin Fang who had been planning to continue breaking ice stopped in his tracks as he looked at the exit. After a second of being stuck in that daze, he nodded towards the Statue as a show of thanks and left through the doorway.

"Don't disappoint me kid, I have a put all my eggs into one basket but what else can I do, I am tired of being stuck in this place for so long.", The statue sighed. Then its eyes flashed with a cold light as it looked upwards towards the ceiling of the dome.

It jumped into the air towards the ceiling but before he could even reach it, the ice which seemed normal, suddenly turned into a face that looked back at the statue and laughed loudly:

"HaHaHaHa.."

As it laughed, the ice in the surroundings turned into chains which bound around the struggling statue and dragged him back to its original position as it screamed in rage. The chains kept it trapped until it calmed down and stopped screaming.

"Another attempt failed.", it said sorrowfully. But the sorrow didn't last long as its face turned cold again, "Well, no worries, this has happened quite a few thousand times so I am not that surprised. What I need to do now is get ready for this group of uninvited guests. Been a while since I fought a group this large..."