33 Stone of The Ice King

Lin Fang found a source of clean water in the form of a river. He rinsed himself and the little rabbit in a deserted spot before wearing his 'expensive' clothes. He had chosen an all-black outfit thus his look hadn't changed much from last time.

But this time, instead of choosing to continue wearing a cloth on his face, he had bought a simple black mask with two holes for eyes on its front. It looked quite good with his all-black outfit but Lin Fang felt that he would be too conspicuous if he wore it during the day, so, he left the area without wearing it and walked towards a busy street.

The first thing he had to do was locate the 'Stone of Ice King'. The statue had only told him that it should be inside the city, specifically the castle but it couldn't be sure as it hadn't personally seen its location.

"Go listen in on people's conversation and find any places of interest in the city.", he said to the rabbit on his shoulder. The Greenwood Spirit seeing the serious expression on its master's face nodded his head quietly and disappeared as Lin Fang turned a corner.

Lin Fang sat down in a corner of the street and started observing the people passing by, looking for a target. He realized that there were a lot of guards in the surrounding areas and couldn't help but frown. Lin Fang didn't know the limit of his Human Appearance but he made a rough guess that he should be able to hide from a being five levels above his own at a close distance and from beings higher leveled than that, at a bit of a distance.

Thus, he maintained a distance of ten meters from these guards as he didn't know their true levels. His end would surely not be pretty if they found out that he was a demon.

The best place for me to find information would be a bar, Lin Fang thought as he had seen a lot of information in other games being gleaned from places like that. He got up and located the closest one before entering it excitedly. After all, he was still underage so he hadn't entered a place like this before. No one can blame him for being excited.

The place could be described in one word, terrible. Since it was the afternoon, the place was completely deserted, there was a terrible smell of booze, shit and somehow, a mans armpits as well coming from the tables and chair. As for how Lin Fang knew to identify those lovely smells...

There was one person who was cleaning the floors with a wet broom. He looked like he had been starving for a week at least and his eyes appeared listless. He was performing the same action with the broom in the same place like a malfunctioning robot. One look at this place and Lin Fang knew that he wasn't getting any information, thus, he left.

By the time the sun started to set, Lin Fang still hadn't found a clue of the stone, not a single lead. He sat near the river looking at the setting sun as he sighed to himself. Maybe the stone really is hidden in the castle, he thought to himself.

"Master!Master!", A hurried voice came from behind him.

Since Greenwood Spirit became his subordinate, the two of them were able to locate each other within a certain area, thus, he wasn't surprised to hear his voice. He turned towards him with a hopeful gaze, the rabbit found something. This thought of Lin Fang was further strengthened by the smug expression on the rabbit's face.

Half an hour later, outside the Southern Academy

A man with a rabbit on his shoulder stood outside the academy as he looked at the gates with a determined expression on his face.

"You sure it is in here?", he asked the rabbit again to make sure.

"Yes, I am sure its in here.", Greenwood Spirit nodded its head. Greenwood Spirit had overheard two people talking about how all the things from before the development of the city had been kept in the museum inside the academy. The moment it learned about this, it immediately ran over to check if it had the stone inside.

Even though it wasn't able to see the 'Stone of Ice King', it had heard people discuss, the weird stone that could cause people who neared it to feel a chill down to there souls, if this wasn't the Stone then what else could be?

When Lin Fang heard Greenwood Spirit's explanation, he couldn't help but agree that this stone was suspicious and he should at least check it out before charging blindly into the castle to look for something that quite possibly wasn't even their.

Looking at the guards, Lin Fang knew that he wouldn't be able to enter without trickery. Since he had entered the city through 'special' means, he didn't get the paper used as proof which allowed a person the use of certain city privileges like getting a room in an inn or entering a strictly monitored area.

The guards would surely ask for his admittance papers, he frowned as he thought of a way to solve the problem. Then it struck him, why not try using that token of his, since the statue gave it to him, it should be useful in some way.

Of course, Lin Fang wouldn't be foolish enough to charge head first with the token in hand. He would have to research about the token before he decided to use it. Thus, he decided to stop for now.

The next day, Lin Fang went to look for an appraiser. There were two ways to get any goods appraised, the first one was to go to the official appraisal guild and get your item appraised, the problem with this method was that Lin Fang was sure to leave a trace behind him. If the token was too valuable which it clearly was, he wasn't sure if someone from the guild would follow him out of greed since he only has enough money to get an item appraised in the open. the cost for a separate room was too high for Lin Fang to afford. Plus, he needed a proof of him visiting the city to get it appraised by the guild so obviously, he couldn't do that anyway.

That left the second option, the black market. This place was, as the name suggested a place for criminals, low lives and thugs to trade goods. Since many wanted criminals came to this place, the secrecy of the buyer and seller was guaranteed.

Lin Fang learned of this place when he was surfing online a few days ago. According to the post, every city had a black market in an underground location. There was a theory going on online that these markets seemed to be under a mysterious organization as all the city lords and even the royal family turned a blind eye to them. Lin Fang could only marvel at the power of this organization which could even the royal family seemed afraid of in the capital.

The post also explained how to enter the market and according to various tests performed by people, the method should be applicable in all cities, of course, there were always exceptions. The person must have gotten the method to enter the city during a quest from an NPC or something and posted his discovery online saving Lin Fang from a lot of hassle.

Lin Fang located the bar with the name 'Invisible Drunkard" in the city and waited for a certain someone. After a while, a well-dressed man walked out from one of the dark alleys. He looked around carefully and after finding no one, he went into the bar.

Looking at his actions Lin Fang smiled evilly. The NPC's in the game were divided into various levels of consciousness as well. Some of the NPC's which didn't have much of a role in the game could only perform a set action. For example, an appraiser in the appraisal guild will only answer questions related to the object being appraised, if asked about the weather outside or the color of water, the appraisal would probably answer with a negative saying he didn't know anything about information like that. He might even forget a persons face after he has appraised his item.

Meanwhile, as the level of an NPC, his importance or his position increases, so does his level of consciousness thus, allowing him to make basic decisions, fight, talk to players like a normal human and in some cases, even be smarter than them. Thus, an NPC this smart in a place like this was surely conspicuous.

A few minutes later, a beggar walked out of the store and sat down next to the bar. Sure enough, Lin Fang thought in his heart as he wore his mask, it was just as that post said.

Lin Fang walked out of the shadows towards the beggar at a slow pace. The beggar turned his eyes towards Lin Fang the moment he appeared but all he saw was a man in a mask. He raised the bowl in his hands towards Lin Fang and said,"Kind Sir, please give me some alms."

Lin Fang looked at him for a second as if sizing him up and then threw a silver coin into the bowl.

"Lead the way.", Lin Fang said.

"To where?", the beggar asked.

Lin Fang smiled at his words and replied with a cold voice, "A place where no road can reach."