This Is What I Call A Real Quest

AFTER deciding to find a real quest, I headed towards the bulletin board placed at the town square. It was where all the normal quests were posted by the village head. Of course, there was a quest board in the Adventurer's Guild, but it was mostly about subjugating monsters. There were no quests other than that like gathering herbs or becoming a guard for a certain period.

Thus, I headed towards the town square where I spawned initially. After reaching the town square, I found it was buzzing with player activities. It was about time when players would start swarming all of the beginner towns.

Unlike hardcore players, most of the professional players and generalized players would spend a lot of time personalizing their character, which resulted in the delay. Fortunately, I was quite fortunate that my ign was available.

I headed towards the bulletin boards and read all the posts one by one. Most of them were quests while some were notices about the current happenings in the kingdom. Among the quests, I select two quests, a herb gathering quest and a monster hunting quest.

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|> Herb Gathering

Type: Repeatable Quest

Description: Collect 10 stalks of chamomile and deliver them to the village doctor.

Requirement: Each stalk of chamomile must have at least three fully matured flowers.

Time Remaining: -/-/-

Reward: 50 Copper Coins, 100 Exp (May change depending upon the rarity of the quest item delivered)

Failure: -

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|> Meat Gathering

Type: Repeatable Quest

Description: Hunt 10 wild boars and deliver their meat to the village butcher.

Requirement: Each boar must be an adult.

Time Remaining: -/-/-

Reward: 100 Copper Coins, 200 Exp (May change depending upon the rarity of the quest item delivered)

Failure: -

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I looked at the quest description and muttered, "This is what I call a real quest."

After taking the quests, I headed towards the gate of the village. Since it was a fantasy world, all the villages and cities must have a wall, not only as a defence against enemy invasion but also against monster invasion.

There were three main gates in the wall, one leading towards the nearby city, one leading towards the nearby and the last one leading towards the hunting fields, or in player's terms, grinding zones.

I opened the map to check the direction. And, the map showed nothing of importance. The area out of the village was as blank as it could be. It didn't even mention where the gates were. However, I only know about the types of gates from beta testers.

'I should probably ask some NPC.' I thought to myself and headed towards the shopkeeper NPC that was nearest to me. After some questioning, I found the directions of the three gates. The river was towards the north, the city was towards the southwest and the grinding zones were to the east.

Fortunately, the devs were kind enough to provide the cardinal directions on the map if nothing else. Thus, I headed towards the east. After a few minutes walk, I reached the gates of the village. I found a line of NPCs waiting to enter the village. Most of them, wearing combat gear, showed their Adventurer ID cards before they were allowed in. For the rest, either they showed some kind of ID card different from the Adventurer ID card, or they paid some copper coins.

It didn't take a genius to guess that entry into the village wasn't free. However, if one had their Adventurer ID or probably what was village residential proof, one would be allowed free entry. If not one would have to pay a certain number of copper coins as a toll fee.

I checked my current balance and found 50 copper coins. It wasn't much but should be enough for the toll fee. The devs probably wanted to make sure that some hotheaded players, who ventured into the grinding zones before getting their Adventurer ID, would have a way to come back into the village.

But since I wasn't one of them, and I already had my Adventurer ID and starting gear, I headed into the grinding zone with confidence.

The grinding zone or the hunting field was a typical fantasy forest. But from what I learned from the shopkeeper, there were only ordinary animals like boars and deer. Further into the forest was a mountainous region where one could find more dangerous animals like tigers, gorillas and poisonous snakes.

'Although I won't be getting to fight some fantasy monsters like goblins, it is better this way.' I thought to myself as I ventured into the forest. The forest was so big that it wouldn't be surprising if first-timers got lost in it. Fortunately, the shopkeeper mentioned two ways to get out safely, though I also have a third one.

The first was to simply keep walking west, but it was only applicable if someone had only ventured straight east into the forest. But the forest was quite big and extended well into the south. Thus, there was another way, safer than the first, which was to keep walking north and reach the river, since the river flows from the west and cuts through the forest, flowing far into the eastern regions. Hence, the probability of encountering the river was guaranteed, unless they were on the north of the river.

But as I said, I had the third way, with a hundred percent guarantee but was the most dangerous. So the third way was to simply die and respawn in the village. And you know what, you wouldn't even have to pay the toll fee even if you didn't have an Adventurer ID.

But then again, as I said, it was the most dangerous as the death penalty was still unclear. In the beta test, there was no death penalty as it was simply the testing phase, thus the devs didn't want to restrict the players too much.

That wouldn't be the case now though as the devs would put some kind of death penalty. Since, if not, the players would simply keep swarming field bosses. Additionally, PKing would become useless without the death penalty, which would reduce the player base considerably.

Thinking about the issue, I reached the border of the forest.

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