Lv. 8 - Preparation [2]

"Okay… now I don't know where else to go."

Zen had almost finished doing all his preparations faster than he expected. Even if he returned to Troy's place, it was certain that his armor wasn't finished yet.

"Ah! There it is."

Zen suddenly remembered something, a piece of news he happened to read on the game forum the previous day. It was said that there would be an announcement at the Quest Center of each starting city.

And because of that, Zen decided that he would go to the Quest Center, and see if there would be anything interesting there.

....

"Oh... it turns out that a lot of players have gathered here," Zen thought as he looked at the area around the Quest Center.

A sturdy building with three floors and medieval style, that's the Quest Center. This is the main place where players can take a quest to a certain degree, as well as submit it.

You could say this place was the key for low-level players to become stronger before plunging into the outside world. And of course also to find some extra Zist coins.

This building was only a few meters from the Training Center, so when Zen got there, a chill went down his spine when he remembered something.

"Damn it, that creature's voice just won't go away…" Zen muttered with an annoyed look towards the scene where it happened.

"Hey, what are they looking at over there?"

Randomly, Zen tried to ask a player who was nearby what had happened. Because he couldn't get close to the Quest Center notice board.

"You know the news about a goblin nest in the forest south of the city..."

"Oh well, Ashround City is surrounded by forests. Each part is dominated by a different kind of monster," Zen thought remembering what he knew.

"The mayor of this city made recruitment for adventurers, to destroy the goblin nest. It is said that the goblin nest is led by a goblin of a fairly high level...."

Zen listened to the player's explanation carefully… until it was finished. Then after a while, finally the group of players in front of the announcement board began to fade.

"Huh... I finally got to see the announcement. Well... hmm... looks like the Mayor really wants the goblin gone for good. Well, the forest is one of the important assets for the city after all...

"One silver Zist for each goblin head, quite tempting. Five gold Zist for killing the goblin leader. Looks like I'll be testing my luck once again."

Zen left the place with a face that couldn't stop grinning, thinking about the possibilities that might happen if he followed the subjugation. After all, this would also be the first subjugation he was involved in.

....

Returning to his original destination, Zen had arrived back at Troy's place to pick up his order which should have been completed, according to Troy's words.

"Old man, are you done?"

There Zen saw that Troy was relaxing, which meant his armor was finished.

"Oh Zen! You came at the right time. I just finished, follow me!"

Troy also invites Zen to his basement, or you could say his workspace. There Zen saw various equipment as well as scattered pieces of armor and weapons.

"And look, this is the armor you will wear."

"Oh... wow!" Zen was quite happy with the look of the armor, it looked sturdy enough for light armor, and had bone and wolf fur ornaments. One set consists of arm guards, body parts, a pair of shoes, and head protection.

[ Wolf Leather set bonus activated ]

[ Effect: +10% Speed ]

"For a common tier armor set, this isn't too bad," Zen thought in awe of the result. "This is very good, Old Man, I like it."

"Hoho who else made it. By the way, what are you going to do? It looks like you've made full preparations."

"My real goal is just to do some quests. But just now there was an announcement about the extermination of the goblin nest, so that's what I'll do."

"Hmm, the goblin's nest to the south of the city? I'll tell you something nice, there's also a village in the south, not far from the city. You will definitely pass through that village before reaching the goblin's nest."

"Oh, that's one good info. Thank you, Old Man."

"It's nothing."

After finishing the payment, Zen then quickly left the place and decided to log out. Since it was now approaching noon, Zen was also hungry. Moreover, later in the afternoon he also had to go to work.

….

"Oh, Arka. Good Afternoon, it seems you are completely healthy now," said his boss.

"Good Afternoon, and yup, I'm really in top shape right now," Arka replied.

"Fine, but still don't push yourself too hard."

"Okay Boss," said Arka briefly.

Mike Silver is an American immigrant. And he is a person who understands Arka's situation and often helps him.

And their initial meeting also became a key for Arka to be more open with people, because at that time Arka himself had fallen into a crisis of trust issues.

Back to Arka who was working, he had just finished sweeping and cleaning the entire table. It's not a hard thing to do, moreover, there are still not many visitors. So Arka prefers to spend his time drinking a glass of cold water and looking at his smartphone.

"Hey, Arka! Whatcha doing?" someone suddenly said by slapping Arka's back. "Did you get a girlfriend? You've been grinning while looking at your phone screen for a while."

"Huh? What are you talking about?," replied Arka with a flat face.

Rio is one of Arka's co-workers. In Arka's eyes, he is quite an annoying person who can't just stay still, top that with his habit of being nosy. Arka has run out of ways to deal with it and prefers to ignore his strange actions.

"Haha, as usual, it's hard to catch you off guard," said Rio with a laugh.

"Well, whatever."

"By the way, what did you see?"

"Something that will be difficult for you to understand." In other words, Arka was trying to tell Rio not to interfere.

"Come on, let me see a little," said Rio, who then tried to bring his face closer to Arka's smartphone screen.

Of course, Arka tried to keep his smartphone away and at the same time pushed Rio's face back.

Kring!

The bell rang, signaling that the door opened. Arka immediately went back to work mode, pushing Rio away.

"Go now!" Arka glanced at the door, "Am I clear?"

"Very clear."

"Then hurry back to your place!" said Arka pushing Rio back.

"Okay~" With a short answer, Rio left Arka on the spot.

....

After some time, the day had changed and now Zen had just finished his morning routine and headed into the game.

[ Welcome to Adventure World ]

» Ashround Town, Clover Kingdom «

"Finally I'm back here, the fantasy world sensation is the best for me," Zen said softly with a gust from his mouth.

Currently Zen needs preparation for tomorrow's event. Well, to be more precise this is preparation for the extermination of the goblin nest. He was quite prepared, only he felt that he was lacking in the level, and potion supply he had.

And without a second thought, Zen headed to the forest around Ashround Town.

….

As Zen learned from Rudy, recently the price of herbs has increased. This was due to the increased risk level for herbal harvesters when hunting herbs in the forest due to the more active the monsters.

And Zen wanted to take the opportunity to harvest more herbs. Every herb he came across, be it foreign or not, Zen would take it.

After an hour, Zen is still harvesting. He was quite surprised at how rich the resources in this forest were. Until suddenly a notification appears.

[ Achievements Obtained - Harvested Over 1000 Crops - Title {Gardener} is Obtained ]

•Gardener•

Effect: Quality of harvested crop +10%

"Oh...."

Instead of being surprised, Zen just stared at the notification for a moment. He wondered if something else would happen if he continued what he was doing. Then Zen decided not to stop and continued to harvest the crops around him.

[ Achievements Obtained - Harvesting Over 2500 Crops - Title {Gardener} » {Botanist} ]

•Botanist•

Effect: Quality of harvested crop +25%

"According to my estimation, maybe I can still carry on."

And Zen continues to work for the next four hours, and in the end, only one notification appears, and this is probably the last one.

[ Achievements Obtained - Harvesting Over 5000 Crops - Title {Botanist} » {Herbal Expert} ]

•Herbal Experts•

Effect: Quality of harvested crop +40%

[ Reached peak harvester, Flora Encyclopedia feature obtained ]

[ With the Flora Encyclopedia, players can get and store information about every plant they get ]

"This is amazing, only five to six hours and I can get a title like that? Not to mention the encyclopedia feature, it's really cool."

Aware of the circumstances, Zen didn't let himself be carried away by system notifications. He quickly returned to his original destination and immediately headed towards Ashround City.

Zen managed to sell most of the plants he got and he also made a profit of around 300 to 400 silver Zist, and his closeness with Rudy increased by 45%.