Chapter 14 – Purple Bell (1/2)

“Don’t be so hasty. Let me tell you the entire situation,” Now that he had Fatty’s agreement, the shopkeeper was no longer as anxious.

It all happened ten years ago. Back then, the alchemy shop shopkeeper was still the chief alchemist in the Central Imperial Capital as the Alchemist Grandmaster, and was in charge of alchemy. A subordinate once gave the emperor a Poison Immunity Orb, and claimed that it could cure people of many poisons. The emperor liked it a lot, and kept it by him. As an alchemist, the alchemy shop shopkeeper naturally liked it a lot as well, so he borrowed it for a few days for research purposes. However, on that very day, it disappeared from his home. When the emperor caught wind of it, he was outraged, and stripped the alchemy shop shopkeeper’s title, and exiled him out of the Central Imperial Capital. Thus, the alchemy shop shopkeeper could only wander around, eventually ending up where they were.

“Poor you,” Fatty looked at the tearful shopkeeper.

“Yes, yes,” the shopkeeper nodded.

“What stole the orb?” Fatty asked.

“A damn rat,” the shopkeeper gritted his teeth. “I’ve got no idea how the rat got into my research lab and stole the Poison Immunity Orb, causing me to get scolded by His Majesty. Hero, you have to help me get it back, and teach it a good lesson about greed.” The shopkeeper was exactly the same as the farmer. He called Fatty a hero when he needed Fatty, and completely ignored Fatty when he had no use for Fatty.

“Why didn’t you go yourself?” Fatty asked.

“I can’t beat it,” the shopkeeper put on a troubled expression. “I asked along the way, then finally found its tracks here. Although I’m an alchemist grandmaster, my fighting prowess is even less than a puny warrior’s. I sought it out a few times, but was nearly killed. Since I finally escaped, I didn’t dare to go back.”

“Ooh, I see. That sounds pretty amazing. What level is it?” That’s the main question.

“It looked to be Level 20,” the shopkeeper looked at Fatty in a troubled manner.

“Okay, only level 20. Then I’ll accept this mission,” Fatty clapped. The more dangerous a mission was, the greater the rewards. Since there was a mission reward of gaining an additional secondary profession, Fatty was very willing to accept. What’s more, Fatty understood very well that if he was not the first person to reach level 10, he wouldn’t be able to get the mission. After all, a boss that’s at least level 20 was still too powerful for the current player base.

Ding.

System Notification: You have accepted the mission “Poison Immunity Orb”, please complete it within ten hours. If you fail to do so, your levels will be cleared.

“F*ck, you already waited for ten years, you really care about this ten hours?” Fatty gritted his teeth and looked towards the shopkeeper. It seems like my plan of getting my class enhancement first, then doing the mission is ruined. “Since that’s the case, I’ll go right now. But I don’t have enough potions on me, so…”

“I’ll give you 50 large red potions and 50 large blue potions,” the shopkeeper immediately showed his sincerity before Fatty even finished speaking.

“Okay, then wait for the good news,” Fatty marched out of the shop.

Fatty equipped Frostfang and Python Armor, then went over to the blacksmith to repair all his other equipment before taking a look at his status board. Mm, looking good.

Fatty checked his belongings, and just as he was about to go out and complete the mission, he saw East Gate BlowingWind and co. walk over. Fatty did have a good impression of this player. Not only did he remind Fatty about the people following him, he had also offered to help while Fatty was digging down into the rabbit nest.

“Brother Grubber’s equipment is looking rather good,” East Gate BlowingWind immediately got jealous when he saw the fully equipped Fatty. There was no helping it, the drop rates in Eternal was too astronomically low. They had farmed for two days already, and even though they did get quite a few gold coins, they were severely lacking in the equipment department. All they got were a few common items, and not even a single bronze one. In comparison, Fatty killed three bosses, and all the drops were either bronze or silver equipment that he could use himself.

Fatty suddenly remembered something when he saw East Gate BlowingWind’s look of envy.

“Bro, you got gold coins?” Fatty asked.

“Yeah. How much do you need? I need to see if I got enough.” East Gate BlowingWind immediately replied.

“Take a look at how much this is worth?” Fatty brought out Thorn Saber, which dropped from the black wolf.

“A bronze item!” The moment Fatty took the saber out, East Gate BlowingWind immediately leaped over and refused to take his hands off it.

“Ahem. Ahem. Let go first,” Fatty didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Haha, I was excited,” East Gate BlowingWind smiled coyly and stood up. “Brother Grubber, give me a quote.”

“Haha, good friend, I’ll give you a twenty-five percent discount. I would have charged you for 8 gold coins, but I’ll only ask you for 6,” Fatty waved. If any one of Fatty’s acquaintances saw this scene, they definitely would praise East Gate BlowingWind as having been a very successful, as he managed to make Fatty proactively give him a discount.

“Mhmm, it really isn’t expensive,” East Gate BlowingWind took out 6 gold coins to purchase the bronze saber without any hesitation. “Brother Grubber, thanks.”

“Haha, it’s just business, so no worries. I’ve got a few more pieces of equipment here. Brother East Gate, take a look and see if you want them,” Fatty immediately put out the equipment he had outgrown onto the ground like a street-side stall owner.

“Wow, a bronze dagger. There’s also a lance that gives +5 attack. Wow, there are tons of good stuff here,” East Gate BlowingWind and co. immediately surrounded Fatty, and started to choose as they exclaimed.

…

“All of them are good stuff,” East Gate BlowingWind looked over all the items. All of the bronze and common items were definitely very useful for players of their level.

“I’ll take them all. Brother Grubber, how much would it be?”

“Sure. Let’s say 20 gold coins for all of them,” Fatty swiftly put away the equipment and started to trade with East Gate BlowingWind, who asked his companions for a bit of money, then made an offline call to others to send him some gold coins.

All of the gold coins they had saved with quite a bit of trouble all ended up with Fatty now.

After the transaction, Fatty held more than 190 gold coins in his inventory. He thought about it for a moment, then decided that it wasn’t so safe carrying it around. So, he went over to the bank, and spend 10 gold coins to get an account, and stored everything except some necessities on him.

That being said, Fatty didn’t want to exchange the gold coins into RMB yet. He believed that there will be a small rise in the value of gold coins after a small proportion of the player base gets their class enhancement. Yet, after that, the exchange rate between gold coins and RMB will gradually drop. Although Fatty hadn’t played any games before, he did have his own understanding of how the economy worked.

“Oh yeah. Kill the boss, get the drops!” Fatty wobbled along the street.

When he passed by East Gate BlowingWind, the latter immediately wiped some sweat off his own face, then turned around and pretended to be strangers. It’s never good when this fatty mentions a boss. I hope he doesn’t get another boss to block us off. Otherwise, everyone from this Beginner’s Village would definitely have no face left.

When Fatty left from the village entrance, he walked towards a valley in the west. It was filled with maples trees. It was a place that would serve as a very nice scenery spot if not for the fact that a horde of despicable rats had taken over the place. Rumors also said that some self-proclaimed amazing clan had chased all the players out so that they could use the area to farm, but right after doing that, they were wiped out by the rats.

Fatty hide behind a tree and stealthily used Appraisal on a small rat.

Grey Rat