Thanks. You did a favour to me, but I don’t have anything to give you. Though wait a second, here, take it.”
“You received 20 steel arows.”
Ding!
The quest “Shield for Kokun” is complete.
The hunter Kokun have already lost his shield a few times in a battle. He was always coming back from the hunt injured, but never yet he brought back anything worthy. Villagers consider him a failure.
No one know where he fights.
Reward: 20 steel arrows for the long bow. A little experience.
Weed opened the character window. The experience bar only grew by 0.001%.
You can’t expect much from a E rank difficulty quest, even with double experience bonus. If only it was one of the quests where experience depended on the completed goals...
Satisfied Kokun examined his new shield and said:
“Oh, yeah, I started telling about our village, right? Remind me where did we stop?”
“The small part of survivors founded the village. Lucille told me up to this part.”
“Hah! He sure loves to talk. Ill continue. To survive we had to become stronger. All the villagers mastered weapons, especially bows: some of us are even better at it than dark elves. What else... Our village is eastmost in the Plains of Despair. The Yuroki mountain range can be clearly seen from here, it’s inhabited by numerous orcs.”
“You founded your village in a dangerous place.”
“Yeah. Most of the villages are like that. We’re even relatively lucky. There’s an iron mine nearby, so we can forge weapons. we have plenty of food too. Though from time to time we’re getting raided by orcs.”
“Orcs?”
“Every year at harvest time they come to plunder our barns. To be honest orcs are the only reason we don’t live in abundance. But sadly they are also the reason we don’t have to deal with other, more dangerous monsters. So we live in poverty, but relatively safe.”
The exile settlement was holding despite annual orc raids.
“However a few years ago orcs started taking not just food, but villagers. After all they can’t make anything themselves!”
“I heard that orcs are the worst race with regard to crafting.”
“That’s right. That’s why they take people away, so that they make weapons and do other work for them. In the last few years they took more than a hundred people! Damn orcs!”
“Have you tried to stop them?”
Kokun burst into laughing.
“Ha! To stop the horde?! I never heard anything dumber. Orcs love fighting, they’re unrivaled at it. They fight not only humans, but elves and giant monsters and even each other!”
“I see.”
“I tell you all this because you didn’t yet understand what a dangerous place you got into. Even our best wariors have a hard time hunting some monsters, giant ant for example. We hold a celebration if they bring one from the hunt. Do you think you can hunt 5 of them? If you manage this villagers will change their attitude towards you.”
Ding!
New quest: Kukun’s doubt.
Hunter Kokun had met a lot of people who talked big but did little. To oppose the orcs one needs not just courage but sharp mind.
Catch 5 giant ants to prove your courage.
Difficulty: C.
Reward: recognition of the villagers.
Penalty for failure: hunter Kokun won’t talk to you any more.
A new quest!
Kokun narrowed his eyes and continued:
“Let it be a test for you. I won’t be surprised if you refuse. Consider this a challenge for outsiders.”
Weed went quiet for a moment and then answered firmly:
“I’ll catch those giant ants.”
You accepted the quest.
“I sure hope so. You can find giant ants in the plains to the west. They’re easy to find. Though i’m not sure if you can run away if something goes wrong.”
***
Weed left the village and headed back to the hill where his men were hiding. 10 Royal knights, Buren, Becker, Hosram, Dale, 400 soldiers and 50 priests. A small army led by Weed!
“Keep waiting.”
“As you say, Chief!”
Weed stood in front of the stone at the entrance to the cave and took out his sculpting tools. He already got a hang of carving sculptures, Zahab’s knife and a chisel were moving in his hands at an incredible speed!
He carved the familiar face that sometimes even appeared in his dreams! The face of Seoyoon served as a model for yet another sculpture.
‘I hope it ends up as another fine piece...’
Weed had big expectations. He had never yet failed at carving Seoyoon’s face...
In his sculptures he tried many times to use faces of other girls, but never succeeded with it.
Because of the minor details it was hard to recreate person's face. Sometimes when looking at a beautiful face you understand that something is missing. It seems that if you make nose a bit higher or eyes bigger you’ll achieve perfection.
Especially that was the case with women faces.
But in fact if start changing something you get unexpected results. By doing minor changes you change overall balance. That’s why the ‘fixed’ result usually ends up inferior to the original.
For every failed work sculptor’s fame was decreasing. Weed wished to avoid that, so he was only carving Seoyoon’s face. Her appearance was so flawless, that just by changing the expression a little he could change the overall atmosphere.
This time Weed decided to carve Seoyoon as a fearsome warrior.
For the clothes and armor he used the equipment of northern mercenaries, he heard that there are many female mercenaries among them.
The fierce and confident Seoyoon with a sword in front of her looked like she was guarding the entrance from dangerous monsters. That was a perfect image of a worthy and proud mercenary.
Ding!
Fine piece! You finished the statue of female mercenary!
The northern lands are poor and unfit for farming, so a lot of northern women become mercenaries to protect their homes and earn some money. They never retreat and always finish their assigned tasks.
With weapons in their hands they fearlessly slay the most dangerous monsters of the north! Ever since knights became too arrogant the peacekeeping duty fell on mercenaries’ shoulders.
Artistic value: 600.
Effects:
Health and mana regeneration increased by 15% for a day.
Movement speed increased by 15%.
Charisma increased by 100.
Strength increased by 10.
Agility increased by 10.
All attributes increased by 5.
For a week after seeing the statue you can take a mission at the mercenary guild on better terms.
Experience gain increased by 5%.
These effects do not stack with effects of other sculptures.
The number of created fine pieces: 5.
Sculpture mastery experience points gained.
Fame increased by 85.
Endurance increased by 1.
New attribute: Charisma!
Charisma:
this attribute represents the ability to attract people. Primarily those of opposing sex. You become more attractive and charming. One of the main attributes for bards, dancers and party leaders. If your profession is related to crafting, charisma will help you to create more detailed works.
Due to your profession, your charisma attribute is raised by 20.
Patience raised by 5.