And Weed was continuing to roast the boar despite the mockery and threatening looks.
Never before cooking and sculpture mastery failed him. Everyone who as much as tasted his food were absolutely in love with it. And sculptures often brought good results too.
Once he carved a beautiful bouquet for a player named Volk, who was going to propose to a girl he loved. Sculpture mastery was always bringing unexpected benefits.
‘They must have no sense of art... Savages.’
Villagers’ attitude did not upset Weed at all.
‘It’s not the first time I’m being ignored. I’m used to it...’
He remembered well the time he was working at a factory when he was a child.
When Hyun was 14 years old he was already working full-time undoing the seams in a stuffy and dusty room. That was hard and monotonous work and he was only allowed to leave on lunch breaks. Hyun was terribly jealous of cheerful students passing by him when he was on lunch breaks.
At the time he was an outsider for everyone. However that didn’t break him but instead strengthened and made him grow up in spite of everything.
Weed finished roasting the boar, and after having receiving no response, he packed everything back into his bag and continued walking through the village trying to start a conversation. He believed that among all the NPCs there must be at least one who will talk to him.
And he wasn’t wrong. One young guy, who was crouching on the ground and staring at a shield lying besides him, turned to Weed and said:
“Oh, stranger! If you managed to get here you must be worth something.”
“Got where?”
“Hah, you don’t even know where you are?”
“Thanks to the map I have a general idea of my location, but I know nothing about this place.” - honestly replied Weed.
“Well, we don’t know anything about you either. This village appeared here in the Times of Chaos. Heard anything about that?”
“Yeah, but not much.”
“Those were times when everyone went mad and ran rampant. Our ancestors came to these lands and fought for their lives. To be honest they were willing to fight, but they had no weapons. They were driven here without as much as a hilt of a sword...”
Visions of the past started to appear before Weed’s eyes.
Numerous soldiers with spears and swords were chasing poor starving people away into far lands. Lands, filled with multiple dangerous monsters. There were hundreds of thousands of people. The ground was soaked with blood, mourning and grief.
“At first the number of people, banished here, quickly reduced. Only the most tenacious survived. Ahem! I would tell you more, but I’m busy at the moment.”
“Busy? With what?”
“You might have noticed this shield here. Unfortunately it’s broken and I need a replacement as soon as possible. Could you by chance do me a favour?”
“Yes, I’ll help any way I can.”
“Great. You should bring this shield to a certain man and take a new one from him. He’s running a large blacksmith in this village.”
Ding!
New Quest: Shield for Kokun.
Despite all efforts, hunter Kokun failed to fix his shield. If it breaks during the fight he will be in trouble. You have to bring it to his friend Lucille to exchange for a new one.
Difficulty: E.
Restrictions: If you leave the village with the shield Kokun will get angry.
“I’ll bring you a new shield.”
You accepted the quest.
Weed believed that before doing a quest it was important to gather all available information. The shield he got was very heavy and solid.
“Now, shall we? Identification!”
Shield was all cracked and dirty, so it was hard to estimate its value from look alone. Weed was heading to the blacksmith, looking through the shield’s information window in the meanwhile.
Lucille’s Shield
Durability: 12/50.
Defence: 16.
Simple shield made of low-grade metals. It is covered by steel on the outside but very frigid on the inside. It is weak against blunt weapons. It should be replaced at first opportunity.
Requirements: None.
Effects: 50% chance to defend against projectiles.
The village wasn’t very big so it wasn’t too hard to find the blcksmith. However it didn’t look anything like Kokun described. A small furnace with an anvil in a small room with a couple swords and a few other weapons hung on the walls was all Weed saw. The only big thing there was the bearded and muscular smith Lucille.
“I see you for the first time, stranger.”
“I came here at Kokun’s request.”
Weed’s relationships with villagers weren’t quite on the good side, so he decided to take the initiative. However all his worries were unnecessary.
“Oh, come on in. There’s a familiar smell of metal around you. I love fire, that’s why I became a smith. Why did you master this craft?”
Weed quickly considered his answer. Sometimes such insignificant at first glance questions were determining your relationships with NPCs.
“I like melting cold metal and giving it a new shape.”
“Good answer. So, what brought you here?”
Weed handed the shield.
“He asks for a new one.”
“That’s it! That idiot Kokun broke his shield again. I warned him many times to be careful... Ahem! I can’t keep doing this for free. I’ll give another one for 5 gold. That useless Kokun doesn’t have that kind of money, so you’ll have to pay instead.”
“Erm...”
Weed was about to say something rude, as he felt scammed, but held himself at the last moment. It was foolish to give up on the first quest after such a long search. He convinced himself, that this is just more investments in the future.
‘Hmm, I haven’t been cheated like that since meeting that sage Rodrigues.’
Weed passed the gold to the smiling Lucille.
“Thanks. I just happen to have a spare shield for him. Here you go.”
Weed got the shield. The quest was complete and he was about to leave but Lucille stopped him.
“Hey, have you heard about the origins of our village?”
Weed was first to discover this settlement. Maybe that, or the fact of Weed being a smith himself, was what made Lucille to tell him this story.