As they entered the booth, Seraphina noticed that Liam had not one but two beast pets. "You also tamed a wind ripper? Not bad at all!"
"Two pets… your soul strength should be amazing."
She looked at the bird with her scrutinizing eyes and muttered. "Oh. This one is also ready to evolve. How marvelous!"
Kyuuuu!
The fox tried to struggle free from her gasp using this as a chance but unfortunately was not successful.
"What an energetic little fellow!"
"Ah! I didn't notice it before. This little guy is a spirit beast?"
"Oh, my heavens… how long has it been since I have seen one… and that too a youngling at that…"
The trainer quickly forgot about Liam as she started talking to herself and examining the two beasts more closely.
After several minutes, she finally looked up at him but it was only to give him a long list of items. "You need green spotted brittle thorn. Some firewood flowers. Crimson firestone…"
Liam nodded, carefully jotted down everything he heard. All of these were familiar items, but the more he listened to her rant, the more his expression changed.
And by the time she was done, his right eye twitched. He had indeed been correct in his assumption. Spirit beasts were tough to bring up and his small fox was a glutton!
The wind ripper only needed three items for evolution but the small fox seemed to require a whole boatload.
Liam could already see the stockpile that he had collected so far completely disappearing. To make matters worse, soon there was going to be yet another mouth that he needed to feed.
"Heh. Looks like I need some more gold." He looked outside at the bustling city absent-mindedly and the next instant, his lips curled upwards.
He knew exactly what to do and where to get the gold.
Liam patiently listened to the instructor and after obtaining all the details that he required, he paid her the 2 gold coins fees and left the beast hall.
He then started walking towards the auction house to make the required purchases.
Probably because this was still the first evolution, all the items required were somewhat commonly available.
There wasn't any unimaginably high grade precious treasure requirement even for the rare spirit beast.
In the future perhaps this was going to change but there was no need to worry about it right now.
So Liam pulled up the auction house interface and directly started buying all the materials one by one.
And just as he settled in front of the auction house, unbeknownst to him, another figure also stopped at the same time, hovering near him but not too close.
In reality, this person had been following him ever since he entered the city.
However, Liam was completely unaware of it. Or rather no player in the city was aware of his presence.
Seated outside the crowded auction hall, Liam selected all the items on his list irrespective of their prices and quickly finished the transactions.
Just as he had expected, he managed to obtain every single item on the list, though as he also expected his gold reserves plummeted fast.
Since the game's popularity was exponentially increasing with every passing day, all the raw materials were being sold for exaggerated prices, and the in game economy was in shambles.
Liam did not care about this as he valued his time far more. He had several ways to obtain fast gold but time was something he didn't have enough of.
He chuckled wryly and stood up to walk to his next destination which was the black market street.
This place as well was booming with players but not as much since the market was just opening and different vendors were only starting to assemble.
Liam squeezed through the crowd and saw that the old man he had come looking for was already here.
He was surrounded by a bunch of players who were swarming him like mosquitoes.
After meeting him for the first time, he hadn't seen him for the past several days, yet he knew that the old man would remember him very well.
"Greetings, senior." Liam stood at the back of the crowd and muttered.
And as soon as his voice sounded, the old man who had been ignoring players all this while suddenly broke into a warm smile.
Since Liam was unable to reach him, he personally stood up and walked over to him.
"Lad! You are back already! I was expecting you to come to me much later? Ho Ho!" His wrinkled eyes gazed at Liam and before long, his grin widened.
"You have once again impressed me! You are fully deserving of my respect. You did not let me down."
[Ding. Quest Completed]
Liam already knew that there wasn't any reward to this quest, so he wasn't surprised. He rather paid attention to what the old man was talking about.
"I can see that you have the patience and determination to become an excellent forger but do you have the talent?"
"Anyone can work hard, lad… but sometimes the heavens don't favor everybody. It is a pity. Hmmm?"
Liam smiled bitterly and shook his head. "I do not have the talent elder. I only know hard work." He spoke everything that was needed to appease the old man and get the next chain quest.
However, strangely everything he said was from his heart. This was one of the reasons why this quest was strongly imprinted in his memory.
The person who had completed this quest last time around was the ultimate underdog. He came from nothing and became a top expert.
That player was an inspiration to millions of people all over the world who were still struggling at the bottom.
But unfortunately, this part of history was not going to repeat itself.
This time around Liam was neither an underdog nor in lack of innate talent, but he was still going to claim this and rise higher!
The old man smiled warmly and patted him. "That's quite alright. Don't let yourself get disheartened. Talent is nothing in front of hard work. Hmph!"
"Do you have the strength and willpower to overcome your fate?"
"Yes, senior," Liam muttered.