After the dust settled down, Liam got up from his spot and dusted himself, but he did not head back to the gnome campsite.
Instead, he walked over to sit in front of another huge rock, placing sufficient distance between himself and the rock.
He sat down in a cross-legged position and exhaled and inhaled a few times, taking deep breaths to calm himself down.
He then began practicing.
Bzzzt
Bzzzt
Bzzzt
Small sparks, one after another materialized in front of him and shot forward, all aimed at a single spot on the huge rock.
This time Liam did not activate the spell using the system's help and manipulated the spell on his own.
When he had tried to mess with the gnome earlier, he clearly saw the sparks splattering, not fully contained within the small red button.
So he couldn't help but wonder if that was why the gnome had been aggroed instead of just simply malfunctioning.
This was just his conjecture and he still needed to confirm it.
But in the off chance that he was right… then he would be able to settle his gnome problem really soon.
A few more minutes passed and Liam continued quietly practicing. The number of blackened spots on the rock was also steadily increasing.
Some were on target and some were off target, but this was also slowly improving.
Soon an hour passed by and then a couple of hours.
Bzzt
Bzzt
Bzzt
The sound of intermittent zapping still rang loudly.
However, Liam had a frown on his face.
"Sigh. Why is using a small amount of mana so much more difficult than churning out big quantities…"
He cursed his poor ability to control mana. Nevertheless, he continued practicing without giving up.
Though it was difficult, he had no doubt in his mind if he would accomplish this or not.
It, in fact, was very simple.
It needed to be done so he would do it.
Lacking the talent or natural ability for it? Such a thing did not exist for him.
He was able to manipulate it before so it was inevitable that he would succeed in manipulating it this time as well.
With this unwavering confidence, he continued repeating the same thing over and over again and again.
…
…
…
Meanwhile…
Back in the royal city of the Gresh Kingdom…
"Sis Yue, I think we are already at the last stop of the restaurant tour!"
A young teenage girl chomped down on a piece of juicy roasted leg meat and continued speaking while still chewing the food.
Mei Mei was usually a well-mannered, elegant, and graceful girl, but the thing she was eating was simply too good and too tasty.
She even licked her fingers thoroughly after wolfing down the meat.
Sitting opposite her, Shen Yue was no better.
Her lips as well were smeared with grease and crumbs of all the items they had devoured in the past few minutes.
At first, she felt guilty and weird about spending Liam's money. It was not like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They had just shared one awkward kiss.
But the food helped and funnily enough it made the guilt quickly disappear. Not to mention she was already an avid foodie.
So she gave in and jumped into the same boat as Mei Mei.
Both of them wolfed down the dishes they had ordered.
They had been touring the royal city these past few hours, accepting a bunch of quests, but also paying special attention to the restaurants in the city.
At least it started this way.
Slowly the trip ended up becoming more about the restaurants…
"Sis Yue, where to next?"
"Ughh… huh… Mei Mei, we should really start doing some quests now." Shen Yue blushed and then continued. "I mean… when your brother returns… we should have at least some progress to show him?"
Cough. Cough. Mei Mei also started sweating. "You are right."
"But it is not our fault. The food here is too tasty. What the heck!"
Shen Yue nodded. She also now understood why this game had become so popular. Just as the pain was real, the pleasure was real as well!
"Ya, this is a pretty great game. Why don't we do a few quests, bring our levels up? Then we can relax some more. My stomach is full now anyway."
"Ah! You are right. My stomach is also full." Mei Mei nodded. "Let's go do some quests."
"Which ones should we start with? Gerald's farm?" Shen Yue opened her interface and looked at all the quests.
Mei Mei shook her head resolutely and then gave her suggestion. "We should level up our cooking skills first."
"Cooking skill?" Shen Yue was caught off guard because of her serious tone so it took her a second to catch the drift.
"You little glutton. You just want to eat more!" She couldn't help but laugh at the girl who was sticking her tongue out.
She couldn't even tell if she was serious or joking.
Shen Yue then thought about it for a moment and then decided. "Do you want to just split up for a bit? I will get my special quest completed. You can learn cooking in the meantime."
"We can meet back here after we are done?"
"Sis, there is also the call function." Mei Mei reminded her.
"Ah! You are right. I almost forgot about that. We will stay in the same party and we can contact each other. Okay?"
Both the girls agreed and Shen Yue made a move first. She went to the royal palace to look for the chambermaid that her quest mentioned.
[Quest: You have obtained the King's chambermaid's lost necklace. Please return it to her]
[Reward: The maid's gratitude]
Taking another look at the quest, she pulled her long black locks into a high ponytail and started looking around.
"She should be here, right?" Shen Yue walked over to the northern part of the royal city where the majestic palace was sprawled about.