"Please forgive me. I didn't mean to offend you. Can I give some iron ore as compensation to the elder? I have nothing else with me." Liam humbly muttered.
Hearing his earnest words, the old man's face warmed up further. He truly had a soft spot for underdogs and people with the worst luck, whom even the heavens had given upon.
"Hey, lad." He looked at Liam with his piercing blue eyes. His old age and frailty had suddenly vanished, only the aura of an expert remained.
"Do you wish to become stronger?"
"Ah?" Liam revealed a surprised expression.
"You look like someone who is not afraid of hard work and getting your hands dirty with the stink of metals." The old man smiled.
"Do you want to pursue an ancient craft that can bestow a tremendous amount of power and strength upon you?"
[Ding: Hidden Class Quest activated]
[Ding: Quest- Learn to smith and achieve mastery in the craft of making weapons]
[Ding: Reward- The unknown elder's trust and respect]
[Ding: Do you wish to accept the quest?]
Heh. Liam chuckled inwardly. Though the reward looked completely useless, how could it be so simple? It was a hidden class quest after all.
What was not mentioned in the description was that this reward would be further augmented based on the speed with which it was completed. The race was about to begin!
"I accept." Liam quickly bowed and then ran away from the stall with urgency.
"Ha Ha. What a hardworking young man!" The elder laughed and went back to talking to some of the other customers.
On the other end, Liam had already slowed down. He knew that he didn't have to rush too much. He still had 72 hours to get this done.
And more importantly, he had other things to accomplish as the black market closed in a couple of hours. Liam circled the place and once again arrived at another stall.
This one was slightly more crowded than the previous shop with several players haggling with excitement. It was a sort of gambling den and a hunter's pet shop.
Surprisingly, a familiar face was also standing and she gasped as soon as she caught Liam's silhouette.
Alex was here trying to see if she could get Rey some good pets when she unexpectedly saw the person heavily weighing on her mind.
"You! You told me that you would only be here at noon?" Alex hurriedly started blurting out words in a panic. She was still very nervous and apprehensive about the whole thing.
"Hmmm… What are you talking about? I only said I would meet you at noon. I didn't say anything about being here before that, did I?"
Liam did not spare her a glance and quickly walked over to the shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman with a big mole on her face.
"Welcome." She greeted Liam and then her face brightened up seeing Liam's face up close. "Welcome, Mr. Handsome. Do you want to make any purchases today?"
"Look at all these eggs. They could have anything inside them! Even mighty dragons and powerful phoenixes! Want to try your luck?"
Liam looked at all the eggs of various shapes and sizes orderly arranged next to each other. Every single one had different patterns and shapes on the shell which made them look very mysterious.
The people who had gathered around were trying to guess what beast might be inside just based on these patterns and the shape and color of the eggs.
Liam chuckled. Sure he had heard some people getting lucky by purchasing eggs in this shop but mostly it was a scam.
And just like several other things, these in-game pets would also become irrelevant which was why he hadn't even bothered to use the tame skill until now.
That didn't mean he wasn't interested in pets as a whole. In fact, he was very much interested!
To be more specific, he was interested in two particular rare pets, the likes of which would surely be unavailable here.
"Thank you, N" Before Liam could finish his statement, Alex quickly butted in and spoke before him, interrupting their conversation. "Hello. Hello. Wait a second. I will be buying ALL the eggs here!"
Immediately the crowd surrounding them became chaotic as several other people had their eyes on some eggs and they were only hesitating because the price of each egg was 1 gold!
However, to someone like Alex, this amount was nothing. So she didn't even think twice before randomly buying all of these on a whim.
As soon as she saw Liam here, the wheels in her brain had already begun to spin.
He was clearly here to do something and she was sure that it was related to the eggs laid out in front of them. Perhaps one of these eggs had a powerful beast companion!
Yes! That was definitely the case! Why else would he be here? Alex's eyes twinkled and she wanted to beat him to the punch!
She quickly exchanged the gold before Liam could do any tricks and placed all the eggs carefully in her inventory slots.
With her arms crossed in front of her chest, she then turned to look at Liam with confidence and a smug smile. "Hmph! I bet now you would have time to talk to me right?"
Liam, on the other hand, was trying his best to control his laughter. "No? I am still busy." What a childish woman!
He shook his head, ignoring her furious eyes and heaving chests, and continued talking with the shopkeeper.
"Congratulations, madam. You have sold all your wares so fast today! Would you perhaps have some spare time to take a look at something for me?"
Alex who was still standing beside him obviously heard this and she froze in shock.
WHAT THE FUCK? This guy wasn't here to buy anything?
She felt as if she had been slapped hard and looked at him with a ridiculous expression, her mouth wide open.