Before he left Amy's bakery, Jack decided to buy two Bread and a few cooking ingredients from the shop. He still had 6 bottles of medicine in his bag, but it won't hurt to have more restorative items. He spent 48 copper coins for the two bread and 72 copper coins for the ingredients, they were already included in the 30% discount.
His saving dipped to below 3 silver coins. Everything was expensive here, or he simply didn't make coins fast enough, he thought. He would burn through the coins faster if he still needed to rent an inn, luckily he got free accommodation from this bakery. He couldn't imagine what the others were doing about the coin problem.
As he walked towards the Adventurers Association, Peniel urged him to take a slight detour to a shopping street that they had passed before. The Fairy might be bossy, but she had also been quite helpful as a source of information. So Jack complied with her request. When he reached the street, she told him to go to one of the shops lined up along the street.
It was a small shop. The smallest compared to the other shops on the street. Jack looked at the wares and found them to be a blend of multiple different kinds of goods. It looked more like a pawn shop. Jack was wondering why Peniel asked him to come here. The shopkeeper was an old, thin, and bald man, with slanted eyes. He stared at Jack from his counter with a look that said, 'you are going to buy something, boy? Or just here for window shopping?'
'Um, Peniel, what are we looking for in here?' Jack asked Peniel.
"Ask the shopkeeper for lockpicks," Peniel answered him.
He then remembered that she had mentioned about it before when they were still in the Cultist's warehouse. He also remembered it to be one of the auxiliary skills available.
Jack then came to the counter and said to the shopkeeper, "I'm looking for lockpicks, you got them?"
The shopkeeper looked at Jack from head to toe with his slanted eyes, before he took out a set of two pin-sized metal pieces with a curve end. He set it down on the counter. Jack touched the metal pieces and its description appeared.
Normal Lockpick (Lockpick tool)
Used to open locks on doors or chests. Will be broken if fail during lockpicking
Price: 10 copper coins
'10 copper? That's cheap,' Jack said in his mind.
"You are gonna need a lot of it, buy with all the coins you have," Peniel said.
'What? No way! How can I spend all my coins just for this thing?'
"Because they are going to break a lot. Do you think you will successfully pick a lock with that Apprentice grade lockpick skill of yours? If you don't want to spend all the coins, at least buy twenty!"
Twenty, that was 2 silver coins. Jack was unwilling, but Peniel's wisdom had already helped him many times, so he submitted to her will. Gritting his teeth, he took out 2 silver coins. "I want twenty of these!" He said to the shopkeeper.
The Shopkeeper grinned and brought out his order. After completing the transaction, he only had 86 copper coins left. He felt like crying.
He then continued his journey to the Adventurers Association. No more detour this time. He went directly to the Bronze Hall inside the Adventurers Association building. He went to a vacant counter which happened to be the same counter he had received his quest from. The same pretty lady was still manning that counter.
"Good day, sir Storm Wind," the lady greeted him before he had the chance to speak. She remembered him. Jack was impressed by the customer service standard. "What can I do for you today?" She asked.
"I would like to report on the quest I took yesterday," Jack said.
She took out some kind of a square crystal tray. "Please put your badge on it," she said.
Jack did as told. The crystal emitted a soft glow that encapsulated the badge and transmitted a humming sound. After the glow dissipated, the lady said to him, "the quest you have completed is higher than predicted, hence your reward had been increased. And thank you for your service, the authority had been informed about the Cult's activity. They are currently already in the process of organizing city squads to hunt down the Cult members for their crime."
That was efficient, Jack thought. He assumed he would have to explain everything that had happened, or write it down like a report or something. But turned out the badge had already recorded everything and could conveniently send the report to the Association through this crystal tray. As he took back his badge, a sound of notification could be heard.
"Congratulations on completing the quest Investigate the Cult of Phobos. Difficulty after review, is C rank, thus rewards are increased. Receive rewards of 3 silver coins, 3000 Experience points, and 30 Adventurer Points."
Once the notification ended, it was followed immediately by another notification, "congratulations on being the first Outworlder to complete a quest. Receive rewards of 10 silver coins and 50 Adventurer Points."
Jack was amazed. So the quest really was C rank, and the reward had increased by a lot, especially the adventurer points, it was ten times than it was indicated before. Added with the additional rewards for being the first person, suddenly his coin shortage problem was solved.
He also received a ton of Adventurer points from being the first person. If he could take another quest like the one before, he would become a Silver Rank adventurer immediately. But after he thought back to the quest, he decided he was not going to gamble on an unknown quest anymore.
It could be said that he had managed to complete the previous one only due to luck. It was only because of Gilbert that he had managed to escape safely from the cult. And Gilbert was there as part of Amy's mother quest. He didn't know if anything would have gone differently if he had not received Amy's quest.
"Don't forget to report your completion on Amy's quest as well," Peniel reminded him.
Jack did so, he got no other rewards except for 5 points of Adventurer points.
For the next quest, he chose a D rank quest. After all, he only needed another 15 points to get to the Silver rank. It was a quest to escort a merchant to the slum, which awarded 8 adventurer points. If he took another two quests like this, he would hit the 100 points mark in no time. And since the authority had taken action on the Cult, they shouldn't be roaming around the slum anymore, so it should be safe for him to return there.
Before he left the counter, he asked the pretty lady to show him items that could be exchanged with adventurer points. The lady took out the previous crystal tray. She did some tweaking on the tray before a holographic list appeared above it.
There were almost a hundred items on the list. The bottom half was mostly consumable items like potions, foods, ingredients. The top half contains equipment pieces, mostly low-level. Those at the top ten were level 10 to 15 equipment, which was mostly used by Bronze rank adventurers, who mostly consisted of adventurers at these level ranges.
At the top of number 1 in the list however, there were another four items to choose from. It was categorized as Exclusive List items.
Technique Book: Fast Slash – 80 adventurer points
Technique Book: Shift Injury – 100 adventurer points
Technique Book: Body Double – 100 adventurer points
Skill Book (stock: 10) – 30 adventurer points
They were all extremely expensive compared to the other items on the standard list. Especially the Shift Injury and Body Double books, he would be a Silver rank already by the time he could exchange for them.
"What's these exclusive items?" Jack asked the lady at the counter.
"It's a list where if you exchange the items, it will be gone from the list," she answered.
"So if I exchange for it, others cannot get the items anymore?"
"That's correct. That also includes you. You cannot take it twice, unless it has stock, as the Skill book here. Once all ten skill books are taken, it will be gone from the list."
"How good are the skills in this technique books?" He asked again.
"I'm sorry. I don't have that information. You will have to exchange for it to find out," the lady replied.
"The Fast Slash is Fighter class advance skill," another lady replied from empty air. "The Shift Injury is Ranger's advanced skill, so you can forget about that one. The Body Double is Magician's advanced skill."
'What about the Skill Book?' Jack asked Peniel in his mind.
"It's for granting you 1 skill point," Peniel answered, then she added, "I suggest you save your adventurer points and use it to exchange for that Body Double skill."