Bazaar street, Movelon town.
"Hey, are you gonna stay here forever?"
"Another apple, please."
"…That'll be two coppers, sir."
Seojin was hiding in a fruit store, chewing on an apple as red as a rose. He'd been peeking out from behind a fruit stand for the last two hours, and had already devoured more than a dozen apples. Verdo, the shopkeeper who seemed uncomfortable at first, also seemed to be curious now.
"Hey…"
"I'm sensing something."
Seojin pulled his eyes away before Verdo said anything else.
"You're Verdo, right? Can I ask you a question?"
"…A question?"
Seojin knew he caught Verdo off-guard. Even if it wasn't by too much.
This was according to Seojin's intention. Going straight up to him and asking for information would only arouse suspicion, so he decided to manipulate Verdo into lowering his guard instead, he didn't say anything and just kept buying apples over again and again.
"I'll ask one more question and then I'll buy some more apples."
"Enough about apples."
Verdo approached Seojin and squatted down to his level. He seemed like a good man.
"Let me ask you something first. You keep fooling around here and there so I don't think you're a wanted man. What are you, a secret society agent or something?"
"I'm not."
"Don't worry, I'll take it to my grave. Are you sure that you aren't? Are you a spy from the palace or something?"
'Yeah, he's definitely the type of guy who wants to escape from his boring reality.'
Seojin shook his head. "I just told you that I'm not."
"Tsk."
"You just clicked your tongue. I heard it."
Now they were talking like old friends.
'This guy's an active NPC too.'
Seojin tried to feel him out.
"Can I ask you a question now?"
"Go on."
"Over there, Mr. Ferguson. Is he always like that normally?"
Seojin pointed toward the smithy, which belonged to Ferguson, the only blacksmith in Movelon and the focus of the quest given to him by Neraid.
"Oh, that guy. I'm not sure. I don't think he used to be like that… You know, I think he's gotten worse these days."
"What was he like before?"
"Kind of a master, a true blacksmith, that's what I felt. He usually wasn't a difficult character unless you messed with his stubbornness."
"Well…"
"Well, yeah, he's always like that these days. I think it's been around a month now."
Verdo shrugged and pointed toward the blacksmith with his chin. Ferguson was standing toe to toe with another random player.
"That's it? Nothing more?"
"It's an appropriate reward for what you did. Now back off."
"I brought you two iron ores and you call this my reward? You know I deserve more!"
"I gave you the information, and you used my pickaxe. Get out of here right this instant or I'll make you talk with guards!"
"What?!"
As the conversation heated up, Ferguson brought a bucket of water and poured it to the player.
"Guards! There's a thief here! Get him!"
The poor player froze for a moment before spitting on the ground and turning on his heels to flee.
'Damn it, what kind of NPCs act like that?!'
'Hmph… shameless bastard!'
'Wow, you really are a grumpy grandpa, I'll give you that one.'
Ferguson didn't budge an inch.
Verdo was right. A typical, proud craftsman—that seemed to describe Ferguson perfectly.
Usually, Seojin wouldn't go beyond that, but something suddenly changed his mind. That 'something' must have been the problem mentioned in the quest.
'Let's see… in his walkthrough.'
Click.
Seojin opened the community window to see Robert's guidelines.
I know he's a dick, but there's nothing we can do about that. Just cut your losses and go straight to the next quest. You'll only get stressed out from dealing with such a grumpy old man, so…
'In a nutshell, let it go and move on?'
Seojin grinned. His blood was boiling. It would be hard to let such a good challenge go…
"Hey, quit laughing like a psycho and go now if you're going to do it."
"What?"
"Old man's soft now, so don't miss your chance."
"…Soft?"
Seojin tilted his head. Was that even possible?
Verdo pointed with his chin again. "See for yourself."
Seojin stared at the old man. Ferguson was stood still in front of the smithy. He closed his eyes for a while, opened them again, then gazed at the weapons displayed.
The emotion in his eyes, to Seojin's surprise, was care and love, mixed in with a bit of worry.
'…What?'
He could've easily missed the sight if he didn't pay attention.
Seojin had only been paying attention to Ferguson's conversation.
If it wasn't for Verdo, he wouldn't have had a clue.
'…But why?'
Seojin looked at Verdo in both curiosity and awe. But the shopkeeper just waved his hands in annoyance.
"We can't talk sense into that old man anyway. He just won't listen to us. I'd rather bet on a guy like you who's never met him before."
"…"
"No wonder old Neraid asked you. I wish there were more dudes like you out there…"
"Then other adventurers…."
"They were all the same as the last guy. They just babble and scream about things they don't know. Kids these days… tsk. Anyway…" Verdo's lips twitched as if he was a little embarrassed. "You are the first to try and understand the old man."
Seojin's jaw dropped. His suspicions were correct.
'Robert, you sly son of a…'
Of course, Movelon wasn't the only starter town. It still didn't make sense that Seojin was the first. There must have been countless players who started out here, and of course, there would be other players who were just as skilled as Seojin.
Nevertheless, apparently, this had never happened before.
'That guy wrote the walkthrough like that after all…'
Players would be greeted with a new start when they start the game. Being in an unfamiliar environment, they were more likely to seek out guidelines for even the most basic of tasks. It didn't help that the most "authoritative" person amongst them wrote the walkthrough too, there was no reason not to follow it.
'If that's the case…'
He had to ditch all the guides and information. Even the smallest prejudice would be dangerous. He needed a clean slate and play the game like when he played Asgard.
'I guess it's a good thing that I found this out early.'
As Seojin was thinking, Verdo opened his mouth.
"Three, eleven."
"What?"
Verdo chinned again.
"See the weapons on display? Let's number them and call the first on the far-left number one. You see numbers three and eleven, right? The longsword and the battle axe."
"Yeah, I see them."
"It looks like he cherishes those two the most. I don't know why, though… that's all I can tell you."
"Oh…"
Seojin was blessed with some unexpected information.
At this point, it was clear. Shopkeeper Verdo, the one who had kept a closer eye on Ferguson than anyone else, was the key to solving the quest.
It was time to get down to business.
"Hurry up and go. Clock's ticking."
"Thank you."
Seojin bowed to Verdo and left the store immediately. It only took ten steps to reach the smithy.
'Number three and number eleven… an unexpected problem for a blacksmith from the capital city… players have been ruffling his feathers too…'
Finally, after examining the situation, Seojin carefully spoke, "Excuse me."
Ferguson simply looked back at him with a cold stare. He didn't say anything, but Seojin didn't care and waited for a response.
Ferguson soon spat out, "Grab the pickaxe beside me. Dig up some iron ore up from the mountain outside the south gate and come back here."
Quest Changed
Movelon's blacksmith, Ferguson, demands iron ore.
Objective: Mine an iron ore and bring it back to Ferguson.
Default Reward: One piece of crude iron ore.
It went down just as Seojin expected. The other players probably got the exact same thing.
It was clear that if he just did as he was told, he'd meet the same result as the guy before him. There was no time to worry though.
"If you're done, bugger off."
"…I'll be back." Seojin stepped away quietly.
Right now, number three and number eleven didn't matter at all. Bringing them up now would be the dumbest move as Seojin would anger him no matter what he did. His priority was setting up the optimal circumstances for Ferguson to lower his guard.
Seojin had to appeal to the blacksmith that he wasn't the same as other players and really could solve his problems.
"First of all, that quest was fake from the start…"
Neraid had asked him to solve Ferguson's problem. Look at how that had turned out. This Ferguson guy demanded that players do a chore for him, even though the item he asked for was a trivial one.
Currently, the conditions were nowhere near good enough for him to be able to solve the problems of the craftsman.
"I think this is similar to catching squirrels, in a way…"
Seojin scratched his chin. His reasoning for that was Ferguson's attitude.
"This is the reward for what you did."
"Guards! Look at the crook here! Get him!"
"You shameless bastard!"
He wasn't trying to rip the players off, Ferguson genuinely seemed to believe his own words.
'Maybe it's the quality of the ores… maybe the ones that the others brought him were low quality. I'm sure it was the same for most of the players.'
That was his only guess.
All that was left now was to dive in head first.
* * *
The base of the Iron Mountain was just outside the south gate of Movelon. Inside the mine, there were plenty of other users chipping away at veins of iron.
Similar to the north gate, which had a hunting area for beginners, the south had a mining district for new players.
Ore veins protruded out of every wall, which could be mined by players by slamming a pickaxe on it.
"Damn it! What's wrong with the drop table?!"
"Come on, out with it already!"
Disappointed yells and groans were echoing around the mine.
'For some, it only takes twenty minutes, for others, it can be more than an hour.'
Seojin watched the other players for a while as he thought. He was calculating the time it took for each user to get one iron ore. Melee or Warrior classes handled it quite quickly, but Wizards seemed to take about three times longer.
'Since it's mining, STR and DEX will play a crucial role. For me it'll probably take around two hours.'
Seojin shrugged. He couldn't do anything about the fake stat issue, in fact, it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway. Two hours would be painful, but it wasn't unbearable.
The real problem here was the quality of the iron ore.
Crude Iron Ore.
This kind of quality wouldn't be anywhere near good enough to satisfy Ferguson. How would Ferguson reward him if he turned up with this second-rate ore? Probably with a bucket of water over his head.
"No, the ore around here won't get me anywhere."
He carried on walking. and headed further into the mine. The deeper he went, the fewer players could be seen.
Given that the highest concentration of users was in the initial parts of the mine, it was clear that they didn't take this quest seriously.
"I understand that, too…"
It took at least thirty minutes on average to mine one piece of crude iron ore. It wasn't even guaranteed that he'd be able to get a higher grade if he brought Ferguson something of better quality.
However, Seojin didn't want the quest to end just like that. Ferguson was a master of his craft.
Only two things could touch the heart of such a man: talent, or effort. He either had to show enough talent for Ferguson to want to teach him or show enough effort to move his heart.
Seojin had no talent.
"I have to go with quantity or quality…"
Seojin continued to ponder, his pace never faltering. He gradually went deeper into the mine until there wasn't a single user around. He guessed it would remain that way even if he went even deeper.
'Let's go to the end first.'
Seojin strode even faster, constantly glancing between the walls on the left and right.
He spent an hour trekking through the mine like that.
'Wait a second.'
For the first time, Seojin stopped walking as a strange feeling overcame him.
'The color looks slightly different here…?'