Chapter 20: Opposing Quests! - My Basic Attacks Permanently Increase HP

The blacksmith Wang was thoroughly surprised.

He gave Lin Tianhao a long, meaningful look, his expression turning contemplative.

"Very well. Hand over the materials, and you can come back for your weapon in ten hours."

Lin Tianhao handed over all the equipment the quest required to the blacksmith Wang.

Ding. "You have completed Blacksmith Wang's quest. EXP +9,085. Because you have not yet left the novice village, experience cannot be gained and has been forfeited."

Lin Tianhao wasn't bothered in the slightest — he had already known about this from his previous life.

"Adventurer, I can see you are extraordinarily gifted. If you can bring me three more items, I may be able to upgrade your Gold-grade weapon to Platinum-grade."

Lin Tianhao was genuinely surprised. A Gold-grade weapon was already far beyond what players could obtain at this stage — let alone Platinum-grade.

Still, he had a pretty good idea of what quest was coming next.

"What items would those be?" Lin Tianhao asked.

"My apprentice, Elforis, has stolen a precious ore. I've already sent two of my other disciples after him. If you can assist them in retrieving it, I'm willing to use that ore to forge your weapon."

Ding. "Blacksmith Wang has issued you a quest: Recover the Stolen Icefyre Demon Ore."

"Quest Objective: Retrieve the Icefyre Demon Ore, or deal more than 20% of Elforis's total HP in damage during the battle to hunt him down."

"Quest Penalty: None."

"Quest Reward: Unknown."

Lin Tianhao raised an eyebrow. Sure enough — the confrontation quest between Blacksmith Wang and the old village chief had triggered.

This so-called "apprentice betrayal" was actually the old village chief's spy planted beside Blacksmith Wang. Once discovered, the spy had stolen the ore and fled.

On the surface, Blacksmith Wang and the old village chief hadn't openly fallen out yet, so Elforis could only escape into the wilderness.

If another player happened to be lucky enough, they might receive a quest from the old village chief to protect Elforis.

"Understood, Blacksmith Wang. I'll do my best. Where can I find Elforis?"

"My two disciples chased him into the mine to the east. That rat Elforis must be hiding somewhere in there."

Lin Tianhao raised an eyebrow. The mine to the east.

That was apparently the territory of the Level 8 monsters — Stone Beetles.

Even in his previous life, Lin Tianhao had never heard of any strategy guide for that Stone Beetle mine.

Maybe one existed, but it just hadn't been leaked.

Ragnarok was full of hidden maps, hidden bosses, Secret Realms, cave dwellings, and countless other features.

Lin Tianhao knew about some of them, but only a small fraction.

After all, most players kept their Fortuitous Encounters close to the chest — very few were willing to publish their own strategies.

The strategies Lin Tianhao did know about were mostly ones that guilds or corporate consortiums had released to the public after squeezing out every last drop of profit.

Otherwise, they were the kind like the Yellow Weasel or the Twisted Treant — once triggered, a server-wide announcement would go out, and people would trace back who had unlocked it.

"Alright, I'll head to the mine now to find Elforis."

Leaving the novice village, Lin Tianhao made his way toward the mine.

Just then, a server-wide announcement rang out.

"Server Announcement: Congratulations to player Dream Chaser Yanxue for achieving the server's first kill on the Water Arrow Turtle King! All players are encouraged to keep up the great work."

The server-wide announcement for Dream Chaser Yanxue's first kill had barely faded when another one appeared.

"Server Announcement: Congratulations to player Berserker Blade for being the first to obtain a hidden class! All players are encouraged to keep up the great work."

Lin Tianhao let out a quiet sigh. It seemed that some things from his previous life hadn't changed after all.

Berserker Blade had still managed to obtain his hidden class this quickly.

What a shame.

Berserker Blade had decent talent, solid game sense, and good mechanics — but unfortunately, he had chosen his class far too hastily, which caused him to fade into obscurity in the mid-to-late game.

Novice Village. The Mine.

It was an abandoned mine that, left untended for years, had become home to Stone Beetles.

The moment Lin Tianhao arrived, he spotted dozens of Stone Beetles wandering outside the mine entrance.

Stone Beetle (Common): Level 8.

HP: 1,200/1,200.

Attack: 52.

Skills: Armor Break, Stone Shield.

Two deceptively simple skills — yet those two skills alone had driven countless ordinary players to despair.

Armor Break could degrade a weapon's durability. In the early game, where weapons were extremely scarce, that skill made Stone Beetles a massive headache.

Whoosh!

-1,200!

Lin Tianhao loosed a single arrow, and one Stone Beetle was instantly killed.

After clearing the Twisted Jungle and collecting his equipment, his total HP had already surpassed fifty thousand.

On top of that, the Iron-Grade Treant Set added over ten thousand more HP, bringing his total to over sixty thousand.

Even without factoring in the Thunderstrike Bow's attack power, the true damage derived from his HP alone was more than enough to one-shot a Stone Beetle.

Dozens of Stone Beetles — all wiped out in under twenty seconds.

New Stone Beetles began to respawn, but Lin Tianhao paid them no mind and walked straight into the mine.

By his calculations, there should be three NPCs inside — possibly more.

"You?"

The moment he stepped inside, a startled voice rang out.

Lin Tianhao looked toward the speaker with equal surprise.

It was that assassin player — Shadow Kill!

"What? Here to grind mobs?"

Having lost levels repeatedly, Shadow Kill was now only Level 5.

With his stats and combat skills, fighting Level 8 Stone Beetles above his level was still manageable.

"No. I picked up a quest."

"From the old village chief?"

Lin Tianhao's eyes sharpened. "The old village chief sent you here to rendezvous with Elforis?"

Shadow was a little surprised. "You took this quest too?"

"No — I took the one that's the exact opposite of yours. But what exactly is your quest?" Lin Tianhao asked.

"My quest is to retrieve the Icefyre Demon Ore from Elforis and bring it back, and if possible, to help Elforis kill the two NPCs chasing him."

Lin Tianhao raised an eyebrow, a smile spreading across his face.

"My quest is to help those two NPCs kill Elforis and take back the Icefyre Demon Ore."

Hearing that, Shadow was taken aback. "Opposing quests?"

In games of the past, it was actually quite rare to have quests where players were pitted directly against each other like this.

"Yes, opposing quests. But I think there's a way for both of us to come out on top," Lin Tianhao said — he already had a plan forming in his mind.

"What kind of win-win solution?"

"Kill all three NPCs," Lin Tianhao said with a grin.

Shadow was stunned at those words.

"Isn't that a bit too risky?"

"As long as we play it right, it's entirely doable. And besides — it's not two against three. We help Elforis kill the two NPCs first, then turn around and kill Elforis."