Chapter 8: Taking Orders

To ensure the game was rich enough in content, the Oracle development studio had added numerous side quests and hidden storylines throughout the game world.

Judging from what Little Ghost had just said, as well as the token they had just discovered, her background was certainly no simple matter.

"Liliya..."

Xia Er opened the forum and searched around, but found only a very limited amount of information.

This Vampire Progenitor did not belong to the Qiyuan Era — she was a creature from a previous age.

That left only one remaining clue: the Blood Clan.

This was a powerful clan living within the Witch of Greed's territory. Blessed with the innately noble bloodline of vampires, they had been superior to most of the Demonic Race from birth — far beyond the reach of a mere border Domain Lord like himself.

Still, that was fine. It was clear that Little Ghost had some troubled history with the Blood Clan, so it was best to keep this matter hidden for now.

With nothing else pressing, Xia Er began exploring the other features of the Oracle Forum.

"Party," "Livestream," "..."

"Hiss — Trading?"

His gaze quickly locked onto that option.

As an NPC, the first two were obviously useless to him. At most, he could watch livestreams to get a sense of how far the top players had developed — but trading, on the other hand...

If he could actually use it, that would be a tremendous help.

[For Sale — [Earth Bear Spirit's Sharp Claw]]

[Price: 3 low-grade Magic Crystals]

[Seller's Note: Early-game Warrior weapon crafting material. No price negotiation. Will trade for [Revival Heart].]

[Wanted — [Undead Bones]]

[Price: 1 high-grade Magic Crystal]

[Buyer's Note: Just need the bones to job-change to Mage. Someone please help a guy out.]

In Oracle, Magic Crystals were the game's basic currency. Every one hundred crystals of the same grade could be combined into a higher-grade crystal — low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and flawless — and they were required for everything from forging to smelting.

Xia Er's domain didn't have many Magic Crystals to speak of, but if he thought about it, there were quite a few resources available — [Undead Bones], for instance. If he remembered correctly, there were at least a dozen piled up in the graveyard.

He continued scrolling down.

[Boss Bounty — Undead Archmage]

[Reward: 1 low-grade Magic Crystal]

[Buyer's Note: Some equipment dropped inside the domain. Message me if interested. Cash payment. Looking for skilled players only.]

Xia Er: ....?

How did he end up browsing the forum only to find himself listed as a bounty target?

Honestly, after scrolling through this entire wall of trade posts, this was the first time he'd ever seen someone put a bounty on a boss.

"Must be the player who dropped that ring earlier."

Xia Er quickly pieced together who had posted the bounty. If his guess was right, the group of adventurers who had suddenly entered his domain earlier had come specifically for that ring.

They really don't give up, do they...

Xia Er couldn't help but furrow his brow.

It had already been five or six days since the servers opened, and there were still a number of top-tier players out there. Xia Er couldn't be sure his current stats were enough to take them on.

He'd need to resort to a few tricks.

After some deliberation, he made his way to Edward's quarters.

Edward's class was also a variant of the Mage — though a considerably filthier one. He was a Plague Mage.

"Lord Xia Er."

Seeing the Domain Lord arrive, Edward set down what he had been doing — fiddling with various specimen corpses arranged around the room — and gave a slight bow in greeting.

Wrinkling his nose at the acrid smell hanging in the air, Xia Er couldn't help but speak up: "Tinkering with specimens again, I see."

"Indeed. A personal hobby of mine."

"Have you made any progress?"

At that, Edward lowered his head slightly. "Apologies. Since our domain has so few living subjects, I've been unable to find any live test subjects. My research into new plagues has not advanced much."

"Lord Xia Er, what brings you here today?"

Xia Er nodded. "I do have something in mind."

He slowly produced a vial. "I need you to seal some plague virus inside this bottle. Can you do that?"

Edward nodded. "It can be done."

He slowly extended his withered arm, a seal forming at the center of his palm. Wisps of brownish toxic mist seeped out from between his fingers, filling the vial completely.

"This is a Rot Magic," Edward explained. "Anyone who comes into contact with the mist will begin to decay from within."

"Excellent."

Xia Er nodded in approval — then immediately produced five more vials. "In that case, please fill these as well."

Edward: ...

"Lord Xia Er, may I ask what you intend to do with these?"

"For the adventurers, of course," Xia Er replied.

Players had all kinds of tricks up their sleeves.

To prevent some unhinged individual from resorting to underhanded methods just to claim the bounty, Xia Er needed to get ahead of them and prepare something in advance.

* * *

Western Continent, Death Forest.

Monster corpses lay strewn haphazardly across the ground, the air thick with the smell of blood.

Dao Shan fixed his gaze on the boss before him. He flipped his dagger in hand — and in the next instant, his figure vanished, flickering directly behind the target. He drove the blade into its heart in one swift, brutal strike.

"Backstab, critical hit!"

Nearly half the boss's health bar evaporated in an instant. The boss crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, and a message appeared in his field of vision.

[Dungeon boss Forest Fiend has been slain.]

A faint smile tugged at Dao Shan's lips. "How about that — solo cleared the dungeon! Did all you Rogue players out there in the stream catch that?"

Comments flooded in immediately.

"666, that was pretty sick."

"Dao Shan's still a beast. So this is what a T1 player looks like, huh?"

"Are the Forest Fiend materials for sale?"

Glancing at the stream chat, Dao Shan nodded. "Selling, obviously."

"Drop me your player ID and throw a rocket my way — I'll sort you out."

As a T1-tier player, Dao Shan's goals were very different from those of the players frantically grinding to push their progress. He had come to Oracle with one clear purpose: to make money.

Oracle had only been in open beta for five or six days, yet through gold farming alone, Dao Shan had already earned more in that time than he had in an entire month at his previous job.

"Hey streamer, did you see that post on the trade forum? Someone's put a bounty on the boss in the Undead Domain — apparently it's some rich lady too."

"Oh really?"

Dao Shan scratched his head at the comment.

Because of his stream, he usually sold whatever gear or materials he dropped directly to viewers on the spot, so he hadn't really been checking the trade market.

"The Undead Domain... I remember that's the dungeon a lot of Mages need to visit to job-change into Undead Mages, right? It hasn't been cleared yet?"

Dao Shan decided to take the job.

Beyond the bounty reward, killing the Undead Archmage would also drop the job-change materials — and that was another tidy sum of money.

Kill two birds with one stone — pure profit!