Amid a series of system notification sounds, when David Bolton handed in the twelfth batch of linen cloth, a flash of golden light suddenly shone on him, and he leveled up to level 6. At the same time, the blue exclamation mark above Annie's head disappeared—this repeatable quest could only be accepted by players at level 5.

In less than half a minute, David Bolton shot up another level as if he were flying, while mainstream players were still struggling at levels 2 or 3. Even the lucky ones were at most level 4! There was nothing to be done—there were just too many people, and no one could get to the monsters.

Without stopping, David Bolton left the tailor shop and headed to the village hall, where he found the warrior class trainer, Farion.

“How pathetic! As a shield-bearing warrior, you don’t even have a shield. You truly make me feel ashamed!” This uncle, who looked to be in his early thirties, said to David Bolton with utter contempt, almost spitting on the ground to emphasize his point.

There was no way around it—anyone who reached level 5 and found their class trainer would be mercilessly mocked. For example, if a berserker came to him, this uncle would say: “How pathetic! As a berserker, you’re wielding a tattered weapon. Do you want to be a woodcutter?”

That’s because at this point, players would receive their first class quest, with a reward of a class-exclusive weapon of black iron quality!

“By the War God above, you must be tested before I’ll consider teaching you further!” Uncle Farion still wore a look of disdain as he casually tossed over a slip of paper. “Rookie, go complete what’s written here, or never come back to see me again!”

“Ding! You have accepted the quest: Warrior’s Trial! This is a class quest, must be accepted, cannot be deleted!”

[Warrior’s Trial] (Quest Difficulty: C)

Quest Description: Complete Farion’s instructions! Rookie, become a true warrior!

Progress: Collect iron ore 3/200

Next, it all depended on luck! Iron ore could be gathered by mining yourself or bought from other players. The hard part of the quest was how long it would take to collect all 200 pieces of iron ore!

This was an absolutely infuriating setup. For newbies, how much time would be wasted on this? As a result, the game company soon made an adjustment, reducing the iron ore requirement to 20.

But David Bolton couldn’t possibly wait for such a change. With that much time, he could have already reached level ten or twenty!

What’s more, this quest could even trigger a hidden quest for the warrior class!

Chapter 6: King of the Black Panthers

When turning in the 200 pieces of iron ore, if you happened to have more than 10 pieces of refined iron in your backpack, you could trigger the hidden quest!

Refined iron was a rare byproduct of iron ore, and when mining iron ore, there was a very small chance of also collecting refined iron. How small was this chance? If you were unlucky, you might not get a single piece of refined iron even after mining 1,000 pieces of iron ore!

Of course, there were also refined iron veins, but first, they were extremely rare, and second, they were always guarded by powerful monsters!

Because of such low odds, this hidden quest for the warrior class had never been triggered, until the third year of the game’s operation, when a mining fanatic came along. Every time he logged in, he did nothing but mine, and he stayed in the newbie village for half a year!

As it happened, the class he chose was warrior!

So, this player, with over 100 pieces of refined iron in his backpack, successfully triggered the hidden quest. After stumbling through and finally completing it, he received an “average” rating and was rewarded with: one skill point and a skill book, “Cleave.”

Just a single skill point was enough to make everyone jealous, and when he posted the description of the Cleave skill on the forums, all warriors were moved to tears!

[Cleave]: Attacks all nearby enemies, dealing 100% melee damage to each target. Cost: 20 rage. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Requirement: melee weapon.

Such a powerful area-of-effect skill ended up in the hands of a player who spent all day mining—what a tragedy!

But soon, players realized: if even an “average” rating could yield such generous rewards, what about a “good” or even “perfect” rating? How tempting would those rewards be? Unfortunately, hidden quests were unique, meaning that once someone completed it, no one else could do it again!

Quest ratings came in four types: poor, average, good, and perfect. However, only S-rank quests had quest ratings.

David Bolton first went to the alchemy shop, sold all the miscellaneous items in his backpack, and his money increased to 23 silver coins. He opened the alchemy shop’s product catalog and found the commonly known “red potion,” the basic healing potion, as well as the newbie village exclusive, a trial poison with a permanent purchase limit of one per person.

[Basic Healing Potion] (White, Consumable)

Use: Instantly restores 100 health points.

[Trial Poison] (White, Consumable)

Use: Apply to a weapon, lasts 60 minutes. When hitting a target, has a 30% chance to poison the target, dealing 3 damage per second for 15 seconds, stacking up to 5 times.