The surrounding players were all talking at once. Fortunately, David Bolton had chosen to hide his name, or else he would already be famous by now! Even so, some curious players still used the in-game camera function to record footage of David Bolton fighting monsters, then rushed to the forums to post a thread titled “A Legendary Player Appears: Flawless Monster Kills,” which immediately caused quite a stir.

At this stage, everyone was a newbie, so seeing David Bolton display skills five years ahead of the current game level, how could they not be amazed! For a while, no one knew how many players had made David Bolton their idol!

David Bolton kept taking down wild boars one after another. Although his monster-killing speed was about the same as a five-person team, he was killing them flawlessly, without needing any rest, making him even more efficient! In just seven or eight minutes, he had already killed 10 wild boars. However, since he had only collected 7 wild boar tusks, he had to keep going.

Another five minutes later, David Bolton finally collected all 10 wild boar tusks. He turned in the “Kill Them” quest first, then hurried back to find Farion. Behind him, the other players were already stunned, not even fighting monsters anymore, just watching David Bolton in action.

“Very good, now you can go look for the second type of material!” After giving David Bolton 5,000 experience points, Farion continued to give instructions.

“Ding! Farion has given you a quest: Materials for Forging the Warblade (II). Do you accept?”

After David Bolton accepted, a new entry appeared in his quest log.

[Materials for Forging the Warblade (II)] (Quest Difficulty: C)

Quest Description: A group of Flame Elementals roams Charcoal Valley. The Flame Essence that condenses after their death possesses great power! It’s said that if you leave the village and head straight west, Charcoal Valley is at the end of the road!

Progress: Collect Flame Essence 0/3

Running all over the place!

David Bolton sighed, then followed the quest instructions, heading west out of the newbie village. It took him half an hour to reach a valley shrouded in thick smoke, the ground charred black, with fiery red elemental monsters wandering everywhere.

[Flame Elemental] (Normal)

Level: 10

HP: 500

Because this place was so far from the newbie village and there were no quests pointing here, aside from David Bolton, there were no other players around for now.

Time to start killing!

Chapter 9: Generous Rewards

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the second quest only required three Flame Essences—this didn’t mean the quest was easy!

In fact, it took David Bolton twenty minutes to get the first Flame Essence!

The second Flame Essence dropped pretty quickly, landing in David Bolton’s backpack just five minutes later. But the third one took a whole hour before David Bolton finally managed to get it.

“What bad luck!” David Bolton kept looking at his own hands as he made his way back to the newbie village.

Looking at his experience bar, he had already reached 73% of his current level’s experience, not far from leveling up. After all, he had been killing level 10 monsters above his own level, so the experience gain was considerable.

Returning to Farion to turn in the quest, the uncle generously gave him another 5,000 experience points, then said, “Young warrior, you’ve completed the tasks I gave you again and again, making me think you might actually have some merit! Alright, here is the final material needed to forge the Warblade—the soul of a Frost Giant! Different Frost Giants have souls of varying strength. You can choose which type to challenge based on your own strength and courage!”

“Ding! You can choose one of the following four difficulties to complete the quest. The higher the difficulty, the greater the reward! The four difficulties are: Extreme, Hard, Normal, and Easy. Please choose!”

“Extreme!” David Bolton didn’t hesitate at all and made his choice immediately. Obviously, only the Extreme option would give him a chance to get a “Perfect” final rating!

“Haha, a courageous choice! I hope you have the strength to match it, rookie!” Farion handed David Bolton a crystal-clear stone and said, “Take this Frost Stone and place it at the center of the magic circle in the basement. The circle will activate automatically and summon the Frost Giant!”

“Ding! You have accepted the quest: Materials for Forging the Warblade (III)!”

“Ding! You have received the item Frost Stone!”

[Materials for Forging the Warblade (III)] (Quest Difficulty: S)

Quest Description: Use the Frost Stone to summon the Frost Giant, defeat it, collect its soul, and give it to Farion to complete the final material collection. This quest can only be completed solo. If a second player enters the Frost Giant’s aggro range, the quest will automatically fail.

Progress: Collect Frost Giant’s Soul 0/1

An S-level quest—looks like the final reward is within reach!

The basement was right below the village hall. Following the winding passage, it took David Bolton five or six minutes to reach the bottom. He had always wondered what the basement was for when he played before, and now he finally had the answer.

Torches were lit all around the basement, which was very spacious. In the center of the floor was a very complex magic circle. David Bolton took the Frost Stone from his backpack and placed it into the recessed slot at the center of the circle.

Buzz!