Checking my inventory, I saw that the 50 wolf teeth had already been collected. All three quests were complete, and my equipment was running low on durability. I nodded and led Lu Xuehan back toward the village. By now, she was fully capable of soloing level 9 monsters, which meant our leveling speed was about to increase dramatically.
Lu Xuehan returned to her own village to turn in her quest, while I went back to mine to do the same.
"Young man, did you get rid of all the wild dogs around the village? Goodness, you actually did it! Please accept this reward as a token of our appreciation!"
"Ding!"
System Prompt: You have completed the village defense quest. You gained 1,200 experience and 10 silver coins! Reputation +10!
Damn, that's a lot of experience and cash! And reputation too, though that didn't matter much. What I wanted was money, cold hard cash!!
I headed over to Ah Hua's place on the west side of the village and handed over the 10 tomatoes.
"Oh heavens, you really picked the tomatoes back! Thank you so much, brave Warrior. Here is your reward!"
"Ding!"
System Prompt: You have completed the tomato-gathering quest. You gained 2,800 experience and 40 silver coins! Reputation +20! As the only player to complete this quest, you have received a special reward item: Ah Hua's Homemade Tomato Paste ×30!
Ah Hua's Homemade Tomato Paste: Restores 100 health over 30 minutes, with a recovery rate of 3 health per second!
Looking at this stack of 30 tomato paste jars, I was so overjoyed I didn't know how to contain myself. Precious healing items! Even though 3 horsepower per second wouldn't amount to much in the later stages of the game, right now it was an absolute lifesaver and grinding aid for beginners!
Suppressing my wild excitement, I headed back to the village chief's house. This was the place to hand in the wild wolf teeth, and I wondered what surprise awaited me here.
The chief stroked his white beard, carefully scrutinizing the wolf teeth I pulled out before speaking with visible emotion: "Young man, you actually pulled it off! From now on, the villagers can go back up the mountain to work. You truly are a savior sent to our village by the Upper Gods!"
I managed to keep myself from mentioning that the wolves on the mountain would respawn eventually. At that moment, the chief continued: "Young man, to show our gratitude, I shall give you the heirloom of our town's late defense captain—the brave Warrior Aimei. I hope you can fulfill his dying wish: go and eliminate the Wild Wolf Valley leader so the villagers can finally have peace of mind!"
A follow-up quest?
Ha, jackpot!
"Ding!"
System Prompt: You have completed the Bloody Counterattack quest. You gained 10,400 experience and 80 silver coins! Reputation +30! You received the item: Soldier Armor!
Quest Accepted: Aimei's Dying Wish! (Unique)
Congratulations, your level has increased to 9!
Surprises just kept coming. I didn't even have time to check my level before pulling out the new gear.
[Soldier Armor] (Green Equipment)
Defense: 22
Stamina: +4
Strength: +3
Required Level: 8
Whoa! This armor was incredible. Not only was the defense stat terrifyingly high, but the bonus attributes were fantastic—it was practically tailor-made for melee classes! Right now, you couldn't find a single person in the entire village wearing green gear, yet here I was wearing three pieces of it all by myself. If anyone saw this, they'd die of envy. Realizing this, I figured it was best to steer clear of crowded areas anyway. Not that I liked noisy places in the course of things; operating alone suited me just fine.
I immediately put on the armor, and the whole outfit instantly gave me a much sharper look. I dumped all my newly gained stat points into strength, and my personal attributes damn near blew my mind!
Qingcai Baiyutang
Level: 9
HP: 304
Attack: 30–48 (Beast Sword 7–12)
Defense: 43 (Soldier Armor +22)
Reputation: 60
Luck: 0
……
What more is there to say? Two words: totally badass!!
Next, I checked out the newly accepted quest:
[Aimei's Dying Wish]
Quest Details: Fulfill the dying wish of Defense Captain Aimei. Slay the Gray Wolf Leader in Wild Wolf Valley and bring back its head to the village chief!
……
After wandering around the village for a bit, there was nothing left for me to do. It seemed the ultimate quest of this newcomer village was to kill the Gray Wolf Leader.
I got all my gear repaired, which cost me 2 silver coins. No big deal, though—with my massive fortune of 2 gold coins, I didn't even care about a mere 2 silver. I just wondered if that girl Lu Xuehan had enough money to repair her equipment. But since we had killed so many monsters earlier and split all our earnings evenly, she should easily have around 50 silver coins on her!
Setting off for Wild Wolf Valley once more, Lu Xuehan and I had agreed to meet at the valley entrance. When I arrived, sure enough, she was already waiting there obediently.
"Let's move out, time to continue the quest and take down the Gray Wolf Leader!" I declared, full of spirit.
Lu Xuehan looked at me in confusion: "What Gray Wolf Leader? I don't have any quests left?"
Suddenly I remembered that this follow-up quest was unique. The system probably assigned it automatically to the first person who turned in the previous quest, and Lu Xuehan hadn't been the first to hand hers in!
Fearing she might feel hard done by, I quickly said, "Oh, it's nothing much. I picked up a quest that requires me to push deeper into the forest. You can hang around here and solo the level 9 monsters for a bit; your leveling speed shouldn't drop off."
"Okay, be careful."
I nodded, watching Lu Xuehan head toward the level 9 monster zone, while I walked deeper into the forest myself. The quest description mentioned that deep at the end of Wild Wolf Valley, the Gray Wolf Leader made its lair—the very beast commanding its underlings to seize the villagers' land and slaughter their livestock.
"Beep, beep," a chime rang out. Someone was calling me again. I opened it up to find another message from Xinyu:
"Little lover, I'm getting a bit sleepy, going to bed now. Make sure to call me when dinner's ready~"
I immediately fired back a reply: "Crap, Big Sis, do you really need to report things like this? At this rate, are you going to notify me every time you change your sanitary pad?"
Xinyu opened the comms channel and laughed. "Don't get mad, don't get mad. I was just teasing you because I figured leveling up was getting boring. Don't be so petty."
"Whatever. Just tell me what you actually want. I'm doing a quest here and I'm very busy!"
"Well, nothing much really, except I really am going to sleep. Remember what's happening after dinner, though. See you there, BYE~"
"Bye~"
Speechless, I calmed my nerves. The forest ahead was growing increasingly dark, and the faint sound of wolf howls echoed through the trees.
After pressing on a bit further, I finally reached an open patch of land. My field of vision instantly brightened, and the sky began to clear up—another sunny day.
In the distance, a pack of gray wolves was gathered together, moving as a group. These gray wolves were noticeably larger than the level 9 ones, and their fur was a much paler shade of gray.