Ye Tianxie stowed the necklace back into his backpack with a touch of regret, turned, and left Fierce Wolf Valley, returning to the novice village.
By now it was close to 8 in the evening, and the novice village was as bustling as ever. Amid the clamor, most of the noise was hawking cries of every kind, and the ground around the village was crammed with all sorts of street stalls.
“Level 3 battleaxe with +7 attack — one more attack than a regular plain-stat battleaxe, just 2 silver!”
“Level 3 top-grade Apprentice Mage robe with +2 Spirit — 1 gold, or trade for Level 3 Steel Warrior gear…”
“Top-grade straw sandals with +3 Movement Speed — 8 silver, no haggling!”
Having spent a whole afternoon killing fierce wolves and blood wolves, with his 10 Luck, the number of equipment pieces in his backpack right now was well over ten, four of them Steel-grade gear carrying decent attributes, and not a single one below Level 5. At this early stage, a single Steel piece was enough to make players scramble for it until heads were bloodied, and if someone could walk by decked out head to toe in Steel gear, they’d instantly become the focus of every eye, drawing the envious, jealous, hateful stares of countless players.
Though Ye Tianxie had a dozen-odd covet-worthy pieces stashed in his backpack, he had no intention yet of setting up a stall to hawk them… To a man carrying the grand sum of over 100 gold, all of that was trifling small change.
Cutting through the crowd, he walked in a straight line up to the novice village chief. Before Ye Tianxie could even open his mouth, the chief, who’d plainly recognized him, brightened at once and spoke first. “Valiant adventurer, we meet again. Your eyes tell me you must have completed the quest splendidly.”
“Yes, village chief. Here are the wolf fangs to prove I completed it.” Ye Tianxie traded the hundred wolf fangs the quest called for to the chief. The chief’s aged eyes narrowed, and he nodded in approval. “Good — you truly are an outstanding brave one. Here is your reward.”
“Ding! You have successfully completed the quest. Reward gained: 1,000 experience, 5 silver, one pair of Level 5 Steel Battle Boots.”
“Thank you, village chief.”
“No need for thanks — this is a commendation for your valor. Heh heh, what a courteous young man.”
“Ding… The No. 60001 novice village chief’s favorability toward you increases by 1.”
Ye Tianxie: “…”
Ugh, this cursed Charm… 20 Charm — a full double the highest value an ordinary player could reach — really was a heaven-defying sort of existence… Ye Tianxie sighed in smug satisfaction, then took the string of glittering purple from his backpack and held it up before the chief. “Village chief, I found this on a blood wolf. Do you know where it comes from?”
The chief lowered his head slightly, and his pair of half-open old eyes suddenly went wide, a stunned expression freezing on his aged face, no response coming for the longest time. At last he reached out a withered hand and pressed it to the purple necklace, his whole body trembling faintly, his voice quavering so hard it was almost impossible to make out: “This… this is… this is the necklace my son wore when he was alive!”
The chief’s reaction gave Ye Tianxie a clue, and that cry — “the necklace my son wore when he was alive” — made the necklace’s origin clear to him all at once. It must have been that when the chief’s son had gone alone to Fierce Wolf Valley back then and met his end there, the necklace he wore had fallen to the ground, then been come by that Mutant Blood Wolf, and finally ended up in his own hands.
The chief clutched the Amethyst Necklace tightly, all but wanting to knead it into his palm, murmuring to himself in a daze, “This was the last gift my wife left our son back then, and the most precious thing in his whole life. Seeing it, I feel as though I see my departed wife and son. I’d thought I would never lay eyes on it again in this life… Thank you, thank you, young man. Thank you for helping me recover what belonged to my son — it’s as if I see once more the valiant figure he cut in those days…”
The chief held the Amethyst Necklace to his chest, his face already streaming with murky old tears. He closed his eyes and, in the stillness, sank deep into remembrance of the distant past and the wife and son who had passed away.
Ye Tianxie said not a word. He knew this old man needed quiet now — and knew, too, that only once he’d finished grieving would he give him the reward for what was plainly a hidden quest.
After a long while, the chief’s eyes finally opened. He wiped the old tears from his face, his expression restored to composure, and clapped Ye Tianxie on the shoulder. “You are not only an outstanding brave one, but a warmhearted one, and I will remember your kindness… I have nothing much to repay you with — let me give you this ring I wore in my younger years. I hope it can bring you a little help on your road of adventure. I look forward to the day you become a true hero and mete out judgment upon those evil demons who bring chaos to the world.”
A plain, unadorned ring appeared in the chief’s hand, and he placed it in Ye Tianxie’s. A faint blue light glimmered dimly on the ring… a ring, an accessory-type piece precious beyond compare, and the blue glow meant… this was actually a Steel-grade ring!
Ancient Ring of Life — Steel-grade. Equip Requirement: None. A ring the No. 60001 novice village chief chanced upon out in the wilds in his early years; its root origin is unknown. Attributes: HP +100, automatically restores 2 HP per second.
Its power, far beyond what Ye Tianxie had expected, left him briefly stunned. He put the Ring of Life on his hand right in front of the chief and said earnestly, “Thank you, village chief. This Ring of Life will bring me a great deal of help.”
“Heh heh, it gladdens me to hear you say so.” The chief nodded slowly, chuckling.
“Ding… You have successfully completed the unique hidden quest ‘The Lost Amethyst Necklace.’ Gained 800 experience, the special equipment Ancient Ring of Life, and +20 favorability with the No. 60001 chief.”
“Ding… The No. 60001 chief’s impression of you has risen to the Heart-to-Heart level.”
In the World of Fate, an NPC’s favorability toward a player also had a tiered ladder to it, roughly: Sworn Enemy (favorability below -100), Gnashing Teeth (below -60), Utter Contempt (below -30), Cold Indifference (below -10), Perfectly Ordinary (-10 to 10), High Regard (above 10), Heart-to-Heart (above 40), Deep Gratitude (above 100), Utter Obedience (above 170), Awestruck (above 250), and Revered as Divine (above 500).
The higher the favorability, the warmer the NPC would be, the more help and guidance the player would get from them, and the more quests they could take on, with the odds of triggering hidden quests greatly raised as well. Conversely, when favorability dropped into the negatives, what the player faced was the NPC’s cold reception, the guidance they got was often malicious guidance, and they might well be unable to take on even the most ordinary of quests. When favorability dropped below -50 for any reason, there was a certain probability of being attacked by the NPC — the lower the favorability, the higher the odds of attack — and when it dropped to -100, the NPC would attack on sight, 100% of the time, every time.
(End of Chapter 24)