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Zane eventually accepted the quest.

Although the Gray Wolf storyline might no longer hold much practical value, the Gray Wolf Alpha had been the starting point of everything. Without it, he would never have met Elna, and many events afterward would have turned out very differently.

One must know how to be grateful.

Moreover, Zane was particularly concerned about the difficulty of this S-rank quest. No S-rank quest was ever easy. They were riddled with pitfalls and detours, and one careless mistake could end in disaster.

After the Death Knight was defeated, Saintbloom Village experienced a brief wave of silence. But the news quickly spread among the surrounding creatures. If the Gray Wolf Alpha knew about it, then it meant that more than one race had their eyes on that place. There was no way the Gray Wolf Alpha could hold out.

This battle served as a wake-up call for Zane: after level 20, a mage who had learned Pyrestorm could easily solo-kill him. If he were ever overwhelmed by a storm of spells or locked down by crowd control, there would be no chance of survival. He needed to pick up the pace.

***

“Hahaha, our guild finally has a real expert joining us!” Rainflower Drake laughed heartily.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” the man beside him said flatly. “I’m only here to kill that person. Besides, I’m a bit short on funds at the moment. I’ll only be staying here for a month.”

“No problem, no problem. Dream, once you’ve been here a while, you’ll see how great Rainflower really is!” He couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘You think we’d let you leave now that you’re here? Too naïve.’

“Think whatever you like.” FleetingDream couldn’t be bothered to argue. “Where is that person now?”

Although displeased with his attitude, Drake kept smiling broadly. “We’ve already found them. They’re training at the Cragstone Rise north of Mapleblossom Grove.”

“Is that so…”
“Do you want me to provide a party?”
“No need. I can handle it alone.”
“That won’t do. He’s got quite a few teammates. To be safe, take ten people with you!” Drake said cheerfully. “Spark! Where are you?”

“Here, here! What is it, boss?”
“Call three priests, two knights, two mages, and two assassins. You’ll follow his lead.”
“But boss, that’ll slow down our leveling…”
“Stop whining and move!”
“Yes!”

“…” FleetingDream remained expressionless, looking as indifferent as ever.

***

“So… should I use it now?” Seraphine asked uncertainly.

Once the trial certificate was used, she would be teleported to the Trial Grounds and likely wouldn’t be able to return for some time. Without a priest, their party might struggle.

But this couldn’t be delayed. The sooner she advanced her class, the better it would be for their team. Even if she failed, they at least had to give it a try.

“Go, go! Yoyo’s big white bunny can heal too!” Dukeette said with a mischievous grin.

YoyoPink’s face turned bright red as she protested, “No… that’s an Electrobunny!”

“Dukeette!” Seraphine grabbed her ear. “If I’m not around, you’d better not tease Yoyo or Snowy, got it?”

“Ow, ow, ow! What are you saying… it’s not like I’m a child or anything.”

“You are.”

“…” Dukeette took ten thousand points of mental damage.

“Alright, I’m going.” Seraphine stopped hesitating, crushed the trial certificate, and vanished in a flash of red light.

“Yoyo’s healing output isn’t quite enough. Looks like we’ll have to slow down,” Shiu mused.

“…” YoyoPink had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, DumbCitrus was still tinkering with her alchemy furnace. With constant experimentation, her alchemy skills had improved considerably, and her success rate for synthesizing Heartsteady Pill had reached a solid ninety percent.

She was close to reaching Level 4 in alchemy!

The Battlefield Score was a special piece of equipment with no level requirement, capable of enhancing all Bard skills of its corresponding type. Although she had ranked dead last, the reward was far from bad. With this music score, Battle Hymn and Inspiring Chant could both be increased to a 7% bonus.

Of course, it still wasn’t on the level of a Wishkeeper’s buffs. But for her, this kind of Class was perfect, one where she could practically be AFK, leech off the fight, and just wait for the battle to end, all while focusing entirely on her secondary profession.

Come to think of it, she had originally taken up her secondary profession purely to make money from the game. But in reality, not only had she failed to earn a single coin, there were times when she even had to spend hundreds just to gather the necessary materials.

After meeting Zane, however, she no longer had to risk her life collecting materials and had even challenged the terrifying Forgotten Tower. She had even gotten a fair share of equipment and gold.

Truth be told, she was nothing more than a buff provider, any other Bard could have done the same job. And yet these people still split the loot evenly? DumbCitrus couldn’t wrap her head around it.

Were they idiots…? Of course not! Seeing them politely yield to one another gave her a warm feeling inside. This was exactly the kind of gaming atmosphere she loved.

She divided the potions she had synthesized evenly among everyone, without keeping a single one for herself.

With more than four hundred gold in hand, if she sold some of it, her family might finally stop nagging her once they saw she could make money. Or perhaps… she could use all that gold to buy materials for Level 4 potions instead… It was a bit of a dilemma.

DumbCitrus looked up at the blue sky, lost in thought.

Suddenly, she felt the temperature around her rise until it became scorching. Instinctively, she looked ahead. Two surging blasts of Flameburst were right in front of her.

***

Zane arrived at the familiar little stream from before.

The water inside was still as murky as ever. It seemed his purification project would have to be carried out persistently to succeed.

The environment on the opposite bank remained desolate, heavy with a deep darkness, but compared to before, it had improved considerably. This time, he probably wouldn’t need to take a detour.

With Rapid Stride, Zane carried Starry and easily leapt across to the other side. Movement speed really did make a difference.

They dashed across the wilderness. He really couldn’t understand what the Gray Wolf Alpha was thinking. How could wolves live in such a desolate place? They would probably all starve to death.

After a while, a large number of creatures appeared at the edge of his vision. Looking closely, he saw three different forces locked in battle.

There was a group of humans dressed in strange clothing that covered them entirely, leaving only their eyes exposed. There were zombies in ragged, tattered clothes, moving solely on the instinct to attack. And there were giant spiders the size of human heads.

The zombies were likely the remaining original villagers of Saintbloom Village from last time. The humans dressed like thieves and the swarm of spiders were most likely hostile outsiders. The zombies had the smallest numbers, less than ten. The thieves numbered more than thirty. As for the spiders, there had to be over a hundred.

The three sides fought with wild ferocity, turning the battlefield into chaos. Blood, venom, and severed limbs flew in all directions.

At that moment, the fighting stopped at the sight of Starry’s arrival. They all turned to look at the human adventurer, only the zombies continued their relentless assault. It was rather disgusting…

One of the thieves stepped forward, speaking with surprise. “An adventurer?” Then he let out a sly chuckle. “If you help us deal with these monsters, we’ll give you a generous reward.”

“…”

‘These people… look a bit suspicious.’