Chapter 225 Black Iron Dwarf (Part 1)

The mithril ore vein of the Eastern continent was located in the south west. The size of the map was neither small or large, but was surrounded by lvl50 monsters. With the current level of the players, they could only look on from afar. The area was also full of smoke spewing volcanoes, which caused the air to be scorching hot. If players were not well prepared then they would receive a “heat damage” status which would cause a continuous drop in health.

It was very easy to die before finding a supply camp.

The environment here was harsh and unforgiving with many high level Lesser Demons. This was enough to act as a deterrent for most players.

Ye Ci spent a long time in an attempt to activate the ore vein before finally heading to the nearby supply camp in search of clues. There would usually be a supply camps in a map that are far away from cities such as this. These camps could be set up by NPCs at any location of a map. Finding one depended on a player’s luck when exploring a map. If one was lucky, they would be able to find one quickly. If one was unlucky, then they might have to explore almost the entire map before finding a supply camp.

Naturally, as a reincarnator, it was easier for Ye Ci to explore maps than other players. Once she entered the “Lesser Demons Sanctuary”, she headed straight for the supply camp and opened up a transfer point before exploring the area around the mithril vein.

Unfortunately, even after a few days Ye Ci was unable to make any progress with the mithril vein. Finally, she gave up and returned to the supply camp to see if the NPCs there could provide any clues.

After returning to the supply camp, Ye Ci first had a long conversation with all the NPCs, but depressingly, none of them even mentioned the mithril vein. She did, however, received a number of quests. Although she was anxious to locate the mithril vein, Ye Ci knew that it definitely was not easy for Golden Age to locate the vein in her last life. There must be a way - she just had to find it. What she needed to do now was to take another look around in case she missed any clues.

Since she made up her mind to not give up until the mithril vein was found, Ye Ci decided to first complete the quests. With her current level at lvl60 and her top quality equipment, it was not hard for her to complete the lvl55 quests here, even the ones that require a 3-man party.

It usually did not take long for high leveled players to complete lower levelled quests, and Ye Ci was no exception. The quests that she accepted would have taken a lvl55 player approximately a day or two to complete, but it only took Ye Ci three hours.

Receive quest, do quest, receive quest, do quest. That was the most commonly used method to gain levels. Although Ye Ci was currently at the level cap and was unable to receive any experience, she did receive a number of gold, prestige and other rewards. In the end, Ye Ci did not gain any clues from the NPCs, but if she sold the equipment she received as quest rewards, it would come to a nice sum.

“Oh elf, my friend, I am very thankful for everything you have done for me. My leg has been feeling much better after using the herbs you picked for me.” Ye Ci had completed all but one of the quests received from the NPCs at this hidden village. The only one left was from a female dwarf named Jasmine.

The quests given by Jasmine were all very easy, from picking up rocks to digging up herbs to killing Lesser Demons, but the rewards were noticeably higher than the other NPCs. At first Ye Ci did not notice, but after a few rounds of quests, she discovered the unique existence of this NPC.

Such easy quests but such high rewards was definitely not an overlooked BUG. There must be something more to this. As a reincarnator, Ye Ci was sensitive to these kinds of things. If she still could not pick up these clues even after reincarnating, then it would have been a complete waste of her reincarnation.

Considering Fate’s utterly enormous hidden quest system, Ye Ci was very careful while carrying out Jasmine’s quests. She never skipped the conversation and carefully read each word before deciding on a reply. Ye Ci did not want to miss a hidden quest like this.

“Really? It is my greatest honor to be able to help you.” Ye Ci was full of smiles, and her words were gentle, even bowing slightly towards Jasmine.

Jasmine was a dwarf, but not a stereotypical dwarf. Unlike dwarven players, she was a Black Iron dwarf. The history of the continent contained records that indicated there were three subspecies of dwarves, differentiated by the colour of their skin. One was White Dwarves, the species of dwarven players. Another one was the Black Iron Dwarves with black skin, and the other was called Fire Dwarves, with skin as red as fire.

These three tribes were originally under the leadership of the Dwarf King Mokemoduo, but after his death, the three tribes all wanted to choose one of their own warriors to succeed as the Dwarf King which caused large scale fighting. At last, the dwarves, a race only second to humans, divided into three.

The White Dwarves had always been on good terms with humans, and received the most help from humans in the battle for succession. Thus, the White Dwarves received the best land in the Dwarven territory, and established a close and long lasting relationship with humans, spreading across the four continents. Black Iron Dwarves however, were originally a reclusive kind, and had the smallest population amongst the three tribes. They were the first to be defeated, but their elders signed a ceasefire with the White Dwarves and the Black Iron Dwarves left to explore the furthest corners of the continents. As the last tribe to fall, the Fire Dwarves were not as lucky as the Black Iron Dwarves. The White Dwarves not only occupied all of the Fire Dwarf territory, but also chased them out of the four continents.

This was the main reason that players still had yet to meet a Fire Dwarf on their own continent. However, following the resource pack expansion, the appearance of the Fire Dwarves would cause a surge in the number of exploring players. Of course, this all would happen later. Right now finding the mithril vein was first priority.

Fighting was not in a dwarf’s nature. Although they did not fear it, and could be brave warriors, their interest did not lay in war. They were similar to dragons in that they liked sparkly things such as gems and precious ores. It was because of this that dwarves had naturally solid builds; they were all natural born miners. In the days they did not fight, they lived underground mining various ores and gems. This habit was ingrained in the bones of all three tribes.

Thus, on every continent, if you looked carefully, there would always be a dwarf near a mine among the NPCs.

Perhaps it was because of this that the nature loving elves disdained the dwarves. They believed that the dwarves were covered in a disgusting copper scent. Likewise, the dwarves also harbored dislike towards the proud elves that could only sing and dance. However, they tolerated each other as both races were close allies of the humans.

It was due to the tension between the dwarves and elves that Ye Ci was extremely careful while interacting with Jasmine, neither servile or overbearing, in order to gain the female Black Iron Dwarf’s trust.

“You are the most good natured elf I’ve ever seen,” Jasmine nodded approvingly at Ye Ci. Curling her lip, Jasmine looked in disgust at a nearby sleeping elf NPC, “other elves are so annoying but it seems that there are good elves too.”

Ye Ci would naturally not interfere in matters between NPCs. Smiling peacefully, she only stood to the side listening to Jasmine while not expressing any opinion.

After Jasmine spoke for a while, her stomach suddenly started growling, and embarrassment could be seen on her face.

Ye Ci did not laugh but kindly advised, “You really need to eat a lot to heal when you’re injured.”

“Oh yes, that is indeed true,” laughed Jasmine bashfully, “I am actually quite hungry, but I really don’t want to eat dwarven bread anymore. Do you know how sick I am of eating dwarven bread everyday? I heard that food made by elves is very delicious, i’ve always wanted to try some but never had the opportunity. Can you fulfill this wish of mine?”

“Of course, I am willing.”

This was an open quest. The NPC did not mention what she wanted to eat, but only requested elven food. This range was too broad. In Fate, there were the common recipes for Life skills, but each race had their own secret recipes. Many players only learned the common recipes as their prestige among other races was too low, which made it impossible to learn the recipes of other races. Ye Ci was not an exception. Although she was a reincarnator and knew the importance of having a high Prestige among other races, she did not have the time or energy to do so.

It looked like raising her Prestige would have to wait.

Luckily, the food Jasmine requested was an elven dish. As an elven huntress, cooking was a necessary skill, and Ye Ci had learnt how to cook all of the elven dishes. As the basic requirement was met, it was now just a matter of choice.

It was as they say, life is just suffering a series of consequences as a result of one’s choices.

Ye Ci currently faced this problem. An open quest was actually the hardest, because there was only one chance to make a choice, which would decide the results of the quest. If one chose wrongly, then that would be the end, but if you chose correctly, then there might be a chance to unlock a hidden quest. As a reincarnator, how could Ye Ci not know of the importance of an open quest like this?

After the struggles of her previous life, Ye Ci had experienced over ten thousand open quests, so she was full of confidence and eighty to ninety percent sure her decision was correct.

There was much discussion in the forum regarding the best way to complete an open quest in her previous life. Of course, most people depended on luck, but there were a few players that suggested there was a way to increase the probability of completing an open quest, which was to head to the public library to read books. Naturally, when this method was brought forward, it was mocked.

The library had tens of thousands of books, and it would take someone at least one to two years to finish reading all of them.

Ye Ci also felt this way at first. At that time, she completely relied on luck to complete open quests until she ended up being chased by enemies. As a last resort, she hid in the public library. For the first couple of days, every day dragged on like a year. If she went outside, her enemies would attack, but inside there was nothing but books. After a couple days of this suffering, seeing as there was no chance of leaving, she settled down to read. Once she started reading, she actually stayed for several months. The enemies surrounding the library had all given up on waiting for her to come out, yet she was still immersed in the world of books.

Soon after she left the library. Although she had left, Ye Ci would still continue to go to the public library, as she found reading to be quite an enjoyable activity.

At that time, Fate had been running for four years, and the fourth expansion pack included a famous quest. From the start to the end, there were sixty chain quests, and every one of them was an open quest. If one chose wrongly in any of those quests, they had to start from the beginning. If they had to restart over ten times, then they would have to stop attempting this quest. Once the entire sixty quests were completed, then the player would receive a special reward. Hundreds of millions of players attempted this quest for the reward, but no more than one hundred completed it.

Ye Ci was one of those hundred. Not only that, but she was the only one who did not make an incorrect decision for any of the quests. The reward was naturally abundant, however, Ye Ci relied not on luck, but her knowledge gained from the long hours spent reading in the public library.

It was in this quest that Ye Ci discovered the importance of the books in the public library. It was so overwhelming that it could be called a BUG of the game. The public library held records of all the questions on the continent, from geography to culture and history. It even included records of all the races, development and finalisation of skills, just to speak of a few. Any problems that a player may face was all in the library. It was a shame that no player had discovered such a huge BUG before.

Was it perhaps because players were too absorbed in playing the game that they lacked a passion for books? Or was it because no one could continue after being faced with such a large sea of books? Every spare moment Ye Ci had, she always went to the library to read.

This might be how she became a walking encyclopedia of Fate.

Hiya minna-san! This awesome chapter is brought to you by Aang! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

How's everybody doing? I hope you people are doing fine as usual! This has been a busy week for me so far.. 3 presentations in a row and a couple of assignments that we have to submit (and somebody screwed up in one of our assignments, we had to do it from scratch) Damn I'm glad that everything's settled now, and I can have like 2 weeks worth of breather before finals start.

Seriously though... University students in Malaysia in general have a poor mastery of the English language . I'm not saying that I'm good, but most of my course mates are bad. Really, really bad! You might even call them trash! And then you have those plebs who thought that they're good, but are actually garbage... I had someone insulting me for speaking in singlish/manglish in our group chat (it's a group chat for crying out loud! I do my assignments with like Grade A English that will impress your English teachers!) Let me quote that asshole, "What language is that for you to speak it that way?" Seriously... If I ever get Band 6 in my MUET, I'm gonna print that shit out, frame it, and slap his arrogant face with it. (Oh yeah, that insult came from a guy who had to ask me how to spell "continuously" correctly! What a massive cunt!)

Alright, that's all for the rant! (Do people even read my TL notes? Lol) Don't forget that we have a teaser next page! First in the comments type: FIRST BLOOD!