Chapter 225 Black Iron Dwarf (Part 2)

For someone who had so loved reading in her previous life, it was shameful that after reincarnating she had not even stepped foot in the public library. All the things that she knew now was from devouring books, so she decided that, after everything has been settled, she would go to the public library more often.

Faced with her current dilemma, Ye Ci was not at all worried. As soon as Jasmine requested an elven dish, she already knew what she would choose. Of course, the public library did not provide the answers to open quests, but players could deduce the answers from details found in the public library.

For example, dwarves were a race that loved good food and good wine. Dwarves also were not great hunters, but loved to eat meat, the rarer the meat, the more they loved it. The food most hated by the dwarves was dwarven bread, because this was the only food that they could make. After eating the same thing for thousands of years, anyone would be tired of it. The favourite city of the dwarves was the Bulan town in the South continent, not for the beautiful scenery, but for the Bulan beer made from Bulan wheat.

These were only a few of the things mentioned in the public library.

After connecting all the dots together, players could easily deduce the most appropriate choice for open quests.

Based on Ye Ci’s knowledge of the dwarves and Jasmine’s request, she quickly found the most appropriate dish among elven food - Dragon Meat braised in Western Wine.

Of course, the dragon meat in this dish was dinosaur meat, not the dragons that flew in the sky.

There were many ingredients required for this recipe, which included fifty year old red wine from West Ireland, quality dinosaur meat, cumin from Champion City and the secret spice of the Elves. It was not easy to get a hold of these ingredients.

To prepare such a dish, Ye Ci had to fly all the way back to Champion City and traversed across many maps. She even had to contact Fluttering Red Feather from the Southern Continent to quickly send over a couple bottles of Bulan Wine.

After a whole three hours, Ye Ci finally presented her Braised Dragon Meat in Western Wine and five bottles of Bulan beer to Jasmine.

Even with the dish covered, Jasmine could still smell the enticing aroma of the food, “it smells so good, so good!”

“Please eat. This is one of the specialities of the elves.” Ye Ci placed the dish in front of Jasmine and took off the cover. Immediately, a rich fragrance was released. Jasmine breathed in strongly with closed eyes, not wanting to let go of even the smell of the dish. Her face became red, almost as if she was drunk off the scent that was released. Ye Ci was fifty percent certain of her choice now - the other fifty percent would have to wait until Jasmine finished eating.

Dwarves were quite a speedy race. When faced with delicacies, they would not take their time eating it like humans or elves; they would shove it into their mouth as fast as they could. To dwarves, slowly savoring the taste of food or wine was just a waste of time, time that they could be spending on searching for gems. Thus, it did not take long for the large plate of Dragon Meat Braised in Western Wine in front of Jasmine to disappear into her stomach, as well as the five bottles of Bulan beer.

That speed of eating as almost as fast as a tornado.

The speed at which Jasmine ate took Ye Ci by surprise. It took her a whole three hours to make the dish, yet this NPC took less than five minutes to eat it. What a waste of good food!

“That was so so so great!” Jasmine could not stand up due to her leg injury, but waved her hands excitedly. It was obvious that she was very happy. What followed was the line that Ye Ci had long waited for, “I must share such delicious food with my friends! I have a good friend called Dudu. He’s currently at the west side exploring the mine. Could you take a portion to him as well?”

“Of course.” Ye Ci stood up and accepted the quest. It was lucky that she had the foresight to make five portions of the Dragon Meat Braised in Western Wine, otherwise she would have had to waste another three hours.

Ye Ci was very happy. From Jasmine’s satisfied expression, it was clear that she had chosen the best answer this time. Jasmine would have given a reward no matter what elven dish Ye Ci made, but choosing the best answer would result in a bigger reward. Such was the charm of Open Quests.

This time Jasmine did not give Ye Ci any rewards but directly told her to find another NPC. This was abnormal for a NPC that normally gave out bountiful rewards. This abnormality showed that the player had found a critical point for the next quest. If a player did not find this critical point, then they would most likely receive gold or good equipment.

Compared to gold or equipment, Ye Ci was more interested in the continuing quest. She said goodbye to Jasmine and headed towards the mine on the western side of town. In the map Lesser Demon Sanctuary, there was more than one mine, and after the past couple days of exploration, Ye Ci knew the area like the back of her hand. She also knew that there was no NPC in the western mine.

The moment that Jasmine told Ye Ci to find Dudu must have signified the appearance of a new NPC.

Ye Ci quickly arrived at the western mine, and saw a black skinned Black Iron Dwarf inside the abandoned mine who was dripping with sweat. Ye Ci walked towards him and said a friendly greeting, “hello, dear dwarf.”

The Black Iron Dwarf named Dudu turned around to see a tall elf standing next to him, and a look of disgust appeared on his face, “go away you annoying elf. I’m not of those hypocritical White Dwarves. Quickly get out of my sight, otherwise you’ll face my hoe.”

It looked like although Ye Ci had gained Intimacy with Hasmine, it did not extend to Dudu. Thus, Ye Ci took out the Dragon Meat Braised in Western Wine and said, “my friend, don’t be angry. I’m Jasmine’s friend and I’m bringing you lunch today on her behalf.”

“What? You’re Jasmine’s friend? How could Jasmine have an elf friend?” Although Dudu’s words were harsh, it lacked the anger and stubbornness of just a moment ago after smelling the fragrance of the Dragon Meat Braised in Western Wine. He sat down to eat, while also drinking some of the Bulan beer.

The alcohol quickly numbed Dudu’s consciousness, and after Dudu finished eating, his attitude towards Ye Ci had completely changed. Not only did he become brothers with Ye Ci, he also started drunkenly talking, “I’m telling you, elf, I actually don’t want to come to this kind of place to explore at all. Look, I’ve been to all these mines but there aren’t any treasures at all.”

“Treasures?”

“Did Jasmine not tell you? We came to this place in the middle of nowhere to find precious ores. I don’t know where Jasmine heard that there was a precious ore here, but she dragged me with her to this place. We’ve stayed here for a month, yet there’s no precious ores at all. Actually, I’ve barely found anything. Do you think I was lied to?” grumbled Dudu drunkenly.

Ye Ci was silent. Black Iron Dwarves loved digging the most out of the three tribes. They were not like the White Dwarves that liked to mingle with humans, nor were they battle hungry like the Fire Dwarves. They had placed all of their energy on mining. Traces of their mining could be seen all over the continents. Now Dudu said that he and Jasmine had come here to find precious ores. Ye Ci was sure that they were searching for mithril.

Which is to say, this Dudu was most likely to be an important NPC in her search to open the mithril mine.

Once she got to this point, Ye Ci almost could not hold back her happiness. She breathed in deeply to control her emotions, and calmly said “maybe the legend is real.”

“A pack of lies,” cursed Dudu. Ye Ci found this point strange; players that cursed would have their words censored, but she had not heard of a NPC who cursed. This Dudu really was unique. “Do you think we’re the first people to come here searching for precious ores? Before us there were many tribesmen that had come here, but none of them returned. This place is so dangerous with Lesser Demons everywhere, I really don’t want to stay any longer.”

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Right now, Dudu was full of conflicting emotions regarding searching for the mithril vein. Although Ye Ci was a bit anxious, she did not dare to mollify him, but could only agree with him until they found an answer.

“Oh elf, my good elf, you are the best elf I’ve ever met. You are good friends with Jasmine, so can you tell her to not make things hard for me. I don’t want to stay in the middle of nowhere anymore,” said Dudu pitifully.

This was a messenger quest. Although it was just passing a message, it was the only way to continue. Ye Ci headed back to the town to and became the runner between the two NPCs.

After who knows how many messages, Jasmine finally sighed, “my friend, it looks like Dudu really doesn’t want to find the treasure. Do you think you could find a clue to persuade Dudu? The clan leader is my grandfather, I believe that he definitely would not lie to me. There must be treasure here.”

“No problem. Leave it to me.” Ye Ci almost shouted in joy. She had spent over eight hours on these two dwarves but finally found a clue to finding the mithril mine. This was basically telling here that as long as she found the clue, then she could finally open the mithril mine.

Ye Ci rode Ol’ Four across the Lesser Demon Sanctuary as quickly and silently as a ghost. As the name described, the most common monster here were Lesser Demons.

Lesser Demons were the lowest ranked among the demons, but that did not mean they were easy enemies. They did not have much HP but instead had ranged attacks such as magic flames and magic explosions. This meant that two Lesser Demons could easily kill a lvl55 warrior with high health.

Ye Ci was already lvl60 but she was still extremely careful around these monsters. As both sides were long range attackers, as long as she wasn’t surrounded, getting rid of the Lesser Demons was no problem. Ye Ci wandered around the mithril mine, anticipating being able to find a clue. However, what awaited her were those same black mountain rocks.

Was she wrong?

Seeing as there were no clues next to the mine, the next step was to take a step back and look further away. Ye Ci started searching a distance away from the mithril vein and not long after, she found an important clue.

There was actually a dying Black Iron Dwarf amongst between the rocks. It was obvious from the white in his beard that this dwarf was quite elderly. He laid there, mumbling, “I’m so thirsty, I’m so thirsty...”

Ye Ci immediately took out a cooling Spring Water from her bag and placed it next to the Black Iron Dwarf’s lips. As if he had sensed the moist air, he grabbed it and started guzzling it down. It did not take long for the dwarf to completely finish it.

“Are you feeling better?” asked Ye Ci somewhat impatiently. When she previously explored this area, this NPC did not exist at all. Evidently, he was linked to the quest, but from his current state it looked like he could die at any minute.

“It was actually an elf that saved me, what a joke,” said the dwarf tiredly.

“I am the friend of the Black Iron Dwarf Jasmine. They came here to find a precious ore, but couldn’t find any clues. I was sent on her behalf to help them. You can trust me.”

“Jasmine? The tribe leader’s granddaughter?”

Ye Ci remembered that Jasmine did mention she was the granddaughter of the Black Iron Dwarves’ tribe leader, and nodded, “Yes that’s her.”

“How long has it been that Jasmine is all grown up already? She’s even old enough to find treasure now.” This Black Iron Dwarf slowly let out a deep breath, “you must be a good elf if you have earned Jasmine’s trust. Elf, I do know the secret behind the mine, and even drew a map, but…”

Hiya minna-san! I finally have the time to post a chapter DX Been through 4 exams, have 2 left, with exams ending at 27th this month.. Goddamn this semester was sort of tough... Hope I could pass the subject I just had yesterday though... *sigh* I have no expectation...

So yeah... See you guys next week! 27th!

Don't forget that we have a teaser next page! First in the comments type: FIRST BLOOD!