Berat peeled his eyes open and observed the shady interaction that was continuing to unfold in front of him for several minutes now.
He knew that he had been gravely mistaken. This person wasn't a fool at all. Rather he seemed to be aware of a specific loophole and Berat wanted to know how he could also make use of it.
He waited and watched and waited and watched and eventually the person stopped.
Berat was about to step forward and strike up a conversation when unexpectedly he heard the old woman say something weird.
"Thank you so much, young hero. Because of you, I will not be requiring wolf pelts for another decade."
"What the heck?" Berat ended up shouting out loud. He didn't know for sure but it looked like this particular beginner's quest would no longer be available.
However, no one paid attention to his panic mode. Liam had already started walking away and the old granny hummed contently before tossing out the pelts in front of her, the one that he had brought over.
[Ding. Quest failed. This quest is no longer available. Your reputation in the town drops by 10]
"What the fuck? Are you serious right now!!!" Berat was furious. He looked at the old woman humming happily and felt very frustrated. "Grandma, you… you don't want any more wolf pelts?"
"No, I don't need. Are you here to buy something? If not, don't crowd around the shop. Shoo!"
Ah shit! Berat knew that he was getting this treatment because of the reputation effects, but he couldn't help it and asked the old woman again.
"Granny, how come you didn't check the wares from that young man? I heard a lot of people were selling bad pelts these days!" He swallowed the bitterness in his mouth and spat out the words, pointing to Liam's disappearing figure.
"Mmm. You are right. Young men these days are unscrupulous and always try to take advantage of an old woman like me, but no need to doubt that young hero."
"He had the strong stench of wolves all over him. I knew right away that he had a lot of pelts to give me. May heavens bless that kind hero."
Berat's lips twitched hearing the granny even praise Liam and he then silently walked away. He didn't ask her any more questions as he could roughly guess how the whole thing happened.
The trick to trigger this quest was to probably come to the old woman's shop already having several stacks of wolf pelts. These could even be purchased and not necessarily looted as he had personally witnessed the other party purchasing pelts in bulk.
This was probably why the old woman sensed the stench of wolf on him and treated him differently. Either way, it was now useless for him as the quest itself was no longer available, at least for the day.
Berat, however, did not know if this was just a fluke or if it had been something that was planned and thought out in advance.
He wanted to think that it was the former but such coincidences were too few and he would be crazy to believe that.
This person was probably highly brilliant enough to figure out this loophole or he was a beta tester or someone with more information about the game.
Considering the way that VIPs, actors, and socialites are treated these days, he wouldn't be totally surprised if the other party knew a bit of inside information that wouldn't affect the game on the whole.
"I should definitely talk to this person at least!" Berat became curious and hurried out of the granny's shop to look for Liam and follow him for a while.
He was unable to use this particular loophole but he wondered if there were other fast leveling easter eggs hidden in the town.
This could be a complete waste of time but his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to do it anyway.
"Damn, what level is that guy at now?"
"He at least leveled up four times with just that repeatable quest from the granny and even if he was Level 3 or Level 4 before that, he should be around 10 now."
"Damn, if there are any leaderboards for this game, I bet his name would go upon them!"
Liam's speed was relatively high and so Berat found it difficult to keep up with him. But luckily for him, Liam did not walk for long and soon stopped again at the Trade building in the town.
"What is this guy up to now?"
Berat hadn't yet explored this particular one so he quickly followed Liam in and he heard him talk to the woman at the counter.
"I would like to book a crafting room for four hours."
Several silver coins appeared on the counter and then the woman stood up to personally show Liam to one of the rooms inside.
"Dafuq? Crafting rooms? Don't tell me! He already has recipes?" Berat blankly stared at the guy, but he couldn't follow him any longer.
"Do you need something, adventurer?" Another woman at the counter asked him and Berat shook his head wryly.
He walked out of the trade building empty-handed, but suddenly a small idea popped into his brain. "I should go to the town alchemist and talk to him and see if there is another loophole quest there."
"If nothing works out, I can always come back here after four hours."
Liam comfortably settled inside the small but adequate space and took out all the herbs from his inventory.
He now had enough gold and had also crossed Level 10 so while he was taking care of the miscellaneous things, he also upgraded his inventory to hold 5000 items which was the maximum limit for the system inventory.
To store more items or rarer higher grade items other storage artifacts need to be specially crafted or looted and bound. So he pinned that task for another time.
"Hmmm… Let me see… Basic Healing potion, Basic Mana potion, Basic Stamina potion, Basic Strength potion, Basic Agility potion… It should be enough to start with these five for now."
Liam stacked all the herbs neatly based on which herb was required for each potion recipe.
Since these were all basic potions, simple enough to be concocted by a beginner alchemist, only herbs were involved in the recipes.
Unlike his cleansing potion, they didn't require beast blood or bones or any other items.
Liam then took out the cauldron from his inventory and started the heating by activating the rune on the side.
He pressed his thumb and removed it, once again just using the automatic regulation.
This was more than sufficient for the basic potions and only had the flaw of producing potions with 60 to 70% efficacy.
This number could obviously be improved if he regulated the entire concoction process himself with complete focus and thorough control of mana.
However, he didn't have any shortage of herbs or gold for now so he placed more importance on speed rather than concoction efficiency.
After the cauldron started heating up, Liam added a pail of clean water into it, and in a single batch, he tossed in the entire first stack of herbs. He had already arranged the stalks in an appropriate ratio, so he didn't have to do much else.
He just squatted near the cauldron and swirled the liquid inside using a huge ladle at regular intervals.
Before long, a series of notifications rang loudly.
[Ding: Basic Health potion created]
[Ding: Basic Health potion recipe obtained]
[Ding: Basic Health potion created]
[Ding: Basic Health potion created]
[Ding: Basic Health potion created]
…
…
...
[Ding: Your Alchemy skill proficiency has increased to Trainee Level]
"Alright. Time to move on to the next one." Liam cracked his neck and stood up, to quickly empty the cauldron.
He scooped out the huge amount of basic health potion within the cauldron into several smaller-sized glass bottles and stored them in his inventory.
He then activated another rune on the cauldron which incinerated all the leftover dregs and everything was cleaned out for another fresh concoction batch.
Liam once again heated another pail of clean water and this time as well he threw in a huge stack of prearranged herbs, without bothering to adjust anything.
As he watched the things boiling silently, he couldn't help but lazily smile and lean against the wall. The things that seemed so easy and effortless now had once been a nightmare to him.
As a slave and a weakling, he himself was never allowed to practice alchemy.
However, he was forced to stand near the cauldron and act as a punching bag every time his 'owner' couldn't successfully concoct a potion.
He had been whipped, he had been starved, he had even been held under disgusting piping hot liquid, just as a means for someone else to vent their anger.
The memories of the past flitted past his mind and his smile was no longer lazy or amused. It was rather deeply disturbing. It was like the grin of a grim reaper as he was about to take a soul.
"Not yet," Liam muttered and closed his eyes to calm himself down.
[Ding: Basic Mana potion created]
[Ding: Basic Mana potion recipe obtained]
[Ding: Basic Mana potion created]
[Ding: Basic Mana potion created]
[Ding: Basic Mana potion created]
…
…
...
"Mmm… Smells perfect. Next batch then."
Liam ended up using the next three hours of his four-hour time slot and concocted huge portions of all the five basic potions.
In the end, he even managed to bring his alchemy skill level to intermediate.
Pushing it any higher using just basic potions was near impossible and just a waste of time and resources so he stopped.
"I still have the recipes looted from the dragon's nest. Let me take a look."
[Ding: Chrysanthemum Lethal Poison recipe obtained]
[Ding: Nine-Color Paralyzing Poison recipe obtained]
[Ding: Low-Grade Stealth potion recipe obtained]
[Ding: Low-Grade Water Breathing potion obtained]
"Four special and unique alchemy potions!"
"Oh! This is a great haul."
"Too bad I don't have the ingredients for these yet. Otherwise, I could have leveled the alchemy skill up all the way to master level today."
"Well, whatever. No need to rush things." He had finished everything that he could do here so he packed up the miscellaneous items and left the crafting room.
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