Forsyx stood before the old man as the butcher examined one pig piece after another.
This time, he was much stricter, and he even rejected a lot of meat pieces.
He almost got the pair of four pieces—it was just the rib pieces that were super tricky.
The old man had already rejected two out of the three, and right now was examining the fourth piece.
Heck, like before, killing the creature was super easy, but the greatest challenge for him was processing the carcass.
It took a lot of time.
The old man kept frowning as he continued to turn around the piece, and Forsyx thought the old man was about to reject it, but he placed it next to the passed pieces.
The much-awaited notification popped up in front of him.
Ding!
[You have completed the Butcher Hunting Quest II.]
[The old butcher is satisfied with your work and gives you the butcher knife as an additional reward.]
[Do you want to take the normal reward and exit the chain quest, or would you like to proceed to the third quest?
(Note: Irrespective of your choice, you will get an additional reward.)]
Forsyx just rolled his eyes.
The additional reward of a trash-grade knife was at most worth 50 copper coins.
It was not even half the value of the penalty he'd have to pay in case of failure.
He could already imagine a chunk of the player base ending up paying these NPCs even while working for them. This was like those scams in which an employee was required to pay their employer in order to be hired.
Well, it didn't matter to him, as he said to the old man, "Sir, do you have any other task for me?"
The old man stared at him and nodded his head.
Ding!
[Chain quest!!!
Quest: Butcher's Hunting Quest III.
Quest Rank: D.
(Only players with level 10 or less can take part.)
You have proved your skill to the old butcher. After seeing your determination, the old butcher requests that you bring him 10 liters of goblin blood.
Task: Bring 10 liters of goblin blood.
Reward: Master Butchering Skill, an iron-grade butcher knife, and 50 copper coins.
Old Butcher's Requirement: 30/500 liters.
Failure Condition: Not delivering the blood before the required deadline.
Failure Penalty: Curse of the Goblin Shaman.
Note: To help with the hunting, the old butcher is willing to send a new butcher for help.
The death of the worker will cause task failure. Do you want to take help, or will you do it on your own?
]
Forsyx stared at the quest window with wide eyes.
'What the hell? Don't tell me I started the infamous helper sequence.'
Even though all the beginner villages had the same chain quests, each scenario differed from the others.
Each scenario had different tweaks in the tasks.
Like in the first quest, he might have had to kill some other small monster, or even if he killed a rabbit instead, the task could've required him to bring a different body part.
All of this made it impossible for players to prepare for what they'd face in these chain quests.
It was the same randomness from the other quests, and this applied to the rewards, too.
From the first two tasks, he was sure he was following the weapon sequence reward series.
In the weapon reward series, each subsequent task would give him a higher-grade butcher knife.
It was a decent scenario, but this old man sending a worker to help him—that was the start of one of the most popular sequences for getting yourself a follower.
What made him more confused was that he didn't remember any sequence that followed both the weapon and the follower reward.
He clicked his tongue. This was a mess, because now he wasn't sure what the one complementary reward would be for following the chain quest.
It was only a matter of time before one of them got dropped, and the moment the task switched to a follower, it would start the bloodbath in the village.
He shook his head and stared at the choice.
For those who came to the beginner village with teams, it would be perfect to choose the worker.
But having a worker around him would not only decrease his mobility, it would also create a big weakness.
What was even crazier was that the three people had already completed this task.
From their speed, he realized those weren't your average players.
In the worst-case scenario, those guys were part of some group.
In that worst case, those guys and their team members could be hiding in the forest, waiting to target players walking with the worker.
He rubbed his forehead and glanced at Henry.
It was likely that by the end of the sequence, he would get this guy as his follower. Having a butcher NPC as his follower would be a dream come true for him.
He clenched his fist and said, "Don't worry, sir. I will manage on my own."
The old man nodded at him and handed him a slightly smaller butcher knife. "As you're a fit warrior, here—just take this new knife. It will help you with your task."
Forsyx took the knife, glanced at Henry one last time, and started walking out of the butcher shop.
It was a hard decision, but he wasn't stupid enough to be swayed by short-term greed.
There was nothing more important to him than climbing higher in these chain quests.
When the monster's awakening cycle started, even the NPCs following him would try to hunt him down.
He couldn't take such a big weakness with him and leave things up to luck.
Furthermore, it wasn't like doing the current task would make the NPC follow him.
Nah, this was just the start of a series of gruesome quests. He wouldn't be surprised if most players didn't even reach the fifth task—forget about getting the follower.
And you know what? Fck it. If he couldn't get it, he'd make sure no one else would get to have followers, either.
He switched to the Pipler bird and flew past the door while screaming in anger.
"COOOOOOOOOO."