"Brave and fearless Undead!" Linde said solemnly, "The wild sounds of labored breathing encircle the outpost day and night, and uneasy whispers make it difficult to sleep. I would like to ask you to do a dangerous but significant task!"
"Hiss!" The four of them immediately perked up.
They loved quests!
If it wasn't dangerous, they wouldn't be interested!
"Based on the information around you, investigate the situation of the wanderers! The tranquility of the outpost must not be broken. I hope this place can become the last hope... Stardragon Outpost will forever remember your contribution. Of course, after completing the mission, you will receive a reward of 50 gold coins!"
The four clenched their fists and pounded their chests, shouting in a pose of offering their hearts, "Yes, Lord!"
The Undead players marveled inwardly that their newbie village was indeed different. The tasks they received were all hidden versions, requiring neither repairing fences, nor checking traps, or catching rabbits.
Even the very first hyena-killing task, other players had never encountered.
For other players, hyenas could be considered "elite monsters", not only difficult to kill, but also hard to find. But in Stardragon Outpost, they could be killed at will.
Maybe they were just lucky and had been directly transported to an intermediate-level map in the game.
In short, it was awesome!
The four put on their equipment, ready to set out to investigate. However, judging by their imposing appearance, they didn't seem to be preparing to sneak around, but rather to charge into battle.
Blade of the Moon: "There seems to be a new NPC at the outpost!"
He had seen Grandmother Eluna.
Wearing a nun's robe, with a stern, wrinkled face, she fit all the stereotypical images of an old nun in a church, making it easy to feel that she was a key NPC.
In this special "newbie village", NPCs were extremely rare. The appearance of a distinctive NPC was hard to ignore.
There must be a quest, he thought. He wondered how intelligent she was, but it was worth having an in-depth conversation.
Dragon Scale Sword: "Could she be a special quest NPC?"
Through playing the game for a while and talking in the game groups, they had also discovered a characteristic of this world – it was a bit too realistic.
The NPCs were just like living people; each had their own story and didn't strictly adhere to the rules like in a typical game.
In the past couple of days, they'd observed that NPCs would slack off, crack jokes, and even go to the restroom. Most importantly, their restroom breaks weren't on a fixed schedule.
If they weren't afraid of being labeled as perverts and getting slashed with a sword, they would have really liked to see if the "animation" for going to the restroom had been made.
It's just like GTA, where the crucial scenes just weren't made, which was disappointing.
Moreover, during this initial exploration phase, everyone was busy doing quests. Otherwise, a group of bored people would have already been tracking NPCs and recording what they did all day.
"Let's go out and investigate the clues first," Tortoise Shell Shield said, organizing his equipment. "I bet there's a combat instance coming."
"Could we be the first ones to discover an instance?"
Mentioning the possibility of being the first to clear an instance filled the four with excitement.
New NPCs were ultimately less attractive than new quests, and Linde was also giving off the impression that "you won't get to see the new NPC until you complete the mission." So they had no choice but to do their jobs obediently.
After building houses for two days, the four had long been feeling bored.
If they couldn't adjust their bodily senses, the four strongly suspected that they weren't players at all, but laborers who logged in to do manual labor.
They left Stardragon Outpost together.
Without map functionality to guide them, nor any highlighted markers, everything had to be found on their own.
This game was still a bit too realistic.
As the players left, Linde had already arranged a simple dwelling for Grandmother Eluna. He also didn't immediately allow Eluna to interact with the players.
The nine soldiers under his command were easy to handle. They didn't know much, and as soldiers, they hadn't been to school and were illiterate. They also didn't have much to talk about with the players.
But Grandmother Eluna was different.
She carried Linde's expectations. Linde hoped that she could take on the responsibility of... well, not conning, but guiding the players.
In other words, he hoped she would continue to use that old mystic's tone to give the players a strong sense of role-playing.
In the room with just the two of them, Linde made sure there were no outsiders before saying to the old nun, "Grandmother Eluna, I hope you can learn the speaking techniques I am about to teach you and use them flexibly!"
Grandmother Eluna looked at Linde expressionlessly, with only her eyes wide open, "Yes."
She always strained her eyes when looking at people, as if she were very surprised, but her face was expressionless, giving people a sense of being eccentric.
Teaching the speaking techniques went very smoothly, even smoother than Linde had imagined, because Grandmother Eluna could completely extrapolate from what she was taught. She could bring up words like "god," "dream," "murmur," and "prophecy," which were even more flavorful than Linde's own words, simply put, full of soul. As the special quest-issuing tool that Linde envisioned, she was perfect.
However, what Linde wanted most was Miss Miko. Not only was she cute and pretty, but she could also make magic potions. If he could bring her over to be a quest-giving girl, she would definitely be able to control all the thirsty players, male and female!
Grandmother Eluna said in a dreamlike, mystical tone, "The Elden Ring is shattered, yet the King's shadow is nowhere to be seen." "We have no gods to pray to. Even so, I hope your journey goes well."
"That's right!" Linde smiled, "Grandmother Eluna, please continue to adjust your state. In the future, I will have a church built in Stardragon Outpost. Oh, right... tonight we'll have stew for dinner!"
"Gulp!" Grandmother Eluna swallowed hard, "Yes, Lord! I will definitely work hard!"
As long as there's food, it's easy to deal with!
She quietly clutched the dried mouse in her pocket. She still kept this life-saving treasure well hidden. If Linde turned on her one day and drove her out, she wouldn't starve to death... hopefully, she could satisfy the Lord.
After leaving Grandmother Eluna's room, Linde returned to his own room.
Now he had advanced to High Knight, but after the Elden Ring shattered, he didn't know what the future path to advancement looked like. He only knew from snippets in Crowley's diary that the power he stole from the Calamity actually came from the shattered Elden Ring and was infused into his body in the form of magic potions.
So if he wanted to increase his power, he would definitely have to absorb more magic potions.
"More magic potions, or rather, magic potion recipes. If only I could find the Blackfire Brothers."
Grandmother Eluna said that the Blackfire Brothers had successfully advanced more than half a year ago. Linde suspected that they possessed more useful information.
While Linde was planning his future actions, thinking about how to squeeze labor out of the players, the four-player team was on the road.
"We might have found something!" Tortoise Shell Shield squatted down, examining the footprints on the ground.
Among the four of them, three were college students, and one was a former construction worker who had become a video blogger. Their outdoor combat awareness basically came from PUBG. Listening for footsteps was the only enemy-detection skill they had mastered.
Unfortunately, they held their breath and concentrated for a long time, but heard nothing.
Fortunately, those people seemed to be in a hurry and hadn't concealed their tracks.
The soil near Stardragon Outpost wasn't good; it was almost all sandy soil, leaving a footprint with every step.
"They should be nearby! We're here to scout, so it's best if we're not discovered!" Dragon Scale Sword said.
White Stockings Enthusiast immediately said, "That's simple, just kill anyone who discovers us!"
Stealth?
The four smiled at each other in unison.