1613 Find the Treasure
Ning sat at the corner of a tavern, eating a fresh stew of potato and some sort of meat, while he looked at the status page in front of him.
The System had mentioned that he would get a 'system' of his own, but he hadn't expected this one to be so... weird.
[Status Report:
Name: Ning Rougong
Current World: Grotia
Current World's Energy: Unique
New Energy: NONE (NOT AVAILABLE)
Points: 0
Quests:
NONE
]
That was all there was.
Ning was left confused after looking at it for the first time and that was the same result each time he opened the status page after that.
This name and the world's name were understandable. He could even understand the part after that mentioned that the current world's energy was unique. He had learned how rare planets like Grotia were, so the energy here was not something too frequent to have a universal name like Qi or Mana.
But what about after that?
What was New Energy? He could see that he had none at the moment, but what did it mean that it was Not Available?
'Is it not available now? Or just not available at all?' he thought. It was so confusing. And then there was the Quest, which he also had none of. Ning remembered doing Quests at the start when he got the Energy system too. It was so he could get used to being an Energy.
In fact, he was still doing quests in some way. Having to kill a Galactic will to go on to another Universe was a Quest in its own way.
Was this similar? Or was there more to it?
Was this even the real system?
"It's even just a replica of a system," Ning thought. "It's not even a real system to have one hidden from me. What the hell is this experiment supposed to be about?"
"Would you like some more stew?" a voice called out from the side, catching Ning off guard.
He hadn't seen the young woman come up to him or even noticed it in any other way. 'Damn this normal body,' Ning thought and turned to look at the young lady.
She was a plain-faced girl, with some beauty to her looks, but just enough to be a tavern maid. She looked at Ning with inquisitive blue eyes, waiting for him to respond.
"No, thank you. I am—"
His words stuck in his throat as he saw something like a wisp of light in the air that shimmered around the young woman. Focusing on it just a bit more, Ning could begin to see features on the wisp.
With a single silver coin, Ning could eat the same meal he was eating right now for 250 times. And he was asking for 2 of such coins. No wonder the girl was so flabbergasted by his ask.
'Can't help it,' Ning thought. 'That is why most people can't afford Spirit Detectives.'
Channelers, he heard, were even more expensive than Spirit Detectives.
Had Ning not known that the girl would've had money in the end, he wouldn't have asked for it at all. He had a few silver coins in his pocket, and he didn't find the need for more.
The girl returned back to her work, confused by Ning's last comment. She wondered what it was that her grandmother had left for her. For the next three hours that she worked, she could barely focus on her work at all and made a lot of mistakes.
Finally, at the end of the 3 hours, she got to leave.
"Sir Detective," she came up to Ning once her work was completed.
Ning got up. "Let's go."
The girl nodded. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Ning said. "Where is your house?"
"My house?" the girl thought. "You must mean the house I lived in when my grandma was alive. It's in the other part of the town. Will you come with me?"
"Yes, let's go," Ning said and began walking through the city.
Whitebridge city had buildings with different architectural styles, almost as though people from many places came to stay here. With the setting sun, the city looked even more beautiful as orange rays hit the side of the town.
The city was thankfully not too large and the two of them arrived at a residential section within just half an hour of walking. They arrived in front of a small house with two stories, and no fences on the outside. There wasn't even much of a yard on the front to require a fence.
"Who lives here now?" Ning asked Shara.
"Nobody," Shara said. "I put the house up for sale a while ago, but no one has bought it just yet."
"You still own this house? Why don't you live here?" Ning asked her.
"I get free meals at the tavern I work in, and they let me stay there as well. Constantly walking here and back just takes too long and I don't have the money to afford to keep the house running."
"How old are you?" Ning asked the girl.
"15," she said.
Ning sighed. Such a young girl, and forced to go through the world alone.
"Let us go in," he said. "You'll find something special there soon."
They walked into the house and Ning immediately located the wooden ladder that took them to the upper floor. They weren't even stairs. "What did my grandmother say?" Shara asked.
"That there is something here," Ning said, as he walked up to the ladder and reached for the third step of the ladder.
He tried to nudge it but it was quite strong. The step was tightly stuck and wouldn't come off easily. "Do you mind if I break it?" Ning asked, his voice distorted as though he spoke from underwater.
"The golds are inside that step," the old woman said. That was enough of a confirmation for Ning to break the stairs.
He slammed his feet down onto the step and broke it open.