Chapter 55 - Rewards and Trust

The dark bind spell would only bind the character for a period of 10 seconds or till he is attacked. It was a spell that was perfect to be used after a distraction, but it could easily be dealt with by using someone or something to deal a small amount of damage to the bound person.

With Shadow Tyrant bound at the place due the spell of the warlock, the worgen began to attack Holt. But all its attacks were in vain due to the shield from the orb of protection.

"How could you have such a powerful tool and not use it during the ambush," shouted the worgen like a crazy person. He couldn't believe that Holt who was setting up the teleportation disc had a protective charm that powerful that even using his special ability didn't break it.

"Isn't it obvious," said Holt. "I didn't use it because your ambush already killed the Arthur who was setting up the portal. No use in using it if we couldn't fulfill the mission."

With the situation it was facing the worgen was in a bind and could do nothing. Initially if any attack happened Holt was to be used as a hostage and Althus was supposed to be distraction. But with Althus out of the picture it ran out of options.

As he couldn't do anything, it simply began to run away from the cave. The shadow bind would still hold Balthazar for quite some time, and it was the best time for it to escape. As soon as the bind effect wore off, Balthazar ran behind Mathus.

Seeing Balthazar behind it, it immediately howled calling for the blackrock wolves. Some of them immediately attacked Shadow Tyrant and he rode away into the hills on another wolf. Though Balthazar could kill a blackrock wolf with two or three hits, the number that the worgen called had him stuck far behind.

The wolves managed to halt him for more than 30 seconds and Mathus was already very far away and almost disappeared from their sight. With only 20 or seconds remaining on the light shield, Shadow immediately set to killing the wolves that were around the light shield.

But before the minute of the protection expired, a few circles, pentagrams of light and various other symbols creeped out of the teleportation disc and merged shining a bright light creating a teleportation portal to be used for the special dungeon 'Cave of Wargs'.

Quest updated: Hold back the wargs: Travel back to the portal and report back to the temple.

Holt walked to Shadow as the protection around him expired and started to attack the wolves along with Shadow. Within a few seconds, they easily took down more of the wolves around the teleportation point and cabin while the remaining ran away.

"It is sad that we failed to capture the last of those dogs," said Holt as the remaining ran away. "Now that we finished setting it, could you please report back to the temple. I will need to stay at the cabin and observe till more forces are sent by the temple."

"I will do it immediately," said Shadow Tyrant and immediately channelled his hearthstone to return to the Blackrock village. He quickly made his way to the temple and reported to the priest that his concerns were right and the team from the temple were ambushed by worgens.

"Ah! So, I guessed right. It was unnatural for them to not report for so long. I am glad that I made the right choice in sending you to their rescue."

Quest Completed: Hold back the wargs: Successfully managed setup the teleportation point.

Performance: Moderate.

Faults: Failed to capture or kill the worgen warlock.

Experience gained: 1000

Quest Item: Teleportation disc used successfully to fulfill the mission.

Temple of the twelve reputation points +25;

Temple of the twelve contribution points +50;

"In gratitude for your contribution in identifying and thwarting the attempt of a foreign race to silently infiltrate human territory and you being the first one to do so, the temple has decided to reward you in a way to inspire the other immortal adventurers that entered our lands," said the priest pinning a small dull black badge onto Balthazar's chest.

The badge was like it was made of a metallic black substance in the shape of 12 connected towers. It was the symbol of the temple of the twelve. It also had the roman numeral 1 on it. This was completely unexpected as he never got a badge in his previous life even though he had a lot more temple reputation at that time.

System: You were rewarded a iron grade membership to temple of the twelve.

"World Announcement: Player Shadow Tyrant of the Light faction successful in establishing a teleportation point to the special dungeon 'Cave of Wargs' at the blackrock hills. For his service, he would be rewarded 1% of the payment from the teleportation charges to the dungeon."

When he heard the system announcement, he first felt exhilarated in finding out that he got a constant source of income from the game so early. The usual sources of income from the game were the guild towns, cities, territories or portals guarded by guilds. This was completely different from them as it didn't need to worry about guild protection or other guilds attacking as it is protected by the temple which being an NPC organization is a taboo for every guild before the gather more information about it. Even after the guilds learn about it, attacking its properties would still be taboo.

But immediately after that he realized that he couldn't set up a guild now as most of the guild and gaming workshops would be hunting him from now on, due to the same. He had a bigger target on his back from now on.

"Why the bloody hell did it have to be a world announcement," he thought. "It is as if the bloody system was completely against me. Or does some idiot monitoring the players have some grudge against him. The same crap happened with the special quest."

He also began receiving calls from his friends, team and also Sirius Imperials. He also got a message from Blue Dart inviting him to join the guild again. "And so, the hunting begins," thought Balthazar.

"You also have the partial administrative privilege to the portal at the cave. I trust that you will make good use of the honor given to you," said the deacon as he patted Shadow on his shoulder. "I hope you would soon manage to get to the White Heart city and find out more about your destiny," he continued as he left back to his work in the temple.

With the new information that the deacon provided, Balthazar quickly checked his dashboard and found a new panel for management right below the attributes panel. As he thought about it a window popped up showing his various administrative privileges. It was very similar to guild administrative privileges options he had during his previous life.

Still it varied a lot because it wasn't for a player owned organization. At the top of the screen was the title of the organization followed the emblem of the temple. There was only one name in the list of privileges, and it was the portal for the 'Cave of Wargs'. By default, all players of the light faction were allowed to use it. But on selecting it he could select specific races or other even blacklist races, factions or guilds.

He immediately called Merlin to ask him if they had been done with the attempt on the goblin camp at the blackrock hills.

"Hi dude, we heard the world announcement about the 'Cave of Wargs' portal but in the middle of the goblin camp, there is something called Goblin Champion in the cave here."

"Goblin champion? I guess that is the boss of the quest."

"Highly probable. It has a machine strapped to it, gone berserk and is throwing rocks at us inside the cave. How about we talk later? After we are done with this."

"You need help?" asked Balthazar.

"You can come here within a minute?"

"Of course, not."

"Then let us handle it. for now. We will meet you as soon as possible," said Merlin ending the call.

"Well, he really doesn't like disturbances when he is in the middle of a fight," thought Balthazar as he walked back to the village market. He wanted to check if there were any designs or recipes are available to purchase. But as expected there were none because unless the player who found a recipe or design wanted to use it himself, he would sell it to a guild at this stage of the game. Without an auction house or having a good relationship with NPCs having trade professions.

Right now, the only NPCs having a trade profession and a good relationship with him were blacksmith Kade and the tailor Lydia. Tailoring isn't something he concentrated on nor did he have any plans on doing so. Kade was his master so it would be a good idea to consult him on the same.

But even at Kade's shop, he didn't get what he wanted. The system obviously didn't want the designs to be accessed that easily. Kade flatly denied him saying that he needed to find his own designs and develop his skills before he could come to him for training. He even pointed at the badge given by him and told him that the reason he gave the badge was also the same.

This was quite unexpected as he remembered that designs were available at shops once players managed to raise their favourability, but he never tried this at the village. But this didn't stop Balthazar as he always has another plan. If he didn't after having all the knowledge of his previous life, it would be a total waste of the gift that he had been given.

With him being stuck and unable to progress at trade professions. The only other options he had to increase his experience was to go to the start along the path to the city or town.

There were two conditions for a player to be able to enter a city. One was to be above level 10 and the other was to clear the path to the city as it was filled with monsters. This path was always the same. The quest for this was always provided by the village head once one reached level 5.

But this was a very hard one and even after the first upgrade where they increased the number of beginner villages due to an increase in the number of players, there were very rare occurrences of players attempting it at level 5. For this, he had better equip himself with tools like throwing knives or crossbow bolts.

So, he asked Kade if he could provide these weapons. Kade thought for a while and replied, "I sure can make such weapons, but iron ore isn't the best option for these, the weapon need to be of a finer quality and sharper. If you could provide me a few blackrock crystals, I can make a good set of throwing knives."

New quest: Forging throwing knives: Gather blackrock crystals for blacksmith kade to help him create a set of throwing knives for you.

Minimum requirement: 5 crystals

Rewards depend on amount of crystals procured.

This was like a quest given to him just to make use of the blackrock crystals that he had acquired. He already had 15 complete blackrock crystals from the goblins and 20 crystal pieces. He quickly exchanged the 15 blackrock crystals.

"Huh! You already have blackrock crystals? And not a small amount either," said Kade as he took the crystals from Shadow Tyrant. "Pitch black with a slight violet glow at the centre. These will sure be of use to me. Come with me boy. Let me fulfill me end of the deal."

He quickly led Shadow Tyrant into the interior of his shop. As he told before, there was a Basic Blacksmith workshop inside. Once inside, a silver flame burst from his hands and using it, he quickly sculpted a pair of black rock crystals into 6 thin leaf like structures. It was like the fire itself took the form of a tool and cut a crystal into three of those structures.

Kade made a set of 6 knives in a second with just the blackrock crystals. He quickly had a piece of iron ore melted and had the molten metal form a thin layer on the crystalline knives. He quickly put these in a pail of water to form a set of six perfectly similar knives.

Quest Completed: Forging Throwing knives.

Performance: Extraordinary

Experience +300;

Apprentice Trust value increased by 50 points;

Reward: Set of 6 throwing knives forged by Kade.

System: Kade's Trust in you changed to not guarded. Gives access to few designs.

"This is very good. I am glad that you are a very resourceful adventurer," said Kade handing him the knives. "These will be fine till you fight monsters above level 10."

[Blackrock crystal Throwing knives] (Black Iron Throwing knives)

Level 5;

Requirement: Strength 15;

Attack +15;

Causes additional 50% damage to worgen and warg families.

Durability 10/10;

"Though you have the knives, the common problem with these is that they have to be thrown and quite frequently get lost in a fight. So, I will give you a design for throwing knives. Though they are not of the same quality as the ones I am giving you, they will be decent substitutes in case you lose them," continued Kade giving him a design he pulled out from his pocket.

[Throwing knives x 6] (White trash throwing knives)

Level 5;

Materials required: Refined Iron Ore x 1; Blackrock crystal pieces x 2;

Requirement: Strength: 7;

Attack +8;

Durability: 5/5;

"I guess I can confide other designs to you, but I can only exchange them in return for materials like blackrock crystal, gray serpent scales, cougar claws and the like. There rare they are the better the designs you get to choose. I need them to make weapons for my journey back to the white heart city and I have been stuck here long enough," said Kade showing him a bunch designs from pocket.