Instance quest

"An S-rank skill?" Su Mu's eyes widened as he received the notification. The advantages of an S-rank skill were self-evident, and one that started as an S-rank should be upgradable as well! Su Mu quickly opened his skill panel.

[Phantom Clone (S-rank): Summons a clone that inherits 100% of your attributes. The clone can only perform basic attacks and cannot use skills. Cooldown: 1 hour. (Upgradeable)]

"Not bad!" The effect of this skill was clear, and Su Mu, who was well-versed in various online games, understood the significance of this skill. In certain specific situations, this skill would undoubtedly be extremely effective. Truly worthy of being a special skill.

What was most crucial was the mention of being upgradeable.

"Of course, I'll max it out right away!" Su Mu couldn't wait to see the effect of this skill when it was fully upgraded.

"Respected adventurer, I have an unpleasant request." Just then, the captain of the guard suddenly spoke up.

"Please, Captain." Su Mu had to suppress his excitement for the upgrade and focused his attention on what the captain had to say.

"The sudden appearance of the wild boar people worshiping the altar of the evil god must have a reason. Behind the wild boar people's camp, there is a fog-shrouded valley that seems suspicious. I suspect that there's something wrong with that place, and I hope you can go there to investigate."

As the captain of the guard spoke, his expression became somewhat awkward. "I know that place is very dangerous, but we have to guard the village, so we can't spare any manpower to assist you. You'll have to rely on yourself."

At the same time, a new notification popped up in front of Su Mu.

[Will you accept the quest: Investigate Misty Valley? (Instance)]

"Instance?" Su Mu raised an eyebrow as he read the quest description. There was indeed an open area behind the wild boar people's camp that he was originally planning to explore. However, he decided to hold off and return to the village to turn in the quest first. Now it seemed that this instance quest was the continuation of destroying the altar.

"However, why isn't there a specific reward mentioned in this quest?" Su Mu was puzzled as the skill only showed whether to accept it or not, without any reward description.

"Never mind, let's continue!"

[Ding! You have accepted the quest: Investigate Misty Valley (Instance)]

"Then I'll leave it to you, respected adventurer," the captain of the guard breathed a sigh of relief, his expression showing even more admiration.

"By the way, I want to learn a skill!" Su Mu nodded and spoke up. He still had a warrior skill to learn.

"I'm at your service!" The captain of the guard smiled widely.

Another skill appeared before Su Mu's eyes.

[Taunt: Forces the target to attack you for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds]

"Huh!" Su Mu was momentarily stunned by this skill. "It's useless!" As an agile and elegant mage, he had no use for this skill at all. "As an archmage, learning a skill like this would be soulless. I won't learn it!"

With a disdainful expression, Su Mu decided not to learn this skill. After bidding farewell to the captain of the guard, he strolled around the village.

"Since it's an instance, I need to equip myself fully." Many NPCs in the village had quest markers above their heads. Although those quests didn't provide experience, many of them rewarded decent equipment.

For Su Mu, slaying monsters was a breeze with his skills, and equipment wasn't as important to him. Therefore, he couldn't be bothered to do those quests.

However, in the eyes of other players, the value of equipment was significant. Whether it was a good weapon or a good armor, it would greatly enhance their leveling journey.

"I'll just do the quests that reward equipment in exchange for materials. After all, the auction house is full of material sellers now."

After taking a tour around the village, Su Mu accepted the quests that rewarded equipment in exchange for materials. There were a total of three quests.

He simply purchased the materials from the trading post and instantly completed the quests. In his hands, he obtained three decent pieces of equipment.

[Tidal Boots (E-grade): Constitution +5, Spirit +5, Required Level: 4]

[Apprentice Gloves (E-grade): Spirit +5, Intelligence +5, Required Level: 4]

[Gray Cloth Hat (E-grade): HP +100, Magic Defense +10, Required Level: 4]

Unlike boss drops, the rewards from quests mostly match the player's class. Without hesitation, Su Mu equipped the three pieces of equipment.

He opened his attribute panel:

Player: Su Mu

Class: Mage

Level: 8 (3600/5000)

Health: 380

Mana: 9200

Attack: 236

Magic Attack: 620

Physical Defense: 28

Magic Defense: 240

Attributes: Strength 8, Constitution 18 (+10), Agility 208, Spirit 210 (+20), Intelligence 275 (+35)

Equipment: Elite Staff, Wolfhide Armor, Rhinoleather Leggings, Tidal Boots, Gray Cloth Hat, Apprentice Gloves.

Compared to before, his stats had improved significantly, boosting Su Mu's confidence in soloing the instance.

"Let's see if there are any skills available in the auction house!"

On the way out of the village, Su Mu opened the auction house and searched for skills. This time, there were indeed many skills available, but most of them were attack skills for physical classes, and their prices were not low.

"No mage skills?" Su Mu felt puzzled. In theory, mages should also have other common skill books. Although those low-level skills were transitional and not very useful, Su Mu had the ability to maximize their potential.

"Did someone buy them all, or are there simply no sellers?"

After thoroughly searching the auction house, Su Mu still couldn't find any mage skills. He opened the world chat channel.

"Buying copper coins at high prices, starting at 10 copper. Contact me at 133xxxxxx!"

"Unlimited purchase of copper coins, even 1 copper is fine. The price will definitely satisfy you."

"Buying white equipment in large quantities, preferably through face-to-face trades to avoid high auction house fees!"

"Anyone for team leveling? Is there a shortage of mages in the party? Normal teams are also fine. I'm a level 2 mage with all points in intelligence."

"Please, can someone kindly guide a newbie? This assassin baby is suffering!"

"Professional gaming partner, online leveling assistance, attractive prices, fair and reliable!"

The world channel was still bustling, and most messages lasted only a second before being replaced by new ones.

"Buying mage skills at high prices, any skill will do, negotiable price."

As Su Mu looked at the diverse messages, he rubbed his eyes and composed a message of his own, sending it out. However, within seconds, his message was quickly pushed down by numerous subsequent messages.

"This is so annoying."

Su Mu didn't know if anyone would notice his message, but there was a time limit for speaking in the world channel, and he had to wait 10 minutes to edit his message again. After waiting for a couple of minutes and seeing no activity in his private messages, Su Mu pouted.

It seemed that his message had gone unnoticed in the sea of advertisements for skill purchases on the world channel. After all, there were plenty of other messages grabbing players' attention.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

Just when Su Mu had given up hope, his private chat started ringing with incoming messages.