“Is there anything else we need to do?” Dusk asked.
“Return the flute to Eanpad, give me the flute.” Naiyan looked at Baikai Shui.
This was a quest item, ultimately not meant to be his own. Baikai Shui sighed inwardly and handed the flute over to Naiyan.
Naiyan glanced into the jungle, watching as an elderly man approached with unsteady steps.
“Respected elder, we have punished those despicable dark elves and retrieved the flute for you.”
“This truly is my flute, thank you so much brave adventurers. The paths of the Treant Forest are complex—I shall guide you out. May the gods bless you!”
Had Naiyan and his group tried to secretly keep Eanpad’s flute, the consequences would have been dire; they would have incurred Eanpad’s wrath, and the Treant Forest would have become their grave.
System: Sub-quest “Eanpad’s Flute” completed. Gained 28,596 experience points.
The surroundings were shrouded in thick fog. Eanpad vanished into the mist, and when the group could see clearly again, they found themselves already outside the Treant Forest.
“We can go to the governor of Carol City to claim our reward!” Naiyan checked and saw that since he had the highest contribution in the quest, he received the most experience. After collecting the experience reward from Eanpad, his progress bar advanced significantly, reaching 73%.
Everyone was excited. Following Naiyan through the instance had been fantastic. After receiving Eanpad’s reward, their experience bars had also jumped significantly.
The group teleported back to Carol City.
Naiyan made his way toward the military camp in Carol City.
The camp was located in the southwest of the city, surrounded by tall walls and numerous sentry posts, heavily fortified. Beside the camp stood a white building—the residence of the governor Kawarot.
Upon entering the white building, they found few NPCs inside. A tall, middle-aged man wearing a Glirean military uniform, his face scarred, approached.
Naiyan used Super Insight and confirmed it was indeed Governor Kawarot.
“Young man, what brings you here?”
“Respected Governor, we captured two dark elves in the Treant Forest and obtained some intelligence about the Hilton Fortress. Here are their heads.”
Kawarot asked several questions, and Naiyan answered each according to the standard quest dialogue, handing over the two dark elves’ heads.
System: You have completed the side quest “Delivering the Message” in the Treant Forest instance.
System: Respect value with the Hilton Fortress increased by 12.
System: Respect value with Carol City increased by 10.
System: Gained 32,320 experience points.
System: You learned combat techniques from Kawarot. Gained +2 bonus to Strength.
System: You received 2 silver coins.
Some hidden quests provide additional attribute bonuses. Naiyan hadn’t expected to gain a +2 strength boost this time, which surprised him.
Each team member received decent experience and monetary rewards. Naiyan’s experience bar reached 97%. As for the money, two silver coins meant little to him.
Completing quests was much faster for leveling up than grinding monsters. However, quests varied in rank—the higher the difficulty, the more experience awarded. Simpler quests, like collecting animal hides, gave far less experience. During group quests, the main system distributed experience based on each player’s contribution. For this quest, Naiyan received the most experience while other members received significantly less.
“Now that the quest is done, I should be going,” Naiyan told Yaoyao and the others.
“What are you planning to do next?” Yaoyao felt a slight reluctance.
“Grinding monsters for levels. But the places I go, you definitely can’t come along,” Naiyan replied. With the Feather Falling Gem and the Ring of the Weaver, he had many plans to execute.
“He’s busy, so let’s just party up and level ourselves,” Dusk suggested. With so many high-damage mages here, it would be a waste not to level together.
“Fatso has a small AoE skill called Celestial Fall. You should level with him; it won’t be too slow,” Naiyan told Yaoyao and others. He wanted Tang Yao to get closer with Yulan and the others, so they’d be more willing to group with him. With Naiyan’s guidance over this time, Tang Yao had improved significantly. Though not an expert yet, he was now more than capable of joining a party—after all, an arcane mage didn’t require much skill when running instances or grinding monsters.
“Celestial Fall?” Everyone was surprised. At this stage, a mage who had learned a small AoE skill was extremely rare.
“Why didn’t you use it earlier?” Baikai Shui asked.
“Using AoE in an instance? That’s suicide!” Tang Yao replied. Before entering the instance, Naiyan had repeatedly warned him not to use Celestial Fall in instances, and Tang Yao had finally listened, answering with confidence.
“That’s true,” Baikai Shui awkwardly scratched his head. Using AoE spells in instances often attracted large numbers of monsters and pulled aggro, making it hard for the frontline warriors to keep control.
“Now that we have a small AoE, what are we waiting for?” Dusk rubbed his hands together, eager to see the power of this rare arcane mage spell.
“I have something else to do, so I’ll leave first,” Naiyan said goodbye to the group. Seeing Yaoyao’s unhappy expression, he smiled: “Maybe next time we can grind together again.”
“Don’t you dare go back on your word!” Yaoyao beamed, her smile as warm and bright as the sun. Oddly enough, even though they’d only met a few days prior, it felt like they’d known each other forever—there was this uncanny familiarity and unspoken understanding between them.
Naiyan chuckled and said, “Definitely.”
After saying goodbye, Naiyan headed toward the auction house in Carol City.
Everyone watched Naiyan leave, only snapping back to reality once he disappeared around the corner.
“Alright, let’s go level.”
Dusk glanced at Naiyan’s retreating figure and turned to the others: “Come on, let’s level!” At the same time, he sent a message to Ban Xing’s Fox.
“Fox Boss, watch this video.”
“What video?”
“You’ll see when you watch it.”
At the level 5.5 werewolf area in Trak Town, Ban Xing’s Fox stepped back and told another warrior beside him, “You take over for now!”
“Okay!”
From the back, the mages’ spells rained down, knocking several werewolves over.
This was his leveling time. For Dusk to disturb him now, there must be something important. He opened the received video and saw Naiyan on screen, sparking his interest. Continuing to watch, he saw Naiyan and his group fighting treants inside an instance. Ban Xing’s Fox asked in confusion, “This is the Treant Forest, but why do these treants have so much HP?” He was a knowledgeable player and immediately sensed something was off.
“This is the expert difficulty Treant Forest!”
“Expert difficulty Treant Forest? Did you guys clear it?” Ban Xing’s Fox became interested. A team with such poor gear daring to enter an expert-level instance was indeed rare.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage