"This bastard adventurer... He's really bent on extorting me." Black lines appeared on the Old Healer's head. She and Malik had been dragging prices for a while now.
"Okay... Let's settle for 3 gold coins each, and I'll use the remaining 7 stacks to brew potions for you."
"That's a fair deal," Malik said, shrugging his shoulders. He didn't mind some potions — after all, he's not invincible at this stage of the game.
"Wait for some minutes," the Old Healer said before heading deeper into the room.
> [You've received 60 gold coins from the Old Healer of Lont.]
"Just like that... I earned 60 gold coins… This is truly awesome." Malik smiled satisfactorily to himself as he checked out the room.
After a few minutes had passed, the Old Healer later came back with five potions.
"These are yours, Adventurer. I really appreciate your help."
> [Hidden Quest Completed. Old Healer's Favorability of you has increased by 30. You've earned 50 Prestige Points and 5 Healing Potions as a reward.]
"Thank you, Old Healer. I'll always be at your service." Malik stood up with a smile and started leaving after putting everything in his inventory.
He came out of the room to see that it was already nightfall, and the players outside, after realizing that the Old Healer wouldn't appear again, had gone their various ways. Probably logged out.
"I guess I should also log out. I've been playing since morning."
Malik pulled up his system interface, then scrolled to the log-out button—only to see that it was greyed out.
"Why is it greyed out? Is it an error from the system or…" Malik started sweating buckets as his hand grabbed the hilt of his sword.
"Or is it a voice command?" Malik couldn't help but think.
"Log out."
"Log out."
"Eject."
"Remove."
"Uninstall."
Malik tried every word he could think of, but it was to no avail. Nothing was working.
"Don't tell me... Don't just tell me I won't be able to log out of God's Realm. I'm stucked." Malik's heart sank as he took a step back.
"I'm stucked in this version of God's Realm. I won't be able to log out. I'll live my life just like an NPC..."
"Why is the Main God System after my life?"
"My friends... Angel Michael, Carita... won't they be worried about me?"
"The commotion I created before I left the Western Region... Gosh, I can't believe this."
"My real body... What happened to my real body, and how long have I been out for?"
Malik was just asking a lot of questions for which he couldn't get any answers. He couldn't answer himself as he continued walking forward with a lot of thoughts processing in his mind. If he's stucked in the game world, then what about his real body?
"Damn. What's all this? What if my real body is in dangerous hands? Damn... I need to get stronger."
"I need to challenge that Beginning Tower."
"Wait... Didn't that Retired Knight have some information on the Tower which he didn't want to disclose? Yes, the NPC was acting a little bit strange."
"What if I can get him to disclose it? To do that, I've to get him to owe me a favor." Malik's eyes lit up as a plan formulated in his brain.
"Inventory."
> [Healing Potion ×2]
Description: Recover 5% HP every 1 second for 10 seconds.
> [Recovery Potion]
Description: Recover every injury or poison inflicted to an individual within an hour.
> [Enhancement Potion ×2]
Description: Extracted from the Herbs of Taila and personally crafted by the Old Healer.
Effects: When consumed, increases mana pool permanently by 40%. Can only be used once.
"Did I use voodoo on that NPC? How can she give me something so valuable?"
"Or is the Herb of Taila really that useful? To think that I didn't even use Eyes of Insight on it."
"Well... That's a matter of the past. Seems like the daughter of Gul has been inflicted by the poison from the Spiders. If I could give her this Recovery Potion, Gul will be owing me a favour."
"Although the Recovery Potion is just one, this is still a good deal since I've resistance to poison. I've to make use of this opportunity at once." Malik said to himself as he sprinted toward the direction of the Retired Knight...
——
(Gul's Abode - Lont Town)
"Young Adventurer, you've truly left me flabbergasted. Not only have you brought back my daughter, but you also helped me out in recovering her. I'll forever be in your debt," Gul said as he wanted to bow before Malik, who quickly raised him up.
"There's no need for that, Old Man. And there's no need for you to worry. It's just that I'm very curious about the Beginning Tower."
"I see you're also interested in the Beginning Tower. Sit down, I'll share some information with you about the Tower." The NPC said, and Malik quickly took a seat.
"The Beginning Tower has a total of five floors. The five floors are designed to help new adventurers gain more experience and not be too far behind from the old players."
"In the first floor of the Beginning Tower, your combat ability is tested — your reflexes and the way you take attacks."
"The second floor is where you'll be tested by dummies that equal your power. This ranks up according to how far you can go."
"A lot of adventurers fall at the second floor, while some still proceed to the third floor, which is where you face monsters — random monsters in the dark."
"But in this third tower, there's a hidden piece, and the hidden piece can only be found in the hard mode of the third floor, which is the black door. There are a total of three doors: the white, blue, and black."
"A lot of adventurers choose the white and blue, which are the easiest, and get to the fourth floor, but they remain stuck."
"Those who have gone through this hard mode discovered a hidden piece. It's known as the Frost and Flame Event. Unfortunately, none has been able to conquer this hidden piece because those who consumed the red moss on the floor exploded to death. It was really a terrible experience, and everyone had no choice but to go through the normal and easy mode."
"There's little information about the fourth floor, but I heard it's where one can pick a treasure from, and the last floor is where one gets their talent and successfully gets promoted to Tier 1."
"That's all I know about the Beginning Tower. I wish you luck, Adventurer. Although I can't help you much, I still have something to pass to you. Come closer." The Retired Knight said, and Malik went closer to him as he pressed his hand on Malik's head.
> [Congratulations. You've learnt the Combat Skill — Necro Slash]
[Necro Slash — B Rank]
Brief: An attack method innate to the Knights of Lont from the very beginning.
Effect: Deals damage to a single enemy equal to 300% of one's own attack power, reducing their movement speed by 10% for three seconds.
Cooldown: Fifteen seconds.
"Bloody hell. This Old Man passed me something as valuable as this... I've truly lucked out this time around.. Hehehe"