The next day, Li Wei woke up at 13:30. It was extremely late and the entire Boroughton was already awake. He went to sleep extremely late at an expensive place, but he had to admit that the price of the rooms was worth it. His fatigue had completely recovered.

He took out the Tear of Fairies from his inventory and stared at it for a moment. The necklace almost caused him to die. The timing could not have been worst. He wanted to contact the Lake Fairies but he did not know how to use the necklace.

'I suppose I will have to make a trip to the Gassian Lake to honor my promise. Although I am not bound by any contract, I must honor my words.'

Using the map, Li Wei determined the journey would last for two days on a horse. Algate City, Boroughton and the Gassian Lake formed an almost equilateral triangle. He was not in a hurry to return to Algate City; having asked for an extended period of absence, he could leisurely visit a few other towns before returning.

He then turned his attention to the rest of the interface. The forum was booming. Many players were excited about the expansion and another branch of the forum was open, allowing players to connect with players from other countries in the same empire. Most comments were positive but there were still some complaints about the harsher death penalties.

Aside from the forum, Li Wei also checked his messages. A lot of them came from the guild. They were essentially informing him of the changes taking place. Li Wei was considered as an outer member of the sect. He did not receive any resources from the Fleeting Clouds Sect and needed to work for all his Contribution Points. In return, he did not have any restrictions either.

He could go to the capital if he wanted to, but the Fleeting Clouds Sect advised him not to. Contrary to his expectations, the Fleeting Clouds Sect was not planning on going to the capital to make a name for themselves. Instead, they wanted to focus their efforts on Algate City and its county. They have already sent a lot of their forces to the nearby towns and each of the guilds of the different families was a dominant force in these towns.

Only a small portion of the members of the sect was going to the capital and if Li Wei absolutely wanted to go there, he would receive minimal support. Furthermore, he would still need to return to Algate City for the weekly event.

"I guess it was the right choice to only loosely connect myself to the Fleeting Clouds Sect. I don't know their plans but isn't it obvious that to continue developing they need to move to the new areas like the capital? Well, we'll see what to do later. For now, let's head out," said Li Wei to himself.

It was pointless to leave Boroughton when half of the day was already over but that did not mean Li Wei should stay in his room. He walked down the inn and was surprised to see the horse he rode on still here.

‘Since they don't really care about this horse, I shall take it as mine.'

He left the inn and headed to the Warrior Association. The first thing he needed to do was to check the status of the quest he accepted. He still had one night left on his quest but when he submitted his Identity Crystal, the receptionist answered:

"I am sorry, there are two important things I need to inform you of. First, your quest: The Grave Robber has been completed by someone else. Due to some special circumstances, after the battle of that took place at Verdan Town, the authorities inspected the graveyard to see if everything was in place. An adventurer found the corpses of the gravekeeper Oleg and his Twin brother. We concluded that both of them were in cahoots for the graverobbing incident."

"Although you were the one assigned to this quest, someone else brought back all the pieces of evidence and was given the reward of this quest. This is all I can tell you. The quest has been completed. We will therefore not penalize you for it. Please move on from this."

Li Wei was stunned. It was possible for someone else to complete others' quests? 'It should have been impossible as only I had access to the graveyard but because of the demon's attack, the authorities had to check the entire town. It allowed others to go there and find the corpses. This game really has some dynamic elements to it...'

"May I ask who was the one to complete the quest?"

The receptionist frowned. "No. To protect that person, I cannot disclose her name. It has happened in the past where lazy adventurers would threaten hard working ones who completed their quests. I shall advise you against this. The different associations will not sit still if this sort of things repeat itself."

'Why did she become angry so suddenly?' said Li Wei to himself when he noticed the receptionist's rough behavior.

Completely ignoring his confused look, the receptionist continued. "Now onto the other thing you need to be informed of. You were on the escort in charge of protecting the seventh princess, right?"

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"Yes?"

"Alright. The princess submitted feedback on the escort she received. She was very dissatisfied with it and according to her, the adventurers caused the death of many loyal soldiers. A penalty has been placed on all the participants of the escort mission. You will not be allowed to take any quests for the following week and for the next month, all the rewards you obtain will be reduced by 25%."

"What? Is this even allowed?"

"Of course. Do you think we can allow adventurers to sully our reputation? We reward those who perform well but at the same time, punish the useless ones. You should consider yourself lucky. The escort missions this time were a failure. Only the group protecting the sixth prince successfully completed their mission. The adventurers in charge of the Earl's two sons were all penalized and will have to give up 50% of their harvest for the next two months."

"If you are not satisfied, feel free to file a complaint or boycott our association," added the receptionist with a condescending look. He already knew this was impossible; adventurers depended on the associations to make a living.

Li Wei did not know what to answer. What did he do to deserve this? 'The penalty for failing a quest is quite high. Even if I did complete it in the end, I did run away at some point and the princess was left alone... If that's the penalty for that... What would have happened if the princess died?'

Unable to retort, Li Wei left the Warrior Association. He could feel the disdain in the receptionist's eyes. However, at the same time, Li Wei was internally rejoicing. Since the case of the grave robber had been closed by someone else, didn’t that mean that he could keep everything he took from Oleg for himself?

'Let's pretend I never stumbled onto anything.'

There was a decent number of jewels and gold in his inventory. He initially believed he would need to submit it all back to the association to complete the quest but now that he could pretend he never found this treasure, Li Wei would naturally not complain. Having had his quest snatched by someone else has been a blessing in disguise! The wealth he had easily amounted to what he would earn in an entire month.

"It is pointless to submit all the loot from the trip to the Warrior Association, but I can still exchange at the Fleeting Clouds Sect for Contribution Points. This is the advantage of not putting all my eggs in one basket."

One of the families of the Fleeting Clouds Sect chose to settle at Boroughton. It was the Meng Family; their guild was called Harmony. As one of the largest families, the Meng family had many branches and offsprings. They did not need to share Boroughton and was already established as the dominant player force there.

...

At Harmony's headquarters, Li Wei stood in front of the collection counter and took out the monsters' drop. "I would like to exchange these items for Contribution Points."

The elder's eyes widened. "You... Did you hunt these monsters alone?"

There were not many items; after all, Li Wei only had a few hours to collect them but the elder was surprised by their quality. He disregarded the [Silver Wolf Hides] and the [Silver Wolf Paws] and focused his attention on the demons' drop. Although Silver Wolves were powerful monsters, they were not uncommon, but the demons definitely were!

Before the update, monsters above level 20 rarely appeared. The update took place yesterday and already, a player was bringing the drops of a level 25 monster.

"Yes. There was an event that took place at Verdan Town. I got them from the event," honestly answered Li Wei.

"Mmm. The Yu family did mention something like that. Wait a minute. I am unable to assess the value of these materials." The elder hurriedly called a few other elders to look at the materials.

Materials were only used by craftsmen. Their value depended on the use of the materials but if no one knew how to use them, they were worthless. At the moment, the Fleeting Clouds Sect was developing its crafting department but none of the players had reached Grade 2 yet. Therefore no one could use them yet.

However, the sect was already accumulating materials for future uses. They needed to cross check with the recipes they acquired if there was any use for these materials and even if there were none, they would still be useful for research and development.

"Thank you very much for your time. We have evaluated the items. If you are willing, you can trade them for 3700 Contribution Points," said another elder. He seemed to be the chief as he led the entire discussion. His name was Meng Hongwei.

'3700 Contribution Points? That's a lot for three hours of work!' thought Li Wei. He knew these materials were rare, but he did not know their value. However, the one thing he knew was that he needed to sell his items early; as time went by, their value would slowly decrease.

"Alright. Let's do the trade then. I also want to sell a few pieces of equipment here or trade them for others of equal value." Li Wei continued as he took out the Natta Blades.

"This... A Grade 2 weapon?" The elders were stunned. Only the chief elder remained calm. He had long noticed that Li Wei was already wearing quite a few pieces of Grade 2 equipment. Most players were current using Grade 1 equipment but for an outer member of the sect to own so many Grade 2 equipment, it was something they looked up to.

Outer members of the sect did not get many resources but that young men unexpectedly managed to obtain so many good things. Either his luck was too good or he was really talented.

"Of course, let me have a look at their stats. The sect really needs Grade 2 equipment. You will definitely get a good price," said Meng Hongwei excitedly. His eyes were glued to the blades.

After a brief examination, the elder in charge of Harmony's crafting team, Meng Suping said: "It is an excellent weapon. We are willing to trade 3800 Contribution Point if you trade it with Harmony."

"With Harmony?"

"Yes. We will use our own Contribution Points to pay for this weapon or any other Grade 2 equipment you are willing to sell."

Li Wei smiled. The elders' reaction clearly showed that the Natta Blades had a lot of value. "It is good to have a lot of Contribution Points but what is the use if I am unable to use them? May I look at what I can buy first?"

Meng Suping nodded. "Of course. Please browse the list but unfortunately, we are unable to sell any Grade 2 equipment. We still haven't properly equipped our core team yet."

Meng Hongwei looked at Li Wei before adding. "I see that you are a member of Avalanche, the Cai Family's guild. Why don't you join us instead? Your contract with them should be very loose. They are only an average family while our Meng Family is one of the largest ones. If you are willing to join us, you can directly join the core team and get the Grade 2 equipment you need."

"Thank you for your offer but I will have to refuse. I am very satisfied with Avalanche and I already fight alongside their core team." Li Wei nonchalantly answered as he continued to browse the item list. There were a lot of consumables and Grade 1 equipment made by the craftsmen but overall, it was disappointing.

"I was thinking. Will your Meng Family be willing to trade some of their techniques with me?" asked Li Wei.

"Our techniques? It will depend on which one. I see that you indeed have a lot of Contribution Points."

"I am looking for sword techniques and was thinking about one in particular. What about the Immortal Sword Spirit technique?" said Li Wei but instantly, he felt the atmosphere freeze.

"Impudent! You were eyeing our family's core technique all along! The Cai Family is really greedy!" exclaimed an elder.

Meng Hongwei shot a glance at the elder who immediately went silent. "Seven... If I am not wrong, you are the one who acquired the Li Family's Myriad Sword Dance. Am I wrong?"

"Yes. The Cai Family has nothing to do with this. It is for my own personal use," answered Li Wei.

"Interesting. You really did manage to gather a lot of Contribution Points but at the moment, you only have 5280 Contribution Points. Adding in the 3800 points from exchanging the Natta Blades, you will only have 9080 Contribution Points. Our Meng Family technique was originally priced at 12000 Contribution Points. And that is without taking into consideration the rise in prices. Even if we were willing to trade, you simply do not have enough."

A few elders at the back looked at Li Wei with disdain. 'How dares he aim for our family's technique. Even if he does have some talent, it is far from enough!'