The stuff the Pharmacists want to buy has decent price tags. The list includes that lily from my last quest and they'd pay ten gold for a piece. How much did that job give me? Way less, for sure. It's no wonder the devs wanted to patch this exploit then.
They buy rat tails too, for ten coppers which is crazy.
The zombie and skeleton parts pay three in the Guild, and there is no question about which one is tougher to get. Well, not every rat drops a tail. It must be an ingredient instead of proof, so it's good I collected them.
Looking at the trade window, the prices start to shift. Is it the owner updating them? The offer for the lily increases by one gold to eleven and even the rat tail doubles to twenty copper. Of course, they'll soon become a rarity with the quests drying up.
It might be worth holding onto them to see where it goes. Too bad for those few I sold to Selena, there are only four in my inventory right now. Let's pay better attention in the next missions, even if these won't make me a billionaire. In the long run, every coin helps.
Who knows what the fed's next quest will be?
"Do you know where these plants grow around the village?" It can't hurt to ask the Pharmacist, for future reference. Even if my main goal is to gain enough Exp to tick off that governmental quest, any easy method to earn money is welcome. Petra shakes her head though.
"These three grow in the Caldari Desert two weeks of walking distance from here." The window highlights some of the plants including the poisonous lily. Yes! It looked like a desert flower even with my failed botanical exam. "Rat tails might be the only commodity found nearby."
For now, sweetheart. Until they become a rarity too.
"Understood. I'll keep an eye out for them." It's time for ratting, I spent so long in the Guild and the Pharmacy that it's getting dark out there again. Always those damn distractions, but it's fine. Talking to the NPCs always teaches me something new.
Let's hope one of the quests will escalate and I get to wait for the midnight respawn. This is my new master plan. The tenth level needs over twenty thousand Exp, so ten escalated jobs would do the trick. Or to run five of them twice.
[Government Issued Quest: Reach Level 10 within 3 days. Importance: Utmost. Difficulty: Average. Progress: 9/10, Exp to next level: 4394/25600. (20/72 hours left).]
Without jinxing it, this finally seems doable.
The other shopkeeper returns as I leave, and the lanterns light up the streets. Correction: it would be doable after avoiding all the distractions everywhere. Sprint until the next waypoint, it's only a hundred meters away. That's one corner from the Pharmacy.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The first villager doesn't stand in front of his home like the rest, but I catch him walking inside. The usual dialogs won't fire either, he ignores me even after blocking his way to the next room. There is no sign of rats, yet the system won't say that the quest became invalid.
He appears as a grey dot like normal, and a yellow one lights up towards the basement for a split second. So this is what it is: another player got here first and already started the quest. It's not an E-rank escalated version, so it shouldn't matter.
Visiting the basement to see how he tackles the mission is tempting. Fuck your distractions, Arnim. It would suck if someone beat me to the next one. Midnight is getting close, the ideal moment for my master plan.
The closest errand is near the spawn point where the zombies killed me on my first day. It's easy to forget that the undead can give me experience too. Not enough to risk someone else running the missions while taking the detour though.
[The E-rank "Rat Infested Home" escalated into D-rank "Rat Ravaged Home".]
"Yes! This is what I wanted to see." It's ten at night in the game, and an hour should last two and a half real-world minutes. Five minutes until midnight should be enough to clear the quest and not too much to wait for the respawn. Perfect.
It feels like being a scumbag for not starting by healing the villager, but there is a good reason for that. If anyone wants to turn in the quest while it's incomplete, they'd have to come here and heal him themselves.
"Sorry buddy, if I did it, they could rob me of the Exp while waiting for the respawn." The muting function doesn't kick in from mumbling under my nose. Now that horrible antidote, so the rats wouldn't get me sick, and it's showtime.
[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 02:59]
It's a shame that one of them won't be enough to run the mission twice. Or what if you leave a few drops in the vial? It worked with the food and the healing potion, so why wouldn't it work with this bitter crap. I'm starting to catch the Jazz of this game.
The rats wait in the kitchen covered by the ugly green fog. Their red eyes still glow through, leading my dagger like a homing missile. Will my character spot if something drops though? Of course, the fog clears once they all drop dead, and I'll have to wait a few minutes anyway.
[You killed a Plague Rat +50 Exp.]
They are easy as always. The attic comes next and since the air is already cleaner, I spot the first rat tail drop. It's a good motivation, even if it only pays a few coppers. This might change soon, and the threat of failing the fed's mission no longer drives me forward.
If this tactic works, five or so quests and it's done. Since using the right potion, they can no longer hurt me, so what could go wrong? The room is clear with another surprise drop, and it's going faster than usual, so on to the basement.
[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 01:31]
"Anyone has a tail to spare?" This gives me an idea. What if you use precision to cut them off before they turn into pixels? They must have one or two HP in total so every hit will kill them anyway.
The first one misses, even though these critters almost beg for my dagger. They don't hide, don't dodge, they only know to attack, or wait for their turns. It has been some time since they landed a hit on me that caused actual damage, making me careless.
Trying to hold them down with one hand and cut with the other invites a bite on my fingers, and it's not covered in armor. The fuckers have sharp teeth, even with the pain turned down to ten percent, it hurts a lot. Thanks for the antidote they won't infect me.
"Come on, give me that tail." It's better to step on them instead but you must be careful not to squish them to death. Now of all time, they start to run around too, to annoy me. "Why does it have to be so difficult?"
[Status effect: Immunity (antidote) 00:42]