Chapter 139: Polishing Reputation
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor:
The valley was large, with rows of houses made of wood planks neatly arranged. From time to time there would be two or three Centaurs passing by, and they would all have this strange expression in their eyes, as if they just saw some kind of a monster.
Perhaps, just like how humans feel strange looking at these four-legged strange creatures, they also felt that two-legged humans are some sort of a monster!
Following Bangar Kukulo back to his staying place, the mission was prompted as completed, and Zhang Yang was rewarded with 50,000 experience points.
'Ding! You have activated the Reputation of the Centaur, current reputation: Unfriendly!'
Zhang Yang brought up the reputation list and took a look. Sure enough, he saw there was a new additional entry for the Centaur, currently labeled as Unfriendly 0/3,000. Continuing to walk outside, the initial names of the Centaurs shown in red have all turned into pale-red in color.
In 'God's Miracle', monsters with their names shown in red meant that they were aggressive, as soon as you entered their aggro range, you will be attacked. So the reputation system was basically the correspondent to the aggro.
Monsters with their names shown in pale-red meant that their corresponding reputation would be at Unfriendly. These monsters would not initiate their attacks on the players. However, if the players were battling these monsters, it would attract any nearby monsters of the same type, if there was any, to gang up on the players. It was just like people having a street fight in the street, if a person saw a relative or friend in some sort of trouble, they would definitely put their fists out to help.
Monsters with their name shown in yellow meant that their corresponding reputation will be Neutral. Neutral monsters also would not initiate their attacks on players. In fact, if players attacked these type of monsters, it would not attract aggro even though there were the same type of the monsters passing by around the place. It will be just like looking at one of their fellow villagers fighting, just enjoying the show from the side.
Monsters with their names shown in green meant that their corresponding reputation would be Friendly, Respect, Admire and Worship. Unless a player switched on the indifferent attack option, they would not be able to attack green-named monsters. However, green-named monsters were usually an NPC of a main city. Once players attack their kind, it was highly possible that the players would suffer the banishment from the main cities, which would only mean loss and detrimental to one self.
Not long after Bangar Kukulo returned to the camp, he vanished. As an NPC that guided players to activate the reputation of the Centaur, his mission was to continuously be pursued by monsters and turn to players for help, bringing players back to activate the Reputation of the Centaur.
Zhang Yang gave himself a thought that since there was a Reputation of Centaur, then there surely must be a reputation shop around selling some different levels of reputation-corresponding goods.
He took a look around the valley and found the reputation shop not long after.
[Tulong Kukulo, The Reputation Shopkeeper] (Elite, Humanoid)
Level: 80
HP: 120,000
"Hey, human, want to buy something nice? All we Centaurs have are only natural authentic goods, never a fake one around!" Tulong Kukulo was indeed a professional businessman career, and regardless of his cold corresponding reputation, he started selling immediately. As he was talking, he opened his sale catalog to Zhang Yang.
The first glance into the list was the Fountain of Soul! It was selling at the price of 1,000 gold per bottle!
So, the Fountain of Soul required in the quest can be bought from NPC! And, without any doubt, this is certainly the only way to get the Fountain of Soul!
The slight overprice of the item could be overlooked, but if this was a reputation shop, that meant the natural authentic goods that Tulong Kukulo sells had a reputation requirement to be fulfilled, And the reputation requirement for the Fountain of Soul was: Worship!
The Fountain of Soul would bind with the players that picked it up. Therefore, do not expect to let players that have fulfilled the reputation requirement to purchase the item on behalf of those who have not!
In fact, any items with reputation requirement would bind with the players.
However, the reputation requirement did not go without any benefits. Other than the Fountain of Soul, Tulong Kukulo had other nice goods including skill books, professional recipe blueprint, and small pets and so on!
There were a total of 6 skill books, corresponding to the six major occupations respectively, with the same reputation requirement of worship! The Warrior skill book was the <Blast Wave>, a skill that Zhang Yang saw before in previous game. The effect was to send a shock wave to the front, causing damage to all enemies within the range, stunning all targets for 4 seconds.
The recipe and blueprint for the forgery and alchemy were the < Recipe: Centaur Battle Axe> and the <Recipe: Beginner Power Potion> respectively.
Zhang Yang had no idea on what attribute was the Centaur Battle Axe, but he was very clear on the effect of the Beginner Power Potion: Increases the damage output by 20% for 15 seconds.
This potion was not bad at all, giving miraculous effects for situations that required focus and swift attacks.
During PK, players might get to make a total comeback with just a bottle of power potion! The disadvantage was that all the potions shared the same cool down, and consuming the power potion would prohibit players to consume other potions. So, whether it was life insurance or charging hard, it was necessary to consider for one over the two choices.
Zhang Yang had no love for small pets. Moreover, he could not sell it for money either because of the pick-up binding feature. So, he skipped straight through it.
Other than that, there was also a special whetstone ------ Powerful Whetstone. Once applied on the weapon, it will grant 1% critical rate bonus.
Among the rest, skill books required Worship reputation tier, crafting recipes required Admire reputation tier, Pets and whetstones required only Respect reputation tier.
Why was this quest S-rank then? In 'God's Miracle', if the level of the monster was higher than the player which led to the label of the difficulty of the quest to become higher , it will only change between the ranks of B, C, and D. Rank-A mission meant that there must be a boss to kill, but killing the boss will not be too challenging. However, if it was an S-rank mission, there definitely will be a main boss, such as Shurian of the Cave of Bones, and Terpot Ryhar of the Underground Tower!
S-rank missions signify burden, but also stand for a very handsome reward!
Needless to say, it would be necessary to battle some kind of a big boss is in the process of elevating reputation!
"What say you? Tempted or not?" Tulong Kukulo grinned with a sinister smile of a businessman. "Such a shame you are a stranger, as our clan have rules, never to sell our precious goods to strangers that is! But, you can run some errands for us, errands that are not convenient for our hands to handle. Then we shall trust you, and gradually treat you as our good amigo (friend)!"
After finished talking, a yellow exclamation mark suddenly appeared right above Tulong Kukulo's head.
Here came the quest!
Zhang Yang immediately said, "Alright, Tulong Kukulo, I am willing to serve the great clan of the Centaur!"
That flatter had landed so solidly onto the ass of Tulong Kukulo, making the prestigious businessman melt in smiles, so he said, "Alright! We shall look upon your sincerity then. Prove it if you can, then I shall consider offering you more quests! Winter is upon us, we need food reserved for the winter. Go hunt us something upon your return!"
"Ding! Tulong Kukulo has a quest for you: Food for the Winter. Will you accept it?"
Upon accepting the quest, the exclamation mark right above Tulong Kukulo has disappeared, meaning that there were no other quest announcements.
"Ding! You have acquired a [Butcher Knife]!"
Zhang Yang summoned his Skeletal War Horse and left the Centaur camp, at the same time, he was checking on the quest list.
[Food for the Winter] (Difficulty: Rank-C)
Description: We want meat! Tulong Kukulo of the Centaur clan requests you to collect as many meat as possible to get them covered for the soon-to-be winter! You can hunt for monsters around Sivar Hills and carve their meat down with the [Butcher Knife].
Completion: Collected meats 0/100
Quest reward: 50,000 experience point, 250 Centaur reputation points.
[Butcher Knife] (Quest item)
Use: Cut the meat from the monsters/beasts.
Zhang Yang rode on his horse and pulled a few dozen of beast-type monsters such as sabretooths, drizzly bears, and violent wolves to him in one shot, then he got down and started his killing-spree. These normal rank monsters only have a basic damage of 600 more or so, hitting on Zhang Yang would only cause about 250 damage.
With just moving around and <Block>, triggering a <Berserker's Heal> or the special effect of [Lover's Sword] with no big deal, Zhang Yang slaughtered all the monsters with his slightest effort, and used the [Butcher Knife] to cut the meat down.
One beast gave about 2 to 4 pieces of meat, as for its specific numbers, it was totally random. For one turn of cutting the meat, Zhang Yang had an addition of 44 pieces of meat. With 2 more pulls and clearing monsters out, the number of the meat was summed up to 127 pieces.
But the set of meat could pile up to 200 pieces, and Zhang Yang was too lazy to discharge the excessive meat out, so he ran straight to Tulong Kukulo to deliver his quest.
'Ding! You have completed the quest: Food for the winter, received 50000 experience points, Centaur reputation +250!'
Looking at Tulong Kukulo again, another exclamation mark in blue appeared above his head... a repetitive quest.
It was still the same, killing wild beasts to cut some meat, collect 100 pieces of meat to deliver the quest. On the basic practice of the game, these repetitive missions would only be unavailable when it reached a 'qualitative change', for example, when a player has leveled up, or the reputation has elevated to another level.
It required 3,000 reputation points to elevate from cold to neutral. Each mission rewarded 250 points, meaning a total of 12 times completion, which also meant collecting 1,200 pieces of meat. Just a walk in the park! Let's depart now!
Zhang Yang summoned his [Skeletal War Horse] and began his hunting operation. This time, he intended to fully score 1,100 pieces of meat before delivering back to Tulong Kukulo for the quest rewards, elevating the reputation level to neutral in one shot.
With Zhang Yang's current equipment, skills and strength, he could only take on as much as 30 or 40 monsters of his similar level. However, the beasts in the area were too spread out, making it possible to pull only about 10 monsters at a time, as the previous monsters that were pulled would leave their pursuit in combat due to target being too far away.
It required about 2 minutes for the whole process which included pulling monsters, gathering and killing the monsters in a spot, and cutting the meat. Most of the time would be wasted on searching for monsters, not to mention that cutting the meat was also a time-consuming process. However, killing the monsters consumed the least of time.
About an hour later, Zhang Yang had collected 1,100 pieces of meat and he headed back to Tulong Kukulo to deliver his quest.
'Ding! You have completed the quest: Food for the winter, received 50,000 experience points, Centaur reputation +250!'
'Ding! You have completed the quest: Food for the winter, received 50,000 experience points, Centaur reputation +250!'
'Ding! You have completed the...'
After delivering the quest for 11 times, Zhang Yang received a glow of green light across his body, which meant that his reputation had been elevated by a level.
"Human, I can feel your worship heart towards us Centaurs. As a token of encouragement, I shall grant you a new quest!" Tulong Kukulo smiled with much satisfaction and he said, "Our food for the Winter is very much enough now, but we could need a large amount of pelts to fight the cold! Human, hunt the White Spot Antelope, cut their skin down for me! The more, the better!"
"Ding! Tulong Kukulo has given you a quest: Clothes for the Winter. Will you accept it?"
Was it possible to decline?
[Clothes for the Winter] (Difficulty: Rank-C)
Description: It's cold as hell! Hurry up and bring some exquisite fine woolen blanket made of antelope skin! Tulong Kukulo requested you to collect the skin of White Spot Antelope. Help the Centaurs solve their Winter problem. The Sivar Hills are full of White Spot Antelopes.
Completion: Collect skin of the White Spot Antelope 0/20
Reward: 5,000 experience points, 250 reputation points.
This was also a repeatable quest, just like the previous one.