Chapter 139: Mission Test
In other words, players could sell items back to the system at the prices in the Tier 2 shop to earn points, but these points could only be used to unlock the Tier 3 shop.
The Tier 2 shop had two tiers of Gold Dragons: 100 Gold Dragons for 5 points and 500 Gold Dragons for 10 points.
Ian naturally chose the more cost-effective tier.
Soon, Ian unlocked the Tier 3 shop by paying 2000 Gold Dragons.
After a moment's thought, Ian finally chose to buy two items.
First, a Valyrian Steel Arming Sword, which he planned to equip on the Water Dancer master, Yada Mor.
This way, even if Yada encountered a fully armored knight in a duel, the armor-piercing ability of Valyrian Steel would ensure her survival.
Secondly, there was the weirwood seed paste from the random shop; in the long run, unlocking the greensight ability early was definitely worthwhile.
In fact, if possible, Ian would prefer to buy it after the monthly settlement date, as that would help solidify his position as the top player on the leaderboard.
Unfortunately, Hazan's duel was only three days away, and the end-of-month settlement wouldn't be until five more days later. The Valyrian Arming Sword needed to be purchased before the duel to be effective.
The random slots in the Tier 3 shop refreshed at the end of each month, and there were only four slots. Ian wasn't sure if the weirwood seed paste would be available again.
After purchasing the items, Ian immediately consumed the weirwood seed paste.
Bitter—that was Ian's first reaction.
But the second spoonful was much better, and from the third spoonful onwards, Ian seemed to taste sweetness.
Its flavor grew increasingly complex, tasting like honey, fresh snow, pepper, and cinnamon.
Ian quickly finished the rest, looking at the empty jar with a lingering sense of satisfaction.
According to Bran's experience in the original story, he should have already begun to connect with the weirwood at this point.
But unfortunately, there was no weirwood here, and he didn't possess Bran's powerful greensight talent.
He was only consuming this to enhance his mental strength and gain the qualification to upgrade his 'greensight' ability.
After sitting for a while, Ian didn't feel any difference, so he logged into the system again and checked his stats:
[Ian: Strength 32, Agility 27, Mental Strength 19
Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Common Tongue Literacy, Sword Mastery, Advanced Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance, Beginner Skinchanger, Greensight Basic
Attribute Points: 0 Skill Points: 4 Points: 60 Items: Basic Skill Selection Scroll, Skill Upgrade Scroll]
His mental strength had increased by a full 6 points, and he had gained the Greensight Basic skill. Those 30 points were well spent, but unfortunately, this kind of improvement was only a one-time thing; consuming this again wouldn't have any effect.
Moreover, he now only had 60 points left, which wasn't ideal.
Thinking this, Ian went outside and called in Rol, who was on night watch.
He planned to use the two optional missions this month to replenish his points, and also use the missions to test information related to the red priestess at today's banquet.
In fact, the reason Ian hadn't used his two opportunities at the beginning of the month was to prepare for the possibility of needing to confirm something unexpectedly.
Originally, because optional quests didn't modify the quest descriptions, players couldn't use quests to gather information.
However, after discovering a loophole in optional quests where "if the root cause of quest failure doesn't exist, the quest will be immediately terminated," Ian found a way to obtain information.
The red priestess at the banquet was really bothering him. It wasn't that Ian wanted to get involved in anything related to her; he just wanted to make sure she wouldn't cause him trouble.
After all, the red priestess and Prince Hazan's betrothed had such a close relationship, and he would later need to cooperate very closely with Hazan.
If he didn't defuse this potential problem, Ian would be restless. Back in King's Landing, he had suffered a great loss due to a similar oversight.
"My lord, you wanted to see me?" Rol approached Ian and asked.
If Rol wasn't an NPC, Ian felt he would feel awkward at this moment, since the other man had witnessed how he went from Ser Lucien Lannister to Earl Ian Darryl.
"Yes, we'll continue with the test we did before. This time, the content is..." Ian told Rol the script he had just devised.
"The red priestess Celia invites you to the Red Temple atop the hill to meet her. I suspect this is a trap. If you can uncover her scheme, I will pay you this gold dragon. If you can ensure she won't pose a danger to you, then your mission is complete," Rol repeated.
Ian didn't pursue higher difficulty this time. After all, even the mission of [Defeating the Horse King or Defending Pentos] was only rated as medium. Before understanding the more specific rules for determining the difficulty of optional missions, raising the 'theoretical difficulty' further was pointless.
Ian was now more concerned with confirming whether the red priestess truly had a scheme against him, or rather, whether she harbored any hostility towards him.
Following the logic of the previous quest, "Defeat the Horse King or Protect Pentos," the quest was automatically completed because the Horse King himself had no hostility towards Pentos.
Similarly, if this quest was automatically completed, it meant the red priestess didn't intend to harm him, and she was likely unrelated to the player's faction.
If the conclusion was the opposite, Ian would need to re-evaluate his upcoming cooperation with Prince Hazan regarding the tournament.
Upon logging into the system, Ian saw a pop-up quest notification:
[Triggered Quest: Thwart the Red Priestess's Scheme
Quest Description: The red priestess, Celia, may be plotting against you. Ser Rol hopes you can uncover her motives, or at least ensure you are not put in danger because of her.
Quest Reward: 1 Gold Dragon Additional Reward: Unknown]
[Accept (Consumes 1 Point)]
[Completed Optional Quest Five 'Thwart the Red Priestess's Scheme'
Quest Difficulty Rating: Easy
Quest Reward: 1 Gold Dragon Additional Reward: 1 Point, 1 Attribute Point]
Whew, seeing the quest completed immediately, Ian breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that the red priestess wasn't hostile.
As for Easy? Seeing this difficulty rating, Ian was inexplicably pleased.
Although this time he lost 2 points and 2 attribute points compared to Medium difficulty, it at least proved that optional quests weren't limited to Medium difficulty.
If this time it was Easy, maybe he could find a way to achieve Hard difficulty in the future.
Thinking this, Ian began listing the information of the completed quests one by one, trying to find more patterns.
[The Truth Behind Black Falcon's Death] - Difficulty Assessment: Medium - Theoretical Difficulty: Hard - Actual Difficulty: Hard.
[The Traitor Within the Illyrio Merchant Guild] - Difficulty Assessment: Medium - Theoretical Difficulty: Medium or Hard - Actual Difficulty: None.
[Defend Pentos] - Difficulty Assessment: Medium - Theoretical Difficulty: Extremely Hard - Actual Difficulty: None.
[Thwart the Red Priestess's Scheme] - Difficulty Assessment: Easy - Theoretical Difficulty: Medium or Hard - Actual Difficulty: None.
First, the last three tasks were completed by exploiting a loophole, so their actual difficulty was zero, but their assessed difficulty varied.
In other words, the assessed difficulty was unrelated to the actual difficulty.
As for the theoretical difficulty, except for Illyrio's task, the other three tasks were rated lower than expected.
Wait, Illyrio? Ian suddenly had a hypothesis: could the difficulty assessment be related to the status of the task giver?
After all, Illyrio was the Magister of Pentos, and the biggest difference between him and the other two task givers, [Knight Rol] and [Mercenary Captain Dorian], was their status.
Could the different status of the issuer affect the assessment of task difficulty?
Ian quickly turned his attention to the tasks "[Guild Traitor]" and "[Red Priestess]".
Both tasks were fabricated and theoretically of equal difficulty (the latter even greater than the former), but the former was assessed as "Medium" while the latter was assessed as "Easy".
This clearly confirmed Ian's hypothesis.
So the key factor wasn't the theoretical difficulty of the task itself, but rather the social standing and authority of the person issuing it. A magister's concerns were weighted more heavily than a knight's or mercenary captain's worries.
Ian leaned back, satisfied with this discovery. Understanding the system's logic was crucial for maximizing his gains.
Now he just needed to use his final optional quest for the month, and he'd be back on track with his points.
(End of Chapter)
[500 Power Stones → +2 Bonus Chapters]
[10 Reviews → +1 Bonus Chapter]
Enjoyed the chapter? A review helps a lot.
P2treon: Soulforger (20+ advance chapters)