Lara listened to what Ethan ordered. Ethan walked alone back into the forest, while Lara's team headed together toward Arkan City.

From a distance, Ethan could clearly see them. There were no players guarding the city entrance, and Arkan City itself wasn't protected by any big outer walls.

Could there be another city besides Arkan City?

That was what crossed Ethan's mind as he looked at the place. But he didn't need to think about that now. His focus had to be on the city in front of him.

Lara and her team were already out of Ethan's sight. He opened his digital map and watched their movements from there.

At least the first plan worked. People didn't remember or didn't even know what guild Ethan was from, since they thought Lara and her team were just ordinary players.

Even though the city had no outer walls, the inside was still wide enough.

That made many players stay temporarily in Arkan City before heading into the forest to hunt for Star Essence.

Ethan quickly hid when he saw a group of guild players coming out from another forest path.

They were chatting casually with each other, and Ethan couldn't see their guild abbreviation clearly.

They walked into the city calmly, without anyone suspecting them.

As night came, more and more guild teams entered the city to rest and relax.

Ethan, however, stayed in the forest, waiting for the right time to enter the city.

It was already nighttime, but he could still see plenty of players around the city entrance.

Maybe I'll wait a little longer.

Seconds turned into minutes, and hours passed by. Players started showing signs of fatigue, and the city's noise slowly faded.

Ethan checked the clock on his dashboard. It showed 2 a.m.—the perfect time for him to move.

Once things grew quiet around him, Ethan came out of the forest and ran toward the city.

There were still a few players awake, but they didn't seem to care when Ethan arrived.

Do they not know about me, or do they just not care?

Through his still-active digital map, Ethan could see that Lara and her team were resting at an inn.

They hadn't moved at all; their green dots stayed in the same place.

The inn was visible from where Ethan stood, matching the location shown on his map. But then, his attention shifted to the side—to a weapon shop that was still open.

He decided to delay resting and stepped inside the shop. He was greeted by a pretty girl with shoulder-length black hair.

She smiled at him, but what surprised Ethan was that her cursor color was yellow.

Smart NPC?

"Sir?" the girl asked, looking confused when she saw Ethan.

"It's nothing. I want to buy a rare weapon. Do you have any?"

"Of course. Do you want a regular weapon or a buff weapon?" she asked.

The Talent Quest didn't specify what kind of weapon it had to be—only its rank.

"The regular one."

The girl nodded, walked to the counter, and opened a system panel that displayed a list of Rare swords.

Ethan smiled. Since his class was Warrior, the recommended weapon was a sword.

He didn't mind. He wasn't planning to use the weapon anyway; he just needed it to fill his weapon quota for the Talent Quest.

His eyes focused on the seven regular swords displayed in front of him. Unlike buff swords, regular swords only had base ATK and DEF stats, while buff swords had extra effects after attacks.

As for the price? Buff swords were much more expensive than regular ones, but the added effects made it worth it.

"So? Which sword would you like to pick?" the girl asked.

One regular Rare sword cost 70,000 gold. Seven of them would cost 490,000.

Buying Rare swords sure is troublesome.

"So?" the girl asked again.

Ethan tapped on three regular swords that appeared before his eyes. The girl noticed his choice and brought out the three swords in her hands.

"That'll be 210,000."

A verification panel appeared in front of her. Ethan raised his hand and placed his palm on the box, letting the system confirm his identity.

[Transaction Successful:]

[3x Regular Sword (Rare) || 210,000 Gold]

Once the transaction was confirmed, the girl handed over the swords. Ethan took them, and the Talent Quest panel immediately appeared in front of him.

[Talent Quest:]

[Number of weapons: 19/100]

[Duration: 16:01:23:45]

Sixteen days left, and I haven't even got a quarter of what I need.

It'll be a problem if I delay this until the last minute. I need to work hard starting tonight.

"Sir? Do you need anything else?" the girl asked.

"Yes."

"Among all weapon types from each class, which one is the cheapest?" Ethan asked.

"That depends—what rank?"

"Rare."

"Hmm…"

The girl opened the list again and sorted all Rare weapons by price. Then, both she and Ethan saw the cheapest option—it came from one specific class.

"Bow and Arrow?" Ethan asked.

"Yes. They cost around 50,000 gold, cheaper than Priest weapons."

Again, the Talent Quest didn't specify any price limit for regular Rare weapons.

If I can exploit this, it'll make things easier for me.

Ethan still had 180,000 gold left, earned from the event fights and what he looted from the Twilight Guild.

That was enough to buy three Bow and Arrow weapons.

"I'll buy three of those," Ethan said.

"B-But you're a Warrior. Bow and Arrow weapons are useless for you," the girl replied, confused.

"Just do as I said."

"O-Okay."

She brought out three regular Rare Bow and Arrow weapons. Ethan went through the purchase and verification again.

The transaction was successful, leaving him with only 30,000 gold.

The good news was, he'd found a way to exploit the system. With the cheaper Bow and Arrow weapons, Ethan just needed to keep buying them until he completed his Talent Quest goal.

[Talent Quest:]

[Number of weapons: 22/100]

[Duration: 16:01:19:05]

"If you ever need something, feel free to visit my shop again," the girl said. Ethan nodded.

He said goodbye and stepped out of the shop. On the quiet city street, most players were asleep, the whole place wrapped in silence.

But not Ethan. He had already seen the city, knew where Lara and the others were staying, and even managed to shop.

But there was something important he had to do—and that couldn't be done inside the city.

He needed to go into the forest and kill monsters to earn gold. If he got Star Essence, that'd be a bonus. But his main goal was to collect gold.

Right now, he had 22 out of 100 weapons. That meant he still needed 78 more to finish the quest.

If he bought Bow and Arrow weapons for 50,000 each, then he'd need about 3,900,000 gold to complete it.

Still, it'd be even better if he ran into other guild teams hunting monsters at night.

He could threaten them and take their weapons—just like he usually did.

If only I'd taken the weapons from Silver Star members yesterday, the count would've gone up by now.

No point regretting what's already done. The good part was that I got to see how powerful Soul Servant Seraphelis really is.

"I better get moving now and be back in the city before morning."

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