When the girl accepted his clan invitation, Arthur felt a little shiver pass through him, a connection forming. Weird how he felt this one more closely than he had the Tower connections on the first floor. While Su Mei read over the clan notification, lips moving wordlessly, Arthur abandoned her to Jan and made his way over to the quest board. Let her figure out what she had gotten herself into and the advantages of his clan. They were numerous after all.
In the meantime, as much as he wanted to take a break, the idea of trekking all the way back here in the morning just to grab some quests was less than happy-making. Which was why he was perusing the quest board now.
Best to get it over with.
Quests. Lots of them. In fact, there were more posted here than on the first floor. The entire cork board was covered with little slips, pinned on top of one another. Few kill quests, of course, since it only made sense to have those with particularly dangerous monsters. Not so many of those named monsters on this floor.
More interestingly for Arthur were a half-dozen quests nearby that were a mixture of mapping quests and eradication quests. The former were not Tower-made quests but posted by human individuals and organizations, asking for maps of specific locations and directions. The latter, of which there were four, were Tower-made and focused on four villages of monsters called orang minyak.
In any case, eyes moving along, Arthur noted the next batch of quests. He rolled his eyes at them, remembering his own experience with these quests and couldn’t help but ask, out-loud. “Does anyone actually like gathering quests?”
“I do!” Su Mei piped up from a short distance away. She was back to smiling and looking happy, regarding at Arthur with newfound, dare he say it, respect. “You get to earn credits, you know!”
“More for you then,” Arthur said. He flicked his gaze over the list. He didn’t bother taking any gathering quests himself, since he didn’t really know the difference between the items requested. Also, he would likely be working with his team so it didn’t make sense to take a gathering quest—they were geared towards an individual working alone.
On that note . . .
“You want to take some of these then?” Arthur asked his newest recruit.
“Sure!” she said brightly. She pushed past Arthur without another word, pulled a pen and notepad out and jotted down quest notes.
In the meantime, Arthur was checking out the “miscellaneous quests” section. The quests here were mostly posted by fellow cultivators. There were quite a few escort or party-up requests. Basically the weak looking to group together or be carried along till they could grow in strength. A bunch were just asking for direct purchases of credits or cores. Then, of course, you had the ones asking for cultivation manuals and techniques, training in techniques, or sparring partners, and even alchemical pills.
All in all, a big smorgasbord of requests, none of which Arthur needed right now. He did mark down a few that he felt were interesting, nothing that was single-recipient though, and made his way over to speak with the attendants. Jan did the same. At that point, they confirmed what the mandatory quest was for the second floor.
“Can I register for it now, and form the party later?” Arthur asked.
“All members of your party must register together,” the attendant replied politely.
“Figures. Thank you!” Arthur said quietly. “Help me out here, Jan?”
“What?”
“What’s an orang minyak again?”
“Ooooh, that one? You don’t know. How can?”
“Hey, you try remembering everything there is to know about a Tower.”
Jan let out a tired huff but still answered. “Orang minyak. Literally, oil person. Monsters covered in black . . . grease, I guess. Like one of the movies, the one with the monkeys.”
“Apes,” Rick cut in. “They look like the apes from the third remake of Planet of the Apes. Or maybe, the original. Not the second, those were too, uh . . .”
“Apey,” Arthur said, nodding. “I remember now. Someone uploaded a picture of them. Was a meme for a bit.”
“Exactly!” Rick snapped his fingers. “Who got the monkey.”
“Which, again, makes no sense,” Arthur said. Then again, memes never made sense. There was a period when everyone was into a gorilla from the past. It still cropped up once in a while in those “can you name the meme” quizzes.
“Four villages. ‘Twenty or so orang minyak’? Waaah, so many.” Jan muttered, finger running down one of the quest notices. She moved to the next quest and read it over. “Same-same.” Another one, and then the final one before she winced. “Forty?!”
“Forty orang minyak?” Arthur’s eyes widened, elbowing her aside to read it. “Oh, wow. That’s like nearly two hundred credits, though. And we get to keep whatever we find and their cores.”
“Forty’s a lot, especially for four of us,” Rick said. “Explains why it takes everyone so long to clear.”
“There aren’t just four of us,” Arthur muttered. He noted how Rick had added himself to the total but chose to ignore that point. He’d deal with the man later.
Once he had registered for all the other quests he wanted, Arthur moved to grab a seat as they had to wait for Su Mei, who had the longest list by far. Of course, those gathering quests were particularly long and detailed, requiring the attendant to provide details of how to gather each of the herbs or other items.
Eventually though, while Arthur was half-asleep and Rick stood to the side, spinning gun in hand again and again, the newest Benevolent Durian was done. Arthur jerked upright when Jan placed a hand on his shoulder, lips pursed in annoyance.
“I’m awake, I’m awake.” Arthur popped up on his feet, grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. “Shall we find a proper place to rest?”
“Clan building?” Jan said.
“Clan building.”
The grin she offered was a little too vicious for him to consider as happy. He looked around once more, still not spotting any of the other teammates who should have arrived already. It was a little concerning, especially since the young lady who was supposedly his sponsor hadn’t shown up. But there was nothing he could do.
Yet.