Chapter 30：Gold Coins!

At a quarter past six, Xiao Ling's level finally rose by one. He was now at level 9.

Night was falling, as was visibility. Xiao Ling would usually return to the nearest town at about seven o'clock. However, this time, Xiao Ling lingered on until nine.

He could hardly see anything around himself now. Relying on his sharp senses and quick reflexes, Xiao Ling managed to detect and kill the monsters in time. Hence, he could prolong the time he had to level up, but he was also taking a great risk at the same time.

What would Xiao Ling have given to have night vision. That way, he would have nearly twice as much time as the other players had for leveling purposes. Demonic Warlocks had their Demon Eye which increased a player's visibility in the dark. Hence, they had more time for leveling compared to other classes.

He heard that the skill tome for this skill could be dropped by a certain Boss in the vicinity. However, the drop rate was very low, which meant that the price was sky high. It had once been sold for 15,000 gold coins at the Brakada Auctioneer. The mere mention of the price inspired fear in the listeners. Xiao Ling did not have the luxury of considering buying items that expensive... at least for now.

If he wanted to do some leveling, his current set of skills was certainly insufficient. Xiao Ling remembered that each class had its own set of practical skills. These skills became the goals that Xiao Ling sought after. They included the Demonic Warlock's Demon Eye and Summon Demon; Life Tap, Curse of Agony, and other spells of the Affliction Warlocks; and Infernal Fire, Meteor Fire, and other AoE spells of the Destruction Warlocks.

These were classic spells used by the three specializations of the Warlock Class. They were very practical. However, the skill tomes for magic spells were usually very expensive. Xiao Ling would have to pay a high price to collect these spells. This would have to wait until later. Moreover, building a mechanical puppet required a lot of gold as well. For now, Xiao Ling did not have any excess money to purchase magic skill tomes.

Xiao Ling fully appreciated how valuable money was. Without money, he could not do anything.

Truth be told, there was no shortage of gold-making avenues on Endace Continent. For instance, with Xiao Ling's Artisan rank mining, if he went to mine some ores in the wild, he would be able to earn several hundred gold coins per day. If he found any Rare ores, he might even be able to sell them for 1,000 to 2,000 gold coins. However, Xiao Ling did not have the patience. He had too much that he wanted to achieve. His current priority was to kill Sister Oslinland.

Xiao Ling could only level up nearby. He accepted the fact that he would have to wait for his chance after his level was high enough.

The night was thickening; he could not even see his fingers. Xiao Ling had no choice but to teleport back to Tilia. Xiao Ling handed over his quest at the Mercenary Guild and obtained 60 gold coins and 2,000 EXP. The 2,000 experience points raised Xiao Ling's level by one. He was now at level 10.

Under the orange glow of the magic lamps, Xiao Ling went back to the inn. Dozens of players were gathered there, chatting. These players were adventurers who had come here from other places. Most of them were only in the range of level 10-20. Perhaps they were here for leveling up or to farm gemstones. However, their destination was usually the same place, the Scarlet Monastery.

Xiao Ling sat down in a corner and ordered a Hamundale fruit juice. Under the orange light, he drank his beverage slowly. As a warlock with formidable spiritual power, it was no issue for him to go a week without rest. He found it relaxing to be killing time here. He could even learn some useful information from the conversations between players here.

To prevent his Hilaire's Demon Ring from catching too much attention, Xiao Ling bought a pair of warming gloves from the inn and wore it over the ring.

There was a loud din of conversation in the inn, but he could not deny that he could obtain much useful information from the conversation between the other players. At the same time, Xiao Ling's greatest pastime was to appraise the equipment of others. It must be said that a Mechanical Alchemist's eyes were too vicious. Xiao Ling could tell the likely attributes of the equipment he was appraising based on some knowledge of the ores he learned before.

Most of the players had equipment which shone with a light blue glow. The light blue glow was most likely released by the Rain Frost Metal which could be found in the southern tundra. This metal was widely used to forge equipment, giving it some fire resistance. However, due to the lackluster quality of the ore itself, its effects were only mediocre at best.

Xiao Ling remembered the Scarlet Mages' Fireballs with their high damage. It seemed that the players had prepared the equipment specifically to defend themselves from the Scarlet Mages' Fireballs.

An elite player would usually prepare a few sets of equipment which had frost resistance, fire resistance, lightning resistance, shadow resistance, pure defense, or a similar property. While fighting against a Boss or PvPing, they could switch between different sets of equipment based on their opponent's attributes.

However, these were games that the rich played.

Xiao Ling only had 16 slots in his bag. If he filled them with various equipment, he would not have space for anything else.

A 16-slot bag only cost 50 gold coins. A 20-slot travel backpack produced by the Mage Association only cost 100 gold coins, the 30-slot version cost 500 gold coins, and the 50-slot version cost 5,000 gold coins. The larger the capacity, the higher the price!

Xiao Ling could not afford such an expensive backpack!

Xiao Ling could not help but curse inwardly. 'It's still a problem of money!'

He spent a whole three hours in the dark corner. However, he was rewarded with lots of information, including the locations where gemstone drop rates were higher or things to note while killing monsters and fighting Bosses in the Scarlet Monastery. Xiao Ling remembered most of them.

It was rumored that a party formed by 33 level 40+ players had accepted the Mercenary Guild's quest of killing Oslinland for the huge reward, but they returned in low spirits after their apparent failure. They searched for two days within the Scarlet Monastery, and could not locate Oslinland. However, they managed to kill one of Oslinland's servants, Christina, and she dropped an SSS level 20 equip and two gemstones.

However, that was not worth the time and energy they'd spent in there. A piece of SSS equipment and two gemstones were not too valuable for a party of 33 elite level 40+ players.

Xiao Ling listened on silently. Nobody would take much notice of him, after all.