Damon walked for a long while before he came to the other end of the outskirts of the city, where the cobbled roads faded into overgrown dirt paths. The noise of clanging steel and hawking vendors gave way to the chirps of crickets and the rustling of wind-blown stalks.
A small, run-down hut stood there like a forgotten relic, its wooden frame leaning precariously and its thatched roof half-eaten by time. Beside it stretched a paddy field, the muddy water reflecting the gray overcast sky.
He paused at the edge of the field, taking it in. It looked abandoned—no workers, no livestock, just wild overgrowth choking out the remaining crops. Damon walked to the hut, boots squelching into the muddy path.
Inside there was an old man who was listlessly lying on the floor. Damon fetched some water from a nearby well and gave it to him, gently lifting the man's head and pouring the cool liquid past his cracked lips. The old man coughed once, twice, and then blinked as if waking from a dream. His eyes were sunken and bloodshot, but sharp with a kind of haunted desperation.
"You're… not from around here," the man rasped.
"No," Damon said simply. "I came here looking for some work. Your field needs some attention and I would be happy if I could help you with it for a few silver coins."
The farmer didn't respond right away. He stared out the door, toward the paddy field, his gaze distant. "You ever lose someone, boy?" he asked after a moment.
Damon said nothing. But his silence was enough.
"My daughter," the old man whispered. "She was just a child. Ten winters. She went out to gather lotus bulbs several days ago and never came back."
"They tell me she ran away because I am a worthless old man. They tell me she is just lost and will find a way back. They tell me she found a rich man to take care of her. They tell me all sorts of things about her." Hatred filled the old man's eyes. "She is just a child." He whimpered.
[Ding! New Quest Available]
Quest: Whispering Fields
Objective: Search the surrounding paddy field and the Moonbulb Marsh for signs of the missing girl. Return with news to the grieving farmer.
Reward: +200 EXP
Do you wish to accept the quest? Yes / No
Damon immediately accepted the quest. At the first glance it might look like a simple quest with pitiful experience point rewards but he knew better. This was a special hidden quest and there was a hidden quest like this in every city that triggered a world boss event.
This thing was only discovered only year into the game but right now Damon was desperate for the item that dropped from this world boss. He had to speed up some things. He simply had no other choice.
He looked at the quest again and smiled. A deceptively simple quest but in his last life it had cost many people a ton of time. This was because while the quest suggested a couple of places to search for the missing girl and both those places would be dead ends.
Eventually, the clue about the missing girl was found in a completely different place. The fountain at the center of the city. Finding this clue would immediately trigger the event. However, Damon needed one more thing from the farmer.
A few minutes later, he walked back to the center of the city and arrived at the fountain. The priest type players were still littered in the city. One could randomly throw a stone and it would hit a priest. They were like bees buzzing around everywhere.
Damon managed to catch a couple of conversations and he heard that the players had now started arranging groups to comb through the game world in search of the fiend who managed to defile the holy awakening waters on the very first day.
"Mmmmm." Damon hummed. He hated these priest class players. In his last life, these guys endlessly hunted the dark faction players and even got disgusting buffs when fighting against the dark faction players. They were a hateful bunch of bastards.
"If these bitches are going to form groups and hunt me down, then its only fair I make them all lose a couple of levels and get a headstart." He grinned as he strolled around the fountain.
He was not completely sure if the item would be found considering the difference in dates but he soon spotted it.
A small ribbon was floating just below the surface of the fountain, barely visible unless someone knew exactly where to look. Damon crouched beside the edge, pretending to adjust his boot, and slipped his hand into the cool water.
His fingers brushed the fabric—a child's ribbon, pale blue, stained with a faded crimson blotch near one end.
[Ding! Quest Progress Updated]
You have acquired: Bloodstained Ribbon (Quest Item)
This ribbon once belonged to a child. It carries faint traces of fear and corruption.
Damon only barely pulled it out when the farmer somehow appeared right behind him. "That is hers. That is my child's. Who dared to harm my child?" the old man whispered, voice trembling with a mix of sorrow and rage.
The old farmer didn't wait for an answer. His sunken eyes locked on the ribbon, his hands trembling as he took it. Something inside him snapped. The sorrow was still there, but now it was buried beneath something else—something darker.
"Her soul... it still screams," he murmured. "The marsh didn't take her. The city did. One of the greedy pigs here killed my child." With mad and enraged eyes he turned to look at everyone standing hear the fountain. "I curse you. I curse you all! Die! Suffer the same fate my child did. Die a death more miserable than hers!"
The next second he reached inside his rags and pulled out a black crystal. Without any hesitation the farmer crushed the crystal in his palm.
Almost instantly, the air around them changed. Everyone gawking at the scene dumbfoundedly looked at each other, not knowing what was going to happen. Dark clouds gathered in the sky, the light dimmed and the temperature dropped.
A ripple of dark energy exploded outward from the man, sending players nearby stumbling, gasping, clutching their heads.
The fountain's water turned murky, then red. The ground quaked.
[Ding! World Event Triggered — The Black Harvest Rises]
World Boss Unsealed: Malakar, Reaper of Fields (Lv. ???)
***
Golden ticket bonus chapter