The girl accepted his Adventurer Badge and processed his request. After a short wait, he heard a voice notification, "Congratulations on completing the quest Investigate a Duke's missing painting. Difficulty after a review is of S rank, thus rewards are increased. Receive rewards of 12 gold coins, 50,000 Experience points, and 1200 Adventurer Points."

Jack took a deep breath. S rank. Considering how the possessed Winston could kill him with one slap, it made sense that this quest's grade was way over his head. He was lucky to be able to survive as a matter of fact. The abundant experience that the quest completion provided also pushed his Warrior level to 17, now he was catching up to the others again after not gaining any experience for the past two days. The experience also brought his Mage class to 97% of level 15, just a small push then he would be a level 16 Mage.

'Good thing the quest provided high-level aides like Duke Alfredo and Captain Salem, and did not require me to be the one to defeat the possessed Winston,' Jack said in his mind. 'Otherwise, it would have been an impossible quest for anyone in this Silver hall.'

"I think the difficulty in solving the mystery behind the quest was also top tier," Peniel commented. "You have bagged this one all due to your own ability, even high-level adventurers are not guaranteed to be able to solve the case in this quest, so you deserve the rewards. But yes, despite solving the quest, you still need a certain amount of strength to survive the initial encounter against the possessed Winston. Now, ain't you lucky you have me who have helped you to make preparations?"

'Yes, yes, I am truly indebted to you,' Jack said as he received back his Adventurer Badge. He had collected 1311 Adventurer points, around one-tenth from the amount needed to become a Gold grade Adventurer. For the exchangeable points, there were 1211 Adventurer points inside his badge.

Now that he had so many Adventurer points, might be a good time to check the Silver hall exclusive item exchange list. He requested the counter girl to show him the exchange list. As he was more accustomed to the process already, he immediately scrolled to where the exclusive list was.

Moon Pendant (rare necklace) – 1200 adventurer points

Spellcasting gloves (rare cloth armor) – 980 adventurer points

Shield of Salvation (rare shield) – 1000 adventurer points

Expert Hammer and Anvil (rare Blacksmith tool) – 1100 adventurer points

Jack reviewed the four items in the exclusive exchange list for a while. Two out of the four were something he had no need of, so it only left the necklace and the blacksmith tool. The necklace appeared to be the more precious one considering the higher points it needed for exchange, but he already had a rare necklace. And the necklace he had was also exceptional, since its ability was one of the factors that had allowed him to survive when he was attacked by the possessed Winston. So should he pick the blacksmith tool?

Since he was at a loss, he turned to his trusted aide, 'okay, my dear fairy, which one do you propose for me to take?'

"Now it's 'dear' when you need me?" Peniel's voice replied with a mocking tone.

'Come on, you know I always have an utter respect upon you,' Jack said.

"Stop with your fawning, it's unbecoming of you," the fairy said. "If you really want to spend your adventurer points, take that spellcasting gloves."

'Huh? What for? I don't use cloth armor.'

"You forgot already about what I said regarding your disguise as a mage?"

'Oh, yes. I would need some cloth armor for that persona."

"Yes, you've already got a chest piece. With this glove, you will have two rare cloth armor pieces. You can buy the rest of the cloth armor pieces in the shop but you will only get common grade armor in that way. With two rare armor pieces and a rare staff, at least your Mage disguise wouldn't be too shabby."

'I see… But I think it is a waste not to get this blacksmith tool.'

"Are you planning to become a professional blacksmith?"

'No.'

"Then what the hell is it a waste for?" Peniel scolded him.

'Okay, okay, geez. No need to raise your voice.'

Jack proceeded to exchange his points for the gloves.

Spellcasting Gloves, level 15/35 (Rare cloth armor)

Physical Defense: 18

Magical Defense: 26

Durability: 40

Intelligence +2

When forming spell formation, runes will not dissolve when concentration is broken, cooldown: 10 minutes

This glove was obviously tailored for advanced magic users, as only advanced magic users used spell formations for their spells. He stored the gloves in his Storage Bag and was about to leave when the counter girl called him.

"Before you go, I would like to give you this," she said. A piece of rolled-up paper was put on the table.

"What's this?" Jack asked as he picked the piece of paper up.

"It was a gift from Duke Alfredo to compliment for the excellent completion of your job," the girl answered.

Now that she mentioned it, the Duke did say something about this. He inspected the piece of paper.

Thereath Property Deed

Can choose one ownerless plot of land within Thereath city's business district. Become an owner to the land and can build a business or residential facility in that land.

"The duke is rather generous to give you something like this," Peniel commented.

Jack agreed with her. Becoming a landlord in a VRPG like this was something that had been done in past games before, but it did not come cheap. Because like real-world land, virtual land was limited, while players were abundant. There were bound to be fierce competitions. Some games even demanded you to become a noble or have some kind of title before you could own a plot of land. Since this Deed said he could build a facility, he guessed there was no need for him to worry about nobility or title in this game world.

'But what could I use it for?' Jack said. 'it would be a waste if I just use it to build a residential building like a house. I already got free lodging at Amy's Bakery, no point to waste it simply for a place to sleep.'

"You can always build a shop," Peniel offered.

'Can I build one and just hired someone to take care of it?' Jack asked.

"You can, but if you hired a bad storekeeper, you will end up with more loss than profit. There is also a possibility the one you hired will steal from you."

NPC could also do that? Jack thought silently. 'Well, then this thing is rather useless, don't you say?'

"Wait! Didn't you have those friends that sell their cookings by the side of the streets? You can build a restaurant and let them run it."

'That's right! How come I forget about them?' Jack recalled after being reminded by Peniel. He thanked the counter lady and immediately walked away as he opened his Friends interface. He only had six friends on his list so it did not take him long to search the name he was looking for.

He clicked on Master Chef's name and sent a message, "Friend, where are you. Remember when I tell you about helping you build a shop? An opportunity has come up. Contact me if you are still interested."

He went outside and walked around as he waited for the guy to reply, but after more than ten minutes, there was still no reply. After thinking about it for a while, he had the urge to facepalm himself. How could he forget about how clueless Bill is about all this game system? He might not even aware that he could send messages through his status windows. He had wasted 12 copper coins to send the message for nothing.

He opened his Friends list again, this time he clicked on Ellie's name, and sent the same kind of message. He knew he had made the right call this time when he heard a reply notice in his chat system. He looked at the reply, "you already have 100 gold? That was fast. Of course we are still interested, but not available at the moment. We can meet tomorrow morning and discuss about it."

Jack sent his reply, "sure. Come to Amy's Bakery tomorrow morning, it's a shop at the Southeastern edge of the business district. Just ask around if you can't find it."

Ellie's reply came promptly, "All right, see you tomorrow."

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