Kael pulled up the control panel, discovering a new tab next to the character sheet: NPC Management.
NPC: Ullr
Title: Starlight Village Ambassador
Authority: Starlight Village Lord
…
Beyond individual NPCs, there was a village-wide overview:
Starlight Village
Treasury: 980 Gold Ingots
(1 Gold Ingot = 100 Gold Coins)
Lumber: 680
Copper: 90
Iron: 30
Population: 10,000
Yesterday’s Tax Revenue: 1 Gold Ingot
…
Kael’s mouth watered when he saw the 980 Gold Ingots sitting in the treasury. His first impulse was to figure out how to embezzle the funds.
He messed with the interface for a while but couldn’t find a ‘withdraw’ function anywhere. He figured the village resources could only be spent on quest rewards or other NPC-related expenses.
Scanning the rest of the stats, Kael saw that most metrics were stable, but the mineral supply was critically low. This was his own fault; he’d converted the main Starlight Village mine into the dungeon, making it impossible for players to mine there directly. The only source of ore was from zombie drops within the dungeon, which was far less efficient.
I need to find a way to restock our metals.
Just as Kael was brainstorming, a notification popped up. He opened it. It was a message from Garrick, the blacksmith.
“Lord, I’d like to post a buy order quest for iron and copper ore. Requesting approval.”
Kael paused. So NPCs couldn’t just post quests whenever they wanted; they needed his permission.
He approved it.
Instantly, the quest details populated in his log:
[Buy Order: Iron and Copper Ore]
Target: Players below level 30
Price: 4 Copper per Quality 1 Copper Ore; 10 Copper per Quality 1 Iron Ore.
Reward: 400 EXP per Quality 1 Copper Ore; 1,000 EXP per Quality 1 Iron Ore.
(10x Quality 1 Ore can be refined into 1x Quality 10 Ore, equivalent to 2 lbs of refined metal.)
Time Limit: 3 days
With the quest confirmed, Kael sent a quick message to Orion, Lila, and the others.
“Garrick in Starlight Village has a limited-time quest. Good money and XP.”
Orion and IronShell were already in Starlight Village grinding essence quests. The moment they got Kael’s message, they sprinted to the blacksmith’s shop. After reading the full quest description, Orion’s eyes went wide.
“Holy shit, Garrick’s buyout price is insane!”
“No kidding,” IronShell said, pulling up the market comparison. “Vendors normally only give you 2 copper for Q1 copper ore. He’s paying double!”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Same for iron! The vendor price is 5 copper, and he’s offering 10!”
“And you get XP on top of it!” Orion exclaimed. “Wait… could I just buy copper ore from Garrick and sell it right back to him to farm XP?”
“Dumbass. Garrick’s not selling ore anymore.”
“Oh. Well, I can just go buy it from another town, right?”
“Shit, what are you waiting for, then?” IronShell yelled. “Let’s go!”
The current player-driven market price for a piece of copper ore was 3 copper, while iron ore hovered between 6 and 7 copper. Buying from other players and turning it in to Garrick was pure profit. Plus experience.
This was basically a system exploit.
At the same time, members of Crimson Bloom started trickling in. It didn’t take long for them to realize what a goldmine this quest was.
Lila immediately sent out an urgent guild-wide announcement.
“This quest info is guild-only. Do not leak it. If word gets out, the ore market will dry up and prices will skyrocket!”
“Roger that!” came the flood of replies.
…
Kael was already on the move. He teleported from Starlight Village to Beryl Creek, then took the connecting transport to Stonehaven. Once there, he stashed his gear in the local bank to clear his inventory, then headed straight for the player stalls.
He ignored everything else, focusing solely on high-quality iron ore. A stack of Quality 10 iron ore was going for about 70 copper. Turning it in to Garrick would net him 1 silver coin—100 copper. That was a 30-copper profit and 10,000 EXP per stack.
A player’s inventory had 100 slots, and each slot could hold a stack of 10 identical-quality ores. In theory, a single perfect run could net him 3 gold and 10 million EXP. Of course, that was the theoretical max; finding that much Quality 10 ore was impossible.
His first run took eight minutes. Profit: 3 gold and 10 million EXP.
His second run took three minutes. Profit: 2.5 gold and 9 million EXP.
His third run took four minutes. Profit: 2.6 gold and 8 million EXP.
By then, he noticed more and more Crimson Bloom members crowding Stonehaven’s market. He quickly warped to a different town to continue his hustle.
Lila, after making a few runs herself, saw the same problem. She quickly took charge and began coordinating the guild’s efforts. The Crescent City territory encompassed twenty towns, each overseeing fifty starting villages. She divided the ten thousand guild members online into small teams, assigning each to a different village.
The strategy worked perfectly. With their forces spread out, they weren't competing with each other, and the ore acquisition went smoothly. At first, everyone focused on high-quality iron ore. As that supply dwindled, they moved to lower-quality iron, and eventually started buying up high-quality copper as well.
In the first hour, Kael made 30 gold and earned 100 million EXP.
In the second hour, he made 25 gold and 83 million EXP.
…
By 6:00 PM, after seven hours of grinding, Kael had amassed a total of 180 gold and 600 million EXP.
He had finally hit level 30.
At the same time, Garrick stopped accepting turn-ins for the day. The good news was that the quest would be active for two more days. The bad news was that other players had noticed Crimson Bloom’s frantic, coordinated movements and had finally discovered the exploit. Tomorrow, the competition would be fierce.
But that wasn’t Kael’s problem anymore. The quest was only available to players under level 30.
Besides Kael, most of Crimson Bloom's core team had also hit level 30. The only exception was their guild leader, Lila, who was still level 29 after taking a four-day break.
Just then, the Crimson Bloom guild channel exploded.
It started with Rena.
“@Lila, the system says I can get my Class Advancement at level 30. Why won’t the trainers in Stonehaven let me do it?”
Lunara chimed in a second later.
“I even went to Crescent City, and the mage trainers there just ignore me.”
“Uh…” Lila had no idea how to answer.
Then she remembered Hazel was already a Protection Warrior.
“@Hazel, how did you complete your Class Advancement?” she asked.
“I got a Class Advancement scroll as a reward when Dawnbreaker and I cleared the level 10 dungeon for the first time,” Hazel replied.
A collective silence fell over the chat. Just a few days ago, they had cleared the level 25 dungeon for the first time and all they got was a set of level 25 epic items.
But Hazel’s mention of Dawnbreaker gave Lila an idea. She opened her friends list and sent him a private message.
“My guild members hit level 30, but none of them can get their Class Advancement in Stonehaven. Any idea why?”
Kael, who was busy exploring the other functions of the NPC panel, saw her message and a possibility immediately clicked into place. Faction alignment. They belong to Starlight Village, which means they’re probably locked out of Crescent City’s core functions.
He typed back a quick reply. “Hold on a sec.”
Kael navigated to the administrative panel for Starlight Village’s skill trainers. What he found was both unexpected and perfectly logical.
[Skill Instruction]: Tier 1
Kael knew Tier 1 meant they could only teach skills for levels below the First Advancement. Next to the tier display was a small button labeled [Upgrade]. He clicked it, and a confirmation window appeared.
[System]
Upgrading Skill Instruction Tier will consume:
10 Gold Ingots
500 Lumber
600 Copper
400 Iron
Construction Time: 12 hours
[Confirm upgrade?]
The tax revenue from Garrick’s quest had supplied the exact amount of copper and iron he needed. It was perfect.
“Upgrade.”
In the council hall of Starlight Village, ten cloaked figures—the resident skill trainers—remained deep in meditation, eyes closed, unaware of the transformation already underway.
