Chapter 126: A Kindly Reminder

Lu Kuan found the Lava Fortress section in the city forum and posted a thread titled "Top Ten Tips for Clearwater Village Quests: Easily Boost Reputation Gain by 50%!"

The first half of the post listed ten crucial details—or rather, tricks—to keep in mind when completing reputation quests in Clearwater Village that could significantly improve players’ efficiency.

Especially notable was that Lu Kuan had meticulously marked the exact locations of twenty hidden treasure chests around Clearwater Village on the map.

These chests often contained quest items needed for reputation tasks. With some luck, they could also spawn high-quality pearls and a small amount of blue-tier equipment. Such fortunate finds were extremely rare and regarded as a mysterious phenomenon among the Clearwater Village player community.

The latter half of the post addressed the combat quests and the potential dangers players might encounter, advising the formation of large teams of over twenty players to guard against risks.

After posting, Lu Kuan returned to the game to continue grinding reputation, but the thread quickly surged to the top of the Lava Fortress forum, becoming the pinned post in under twenty minutes, with players leaving excited comments.

“Who’s this legend who mapped out the hidden chests so fast?”
“Master, I kneel before you!”
“Thumbs up! This will definitely speed up my quests. I should reach ‘Respected’ status by tomorrow morning.”
“Someone was maliciously PK-ing in the Mudflat Marsh today; this warning is spot-on.”
“This username looks familiar… Could it be that crazy ranger from the last video?”
…

Once inside the game, Lu Kuan quickly regrouped with a few others and set off for the next quest location.

He could have posted this guide earlier to speed up the series of quests, but that would have drawn too much attention: posting a strategy guide at the very start of the Clearwater Village quests would make it look like he had insider information—or worse, was an employee of the game company.

So when they encountered a group of dwarf warriors, Lu Kuan felt the timing was just right to post the guide, which would also annoy the opposing faction in the combat quests.

For the next two days, Lu Kuan and his four companions farmed monsters and completed quests in Clearwater Village. Their progress was far ahead of others, and everything went smoothly with astonishing efficiency.

By the second evening in Clearwater Village, Lu Kuan had reached level 14, and the other four had also leveled up, leaving them only a stone’s throw from the final quest step.

During this time, Lu Kuan returned briefly to Lava Fortress at the invitation of Heaven Eternal Gloom to witness the hatching of a Flame Lizard.

When Lu Kuan arrived, the Beast Pen in the Lava Fortress Exhibition Hall was packed tightly with members of the Dark Heaven guild, forming several tightly packed rings. In the center stood Heaven Eternal Gloom, Lu Kuan, and a monk-class player.

The pet egg had already hatched; a little Flame Lizard over a meter long lay on the ground, curiously observing the crowd.

The little creature resembled its mother but had pale white skin, with its wing-like fleshy appendages on its back still a soft pink bundle. Its large, beautiful eyes darted around, utterly adorable.

Since the game’s in-game data and store were synced in real time, Lu Kuan instantly received a system notification upon the hatch: 800,000 gold was automatically credited to his account.

This indicated that the hatchling not only possessed four innate talents but had also mutated, promising greater strength than pets of the same tier when fully grown.

“Alright, Iron Buddha, it’s your turn.” Heaven Eternal Gloom said to the monk player.

The monk, nicknamed Iron Buddha, nodded and produced a small black stone—the same type of pet summoning stone Lu Kuan had used before, though this one was clearly permanent, not temporary.

Iron Buddha placed the stone atop the baby Flame Lizard’s head, and complex magical runes instantly flashed, enveloping both Iron Buddha and the pet in a glowing circle. Seconds later, the Flame Lizard vanished from the ground, entering Iron Buddha’s pet space.

“Done!” Iron Buddha exclaimed excitedly, looking down and moving his hands in a way that showed he was examining his new pet.

Almost everyone present simultaneously opened the pet rankings, revealing that the world’s first and second-ranked pets were both Flame Lizards!

Both owners had set their personal information to public: the top-ranked pet belonged to Qian Duoduo, the second to Iron Buddha, both members of the Dark Heaven guild in the China server.

“Heh, ha ha!” Heaven Eternal Gloom laughed heartily, clearly pleased. He turned to Lu Kuan and said, “Old Lu, I really have to thank you. The quality of this pet is even better than I expected.”

Lu Kuan smiled silently. From the pet rankings, it was clear that both Qian Duoduo’s and Iron Buddha’s Flame Lizards had four innate talents and were mutated, confirming the boss-level bloodline’s undeniable strength.

Escorted by the Dark Heaven members, Iron Buddha took his pet out to train. The little one was now a treasured possession; until the Flame Lizard matured, every training trip would likely be accompanied by a large group of bodyguards.

Iron Buddha was a well-known professional player in his previous life, ranked among the top ten experts in Dark Heaven. For a monk, the combination of high mobility and the Flame Lizard’s area magic made for a perfect synergy.

Heaven Eternal Gloom called Lu Kuan aside, clearly wanting to speak privately.

“I didn’t quite understand before why you proposed that trade,” Heaven Eternal Gloom said, leaning casually against the wooden wall near the Beast Pen, his expression relaxed. “But now, I think I have some idea.”

“Oh? Do tell,” Lu Kuan smiled.

Heaven Eternal Gloom confidently said, “Those two Flame Lizards topping the rankings have to be your doing—mutated four-talent masterpieces. That can’t be luck alone; there’s only one explanation: the bloodline.”

“Boss bloodline,” he emphasized again.

Lu Kuan nodded with a smile. If Heaven Eternal Gloom still couldn’t figure it out now, he wouldn’t be worthy of his reputation.

Seeing Lu Kuan nod, Heaven Eternal Gloom’s eyes brightened, and he asked eagerly, “Is there still a chance?”

Lu Kuan understood what he meant and shook his head with a wry smile. “No such luck. The boss will be guarding its lair like a hawk… I reckon the monsters within a hundred miles of the lair will be doomed since I stole two eggs.”

A flicker of disappointment crossed Heaven Eternal Gloom’s eyes but vanished quickly.

That was wishful thinking to begin with… Although no one knew what great cost or twist of fate allowed Lu Kuan to get those eggs, in the game, you simply can’t expect to repeatedly score such massive advantages unless the system glitches.

“I saw the post you made about Clearwater Village,” Heaven Eternal Gloom said casually, as if chatting, “It’s quite useful. And I’ve had players on my side encounter those Murloc faction players—though not certain, they’re probably from the Flame Demon Sword guild.”