He clicked his tongue. 'Fck, she's a bloodsucker. She must have sensed my increased heartbeat.'
Thankfully, it was her turn to introduce herself, which gave him enough time to control his increased heartbeat.
On the other hand, she paused as she looked at the others and said in a sweet, angelic voice, "Hi, I am Lucami."
Everyone in the room, including him, looked at her at that moment.
What the hell? He knew Bloodsuckers got higher charm, but when did charm start affecting the voice?
Compared to her, that stupid 'coooo' of the white bird felt ugly in his head.
He mumbled her name, "Lucami."
With her voice, she had the potential to be the game idol.
Too bad he wasn't into that stuff, so he couldn't tell if she got popular in his last life or not.
Finally, it was his turn. He just looked at the old butcher and said, "I am Forsyx."
His plain name did not cause any ripple effect, and the old man just nodded and then turned to the first group.
"Good, good. Now that we get to know each other, let me explain the task to you."
Ding!
The next moment, a notification popped up in front of all of them.
[Chain quest!!!
Special Quest: The Fest of Tradition.
Quest Rank: S
(Only players with level 10 or less can take part.)
Description:
The old butcher was impressed with the skill of all the top 10 warriors. After seeing the power you guys possess, he had a special request for the preparation of the big festival.
Tradition Festival Fest: Every 10 years, a special fest is arranged in the village to honor the sacrifices of all those who gave their lives for the village during this period.
After looking around the forest, the old man found the traces of a beast that should be here. This might be the last fest the old butcher could take part in, and so he requests you to bring him the eyes of Mother Hibiki Snake that just laid her eggs.
Task: Bring the unscratched Hibiki eyes to the old butcher.
(The old butcher will lend you 10 low bronze-grade butcher knives and a special piece of meat that will attract the Hibiki out of its hidden nest.)
Reward: 2 gold coins, 10 low bronze grade butcher knives, and 10 Master Butchering Skill Books.
(Rewards will be distributed among all players who pass the quest.)
Failure Condition: Destruction of the Hibiki snake eyes.
Failure Penalty: Loss of -15 stat points randomly across the 6 stats.
Note: Death before the submission of the eyes will count as quest failure. Damage to the knife upon failure will result in an extra penalty.
]
The old man walked to the front and came back with a bag full of shining, sharp knives.
Even with that, none reacted as they kept reading the task.
Then Zanarc asked in a shaking voice, "Don't tell me this is the same Hibiki Snake that I'm thinking about."
Rodium broke it to him. "If you're thinking about that unique boss monster, then we're on the same page."
Kos started cursing. "How the hell are we supposed to take on a unique boss monster that even hundreds of level 50 players struggle with?"
Elish said from the front, "Didn't you read? It just gave birth. So it must be in a very weak state."
Drakim shook his head. "No matter how weak, it's still a unique boss monster. Can we even damage that thing?"
Forsyx nodded with Drakim.
In Apex Online, monsters were graded from Common → Elite → Unique → Rare → Epic → Legendary → Mythic → ??? → ???.
From Elite monsters onward, they could also have different ranks. These ranks were Normal → Boss → World → ??? → ???.
If the grade of a monster told its potential, then the rank determined its hierarchy among the same species.
Like, a boss-rank monster was only 1.5 times stronger than a base monster of the same grade, but they could command other normal-rank monsters of the same species.
Even the last monster of the basic village was just an elite boss creature that could control other low-rank creatures.
From how much he had explored the forest around Blackwater Village, its boss monster should be some kind of canine type, as the center and middle part of the forest were full of canine beasts.
Forsyx sighed.
The big reason he chose the village with black in the name was that all those villages had a hidden boss monster.
He was planning to find that and use it to make his name, but never in his dreams did he imagine that a unique boss monster would be the hidden boss.
Fck, this made no sense on so many levels. He shook his head and stopped thinking about that stuff.
He couldn't risk raising any suspicion.
He looked around and saw many eyes shining with greed as they read the quest.
Some of them were even salivating, and it was likely because of the Hibiki Snake eggs.
To be true, the true reward of this quest was never the system reward at all.
It was those eggs.
Each of those eggs could lead to a chance of getting a unique grade mount.
He wanted to scream at this moment, because for him, having those eggs meant he could use them to create another unique grade template.
Fck, if not for the upcoming monster awakening cycle, he might just focus on the egg.
After all, getting those eggs would've just leaped his class to the next level. The power of the Template Wielder class depended on the kind of template he used.
Even though he wanted to scream in joy, he kept his composure and just glanced at the others.
With a bloodsucker who could sense his heartbeat next to him, he wouldn't make the same mistake again.
As for managing his heartbeat, it was one skill he was forced to learn while surviving in his past life.
Also, those three in front of him were enough to kill all his excitement.
After a few minutes of silence, the old man started handing them the low bronze grade butcher knives.
He tapped on it to check its stats.
[Name: Butcher's Knives
Grade: Low Bronze
Passive skill - Razor: Allows you to ignore 20% of the target's defense. STR: +6
]
The moment he saw the passive skill, he understood why the old man gave them these knives.