Chapter 1613: Find the Treasure
Ning sat at the corner of a tavern, eating a fresh stew of potato and some sort of meat, while he looked at the status page in front of him.
The System had mentioned that he would get a ‘system’ of his own, but he hadn’t expected this one to be so… weird.
[Status Report:
Name: Ning Rougong
Current World: Grotia
Current World’s Energy: Unique
New Energy: NONE (NOT AVAILABLE)
Points: 0
Quests:
NONE
]
That was all there was.
Ning was left confused after looking at it for the first time and that was the same result each time he opened the status page after that.
This name and the world’s name were understandable. He could even understand the part after that mentioned that the current world’s energy was unique.
He had learned how rare planets like Grotia were, so the energy here was not something too frequent to have a universal name like Qi or Mana.
But what about after that?
What was New Energy? He could see that he had none at the moment, but what did it mean that it was Not Available?
‘Is it not available now? Or just not available at all?’ he thought. It was so confusing.
And then there was the Quest, which he also had none of. Ning remembered doing Quests at the start when he got the Energy system too. It was so he could get used to being an Energy.
In fact, he was still doing quests in some way. Having to kill a Galactic will to go on to another Universe was a Quest in its own way.
Was this similar? Or was there more to it?
Was this even the real system?
“It’s even just a replica of a system,” Ning thought. “It’s not even a real system to have one hidden from me. What the hell is this experiment supposed to be about?”
“Would you like some more stew?” a voice called out from the side, catching Ning off guard.
He hadn’t seen the young woman come up to him or even noticed it in any other way. ‘Damn this normal body,’ Ning thought and turned to look at the young lady.
She was a plain-faced girl, with some beauty to her looks, but just enough to be a tavern maid. She looked at Ning with inquisitive blue eyes, waiting for him to respond.
“No, thank you. I am—”
His words stuck in his throat as he saw something like a wisp of light in the air that shimmered around the young woman. Focusing on it just a bit more, Ning could begin to see features on the wisp.
It had the face of an old woman, full of wrinkles. Its white hair flailed around wildly, and its blanked-out white eyes stared endlessly at nothing.
Ning felt a chill go through his spine for a moment. He took a deep gulp and spoke softly.
“Miss… have you had a relative that passed away recently?” he asked the young woman. “Maybe an old woman?”
The young lady’s eyes widened suddenly, turning around to look all around the room. “My grandmother. Do you see my grandmother, sir?” she asked with great panic in her voice.
“Yes, I do,” Ning said. “She is right by you.”
“Grandmother! Can you hear me? Please speak to me,” the girl said, but no response came. “Sir, can you see my grandmother? Can you talk to her?”
Ning had never talked to a Spirit before, but he knew that he could, just based on the information that the System had poured into his mind.
“Grandma!” Ning called out. “Can you hear me?”
His voice was slightly distorted when he spoke, as he used an Intent to speak only to the Spirit. The girl heard him, but it sounded as though Ning had been trying to speak underwater.
The old woman’s head turned her blank eyes now staring directly at him. “5 gold coins, hidden inside of the third step of the ladder. Shara must find it.”
A blue hologram appeared before Ning, surprising him a little. ‘A Quest?’ he thought and chose to expand it.
[
Quest: Find the Treasure
Shara’s grandmother hid a small fortune while she was alive. She passed away before she could tell her granddaughter about it. Help Shara find those coins.
Reward: 1 Point
]
Ning read through the text and quickly understood what was happening. The quests here weren’t something that was going to be given to him by the system to do something for itself.
It was something that would relate to his real-life experience in this world.
‘Hence why I’m a Spirit Detective,’ Ning thought. ‘So I can go around meeting different people to help, different quests to find.’
“Sir?” Shara spoke, worried now that Ning wasn’t saying anything.
“Ah, my apologies,” Ning said. “Do you happen to be Shara?”
“Yes,” the girl said, now absolutely sure that Ning could in fact talk to the dead.”
“Are you free right now by any chance?” he asked.
“No, I won’t be free for another 3 hours,” she said.
“I will be waiting here, please find me when you are free. There is something your grandmother wants me to give you.”
The girl nodded furiously. “Are you a Spirit Detective, sir?” she asked.
“I am,” Ning said, pulling out the license he carried around. “My name is Ning.”
“Sir Ning,” the girl said. “I… I don’t have much to pay you. How much will your services cost?”
Spirit Detective was a profession as well, and just like any profession, it needed to get paid too.
Ning shook his head. “Just 2 silver coins should be enough,” he said.
The girl gasped. 2 silver coins were her entire month’s pay. “I don’t have that sort of money. Could… could I pay in some other way?”
Ning shook his head. “Do not worry, you’ll have your money,” he said.
He could understand her worry regarding the pay. The stew and half a loaf of bread he had just eaten were worth just 2 iron coins. 10 iron coins made 1 bronze coin, 50 bronze coins made 1 silver coin, and 100 silver coins made 1 gold coin.
With a single silver coin, Ning could eat the same meal he was eating right now for 250 times. And he was asking for 2 of such coins. No wonder the girl was so flabbergasted by his ask.
‘Can’t help it,’ Ning thought. ‘That is why most people can’t afford Spirit Detectives.’
Channelers, he heard, were even more expensive than Spirit Detectives.
Had Ning not known that the girl would’ve had money in the end, he wouldn’t have asked for it at all. He had a few silver coins in his pocket, and he didn’t find the need for more.
The girl returned back to her work, confused by Ning’s last comment. She wondered what it was that her grandmother had left for her. For the next three hours that she worked, she could barely focus on her work at all and made a lot of mistakes.
Finally, at the end of the 3 hours, she got to leave.
“Sir Detective,” she came up to Ning once her work was completed.
Ning got up. “Let’s go.”
The girl nodded. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ning said. “Where is your house?”
“My house?” the girl thought. “You must mean the house I lived in when my grandma was alive. It’s in the other part of the town. Will you come with me?”
“Yes, let’s go,” Ning said and began walking through the city.
Whitebridge city had buildings with different architectural styles, almost as though people from many places came to stay here. With the setting sun, the city looked even more beautiful as orange rays hit the side of the town.
The city was thankfully not too large and the two of them arrived at a residential section within just half an hour of walking. They arrived in front of a small house with two stories, and no fences on the outside. There wasn’t even much of a yard on the front to require a fence.
“Who lives here now?” Ning asked Shara.
“Nobody,” Shara said. “I put the house up for sale a while ago, but no one has bought it just yet.”
“You still own this house? Why don’t you live here?” Ning asked her.
“I get free meals at the tavern I work in, and they let me stay there as well. Constantly walking here and back just takes too long and I don’t have the money to afford to keep the house running.”
“How old are you?” Ning asked the girl.
“15,” she said.
Ning sighed. Such a young girl, and forced to go through the world alone.
“Let us go in,” he said. “You’ll find something special there soon.”
They walked into the house and Ning immediately located the wooden ladder that took them to the upper floor. They weren’t even stairs.
“What did my grandmother say?” Shara asked.
“That there is something here,” Ning said, as he walked up to the ladder and reached for the third step of the ladder.
He tried to nudge it but it was quite strong. The step was tightly stuck and wouldn’t come off easily. “Do you mind if I break it?” Ning asked, his voice distorted as though he spoke from underwater.
“The golds are inside that step,” the old woman said. That was enough of a confirmation for Ning to break the stairs.
He slammed his feet down onto the step and broke it open.
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