Chapter 1657: Offer
“I didn’t see any Lesser scrolls for these physical enhancements, just Minor ones. How much more will they cost?” Ning wondered. If 30 wasn’t going to cut it, then what would it be? 40? 50?
He opened his stats to see that he only had 3 points now. There were still about 5 different quests from yesterday to be fulfilled, which could give him up to 7 points, but he didn’t believe he would get them all. Even a single point would be a miracle since most of these quests were quite difficult to complete.
For example, how the hell was he going to do anything about the one quest where the dead grandfather just wanted a grandson who was named after his father?
That sort of thing wasn’t going to happen in a single day, so he would have to wait for a while.
Ning opened the points shop again and looked at it. Thankfully, he could see all the items he could buy from the store even if he didn’t have the points for it. They were just grayed out on the list.
Alex tried pressing a few and it only gave him its description and no option to buy them. That was understandable.
He thought for a moment and scrolled and clicked on one of the scrolls he had just bought and used. He had wondered something, so he needed to check.
Clicking on the scroll pulled up its details and Ning read it quickly.
[Minor Scroll of Strength: Using this scroll will permanently increase the strength of the user by 33%.]
“I thought so!”
There were 2 ways he saw this thing going, and one was much more obvious than the order.
The lesser possibility was that the scroll would continue to improve his strength by 50% as it had first done, cumulatively improving his strength more and more. The progression in such cases changed from linear to exponential, and that was a lot easier to exploit.
On the other hand, the greater possibility, and from the looks of it the actual reality, was that his improvement would be based on his original strength.
So, using 1 scroll, improved his skills by 50%. Sol, using 2 would only improve him by 50% of the original as well, which when considering the overall strength came to be around 33%.
If he had ‘2’ strength, then using 2 scrolls helped him reach ‘4’, not ‘4.5’.
He quickly clicked through the rest of the scrolls as well and came across the same situation in all of them as well.
People streamed out of the fields as evening fell, everyone returning to their homes after a long day of work. Most of them had chores to do, dinner to cook, and children to take care of.
Shara put the scythe in the shed, washed it up, and went to make dinner as well.
The old woman sat next to Ning in the backyard, sighing as she did so.
“How do you like this?” she asked.
“This?” Ning asked, wondering exactly what this was. The work? The field? The environment?
“This life,” she said. “It’s slow, and not much happens from day to day, but it’s peaceful, isn’t it?”
Ning looked back at the fields, at the mountains, at the empty area. He felt the cool breeze in the wind and smiled. “Yes, it’s lovely,” he said.
“You said you had no family, right?” she asked.
“I have no family in this world,” Ning replied.
“And the girl is the same,” the old woman said. “And so am I. If you don’t mind, I can use a little help around this place, and you look like you need a place to stay in, not have to deal with anyone. Do you think you would want to stay in this place?”
“Stay… here?” he asked, genuinely taking a moment to consider it. He thought through his days in this place and understood that this was a fantastic place to live in. Sure, the days were slow, and there wasn’t much entertainment to be had, but one couldn’t ask for more than this.
“No,” Ning answered, even though he wanted to accept it. “I… have to leave this place sooner or later.”
The old woman looked at him the entire time he thought and spoke. Eh continued staring at him after she got her answer and only moved her gaze away a few seconds later.
“I see you are quite fixed in your decision. Your mark of death did not change a single time throughout the entire time,” she said. “Either you are too stubborn and won’t change your course of actions, which will lead you to your death. Or… you are already on the path to your death and nothing you do will change it.”
Ning looked at her. “The mark hasn’t faded or changed?”
“None whatsoever.”
“What does it look like? Is it something recognizable or something only you can understand?” he asked.
“It’s a grim floating skull with a mist of black spreading on top and around it, as though it were a cloak of some sort. Some marks are obvious for me to understand, some require me to experience it before I understand.”
“This one was something I saw on my husband a year before he was dead. His was a little more opaque than this, so you have more than a year, but not much from what I believe,” she said.
Ning nodded. “That won’t stop me,” he said. “But thank you for asking me to stay with you. It means a lot.”
The old woman sighed. “I just wanted you two to stop running away.”
“And I appreciate that, grandma,” Ning said. “Also, just because I refused doesn’t mean Shara has. She can accept it if that’s what she wants. I only left with her to find out what her identity was. But if she chooses this, then I have no reason to ask her to leave with me. I only look forward to what’s best for everyone.
The old woman smiled and rubbed his back.
“You’re a good kid.”
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