Vol. 3: Chapter 37
The [Merchant's Passkey] had two primary functions.
First, teleportation: it could be used from anywhere within a city to instantly travel to that town's teleport nexus.
Second, safe passage: it set a player's standing with the main city guards to "Friendly." This meant that even red-named players wouldn't be hunted down by guards, as long as they didn't do something stupid like attacking an NPC.
The passkey's functions were restricted to the Human Faction territories within the Mythrosia Empire, and it was soulbound. Elon had received one as a system reward for being the first player to open ten shops.
But Kael's lucky bonus had upgraded the reward into a [Pass Token].
The [Pass Token] shared the same core functions of teleportation and safe passage, but on a much larger scale.
First, it also worked in [Thunder Horde] territory. Kael could, for example, instantly teleport to any of the ten thousand starting villages The WarChief had recently conquered.
Second, it allowed for cross-server travel. While there were some restrictions—he couldn't just waltz in and out of another server's main cities with the same freedom he had on his home server—it opened a vital channel.
Finally, it was party-friendly. A party of up to three people could benefit from its effects simultaneously.
After parting with Zoe yesterday, Kael had been trying to figure out how to get a multi-user Cross-Server Teleport Scroll so he could teleport her out of Thaloria. With the [Pass Token], the problem was now taken care of.
Staring at the token in his inventory, Kael immediately switched back to his Dawnbreaker ID. A squad of level 55 city guards was patrolling nearby. He deliberately sauntered past them. The guards glanced at his crimson nameplate for a moment before ignoring him and continuing on their route.
Kael smirked to himself. No more switching IDs every time I enter a city.
As he was strolling through Crescent City with his infamous red name on full display, a message popped up. He opened it. It was from his sister, Isolde.
"Kael, I'm so exhausted!"
Kael typed back, "What's wrong?"
"The second you left, a flood of players and NPCs started showing up to turn in quests," she wrote. "It's almost 2 PM and I haven't even had lunch."
"Are you kidding me? If you're hungry, go eat. Forget about them."
"No way! This is my job!"
"I'm on my way to help. Hang tight."
Kael closed the chat, activated the [Pass Token], and teleported directly to Starlight Town. Outside the Mayor's Office, a massive crowd of players was milling about. They were all picking up quests from the various shop NPCs, which then had to be processed through the mayor.
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With Starlight Town newly established, there were a ton of low-difficulty, high-reward quests available. The players who had been with him since the assault on Starlight Village even received a 20% bonus on all rewards.
When they saw Kael arrive, they immediately greeted him.
"Yo, Fourth Chieftain!"
"Hey, Mayor!"
"Sir Dawnbreaker, congratulations on the promotion! Care to spare a little something for the rest of us?"
"Hey man, that girl in your office is super cute. Can you introduce us?"
"I heard she's your sister, is that true?"
"It's true, she said so herself."
"Can I get her friend code? I'd love to take her on a date."
Realizing these guys were hitting on his sister, Kael shot them all a glare. "Get lost! You guys have a lot of nerve."
He pushed his way into the office. The room was packed with even more players. These were simple quest turn-ins that should have taken seconds, but the players were all lingering, cracking jokes, and trying to make small talk with Isolde.
Kael's patience snapped. "Everyone out!" he roared. "My sister's on her lunch break!"
The players, who saw Kael every day, knew his temper. He had never once gotten angry with them after the founding of Starlight Town. A wave of mischievous grins spread through the crowd.
"Whoa, Dawnbreaker's actually mad."
"You heard him, scram! My future brother-in-law is pissed."
"What are you talking about? He's my future brother-in-law!"
"You guys are shameless."
Kael had no time for their antics. He simply opened his system panel and forcibly ejected every player from the office. In an instant, the room fell silent.
Isolde, however, looked at him with a pout. "Hey! Why'd you kick them all out? I still had a bunch of quests to process!"
Kael walked over and gently tapped her on the nose. "My dear sister, that's not how you manage a workload."
She giggled. "Well, I don't know how to do any of this, so I figured I just had to put in more time."
Seeing her bright, cheerful face filled him with a quiet sense of relief. In his past life, she had been endlessly harassed by Preston at this time, and her personality had grown withdrawn and melancholic. This time, he would protect her radiant smile no matter the cost.
Kael opened his control panel and activated the "Mayor Persona" function. To Isolde's surprise, a new NPC, named "Ullr," materialized in the room.
"Isolde," Kael said, pointing to the NPC, "from now on, let him handle all the simple, repetitive tasks. You need to focus your energy on developing the town. Things like upgrading shops, issuing resource-gathering quests, and constructing functional buildings."
"Oh, I just got a system notification," she said, her eyes lighting up as she saw the new editing permissions for Ullr appear on her interface. She started to dig into them immediately.
"Don't get distracted. Eat first, you can figure that out later," Kael said. "By the way, did anything unusual happen today?"
Isolde nodded. “Yeah, Mara, the tavern owner, tried to secretly give me a book…”
Kael's eyes widened. "What book? Let me see it."
"I refused, of course," she continued proudly. "I'm representing the Mayor of Starlight Town! I can't accept gifts. That would be like taking a bribe... it's corruption!"
"You're not wrong, but this is a game..." Kael trailed off, unsure how to explain.
Isolde blinked at him with her wide, innocent eyes. "What? Did I do something wrong?"
Kael sighed. He couldn't possibly tell her that her strong ethics were a mistake. "Well, you could also see it as a gesture of goodwill," he said gently. "Next time something like that happens, just check with me first, and I'll handle it."
"Okay!"
After watching his sister log off to eat, Kael quickly configured Ullr's quest-hand-in protocols and reopened the Mayor's Office. A moment later, a crowd of players swarmed back in. When they saw the stoic NPC "Ullr" sitting behind the desk, they all froze, dumbfounded.
***
With the city access issue resolved, it was time to upgrade Galeharrow. Kael already had the [Earthwyrm Sinew] and the [Sunfire Distillate]. All he needed was a material to reinforce the bow's frame. There were many ways to do it, usually by soaking the weapon in potent animal blood or plant sap.
Animal blood was out. Low-level monster blood was useless, and he couldn't get his hands on blood from anything high-level enough to matter.
At this stage, the best option he could think of was a rare alchemical ingredient: [Sap of Nature's Blessing].