Summer Crinkle was a city situated in the middle of Spring Woods. It was a famous holiday spot due to its perfect spring-like weather all year round. In turn, this meant that the price of real estate there was incredibly high, a studio apartment at Summer Crinkle could rival the price of an estate at Tarlin…
Naturally, there weren't many who could afford to own a piece of land at Summer Crinkle, however, that did not stop the general population from flooding the place to enjoy its wonderful scenery. Therefore, Ye Qi's accompaniment on the train towards Summer Crinkle were mostly couples or families excited for their holiday trip.
The young Demon Hunter who sat at the first row was definitely out of place. In his black windbreaker and the weird looking "Gorgon's Eye" in his hand, Ye Qi radiated an aura that deterred others from approaching him. However, his general good looks did attract the attention among some of the girls who weirdly enough saw breaking through the defences of this unapproachable, handsome bloke as a challenge.
If this was not a special trip for Ye Qi, the young Demon Hunter wouldn't mind having a quickie with one of the willing girls but his attention was otherwise occupied because when the train pulled off the station, he heard a system audio, "C+ Quest: Safe Arrival. Reach the headquarters at Summer Crinkle safely."
Another C+ Quest?!
Looks like the Apostle test wouldn't be easy, after all, getting to the city itself was already such a high difficulty quest, and it came without the need of a quest giver—for these past three months, other than personal training, Ye Qi had also improved on many other aspects. First, he confirmed his suspicion that his skill mastery could be improved via training—Ye Qi had spent almost every day of the three months reading "Gorgon's Eye" and his Arcane Knowledge increased from the original 20 to 26 and since reading helped with concentration, his Focus skill also increased from 8 to 10.
Compared to the first discovery, the second discovery made Ye Qi frown with consternation—after some contemplation and hypothesis, Ye Qi realized the trigger of his quest was not as structured as before. After reaching a certain level, they stopped coming from a particular individual that acted as a quest giver but quests were triggered randomly like how it happened just now. Compared to before, gaining experience was going to be a lot more convoluted and randomized.
Therefore, for the sake of stability, Ye Qi tried to stop himself from triggering random quests for as long as he could. He tried his best to accept as many quests as possible from Old Walter. Even though most of the quests were a cakewalk for Ye Qi so much so that completing 10 quests might not grant Ye Qi a level increase, it was undeniably safer than random quests. Random quests might give more experience but they were also generally more dangerous and for Ye Qi, life was more important than experience, after all, what use would experience have if he's dead?
However, he knew this was inevitable and he couldn't spend his whole life in the kiddie pool forever—Ye Qi glanced at the quest detail in his character screen and averted his gaze away from the public and started to think.
"Since it is inevitable then I will face it head on!" was Ye Qi's eventual conviction. However, he had a hard time figuring out why a train ride to Summer Crinkle constitute a C+ quest. He knew better than to let his guard down but after that message, he was even more alert than before.
The young Demon Hunter narrowed his eyes and surreptitiously glanced around to look for Erebus creatures in disguise—Demon Hunters were hunter as well as prey! They hunted dark creatures and they were hunted by the dark creatures at the same time! The fatality poster and missing person reports that decorated the notice board of any Demon Hunter branches were the best reminder of that fact!
Suddenly a young lady with long brunette hair that flowed down her slightly blushed face was walking towards Ye Qi. She was so nervous that she didn't even dare to look Ye Qi in his eyes. She kept turning back to a group of girls about the same age as her a few seats back asking them non-verbally for help but they simply cheered her on.
However, their cheers didn't help the girl in any way, in anything, she was made even more nervous than before and tears started to swirl in her pair of bright eyes.
"Mr… Hi… Can I… sit here?"
As if mustering all of the energy within her, the girl asked Ye Qi while nodding at the empty seat beside Ye Qi.
"Sure." Ye Qi answered as he averted his gaze.
Even though the girl was pretty in an innocent, girl-next-door kind of way, she was not Ye Qi's type. The young Demon Hunter could tell she came from a respectable family and more importantly—she was a little bit too young to have seen through the cruelty of love and romance.
Therefore, no matter how pretty she was, Ye Qi wouldn't lay a finger on her—he was the most afraid of this type of young girls who still had a wide-eyed admiration of romance, he'd rather go for a romp with the working girls proffering their service at Old Timer's Bar, something Ye Qi had done more than once during his three month's training. Of course, he was exceptionally careful in his selection, he didn't want his own bed to his final resting place like that infamous Demon Hunter.
Furthermore, Ye Qi was too preoccupied with this C+ quest to pay the girl any mind. However, Ye Qi's obvious show of disinterest didn't push the girl away, in fact, the girl started making self-introduction as she sat down beside Ye Qi. She still stuttered nervously.
"My name… is…. Linda, what… about you?"
Ye Qi frowned and started to regret his decision for allowing the girl to sit behind him because this girl's shy exterior belied a resolute heart. When the girl saw the frown on Ye Qi's face, she leaned back involuntarily but she still continued her topic of conversation. Perhaps she had gotten over her initial shyness around stranger because she didn't stammer as much as before.
"I'm… a student… We're going to Summer Crinkle on a school holiday, I wonder do you wish to join us?"
"Not interested!" Ye Qi rejected the girl directly, and to stop the girl from continuing the charade, he added, "If there's nothing else, please return to your friends, I'm sure you'll feel more welcomed there."
The brash and forward rejection caused the girl's lips to quiver and the tears in her eyes threatened to fall at any moment. However, the girl did not give up and whispered in a final showcase of hope, "Then… Mr… do you mind… telling me your name…"
"I do mind!" The Demon Hunter's consecutive harsh words of rejection finally broke the girl who ran back to her group of friends with her hands covering her face. As they welcomed the girl back into their midst, a few of them started to level dead-eyes at the young Demon Hunter. Not only that, a few of the gentlemen who heard their conversation also glared at Ye Qi with animosity.
Ye Qi didn't know that when the young girl approached him, these young men already felt a prickling sense of annoyance rise up within them. Now that Ye Qi had done the "unforgivable", they needed to step up because it was the chivalric thing to do. Of course, if this managed to earn the young girl's admiration, then it would be best.