A notification popped up in Fang Yuan's mind.
Mission Successful!
Obtained the Mudskin Toad
Reward: Moderate increase to Luck.
Fang Yuan frowned.
He had no intention of raising the Mudskin Toad, as it fed on a special kind of soil that was not there readily on Qing Mao mountain. It was better to sell it for a profit.
However, this led to the matter of what he was going to do with the other ten rocks he had bought given he was successful on just his second attempt.
In truth, he felt a sense of loss. He wouldn't have bought so many at once if he was going to succeed so easily. However, he had not wanted them to be picked up by someone else when he was opening them so he bought all of the potential candidates at once.
Now though, it meant that he had spent 100 primeval stones more than he needed.
Ah, life was like this sometimes, there was no use in worrying over it.
What he was more worried about, was this reward from the 'system.'
"I will open the rest of these on my own," Fang Yuan said, even as he got offers to buy the Mudskin Toad. However, they were all beneath its real value and he knew he could get a better deal elsewhere.
He scooped up the remaining ten fossils, not expecting to find anything in them as he left the tent. However, there was still a deep meaning as to why he was taking them away and not opening them in full view of everyone. Voices echoed behind him.
"Why is he leaving? He still has ten rocks left..."
"It's because all of you scared him off!" the female attendant snapped, now in a foul mood given that Fang Yuan was gone. Not only had she hoped to perhaps flatter him, he had been a very good customer with the amount of rocks that he had bought. But now, these idiots had driven him away!
The crowd was also mumbling to themselves, disappointed that they wouldn't see him open more rocks. The chance of another rock having a gu worm was low, but still there, and oftentimes the anticipation of what one would find was the real draw with rock gambling, not the result itself. Watching other people open rocks was like having part of that experience without having to pay your own money.
'System,' Fang Yuan thought as he walked away. 'You keep giving me boosts to my luck, but what use is that right now? I cannot see what my luck is currently, so you could just be cheating me out of doing these things with meaningless rewards.' He was going to get the Mudskin Toad anyway, but with other things he normally wouldn't have done it was possible he was being scammed.
Before, he would be able to get tangible benefits like primeval stones or gu worms, which was fine. Now, it was giving him more abstract things like dao marks (which were still somewhat useful) and luck (which he had no idea if it was even doing something). The daily quests had been giving minor boosts to luck, while this main quest gave a moderate boost to luck. So it was supposedly better, but 'supposedly' given he had no way to verify it.
Given the fact that luck had very few tangible ways to be judged without the relevant gu worms, he had no idea if he was being led by the nose by the system right now or not. His attainment in luck path was only ordinary and his understanding of it also very shallow, so he could not use it even if it was increased greatly.
This system would dare not lie to its host.
'What I really need most of all are boosts to my aptitude,' Fang Yuan thought. 56% was much better than what he had originally at 44%, but imagine how much faster he could progress if he had 70% or even 80%. He could be at Rank 2 before summer was over! And yet, the boosts to his aptitude had suddenly stopped.
The system was indifferent to these thoughts of his as it gave no further response, but did give him a new mission to complete instead.
Normally, this was all that he would do in the market. He did not have the resources or ability to do anything much further. The Intimate Grass was all sold out, but he had expected such and that was alright with him. One could not make gains without some minor losses - and it was important to keep the bigger picture in mind. It would be best for him to focus on cultivating now, however, he had gotten a new main mission right now.
A while later...
In a small tent in the village that had recently been set up, there was a healing Gu Master of Rank 2 who was speaking to a new customer.
"Ah," the customer said. "This is a bit embarrassing for me to talk about..."
"No worries, everything you say is between you and me and won't go outside the tent."
The customer drew closer. "Actually, I've been having issues with my little brother. Namely regarding size..."
"No worries, no worries, I've seen such things many a time," the healing Gu Master said and pulled out a Rank 1 gu worm. "This should solve your issue..."
"Oh? May I test it out?"
"Please don't do something like that in here-" but before his objection could be completed, the customer had already called out to someone standing outside the tent rather than pulling down his pants like the healing Gu Master expected.
Someone who was only about four feet tall walked in. "This is my little brother, sorry, he's a bit shy and embarrassed by his height so he didn't come in. Brother, we have a cure to make you taller!"
"Wait, wait," the healing Gu Master said, "This one misunderstood what you wanted." He took away the gu worm and then added, "I beg your forgiveness, I do not have something which can fix your brother's height."
The two walked out, dejected, while Fang Yuan watched the tent from a distance.
He was watching the tent while paying attention to his aperture.
Within his aperture was a new, strange gu worm.
It did not have the form of any kind of insect that he knew of. It consisted of a round base and three wings that were bent at two points, each of which was colored a dark shade of black like the feathers of a raven. The wings, strangely enough, were pointed down rather than up, meaning they were not very useful for flying. Not to mention they were odd in number, and were of varying sizes, making the gu look very lopsided and strange.
Despite his 500 years of experience, he did not know what this gu worm was.
He had found it while dissecting the other fossils he had bought. He hadn't been expecting to find something else, but had actually managed to get a second gu worm!
It had the aura of a Rank 3 worm, but he had no knowledge of it even as he readily refined it using the Spring Autumn Cicada's aura.
Even though he didn't know what it was, this only further piqued his curiosity and interest. If he didn't recognize it, it meant that it was either of a path he was unfamiliar with, or some kind of extinct or long-forgotten gu worm!
If the latter was the case, it was a great finding. There were many gu which had gone extinct even as new gu worms were developed but if they were fossilized they could still be retrieved.
The issue, of course, was that since he did not know what this gu worm was, and he did not have anyone reliable or more knowledgeable than him in the village to ask, he did not even know what to feed it let alone how to use it.
The system had sent him a message to not worry about feeding it - meaning that it was either going to give him the appropriate food via daily quests or that the gu worm needed something to be fed like the Spring Autumn Cicada which was easy to obtain.
If he couldn't feed this gu worm, Fang Yuan would've just sold it even if he wasn't sure of its price as a dead gu worm was absolutely worthless.
'Perhaps it is a luck-type gu worm that feeds on luck, which is why the system wants to maximize my luck as it anticipated me getting this. It seems to have some of the profundities of Wisdom path as well. If only it just told me what this is...' Fang Yuan thought.
Despite all of this, he went out on a limb and considered the fact that he could find some way to feed it and so decided to keep it for now. If it was indeed a rare and previously extinct gu worm, its value could be enormous.
Even as he considered this, he was watching the healer's tent as a young woman walked in.
Target found!
So this lady was the subject of his new main mission. He waited for her to leave, which she did about ten minutes later and began to follow her.