Adrian sighed to himself after speaking the truth, but no one believed him. However, Lenny's words reminded him of something, so he asked, "Did you guys finish harvesting your wheat?"
Lenny: "Not yet. Aren't you here to watch the show? Sweet Wine, you're really dedicated, thinking about harvesting wheat at a time like this!"
Grumpy: "Mm."
"Ha ha." Adrian blinked, suddenly becoming serious. "I just remembered I have a delivery quest to finish. Gotta go, bye!"
After speaking, Adrian jumped off the tree and quickly disappeared from sight.
"Hey!" Lenny called out but didn't catch him. He was a bit disappointed. Watching the show together would've been fun. However, less than ten minutes later, he saw Sweet Wine Seller reappear in his line of sight.
He was driving a wooden cart, pulled by the old, thin street-corner bull, and the cart was loaded with barrels of wine.
"Look, look! The direction he's heading... he's not going to the castle to deliver wine, is he?!" Lenny excitedly grabbed Grumpy's sleeve.
Grumpy: "Mm."
Lenny: "Just 'mm'? Are you using automatic replies on me?"
Grumpy: "Mm."
Lenny: "Come on, change it up!"
Grumpy: "Alright."
Lenny was furious.
On the other side, Adrian was slowly driving the wooden cart toward the estate gate, both inconspicuous and yet eye-catching. It was low-key because he wasn't doing anything special—just driving a cart down the road. This cheap cart was even something the system gave him, and it was so worn out that no one would bother to steal it if it were left on the side of the road. But it was eye-catching because, among all the people gathered here for the King's Game, he was the only one hauling a cart full of wine. What would normally be an ordinary task was now drawing attention.
Soon, voices started to spread through the crowd.
"Who's this guy? Why is he bringing a whole cart of wine here? Is he trying to bribe the guards and sneak in?"
"That's not going to work, right? The duke's family has seen everything."
"Let me use Identify and see what his name is... Sweet Wine Seller? Never heard of him."
"He's pretty cute, though."
In Celestial Saga, there's a face customization system where players can design their character's appearance. Those playing physical classes tend to make themselves tall, handsome, and striking, while mages are a bit more diverse in their looks.
Sweet Wine Seller stood about 5'9", wearing a hooded black robe, not the typical mage's attire, but more like a traveler's. He wore old leather boots, nothing too special. However, he had a lot of jewelry—several silver chains wrapped around his wrist and a magic ring shaped like deer antlers. His ears were adorned with white shell earrings. When he took off his hood, his soft black hair was tied into a fluffy braid with a fine gold band, resting on his shoulder, about collarbone length. His features were handsome in a subtle way, not striking at first glance, but pleasing to look at—much more comfortable than the usual cookie-cutter handsome or pretty characters.
When Adrian arrived at the gate with his cart, a player approached and asked, "Hey, what are you doing bringing wine here? Got a new way to get inside?"
Adrian looked at him, confused. "I'm here for a quest."
At that moment, one of the guards came over. Adrian explained that he was there to deliver wine and showed him the transaction receipt. The guard gave the barrels a quick once-over and waved him through.
Adrian politely said, "Thank you," and then, with all eyes on him, easily drove his rickety cart into the estate.
"This works?!"
"No way!"
"Yeah, you can get in just by doing a quest, huh? Doesn't have to be the King's Game after all!"
"Quick, quick, quick, go see if there's any quest related to Grams!"
In no time, chaos broke out at the entrance of the estate.
But Adrian couldn't see any of it. He was happily driving his cart along the cobblestone road of the estate. If you listened closely, you could hear him humming a tune, "Driving my beloved rickety cart, the road will never be rough\~\~."
The wine delivery quest was part of his crafting profession, just like the old merchant quests in traditional MMOs. The difference in Celestial Saga is that the business opportunities are earned by the players themselves, not handed out by the system.
Although Adrian leveled up slowly and hadn't made much of a name for himself, he was a pro at selling wine. He grew the wheat, brewed the wine, and sold it—no scams, no tricks. His reputation spoke for itself, and that's how he ended up here.
Lenny's words had reminded him: there were more ways to get into Grams than just methods one, two, and three—there was method four.
But that was just the first step in the game.
The estate was large, with all kinds of facilities like a flower house, stables, warehouses, and a guard camp. While Adrian had made it inside, his destination was the warehouse, and he couldn't get too close to the castle. If any guards saw him wandering in the castle area, he would still get caught.
However, Adrian guessed that being caught didn't necessarily mean a failure. As long as he found a way to escape, he could continue the game. In fact, knowing how the game's developers worked, there might even be hidden clues triggered by being sent to the dungeon of the castle.
Players who used methods one, two, or three to trigger quests might find their storyline take different turns. One path would be through the duke's estate openly, while another would be to sneak in quietly. Which path would lead to the right conclusion was still uncertain.
Back to the present, the most important thing was avoiding the guards and entering the castle. But Adrian wasn't in a rush. He deliberately slowed down, keeping an eye out for the patrolling guards while opening up the discussion forum.
The King's Game wasn't a closed dungeon—it was open to all players, so the quest details were bound to leak out. SSSSSS-level quests could be a one-way ticket to death—there was no room for error, and it was better to let the more daring players test the waters first.
"My path was once nonexistent, but with the many dead before me, a path was made." — AlanKuroskin
Adrian then summoned his keyboard and left an enthusiastic comment on the hottest thread about the King's Game:
\[Charge, my friends!]
He hit send—
"Boom!" There was an explosion behind him.
Adrian looked up in shock, seeing a flash of magic light, and the top of the West Tower of the castle collapsed,
boom, boom, boom!
He stared at his fingers, then at the collapsed tower, his pupils shaking. If he hadn't confirmed that he didn't cast any magic himself, he might have thought he was responsible for blowing up the tower.
But that didn't make sense.
According to players who had already received the quest, the last known location of Duke Doreen's youngest daughter was in her bedroom, so the first step of the quest was to scout her bedroom.
So why the West Tower?
Had someone discovered a clue there? Or maybe a suspicious character had been spotted, leading to a battle? Was it player-on-player conflict?
Just then, Adrian saw the guards coming from all directions.
Now was his chance. Adrian didn't even care about selling wine at the warehouse anymore. Taking advantage of the distraction, he drove his cart toward the warehouse, pretending to be heading that way. But once around a hidden corner, he quickly abandoned the cart behind some bushes, stored away the street-corner bull and wine, and summoned a different pet—The Raven.
The Raven was a black, stout-headed bird, part of the crow family, and, like the street-corner bull, it was a common creature on the Sicilitre continent. The street-corner bull was used for transport, while the raven was used for communication and assisting with certain tasks, like—reconnaissance.
"Go." Adrian pointed his staff forward, and the raven perched on his shoulder immediately flew toward the West Tower.
For a summoner, the raven's eyes were his eyes. Everything the raven saw was transmitted directly to Adrian's vision in real time, and only he could see it—unless he chose to share the vision with someone else.
With the raven sent to scout, Adrian hid behind the bushes and silently crept closer to the castle. The path from here to the castle was still quite long, and he would have to pass through a large glass flower house in the middle.
Just as Adrian was about to step out of the bushes and into the flower house, waiting for the right moment to slip in, the raven's vision finally showed a player.
He saw a player dressed like a bounty hunter, leaping out of a window on the West Tower. The window was at least fifty to sixty meters above the ground, and even in the game, jumping from that height would be fatal.
But the player was graceful. As he fell, he drove a dagger into the outer wall, using it to hang with one hand. Then he kicked off the wall and did a perfect backflip, landing safely on the rooftop of another nearby tower.
It seemed like someone was chasing him from the tower, but he quickly jumped down again, disappearing from sight after a few agile moves.
Impressive.
Such smooth movements weren't easy to pull off, even with skills in the game. Adrian then noticed the figure peeking out of the West Tower window—it was Cosmos from D.s.
Wow, looks like gods are fighting.
He got away.
Adrian remotely guided the raven into the tree branches and turned to enter the flower house. With the commotion around the West Tower, the area near the castle was swarming with guards. Climbing up there would mean getting caught, so he decided to lay low for now.