Blue Maple eventually obtained four sets of hidden weapons. One set was completely new and of excellent quality, while the other three were accumulated from before. Dwarves didn’t like using hidden weapons, but they still attempted to craft some. Dwarves had the best craftsmanship after all, and wouldn’t that be a joke to outsiders if they couldn’t even craft hidden weapons?

Every player had the ability to use hidden weapons, while Thieves had extra bonuses.

However, not many people used hidden weapons. The reason was because hidden weapons, although they could be used, could only hit their targets with system assist for damage equivalent to a basic attack. This was already the effect of custom-made hidden weapons.

Normal hidden weapons could only deal very little amounts of damage, and they were not much different from throwing stones at other people. They were typically used to draw monsters.

Normal shops sold hidden weapons that were more expensive than they should be, while they dealt less damage than they should do. Most importantly, most of those hidden weapons couldn’t be recycled or reused. Quality problems meant those hidden weapons became blunt after using them once.

This was especially so for higher-ranked wild monsters. The higher their armor, the more difficult it was to deal damage. Naturally, hidden weapons would be damaged themselves if they were forcefully used to deal damage. Therefore, nobody typically used bothered with this business of burning money. Even if players had money to spend, they rarely had hidden weapons equipped.

Hidden weapons were unlike arrows, which were used purely from a player’s wrist strength. Hidden weapons dealt much less damage when they were damaged.

Normal hidden weapons were already like that, not to mention custom-made ones. Those things were similar to crafted weapons, which were considered extremely expensive for normal players. Furthermore, it was almost impossible to reuse these hidden weapons unless they were used to kill some wild monsters.

The reason was because these items belonged to whoever picked them up…

Even though the system could assist a player in firing hidden weapons, whether the hidden weapons could hit their target was a skill shot. Now, players’ movement speeds were all starting to become faster. Hidden weapons were very difficult to hit.

Therefore, hidden weapons had many weaknesses at this stage: low range, low damage, high costs, high wear and tear, and required a lot of skill.

Only players like Mystery equipped hidden weapons.

Blue Maple would never believe that Mystery didn’t carry those things. Even though they had only met once, Mystery’s strict and rigorous personality was starkly different from Blue Maple’s laziness, to the point where she would pick a fight with him just because he was lazy. However, Blue Maple was only lazy in normal times, and his prowess was comparable to Mystery when he was in battle.

Blue Maple was about to find a spot to enjoy his new toys, and his first thought was to try them when he was trying to kill a Boss.

Blue Maple bid his farewell to the dwarves after getting his hidden weapons. He wasn’t the kind of person to chat around idly.

Krugalo and Klubdi started chatting with each other as they watched Blue Maple leave.

“So, what do you think about this human youngster?” Krugalo, the tribe chief, was the first to speak.

“He’s a little difficult to understand. He was just passing by when he chose to help us, and I felt like he came over just because it was convenient. He could kill the Demon General, yet he chose to let him escape, and that happened more than once. When you gave him the axe, his expression was completely plain and expressionless, and he didn’t seem moved at all. Finally, he was equally emotionless when he gave us the exotic jar of liquor. He looks like someone who doesn’t care about external possessions at all.”

“I did invite him to watch how we craft hidden weapons, yet he chose to go straight to bed. Seemed like… hidden weapons and whatever was his decision on a whim so that we didn’t feel awkward. He didn’t care about that at all.”

Klubdi explained continuously. Krugalo was his nephew and tribe chief at the same time, and he was listening seriously as he also started thinking.

“The axe token looks like a great gift. At least, it’s given to a human youngster who is friendly, who has helped us, and someone who won’t look down on us. He’s just a little colder than normal.”

“Yes. If he hadn’t behaved so coldly, everything that he did was great if we think closely about what he did, except when he let the Demon General go.” Klubdi continued, and he suddenly felt like Blue Maple was just a little too cold.

“Perhaps, he doesn’t have much hatred against demons since he’s a descended human. Did he not rob the Demon General clean? That’s already good enough.” Krugalo chuckled as he spoke. He was the tribe chief, so he was more open about things.

“In that case… he did seem to do good things. We won’t have known that if we haven’t reflected on what he did because everything was masked by his cold personality.” Klubdi was the senior one, and he quickly understood.

The two of them exchanged a smile as they became increasingly pleased with Blue Maple.

……

……

Blue Maple left the dwarven tribe, and he successfully arrived in Gong Liang City with the map that Kruje had given to him.

However, the sky had gone dark when he arrived, and he found a random inn to sleep in.

Blue Maple prepared to get his haircut on the second day as it was getting long.

However, he didn’t know the location of Gong Liang City’s barber shop as he didn’t purchase Gong Liang City’s map. Therefore, he had the mentality of just wandering around the streets.

Blue Maple wasn’t worried about whether other players would recognize him. So what if they did? Nobody in the city dared to make a move against him. Furthermore, he was by himself, and he had many skills which could let him go invisible or teleport, so who could stop him? In the end, he could just use Heavenly Fire to teleport himself away.

Blue Maple still chose the streets with fewer people as much as he could afford. If he had to take a look along a busy street, he would just use Vanishing Shadow’s passive invisibility to walk.

Blue Maple finally arrived at a relatively remote street and discovered his destination.

“Is… the barber… here?”

Blue Maple arrived at a place that looked like a barber, but he wasn’t sure whether it was actually a barber or not.

It looked like a normal shop from the outside, and it had an alternating tricolored lantern without the traditional sign of barbers. The only thing that he could see was a large mirror inside with two chairs along with a counter before the mirror, but there was nothing on it.

Most importantly, the shop didn’t have a name!

Forget it. Let’s just open the map and have a look, thought Blue Maple.

He didn’t want to go in to realize that this shop wasn’t a barber as that would be awkward. He would rather eliminate that possibility.

Even though he didn’t purchase Gong Liang city’s map, the game was helpful to players by automatically updating their own maps on areas that they had been to before. Afterwards, the location name, structure, road names, and whatnot would be displayed.

Blue Maple realized that this place was a barber after opening his map. He still found it hard to believe that this shop was a barber even though his map confirmed it for him, mainly because there was nothing except a mirror for cutting hair and a chair.

I’ll just take a look inside.

Blue Maple just made a decision to go in, but a voice could be heard even before he could step in

“Our store is temporarily closed today, please forgive us, sir.”

This voice belonged to a girl, and she sounded apologetic.

Blue Maple was momentarily stunned before his interest was aroused.

That’s interesting. It’s the first time in this game that a shop has rejected a customer right outside its door. Blue Maple’s interest was immediately aroused.

Blue Maple had nothing else to do anyway, so he started asking questions.

“Can you tell me why?”

The voice from inside the shop fell silent for a few moments before the girl’s voice could be heard again.

“I’m sorry, sir. I can’t tell you that.”

“Oh.”

Blue Maple didn’t want to probe further since she couldn’t tell him. Even though he enjoyed interesting things, he couldn’t continue probing shamelessly since the other party had already spoken out against it.

Blue Maple was just about to turn and leave when he suddenly paused and recalled something.

Can… this be a quest that is triggered on contact? Blue Maple suddenly thought to himself.

Quests in the game could be accepted from the Mercenaries Union and from NPCs that could be clearly seen to be in trouble outside. There were also quests that were triggered by the player upon contact.

Blue Maple knew some things about that. However, Blue Maple didn’t have an example for reference, and he didn’t know what requirements he had to fulfil for triggering a quest. This time, Blue Maple had that thought because he could sense that something was up since the circumstance wasn’t normal.

I’ll just try, and I can give this quest a try if there is one. Blue Maple thought to himself.

Blue Maple was possibly accepting a triggered quest for the first time, and Blue Maple, as a rookie to this game, was still rather particular about this. He didn’t have anything else to do at the moment.

“Are you in some trouble? Maybe I can help.” Blue Maple tried to make his voice sound as gentle as possible. However, his cold and emotionless tone had become a habit, and he couldn’t make himself sound warm and friendly.

The voice inside the shop fell silent for a few moments.

“Then, come in.”

Blue Maple entered the shop following her response. However, the shop had been cleared out with only several miscellaneous items stacked in a corner. Blue Maple could tell that those items belonged to barbers. Even though technology on Earth no longer required human barbers for haircuts, some things were better off done by hand than through machines.

Hairdressing was one of them, and hairstylists still existed in the world. There was no wonder that Blue Maple could recognize the items inside the barbershop.

“Are you closing down?” Blue Maple asked plainly.

“Yes, because I have to go somewhere far away. You don’t need to help me anymore, but if you don’t mind, I can help you cut your with a normal pair of hairdressing scissors,” the girl continued.

Only then did Blue Maple notice the girl. He realized that she was a young woman dressed in a kimono with ancient Japanese hair accessories in her hair. She had delicate and pretty facial features.

“I’m not very particular about the haircut, so you can just give me a normal one. You can talk about your problem if it’s convenient because I can probably deal with it quickly since I’ve had my third class advancement.” Blue Maple spoke at a steady pace, like talking any faster required too much energy.

The young lady in the kimono fell silent temporarily, and she looked like she made a decision after contemplating for a few moments.

“Have you really completed your third class advancement? If that’s the case, you might be able to help me.” The young lady’s eyes grew hopeful.

Blue Maple pushed down his glasses gently to the tip of his nose when he saw her expression so that his goblin glasses’ suppression was weaker, and he immediately revealed much of his power.

The young lady’s eyes glowed when she felt Blue Maple’s strength.

“That’s fantastic. You have completed your third class advancement. If you’re willing to help, you do have a much higher chance of getting this quest.” The young lady spoke excitedly.

This did look like a quest, but Blue Maple felt a little displeased when he heard what she said.

I have a much higher chance of getting this quest… Blue Maple thought to himself.

Blue Maple only had a greater chance of getting this quest, but…

“That’s interesting.”