Chapter 323: Evergreen Village 4

"As for the matter concerning the items of my citizens, I'd like you to return them to their rightful owners. The people are scared of outsiders because they have gone for so long without seeing one."

"Along with that is the various rumors they hear growing up, that outsiders are bloodthirsty, have three heads, six arms and eight legs et cetera."

"It is improper to exploit their fear to loot their goods, don't you think so, my friends?" Vishad asked bluntly.

Draco, Clarent, and Qiong Qi shared a look before asking their heads to Vishad. With an honest and pure expression, Draco answered the Lizardman.

"I don't think so."

Vishad was startled by his reply. Anyone with any sense of self-respect would know that looting people's wares in broad daylight was bad, but this fellow thought that it wasn't?

Could it be that the stories were true? That all outsiders were barbaric and evil, who had no sense of morality and ate babies for a living?

Vishad certainly wouldn't know as he was not alive during the previous competition. It was a bit of a tall order to expect him to easily live for a thousand years and still be middle-aged like he was now.

"Oh? And why do you believe that what you did was okay?" Vishad asked curiously.

He truly wanted to know what kind of morals Draco and co had to think that what they did was perfectly fine and deserving of no criticism or disgrace.

"Because we liked it!" Draco answered cheerfully.

Vishad was stunned, then his eyes twitched. He felt his throat bulk up as a wad of blood threatened to spill out, but he quickly sucked it back down.

When stealing someone's good, there was enjoyment in it? Didn't people steal due to desperation and a desire to survive? Since when was theft a casual hobby that one could partake in to relieve stress?

Vishad now felt all the more like his guess was right. Outsiders definitely were an evil bunch and should be avoided at all costs. However, he now had three of them in his village, frustrating him to no end.

Still, the mandates of the Supreme Ancestor said to accommodate all outsiders that entered the inner section by providing them with information, shelter, and training during the waiting period for the competition.

After interacting with this bunch though, Vishad began having thoughts about throwing them onto a different village to be their problem. His instincts told him that if he allowed them to stay, the whole Treasury might be left in ruins.

Vishad found this feeling to be quite silly though, so he tossed it aside. Even if they were troublemakers, there were only 3 of them and they were only Rank 1.

What at all could they do?

Thinking like this, Vishad calmed down. He decided to just do his duty and follow the Supreme Ancestor's mandates while avoiding these three as best as he could.

"Well, let us put this issue aside. What are your current Tradeskills and their respective Ranks?" Vishad asked with his finger tapping the table once again.

Draco thought for a bit before answering. "I have Blacksmithing, Alchemy, Cooking and Brewing at Master Rank, Taming, Tactics, Scrivener, and Magical Engineering at the Amateur Rank, then finally Enchanting at the Grandmaster Rank."

Vishad nodded. "That is truly not bad, but you'll have to... what the f.u.c.k did you just say?"

The Lizardman began speaking in the tone of an elder speaking to a junior, but his face abruptly changed as he parsed Draco's words, making the stoic and refined fellow use swear words at the end.

Just to be sure, Draco repeated what he said earlier, and Vishad stared at him like he was seeing a monster. Even in the monstrously talented inner section, none of the descendants of the Refinement God could claim to have 1 Grandmaster Tradeskill and 4 Master Ranks.

What made this even more horrifying was Draco's Rank. He was only Rank 1!

Rank 1 and with such Tradeskills Ranks... not to mention that his aura and behavior was less like a dedicated crafter and more like a combatant who dabbled in crafting on the side.

Even most Master Rank crafters who had only 1 main Tradeskill would have reached Rank 5, like the various masters in the Rank 7 castle. After all, crafting gave level experience as well as Tradeskill experience, where the level experience was usually higher.

At some point, one's rate of gaining Tradeskill exp would plateau, so they would earn very little. Not to mention that in the Master Rank, such growth wouldn't be felt at all.

One who watched Draco's Tradeskill progress would not feel this at all with how quickly he seemed to tear through it. It couldn't be that much of a big deal, right? Why make such a fuss over something so minor?

Well, the problem was that Draco had always been crafting above his Rank for Blacksmithing, Alchemy, and Enchanting. He skipped the Amateur Rank altogether back when he made the Dragon's Blessing potion.

It awarded him +1 to all Tradeskill Ranks, and interestingly, this very same Unique Quest he was on. Then again, that wasn't surprising as he had made a Semi-Legendary potion at the Amateur Rank, within like a few days since the game launched.

To compare, it would be like a Rank 1 person killing a Rank 5 Regional Boss. Just what kind of experience and rewards would one get for such a thing?

So being Rank 1 while being at the Grandmaster Rank for one Tradeskill and the master Rank for four others could no longer be described as bizarre or unique. This was simply impossible!

Vishad expression went through many changes as he gazed at Draco because he could see that he wasn't lying, not to mention that doing so would be extremely pointless and counter-intuitive.

With the competition coming up, who would deliberately inflate their abilities? Would doing so make the inheritance willingly run over to you happily? No!

In fact, many would love to underreport their abilities so they could fool competition and gain an upper hand. Vishad's mind spun for a few seconds before his face became firm.

He had decided to take care of these three at all costs! even if they were troublemakers or insidious, he was willing to turn a blind eye if it meant he could court Draco's favor.

After all, Draco hadn't realized it because he thought that every 9 out of 10 people in here was secretly a Grandmaster, so his one Tradeskill that was at that Rank just gave him a level playing field.

However, he didn't understand the test as well as Vishad did. As had been stated by the Lizardman, it tested only talent. Would someone who was at Rank 1 yet had a lineup of Tradeskills be called untalented?

Hehe, if Draco would be called untalented with all this, then the Supreme Ancestor could go eat a cabbage and choke on it.

When Vishad thought this, he immediately slapped himself. Daring to have such rude thoughts to the Supreme Ancestor, he should really cut his own neck, but with the treasure that was Draco before him, he decisively put it off.

Draco watched this display with a stunned expression. He and his two buddies shared a look, and the same thought ran through their minds.

Could this stoic Lizardman have been rendered stupid by their extravagance and fabulousness? Could it be that their aura which could suppress all devils and seduce all angels had finally harmed an innocent?

Thinking like this, the three felt guilt. They hadn't meant to do such a thing... after all, they didn't ask to be born to exemplary. If they could go back in time, they would certainly ask the creator to take away 0.1% of their greatness so other mortals could survive in their presence.

Vishad saw their expression, which was like experts who stood atop a peak so high that they couldn't even look down to see mortals anymore, and knew that they were thinking about foolish things.

In this short exchange, it could be said that Vishad had grasped 70% of the true personality of these three... not that they had been trying to hide it anyway.

What Vishad failed to see was a flash to light in Draco's eye. He saw Vishad's reaction and although his Divine Eyes of Caelo could not see into his mind, Draco had enough worldly experience to know what was going on.

His heart relaxed greatly. It seemed like his skills weren't average after all. He could be regarded as a peak level talent here, and if there were even a few who could match him, they would not number more than 5.

As such, Vishad clearly wanted to suck up to him and cultivate him greatly. When Draco won the Inheritance, it was likely that he would become something of a leader to all the people here, so if Vishad was closest to him when that time came... did it need to be explained?

No wonder Vishad said that each village tried to cultivate its own representative. If such a person was able to win, they would rise from being equal to each other to overlords over the rest.

Draco smartly chose to pretend like he didn't know. If he made it obvious he was aware, Vishad would hesitate and feel embarrassed. The kind of help he would offer would still be great, but not as potent.

If Draco were unaware, it was likely that Vishad's attempts would be successful - in his own mind of course - so he would naturally be greatly interested in investing more into Draco.

As for Draco, anything that could help enhance his Tradeskills would be welcome. His first target would be to hit Grandmaster Rank in Blacksmithing and Alchemy.

As for Cooking and Brewing, Draco had some discretion here. He knew his own relative skill in both Tradeskills was poor, as he could only cook or brew with set recipes. Compared to Blacksmithing and Alchemy were he could create new designs with extreme ease, how could he hope to become a Grandmaster?

After that, he would inject all his focus into Magical Engineering and Scrivener. As for tactics and Taming, Draco only needed them for very rare occasions, and it could even be said that their use would expire soon.

Tactics had already become useless with Deployed Soldier's class. Draco no longer needed to command the army of the City-State or the Guild, that would be Deployed Soldier's task.

Taming would become useless once his children with Hikari hatched. After all, its basic function was to let him know how many days it had left to hatch and how to care for them.

It could certainly gain levels if the hatched monsters came out and were trained by the tamer, but the caveat was that the tamer couldn't use them at all. It was a Tradeskill, not a combat class, so the trained monsters were meant for selling.

Obviously, Draco had no time or energy for such a thing. He only got it to help with the Drake, but now that the Drake had become Clarent, it became exceedingly useless.

If Draco could remove it, he wouldn't even hesitate. If so, he could acquire more slots for more OP Tradeskills that came in the future, especially those at or above Epic Rank.

Thinking like this, his expression changed as she asked Vishad. "It is possible to remove Tradeskills from one's repertoire?"

Vishad smiled and nodded. "Yes. If you visit the Altar of Crafting in the village's Church, you can opt to have a learned Tradeskill removed. It can be sold to the Altar for equivalent Tradeskill experience converted to another Tradeskill you have, or converted into a Tradeskill book."

"The Altar of Crafting also allows you to pay in order to expand your Tradeskill slots, but the cost is quite heavy, so many don't bother. I assume you want to remove your Amateur Rank Tradeskills then?"