When Flora saw Lin Er, she felt that this human in front of her looked very familiar and she spoke without thinking.

That left her extremely confused. Although the black-haired young man’s aura was very special, it still should not have made her act this friendly on instinct.

Lin Er felt even more confused. The receptionist, Ellie had been acting strange earlier and now Flora was acting strange too.

It had not even been half an hour since they separated, yet the situation was making it seem like they had a fish’s memory of only seven seconds.

Lin Er suddenly thought of something.

Compared to before, his biggest change was that he had gone from a mortal to Qi Refining Level 1.

That was a change from mortal to immortal.

Lin Er had not deliberately tried to disguise himself either. Mortals and immortals were different and the subtle differences between them were huge.

He panicked briefly, afraid that he had exposed his identity as a cultivator.

But then he thought of how the receptionist Ellie had not done anything out of line either and he quickly steadied his mind.

So Lin Er answered calmly, “Flora, it’s me, Lin Er.”

Flora paused, her gaze landing on his face.

In those emerald green eyes, the flicker of emotion was quickly covered by an even heavier look of scrutiny.

From his eyes to his posture, she performed a quick silent comparison.

“Physical markers confirmed. You are Lin Er.”

A moment later, Flora reached a calm conclusion.

‘During the magic stone test earlier, you were also disguising your strength.’

Flora did not say this sentence out loud.

Otherwise, there would be no way to explain how an ordinary person could change so drastically in such a short time.

Could it be that the Storm Calamity that appeared earlier had suddenly manifested and bestowed extraordinary power upon him?

There was a possibility, but the probability of him disguising himself was clearly higher.

Following that line of thought, the oddities Lin Er had shown when she first met him now had a reasonable explanation.

As for why he was revealing himself now, it was most likely because the Storm Calamity had suddenly appeared.

Everything could finally be explained.

Lin Er also noticed Flora’s gaze and realized she seemed to have misunderstood something.

But he had no way to explain his origins. To put it plainly, in this world he was undocumented. Fortunately, the Adventurers’ Guild did not check that.

Maybe it was not even worth checking. After all, based on the magic stone test, Lin Er was just an ordinary person.

He decided to change the subject and said, “Aren’t you supposed to go do missions? Why did you come back?”

Seeing that Lin Er did not answer, Flora took it as his tacit admission.

She did not continue to ask. Everyone had their own little secrets.

She replied, “A large-scale thunderstorm suddenly appeared over the city just now. It seemed like the Storm Calamity might be present, so I came to understand the situation and confirm whether this city is still safe.”

This was the second time Lin Er had heard that name. It seemed that all unexplained weather phenomena would ultimately be blamed on that monster.

Lin Er asked, “What is the Storm Calamity you’re talking about?”

Flora answered blandly, “A notorious evil dragon. Its killing record exceeds eighty-eight incidents.”

Lin Er recalled the black shadow that had swept across the sky earlier and said, “Is it… black-scaled?”

Flora tilted her head slightly, “You’ve seen it?”

Lin Er said, “If that was it, you could say I’ve crossed paths with it once.”

To survive after encountering the Storm Calamity, there were only two possibilities.

One was that his luck was extremely good and his strength was so insignificant that he did not even register in the dragon’s eyes.

The other was that his strength was sufficient, at the very least with outstanding concealment ability.

Flora had already decided that Lin Er belonged to the latter.

Her expression turned serious, “You’re very strong. I propose we cooperate and assassinate a Second-Tier Minotaur Chieftain. The reward will be split fifty-fifty. How about it?”

‘Wait, what exactly had she misunderstood?’

He had a tiny bit of cultivation, but he had no actual combat ability, let alone challenging a Second-Tier leader.

“You’ve misunderstood,” Lin Er explained.

“I’m just a newbie and I have no combat experience. Look, everything I took is low-level bounties.”

To make himself more convincing, he handed over the three bounty sheets in his hand.

In Flora’s understanding, any adventurer with even a little ambition would rather form a party to hunt goblins than take these kinds of tasks.

A trace of surprise flashed through her eyes, followed by sudden realization—this must be camouflage to perfectly hide his strength.

Looking at herself, she had clearly registered at the Adventurers’ Guild as a First-Tier Peak and yet she was already planning an assassination of a Second-Tier chieftain. That was far too conspicuous. In this respect, she was far less thoughtful than Lin Er.

She understood and did not expose it.

“I understand. If you want to form a party in the future, you can find me anytime.”

‘What did you misunderstand again?!’

Lin Er looked at her calm expression and felt a wave of helplessness.

* * *

After Lin Er parted ways with Flora, he gradually reined in his mind.

At last, the immortal aura around him became restrained and he was no longer so eye-catching.

Only after confirming this did he head toward outside Blackstone City.

From here, it was at least three hours to the edge of Misty Fog Forest.

After leaving the city, Lin Er could not help but quicken his steps.

He discovered that his leg strength had improved by a great deal. Even without trying, his steps had become extremely light.

Three steps became two, two became one, moving like the wind.

In the blink of an eye, he was already a hundred meters away.

If it had been before, running a hundred meters would have left him panting, but now not only was he faster, even his breathing was steady.

As if this was nothing to him.

‘Could this be the legendary qinggong, lightness skill?’

While delighted, Lin Er did not want to be too showy and slowed down.

However, he soon saw several extremely fast figures coming from outside the city.

These people were fully armed, dressed like adventurers. Their running speed was no slower than his, as if aided by wind.

None of these adventurers looked at him. They brushed past him and rushed straight toward Blackstone City.

The farmers in the fields were already used to it.

After realizing he was not actually special, Lin Er finally stopped holding back.

In less than half an hour, he finished a three-hour journey and arrived at the edge of Misty Fog Forest.

Lin Er recalled the bounty’s description of mountain orchid flowers and searched nearby.

At that moment, he saw a prompt appear in the grass not far away.

[Blood-Staunching Herb: 2 years old. After consumption, it can stop bleeding and dispel blood stasis.]

The quest items even had prompts.

That was way too convenient.

Lin Er directly dug up the Blood-Staunching Herb intact.

He did not linger and quickly searched.

Relying on his extremely fast legwork and the quest prompts, he soon finished collecting ten stalks of Blood-Staunching Herb.

He had wanted to look for more, but the quest prompt disappeared, so he could not exploit it.

Lin Er had no choice but to return the way he came, heading back to the Adventurers’ Guild.

* * *

When Ellie saw the ten fresh mountain orchid flowers Lin Er submitted, her expression turned a little strange.

That was way too fast.

But if it was Lord Lin Er, then being that fast was perfectly reasonable.

At the same time, she noticed that Lin Er’s aura had become low-key and restrained. It was not as dazzling as when she had last seen him. In a crowd, he looked utterly ordinary.

Otherwise, his arrival would definitely have caused a commotion in the Adventurers’ Guild hall.

In that case, did that mean only she had discovered Lord Lin Er’s true charm?

A small, quiet happiness rose in Ellie’s heart and she felt an inexplicable joy.

“Respected Lord Lin Er, here is your bounty. In total, five Ear-of-Wheat Coins.”

Lin Er had just indirectly found out that one Workshop Coin equaled twelve Ear-of-Wheat Coins. One Ear-of-Wheat Coin was only enough to buy a large mug of beer, or two white breads.

By that logic, the reward for this gathering mission really was low. Even so, five Ear-of-Wheat Coins was considered high. Delivering a letter only gave two Ear-of-Wheat Coins and the escort mission only gave four.

But Lin Er did not really care about the reward anyway.

As he submitted the task, the prompt finally appeared.

[You have successfully completed the task of gathering 10 stalks of Blood-Staunching Herb. Reward: 1 bottle of Spring-Returning Dew.]

After Lin Er left the Adventurers’ Guild, he felt a slight worry.

The system had judged ordinary mountain orchid flowers as Blood-Staunching Herb. What if the Spring-Returning Dew reward was actually mountain orchid flower potion…

That would be unbelievably awful.

Lin Er let out a long breath and chose to extract the reward.

In the next second, a small porcelain bottle fell into his hand, giving off a faint medicinal fragrance.

Lin Er sniffed it once. He was certain that this was absolutely not a scent mountain orchid flowers could produce.

[Low-grade Spring-Returning Dew: Taken internally to treat internal injuries, applied externally to treat external wounds. Ineffective on severed limbs. Suitable for the Qi Refining stage.]

Lin Er was still not fully reassured. He used a sharp object to cut his fingertip, watched blood flow out, then carefully dripped one drop onto his finger.

In the next second, the bleeding stopped and the fingertip healed rapidly, fair and fresh, as if it had never been injured.

Lin Er was overjoyed inside.

System-made products really were premium.