Chapter 692 – Dreamweaver World 30

As the dream citizens felt the pressure of Mo Lan’s presence, the adventurers of Greenwood Village also gradually caught wind of her exploits.

There were no online communication methods within the dream realm, making it inconvenient for adventurers to contact each other.

After returning to the real world, adventurers flocked to the Greenwood Village subforum under the Forest Isle section of the dream realm forums.

Before long, a post titled “Greenwood Village’s Insane Tryhard Adventurer — Hidden Quest or What?” was pushed to trending.

【Mountain Sparrow Who Can’t Fly High: Guys, you won’t believe this! I went to the village to turn in a quest today and saw an adventurer teaching dream citizens animal transformation! My eyeballs literally fell out of my skull!】

【Little Flower-Planting Girl: Is it that weirdo who’s always camped out in Gniewen’s classes? A dream citizen girl I’m friends with hasn’t come out of the flower garden in months because of her — apparently she was so demoralized.】

【Professional Intel Dealer: I bribed Old Groot with 500 dream copper coins. He didn’t tell me who the adventurer was, but he did say she’d bought a massive number of skill books from him — not just Beast Speaker ones, but Forest Warden ones too. You think she’s using all of them herself?】

【Don’t Wanna Be a Forest Warden: Probably. I heard from the Beast Speaker uncle who always gives me quests that she’s already learned every animal transformation the village has to offer, and her transformations are even better than the dream citizens’. 】

【Dryad Little Prince: Dream citizens have been mocking our transformation abilities for ages. What kind of skill book gives transformations that good? I’ve bought premium skill books from Groot too — they’re nowhere near that effective! I bet she’s definitely picked up some hidden quest!】

【Professional Intel Dealer: I know the details on this one. DM me if you want the info — just one dream gold coin for the intel fee.】

【Veteran Adventurer: No way this is real! Even if she has better transformation skill books, Greenwood Village has at least a hundred types of animal transformations. I’ve been exploring the dream realm for decades, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting that many skill points! Quality over quantity has always been the rule with skills, especially for skills in the Beginner Zone.】

【Cat Squad Captain: It’s true! Latest news — she’s recently become famous among the Forest Wardens. Apparently she’s already mastered many types of plant transformation and has very likely already changed her class to Forest Warden.】

【Theoretical Scholar: Your original class skills disappear after a class change. Even if she’s going for the “Omniscient Explorer” title, there’s no need to learn so many low-level skills after switching classes! Unless she’s found a way to hold both Beast Speaker and Forest Warden as main classes simultaneously and learn transformation skills without being limited by skill points.】

【Hidden Quest Hunter: Hidden quest! It’s definitely a hidden quest! Does anyone know where she is? Drop the coordinates!】

……

The post exploded with dozens of replies per minute, quickly spawning several related discussion threads.

Mo Lan had been completely immersed in refining her plant transformation Magic these past days — coming to Greenwood Village in the dream realm at night for plant transformation classes, then studying and digesting the knowledge from skill books during the day. She had almost no time to log into the dream realm forums, much less any idea that she had become the focal point of discussion among Greenwood Village’s adventurer community.

Until one day, after finishing her class, she leaped lightly onto the vine-covered corridor outside the Heartwood Inn in her Shadow Cat form — and was suddenly blocked by an adventurer.

“Name your price! I want the hidden quest leads you have.” The fully armed Dryad adventurer crouched down. “Based on my experience, this shouldn’t be a one-time hidden quest, right?”

Mo Lan’s cat ears perked up alertly, her pupils contracting slightly. She stopped in her tracks and looked up to size up this unfamiliar adventurer.

A level 25 indicator hovered above his head — already high enough to leave the Beginner Zone and venture into the Exploration Zone.

But even with his high level, there was no way he could have seen through her transformation at a glance.

“How did you know I’m an adventurer?”

Mo Lan didn’t answer his baffling question, instead using her Human Speech skill to counter with her own.

The Shadow Cat Transformation was one of the animal forms she had mastered most expertly.

In this state, the level and ID indicators that marked someone as an adventurer would be completely hidden.

With her level of transformation skill, ordinary detection abilities couldn’t even tell whether she was a real animal, let alone go further and distinguish whether she was a dream citizen or an adventurer.

Unless the other person had deeper mastery of feline transformations than she did, or possessed some kind of superior detection skill or powerful detection item.

Mo Lan deliberately maintained her animal form while moving about Greenwood Village precisely to avoid attracting other adventurers’ attention.

Many dream citizen villagers who weren’t familiar with her often mistook her for a real animal. If she appeared somewhere a real animal wouldn’t normally go, people would simply assume she was a dream citizen in a transformed state — they would never suspect she was an adventurer.

Now that she had slightly altered the appearance of her animal transformation, even the Instructor of the animal transformation class couldn’t tell whether she was real or not. So how had this adventurer seen through her?

There had been no energy fluctuation just now, which meant he hadn’t used any detection skills or items. He had simply recognized her as naturally as anything. Could it be that he, like her, had broken free of the skill book framework and deeply studied the essence of Transfiguration? And his specialty just happened to be feline transformations too?

“I got the intel from the forums. I know about this form of yours and your general route of movement,” the adventurer said candidly.

“Oh, so you just recognized my Shadow Cat form!” Mo Lan’s cat ears drooped in disappointment, her tail sagging listlessly. And here she’d thought she had met a fellow enthusiast who was equally skilled in Transfiguration!

Downs straightened his collar and said with a serious expression, “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Downs, an investigator from the Federal Dream Research Bureau, specializing in hidden quest investigations. If the hidden quest leads you currently possess can be shared, selling them to us would be an excellent choice.”

“Hidden quest?” Mo Lan tilted her cat head in confusion, her pupils contracting slightly. “I’ve been meaning to ask — why are you so certain I’ve received a hidden quest?”

She silently grumbled to herself. Over the past year and more, she hadn’t even properly completed more than a handful of regular quests — almost all of them had been custom-ordered through Old Groot at her own expense — let alone any hidden quests.

The only quest she’d completed through actual effort was the “restore academic discipline” quest — and even the reward had been something she’d specifically requested herself.

Downs seemed quite surprised by her reaction, his eyebrows shooting up. “How long has it been since you’ve checked the dream realm forums? Word has already spread that you’ve mastered over a hundred types of above-level animal transformations and then went on to learn a bunch of plant transformations. I imagine you must have a way to hold both Beast Speaker and Forest Warden as main classes simultaneously while also obtaining massive amounts of skill points, right? In the Beginner Zone, I can’t think of any other explanation besides a hidden quest.”