Bret was close to logging out of the game but he decided to aimlessly wander around the streets of the city for a bit. It was not like he had much else to do after logging out.
So while others were busily joining sects and beginning their cultivation journey by learning various things and absorbing Qi and achieving first breakthroughs, Bret loitered, covering the ins and outs of the city.
He came across different shops, different sect buildings, an auction house, an eatery, street vendors, black markets, fancy tea shops, herb gardens, a school, a library, and so on.
Of course, he was not allowed to enter anything because apparently, even entry to these places required some sort of a token.
Any other player would have gotten at least a little frustrated by now, but Bret was a very calm person by nature. Things seldom bothered him and this was the same.
Besides, he was certain that the game couldn't possibly be so biased. There should be something or the other even for an ordinary person like him. He just needed to find it.
What Bret didn't know was that most players had at least one attribute as higher than ordinary. In fact, it was extremely rare for a player to start with absolutely all stats ordinary.
Irrespectively, he continued aimlessly roaming for a couple more hours, when he suddenly stopped.
"Bingo! I knew it!" Bret's eyes shone with determination. He had finally found a way into this game!
He stared at the building in front of which he had stopped. It was a beast hall and it had an advertisement or notice of sorts outside.
The words "Need helper for the stables" were written in bold letters and the part which particularly caught Bret's eye was "No requirements".
"Ah! I see this is it. I can work in the beast hall and tame some fierce beasts. I haven't played as a beast tamer in many games. This should be interesting."
Bret excitedly walked into the hall where he once again saw an old man sitting in front of a desk. At first, he was a little bitter about this but then he realized that old men were actually less scary than ice queens.
So he put a smile on his face and walked to the old man. "Greetings, elder. I am here for the helper job." He clasped his hands in front of him and bowed as this was how he had seen other people act.
The old man gave him a stink eye just like the others but thankfully, he at least did not kick him out. He scrutinized him up and down and then coldly snorted. "Alright. You can start now."
Bret was instantly overjoyed. He clasped his hands and bowed once again. "I am very grateful, elder."
Inside his mind, he was already wondering what sort of dangerous beasts he was going to take care of. He would probably be feeding them regularly and they could even get attached to him.
When that happens, even taming a dangerous high-level beast should be easy. Fu Fu Fu. Bret chuckled and followed the elder as the two of them walked, one behind the other, into the huge beast hall.
He couldn't really see any beasts as such as they were all well within the hall, hidden inside but there was no hurry. He would eventually see them one way or the other.
The two of them kept on walking and to Bret's surprise, the elder didn't look like he was going to stop any time soon.
In fact, they kept going all the way until they reached the other end of the beast hall on the opposite side.
"Hmm?" Bret's expression changed as he noticed that they were now entirely outside of the beast hall. They were standing in the small backyard.
On a corner of this backyard was a small fenced space and inside this space was a bunch of thick squiggly worms.
They were very much bigger than normal worms, almost five or ten times their size like that of small kittens.
And moreover, seeing so many of them at the same time, even for a guy like Bret it was quite unsettling.
"Ha… but what am I doing with these?"
The elder stared back at him as if he was puzzled by his confusion. "What do you not understand, young man? These worms are nutritious fodder for the beasts."
He paused and saw that Bret still looked confused, so he then added. "You are here to take care of these worms."
"So I am here to take care of the worms that are fodder to the main beasts of the beast hall?" Bret repeated again in disbelief.
The elder sneered in response after having finally understood the young man's puzzlement.
"Did you actually think that you were going to take care of the beasts in the beast hall? Ba ha ha ha! Ba ha ha ha! What a funny young lad."
Bert's lips twitch and his face contorted further.
"Alright. I need to return back to the hall. Pay attention to what you are doing and feed the worms carefully."
"You need to remove the dung periodically and you need to fill water when required."
"At the end of the day, you can meet me back at the entrance to collect your remuneration. Ba ha ha ha! What a funny lad!"
The elder chortled loudly and his laughter could be heard even though his figure had long since disappeared back inside the hall.
Meanwhile, Bret looked back at the big clew of worms with mixed emotions. "Fuck me! This quest sucks!"