New Story -- Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Boydlen showed him his room that he’d been staying in, which was a bit dusty from not being used in what appeared to be a long time – or perhaps never – but it was a little bit nicer than what he’d enjoyed at the Inn. It even had some modern cottony pillows that seemed like they would be more comfortable for him rather than the goosedown one at the Inn, which made him want to ask the Coalition Leader how all the décor came about, but decided in the end that he didn’t care. All he needed to know was that the Coalition was ultimately designed with Contenders in mind, so he figured that it was done to make them more comfortable seeing something at least semi-familiar from home.

Thaden was just weirded out by it all, but he pushed it aside as he dealt with everything else that came with being in the Coalition.

He learned the denominations of his coins at least, which came about when he had to pay for his first week of rent. Instead of 10 or 100 copper coins equaling 1 silver coin, it was instead 90 copper to a silver – another instance of 3s and 9s that seemed prevalent on Tarth and the Assimilation System. In his pouch that he’d taken from the Vogmite Tunnels, he finally got a chance to add it all up, and he was left – after the 50 copper needed to pay for rent – with a total of 5 silver and 23 copper coins.

Based on the fact that his stay at the Coalition didn’t include meals, and that his rent was (as he learned later) was heavily discounted, he didn’t think his funds would last very long. If nothing else showed him that he needed a job, it was his pending financial situation.

After taking care of all those details, Thaden finally looked at the Quest Board, which he quickly found was divided into neat sections, separated by the different types of Quests that the Coalition Leader had mentioned earlier. The first section was full of Item Retrievals, which he found constituted a variety of different objectives.

Item Retrievals included simple Quests that were similar to fetch quests in the MMORPG he’d played, which were basically objectives that had someone traveling from one place to another and delivering an item. Simple and basic enough that anyone could theoretically do it, but the travel was typically through monster-infested territory, which made it slightly dangerous.

They also included Quests that had the Quest taker searching for lost items that were important to the Quest giver. These items could range from lost wedding rings to even a lost sheep, the latter of which sounded suspiciously like some sort of Quest chain when you would find the corpse of a sheep and then you had to investigate some dangerous forest for the source of the slaughtered animal.

The last sort of Item Retrieval Quest was for a particular item that could be found being held by a certain monster, or one that was stolen by a famous bandit nearby, or even to “find a way” to acquire an item from a rival company in another city.

The only Item Retrieval Quest that caught his attention was solely because it was semi-familiar – as it mentioned the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon.

[Quest Type: ITEM RETRIEVAL

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 4 Days upon start

Quest Difficulty: Mid-Minimal

Minimum Recommended Level: 5

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: Old Jurvey has lost his Darkwood Buckler near the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon and would appreciate any help in retrieving it

Completion Requirements: Find and return the Darkwood Buckler found in the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon to any Adventurer Coalition location

Quest Rewards: 3 silver, Darkwood Buckler, 150 PICK, and 3 Rank Progress up to Copper]

Thaden vividly remembered finding the Darkwood Buckler in the tunnels, especially since he had ended up dropping it on his foot. Of course, if he had known that it would’ve completed a Quest, he would’ve… well, still not bring it out, because he couldn’t carry it. But now that he knew where it was, perhaps he could buy a large bag to store it in instead of trying to carry it on his own? He wasn’t sure, exactly, but he wasn’t planning on going back there if he could help it.

There were also a few things with Rank that stood out to him on the Quest. The first was that there was apparently a “Rank Requirement” that he asked about and discovered that in order to even qualify to do the Quest, a member of the Adventurer Coalition had to be a certain Rank. Most of what he saw on the Board listed Wood as the Rank Requirement, but there were also a handful of Leather, Copper, Iron, and even a single Bronze-ranked Quest.

The second thing he noticed was in the Quest Rewards portion, where it mentioned “Rank Progress”.

Thankfully, Boydlen was able to answer that one as well. “As mentioned before, each Rank in the Coalition requires a certain number of Quests be completed before the Adventurer can Rank-up,” he explained. “Each Quest gives a little bit of progress toward this goal, and every Quest has a different value. To progress from Wood to Leather, the Adventurer needs to accumulate 100 Rank Progress; from Leather to Copper, the current Rank Progress resets after the Rank-up and the requirement then increases to 200. Each subsequent Rank requires more Rank Progress to achieve a Rank-up, but that is somewhat balanced out by more difficult Quests providing higher Rank Progress rewards.

“Also, there is a limit to how long a Quest can be completed for Rank Progress, though the other rewards will remain. For instance, this one you looked at about retrieving a Darkwood Buckler is only able to provide Rank Progress until the Adventurer is at Copper Rank; if they undertake and complete this Quest at Copper Rank, they will still receive any monetary, item, and PICK rewards, but will not receive any Rank Progress. They would have to undertake a Quest that is more suited toward their current Rank in order to accumulate additional Progress.”

Now that he understood a little more, Thaden moved on to the next section, Resource Collection, where he found that these Quests were essentially exactly what they implied – but they varied in their resources greatly. There were some simple, easy objectives that asked for things like collecting 50 of some sort of flower or mushroom in the nearby forest. Others were looking for 20 chunks of raw iron ore or a special stone called magirock, which could be found in the mountainous area around the Vogmite Tunnels.

There were also Quests for certain monster body parts, like preserved Grass Wolf tails or Hill Cougar pelts; he thought that these might be categorized better as Monster Extermination Quests, but apparently they only cared that the resources were brought back, not that they were killed.

Speaking of Monster Extermination, he looked at the next section and saw that the Quests for that type were of two different kinds. The first kind was an objective to kill a certain number of a particular monsters, such as exterminating 100 Wheat Rats in the fields outside of town.

[Quest Type: MONSTER EXTERMINATION

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: None/Repeatable

Quest Difficulty: Low-Minimal

Minimum Recommended Level: 1

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 1

Quest Description: The nearby wheat fields are being overrun by Wheat Rats!  Thin their numbers to ensure a plentiful harvest for Ashcleft

Completion Requirements: Exterminate 100 Wheat Rats

Quest Rewards: 50 copper, 50 PICK, and 1 Rank Progress up to Copper]

It was a simple Quest that appeared to be repeatable, so theoretically someone could kill thousands of the Rats and continue to turn in the Quest. Of course, he could only imagine that after a while those doing this particular Quest wouldn’t receive any PICK from killing the Rats – or at least that was how it worked in games. Turning in a Quest for 50 PICK might be good at first, but for someone at a higher Level, it wouldn’t be worth it. In addition, if they were after increasing their Rank, they would have to complete 100 of these Quests in order to achieve Leather Rank, and then 200 more Quests to get to Copper; after that, the Quest wouldn’t provide any more Rank Progress. He couldn’t even imagine spending the time to kill 10,000 and then 20,000 Rats in order to get to that point – if there were even that many of them out there.

Then again, do they respawn after a while like in a MMORPG?

He didn’t know how it worked in this world, but he could only assume that if there were dungeons that he could choose a difficulty for, which was granted to him because of his Dungeon Slayer Achievement, then it was likely that at least the monsters in those dungeons were specifically spawned for that purpose. It made him feel sick knowing that those he had killed in the Vogmite Tunnels had probably already respawned, as it felt like his horrific experience and escape from the dungeon should’ve had a more permanent impact on the world.

The second type of Monster Extermination Quest was for a single, specific monster that typically had a name. For example, the most difficult Quest on the whole Board was one of these, and it had whoever took the Quest killing something called Virnox, the Vogmite King.

[Quest Type: MONSTER EXTERMINATION

Rank Requirement: Bronze

Quest Time Limit: 7 days

Quest Difficulty: Mid-Medial

Minimum Recommended Level: 35

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: Virnox, the dreaded Vogmite King, is preparing his armies of Vogmites in the Vogmite Tunnels (Maximal) to march upon Ashcleft; stop him before he can bring his plan to fruition

Completion Requirements: Kill Virnox, the Vogmite King in the Vogmite Tunnels (Maximal)

Quest Rewards: 5 gold, 4,000 PICK, and 150 Rank Progress up to Silver]

The Quest had some beefy requirements, but if it was completed, the rewards seemed quite significant. Of course, if he was reading the description right, a party of Adventurers would have to venture in the Vogmite Tunnels at its hardest difficulty and kill what was likely the “Boss” of the dungeon, the Vogmite King; Thaden had killed the Vogmite Queen when he fought to escape from the dungeon, who was hard enough, but killing a named Boss was almost always going to be a lot harder than a generic descriptive one like “Vogmite Queen”.

The last section on the Quest Board was reserved for Dungeon Maintenance. He wasn’t exactly sure what this meant until he read their descriptions and discovered that they were essentially Quests to delve through nearby dungeons, with a little bit of Monster Extermination-based objectives thrown in.

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Wood

Quest Time Limit: 5 days/Repeatable every 2 days

Quest Difficulty: Mid-Minimal

Minimum Recommended Level: 5

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: The Vogmites in the Vogmite Tunnels are repopulating faster than predicted! Delve through the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon (Minimal) and kill at least 100 Vogmites to thin their numbers

Completion Requirements: Kill 100 Vogmites in the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon (Minimal)

Quest Rewards: 2 silver, 100 PICK, and 2 Rank Progress up to Copper

Bonus Completion Requirements: Completely clear the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon (Minimal) of all Vogmites

Bonus Quest Rewards: All prior rewards in addition to 5 silver, 400 PICK, and 5 Rank Progress up to Copper]

“Hey, Boydlen? Do these Quests apply retroactively to already completed objectives? Say, if I had done some of these Quests before I became a member of the Adventurer Coalition?” Thaden asked.

“Hmm? Oh, no, unfortunately not,” he replied. “In order for any objective to be counted, the Quest would need to be started here or shared by another Coalition member before any of the objectives were completed.”

There went the idea of getting some free money and PICK, as well as Rank Progress, for something he had completed already by escaping from the Vogmite Tunnels. As he looked over the Board, trying to find something that he thought he might be able to actually complete, he couldn’t help but notice that there was an empty space at the very end of the Dungeon Maintenance section that was out of place; the entirety of the Board was full and perfectly arranged, so for there to be a gap was something that caught his eye.

“Why the empty space? Is that for additional Quests that might come into the Coalition?”

Boydlen was silent for a few moments before he sighed. “It’s actually where I would be putting limited-time Special Quests, of which there won’t be many now, but will likely have many more when the Contenders arrive. We’ve only actually had one so far, but it’s been taken care of.” He said that last part quickly, as if to reassure himself.

“Let me guess. That was the quest the other members of the Ashcleft Adventurer Coalition were supposed to complete?”

The Coalition Leader was obviously caught out as he squirmed a little in the chair he’d been sitting in while addressing Thaden’s questions. “Well, yes, but I’m sure it’s nothing. There weren’t supposed to be many Special Quests until the Contenders came, and so I can only assume that it was a test run for when they arrived.”

Uh, huh – sure. “What exactly was the Quest? Can you see if it is still active?”

“Of course I can see if it’s still active! I just haven’t checked it in a while because I was sure that those I sent would succeed. They were all in their high Level 20’s after all, so there was no reason to worry.” Boydlen rummaged through the mess of papers on his desk, obviously looking for something. After about 15 seconds of moving things around, he finally picked up a piece of paper that looked almost identical to the ones on the Quest Board – except that this one was colored red instead of while like the others.

“Uh, oh. That’s… not good,” the Coalition Leader said as he looked at it.

Thaden watched the Charee’s face slowly transform from hope to despair as he continued to look at it. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Instead of saying anything else, Boydlen simply handed the red piece of paper to the Assistant Healer, who read it immediately.

[Quest Type: SPECIAL

Rank Requirement: Any

Quest Time Limit: 2 days

Quest Difficulty: Mid-Medial

Minimum Recommended Level: 20

Minimum Recommended Party Size: Any

Quest Description: The Mausoleum of Despair Dungeon (Medial) has broken free of its boundaries! All nearby Adventurer Coalition members at Level 25 or above are needed to contain the outbreak before the undead overwhelm the surrounding countryside

Completion Requirements: Destroy 500 Undead outside the Mausoleum of Despair Dungeon

Quest Rewards: 10 gold, 6,000 PICK, and 20 Rank Progress up to Bronze

Bonus Completion Requirements: Enter The Mausoleum of Despair Dungeon (Medial) and defeat the Arpath, the Bone Defiler, to stop the outpouring of Undead outside of the dungeon

Bonus Quest Rewards: 50 gold, 25,000 PICK, 100 Rank Progress up to Bronze, and 3 Additional spell/ability selections

Current Ashcleft Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 0/1]

For some reason, Thaden didn’t think the warning about the Undead swarming over the countryside was simply flavor text like he figured the other Quests had, though now he was beginning to wonder if that was really the case with the others he’d read. Did the dungeons of this world eventually have their monsters break out if they weren’t “maintained” like the Quests wanted? He was beginning to believe that they did, though from what Boydlen said, such a thing probably wasn’t supposed to happen until the Contenders arrived.

Which meant that there was a good chance that these Undead were going to be attacking people nearby, which could also mean that Ashcleft and its people were in danger. While he didn’t really care for the Charee here based on how many of them had treated him when they thought he was an Adventurer, he also didn’t want anyone to die unnecessarily. But how was he supposed to help? And how great was the danger?

“Where is this Mausoleum of Despair, Boydlen?”

It took two more repetitions of the question for the Coalition Leader to finally answer, but he was still distracted as he did so. “It’s approximately 5 miles to the east, north of the Wandering Forest.”

Thaden could tell that there was something else wrong other than just the imminent arrival of Undead everywhere. It wasn’t until he looked at the red Quest paper in his hand that his eyes noticed something on the bottom that he hadn’t previously seen.

Current Ashcleft Adventurer Coalition Members Assigned: 0/1

Oh. If Boydlen didn’t count as a member that could be assigned to any of the Quests he had available, which he thought was the case, then what the SPECIAL Quest was saying was that there was only one current member available to be assigned.

And that current member was Thaden.