Chapter Eight

Arden peered down at the card while doing his best to push down his fear.

A desert elf’s pilgrimage (Common).

As a desert elf, you welcome the unrelenting heat and desolate sand of the desert. Venture out to at least five landmarks within the desert to test your heritage.

Arden stiffened. This was the quest he feared. How was he supposed to travel the desert while stuck in a forested cavern? Without reading the other options, he crossed the quest option off in his mind.

As if reading his mind, the card disintegrated into motes of light. A shiver ran through him, but yet again he pushed it down, hoping the other two options turned out better.

He grabbed the next closest card and read it, hoping he had better luck.

A gift of nature (Uncommon).

As a nature affinity mage, you must nurture flora to perform feats of magic. Use your magic to grow at least ten species to maturity.

The quest seemed simple. There was one problem, though. He didn’t know ten species of plants. If he did, a quest like this would be comically easy. It wouldn’t surprise him if a wood elf or high elf completed the quest in an afternoon.

Who knew maybe he was part wood elf or high elf? That didn’t change the fact he knew next to nothing about growing things. Besides, even if he did, he would need to experiment with his cards to figure out how to stop them from dying.

Though that might be as simple as he forced the grass to grow past what it could sustain. Maybe it would be easier to grow a plant from a seed.

Unlike the first quest option, he didn’t decline it, but he felt the quest was a little too mundane, even if it would be difficult for him to complete. From his research into class card quests, the more complicated the quest was, the higher the reward.

With that thought, he moved on to the last card, only to frown.

An era long past (Legacy).

Survive an ancient forest to uncover the secrets deep within.

A legacy quest? He froze as he flashed back to the many times a legacy quest or class showed up in history books. These quests usually offered great rewards but with a bunch of strings attached. He didn’t want to be some hero for a long dead people. What was the point of receiving a powerful class when he couldn’t use it the way he wanted?

To make it worse, he was going in blind. Unlike the other two quests, there wasn’t a set completion requirement.

For all he knew, the quest was impossible for him. Was the risk worth it? Many of the legendary mages undertook legacy quests, but most of their accomplishments came from the class requirements.

The omni elemental Viessa who built the foundation for Magna Vita Urbs probably didn’t create the city known as the city of life for charity. It was said she appeared out of nowhere one day and started building the massive foundation. She didn’t stop channeling her magic for over a century, according to legends.

While many worshipped her like a living goddess, the fact she abandoned the city right after and wandered the world to this day millennia later was fishy.

It was almost like she completed something required of her, and then she was free. As far as he knew, she never built anything else and rarely used her magic in public. She effectively lived the life of a wandering hermit, only appearing in small villages once every couple of years.

She wasn’t an isolated case. Almost every legendary mage completed a single monumental accomplishment, then vanished.

He would rather take a weaker class and claw his way up on his own merit than be gifted conditional power. Still, the quest was tempting. The fame of accomplishing some monumental feat didn’t call to him, though.

That didn’t mean he wanted to remain in obscurity, he wanted to earn respect not be a one feat wonder.

Maybe the reason the Viessa stayed away from cities, only appearing in public once every couple of years, was because wherever she appeared, endless worshipers congregated.

In fact, he couldn’t think of one of the known legacy quest takers who stayed in the public eye. Even as little as she appeared in public, she was still the most social of the legendary mages.

Well, other than the headmaster of Magna Schola Magica. His only accomplishment was founding the school and occasional lessons, nothing much else. Even he barely left his tower.

Most hid away in faraway strongholds like the great storm mage Tempest who conjured a storm so powerful it rained for a century. Most of the rain fell on the eastern side of Magna Vita Urbs, which ended up creating the Tempest Sea out of a desert. To this day, storms sprang up at random on the sea, causing treacherous conditions with little warning.

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Actually, most magical feats seemed to be focused on the region surrounding Magna Vita Urbs. Even the horseshoe mountains surrounding the city on three sides weren’t natural. Some patriarch of a Dwarven clan sacrificed his life to build a home for his people, which turned into the premier crafting center of the world.

No wonder the land surrounding Magna Vita Urbs was the only prosperous part of the known world. The rest of the world resembled a desert or a dry savanna.

Whatever happened in the time before Ortus must have been devastating. Though for all he knew, it only affected their continent. There were myths of other continents filled with life, but that could be stories from desperate people hoping there were better places out there.

The idea of traveling to some undiscovered paradise called to him. Maybe that was where most of the legendary mages disappeared to.

Almost on their own, Arden’s eyes gravitated toward the forest below, imagining what could lurk within.

Did he really want to receive a likely dime a dozen class given to him if he completed a gift of nature? Maybe the legacy quest gave him something powerful with limited strings attached.

Just because the known legacy quest takers completed legendary feats that didn’t mean their class forced them to. Maybe they did it on their own, then faded into obscurity. Though the pattern made it hard to believe there wasn’t a connection between their classes and what they accomplished.

Did he even have what it took to complete a legacy quest?

Suddenly, his expression hardened. He already took the risk of staying in the cavern instead of trying to find a way out. Not that he had much choice in the matter.

Even if he could leave, he wasn’t sure he would have. His core benefited from the risk and if he took another risk, he could catapult his potential.

He wasn’t some hero, though. What if the strings attached forced him to spend a century or longer completing some task? Sure, if he had the power to complete a task of that magnitude, he had a long life ahead of him, but he just couldn’t see himself wasting so long.

Still, did he want to take a generic quest when he had the option for something great? There just wasn’t a simple answer. What if he chose the easy way out, but the legacy quest turned out to be easy with an awesome class? Of course, he would never know either way unless he chose the legacy quest.

His eyes flicked between the two quest cards, but despite his eyes gravitating toward the legacy quest, he couldn’t pull the trigger.

Instead, he set the cards back on the platform, then stood up. Before he decided, he needed to get used to the enhancements to his body. He couldn’t embark on a quest if he could barely walk after all.

At least, that was his excuse. In reality, he was just stalling, but he would never admit that out loud, not that there was anyone to admit it to.

Though it was probably a good idea to prepare as much as possible before accepting a quest. Once he accepted one, the timer would start. He didn’t want to waste it rehabbing his body.

Arden tore his eyes away from the card and began walking in a circle as he focused inward to watch how his mana reacted. With each step, mana rushed from his core down his legs. A lesser amount pumped through his arms, but he ignored that for later.

The adjustment turned out to be easier than he expected. Since his core automatically delivered the mana through his body, all he had to do was get used to the changes the mana brought. His body reacted a hair faster with each movement throwing him off, but after a couple laps of the platform, walking became natural once more.

Next, he ran from one end of the platform to the other. As he ran, he split his attention between his surroundings and the mana bursting through his body with each movement. Far faster than he ever ran, he darted back and forth.

Each time he stopped closer to the edge, growing more confident in his body. He was far slower than his parents, but with the improvements, the worm would’ve been easy to dodge.

Now, if only he could break through the bottleneck of the communion phase. Though he could see why most relied on their core’s automated boosts instead of trying to control it manually.

A smile grew as he moved faster and faster air whipping his hair back. He slammed to a stop at the edge of the platform, then with a lightning-fast bend of his knees, he flipped backwards, effortlessly spinning in the air. However, panic shot through him as he flipped too far.

Thinking quickly, he reached downward with his hands, gritting his teeth as they slammed into the unforgiving stone. A spike of pain shot through his arms, but it served its purpose as he pushed off the handstand back onto his feet.

Arden shook out his stinging wrists, which fortunately felt better by the second as his mana flooded them. He really shouldn’t have pushed his luck like that.

At least he knew he could pull that off. The packed sand of his family’s courtyard was much better for acrobatics, though.

Without thinking, his eyes landed on the cards once more, ruining his brief distraction. With a force of will, he tore his eyes away from the cards instead, directing them to the seed pod laying in the grass.

Should he practice his magic a little? No matter what quest he chose, he needed to find a way off the ledge, and that meant learning how to use several of his cards.

What if the quest card timed out? He avoided his worst fear of losing out on a class card quest. It would be inexcusable if his indecisiveness ruined his future. What if his decision ruined his future? It wouldn’t be the first time a class forced the wielder to sacrifice their life. That was what happened with the dwarf patriarch.

At least that was the rumor. He died soon after erecting the hollow mountains. Tempest didn’t die after his arguably greater feat of magic, causing a century long storm, bringing water and life to a massive swath of desert.

A sigh escaped his mouth. He was just delaying again. Was there ever really a choice? He would have to be stupid to pass up on a legacy quest. Even if it forced him to embark on some long journey, the power granted by a class of that tier was undeniable.

If only he received a legendary class option or even a rare one, but those were extremely specific about how to unlock them. He didn’t doubt the most powerful families and clans hoarded the knowledge. They were much more common than a legacy class, though, but with very few restrictions, if any.

He had his suspicions about how a legacy quest fell into his lap. His parents knew more about his ancestry than they let on. Nature affinity mages were rare in their area, but they weren’t unknown. He found it hard to believe one didn’t stumble down into the cavern in the past, though if they did, they probably had a class already.

The thought of a legacy class being shoved onto him without warning him didn’t sit well, but he couldn’t change it now. One thing was for sure, his parents had some explaining to do when he found a way out of the cavern.

After way too long, Arden finally gave in and picked up the legacy quest card. He focused on the card, causing the other card to disintegrate, sealing his fate. Either he chose the legacy quest, or he didn’t receive a class card.

With a mental prayer to Ortus to have mercy on him, he tapped the legacy quest card on his right bracelet, causing it to turn into motes of light and enter.

He really hoped he didn’t make a mistake.