Сhapter 42

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"No, Brother Paladin. No one in the temple staff knows about the Forest of the Fallen."

I nodded and, after saying goodbye, headed for the exit. Brother Storekeeper didn't know anything either, ticked off. This was the last of the temple inhabitants I interviewed. The rounds of the others took two days: some were busy, and some seemed to be running to hide lest one restless paladin pesters them. But in the end, I seemed to have gotten around everyone.

The day before yesterday, after Nika, having changed her outfit to a dress and socks and a lollipop in her hand, had counted out a fee in silver and copper and then tried to pity me, sobbing and sadly calling me a stingy knight, I began to think about what to do with my newly discovered skills. Today, as I continued to question everyone I knew and somehow related to the quest, I was still trying to figure out what to do next.

I have to admit that I'm taking advantage of a bug. Some NPCs give short quests and long story quests and assume I'm one of their own, a "light alien" type of NPC. There's me, convincingly playing "temple guard warrior" and having a hell of a lot of reputation. And there's a Plot-AI that, on the one hand, manages the townsfolk's behavior and, on the other, independently calculates rewards for completing the quest.

Again, this is totally out of character! A bloody lot of people have been playing for two and a half years, but suddenly I'm the first to stumble upon... or am I? Like Nika said: "There's nothing more fun than finding new quests"? What do I even know about life beyond level one hundred? Scraps of politics, guild ranking, clan and alliance wars, well, I've watched a dozen or two virdeo with beautiful battles.

And I only know the economics of it about the Scribbling. Though, even Loynie has blabbed about the size of the tax - twenty gold pieces a week, or a ring. It's a forced levy, of course, but still, the fourth-level novice guild alone has a weekly budget of about two or three thousand freely convertible gold pieces, and they intend to raise a hundred thousand for the castle! And the gold in the game is not easy to get. It's only I, poor cheater, do not need anything, but the average player, half of the loot goes to constantly breaking armor, and the rest dispersed a lot of small but necessary expenses. For example, buy a scroll from me, an essence from the enchanter or an elixir vial from the alchemist.

So the guys in the top guilds are spinning some really big bucks. Well, or at least visible ones. And then a certain paladin shows up, miraculously allowing just for the company of the guys he happens to know to get the equivalent of... perhaps ten thousand I saved them.

I walked over to the bench against the sanctuary wall, pulled up a chair, and sat down with my legs stretched out.

It's funny. Now I don't think about switching the virtu on and off at all. My left-hand fingers automatically fold the ring of the "thumb-middle finger", and then I mechanically bend my palm twice, syncing up. And how unusual it was to walk down that corridor for the first time. It almost felt like a robot. Now I am awake, moving naturally, eating well and on time, exercising, and warming up. I even go to the pool twice a week. And I do pretty much what I did before - I grow into the team, create a reputation, and develop algorithms for task performance and employee behavior patterns. Plus get something for myself at the same time.

Yep. Won't I have to get out of the game sooner than I planned?

Two months, level thirty-eight. Pretty much everything is going according to plan. It was going, to be more precise.

OK: the fact that I got the extra "rings" credited to my account can, with some stretch, be considered a random bug. The fact that I found and used the obvious bug with the interaction between the real and virtual parts of the modules can also be put down to a lack of player-tracking tools. But allowing a player to create such a tangible advantage through in-game methods? Oh, I don't believe it. There can't be that many bugs in a project of this magnitude!

It is possible to drop the quest. Call up the menu, press the cancel button, and confirm. I could even lose nothing on it by having the right conversation with the NPCs, and they were all good to me. Leave the game, even if not forever, even if for a couple of months, to do ... well, a smells module for air conditioners. I won't buy a palace, but I can make money. Then again, I've never done it before, so.

I don't even know if I can look for anything on this subject on the web. Maybe I'm already being stalked. At least I haven't put a penny of it into the real world, though I should have. The Adar gold auction rates are going up, the fresh dungeon has started sending more newbies here, and the gold caravans rarely come.

But something has to be done. And I'm not at my level, I'm a tactician, not a strategist.

Who do I know in the game does quests? Nika?

Eh, Nika-Anika... Okay. Who else?

Nobody. In the Adar "sandbox" are those who like to spin around in the unobliging simplicity of the initial levels, recreating themselves in different guises time after time. The developers have provided plenty of entertainment in every location. Or the guys aimed at the maximum transition beyond, over the passes, to the coastal "pirate" zones, to tiered mountainous kingdoms, to semi-desert "badlands", where you have to consider the ranks and multipliers, where entering the city, you should think how you get out of it, where gold can change its owner ten times per hour, and a list of friends is more important than equipment.

I could drop the quest. I could. After all, if I'm stubborn and put all the game's money into boosts, in a month and a half I'll reach level one hundred. Yes. It will not be so well-pumped character, but there is already an off-class "Shield Strike", there is a very good reputation, pretty raised faith, and will be three hundred rings. The goal is close, hampered only by my eternal desire to make things as good as possible.

"Comp, link - Questions and Answers. Make a query. Subject - Creators of Destiny. Sub-theme - quests. Question - Looking for rumors of quest chains for paladins. Prerequisite - site certificate. Condition - video contact. Price - twenty dollars. Request made, send."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Good day!"

So soon? Ah, he looks familiar! Yeah, he's on my list.

"Hello, Elessal."

The boy smiled and bowed, putting his fist to his forehead.

"How did you know?"

"You have a flower on your sheath. Are you straight out of the game? I see you've even developed my advice, second glove? The helmet?"

Ah, yes. I took off my helmet, replacing it with my glasses.

"Is anything interesting on the paladin subject?"

"Are you stuck?"

"It's just the opposite. Found a class story-quest."

"Wow!" The guy was surprised. "What level are you at?"

"Still in the sandbox, that's the point."

"I can only tell you about our paladin. He's not an Amala, though, but a Laird of the Seer, an emphasis on shields."

"Do you recognize all the classes on the fly like that?"

"Yeah, well, that's what I do for a living."

"Transfer."

"Copy that. Thank you! Link... okay, now. Here's the video: done for a laugh afterward. It was the first character to be pumped specifically for the guild. There's a vice commentary. We found two quests from the guide. The special effects are beautiful. That's why I recorded them."

"By the way, how did you want to transfer a paladin?"

"With a middleman. Our recruiting officer managed, at the hundredth level, he dumped the character to the hired kid on the record and bought his main character back. Recruiters all live at the hundredth level, the specifics of the profession."

"And the meddleman transferred to the guild?"

"Yes, with payment of the fee in gold. The character now counts as guild property, a transfer per player as with the treasury limit, by a vote of at least half of the guild members."

"Can't you just hand it over to the bank?"

"The rules, for some reason, forbid it."

Yep. Another confirmation that gaming is almost a second life. The middleman scheme, thanks to accounts, is increasingly popular, and not just in games.

"So what about the quests?"

"There are four typical scenarios - The Lost Document, The Traitor, aka The Missing Messenger, Fulfilling the Vow and..."

"And Search for the New."

"Yes, that's right. You seem to know quite a lot about the subject. What kind of quest have you found?"

"It started in The Lost Document. Then it seemed to go to "Traitor" only to be stalled. The quest that was handed in didn't count."

"Is the traitor punished?"

"No. But we found a lot of loot."

"That doesn't count. Scenarios require clear implementation. Have you looked on the web?"

Now that was a good question. I was searching, of course, when I got a bit of a reputation instead of a reward. But got a strange result - Paths of Evil; it's a well-known quest common to all the archetypes associated with any temple and is essentially a variant of Traitor. I, on the other hand, had it the wrong way around.

"Searching. But it's not exactly what I've got. The assignment in the logbook reads, "Paths of Evil. Find out where the remains of ancient warriors are buried" - damn, I remember it by heart, I've seen those two lines so many times - but I found the remains, and they rewarded me for them. But in the process, I also found the Missing One, and now it transits to the Vow. Annoying."

The boy stretched his lips into a tube, made an indefinite sound, and, clearly pondering stretched out:

"Sorry, I may seem rude," he made a "suggestive" face, "but have a look over here."

A link has been added.

"This is an auction of open bids for information. Any information on quests costs money. Sometimes a lot of it. If you've found a new archquest, you'll be pumped up to the hundredth one in a week for information about it... I don't know! Or they will dress you up in artifacts. Or they'll just pay you for it. So it's better not to divulge such information to anyone."

"Are you that honest?"

He smiled.

"Taking advantage of other people's trust is a rat's game! I'd rather earn my own money."

He flicked me on the nose; oh, he did.

"Well, Brother Elessal, you've clarified the subject for me. I'll read what's here."

The log blinked again.

These are two more links, there's a hodgepodge of information about all the temple-related quests. There's not much info, it's being spared, but some things aren't obvious at a glance.

"Thank you. The feedback is again the best."

"Thank you too! If it's not too much trouble..."

"Yes?"

"When you've done it, can you tell me what happened? I'm writing a fic on the game. They say it's working. But the writers have it so much cooler, in my opinion! It's worth playing COD just for the sake of it!"

"Done! And may the blessing of the Healer be with you!"

He grinned and I cut the connection.

Still, I'm a dull old grouch. Otherwise, I wouldn't have thought of the fact that it's better to give up a little to get the whole quest story later.

Anyway, it's not hard for me. I'll let him know.

In the meantime, we have to decide: what, exactly, should we do?

Previous "experiments" have shown that when an idea arises, the NPCs are quick to pick it up and develop it, creating some new reality in the process. The conditions are threefold: first, I must suffer. All newly created quests are based on me spending something. Either a potential reward, as in the case of the Flame of Anor or just some item or amount of money, like the knife that prompted the baker to give a quest to a newbie mage.

Second, the quest must have a basis for the overall story of the game. It doesn't matter what it is - the Plot-AI will think about the NPCs' phrases, but it has to be based on something. Some of the NPCs have to say something to make it happen.

Finally, the beginning and the end of the quest are short-circuited to NPCs.

What have I got? A tale of the "Forest of the Fallen", obtained through a third hand from the orcs. A cry of "Traitors" from the mouth of a guardian ghost. Blue, but not blue and white armor. The temple's desire for that very armor. What else is there? Did I seem to forget something?

Anyway, never mind, I'll remember some other time.

We must: get information about the Paths of Evil. Who would know about them? A traitor? A renegade? An old book? No, the last one's already been used. So we need to find someone to give information about these very ways. The story must contain some tale of traitors who do not wish their temple any good. Their omen would be pure blue armor. Or shouldn't there be such a thing? Putting a checkmark on it to consider.

It's a chain - someone from the Temple gives my ward information on a renegade, formerly a 'glorious paladin' but now despicable... oh, you could send him to the slums! There, the drunk might spout something, a classic "fetch booze" quest... to which I can add truth powder, isn't there such a thing...? Shit, am I seriously making up a quest? Fuck it, a drunken former paladin will tell about... Here's the bottleneck: how do I know what he'll tell? But the quest for the doer will be just "get drunk and find out", and I'm just accompanying as a guard. So, if there's security, there's assault? And if there is an attack, then the paladin is connected to someone?

My head started to buzz. It's one thing to calculate the movement of a container of goods, and quite another... well, there's something similar about it.

So - talking to... to the sergeant, yes, asking him to check out the new "light alien". A simple task: to visit the old officer - isn't he too soft, for which the tenth officer will give the newcomer something of value, from me, since I don't want to advertise it? I'll tell the little fellow that my assignment is to cover for him. Together we look for the former paladin, listen to what he says under the influence of the potion of truth (is there even such, clever? put an X), and I learn the next part of my quest. Petty, when he passes the quest, gives a couple of gold pieces - for the time spent in the company. Everyone is happy, thank you all.

So, Vova, shall we do it?

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