Sasha
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[Perception aptitude test initiating]
the System’s message rings out before the pain in my hand fades entirely. I look up at the familiar aptitude test initiating message and over to the just-as-familiar quest indicator.
[Quest (easy) - read the words: read the words inscribed on the wall from the distance indicated by the line on the ground]
[Rewards for completion - perception aptitude increased by 1]
As soon as I read the message, I look around to realize that, as I was attending to the hand I punched the wall with, the room changed again. Now, I stand just behind a red line on a gray, stone pathway with a wall at the end measuring two meters in height.
On the wall is an inscription just small enough that I have some trouble reading it, though large enough that it is possible to hit with an arrow from this distance.
I make out what looks like an r followed by what might be an o or an e. The next two look similar, with the first one being noticeably an a and the second one having a slightly longer side making it a d. I determine the 5th letter to be a t, with the one after it being akin to an n with a longer left side making it an h. The next one looks like an l, just a straight line, but I find it more likely to be an i as thl is less logical than thi. But I can’t rule out l. The final one is just some curves resembling an s.
Putting them all together, we get roadthls or readthis. The second option sounds more accurate, after putting a space in the middle to come out with the words/phrase read this.
I speak out loud to the system, “read this.” A ding rings in my ears and the quest completion prompt appears midair.
[Quest (easy) - read the words completed]
[Perception aptitude increased by 1]
I blink my eyes a few time to relieve the strain before the room adjusts itself again. Before me, a painting is painted over the letters on the wall by seemingly thin air. My eyes flicker off of it for a moment as the floor beneath me shifts and the path I stand on compresses. I nearly lose my balance as I am dragged along with it until just two paces from the painting.
As I look again, the painting seems to have already finished. Before I get the chance to note anything of detail, the next quest indicator blocks my vision of the painting.
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[Quest (medium) - find Alabaster Ebestrine: find Alabaster Ebestrine in the painting of the Rinian Revolution Executions]
[Rewards for completion - perception aptitude increased by 2]
I begin to make out the scene playing on the painting. As the system stated previously, it depicts the executions of the royal family and nobility during the Rinian Revolution. Multiple Guillotines stand erected in the middle of rowdy crowds of peasants and revolutionaries.
Interspersed between the crowds and guillotines are large posts with wood and straw attached. Some are empty, some have people tied or nailed to them. A few burn with the people attached writhing or squirming in the fires. I did not need to see that.
At the edges of the painting are some wooden holding cells. In another corner is a stone wall cluing that this painting likely takes place in some castle or fortress. Maybe the royal palace, maybe somewhere else.
All of the guillotines hold varying people. One is in the middle of dropping a blade on some poor noble lady’s neck. Another has a noble violently resisting the revolutionaries forcing him onto it. Yet another holds a resigned man I recognize to be none other than Emperor Loqtalios Ebestrine. None, however, hold Alabaster Ebestrine.
I look around more, ignoring the crowds in favor of places he might be held. He is not in any of the lines to the guillotines. Nor is he tied or nailed to one of the posts, burning or otherwise.
I look at the wooden cages. He is not there. Just as I feel like quitting, I notice some bars on the side of a stone wall. Looking close, I see the face of a boy no older than myself staring out at the horror show. His hair is unruly, cascading over his shoulders. The hair is white, lacking any color itself. It almost glimmers in the reflection of the fires.
His eyes, a deep crimson, seem filled with a cunning that belies his fate.
I immediately point at the figure, and say, “him. Alabaster Ebestrine.”
[Quest (medium) - find Alabaster Ebestrine completed]
[Perception aptitude increased by 2]
Before I can ponder on the system’s odd fascination in the dead prince, the room around me changes again. The roof opens up, and the walls fall away. It almost looks like the outside. A blue sky with a bright sun ahead, trees waving in the wind, a field of grass spreading farther than my eyes can see.
But it isn’t the real outside. The sun in the sky is not bright enough to be the blazing sun. The trees, though they sway to the wind, do not rustle as they should. The grass is far too green. An idyllic picture of life, but not real.
A bow appears in my hands with an arrow notched.
[Quest (difficult) - shoot the target: shoot the black dot in the center of the wooden board at 40 meters distance]
[Rewards for completion - perception aptitude increased by 3]
As soon as the message disappears, my eyes focus on a wooden target about 40 meters away that had been hidden by the system interface. I focus hard, and determine a small black dot that, from where I stand, looks like the size of a pin prick.
That’s what they want me to shoot? I’ve never even used a bow before, and I am expected to make that shot. Seriously? Well, fuck that!
I doubt I’ll succeed, but I have to try, I guess.
I raise the bow. My hands wobble as I mimic the archers I’ve seen in public contests. I hold the bow in my left hand, and pull the arrow back to my ear. As I release my breath, I release the string. It clips my wrist. I let go of the bow to clasp my hand as I register the arrow flying way over the target, the pain dying shortly thereafter.
I frown as the system pops up with a quest-failed message, my eye twitching.
[Quest (difficult) - shoot the target failed]
[Consequences for failure - none]