-- James --

We all pretty much passed out as soon as our heads hit the mattresses. It wasn't until midday next that we all groggily awoke. Grabbing rations from our supplies we all looked disheveled and half awake.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

It took a minute for anyone to register what I asked. Bay blinked asking, "What does the egg say?"

I went to my bag and pulled out the egg, to see if anything changed.

Quest - Prove Your Worth - Part 3

Even in a world where everything always moves. Some live at the edge of everything. Some because they left everything behind. Some are searching for answers. And some are creating their own paths.

Conditions to be given out:

-party must complete Prove Your Worth - Part 1 & 2

-Time limit none

Mission:

Protect those at the edge of the world.

Trial III:

Protect:

The world is dark, the monsters grow large. In a deep village far out near the edge, power is growing threatening people's lives.

Go seek out this threat deep in the dark continent, seek the village of those lost, a place those who wish to be left alone, and protect it from the dark. Push back the tide that threatens them, and seek out its source. Ending it before the village is destroyed.

To begin:

The mission will begin once mission is received. Then follow the pull of the egg to your charges.

Failure Condition:

Give Up

Village is Destroyed

Source Escapes

Reward:

Based on performance and deeds.

"Nothing has changed, but it does say to seek out the source of the evil before the village is destroyed." I still had no idea what that even meant.

"That is completely unhelpful," Violet commented.

"What do we do?" Rowan parroted my earlier questing

"Go into the city, and ask about evil?" I guessed.

"The people outside didn't look lost," Aster said offhandedly.

"Ok." An idea was forming

"Ok, what?" Violet asked.

"I have a plan. We go out into the city and talk to people." It was something.

"That's a shit plan," Violet stated annoyed.

"At least it's something." I defended.

"So you want us to walk up to people and just. Oh high? We are on a very important mission, could you please tell us of any evil currently plaguing the city?"

"Yeah, that is actually a very elegant way of saying it."

Violet gave me, and are you serious kind of look, "James, I was being sarcastic."

"I know but I thought it was still a good idea." It was.

"Fine," Violet relented before bringing up a good question, "Are we doing this together or separate?"

"I don't know if splitting the party is a good idea," Aster commented.

"We were all together when we got grabbed last time." Bay pointed out.

"So what you think it would be a good idea to split up, get grabbed individually?" Bay asked annoyed.

"No, but no one here knows who we are, and are less likely to put together we are questers." I reasoned.

"He's not wrong, but it would still be safer together," Rowan said groggily.

"It would, but we still need to gather information. Figure out what this is?" Bay said to point to the egg.

"Well." Aster began to think aloud, "This place is a lot smaller than the other places but it is still a city...I hate to say this but I think we do need to split up."

I raised an eyebrow, "Really aster?"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Yeah, this place is too big, and we have no idea what we are looking for. We can go off in groups of at least two and ask around but we need information."

Violet looked at aster questioningly, "What are we going to do just wander around?"

"If we have to, maybe we can try to talk to people in charge?" Aster suggested uncertainly.

"But what if they're in on it?" I asked.

Aster shrugged, "Then we're fucked. But the egg made it seem like something non-people-related evil. Just some generic kind."

Bay clapped her hands getting everyone's attention. "Ok, let's put it to a vote. Splitting up, hands?"

Bay, Aster, and I raised our hands. With that, we all started to get ready to go out of the hotel.

"This is not a good idea," Bay commented.

I stared at her, "Why did you vote for it?"

She let out a sigh, before addressing everyone. "Because it's the fastest way to get information. Let's go in groups James and Violet to keep him from doing something stupid. Aster, Rowan with me."

We quickly made our way down into the city both groups going in opposite directions.

We were only a block away when Violet asked, "Ok where do we go?"

"Uhhh...."

"You have no idea do you?"

"Not really. The egg gave us a riddle, not any instructions." I had no plan at all, only the vaguest idea of what I could do.

"True."I was surprised that Violet didn't yell at me. Even more surprised she agreed, "So what do we do?"

"We could go to someone in charge," I suggested.

Shaking her head, "That didn't go all that great in the last city."0

"Oh!" I suddenly had an idea, "This is a city maybe we can check the adventures guild."

"Do they have one?"

"They should it's a city." I was starting to get a good feeling, that I was on the right track, "Maybe I can check with the local warriors guild maybe get some info."

Violet snapped her fingers excited, "And I could go to the healers guild, but before we start making waves, announcing who we are why don't we take a look at the city and see what we can find."

Without any argument against it, I went along with Violet as we went from place to place, all around the city. The only thing we learned was the crack has apparently always been there, but the static occurs every eighteen years. Even that was a struggle to get out of anyone here. Half the people seemed withdrawn, just moving through the motions. The others were filled with life but kept talking about finding the secrets to level thirty.

When I asked the cute waitress who was serving lunch why it was called the last city. She looked a little sad when she answered. "It's because it's the last city."

"Last as in...." I trailed off questioning.

"There are many reasons people come here." I leaned in, even Violet looked curious, "People come here to fight the monsters and take advantage of the increased experience gain."

"Increased experience gain?" I didn't know that was possible.

"It's why the airs so thick here. You don't gain experience passively, but as long as you fight or do missions or train you will gain experience twice as fast."

"How does that work?"

"Something about the crack. You'd have to talk to the towers about that. But some come because they want to walk their own paths, create their own class, not trust the existing. Some when they graduated ran as far as they could and ended up here." She said the last sadly.

"How did they make it?" I asked in surprise, wondering since the closest other city was over a thousand miles away.

She shrugged, "Determination, and fear. It does a lot."

"Is that why so many are determined? They want to start their own paths, possibly start their own branch of the guild?"

"Some do."

"But why are so many just kinds of drifting," Violet asked.

She looked around now uncomfortable starting to move away, "I should check my other tables."

I held a hand up pleading for her to stop, "Wait. Please."

The waitress sighed leaning close and whispering, "Some come here to die."

"What?"

"Like permanently?" I spouted out.

She nodded.

The rest of the meal ended on that downer of the note. It didn't feel right asking for her number now.

Violet and I continued around the city finding no more information, from just random people.

"Can we go to the guilds now?"

"Might as well." Violet reluctantly agreed.

When we were looking for the guilds we found that there were six, one for each of the main classes, each very generic. I convinced violet to go to the warriors first. Entering into the basic stone building I saw a man sitting behind a desk, wearing studded leather armor reading a book.

"Hello," I said trying to get the man's attention.

The man closed his book and looked at us surprised, "Oh new meat. Welcome to the end of the world. What bring you here? Training? The migration?"

"A mission."

"A mission?" The man turned thoughtful, "That's rare. They don't normally get sent all the way out here. What are you supposed to do?"

I scratched the back of my head slightly embarrassed, "That's where it gets weird. It pulled us here, but didn't tell us anything other than a riddle."

The man's eyebrows raised, "A riddle? Those are a pain in the ass,"

"Any tips?" I asked hopefully.

"Well...the pull brought you here right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, the pull stops when you are around 30-50 kilometers. Those are usually the riddle missions, it for when they can't say it directly."

"What would prevent that?"

"It's something to do with the filter. Or they're just annoying people. Who knows"

I heard Violet let out a snort.

"What was the riddle?" The man behind the desk asked

"The world is dark, the monsters grow large. In a deep village far out near the edge, power" I began to recite the riddle only for Violet to stop me.

"James, that's enough we don't know him."

"But they could help." I reasoned.

"Or we could tip off whoever we are supposed to stop," she said through gritted teeth.

"Oh didn't think of that." I said chagrined and turned to the man, "Forget what I said."

"Ok, but just so you know it sounds like the quest wants you to fight in the migration, but I don't know if you are strong enough."

Why wouldn't we be strong enough? He doesn't even know our levels. "How powerful are the monsters?"

"Late teens mid-twenty threats."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

The man shook his head and put his book down, "It's the numbers, in the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions."

Violet and I's jaws dropped, "How is this place even standing?" I practically shouted.

"People come here to level and find a path to thirty also level twenty-five to twenty-nine is a qualitative shift in power. So each person kind handle a lot of monsters."

"How many level thirty's are here?" I asked thinking that there should be a bunch of them.

"Zero."

""WHAT!!"" Both Violet and I shouted in surprise.

The man just shrugged, "Supposedly there's a secret to hit thirty, that you have to figure out."

"But they said it should only take a century," Violet asked askance.

"It used to until the secret was lost. Now it's just hope."

"I don't know how I feel about that," I said really not knowing how to feel, other than confused.

Violet, not one to hide her feelings, "I feel angry. Who the rot do they think they are!"

The man shrugged again, he seemed to be doing that a lot, " Everyone here has sworn to share the secret if they find it."

Violet turned to me annoyed, "We got the info we needed...I think. Thanks for the info. Let's go, James." Violet grabbed my arm and dragged me to the door out. She grabs the door and pulls only for it to not move an inch. "FUCK!" She went and thrashed trying to rip the door open.

I turned to the man while Violet was trying to open the door. "You were Buying time."

The man winked, "Only a little. I'll be happy to answer questions still but you questers need to talk to the boss."

"Is this good or bad?" I asked grabbing my sword.

"Up to you."

Violet was furiously trying to open the door the man yelled, "Yeah that's meant stand a siege."

Not knowing what else to do I just tried to get information, "So what is the crack?"

"No idea but when there's static the power becomes stronger. Magic is easier. Healing is easier. Leveling is easier." The man said calmly and pulled up the book he was reading. Now he was starting to piss me off.

Through gritted teeth, I followed up with an elegant, "Why?"

"It's like it's flooding our atmosphere for stronger creatures."

"But you said they were only in their twenties. Why would the atmosphere need to be denser?" Was he lying earlier?

"The flood is, there are some that are much stronger."

There was only one more thing I needed to know, "How did you even know? Did you see the show?" Did they air the footage yet?

"No, but that riddle is standard, for questers. Back when this place was a village. As you can see we aren't a village."

Violet stopped pulling on the door and walked over to the man with a sickly sweet smile, Thank you for answering our questions." She then proceeded to punch the man clear across the room where he fell limply to the ground. I definitely heard a bone or two breaks. "But fuck you for trapping us."