Quest Series: Mightiest of the 42nd Merging
Quest: Mightiest Guild
Description: Become the leader of the highest ranked Guild of your universe within one year.
Reward: To be determined upon completion. Lesser rewards will be given to Guild leaders below first place or those who’ve simply joined a Guild that places on the leaderboard.
Quest: Mightiest Kingdom
Description: Become the leader of the highest ranked Kingdom of your universe within one year.
Reward: To be determined upon completion. Lesser rewards will be given to Kingdom leaders below first place or those who’ve simply joined a Kingdom that places on the leaderboard.
Quest: Mightiest Individual
Description: Become the highest Level individual of your universe within one year.
Reward: To be determined upon completion. Lesser rewards will be given to individuals below first place.
Time remaining for this Quest Series: 365 days
As Jordan finished reading through the Quest screens, he had a startling realization. It wasn’t about being the mightiest of humanity or Earth. But very pointedly included their entire *universe*!
Were the actual aliens now stuck on the same planet as them? Was he really about to meet a freaking alien?! Actually, if there was native life on this world, then wouldn’t it all technically be considered as alien to him?
His head was still a mess of conflicting emotions. General confusion for what was happening. A sense of disbelief about how all of this was even possible. Fear for his future and what would happen to his friends and family. But also excitement. The excitement that could only come from something as big as exploring an entirely new world and everything it had to offer.
Jordan picked himself off the ground and brushed his pants off. Yet even though their situation was dire, he couldn’t help but feel his lips tug upward to form a small grin.
Just how many times had he been idly bored at work or in a lecture hall, daydreaming about how life could be more interesting if it was like a video game. Now he had a Status, which popped back up the moment he willed to see it again. In it was a Level, Stats, Skills, and even Tech Points as a stand-in for Mana as the generic resource. Feeling his heartbeat still rapidly beating inside his chest, how could he not feel excited about it all?
Yet when he then looked around, the light smile quickly fell off his face. A man to his left was still hunched over, clutching his stomach as he moaned with pain. Jordan’s gaze went to the puddle of fresh vomit next to the other man, and his eyes widened a little. It wasn’t just the typical last meal or stomach fluids, but was mostly some dark, viscous substance. At first glance, it almost reminded him of mud.
Jordan then glanced at the other people who had immediately thrown up. And it wasn’t just the one guy, but them too that had expelled this mysterious semi-solid. It didn’t seem like anything that could have come from the mall’s food court. Or just any food in general that he knew of.
Oh God! he then thought with disgust as he pressed his nose into his elbow.
At that moment, a sudden stench had assaulted his nostrils. One bad enough that it made him close to being the next person to hurl. A part of him just wanted to get off the marble platform and run away. Just to save his sense of smell from being ruined by the awful odor.
It seemed several others had the same idea as they rushed to climb down off the circle. And they did have to climb a bit, since it was raised around seven or eight feet off the ground. Those who had puked out the obvious source of the putrid smell were luckily helped up by a few brave souls. So just a minute or two after Jordan also went down, the entire group had already evacuated their starting platform.
“Oh fuck, it hurts! Please, it hurts so much! I- I think something’s wrong!” The man from before was still clutching his stomach in pain even after being helped down. He sat down and rested his back against the marble wall.
“Is there a doctor? Does anyone here have any medical training? someone asked.
But there didn’t seem to be any as nobody answered the question. Even those who had also thrown up had already reached the point of at least being able to stand on their own. All but the one person who was still clearly in agony.
It was just bad luck that they didn’t happen to have a medical professional in their group. Jordan still had the stuff in his pockets, and a couple of people were actually still holding their grocery bags. So it looked like they had all been teleported with whatever had been on them at the time. Granted, even if a doctor had been assigned to them, the chances of said person actually happening to have a bag of medical supplies wouldn’t be the highest.
“Wait! I picked the Healer Class! I could try something with my Skills!” a woman with auburn hair suddenly exclaimed. She stepped forward after everyone else had given the pained man a bit of space. There were some looks of relief from the others, likely from the fact that someone else had actually broken the stillness and did something to help.
When the volunteer kneeled down in front of the victim, she gingerly placed her hands against the middle of his torso. Then in an act that caused many eyes to widen, Jordan’s included, a glow of almost pure white emanated from that spot. He’d read through the description of the Healer and its Skills. But even while knowing what to expect, he still felt a rush of exhilaration of seeing an actual healing spell in action.
Hushed whispers went through the crowd of two dozen. Some gasped about it being a miracle, others were simply amazed to actually see an act of true magic for the first time.
Several seconds later, the man’s pained expression started to soften. His heavy breathing normalized, and some of the color returned to his face. As the first glow of light then faded away, a secondary resurgence quickly took its place.
“I’m not sure how exactly I can tell,” the Healer started. “But something within his intestinal lining was ruptured. Enough so that it would have needed an immediate trip to the emergency room. I think it should at least be stable now, though.”
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She then stood back up, and after a few moments, helped the man stand up. He was still a bit wobbly, but gave her a truly grateful smile.
“I… the pain’s almost entirely gone now. Thank you, really. I owe one.”
“Of course. If anyone else isn’t feeling well, I’d be happy to check on you too,” she said to the crowd of onlookers.
As one of the other people that had thrown up took her up on that offer, the group returned to a sense of normalcy. People started to introduce themselves to one another instead of just focusing on the Healer.
But at that moment, Jordan had an idea. He recalled that the System had given him a General Skill called Appraise. It did say that it would provide basic information about the target. So he wondered if that included a person’s name.
His eyes glanced over to the Healer, and decided that she might as well be the one to try it on. After just a moment of trying to imagine the Skill being activated, he got a response in the form of a pop-up.
Name: Audrey Clifton
Species: Human (Earth)
Guild: N/A
Class: Healer
Subclass: N/A
Level: 1
Grade: E
After he finished reading the screen, Jordan glanced back at the woman. And in what made his eyes widen slightly, he saw that she was actually looking around with a confused expression. When someone asked if she was feeling okay, Jordan was close enough to overhear her reply.
“Ah yeah, I kinda just had a weird feeling all of sudden. Maybe it’s from using too much Mana up at once? I’m not sure, but it’s gone now, so it should be fine,” Audrey said. She gave the other person a reassuring shrug as if it were no big deal. After that, she turned away to start another conversation with someone else.
Oh shit, she was actually able to tell I did that? The Skill’s description didn’t say anything about people being able to notice that they were targeted. That’s good to know, Jordan thought to himself.
For the next couple of minutes, the young man did the polite thing and started to also introduce himself to the others around him. Only names were shared, so unfortunately he didn’t know exactly what other Classes other people had. And since nobody else was asking, Jordan felt awkward over the idea of being the first to do so.
He might have just used Appraise if it couldn’t have been detected. But since it was, that idea was already out. For now it was just a matter of curiosity. But if nobody soon decided to bring it up as a topic of discussion, then he’d just have to put on his big boy pants and press the issue. In the meantime though, his mind eventually went to something else that seemed more important.
Now then, the System said that we should be getting sets of starter equipment to go with our Classes. But I’m not seeing any gift boxes falling from the sky or anything like that. So how is our stuff meant to be delivered? Jordan wondered.
But then the System once again showed how it’d have an ever present connection to his mind. He felt a distinctly warm sensation and looked down at the palm of his right hand. He watched as a tattoo in the design of a treasure chest came into being upon his skin. As soon as it fully formed, Jordan sensed a subtle but definitely real presence brush upon his mind.
At the same time, information instantly entered his brain about the nature of the tattoo. It was a mark not actually upon his skin, but imprinted on his very soul. The design on his hand was effectively just an indicator that mirrored its location on his spiritual form.
For how it worked, the tattoo basically led to him being able to actually store things within a self-contained pocket space. Where the mark itself acted as just the gateway between this space and the rest of reality. Jordan would be able to pull any item in or out through wherever the symbol was currently located on his body.
And since it was actually anchored to his soul, it effectively had a built-in measure to prevent anyone else from ever being able to access it. According to the information that had just been dumped on him, there was one caveat to that, however. That kind of basically absolute protection was only in effect while he was still alive. Upon death, the metaphorical lid to his space would be blown open and cause everything to spill out around to his corpse.
Right now, there actually was a set of items already inside it. All Jordan had to do was focus, and he pulled the first of them out. A second later, what looked like a folded up uniform appeared between his hands.
Right on top of it was both a pair of boots and gloves. The clothing was a light grey in color, and seemed like something an electrical engineer might wear at first glance. But it also appeared to be thicker and made of a material that didn’t feel like anything regular used in clothes.
“Hey, where did you get that from? Did you pick up some clothing creating Skill or something?” someone asked him.
Jordan blinked a few times, and looked to see that now everyone in the group was now looking right at him. In his excitement, he’d completely forgotten that he was surrounded by people. And since they apparently hadn’t asked the System about their starting set yet, him just conjuring the things in his hands out of thin air was quite noticeable.
“Oh, no. The System mentioned in my tutorial that I’d be getting some starting equipment for my Class. If yours did the same thing, try mentally asking the System about how to get that stuff. That’s all I did, anyway,” Jordan explained.
With that, the group was quickly filled with the silence of everyone collectively following his advice. Jordan found it interesting that he could actually tell the exact moment that someone got their own mark. He couldn’t see it appear anywhere on their skin, though.
Instead each person just got a completely blank look for a second, right before turning into an expression of deep thought. Then one at a time, people started to pull items out of their personal pocket spaces. After having observed them for a minute, Jordan returned his attention to his own equipment. Out of curiosity, he decided to use Appraise on the clothing set.
Name: Engineer’s Reinforced Uniform
Grade: E1
Description: A standard set for Combat Engineers across the multiverse. It has been built to provide the wearer a low amount of protection from piercing, explosive, fire, and electric types of damage.
Huh, neat! Too bad it doesn’t seem to come with a helmet or headgear, though. So all that protection is kinda limited to just below the neck. So, System, quick question. Do I actually have to put it on manually, or can I just automatically equip this like a game? Jordan asked, really hoping for auto equipping to be a thing.
Sadly, there was no response from the System. And since there was no indication that the uniform would suddenly appear on his body, it seemed that he would indeed be stuck with the old fashioned way. But that was fine. He didn’t even need to find a private spot to change.
Since the shirt and pants both seemed to be a bit baggy, it would comfortably fit right over his current clothes. The only thing Jordan would actually need to take off were his shoes and socks, since the equipment also came with new socks too.
So he quickly did that and put the old stuff into his pocket space. Speaking of which, there was actually something else still waiting in there for him. So as soon as he finished changing, Jordan hurriedly pulled it out next.
“Holy shit,” he mumbled aloud. His eyes lit up with both surprise and amazement.
Name: Energy Pistol
Current Charge: 100%
Grade: E1
Description: A standard handheld pistol for Combat Engineers across the multiverse. It has been built to provide the user a reliable way to shoot condensed, energy-based blasts from range. It can be recharged by the user at the rate of 1 TP per 10% of restored charge.
Now this was going to be good.