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Quest Acquired
Struggle of the Strength Spirits
The Strength Spirits are struggling to survive in their home. End their struggle.
Rewards:
Skill: Mana Palace
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Hera read the quest three times to make sure she wasn’t going crazy. She never expected the guides to tell her to help the Spirits. Especially after they told her that the MAZE didn’t care about them enough to do something about it.
“Are you really telling me that I need to go save the Strength Spirits? Don’t get me wrong. I want to help them, but aside from not knowing where they are, I know I’ll be way in over my head if I go after them,” Hera sighed.
“Oh no. We are not saying that. The phrasing is weird because that’s what the system does. But that quest will be completed relatively soon. Even if you don’t do anything about it,” Tara explained.
“What? But it says ‘End their struggle.’ Doesn’t that mean that I need to end their struggle?” Hera asked.
“Not really, kid. Besides, you already did your part. Doing anything else will just be extra. Even if the things you and Vulcan discovered end up not influencing anything,” Peaches added.
“So… this will eventually just give me the skill?” Hera paused, “And give me a way of knowing when the Strength Spirits are either all gone, or have been saved from the human experiments?”
“Pretty much. You just won’t know if the result was good or bad by the quest alone,” Nina nodded, but glanced at Capri and gestured for him to speak.
“However. We must confess that giving this particular quest is also of interest to us,” the winged sheep spoke, “Even if the system does not care about the Spirits, we do. Spirits are one of the few creatures in the MAZE that do not have a set lifespan. Some exist ever since their territory was created. And in one particular case, there is a Spirit that is just a few years younger than the guide of their room.”
Hera stared at Capri, letting that information sink in, “Are you saying that there is a Spirit out there that is almost as old as the universe itself? Or the MAZE itself, we kind of assume they both came to be at the same time.”
“I can not say anything about the second part of that question. But the first is correct. We are free to say this because in order for you to reach that Spirit would take lifetimes of constant travel. And I do mean your new lifetime.”
Hera slumped back, “So it’s that far away?”
“The distance you would have to walk would be similar to the distance from Earth to Pluto. If you are lucky, it would take around 60 thousand years. That is, considering you stop to sleep,” Kelp added.
“Holy shit,” Nimbus and Daskka gasped.
“Yeah…” Hera just stared at the guides, her eyes focused somewhere else.
“Oh, c’mon. Is that really that surprising?” Lodi crossed her arms.
“No… I mean… sort of,” Hera scratched the back of her head.
“We always did hear that the MAZE was infinite,” Viper nodded.
“Yeah, but hearing them say this like that gives a very different sense of scale,” Crimson seemed to be in a similar state as Hera.
“Either way. You like Spirits, and are giving that quest in hopes that we do something about what is going on?” Livy asked. The revelation didn’t seem to bother her one bit.
“In essence, yes. But we never intended to trick Hera, or any of you, into doing that. Our idea was to be upfront about it from the start. I hope we didn’t offend you,” Peaches nodded and turned to Vulcan, “Or you. I know that because of who you are, this entire situation feels much more personal.”
Forge shook his head, “It’s fine. I agree with Hera about everything. I really wanted to help my kind. But I just can’t. If the humans are trapping us somewhere, or harvesting us somehow, then… They wouldn’t leave that area unprotected. Delta was just a prototype. It’s likely that the final products are the ones standing guard. We can’t take them. Even if they are a bit weaker than Delta was.”
Livy stared at Vulcan with an angry expression, but after a moment let out a long sigh, “Yeah. I agree. As much as I hate that.”
“And so you don’t think we are giant assholes. No one is telling you to fix it by yourself. Go in a group, hell, bring an entire army. We just don’t like seeing the Spirits like that,” Nina said.
Talpa put a hand on her sister’s shoulder, “Or do research. Help with supplies for the ones actually going there. Whatever you decide to do to help is a step in the right direction.”
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Hera nodded, “Ok. I’ll see what I can do. But no promises. The entire thing is super complicated and I don’t know what I can do to help. I was already thinking about checking with the agency, anyway.”
“And again, kid. You don’t have to. You already did your part. No one is asking you to do more,” Peaches added.
The Empress just gave him a blank stare, “You are literally asking me to do more. But I get it. “
With that, the party died down. The guides felt bad for the way they handled that situation, and the court still had a bad taste in their mouth. Hera knew that they didn’t have bad intentions, but they could’ve just asked her to do more instead of attaching it to a quest. Or explained the quest before creating it. Still, it was something to think about. To try to take her mind off things for the rest of the night, she opened the house building app Lodi sent her and started making what one day would be the court’s home. Of course, everyone was allowed to give their own opinions, and they could change anything they wanted for now. The actual final details would only be done when she had the skill and knew what it could do.
Early next morning, the Empress woke up and left her private room to meet the rest of her team. Milla had sent a message to the Harmony Guardians. It seemed like there was a pack of giant rats messing with the crops in the city. Randolf also received the message about that problem and they agreed to delay their journey for a few hours while they took care of those monsters.
Finding those creatures was easy, the tracks were very obvious. In the most chicle way possible, they led to an empty cellar in one farmhouse that was currently not in use. The family that took care of that area was human, and when the war started, they left back to Earth.
“Who wants to go in first?” Neria asked as they approached the entrance of the cellar.
“Me,” Livy, Vulcan, and Roan spoke at the same time.
Neria glanced back at the doors, “I’m not sure you can move around inside there all that well, Livy. The area looks wide, but not that tall.”
“I’ll stay in my weapon form,” before anyone could reply, the bipedal form of the Leviathan vanished, leaving only the war axe behind.
“OK then. Go ahead. I’ll be on the back to heal anyone if needed,” Neria replied, but she wasn’t really worried. They were in a room where monsters could reach level 24 at most. For one of those monsters to become an actual threat to the Harmony Guardians, it would take a lot of carelessness and bad luck. Even then, it was a stretch to think about that.
“Vulcan, if your Daemonic Influence gets too high, you come back. 80% is the cut point,” Hera warned. Even if Forge was currently sitting at only 26%, it was better to be safe than sorry.
The trio, or duo plus floating weapon walked inside. Once they were far enough away, the Empress let out a sigh and sent Robin to inside the cellar to cover them. Just in case.
“Sorry about Livy, everyone. She is upset ever since our fight with Delta. While we were coming here, she kept saying she wanted to punch something squishy,” Hera said.
“Really?” Vash turned to the Empress, “Honestly, I barely noticed any difference. If anything, she is less talkative lately.”
“I’ve been asking her to be careful. To her credit, she is doing that, and making sure she is not lashing out at anyone without a reason, but it could be better,” the Ophidianite explained.
“She’s mad because you guys lost the fight?” Neria asked.
“Not exactly. She is more upset because I almost died. Now she’s blaming herself. There was something I talked with them about yesterday that didn’t help either.”
“What was it?” Skyler asked.
“I realized I never learned a proper fighting style. I messed around here and there with a couple of things. But even the one I use the most is still at rank 3. So I said we need to focus more on learning how to fight. We discussed some options and agreed to focus on a style that is good against people for now,” Hera explained.
Flint nodded, “That’s a good call. Even if the war ends tomorrow, there are a lot of people shaped monsters. Not to mention dungeons with people, or monsters acting like people.”
“And if we are facing monsters, it’s generally easier to outsmart them. Since I have the court, I can pull some stunts that they won’t expect,” Hera nodded.
“That’s fair,” Skyler nodded as they continued to talk about the ways in which they could improve.
A about 20 minutes later, Livy emerged from the cellar in her weapon form, blood dripping from the blades. She stopped close to the entrance and turned back into the Leviathan, “It’s done. Do we need to get the bodies?”
Hera frowned, unsure if that was part of the mission. They all instinctively turned to Flint, who grumbled, “Sure, the crafter will know what to do with the bodies.”
“Well… do you?” Vash asked.
“Yes. Grab them. The people here can use the pelts for blankets in the winter, even if it’s just from rats. And the bones can be used to create a surprisingly strong version of concrete,” Flint nodded.
“Concrete?”
“Yeah, you can substitute for either sand or gravel. Only one or the other. The result is pretty damn good in most cases. Unless the bones have some weird property,” Flint finished.
Knowing that, everyone went inside to help bring out the rat bodies and place them in the cart they were using. Less than two hours later, they had already delivered the good news and the dead rats to the people in this city and were heading out in the caravan with Randolf.
A couple of days later, they had to make a detour since a room they were supposed to pass by was in the middle of a rampage. That increased their trip by another three days. They stopped in a room with a large dam where they were asked to protect the workers as they did some repairs in the dam itself. Neria used a spell to let Skyler and Roan to breathe underwater while Hera, for the first time, could use Livy’s Sea Serpent form for what it was intended to do. They swam in the lake, with the Empress not needing to breathe thanks to the Leviathan and killed a few dozen monsters. Even with the small number of creatures. The actual repairs took a while to complete, which made them spend the entire afternoon there. Adding yet another day to their journey.
In the end, what should be a trip of a little bit over a week ended up being closer to two. Still, they were able to arrive back in the Kalandria Empire, where Randolf and the caravan said their goodbyes. Kalahan and his group also thanked for the help and went to meet the members that were injured.
The Harmony Guardians had nothing else to do for the day and decided to just retire for the night. They had already warned the agency they were done with the mission and now had to wait for Milla to give them another task.