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Chapter 66 – Well, Shit

I sat alone in my room at the Sleeping Giant Inn. I’d spent most of the journey home meditating. It was painful but eventually I managed to break through and visualise my insides.

I decided to call it my soul view. Partly because that’s what it was, at least to my rudimentary understanding, but also because of how it had changed.

The place was a mess when I’d finally gotten back in. My stamina coil and health rope were alright. It didn’t take long to get them back into top form.

The issue was with the orb in my core, my soul. It had been tinged green previously, it was small and always just out of reach. That had changed.

It felt different now, bigger. The blue and green orb of swirling, almost tangible energy seemed to take up half of my core.

I still couldn’t touch it, not really. But I could brush it with the tips of my fingers as it swirled, an incomprehensible void, in the pit of my stomach.

I’d spent hours trying to understand it but I didn’t really seem to get anywhere.

It was frustrating but there was nothing I could do about it. I’d dropped out of meditation and tried to cheer myself up by assigning my free stat points into intelligence.

It almost seemed wasteful, but it was my lowest stat and I figured the ability to turn invisible could be invaluable if I could use it for long enough.

Nothing else of note happened for the rest of the trip. Panda had sipped cocktails and engaged in a one-sided conversation with the barman. And I had spent most of my time meditating.

Once the boat returned us to Havar we made a beeline for the Adventure Society. Lucy was as happy as ever but when she gave me the report form to fill out I froze up.

How was I supposed to put into words all that had transpired on the island? I could barely understand it myself.

In the end she allowed me to take the form away with me to fill out in my own time. She seemed concerned but I couldn’t open up to her about the changing nature of my soul.

I couldn’t talk to anyone about it. They wouldn’t understand. It was just another reason to put me down like a rabid dog and with the map fragment on my back, they already had more reasons to kill me than not.

So, I took the form back to the inn and began trying to fill it out. I needed to explain what happened but I also had to omit exactly how it happened.

I settled on telling the Adventure Society that once we’d watched the scene play out, the memory ended. I falsely speculated that all Treena’s memory spirit wanted was for someone to see her tragic story.

Even if they thought that was bullshit, they could hardly blame a temp for not understanding the intricate innerworkings of an ancient and complex magic.

Once I’d finally written it up I was pretty happy with my work. It would hopefully protect me from scrutiny and investigations whilst also showing that I completed the quest satisfactorily.

I was pretty drained by the time I’d finished the report and I laid back on the comfortable bed and delved into my HUD.

I still had two quests I’d barely even started yet. The first was the Morningstar Hotel and Spa quest. A place that I knew was basically a crime syndicate hang out.

I was interested in it for sure, but these were dangerous people and I was only a phase two. I batted the quest notification away as I decided to leave it for later.

Then I saw the other quest, one I’d received right back at the beginning when I’d first arrived in this world and been captured by a cult who wanted to skin me.

My stomach did a summersault as I read through it. I’d forgotten the quest even existed. I’d barely been in this world for two months but it felt like an eternity.

New Quest: The Celestial Map

Collect all the pieces of The Celestial Map. Upon completion of this quest you will unlock another quest.

Objectives:

Map pieces collected 2/10,000

Reward: Vast Cosmic Power

Vast Cosmic Power? I wondered what that meant. It was so ominous and it reminded me of something from a book I’d read once.

Collecting all the pieces of the Celestial Map would involve murdering 10,000 people. It wasn’t a quest I ever intended to complete.

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It was sickening that the system had even given it to me in the first place. I’d learnt accidentally that I could adsorb the tattoos of the map fragments form the dead bodies of outworlders.

I’d accidentally killed a guy called Brad who’d been in the cell with me when I threw a cultist into a vat of acid. Shortly afterwards I’d adsorbed his tattoo. It still sat next to my own on my back.

The whole idea of it all gave me the shivers.

I jumped up out of bed, grabbed my completed report and left the inn. I needed to get my reward and start the next step in my journey to power. I needed a distraction from my swirling and spiralling thoughts.

I had to keep getting stronger so I could one day protect my family. Not that I had any idea how to bring them into this world, or if it was even possible. But if 10,000 other people from earth could be brought here on a whim.

Then there must be a way for me to bring my family across. I had no delusions about going home. For all I knew it was a one-way trip anyway.

Not to mention that despite the horrors of this world, it was still more exciting than a dead-end job and paying taxes back on Earth.

I knew that Layla wasn’t really present during the last quest. It must have been magic, either that or my mind was decaying. It was a scary thought, losing one’s sense of self, but I couldn’t dwell on it any longer.

I wasn’t going to get stronger by moping around in my room.

I strolled down the street and entered the Adventure Society foyer. Lucy smiled up at me from behind the reception desk.

She had always been so nice to me; though I guess it was her job. She was probably like that with everyone.

Panda sat idly on the desk, smoking his pipe. From the looks of things he hadn’t moved from there since I’d left an hour earlier to fill out my report at home.

“Sorry about that, I’m done now.” I said, handing Lucy the report.”

She nodded, took it from me, and began reading through it. She didn’t seem overly shocked as she read it. I’d expected more of a reaction in all honesty.

“Thank you for your report Mr Akabane. I can now officially call this quest complete. I’ll need to file the report and get your reward if you’ll wait here please.” She said professionally before walking off somewhere behind the reception.

“You already told her didn’t you?” I asked Panda after Lucy had left.

“Do you really think that the only thing I have to talk about with women is whatever hairbrained crap you’ve been up to?” He admonished, shaking his head. “Because in this case you’d be absolutely right. Now, check your quest log.”

I laughed and opened the new notification on my HUD.

Quest Complete:

I’ve Been Expecting You, Mr Akabane

A mysterious new structure has appeared on an uninhabited island just off the coast of Havar. I’m getting some serious evil villain’s lair vibes from this one.

If there’s a mountain shaped like a skull, you know what to do.

After exploring the island you came across a dryad girl and decided to help her like the overly trusting idiot you are. Honestly, how you’re not dead yet is beyond me.

Helping the dryad girl turned out to be a trap. Big surprise there. You found yourself in the middle of an inquisition and blatantly ignored the plethora of war crimes to chase after one small girl.

After catching up to her, she died. Big deal, am I right? But you took it oddly personally and went absolute high school shooter on the orc who killed her.

I guess there were no cultists after all.

Objectives:

Kill all the inhabitants on the island 0/1

Or

Spare the inhabitants and report your reasoning 0/1

Or

Investigate the island and report back 1/1

Reward: 500 gold coins and admittance onto the next Adventurer exam.

*Speak to the Adventure Society to claim your reward. Reward payable upon the successful completion of the above objectives*

I read through the system’s rather rude play by play account of what happened on the island.

It seemed that the objective I had completed was the investigate and report back one. The others were to kill or spare the inhabitants and I hadn’t reported on my soul killing to the society. They were memories after all, so the term killing didn’t even really apply to them.

I thought back to my last encounter with Director Lucas where he’d told me that the information the Adventure Society received was often wrong.

I guessed he was right. They’d certainly dropped the ball on this one. I’d gotten pretty angry at him the last time we spoke. I’d felt like they omitted information on purpose and were unprofessionally trying to get me killed.

But maybe he was right. Perhaps it was just part of the job to expect the unexpected and be able to adapt to different situations.

I mean, how could they have possibly known about Treena and the orcish inquisition being trapped inside a memory that happened 20,000 years ago. Cultists setting up a base made much more sense when you thought about it.

Adventuring was a hard job. In a world full of magic anything could happen. Though it wouldn’t kill them to verify their facts every once in a while.

“Here you go Mr Akabane. 500 gold coins as promised.” Lucy said chirpily as she entered the reception area with a large coin purse in hand.

I took it into my inventory and thanked her.

“So, do I qualify to take the adventurer exam now?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course.” She smiled, patting Panda on the head as he looked at her, seemingly as interested as I was. “As per the agreement, you have now completed three quests for us and thus, qualify to take part in the next adventurer exam.”

“That’s great news!” I replied, practically bursting with excitement.

Being an adventurer was the best way I knew to gain levels and one day achieve my goal. Taking the exam was the first step towards that.

If I passed I’d be able to take on more quests and fight harder enemies. I hated to admit it, but I was a little excited about that.

“I’m glad to see you’re so happy Mr Akabane. The next exam starts in twenty minutes if you want to make your way to the waiting room where the other examinees will be.” Lucy replied, gesturing towards hallway on the left.

“Wait… what?” I asked, dumbstruck.

I’d hoped it would be soon but I didn’t realise it was going to start immediately. I wasn’t prepared. I’d only just returned from the last quest.

“Please make your way to the waiting room Mr Akabane. It’s just over there.” She smiled patiently.

“Isn’t there one I can take in a few days? I haven’t even slept since I got back.” I asked meekly.

“I’m really sorry Mr Akabane but as was outlined in your quest rewards for the one you just handed in. Completion allows you to take part in the next exam. If you decline to take part you’ll need to complete three more temp quests before you can take another exam. Those are the rules.”

“So the exam starts now?” I asked.

“The exam starts now.” She replied.

“Well shit.”