"Do you wish to continue?" The expectant look of the blind saint was turned unnerving by its odd aesthetic and unmoving disposition.
Thariel turned away from the automaton and looked at the running water on the edge of the hill. The liquid had the color of pure white and was putting out so much spiritual energy that Thariel could feel it emanating from the water's surface.
She originally wanted to just get a cup of spirit water- and maybe even an access to the shrine while she's at it. - but getting a Soul Mark is, quite literally, the upgrade to the effects of drinking spiritual water.
And on top of that, she wouldn't just get access to the shrine once she has the mark either.
No- she'd have access to any and all ancient ruins because the Soul Mark is the I.D equivalent of the civilization that built them.
Which begs the question of why the blind saint is rewarding her with something so important for killing a few dinosaurs.
"Why give me something like this?" Thariel was naturally skeptical of the entire thing, she couldn't help it. Soul marks were so rarely given that even the main heroine of Tainted Orchids never got them. And she was the saviour of the world!
"I mean, there are so many other things you can give me, why a soul mark?" Thariel decided to explain more of her thoughts but she couldn't phrase them as clearly as she wanted.
"Because I wanted to take responsibility for my creator's actions," replied the saint, it sounded melancholic. And was that the only reason why it was doing this? Responsibility? Really?
"Your creator's actions." Thariel said dully, "that's it?"
The saint slowly nodded, "I wish that cases such as yours would never happen but I suppose that transgressions of foreign souls into our world is simply an inevitability."
Thariel wanted to run away when she heard the saint begin to drone on and explain to her his own reasons for why he decided to give her a soul mark. She was smelling a quest here.
And worse still, it didn't seem to be part of the game. This was strictly her own little storyline- which isn't a good thing! She's just a regular girl goddamnit! She can't help bury the skeletons of a long lost civilization!
The automaton continued with the words Thariel dreaded to hear, "Unless, that is-"
Thariel closed her eyes, does she stop this? Should she? Others can do this right?
Before she could speak her mind and make a decision, the blind saint finished talking.
"- you turn off the Bottle of Souls,"
And there it is.
Thariel wanted to groan, "you mean destroy it right? Not turn it off?"
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The blind saint only smiled wider at her suggestion, "I see that you have already accepted your role, so you wish to proceed then?"
"What do I get out of this?" Thariel asked. A Soul Mark wasn't good enough but if the rewards get an increase then she might just agree to it.
"What do you think follows after the Soul Mark?" The blind saint replied in a clear yet very cryptic manner.
"Access to all your facilities?" Thariel guessed.
The blind saint smiled but nevertheless nodded, "if you can find them yes,"
"If I can find them huh..." Thariel frowned, well she did know a few places where- she did not like the way the saint was smiling! "Okay- fine! Fine!"
She decided to give up, "you win you stupid robot, now what?"
"I'll start your first quest, naturally," said the saint, "there is a certain species around here which hunt in packs, they were once known as Tartan Yeeros in the oldest language I am familiar with,"
Thariel nodded, that meant the language of its creators. Whatever this thing was implying by mentioning that is lost to her however.
"And what that means in a direct translation is "Packball Raptors"," the automaton elaborated, "as the name implies, they cuddle together to form a spherical shape and then wait in ambush, I assume you've seen one of these aforementioned spheres?"
Thariel would remember it vividly if she saw a ball of dinosaurs so no. She shook her head.
"Tell me, other worlder, what do you think piles on top of the ball?"
"... Snow?" Thariel slowly said and her brain caught up. She was right to avoid those snowballs! She knew it!
"Oh." Thariel dumbly said.
"So you do recognize them." Said the saint.
"I guess I do yeah," nodded Thariel, "so you just want me to hunt one of those?"
"Four. But yes, pop one of the balls open and kill them, then come back and bring the corpses here." The saint nodded, "I do believe that you will find what you can craft using materials harvested from them quite satisfactory. Especially in this climate."
"You're saying that I'll have access to a magitech fabricator." Thariel deadpanned, she wasn't aware something like that existed in this shrine but if it did...
"Yes." The saint replied in the same weightless tone.
"Okay, I'll do it."
Well there goes her clothing problem, and now that she knows she'd be the one using the dinosaur parts she'll be harvesting, Thariel actually felt more eager to hunt the raptors and finish the quest.
"I'll come back here with all four corpses," Thariel replied. She patted her chest for emphasis.
"And you're going to ruin your current set of clothes while doing so- it seems I was too lenient." The saint smirked, "here's an added condition; come back here without a single stain present on your clothes after each hunt for me to consider it a success."
"... Right," Thariel sighed, guess she had acted too eager.
Thariel thought about how to realistically pull off a "clean" hunt while leaving the shrine.
She did take into account the fact that this world is no longer a game and that she could do whatever whenever in this reality but that didn't help much with her current problem.
Setting up traps meant that she'd have to get dirty regardless while making them and unless she changes clothes...
... Which wasn't part of the condition-
She had been so stupid.
She can do whatever here. It's no longer a game.
Among her options includes removing the set clothes a player picks for their avatar in the character creation screen or a wardrobe or the current set she's wearing!
Grinning slightly, Thariel left for the nearest tree where she shook off her clothes and changed back to her previous gear.
The grimey leather armor and chainmail packed with dried mud didn't feel nice to wear but she can ignore creature comforts for now and focus on finishing the quest and earning herself a set of raptor clothing.
Which now that she thought about it; how would that look like? She hoped it was more feathers since it'll be extremely useful in staving off the cold.
What coloration would it be though? Snowy camouflage like the Thostasaurus's?
Thariel only felt more excited the more she thought about the possibilities of using a magitech fabricator to make a set of clothing using dinosaurs.
Like how cool is that?!
And also, something like a magitech fabricator was usually only reserved around late game since the player won't have quests asking to explore ancient ruins by then but getting one this early? Oof. She's going to abuse such a game breaking concept to the best of her ability.
With how eager she got at the thought of finding them, it didn't take Thariel long to spot a giant ball of snow innocently waiting in the middle of nowhere.
She knew that something was off about it from the get go but for it to actually be some kind of ambush-ball-thing made up of four little dinosaurs- she says that like the ball isn't twice her height, - is kind of interesting.
Curiously, Thariel sniffed at the ball to get a whiff of the creatures inside but nothing. The snow hid everything about them, not even sound could escape the thick layer of pure white snow bound to their feathers.
The only thing Thariel knew was that it was slightly warm which meant the things inside must be in a state of pseudo-hibernation and are waiting for something to get close so they can pounce on the unfortunate fool.
Currently, she's the unfortunate fool she just described.
But misfortune and helplessness were two different things and thus she fearlessly ran for the ball of snow knowing what'll happen if she goes near.
What followed was the giant snowball erupting into countless pieces and the emergence of four hound-sized raptors with feathers the color of deep midnight.
Moments after they laid their eyes on Thariel, the raptors looked ready to pounce at her and start tearing her apart.
They let out a guttural sound as they circled around her, eyes glazed with violence and claws primed, ready to open her stomach and tear out her guts.