Jeb kept his eye on the Quest as he ran towards edge of his family’s property. Eight hours turned to seven. Jeb slowed down his run. He realized that he didn’t need to hurry as much as he’d thought. Sure, the timer was stressful, but he knew that even walking, he’d probably make it with plenty of time. By the time that he reached the fence, Jeb saw that he still had about three hours left.
Jeb was glad that the edge of their property was only nominally marked by a fence. There were what could generously be called posts every few feet. As he crossed the border they marked, the Quest Notification changed.
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Slay the Dragon of the West Major Quest First Tier Leave Your Home The Journey to Greatness begins with a single step. Leave the small town of your birth to begin your quest to Slay the Mankiller. (Completed)
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Thank goodness, Jeb thought, mentally accepting the rewards for the Quest. He made a note to make sure he finished his Timed Quests well before they ran out. This was far too stressful!
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Congratulations! You have completed the Major Quest Slay the Dragon of the West First Tier “Leave Home”. You have taken the first step on your journey to bring glory to the Republic. Rewards: 249 Experience, Skill: Gift of Gab, Slay the Dragon of the West Second Tier Quest “Enroll in the Academy”
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That was strange. He hadn’t gotten a Skill from any Quests yet. Then again, his grandfather had said it would be easy to get Skills now. Still, that much Experience was far more than he would have needed to get his Second Tier, if he was Tiering up. That was a nice reward, even if it didn’t mean anything to him.
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Slay the Dragon of the West Second Tier “Enroll in the Academy”. Where else can you learn to harness the arcane powers granted to you and recruit others to join your holy mission?
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It was also clear that he was expected to enroll in the Academy, though thankfully there was no timer on that Quest. He’d been worried that he would not be able to follow his grandfather’s plan to stay at the farm for the year. Jeb was glad that fear was unfounded.
All that was left to check was his new Skill. Jeb was curious what Gift of Gab could mean. Maybe it would be a Skill to help with traveling?
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Congratulations! Through your efforts to complete your Major Quest, the Paragons have rewarded you with the Special Skill: Gift of Gab Charisma +5, You gain the ability to communicate general concepts with other sentient beings, even through language gaps. Use this skill to help recruit others to your holy and noble mission.
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That more than doubled his Charisma, which was incredibly nice. It was also a reward for his going along with what the Republic wanted. Jeb wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Then again, Charisma was a Mental Statistic, so it should help with Spells. The Primer had simply denigrated it as a Statistic for Bards, but that couldn’t be true.
After all, even if Jeb disagreed with the Paragons forcing the Quest (and Class) on him, he had to assume that they wouldn’t actively set him up for failure. Since he wasn’t allowed to gain a level for the next year, Jeb figured that he might as well raise all of his Statistics, not just the ones explicitly mentioned in the Magic Primer.
Jeb continued to think about the new Skill. He’d never known that other people spoke different languages. Then again, he knew that he spoke Republic Standard. That did imply some sort of non-standard Republic or non-Republic language.
As Jeb kept staring at the Skill, he noticed that it didn’t say other humans, or other people. It said “other sentient beings.” Maybe that meant the Dragon?
If it meant the Dragon, though, then were there other non-human sentient beings? Jeb would have to ask his family about that, though it was a low priority item for sure. Much more important was Jeb finding out how to improve his Statistics.
He thought about who he could ask for help as he started jogging back to the house. His grandfather was too busy to keep answering all of his questions, and he knew the rest of them were busy too. Then again, it would be past dark by the time he got back. He wouldn’t need to figure out who to ask until the morning.
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Jeb made it back to his home. He was surprised to see that his grandfather had waited up for him.
“Did you finish the Quest, Jeb?” he asked.
“I did!” Jeb said.
“Congratulations. You should probably go to sleep now, though.”
Jeb made his way up to his room, certain that he wouldn’t be able to sleep. After all, there was so much he had to think about. As his head hit the pillow, though, he fell asleep immediately.
In the morning Jeb woke up with the immediate idea of who to talk to. The Librarian would know how he could increase his Charisma, and Jeb could get the Fire and Air primers while he was there. After saying his good mornings, Jeb made his way over to the Library.
“Good morning, Jeb,” the Librarian said. “I see you haven’t figured out what you want to Class into yet?” he asked as pages flipped through his eyes.
“No, sir,” Jeb responded, “though I do have a question about one of the Skills that I recently earned.”
“What is the Skill, and how did you unlock it?” The Librarian was polite, as he always was, but clearly less interested than he had been the day before. That made sense to Jeb, he was sure most Skills that a First Tier person unlocked would be nothing exciting.
“The Skill is called ‘Gift of Gab,’ and it said that the Paragons gave it to me as a reward for working on my Major Quest.”
“I thought you were uninterested in working on the Quest?” The Librarian didn’t seem particularly surprised by the change, but had at least an academic curiosity.
“It had a timer, and my grandfather told me that it was bad to fail Timed Quests.”
“That’s generally true, though the consequences of failing the first Quest in a sequence are generally fairly mild. More to the point, failing a Timed Quest tends to lock you out of the rest of a Questline. Of course, there are a number of Classes that can view failed Quests, so it may have still been in your best interest to complete the Quest.” As the Librarian was speaking, pages were flying behind him, clearly some Skill related to searching.
“I cannot find any great records on Gift of Gab, other than that it’s a Charisma-based Skill. Again, though, that is not to say that there are no records, only that they are not in the general Republic System.”
“Well, on that note, do you have any advice for improving my Charisma?”
“The obvious answer would be to work on Bardic Skills. Is there a reason you cannot do that?”
“I can’t think of one. Could I have a Primer for Bardic Magic along with one for Air and one for Fire Glyphs?”
“What do you want with the Air and Fire Primers?”
“I was thinking it could be fun to learn them,” Jeb said, partially honestly.
“And?”
“And I don’t like that the System is forcing me into a corner.”
“In the future, don’t admit the second part. Here are the Primers, though I would strongly advise you against learning Bardic Magic yourself.”
“How else would I learn it in town?”
“There’s a Bard at the Inn right now,” the Librarian informed him, “I would go ask him if he is willing to teach you.”
Jeb made his way over to the Inn.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
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Jeb Human Age: 16 Class: Least Mud Initiate Level: 1 Experience: 449/100
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Total Statistic Load: 115 Physical Load: 56 Strength: 14 Dexterity: 8 Endurance: 16 Vitality: 15 Presence: 3
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Mental Load: 59 Intelligence: 16 Willpower: 20 Magic Affinity: 12 Mana Depth: 3 Charisma: 8
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Mana: 200
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Glyph Attunement: 6 Least Conjure Water Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient Tier 3 Spell
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Skills: Least Mud Magic Meditation Mana Manipulation Spell Glyphing Glyph Groking Gift of Gab
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)