“Oh alright ! I’ll do it.”
I took the bag from Eadbor and put it in my inventory. He patted my shoulder and walked away, smiling.
I checked the inventory screen again, and it was there, named ‘Eadbor’s package’. I clicked on it to open the description, curious.
Eadbor’s Package Type: Quest item???Durability: 1/1 ?? / ?? The package that Eadbor wants delivered to Old Lady Jennings.
[WARNING: OPENING QUEST ITEM MAY RESULT IN FAILURE OF QUEST]
I quickly closed the description screen, as I spotted another small symbol hovering in the air before me. It looked like a scroll of sorts. I tapped on it, opening another window.
[td4]THE OTHERWORLERS IN THAROS
QUEST LOG
Eadbor’s Request : ACTIVE
Empty quest slot
Empty quest slot [/td4
The Otherworlders in Tharos? When did I ever get that quest? Also, I only have 3 quest slots? Hm, maybe it’s because if there’s too many, people would just stack quests, never solving them. But it’d be a pain if they couldn’t get an important quest just because the slots were full. Oh, there’s a ‘drop quest’ option huh. Convenient.
I opened the unknown quest, puzzled.
The Otherwolders in Tharos
Recently, strangers have been popping up all over Tharos, some with no clue where they are, and others without any knowledge of this world. You are one of these otherworlders, but have no clue as to why this is happening. Explore and find the reason of your arrival in Tharos.
Difficulty: Story quest
Quest requirements: Explore Tharos
Discover the reason for the arrival of the otherworlders.
Rewards: Unknown
I closed the window, more confused than before I read it.
Why the otherworlders arrived? That’s easy. Because we… bought the game?
I do understand the need for a plot point to propel the story, since a compelling story would be nice. Well, it’s sort of like a passive quest, so I can just ignore it and it won’t even matter.
I stood there, in the middle of the path, without any idea where to go.
Unsure of the location of the eastern watchtower, I just stared around, trying to find a solution. Geez, a minimap would be helpful!
Finally making up my mind, I asked the nearby store owner about the eastern watchtower.
“Hello!”
“What might yo-…. you be needing kid?”
The bandanna wearing middle aged man stared at me with suspicious eyes, his hands tensed. Geez, I thought my race was accepted here. Or maybe, my race won’t be met with much hostility. Right.
“Could you tell me where the eastern watchtower is?”
Wearing a pleased smile, I asked the shopkeeper. He relaxed just the tiniest bit, before pointing to my left, further in to town.
“Keep headin’ that way, and you’ll get to the eastern exit. Then, just look for the tall tower.”
Thanking him—he did seem relieved when I left—I headed towards the eastern exit.
Constantly amazed at the visuals of this game, the clamor and bustle in this ground, one would almost believe he was living in this world. Maybe that’s what the developers planned for. To make it seem as real as possible. And that’s why they introduced that Otherworlders quest.
I kept using Sharp Eyes as I walked along the busy roads, intent on gaining experience if even a bit. It rose slowly, by almost 1% if I used it for 2 minutes. And as it got to almost 8%, the increase visibly slowed down. Hm, maybe I should improvise to increase skill proficiency?
This town was kind of small. In almost 20 minutes, I had already walked across town. Hm, perhaps I should have selected a bigger town? Sort of like a city I guess.
The eastern exit was clearly marked, with a wooden gate like structure just beyond the last building. At the top, some old leaves hung. Possibly a good charm of sort. God, this game gave severe attention to detail.
At the eastern exit, I looked around, intent on finding the big tower that the shop keeper had so helpfully told me about. Oh boy did I spook him.
“There it is!”
I spotted the tower about 30 meters away from town, with a small cluster of shacks around it. It was tall and dark, possibly as camouflage. I used ‘Sharp Eyes’, and could make out the small holes in the tower. Stuff for archery huh?
I could almost not make out anything, so I strain my eyes more. My vision was tinged with an even deeper shade of red, and the energy consumption suddenly skyrocketed. My body was getting hotter, and I could almost feel myself steaming. My mind felt groggy with the sudden boost in consumption and the skill got cut off. Another window opened up before my eyes.
[[Warning! Mana Exhaustion! You have exhausted your mana. Please wait for it to recover! ]]
Sigh, mana exhaustion huh.
I checked my status screen, and there it was. Mana- 0/50 blinking red.
Can I not see how much mana I have during skill usage? Checking it by opening the status everytime might be tedious. I might have to tinker around with the settings a bit then.
After about 10 seconds, the weariness wore off, and I set off towards the tower. Old lady Jennings is surely there.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Interestingly, the increase in sharp eyes was substantial this time around. It increased to a whopping 15%, just by using up my mana for it. I couldn’t repeatedly do it, but it was still a find. And who knows, there might be a debuff for repeatedly exhausting mana.
I placed my hand on the black stone as I got next to the tower. The walk was nice. Sort of like a real walk. The stone felt rugged and cool to the touch. Tracing the outlines of the stone blocks, I walked towards the house that was obviously the target place. A small shack with an old lady sitting outside it.
She sat in a chair, knitting a sweater of sorts. Her silver hair was tied up in a bun, and the numerous wrinkles on her face signified her age. Yup, definitely old lady Jennings.
I walked up to the old woman, and as soon as i got close, she looked up from the knitting. I raised my hand in greeting, and she smiled sweetly. Geez, even the NPCs seem real.
“Old lady Jennings?”
“Why yes, it’s me. You were searching for me, child?”
“Ah, yes. Eadbor wanted me to deliver a package to you?”
“Oh? Eadbor huh? That kid still remembers to send something to this frail old lady…It has been a month since my son died, and these kids still send me food on a regular basis…”
I retrieved the package from my inventory and handed it over to her. After recieving it, she opened up the small wrapped package, and in it were--
Dumplings. Steaming hot, judging from the steam rising from it.
The old lady looked warmly at the dumplings and then directed her gaze towards me.
“Why, thank you for delivering this child. What might your name be?”
“Nexus”
“Well then Nexus, have a dumpling. And thank you for making this old woman’s day…”
*DING*
The sound echoed as two new symbols popped up. One with a scroll and an exclamation mark, the other with a treasure chest.
Guessing what the contents were, I tapped on the scroll first.
QUEST COMPLETE! Eadbor's Request Stricken by sadness due to her son's death, old lady Jenning's only solace were the gifts her son's comrades sent her, reminding her of how proud she could be of her son. By delivering Eadbor's package, you have successfully alleviated some of her worries.
A huge chest spilling coins decorated the upper part of the window. A secondary window popped up as soon as the rewards window opened. I got some XP. a dumpling, and 10 copper coins. Huh, I got paid.
Congratulations! You have gained XP. Completing quests, defeating enemies, there are a multitude of ways to gain XP throughout the game. Gain XP to level up and gain stat points. Stat points will enable you to develop your character in a way unique to you!
“10 copper huh. Well, now that I’m done with this quest, I should really get to leveling up now.”
I looked a bit farther into the wide fields, where the little green balls were still hopping around. Equipping my knife, I set forth to kill my first prey.
“Get. Back. Here!”
I struggled to catch those bouncy little pests, much less kill them. They were like rubber balls, bouncing away quicker than I could bury my knife in them.
I dived to catch the ball, but it bounced away in the nick of time and rolled away from me. Damnit. This is hard!
Not willing to give up, i tried once more with a horizontal slash at the little ball. Surprisingly, it hit. With a wordless squeal it was pushed away by my slash, and the little white eyes on it shut tight due to pain. Triumphant at my first hit, i proceeded to finish it off. Or so I thought.
The ball monster quickly bounced away and tackled my stomach, knocking the air out of my lungs. Startled, I tried to regain the offense by smacking the ball away, but it gave me no respite as it immediately started its next assault.
The next hit hurt quite a bit as I was sent staggering. The ball bounced back, and then charged at me again. This time, it accurately hit me in the jaw, sending me sprawling onto the ground.
You have been stunned!
Having met with a powerful blow, debuffs will be applied for the next few seconds.
· Unable to move properly
· -2 to all stats for 10 minutes
My body was numbing all over as I struggled to regain control. I could barely make sense as my thoughts were sent into a whirlwind from the sudden stun. My vision suddenly turned hazy, and the voices I heard became muffled. I could feel some hits to my abdomen. Probably the ball huh. A new screen opened up before me, much more defined than what I could see.
STUNNED : 00:20
But as soon as the timer reached 10, my vision flickered, and slowly turned black. Then, a new window opened up.
YOU DIED!
Too bad! Your first death!
Death incurs a 12 hour penalty during which you are not allowed to play the game. It will also result in the drop in all the skill proficiencies. After logging in, you will have reduced stats for an hour. Thank you for playing! <3
I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened, before I felt my arms again. The things restraining my arms loosened, and I slowly climbed out of the capsule.
I slumped onto my bed, berating myself for dying so quickly. I hadn’t played the game for more than an hour, and I already died. The game had a 3:1 ratio with it being 3 times faster than real life time. I played for only about 20 minutes, and I died miserably to the first mob I found… Damn it.
Wait, all this happened because I didn’t have enough information.
All right, I’ll thoroughly check out the game’s help section the next time I log in.
Man, reading through all that stuff is going to be a pain…
AUTHOR!!
This chapter was seriously a real pain. THE TABLES! SO NIGHTMAROUS!! (Totally a made up word *winks* )
Errors just kept popping up, so in the end, I ditched most of the tables and windows and replaced them with Bold letters and double brackets! [[ ]]!!!!
Hope you enjoy!