[Bright’s POV]
/=========+=========\
Quest Rewards 1: Map of the Dome
Optional Quest Rewards: Pristine Focus (Rare) and 'Watcher' Engram
\=========+=========/
[Claim Rewards]
[Yes] [No]
Leaving the screen open, Bright climbed up from the ancient chair he was sitting in and headed back to the group camping out at the entrance of the building.
“Did you guys get the notification as well?” Bright asked when he neared the group, with a clearly wide-awake John who was almost healed from his injury.
"Yeah, boss," They all answered at once.
Much to Bright's surprise, they all met the main part of the quest but failed to meet the criteria for the optional quest reward. However, upon bringing one of them to the security room, Bright found that after watching some of the footage, the man obtained the rewards for the optional part of the quest, though one of his rewards was different. He still got whatever a Pristine Focus (Rare) was, but the second reward was completely different, as he obtained something called 'Datapad Engram.’
After helping the others unlock the optional quest rewards, Bright returned to the campfire and clicked [Yes], collecting his rewards.
[Pristine Focus (Rare) - A triangular device designed by Humanity to act as a small augmented reality device that serves as a multipurpose sensory interface after being placed just above an ear. These devices act as compact computers that can store and log data the user comes across, communicate with other Focuses, provide translation services, and interact with other technology wirelessly and much more through a holographic interface only the user and other users can see]
[Engram: Watcher has been unlocked. Watchers can now be constructed at any ARK Terminal]
[Watcher: Powered by Element Dust, Watchers are hybrids of Scouts and Attack drones that serve as one of the most common autonomous security robotic platforms used by Independent, Terran Federation, and the United Terran Republic cities that will alert nearby human operatives and Enforcers of hostiles and repair nearby machinery using Element as fuel to repair the machinery.
Comes equipped with advanced sensors and relays, two circular propellers for flight, a small weapon attachment that can incapacitate or hurt unarmored targets, a miniature fabricator, and repair arms
Cost: 15 Element Dust, 100 units of metal, 25 units of electronics, and 5 units of oil]
Along with those two screens popping up, a brief flash of light brought two things into existence that fell on Bright’s lap: what seemed to be a scroll and a…guitar tip.
Reading through the two screens that popped up, Bright’s eyes widened. Reaching down to the silver triangular guitar pick, Bright grabbed the device and brought it to the side of his temple, and with fascination, was surprised to find the device seemingly launching from his hand onto his head, right above his left ear, like a magnet to metal.
[Registering User…done]
[Credentials…Citizen of Invictus]
[Welcome to the city of Dreams, Jack Bright]
[Running Diagnostics…complete]
[Battery: 100%]
[Initiating apps…done]
[Logs], [Files], [Phone], [Message], [Contacts], [Camera], [Simulation], [Scan], [Settings]
Humming in thought, Bright tried thinking of activating the scanning function and was surprised to see another light shine from the focus onto the first thing in sight, one of his w sitting across from him past the fire who was examining his rewards, and the focus in hand.
[1%…50%…100%…done, scan complete]
In less than a few seconds, Bright was surprised to find what appeared to be multiple screens before him. These screens had in-depth details, data, and more of his friend himself, his clothes, his weapons, and more before suddenly being flagged with many errors.
[No data on materials…error]
[No data on organic composition…error]
[Please load needed data and files for better scanning]
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Confused, Bright opened the data and files tab on his apps and found that the device was nearly completely empty, with the only downloaded file being the system’s OS. The Focus was essentially blank and empty, wiped off anything useful.
[Please scan appropriate material for data collection to provide for more in-depth scanning in the future]
Did that mean all Bright would need to do is scan something like a medical textbook or materials science textbook, and the next time he scanned, he would be shown something like a person’s physical health if they had diseases, and stuff like that?
If so, Focuses would have been invaluable to the Foundation, especially if it could allow a Scientist or Researcher to scan an object or creature’s composition instead of running a bunch of tests and looking at a sample under a microscope.
Humming in thought, Bright tried something else, [Phone].
[No Service]
‘Service?’ Bright wondered in thought.
Moving on, he focused on the others as they put on their Focuses, from there they discovered that each Focus has a unique ID that was needed to add them as a contact, an ID that was easily found in settings.
Adding the others to his contact list, Bright hummed in thought and tried the [Phone] app again, surprised to find that it opened a contact list.
Tapping on one of the contacts, he was surprised to find that it went through, as the Focus on Bright and his friend’s head glowed and buzzed for a second.
When his friend answered the call, Bright was surprised to see a holographic image of his friend’s face appear in the corner of the holographic screen shown before him by the Focus.
In awe of the device's usefulness, Bright continued messing with the other functions while he was in deep thought. He then realized that he had nearly forgotten about the map he had received as a main reward for completing the quest.
…
[Kohl’s POV]
It was fascinating how slowly the humans were progressing. I figured one of them would have reached level 100 and surpassed the first wall, but they hadn’t. After some in-depth examinations, I found out the reason for this: the humans were overly cautious.
Kohl could understand why the humans were so cautious. They lacked the proper items and gear to fight monsters at their own level, not monsters and creatures of higher levels. This was shown with the situation with the [Pale Death] earlier during the humans' trip, as they used overwhelming force to fight something that frankly did not need it. This cautious approach, while they were saving lives, vastly slowed their growth.
With the constant arrivals of new humans from the IKEA, Kohl figured that their need for growth and finding a way through the Dome would surpass their caution, but he was wrong.
Kohl pondered, what could he do to…force their hands? Then he had an idea: Monster Waves. Many stories in Kohl’s memories featured a ‘wave’ of monsters that would charge into Civilized Lands and attack anything on sight. To prevent this, the Humans must periodically cull the monsters or face such a wave.
Humming in thought, Kohl issued a quest.
/=========+=========\
Alert! A new Quest has been assigned!
Quest Name: Trouble on the Horizon
Quest Type: Region Quest
Quest Description: Due to the rapid and unrestrained growth of Monsters within the Dome Recreational Park, a Monster Wave will soon be upon the poor souls calling the area home. Run or fight, for soon, the monsters will leave their homes.
Quest Option 1: Cull Monsters within the Dome to Stop the Wave. Culled Monsters: 0/10,000
Quest Option 1 Rewards: Title, exp, and ???
Quest Option 2: Help the monsters grow and stop the locals from interfering with the wave.
Quest Option 2 Rewards: Class, exp, and ???
Quest Option 3: Contribute and assist in whatever way you can in stopping or assisting the Monster Wave.
Quest Option 3 Reward: Daily EXP based on contribution.
Time until Monster Wave Begins: 15 Days
\=========+=========/
Looking over the quest’s parameters, Kohl refrained from issuing the quest just yet, as he wanted to ensure he’d be prepared for whatever would happen.
Of course, the quest’s parameters would cause in-fighting among the humans, something Kohl foresaw as a necessary component of the quest as it would force the humans to seek even more growth in both level and skill.
That brought another topic to Kohl’s mind, as he wondered if this was the time to introduce the first intelligent monster species to fight against humanity, Goblins. With what he’s shown through the use of recordings, logs, files, and more, Kohl knew that Goblins would provide another necessary danger to the Dungeon, for if the Humans became over-reliant on their cunning and intelligence that surpassed the monsters in the Dome, it would become a crippling weakness.
While the Goblins would be emotionally and mentally stunted compared to normal humans, their cunning would rival humanity’s. With their fast reproduction, they’d become a pest that would constantly prod at humanity, forcing Humanity on its toes.
However, that was for later. As of a few hours ago, two Monster Spawners were placed in each biome of the dome, as Kohl finally fixed the Monster Spawner’s issue with spawning a single monster variation over and over.
Kohl added a sort of catalog that the enchantments would constantly shift through as they spawned monsters automatically. The catalog was limited, however. So far, Kohl has only managed to fit fifteen monster species into the catalog, with their myriad of variations in levels, stats, and appearances.
Depending on the cost of the monster and how fast or slow the Spawners would create monsters, It was incredibly complicated and expensive, but Kohl was glad he did it, as now that there were two of these spawners in each biome, the need for Kohl to constantly respawn or make new monsters had severely decreased, allowing him to focus his mana on other projects.
If the Monster Spawners continued to prove useful, then he’d add more underground under the biomes. Still, at the moment, Kohl’s main focus has been expanding the next area of the Dungeon and improving the efficiency of his mana generators, which he has improved to the point they now produce 100% of their original production, allowing them to produce 10 mana units a day instead of the original 5.
This raised his mana production to just over 800 units of mana a day, including the over two hundred humans that call the Dungeon home. With so many Mana units a day at his disposal, Kohl could do so much, though five hundred of the mana units went straight into building the next section of his dungeon.
With a few revisions, Kohl prepared himself and planned to release the quest by the beginning of next week.