Quests
UI QUESTS (1)
GRID QUESTS (1)
COMBAT QUESTS (1)
AREA QUESTS (1)
I had 4 quests to look through. My screen had stopped pulsing and there wasn't any pressure in my head, which I thought meant that none of the quests were urgent, though I couldn't be sure. The first quest was under a category called UI Quests.
“UI? Like user interface? Oh, I’m an idiot, universal interface. That makes more sense, probably a better name than screen” I mused. I was happy to find upon opening it that it was ready to be completed.
UI QUESTS (1)
BASIC TUTORIAL (COMPLETE)
COMPLETE 2 TUTORIAL QUESTS.
REWARD: 1 UNIVERSAL SKILL [CLAIM]
Who doesn't love easy quests? I claimed it and waited expectantly for the rush of wellness that I had gotten used to. This time however there was nothing. Odd. Maybe the screen, or the UI, thought I had been rewarded enough. Well whatever. I checked my skills real quick and a new heading had formed labelled "Universal Skills" which had 1 entry below it.
COMPREHEND SPEECH
YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE COMPREHENSIBLE COMPONENTS OF ANY LANGUAGE FROM ANY SPARK-BEARING BEING WHO IS USING A LANGUAGE FORMAT YOUR FORM COULD COMPREHEND.
“Huh.” Admittedly it was a dope skill, but holy fine-print batman. Sounded like I could now understand any language from someone who spoke their languages, and if that someone was a "Spark-Bearer?". Was that supposed to be the soul or something? Or the flash of life? I guess I'd figure it out as it became important. I wonder if I'd be able to understand everything Kate signed now? I wouldn’t be able to sign back, but her hearing worked just fine.
“As if it matters. I don’t think I’m seeing her anytime soon,” I muttered as I continued to read the screen. Being dead sucks.
"One Skill done, what else do you have for me, UI? You know, I think I like Screen better." I knew it was probably only for petty reasons, but for now Screen was staying.
GRID QUESTS (1)
FIND THE SINGULARITY.
REWARD: ???
"Hmm, ominous and confusing." I muttered, I was fairly certain singularities were black holes, but why did the Screen want me to find one? Or the one? I was under the impression that because of their tendency to absorb light and all matter, they were fairly tricky to find.
Maybe it would be really obvious at night and I'd get a gold star, or a cool character skin or something. Seemed like a silly enough reward for a quest asking me to do a thing that entire Space Agencies spent millions trying to do.
“I’ll get right on that Screen, would you like me to split an atom while I’m at it?” Stupid screen. Stupid quest. Was there a way to hide that quest so I didn't have to see it?
Again, just as I was thinking it, a new header opened at the bottom of the screen, not just below the last header, but at the very bottom. It was labelled "Archived Quests" and now had a (1) beside it, and my Grid Quest header had vanished.
“So you can do basic customization,? I wonder… Can I change the background or add custom wallpapers?” There wasn't any immediate change, so I assumed not. Though after a little more mental prodding it did invert the colours.
"Heh, dark mode, very cool". Anyway, moving on.
COMBAT QUESTS (1)
DEFEAT 10 COMBATANTS. (1/10).
REWARD: ONE COMBAT SKILL OR ITEM. (DEPENDENT ON PERFORMANCE AND NEED).
Ok, this was a return to what I had expected. Defeat 10 slimes, get a +1 sword. That I could wrap my head around. It seemed like it counted the monkey as a combatant, so I guess anything hostile counted.
I looked around me for a few seconds and spotted a fly buzzing nearby. After a minute of swatting I managed to hit it to the ground. I squashed it with my foot and looked back at the screen, hopeful for loopholes.
DEFEAT 10 COMBATANTS. (1/10)
“I guess you won’t let me cheese it then?” Got it. What was next?
AREA QUESTS (1)
NODE WARDEN
CONQUER AND DEFEND YOUR LOCAL NODE: CRIMSONEYE OASIS
DEFEAT ANY CONTENDERS FOR CRIMSONEYE NODE AND DEFEND FOR 1 DAY.
REWARDS: UNLOCK LAND CLAIM QUESTS, UNLOCK SOVEREIGNTY PROGRESSION SYSTEM
"Alright, defeat all the local monkey-lizards and whatever other nightmares are hiding in the area. Got it. I'll hop right on that, I'm already dead, what's some localized genocide?" As far as I could tell, the Screen wanted me to defeat enemies, claim some land, speak strange languages, and maybe find a black hole.
“What a weird mixed bag of nonsense. Well, I have my own series of quests, so you’ll just have to wait. Mine might not sound as cool as finding a blackhole, but they are much more important”. I needed to think about long-term survival now, and next steps if I was going to last in this land.
Stolen novel; please report.
I couldn’t help but think of my backpack that I’d left beside my bed back in my hostel. It had all my drawing books and supplies as well as my planner. “Why couldn’t I have had my backpack with me that last night? I could’ve had something to write notes in..”
My breath caught as the Screen switched to a blank screen labelled "Notes".
Interesting. But surely it wouldn't have…tabs? At the side of the screen 2 tabs showed up, colour-coded, with the 2nd tab being bolded, I'm assuming to show that it was the active one. And I definitely couldn't rename these tags and reorganize them? I thought, my heart beating faster. The tabs both gained arbitrary names based on some quick assigning, and I switched their order back and forth. And what if I wanted to add additional pages.. The numbers 1 and 2 appeared at the bottom of the screen.
"Oh mama…" Did I say that out loud? Alright scree..ahem UI, I can work with this.” I held back my excitement as I began writing - thinking? - a to-do list to organize myself. I quickly came up with a much better Quest list.
Notes
WILL'S QUESTS
* MAKE A SHELTER
* FIND MORE FOOD
* FIND FIREWOOD/ FUEL SOURCE
* MAKE A WEAPON
* TRY NOT TO DIE (AGAIN)
* FIGURE OUT IF ACTUALLY DEAD (YOU'RE TOTALLY FINE, DON'T THINK ABOUT DEATH)
I crossed out my final note as I was writing it, deciding that now wasn’t the time to ruminate on such things. That sounded like Future-Will's problem, that guy was great at that sort of thing. Probably, never actually met the guy, but this is definitely in his wheelhouse.
Current Will however was armed with a virtual list in that I could edit on the fly and didn't have to remember. I didn't even try to see if I could change fonts or make things bold or..”ahem, focus Will, put it back in your pants and do some work.”
First; a weapon. So far it had just been the murder monkey and a bug. Also, I think I saw a fish splash in the lake, innocuous perhaps but I didn't trust it. Either way, what was that old addage? Where there's one Murder Monkey-Lizard there is always 2? Or maybe a murder bird, there could be all kinds of murder things out there. What about me, here in a desert talking to a screen, was I a murder thing now? Alright, going to put that thought in the Future Will's pile as well. Poor guy, he's got some big issues to deal with.
While I was doing my best to avoid having a breakdown and pretend everything was fine, I had gotten to work. I thought a lot when I worked, but it was better than just sitting and thinking, at least it felt like progress.
I had a few ideas for weapons. I had always enjoyed watching the Survivor shows or various crafting videos that would show up about making knives and spears from things found in the forest. It was a great distraction from homework, too good sometimes.
I also had some practical knowledge from the camping trips and scouting trips I had gone on growing up. I knew many of the basics and a good number of the intermediate skills. But that had all been in Canadian forests. I wasn’t sure how well that would translate to desert survival, but I didn’t have much choice. Everything else would be instinct and trying to mimic what I had seen the various people in those videos do. No time like the present.
My immediate first issue in making a weapon came when I realized I still didn't have any decent sticks, and palm stalks don't sharpen well. I had seen some bamboo stalks a ways back but that was near where I had come across the monkey-lizard, and didn’t wish to face another one of those. When first approaching, the palm trees appeared to have large spikes protruding from their leafy heads, but I couldn’t reach any of those, and all the ones that I could find on the ground appeared to just be leaves rolled into a tube shape, which completely lacked any of the sturdiness I was hoping for in a weapon.
After looking for a bit and weighing my options, I settled on what I am tentatively calling the "pain stick".
“What's the pain stick?” I narrated to myself amidst some choice cursing as I once again poked myself. Well it's a pain to make that's for sure. To make it I took the sturdiest palm stalk I could find (I hit it against a tree a few times just to be sure it could take a beating). I was selective, as I wanted it to be dry enough to be sturdy, but not so dry it would snap. I was glad the dried palm stalks were relatively hollow, and I cleaned it out a bit more to get it ready for what I had in mind. After some prep work and cleaning, I know had a long mostly hollow tube. I took the wide end of the tube and began to insert the teeth I had harvested into the tube mouth, then pushing them through the leafy flesh so they protruded outward, I repeated this until I had a ring of teeth pushing out from the stalk. The teeth of the monkey-lizard were triangular so they wouldn’t push all the way through. For the second row I switched to bone splinters, partly because I had run out of teeth, but also bone splinters stuck out much further and were a little easier to push through.
After I had created a few rows of spiky protrusions from the stalk, I took a large bone of similar circumference and pushed it into the hollow cavity to lock the bones and teeth in place. This also gave it some weight for when I swung it at things. At this point, I would’ve liked to have secured it all with duct tape or glue or string. I had none of that. I considered tearing my button up shirt into strips and using it, I still had the t-shirt underneath. But, I really didn’t want to lose my shirt to this cause, I had very little faith in this weapon, and would rather wait to use it for something else. And I had a better idea anyway. Well, another idea.
My grandpa had once shown me how to make rope by weaving together smaller strings into thicker strands, and you could repeat this until it got to the thickness needed. I didn’t have strings, but I did have the stringy fur that grew at the bottom of the palm trees. It came off in small lengths and looked like wiry pieces of hair. I tried to independently braid them for a few minutes before realizing it would be faster to just grow my own hair to the length I needed instead of braiding it. Then I switched to another method he had shown me and just worked on rolling them together.
This method was almost immediately successful and I actually just stopped and stared at the small length of string I had created from rolling these fibres together. I pulled on it lightly and it held together fairly well, the abrasiveness of the small palm fibres resisting better than I had expected. I added more fibres, overjoyed at my success and continued rolling them, excitement mounting as the strand continued in length.
After I worked at it for an hour, I had created a decent amount of usable string. My first few lengths I had created had no consistency in terms of thickness, but then I had found my groove and most of the string I had now was consistent in thickness and quality. I would need to make a lot more if I wished to make rope strong enough to hold anything heavy, but this would do for securing the head of the “Pain Stick”.
Finally, after hours of rolling string and searching for and preparing the palm stalk I had my first weapon….a dry stalk with sharpish bones at the end. Despite myself, I was elated. Would this actually be useful in combat? Maybe? Could it hurt anything? Also maybe, anything was possible. But I didn’t care about any of that. Today had been horrible, and I had been on the brink of being completely overwhelmed for hours. But somehow, crafting a weapon, as ineffective as it might be, fought back against those overwhelming feelings. By making this, I had committed to fighting back, to overcoming what lay in my way.
Whatever horrors I had yet to face, Pain Stick and I were ready for them.
So overcome with joy was I in that moment, that I almost missed the tell-tale warmth rushing through me that meant I had done something the UI was rewarding me for. I opened the screen and scanned through until I found the likely culprit, or culprits, in the Skills screen.
Somehow, I had gained 2 new proficiencies.