10. The Consequences of Questing
You have gained Experience!
Congratulations! For your just and even hand in managing your lands, you have earned 40,000 experience for your Lord class and 80,000 free experience.
You have gained three levels! You are now a level 23 Lord.
The Morale of North Shire has improved substantially.
The popup surprised me after I had finally satisfied the Endgamers insatiable questions. I studied it in confusion for a few moments. The Temple had emptied except for Tarisha, and I don’t think she noticed my sudden bump in levels. I debated telling her, but I was tired and I didn’t want to discuss the implications of this discovery.
Instead I said farewell to her, then I Fast Traveled to Thorn March, deciding to spend the next day with my family. I rode Shadow hard from the Nexus Point in Briarton to the Manor where my mother and brother were residing.
Malkios had, for reasons unknown, deemed that the Goblin Caves were just as safe as my mansion. I trusted his judgment on the matter. Rain was still attended by a handful of Goblin Nurses when mother was too tired or busy to do so herself, and the mansion itself was guarded by endgame Travelers managed by Tarisha. It hadn’t been long since my mother had given birth, after all, and she was still convalescing, despite her claims that it was an easy labor.
She must have seen me coming from the balcony, because she met me at the door. She was too short to kiss my forehead as she had when I was shorter, so we simply embraced.
“You’ve grown,” she informed me.
“Lord’s not a completely useless class after all,” I informed her.
“Of course it’s not, who told you it was?” she asked.
“Have I really grown? Since, I mean, you know. My growth spurt?” I asked.
“I didn’t mean physically, although you might have gained an inch. We’re proud of you. Did you know that? We don’t really understand you, but we love you in our way, and we’re proud of you in our way. Your Traveler blood, your seed of consciousness, it makes it hard for us to really parse your motives sometimes, just as it does for a Traveler. We just react the best we can in the moment,” she said, as though her words made perfect sense. “But we are changing. We have been ever since you were born. When the others like you arrive, I think we will almost be ready for them this time. Maybe.”
I pulled out of our hug and looked at her askance. “Mother, what are you talking about?”
“Do you really want to know?” she asked. “It might change the way you feel about me. About all of us.”
I shook my head. I was too tired for this. “Mother, we can discuss whatever is on your mind some other time. I’m too tired for this right now. I’ve been awake since dawn, and it’s been non-stop Lording ever since. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Hail,” she agreed. “I think I’d like that very much.”
So we went inside. She went to check on her younger son, while I went to the master bedroom, changed into my nightclothes, and collapsed.
Twelve hours later, I was discussing the various methods of getting baby vomit out of silk. I had put my suit back on when I’d awoken, and of course the infant had spat up on it when I had taken the opportunity to hold him for a few minutes as I told my mother about my progression in regaining my levels.
Rain, my younger brother, possessed the soul of my grandfather, for whom he was named. It’s rather strange to think about sometimes, but it was a great relief to me when I’d learned that my grandfather wasn’t truly dead. Likewise when I’d discovered that I could still converse with him through my brother, although he refused to use whatever magic he needed to put the words in my head in front of anyone else. Which is likely why he hadn’t warned me before he spat up on my expensive clothes, and also why he was silent through my entire narrative as I discussed the previous several days.
Whatever Mother had been trying to tell me the night before, the topic never came up again. I didn’t ask, but I hadn’t exactly forgotten.
I wasn’t certain that I wanted to know.
On the next day, I discovered the trouble that I had unintentionally caused in Aeridia. I began by checking the forums. The post that I had made welcoming the Drow Travelers into Lagrea had fifteen thousand replies. It was still the hottest topic, and it seems that my thread had become the official one where everyone shared their opinion on the matter.
I read a few of the replies. They varied from excitement to frustration. Some of the Travelers thought that it was much too soon to release the Drow, as the goblins had only been available to use as their avatars in this world for a few weeks of real time. They claimed that ‘the meta hasn’t adjusted yet,’ or ‘we still haven’t discovered everything there is to know about the goblin starting zone, and now they’re throwing the Deepdark at us.’
I stopped after page five.
I browsed the other topics, and it was just as I was about to quit that I noticed a small topic that was marked as having an official response from the administrators in it. Curious as to what it was about, I opened it.
Subject
Missing quests
Original Poster: Retan
Retan
So this is probably going to get buried, but it’s kind of a big deal, I think. I started a new character in Aeridia to try out the hard mode low level content. I get to level twenty, get a group, and go to grind.
We died. Twice.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I decided I needed to get back up to level twenty before I tried again, so I went to the Adventurer’s guild to take all of those repeatable solo quests that everybody does in this situation and then always pretends that they never had to do them repeatedly.
Except they’re not there.
When I asked the NPC at the desk, they said that some Warrior had come through the other day and completed them all, and now they were waiting for new quest requests to come in.
WTF?
How am I supposed to get back to level 20 now?
Worple
Same thing is happening to me right now
Pit
Yall both bugged? You tried opening a ticket
Retan
Ticket is open, waiting for response
Wotan
The quests in question are no longer available. The story for this zone has changed due to the actions of a canon character. New quests will be generated to replace the old. The admin team is using this opportunity to advance the story of Aeridia.
New quests will be available in 24-72 hours realtime. Until they are, free teleports to easier starting zone will be made available to characters between the levels fifteen and twenty five.
Retan
WTF is a canon character doing level 15-20 quests for? WTF! Jerks!
The post went on for another dozen replies from random people, most of whom were unaffected and were simply taking the opportunity to post in the same thread as an administrator.
I’d never actually quested before. I’d never had to, as grinding in a group was almost always easier and faster, and I’d always been able to find groups. Everyone had wanted to play with me, after all.
I realized that if I continued to do so, I’d be completing the quests for the last time. Just like when I destroyed a dungeon or destroyed a lair, when I completed a quest, it stayed completed. I debated for a while whether or not I should actually do anything. I mean, I wasn’t going to stop questing just because of this. And it might get out eventually that this was another one of my abilities, or attributes, or whatever.
I decided to post a simple reply.
Subject
Missing quests
Original Poster: Retan
Hail
Sorry guys, this was me. If you want to blame someone, blame Nial Kingslayer for resetting my level. I’ve been pugging groups sometimes, but when I showed up in Aeridia I was told that I was too low level for that, so I went questing.
I’ve decided I like questing quite a bit. And I need to get to level 200 somehow. Like the admins said, I’m sure they’ll put new quests in eventually.
I looked at the response for several minutes, then I deleted it. I decided that it was none of their business whether I decided to quest or not.
Three days passed where I did little more than spend time with my family. I changed out of my silk suit for something a little more appropriate for wearing around a vineyard. I held and burped Rain frequently, though I refused to change him, and I recognized the cry that meant it was time for me to give him to Mother for them to retreat behind a privacy curtain.
With Mother, I discussed our time apart, when she had lived in Eolstree and I in Zhesa castle. She told me of the local petty politics that had occupied her time, usually whether she wished to be involved in them or not, and I told her of how I had fallen in with the
I was unwilling to make that promise. I knew that I was not invulnerable, my set-back was enough proof of that. But I would not hide from conflict, and I would not cower behind someone else when I could gain the strength to stand on my own. Or, at least, to stand with those who would stand with me.
I spent some time with Malkios as well. He was enjoying bossing the Princess’s Guard around, and he occasionally took the time to yell at the goblin travelers as well. I gave him a gift which I had meant to give him for some time. A new cloak. He had always been very proud of the blue cloak that he had worn as the captain of the guard in Zhesa Castle, a sign of a very lofty rank. This new cloak was black, with silver trimmings. It gave no stat boosts, but Malkios had tears in his eyes when he opened the box it came in.
“Aye, a new cloak,” He agreed. “The old times are gone. Time for change.”
“You never failed in your duty, Malkios,” I informed him. “Nobody foresaw what the Kingslayer had planned. I don’t blame you for what happened that day. None of us do.”
“I know. I know that better than you, lad. I’ve been part of the investigation into whether it could have been prevented. The administrators themselves have asked me questions, and I have heard the answers that many others have given on the topic,” Malkios informed me. “None of the Travelers present had ever harmed a Native before. Not murder, at least. They were heroes until their fall.”
“Malkios, can you ever sense the system?”
“Always,” he answered promptly.
“Really? I’ve never, I mean, I guess it has always been there, but I never noticed it,” I said.
“You’re growing up,” Malkios commented.
I didn’t think that was it, however. I think it was whatever the administrators had done to me while I slept, after my battle with Nial Kingslayer had gone wrong. They had warned me that things would be different after I woke, that I would notice things which I had not before. That they could do something like that to me without my knowledge, understanding, or consent was one of the matters which I brought up in my official complaint against them.
The time I spent with my family was good. Relaxing and enjoyable, it helped me to move past my anger and frustration with everything that had gone wrong for me. I tried to focus on the fact that I was approaching level 30 in [Warrior], which would allow me to become a [Duelist] and put me one step closer to becoming a [Spellblade] once more. With one day left before the dance, I logged out.