{Quest “Secure the Safe Zone” completed!
Reward(s): This Safe Zone is now available for use.}
Along with the quest prompt, an area of the ground, a circle 10 meters in diameter, gave off a soft green glow that lasted several seconds. As the glow faded, it left flat, even ground with short grass and no other plant life within the circle, with only a faint shimmer of light remaining at the border of the safe zone. A visual marker of where the safe zone ends. As the party dismissed the quest notification, another prompt appeared.
{You are now within a Safe Zone, you will remain unnoticed by monsters so long as no part of your body leaves the Safe Zone, no one in combat with a monster tries to enter the Safe Zone, and no skills used inside of the Safe Zone extends outside of it.}
The rogue with the crossbow dismissed the prompt almost immediately, muttering a "We know," as the others read it to the end. Because of this, the crossbow rogue was the first to notice the third prompt.
{You have reached the Level Cap for this Floor. Experience earned from monsters on this floor is now reduced by 90%, and leveling up further is disabled until you reach the next Floor.}
"Uh, guys, we might have a problem. We can't go past level four on this floor." The rogue explained, and as everyone closed the safe zone prompt, they read the same message as it appeared to each of them.
"Really? Level 4 is the cut off? Why not level 5!? I don't get a skill point on the even levels!" The fool complained.
"At least we can still get some experience," The warrior said, "and it's not like we planned on getting to level 5 here anyway."
"Right. We only have four days left to reach the next floor, if we hope to have a week for each floor before our deadline ends." The mage added.
"Do you think the safe zone is a sign that we're on the right track? I'd imagine if we're meant to spend days traveling in a certain direction, and there are rest stops scattered throughout the floor, they probably lead to the exit, right?" The fool suggested.
"Uh, heads up guys, the Safe Zone counts as being inside of the village, as far as the daily quests go." The dagger rogue said, swiping at the prompt in front of him to show it to his party members, now all sitting on the ground in a circle as they recovered from the earlier fight.
{Daily Quest: Explore Floor 1 for 6 Hours!
Quest Type: Optional Single-Participant
Description: You must go outside the village to gather food and resources, and to find a way to the next floor. Spend six consecutive hours outside of the village walls to be further rewarded for your efforts.
Time Outside the Village: 00:00/06:00 (Timer starts once outside of the village, and resets if the village is entered before completion)
Reward(s): 1 Low Quality Mana Potion}
They watched, either staring at his quest prompt or pulling up their own, as the timer remained at zero.
"But it just says to stay outside of the village, not the village and safe zones!" James said, as the fool said something similar
.
[The quest's challenge comes from being removed from safety for its duration, as such, though the description does not specify it, entering any available safe zone is considered interrupting the quest.]
"That... Makes sense, but why didn't you say anything if the quest had an error like that in it? Actually, didn't you create the template for the first “explore floor 1” quest? Why didn't you mention safe zones back then?"
[I apologize, James. The template quest “Leave the Village” was made for the purpose of creating a quest that could reward a low quality health potion without requiring the slaying of monsters. Focus was directed towards what the climbers would need to do to complete the quest, and as the quest initially only required three hours to complete, it was unlikely that any climber would be able to reach another safe zone in that time on their first day. Providing further details on the mechanics of the quest was deemed unnecessary.]
"But then why didn't you mention the safe zones when I kept reusing the quest template?"
[I am not meant to offer critique of quests made by an Administrator unless I am asked. I was unaware you did not understand the mechanics of the quest, as you did not ask for further information on safe zones any time they were mentioned, and believed the information was left out intentionally.]
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"I see..." That's... A good point, actually. I glossed over it every time 61-3 mentioned them, as I had other things to think about each time. I assumed they worked just like the village did, maybe without shops, and moved on. I should ask 61-3 to look over my quests going forward, to avoid a mistake like this again. Although, that could cause problems if I'm trying to create a quest quickly in an emergency. I'll just keep in mind that I need to ask for advice about quests in the future. I should also double check any quests I've been copying over from previous ones to make sure I haven't assumed something about them, but that can wait until everyone's gone back to the village for the night.
James was about to turn his focus back to the party he had been watching, when another thought struck him. The last time I apologized to 61-3, they made a point to say I was forgiven. I should do the same.
"You're forgiven, 61-3, in case you were wondering..." James trailed off. It feels weird to say it like that.
[Thank you, James.]
"No problem." James responded absently, as he resumed watching the climbers on the screens in front of him.
The party that cleared the safe zone took time to enjoy its benefits, using the items in their inventory to build a campfire and cook lunch before heading back to the village. They decided to use four wooden posts put around the edges of the safe zone to help mark it, deciding the shimmering at the edges might not be easy enough for everyone to spot, especially for those trying to find the safe zone for the first time. They also went about making a more elaborate mark in the trees along their path, wanting to make something distinguishable from any other markings their fellow climbers might have used to track their wanderings through the first floor. In the end they decided on an S inside of a square, the S etched like a five on a digital clock due to the difficulty of carving smooth curves into the bark.
While what James was currently dubbing “The Safe Zone Party” was doing that, the 6th hour quest reward was completed by the veteran/new arrival groups, who used it as a sign to return to the village for a break. As the majority of the climbers returned, James noticed one of them was already in the village, a few of the new members wandering inside of it while the veteran party aided the group that was training people near the village border. The screen for the group listed a name and time of death. They lost someone and chose to return early.
Adjusting the screen so he could listen in on the group as three of the four surviving new arrivals talked amongst themselves, James learned the mage, who was pacing around the village alone, had accidentally killed their party member with a misaimed fireball. I doubt they're going to continue partying with the mage with the way they're talking about them, and the mage looks shaken up by the experience too. I need to review the tutorial broadcast, and add anything people have gone over about avoiding friendly fire when casting spells. It might have helped avoid this, although I doubt they hadn't tried to teach the mage before this happened.
James began pulling up recordings of earlier in the day, reviewing any advice the veteran parties had given their students. It's hard to tell when they're giving advice and when they're just talking amongst each other without watching the whole thing. This could take a while... Or…
"61-3, would you be able to go through the recordings for any time someone was giving combat advice to someone else today? Or better yet, can you add a function where I can pull up a written transcript of any conversation an observer heard, and use it to view a recording of when that dialogue took place?"
[Affirmative. I will begin working on an update for the recording menu. Do you still wish for me to compile all instances of combat advice recorded since this day began? Doing so will dramatically increase the amount of time it will take to add an update of the recording menu to the system.]
"No, I'll be able to do it myself once the recording menu is updated. Oh! Could you add a search bar so I can look up certain words or phrases from any of the transcripts?"
[Affirmative. I will add a search bar to the transcript function.]
"Awesome, thank you, 61-3. I'll be sure to let you know of any other ideas I have for the system."
By now, the number of screens had been reduced, as he eliminated all but two among the groups that had returned to the village. I'll keep the audio from the village screens on in case they start discussing anything important, but until then, it looks like some more people have died. One of the veteran only parties lost two people, but they're at least heading back to the village now, and another veteran and new arrival group lost a member, and are just about to reach the group standing right outside the village. I should probably pull up the recording of how these people died, in case there is something I could learn from it to stop it from happening again... James sighed. I'll wait for the recording menu to update first, maybe I can learn something just from the transcripts, and I won't have to watch it happen myself.
"There's enough of us here now, and we all completed the quest for 50 wood. We can finish building the carpenter's workshop." One climber said, and James perked up at the sound coming from one of the village menus. Are they going to finish that quest now? I need to see how the ability to add shops or upgrade the village works from their end.
"Shouldn't we wait for everyone to get back, first? Most of the higher leveled parties are still out there." Another climber suggested, as James switched from observer to observer, until he was finally able to see the Carpenter's Workshop up close. The quest already has over 1000 units of wood added to it. Some of them must have added their contribution right after they got back.
Eventually, the climbers decided to finish the quest now, since it would take time for the building to finish building itself once the quest was completed. It was agreed upon however, that only the group of veterans that had taken charge of organizing the new arrivals would enter the shop, and that they would not make any purchases until after sunset, as that was when any missing groups were presumed dead.
"The quest says the carpenter's workshop will let us add other shops to the village, but we don't know if it'll lock us in to only building one at a time, so we won't make any purchases on the shop's menu until we can hold a vote on what to build next." One of the veterans explained. With that, everyone present put in another 10 units of wood, until finally…
{Quest “Construct a Carpenter's Workshop!” completed!
Reward(s): This building will now finish its construction.}