Capítulo 12: Chapter 12 The Cursed Quest

Information:

First name: Marie

In Game name: Shi

Age: 16 Gender: Female

Location: Beginner's town

Level: 1 Exp: 700/1000

Status: new

Role: not granted yet

Find the lost cursed set and make it a full set. It will require the help of a fairy. You must escort the Fairy to the sacred waterfall and protect them from harm. Once there you will need fire to light the path. Beware of the dangers within. You are allowed to take one additional guard along with you on your journey to assist.

Reward:

Cursed Armor

Cursed Gloves

1500 exp to be split among party

5 gold each

Random title granted based on role.

I was shocked to see such a high reward. I gave the Fairy the 5 gold and he ran back to the auction hall to get the other cursed items. This looks like it will be a fun quest. I will need to find someone to go with me on my quest. Let's see if I can find and hire someone to go with me. I heard about mercenary listings before. I asked the NPC where l can find a Mercenary and I was given to coordinates to the station.

I was just leaving when Kuro came back to me with two packages.

"Ahh thank you, will you be the Fairy I guide for the quest? I am heading to the Mercenary station to hire someone to go with us. Here join my party."

I sent Kuro a party request and he accepted right away.

"It would be my honor my lady to accompany you for the quest. May I give you a recommendation for the race to hire to help with the quest?"

"Sure, and thank you for joining me."

We headed toward the station and Kuro continued to talk to me along the way.

"My Lady, I would recommend a Dragonkin as they are fire users and we could be underground for a while. Torches do not last that long and I am a water user so I have no way to help. Although to fight the monsters a Golem would be nice to have too. I am sure with your cursed weapon and shield that you will be skilled enough to handle what we face with whatever mercenary you decide. After all, only you can complete the quest providing you have enough time left to complete it. As only beginners can get the quest and then only before you get your assigned role."

"Wait a sec, you mean I will have to find someone who doesn't have a role yet to go with us?"

"Oh no, My Lady, sorry for the misinformation. You can share the quest with whomever you want. I was saying that only someone like you could be granted the quest."

"Before I pick my mercenary, is there anything else you can tell me about to trip to the waterfall or while we are in the quest?"

"Let's see, we will be deep underground and will need fire to see and there will be a lot of water that will try to keep putting out our torches so to have someone able to re-light them would greatly help us out. The monsters have been known to poison or blind the opponent. That's all I know about it other than the location."

Thinking about what he said I pulled up the station and went to the Golems section. Kuro had the water aspect; I can handle the fire so what we needed was someone who could handle the poison and blindness issue. I remembered reading the character descriptions that Golems are immune to status effects. They are also recommended as guards and bodyguards as well as hard labor aspect.

I found 2 that were actual players and would do low level quests without causing an exp penalty for me. One was named Obsidian and charged 3 gold a quest. The other one charged 4 gold a quest and was named Bolggor.

I sent Obsidian a message and he ported right to me. This guy was massive and like his name suggested he was solid black stone.

"What's the quest and reward? I take all exp if it can be divided up for level 2 quests and lower. Also, its 3 gold up front and then my share of any money that the quests grants. Is that acceptable?"

Stunned I stared and then shook myself and said "Excuse me you get all the exp? I don't think so. You are not needed."

He ported back away and I looked at Bolggor and sent him a message. A few mins later he ported over. Smaller than Obsidian but he has a good streak through his rock and a large great sword attached to his hip and an axe on his back. He knelt and then rose back up and really looked at me.

"Hello, My Lady Shi, how may I be of service? We are in the beginner's town. You need me for a protection quest or something?"

"Hello Bolggor, I am on the cursed quest and need someone to help me escort and protect Kuro here to the sacred waterfall and then into the dungeon."

"Did you read my post? Also, what are the rewards for the quest?"

I shared the quest details to him.

"Hmmm, 5 gold each covers my fee with ease. If you pay me my fee and let me have the 5 gold you can keep all experience and the items. Is that agreeable? Also, we can split anything the monsters drop evenly between us. The fairy handles the water, I can handle the monsters, who handles the lighting the way aspect? It appears a Dragonkin would be a better choice than myself."

I sigh, "I accept that deal and I have the fire well taken care of thanks. I AM a Dragonkin. I know my armor makes it appear that I am human but I am not."

*Chime* Contract accepted *Chime*

I sent him a party invite.

He accepted and I pulled out my weapons and decided to equip them now that I have the quest ready to be taken care of. While my menu was up, I saw I still had a day and 10mins left on my timer. I hoped that would be enough time.

"So why did you pick me to be your companion on this quest? Also, what weapons are those? I have been playing this game for a year and I have never seen anything like them."

I tried to send him the description as I was about to equip them but it wouldn't send.

"The description reads: The Woman's cursed blade. This blade can only be wielded by women and will be bound once equipped. The blade once bound will activate a curse that will grant the user a special affect. What that affect is will be random and then locked in place permanently. Luck could grant you a second or third ability or no ability at all. This blade will level with you as you level and will glow an eerie black shade of whatever special affect you are granted. The shield is the match to the sword. I have no clue what the effects are yet. I am about to equip them for the first time right now."

Kuro stopped walking and turned around to us.

"I am going to walk over there and I suggest you Bolggor come with me while she equips them. They are cursed and no one has ever equipped them before so no one knows what could happen. Now that I know Lady Shi is a Dragonkin, I don't know if she can even equip them without something big happening. As a human they can wield anything except race/gender specific weapons without a penalty."

He slowly backed away from me and Bolggor followed him with his weapon at the ready. I rolled my eye at them both and equip the sword.

*Chime* Binding activated activating the curse now. *Chime*

The blade started to morph a bit and gained a jagged edge and started burning a black fire around the blade.

*Chime* Binding set and Curse activated *Chime*

You have received the Vorpal Vampiric Dark flame sword. This sword is one of a kind and will hit ghost and wraith with 100% chance. The vampiric nature will leech health from your target and give it to you. The dark flame acts like a regular flame sword and will do fire damage with a unique look to it. It will get stronger as you level up and has no max level. I was stunned when I read that description. This was an amazing sword and well worth the 6 gold.

I quickly went to equip the Shield now too.

*Chime* Binding activated activating the curse now. *Chime*

You have received the Repel Dark Holy Shield. This sword is one of a kind and the repel feature gives you a 20% chance to do damage to enemies when they attack and gives a 15% chance to push the enemy back. The dark holy feature causes damage to evil creatures and helps negate some evil magic targeted at user. This Shield glows a dark light due to the curse and nature. It will get stronger as you level up and has no max level. The sword was clearly better than the shield but I think it was still worth the 3 gold for it.

*Chime* Binding set and Curse activated *Chime*

Well now that was interesting and different, I thought to myself.

They both seemed to look at me curiously at my amazed expression.

"Looks like I will be able to handle a lot with these. Incorporeal creatures can be damaged with a 100% hit chance and other creatures will lose health when I attack them and give it to me to help me keep alive AND it does fire damage too just for the sword. Then my shield will help block/negate some evil magic targeted at me as well as damage evil creatures and gives me a chance to damage them and push them back for them attacking me. This was so worth the 9 gold I spent on them."

Bolggor cringed a bit when he heard the price I spent.

"You could have seriously gotten unlucky and wasted that much gold on things you can then only destroy in a holy lake. They would take up 2 of your inventory space that way. You really got lucky this time. Gold may seem easy to get right now but as time goes on it will get really hard to earn gold. Save as much as you can now. That's my advice for you. I know you are a noble and everything but even nobles can fall on hard times."

We started back out on the quest with Kuro leading the way towards the sacred waterfall.

"I thank you for that advice. I will let you in on a secret though. I don't have a role yet and am only a noble due to this armor. I opened a really lucky welcome pack AND I got the birthday pack as well. So, money right now is pretty easy for me but I put a bunch in the bank back for later. Money has really been leaving my hands pretty fast as it is with food, covering my lodging and helping out my village so we have food to support us. I am only the second person in my village to win a VR set. The other person is a snob and would just order food from another town and have it delivered vs helping anyone else out in the village."

Bolggor sighs, "You can't take the whole village on to your shoulders. It is not your duty to help everyone. Also, you have no idea what role you will be granted. Wait a sec... Amazing armor that makes you a noble, lots of gold, high quality welcome pack AND you are Dragonkin."

He looked around but no one else was around.

"It is you isn't it. You found the Queen's Chalice didn't you. There is someone on the forums who knows that the person is a Dragonkin and is a noble. They claim to have heard about it from someone who saw it happen. They had to be low level due to the location they were sharing the information from but they kept their name anonymous to hide. The only thing protecting your identity right now is that armor. We are forced to bow our heads and not look at you directly when you first approach us. So, people can't catch and read your name. It also makes you appear to be human vs Dragonkin. BUT it also is condemning you as well as it keeps you in noble status. To have such a noble in the beginner town puts a target on your back. Higher level people will look for ways to exploit a new character who ends up being a noble. So, watch out of other people."

I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. I thought golems were supposed to be dumber and slower than most people but this one clearly was intelligent and clever. I hope he fought even half as good as he was smart and we wouldn't have any issue during this mission.

"Please tell me you at least stored the item in the bank or something. If they kill you, they could take it from you and become famous, rich and full nobility. It's a one-way ticket to Hope's Paradise, if you can find the Queen or the Empress and give it to her. There is even a rumor that if a woman gives it to the Empress that she could end up as the new queen since they have been long missing."

I just froze and stared at Bolggor shocked. I never in my life imagined that such a thing could even remotely happen to me. Then again, he did say it was just a rumor but that rumor could make me a target and get me killed if I am not careful.

I shook my head and kept walking with confident steps like nothing was wrong. Strangely we arrived at the sacred waterfall with no issues at all. Not a single monster attacked us and it only took 40mins to get there.

Checking out my timer in my menu I said, "I have 23 hours and 29mins left to complete this quest. Is everyone ok on time on their VR set? I have 10 hours left of my charge still."

"I am good" replied Bolggor "I have the triple battery pack so I can go a full 36 hours if needed but I have to be away for 8 to 10 hours to charge it back up if I let it fully drain dead. I am only 3 hours into this full charge."

"Ok let's do this then" I said with false confidence.