章 27: CHAPTER 27 [Between Before and After]
"I'm looking for a squire," I said. "Off I go. See you later, my dears!"
Naturally, the shepherd was at the smithy, so I told him where the cow was and received in return some experience, a little gold, and a big thank you. But what I appreciated most was that I levelled-up. The blacksmith was surprised and complimented me by fixing my equipment for free. I thanked the good fellow and set off to find the old man, turning over in my head what I'd read online.
There wasn't much to find about the gods. In the official version that came with the Elysium theology, I read something about how there were entities called demiurges who created the world. They created it, and that was it. They created a planet with seas, continents, forests, and valleys. Oh, and its population: dwarves, elves, humans, goblins, and all the rest. But after they created it, they left—no governing, no interfering. But then later, the demiurges added some additional material. They apparently decided that someone needed to be in charge since without a guiding hand, the whole thing would be a mess of thieves stealing from or killing each other. So they created a handful of gods. But then things went downhill. The gods they made were foul, and, instead of creating a worldwide peace that led to a new golden age, most of them began to divvy up spheres of influence, call themselves Fathers of the People, and turn on each other. That went from bad to worse, until finally, world war broke out that made killing the order of the day…
Demiurges put up with that for a time before having enough and telling the gods to go get lost in a parallel universe.
The latter put up a fight, but didn't have the stomach for it, were soundly routed by the demiurges, nearly lost their divine power, and hid in the sunset. They left behind a few confessions, some stray priests, a knightly order, a number of items, and, as it turned out, hidden quests. There might have been something else, but the general public was not aware of it.
But about the quest the dryad gave me, I couldn't find anything anywhere. It looked like no one had yet come across it in the entire history of the game, though there were some people claiming the developers told them about quests having to do with the gods who had left. They said whoever got them would earn mountains of gold or become an enormous force in the game. One of the quests was said to give players the magic power lost by the gods. The rest, of course, were nothing to sneeze at. Although some people said there were quests that led to upheaval, disaster, and genocide.
I was certainly aware of what they could get you, seeing as how the very first, paltry little quest got me a fantastic sword. I may not have been able to use it thanks to the level requirement, but I could imagine what lay ahead. Still, I needed to think hard about whether to keep going.
Especially, since I had no idea what lay ahead.
On that note, I checked my map and noticed that there weren't any quest markers. I zoomed out. Still nothing. I zoomed out still further, and there it was.
Dryad Number 2 lived 150,000 miles away from where I was, somewhere in the east. And I had no idea what level the locations there were, seeing as how I'd never been there. The map only showed their names. In short, my dryad was off stuck somewhere in her tall tower…
That was a quest I'd have to come back to. And, incidentally, I had a sneaky little idea.
On a separate note, I decided I wasn't going to say anything to my clan. There was more than just the game at stake; I had my articles to write. And if I were to tell them, they'd go plowing through the rest of the dryads while keeping me locked up in between. Screw them…
And I needed to get that head to the old man. Long story short, he saw me, beamed, and said, "What do you know! The old beast didn't kill you after all. You're lucky!"
"Lucky, shmuky. Here's the head!"
"There it is," he said, happily looking it over. "The very one!"
You finished a quest: Kill the Swamp Beast.
Reward:
250 gold
1000 experience
"Oh, and let's do the paperwork to make sure everything's on the up-and-up," he went on. "Write here that you received 300 gold."
"Here you go. Tricky old guy!"
"Just making ends meet..."
I walked away, checked in again with the halfling trader, lazily haggled a little, and sent him all the junk I'd accumulated the day before. All I kept was Burrig's mandibles; they were unusual, and who knew when they'd come in handy?
That was about everything I needed to do there. Sure, I still had the left foreleg quest, but I really couldn't care less. I pulled it up, found the "Cancel" button, and clicked it. Maybe that was cutting corners, but it was boring, and I was tired of life in the countryside. The city was calling my name. Civilization, a knightly order, and the class ability instructor. I opened my map, got my bearings, and started walking toward Fladridge.
I'm not a big walker. I mean, come on, why couldn't they make it like the good, old games I played when I was young and happy? Everything was so simple and easy. No matter where you were, there was always some griffon-rider or slovenly groom watching over a herd of horses you could borrow. Sometimes, there was just a bearded mage leaning on his staff next to a stationary portal that he kept open for you. You just jumped in and whizzed your way to wherever you wanted to go, for a reasonable fee, of course. Simple, fast, easy.
Not here. There was a downside to the whole immersion experience. Sure, later on, you could find ways to shorten distances by, for instance, buying a horse. But that meant slogging all the way to Level 70, paying a postilion good money to train you, and finally shelling out for a horse that cost something like a Daewoo Matiz.
Somewhere way down the line, you could even buy your own personal mountain eagle. They cost as much as a plane, but as a status symbol alone, they were worth it. I'm not sure if anyone ever bought one, as I never came across any eagles, though the possibility was still there.
Aerial mages had it the best since they could learn the Portal spell at Level 80. That made them the only class in the game that could teleport on their own. Even they had their limitations, however. They could only move around areas they'd already explored in the game, the spell itself cost a mountain of mana, and it took days to recharge.
A more widely available way to move around were the single-use portal scrolls. At first glance, their 1,500-gold price tag didn't seem unreasonable; you read them, picked a destination, and found yourself there. The problem for beginning players was that 1,500 gold was an unheard-of sum. You could find a group going in the same direction and have everyone chip in, but that was much easier said than done. Plus, portal scrolls only took you places you'd already been.
So, there I was three hours into my walk down the yellow brick road. Happily, the developers did their best to throw in quests here and there that broke up the monotony.
My first encounter came about 7 kilometers from the village with an obviously insane girl in a red beret. She was waving her arms and wailing. "Walk me home, brave warrior. I'm afraid of the dark forest!"
Just to be polite, I asked where her home was. As it turned out, she lived with her mom in a hut somewhere in the Very Dark Forest, which was about an hour's walk from where we were standing. Not exactly on the way. One hour there, another back, and besides, I'd heard of girls in red hats. You're taking them home, a wolf shows up, and you have to kill it. Then a couple hunters take its place, and you have to deal with them, too. Oh, and who knew what her mom was like? She could come thundering out of the house with a cleaver in each hand, and you'd have to finish her off just like the rest. All of that, and I'd get maybe 300-500 experience and fifty gold. Screw that. I'd just saved a little green monster, and I was still trying to dig my way through all that got me.
So I sent the girl on her way, though she kept up her wailing for another half a kilometer.
"What do you mean? You're a warrior of the Light! You're supposed to fight the creatures of the darkness who attack innocent people!"
Where did she get that from? Happily, she left me alone, though a kilometer later, an old lady came up to me. She was hauling a bushel of firewood that must have weighed ten kilograms.
"Help an old woman? I think my arms are about to fall off!" She jumped straight in without so much as a "How do you do."
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm in a hurry. Things to do!"
"Some valiant knight you are, leaving a poor woman alone and helpless!"
"I'm not a knight at all," I said. "I'm just wandering along. How far do you have to go?"
"Only seven miles or so."
"Why didn't you find branches closer to where you live?"
"I was visiting my sister, and I've been collecting this bundle along the way. Here a branch, there a branch. Take it!" The old crone suddenly thrust the whole mess at me.
You have a new quest offer: Volunteer Assistant.
Task: Carry Gerda's firewood to the old sorceress's hut.
Reward:
300 experience
Any one of Gerda's potions.
[Accept?]
~ ~ ~
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