Chapter 5: Moon Tree
Savanir Mountains, Kindom of Estafiel (Neutral Zone)
Average Level: 9
PvP: Allowed
PvE: Allowed
Weekly Boses: None
"Phew finally here," Shi Fan said while panting heavily. "That long-running sure is a killer."
After running for several hours, he finally arrived at the base of the mountain according to his map. As he currently has no transportation it took longer than usual.
Shi Fan then opened up his quest log.
Side Quest: Moon Tree(2-Star Difficulty)
Backstory: At the peak of Savanir Mountains is a tall tree of unknown origin. Legends have told that a well-known Gardener planted a seedling from distant lands into this mountain. It's only known origin is that it only grows at places where moonlight is highly concentrated. Every 10 years, a flower appears and transforms as a fruit with the essence of the Moon.
Objective:
-Find and pluck the Moon's Flower.
-Give the Moon's Flower to the Lone NPC at Kashmanir Town, Kingdom of Estafiel
Rewards: Unknown
"That tree huh," Shi Fan said while looking at the palm-like tree where it's edges look like crescent moons at the top of the mountain. "Well good thing monsters around here are at my level or else I could not get past them let alone finishing the quest". Having said that Shi Fan began climbing the Savanir Mountain which is almost 2.5 km's tall from its base aboveground
Few hours of climbing Shi Fan noticed a monster following him. A gray wolf, albeit common in many games, Gray Wolves are basically the one of the hardest monsters to fight early game due to their ability to call for help.
Wolf(Common Monster) Level 1
Hp: 70 Mana:0
"Come" Shi Fan tauntingly spoke toward the wolf about his own size.
"Rawr" the wolf growled then immediately it ran towards Shi Fan. It pounced toward him yet Shi Fan slowly sidestepped to the right giving it a strong punch in one of it's leg causing it to be blown away despite its size, the wolf whimpered as it stood up, having its own pride it won't allow someone to live after being taunted.
Yet, Shi Fan didn't give the wolf a reason to attack as it immediately dashed forward. He gave the wolf a swift yet strong slash causing it to bleed.
-19!
Not giving the wolf extra breathing time he stabbed twice on the same spot accurately.
-18!
-39!!
In Emperor Online there are two conditions to land a critical hit one is depending on the character's Critical Chance and the other is when the pointed edge of a weapon is hit accurately.
"Uwuf" the wolf yelping in pain fell down and turn into white light. It didn't expect that it will be killed so fast it forgot to call others first.
System: Congratulations! Wolf(Common Monster) killed +30 XP,
Items Gained: Bronze Coin +1, Perfect Wolf Pelt +1.
Seeing an increase of a 6% increase in his XP bar made him happy. He didn't rush on finishing the quest and instead look for more wolves to kill. As leveling in Emperor Online is very slow even in the low levels he should just take this opportunity to level up. It even gets slower as adventurers get to higher levels.
After 45 minutes of grinding, he immediately becomes Lvl 2 and gaining 23 copper coins and 18 damaged and 4 perfect wolf pelts in the process. Adding all of his stats to strength. Every Rank 1 level earns the player 3 Free Stat Allocation Points and 1 Skill Points.
"Well, time to finish the quest then," Shi Fan said when he killed the last wolf in the area.
At the base of the Moon Tree, are black monoliths with strange runes that is about the height of 6 feet. Shi Fan ignored it as his purpose of coming here is for the Moon's Flower.
The tree having strong branches which is extremely suitable for climbing greatly helped Shi Fan who have no prior experience on climbing tall trees.
"Good thing this tree is easy to climb unless otherwise I would be stuck at the bottom" Shi Fan stood at one of the thick branches at the top of the tree scanning the area for any signs of his objective. As he scurried for the fruit he is still shocked by how messy it's top was despite looking simple below.
"THERE IT IS!" Finally, after 30 minutes of searching, Shi Fan can see a silver flower shaped like a crescent moon dangling in one of the tree's branches. He immediately plucked it then stored in his inventory then his system chat pinged twice.
System: Gained +1 Moon's Flower
System: Side Quest: The Moon Tree: Objective 1 Completed.
Descending from the top he jumped down. Despite the height, he didn't suffer any fall damage because there is no fall damage in Neutral Zones in Emperor Online.
As Shi Fan is about to descend a mountain he heard a shrill voice. "Wait," the voice said to Shi Fan. Looking around he couldn't see a single person so he ignored it and continued descending. "I said wait" the voice domineeringly spoke again.
"Who are you?" Shi Fan asked.
"I need your help," the voice said to him. Shi Fan having heard the voice he remembered that the voice back in Character Creation was the same as the voice today.
"What help?" he asked after thinking he's wont to lose anything by listening to this voice.
"I need you to step inside the center of those monoliths. I need the energy to exist." the voice said.
"Why should I trust you?" Shi Fan questions the individual. I mean it's not wrong to doubt someone you didn't know right?
"It is because if I grow stronger. You too can benefit from it" the voice said assuring Shi Fan.
"I don't trust you unless I have some sort of assurance" Shi Fan replied to the voice.
"Okay then" the voice stopped speaking afterward.
Shi Fan was bewildered of his words and he was distracted when his system chat pinged him.
System: Emergency Quest: The Black Monoliths. 4-Star Difficulty. Do you accept it?
"What's this?" Shi Fan asked continued talking to the voice inside his own head.
"Assurance my friend. Trust me" the voice replied
He pondered for a while. A high difficult quest as an assurance? Was he an idiot?
"I accept" Shi Fan accepted the quest with a smirk on his face. Having read the forums before he already knew how difficult and rare it is to find 4-star quests yet the rewards are also greater. Now that an opportunity appeared why won't he take it?.
System: Emergency Quest Accepted.
Hearing the system chat Shi Fan opened up his quest log to know more about the quest.
Quest Log.
Main Quest
-Kaleidoscope Chain Quest: "The Black Monolith" (In Progress)
Side Quest
-Moon Tree(In Progress: 1/2 completed)
"That voice actually gave me a main quest?!, How is that possible?" Shi Fan was shocked when he read his quest log. Main Quests are considered rare that despite being called Main quest they have the ability to influence individual growth or maybe the growth of the Town, Kingdom or Empire. It is akin to a water company opening providing sustenance to the whole community thus improving it's growth. This is why failure to do so will also put harsh penalties on the individual or worse a calamity.
Main Quest: Kaleidoscope Chain Quests: "The Black Monolith" 4-Star Difficulty
No Backstory
Objective: Activate the formation in the center of the Black Monoliths
Failure Penalty: 90% Decrease in EXP and Gold Gain(6 Real-Time Months)
90% Decrease in NPC Favorability Gained(permanent)
Rewards: Unknown
Time Limit: None
"GODDAMIT ASSURANCE MY ASS! WHAT KIND OF QUEST IS THIS" Shi Fan angrily stomped and scolded the voice.
"Hehe," the voice replied happily.