Where Do We Go From Here?
A new set of notifications popped up, their color was different from the usual blue; they were a series of golden glowing boxes with silver trim.
[The hosts body is updating. Energizing. EXP will now be used to upgrade hosts body...]
[Exp in use: -100 EXP]
[Exp in use: -100 EXP]
...
[Body updated: Human --->Demigod (Lvl 1)]
[Character data compiling... Compiled! View Character List changes (view)]
"Hey Rico what is you level?" Anastasia asked casually as she looked at her own Character List. Rico briefly looked at her and wasn't sure how to respond. Should he trust her and tell her or should he keep this to himself? He hesitated for a couple seconds, bringing Anastasia's attention more towards him since he had not responded.
"Let's take a seat here. Something interesting happened and I haven't completely explored it. I'll tell you more once I have a better understanding of what happened." Rico smiled weakly at her and headed toward an empty table nearby. The Quest House had rapidly emptied after his confrontation with the nameless guild members and so there was enough empty tables for them to choose from. Rico picked one closer to a wall and farther from the remaining groups in the building. He and Anastasia sat down and he brought up the Notifications menu and selected the one that informed him of the changes.
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[Character Update Report]
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[Stats]
[+10 Strength, +8 Dexterity,+6 Perception, +4 Intelligence, +2 Charisma]
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[Titles]
[Title: Strong One (view)]
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[Boosts]
[+25% WP Regeneration]
[+25% HP Regeneration]
[-5% Damage: Crushing]
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Rico looked at all these benefits and his mind was briefly blank. He knew that these were good benefits, he just didn't know how good they were since he had no comparison. The first two boosts were really good no matter which way you looked at them but the stat boosts could be exceptionally good or just moderately, he just didn't know. He ignored the title for now since it had a generic name. Generic titles usually meant that the rewards behind them were just alright. He would check it out later at a less pressing time.
He turned towards Anastasia. She looked at him inquisitively. He gathered his thoughts briefly before speaking.
"What are you going to do now?"
Anastasia raised her eyebrows and stayed quiet for a second. She finally spoke again but her voice was unsteady, like she was unsure of herself.
"I would like to move forward to the next Floor. We are still new though, and so I will be staying around the town for a bit trying to level up and upgrade my skill. I would prefer to do this with you since I trust you if we have to fight, but ultimately that is your decision."
"Ok. Two final questions and then I'll divulge what happened. First, what happened to your Character sheet when you leveled up?"
Anastasia was apparently even more confused and her eyes lost focus as she looked at her Character List again. She finally returned to looking at Rico and he held his breath waiting for her response.
"Well now there is a Level 6 beside the Type indicator. All my stats seem to have risen by one for each level for a total of 30 points. I also have 6 unassigned points. I know you didn't ask for this but my skill also leveled up by one. It now heals by 1% more."
Rico felt his heart plummet as he heard this. He had gained in total only 28 more points while she had gained 36 points. All of his were fixed while she had unassigned points, allowing her to have more options in how she developed herself. Despite all the cool sounding names and exciting notifications, in the end he was worse off than when a regular player leveled up.
Rico sighed deeply much to Anastasia's confusion. He asked his last question now that he knew what his status was.
"Would you like to be in an alliance?"
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On the inside, Anastasia had a mixture of emotions: shock, distrust, happiness and even anger. On the outside she felt her face go rigid in trying to keep any of these emotions from appearing. She tried to calm down and think about the question.
On the road to battling the Orthanak she had discovered that the Guide they were given had a Fast Read function which would allow her to read on average twice as fast. She had focused on learning about the world structure and after a while she had come across a section about alliances.
Initially she had thought that alliances just allowed her to see more of a person's abilities and allow them to do quests together, much like other games. But, in Dreamscape it seemed to be much deeper. She remembered a passage that she had read that was especially unsettling.
*Setting someone as an ally should not be taken lightly. Unlike for establishing team mates and friends in Dreamscape, setting up allies transcends the interface between users. It is a binding force that links two people's souls together, establishing a serious and unique bond between the two. Being allies brings great benefits: Teammate benefits, ability swaps, telepathy, and even sharing bonus's from titles and unique abilities.
However, it is also a risky undertaking since the betrayal with an ally has serious repercussions. Both parties may experience a breakdown of their identity due to their connection warping between their souls. In the end this may lead to a slave and master relationship (one of the worst relations to have in Dreamscape) or the connection between the two could even cripple both to the point that they aren't able to do anything except exist in the one spot without a body or any real intelligence.
This is why becoming allies should be something that you must be absolutely sure about since the repercussions are extreme if violated.*
Anastasia had taken the words to heart knowing that this kind of relation was extremely special and that it could turn out horribly for her if she was too trusting. She knew what her immediate response would be at this point with all that she had learned.
"No. At this point I'm not sure if I'm ready to ally with anyone. We've only known each other for a few short hours and becoming allies is a serious thing you know. You do know the special circumstances behind being allies, right?"
Rico nodded his head but his expression seemed really sad. He had seemed quite excited before but once she had told him her stat changes he seemed downcast. This made Anastasia more curious as to what had happened when they had received the rewards.
"I hope you can understand then why I don't want to become allies. Sorry." She said. An awkward silence started to grow between them. Rico finally nodded and then spoke.
"I guess it's time to tell you what happened. It would have been easier if we were allies since you would be able to see my Character List ,but I understand it's not practical for you at this point."
Anastasia nodded and Rico suddenly slid closer to her. They were mere centimeters away from each other's side and she felt her heart flutter as his head bent closer to hers, his warm breath tickling her ear.
"When I first looked at my Character List in the temple my Type indicator was set to Demigod at max level. However it was locked so I couldn't apparently use the stats that come from this body type." Rico whispered into her ear as he didn't want others in the room to hear. Anastasia's heart was still thumping hard but she now focused more on what he said rather than his hot and intense presence that was so close to her. What he said was really interesting.
"When we received the rewards from the quest, I received a notification that I could unlock my Demigod status to level 1. So I did and...well... the results are less than satisfactory. As of right now I am weaker than you in overall points gained." Rico continued. Anastasia turned towards him and scooted back a bit. She wasn't comfortable with how close he was and she needed some distance from his intensity; she couldn't think straight when they were so close. She asked him how much he had gained and Rico told her his point distribution along with his bonus's from the body change. After that she just sat there beside him taking in and processing this information.
"He really doesn't know how good his stats are" Anastasia thought. While she had gained more overall points, it was evenly spaced across all her stats besides her unassigned points she had gained. Therefore she had increased evenly and hadn't really become proficient in anything. Rico on the other hand with his massive boosts to Strength and Dexterity would be able to battle opponents more easily. Sure, he didn't have much of a choice but Anastasia would have to put all of her unassigned points into Strength and Dexterity to match him. Plus, he already had a high amount of Charisma and Intelligence so it wasn't like he was lacking.
Anastasia explained this to him and it seemed to improve his mood.
"He focuses to much on the total rather than the distribution." she thought. "He probably wasn't that good at video games when he was alive."
"So now what are you going to do?" Anastasia asked. She was really hoping that they would stick together since he would be a good tanker with his better physical stats on top of her healing and his regen. Also that boomerang would come in handy.
"Well, even if we are not allies, we could still be a decent team. Therefore what are WE going to do now? I suggest we take an easier quest. Maybe some have freed up?" Rico said. Anastasia had a better idea though.
"The Quest House is a great place to get quests but there should be another way considering how many people need quests. Let me quickly check the Guide." she replied. She pulled out the small book and thought about going to the Quest section. The Guide magically turned to a section that was labeled as so.
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Quests
There are four types of quests: Public, Instant, Advancement, and Series
Public:
Public quests are ones that reoccur and are available for everyone to accept. The majority of these quest are found from the Quest Guild (the Quest House owners). Other places that give Public Quests are the Mercenary Guild, Darwin's Citadel, and the Sky Pagoda. The volume at these other institutions though is much lower.
Instant:
Instant quests occur only when a set of prerequisites are met. Examples include helping a King reclaim his country (prerequisite: High enough level and he has to lose the country in the first place), helping a girl find a kitten (prerequisites: high charisma and the cat not being dead), or even helping a dragon pull a thorn out of its foot. Instant quests are mostly random but the rewards are usually better than other quests that are of the same level of difficulty.
Advancement:
Advancement quests only occur when a person is trying to advance their class. The advancement quests not only provide advancement as there are bonus rewards for meeting hidden requirements of the quest. Some Advancement quests can only be completed or created in certain places. For example a Holy Knight can only get an Advancement quest from either a religious leader or from a prestigious knight academy.
Series:
Series quests are the most rare and rewarding quests in Dreamscape. They are a bunch of quests that are linked around a certain event or group of events. The prerequisites for the next quest is the completion of the previous quest. Usually these events are completed by multiple people since the difficult is usually quite high. The rewards for these quests are also quite good since they are so rare.
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Anastasia finished reading the section and gave the Guide to Rico who also quickly read through it.
"So you want to do one of the other types of quests besides the Public ones." he said finally. Anastasia nodded and told him her initial plan.
"We can probably activate an instant quest in town if we look around a little bit. Since this is a low level area, we probably won't have much trouble completing them and thus we can quickly gain EXP."
Rico nodded but came with a counter proposal, "Even though the quest we just did was tough, we got some good rewards. Now that we are stronger and have the boomerang we should be able to complete those quests with ease."
What he said made sense but Anastasia felt that the Instant quests would be better. The Quest House ones only gave EXP and money while instant quests could also provide them with other rewards. Anastasia told him this and Rico agreed. He still wanted to do Quest House quests though. They started to argue about which one they would do.
"Come on, let's do another Level 2 quest. You shot up 6 levels from it so it's super beneficial."
"What we need now is something besides money and EXP. We need to do Instant quests to gain good items."
"Can't we just buy items. If we do enough quests than surely we will have enough money to get good equipment if we need it?"
"Yeah but it will probably be low grade equipment that can be found anywhere. We need another special item ~whispers~ like your boomerang."
"I don't think we will find anything that can compare to the boomerang. If we accept Quest House quests then we can level up and move away from the Town of Beginnings to better-"
"There has to be a good Instant quest here. Why else did Boris say that there were powerful guilds here? It can't be to just hire newbies!"
"Fine have it your way. But if we don't find any Instant quests within, let say, 6 hours then we come back here and get a quest. Deal?"
"Deal!"
Anastasia felt proud that she had won the argument. It had not happened much when she was alive. Her thoughts strayed to some unpleasant memories and she lost all the joy in winning against Rico.
"So how do you plan on finding an Instant quest?" Rico asked, pulling her back to the present. Anastasia wasn't sure. She didn't have extensive knowledge of the town and what was possible in Dreamscape. Then she remembered someone, or rather something, that did.
"We ask the boomerang for help. It should know some stuff." She said brightly. Rico looked confused but pulled out the boomerang. A small dim flash of light appeared in Rico's hand and the boomerang appeared, its pristine white body dull in color.
"Didn't I tell you not to pull me out in public. You'll have so many people chasing you if they see me!" the boomerang said in a low angry voice.
"Don't worry, our bodies are blocking everyone's view so it's safe." Rico said assuring the boomerang.
"If it were that easy then I wouldn't have asked you to put me in your inventory. Luckily for you I haven't detected any strong people in here so I guess it's safe."
"See told you." Rico said proudly. The boomerang sighed in a seemingly mixture of disappointment and sarcasm. Rico frowned at it.
"Uh.. the reason we brought you out is that we have a few questions." Anastasia said, "First of all, are you familiar with the Town of Beginnings?"
The boomerang was quiet for a second before finally speaking slowly.
"No not really. I know just as much as most people that it is a place that everyone starts and that you are kicked out after level 10. Besides that I have some knowledge on some of the NPC's here but nothing really extensive. Why are you asking?"
"Well, we want to do an Instant quest that will give us a good reward that isn't EXP or money." Anastasia replied. She crossed her fingers under the table.
"Well like I said, I'm not really familiar with this place but I do know of two possible places to initiate an Instant quest. Though they are both unpredictable and could have low rewards if that's what your looking for." the boomerang said. Anastasia signaled him to continue.
"So the first one that comes to mind is the Mayor's Money. It's a quest that you have to get directly from the mayor and it involves his son's gambling addiction. You have to somehow get the money to pay the debt or kill the collectors. Either way will complete the mission. It's a Level 5 quest and you have to work your way into the Mayor's good graces before you can even receive the quest. It also only comes up once a year so there are bound to be people close to the mayor vying for the quest."
Anastasia and Rico glanced sideways at each other. She thought that they had a relatively low chance of getting the quest but it might be worth it. She asked the boomerang if it knew the rewards.
"I do actually. The rewards are a piece of equipment from the mayor's collection and a mayor's Collection Badge. If you don't know, these badges tell other officials that the person who gave the badge thinks you are trustworthy. They can be very useful in some admittance processes."
Rico didn't seemed interested in these rewards based off his bored expression but Anastasia was excited. Here was something that could yield high revenue, especially that badge. Gaining authority in this seemingly intricate world would prove highly beneficial as it would give them access to hidden and restricted areas. She really wanted the badge even if it was only from the mayor from the beginning area.
"Well the quest seems too hard to get to. What about the second quest." Rico asked.
"The second one that I know about is actually pretty simple. There are three major clan's in this town, all vying for dominance over the others. They are the Deor, the Naggi, and the Hathsworth clans. Each control a large part of the valley here and are constantly in contention on what area is theirs. All you need to do is go up to one of the clans and convince them that your able and trustworthy enough to help them bring down the other clans power. They will issue a basic Level 3 mission with some decent rewards at the end. There is also a really small chance to activate a Series quest but this has only happened once. There actually use to be four clans here but the one time the Series quest was activated that clan was wiped out," the boomerang explained. Anastasia was less impressed with this quest but she also realized that it was more doable since they only had to prove their ability rather then find a way to get close to the mayor.
Anastasia turned to Rico. "So now that we know two quests here's what I think. I would like to do the Mayor's Money quest but I know it's a little impractical to do so. Therefore let's do the clan quest. We might even be able to do multiple ones." she said. Rico nodded his agreement but then turned back to the boomerang.
"Where do we find information on these clans?" he asked.
"Well you could ask them directly but the Quest House is actually your best bet for reliable information." The boomerang informed them. Anastasia was curious why and asked the boomerang what it meant.
"The Quest House is run by the Quest Guild, right? Well they have a sect within the guild that trades and sells information. Since they have Houses everywhere, they often learn a lot of interesting things from people who visit the Houses. While most of the stuff is inconsequential, due to the large volume of customers they get, they are able to compile pretty accurate knowledge. This is why I suggest you ask the Quest House for your info since they are an external source." The boomerang explained.
Anastasia nodded and she started to get a grasp on what the Quest House really was. Originally she thought that it was an innocent place to receive standard quests but it seemed that her original thoughts were too shallow. This 'Quest Guild' seemed like a powerful identity that had its hands spread across a large area of Dreamscape. It also gave her a better understanding of what Dreamscape was like.
Back when she was still on Terra, there was a rise in open-world gaming. Essentially a game company built a large world with various areas to explore and with intricate social and environment settings. These worlds were much more intricate than the MMORPG's that were previously produced and they had gained a lot of popularity. Dreamscape seemed to be like one of these new open-world games. Just 1000 times more intricate in its design.
"Lets ask the Quest House then on information of each clan. Then we can make an educated approach on which clan we can try and help." Rico suggested. Anastasia agreed with him. Rico put the boomerang back into his inventory and they walked up to the counter. Anastasia was surprised that Nathan actually came over to help them.
"Hello there. I heard about the Quest I gave you and I would like to deeply apologize for the misinformation." Nathan said sheepishly. Anastasia noticed something above Nathan's head. It was a yellow triangle with yellow words above it: NPC Nathan [lvl 5]. She did not remember this being there before.
"Was this unlocked when I leveled up? Maybe it doesn't appear for level 0 people." she thought. Rico and her accepted the apology and asked him if he would sell them information on the local clans. Nathan's face froze for a second and then he looked around behind them. He then signaled them to follow him. They walked towards the end of the counter on the right where Nathan opened a gate and directed them to a door behind him.
They walked into the room beyond it which was about 30 square meters and sparsely furnished. In the center was a round oak table with four plain wooden chairs around it. There was a single candle in the center that was lit, giving a nice homely light to the room. Rico and Anastasia sat in two of the chairs adjacent to each other. Nathan chose the one that was beside Anastasia. He licked his lips nervously.
"The next time you ask for this particular service, please be mindful of keeping you voices low. This isn't a service that is publicly advertised and not every Quest House provides it. If you do need this service, use the code words 'Adrian's Mountain' and every member of the Quest Guild will know what you mean." Nathan told them firmly. Anastasia and Rico promised to do so, slightly abashed from just assuming things. Anastasia thought about how the knowledge of this service would be detrimental to others and realized that probably a lot of powers would try to stop the Quest Guild from spreading info about them. She understood now the reason for secrecy. Nathan turned there attention to the info they had asked.
"Let's start with the Hathsworths. They are in control mostly of the commodity part of the town. They have the most amount of inns, businesses, and merchants underneath their control. They usually deal in jewelry, gambling, and other high expense things except for equipment, which the Naggi clan has control of." Nathan started to explain. After about ten minutes they had a pretty good picture of the local power distribution.
The Deor controlled a lot of the surrounding woods and had rights over the lake and the majority of the fish market. The Naggi had the majority in the creation of weapons and armor within the town. They controlled the majority of the mines and had built a trade monopoly over the equipment business. The Hathsworths didn't have a lot of land as their own but they controlled the majority of the three markets within the town with the large amount of inns and commodity businesses within their control. Overall there was a balance of power since they each needed the other for their businesses.
Anastasia and Rico thanked Nathan for the information and prepared to pay him. He gave them a large discount due to his guilt over the quest and they ended up paying him 20 silver out of the 150 they had. They left the room and went to the seats they had previously occupied.
"So which clan do you want to go to?" She asked. She didn't really care since none of them seemed easier than the others to gain their trust. Rico smiled though at her question.
"As soon as I heard about the Hathsworths I knew we should go with them." He said
"Why?" She asked. Not like she minded but the devious smile plastered on his face drew her to want to know what he was thinking.
"The Hathsworths control a lot the business in town. One of them is the casino. Guess who's son has a gambling problem?" He said. His eyes gleamed deviously as he looked at her and she started to smile as she caught on to what he was thinking.
"I think the saying two birds with one stone really does apply here." She said her face beaming with excitement, her eyes matching the deviousness within Rico's. They started to formulate a plan and after 2 hours one was hammered out to both of their satisfaction. They got up and exited the Quest House.
"If this works, we are going to be really well off." Anastasia thought. She unconsciously straightened her white clothes as they started on the plan.