The First Quest

"I am happy that you made yourself at home esteemed sir," Hershel said as he re-entered the room to see Gilgamesh lounging on a throne that matched the color of his armor. Smiling warmly, he continued further into the room with slightly trembling hands, within them his hands held a tray with three cups of tea on it.

"Feel free to speak casually, I am not acting in any official manner so ignore me and talk to this young man, he is deciding things," Gilgamesh said as he took the cup of tea offered to him and sipped it. Tasting the mint and hints of sugar within, he smiled while closing his eyes. 

"Thank you, sir," Marcus said as he accepted the cup with one hand and drank it, his eyes widening slightly at the amazing taste of the tea. He knew that foods and such were replicated with the lifelike immersion of the game but hearing and experiencing it are two different things.

"I suppose I should explain why I asked you both to join me inside," said Hershel as he sat within a modest-looking chair that rocked slightly before settling in a single spot.

"I would like you both to help me with something that will soon affect this village if not handled immediately," he said with a sigh as he thought for a moment before continuing, "I'm sure you know the beasts of the forest that surround this village, though normally these beasts can be defeated by even children if they are trained enough beforehand, but lately things have been abnormal. The beats have become stronger and more aggressive towards people hunting in the forest.

 A handful of children and adults have already gotten hurt because of this so I tasked one of our most talented hunters to figure out the cause. I'm afraid to say that he reported what I had heard from other villages around our own, the beasts have begun to be affected by a purplish vapor-like mist coming from a nearby cave home to goblins. I would like you to go to the cave and figure out what exactly is creating this mist and put a stop to it.

When that is done you can report back to me for a reward fitting the difficulty of such a quest."

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"Take care young adventurer, and Sir Gilgamesh," Hershel said as he closed the door to his home, the crowd of players outside was unsure of what to do as they had come to accept quests from the village head and with the icon for him greyed out, it seemed he was not issuing new ones at the moment.

…

SussyBaka1331: "Look there he is! He's a puny level 1 how did that baka get invited into the chief's home?"

LittleWilly: "You see that companion he has??? His name is just question marks!"

SilverRain: "Everyone's companion's name is a question mark stupid! You need to go level some and learn the game!"

MapleBaken: "That companion looks so handsome and cool with that armor! Meanwhile got stuck with this stupid chef who isn't even a combat companion! He just cooks stuff and asks if I want it the "Ocky" way… WHAT EVEN IS THAT?"

Starlight: "..."

Little Willy: "..."

SilverRain: "..."

Sussy Baka: "..."

…

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.

"Let's get going, we have a lot to accomplish," Marcus sighed as he truly wondered how he was given such a difficult quest. He had just started and hadn't even leveled once yet he was tasked with something as difficult as clearing a nearby monster dungeon on insane difficulty within two hours. 

He knows about another nearby dungeon that served as the village burial grounds and that was something most players challenged at level twelve, completing the easy and normal difficulties with the truly experienced ones challenging it at hard difficulty and only pre-established guilds from prior games challenging the hell difficulty.

What truly makes things difficult is that the insane mode difficulty Marcus had to do, for an undiscovered dungeon at that, is typically made to be challenged by two teams of five making a total of ten players who are all skilled in playing their chosen role. Yet he was tasked with challenging it with a total member limit of only two others…

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Quest: Goblin Slaying 

Difficulty: S

Info: As of late, Hershel has been informed of a series of attacks by aggressive forest monsters on nearby towns and villages in a pattern suggesting his village would soon be next. Not wanting his citizens or the new adventurers to get caught up in such a massive battle he has decided to request a powerful noble take care of the source of the situation before a disastrous result happens. Clear the source of the mist coming from the goblin dungeon that is enhancing the forest beasts.

Limitations: Party size of 3

Reward: 2000 gold, Level +3, Epic Chest x1

Failure: Player "Zero" Dies, Companion "Gilgamesh" Dies, Time limit is exceeded

Time Remaining: 1:57:13

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Rereading it, Marcus ran his fingers through his hair as he felt nervous seeing the quest's difficulty. He knew that the difficulties of quests ranged from F to SSS but seeing his first quest as an S rank when most players were getting F to C rank in nearly all starter villages he knew this quest was really a big deal.

As they walked out of the village with about 10 minutes elapsing from the time limit Marcus led Gilgamesh towards the dungeon before Gilgamesh stopped and asked Marcus to accompany him as he veered off the path and walked a couple of minutes to a clearing. On the opposite side of the clearing, a wolf stood as it looked around failing to take notice of the duo stepping toward it.

Or… that's how it would have played out if Gilgamesh hadn't announced their presence and pushed Marcus forward. "Fight this, it should be around your current level."

"Are you serious? You could sneeze and kill this wolf, why would I fight it when we should be hurrying and completing this quest???" Marcus said as he turned his head to look back at Gilgamesh as a pebble smacked into his forehead causing him to wince and turn back to the wolf to avoid another one assaulting him. "Because you are still weak. You need battles to gain strength and experience so let's get on with it." Gilgamesh explained as he crushed the other pebble he had in his hand before leaning against a tree.

"Begin, I will not assist you in battling this beast as I want to see how competent you are, finish this fast and we can continue onto the cave," Gilgamesh spoke as he stood behind Marcus with his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face.

Looking ahead, he saw Marcus in a standoff against a singular wolf that had brown fur and was about double the size of a German shepherd.

Drawing the sword from its scabbard by his left side, he held it in his hand and looked at the stats of the wolf once again to make sure he didn't miss anything.

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Status Page:

Name: Forest Wolf (Common)

Level: 3

Health Points (HP): 115 

Mana Pool: 90

Attributes:

Strength: 18

Agility: 12

Vitality: 11

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 12

Skills: Bite

Bite: Deal 60% damage to enemies by biting with your chompers

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"This shouldn't be too hard…" Marcus thought as he went into a normal stance not sure how to exactly position himself. He stood in a wide stance before pushing off with his back foot and rushing at the wolf who in turn dug its paws into the ground before similarly launching itself towards Marcus.

As both met in the center of the clearing, Marcus turned his body sideways as he stepped to the right side letting the initial bite of the wolf slide by him, at the same time activating his skill with a shout as he swung his right arm in a horizontal arc across his body.

"Empowered Slash!" Marcus shouted as his sword connected with the side of the wolf, cutting across it in the opposite direction it was moving. 

-360

Watching the wolf collapse and slide across the grass, Marcus was tempted to follow up but stopped as he saw it slowly disappear into a black mist while a subsequent experience bar appeared on his status page unbeknown to him.

+150exp

Level up!

"Ohh… That was easy…" Marcus said as his adrenaline began to settle down while he stepped toward Gilgamesh but stopped as he saw a smirk still on his companion's face as he made a gesture for him to turn around.

Hearing a crack behind him, Marcus slowly turned around and sucked in a breath as he saw around half a dozen more wolves behind him, stepping out of the brush as they growled with furious expressions at the death of their pack member, their levels all ranging from 3 to 6.

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