For now, he had several tasks: get into the church to see what the hell that ancient door was, or if it even existed in the first place, get the [Awakener's Set], which was the strongest piece of equipment a new player could have.
Getting the set granted you three prestige points too!
And finally, maybe try to find that [Mage Tower] he got the token of from the trial.
He tried to look for it in the [World Map], but no such location was disclosed, probably since everything was grayed out though.
"So that's the city!"
"Hi, can I join your church?"
"Watch out, they're level 50!!"
People around him were just discovering their surroundings, trying to adjust to whatever lay ahead, but the church members, much like the silver-skins, just ignored them, and also taught a lesson to whoever tried being funny.
Most of the player's characters were now in the [Famished State], meaning that they would need to eat if they didn't want to lose their hp and strength.
Eating in real life does NOT equate to eating in the game by the way, so make sure to be ready to eat four times a day if you're really into 'Universal Descent'.
"Let's go find a restaurant, shall we," the boar meat he had wasn"t cooked, so no point in trying.
"Yes!" and Alice nodded, smiling.
They went to a random restaurant, greeted by a normal-looking NPC, and ordered their food, eating and paying before they left, their stomach now full.
"You asked me to follow you, what's inside the city that's so important?"
"Don't worry, we're close."
Beside the church of the dawn and its secrets, there wasn't much in the first city as it was the first hub where players could actually meet and talk, it wasn't safe because of the [Events], but at least much more than the others.
There wasn't much… except for the [Blacksmith].
He was someone that Alex wanted to meet early at all costs.
Alice followed Alex as they walked for thirty minutes, arriving in some sort middle-class street, not too luxurious but not poor either.
Alex kept looking around, eventually stopping as his eyes fell on the [Legendary Blacksmith] sign above a shop.
"Bingo," he grinned as he headed toward it.
"New customers," Tolkien, the huge blacksmith with his orange beard spoke as he struck the blade he was repairing a few times.
"Not really, I just wish to talk," Alex smiled as he entered.
"..." Tolkien raised his eyebrows in response.
[Tolkien, The First City Blacksmith]
[Reputation: 0/100]
Other than with races, you can have a reputation with individual NPCs, meaning that you can actually form relationships.
"I don't know what you want, kid, but this is a blacksmithing shop-" he was about to argue, but Alex immediately pulled out his [Bear Poison Dagger].
And immediately, Alex heard a notification sound.
Ding!
[+25 reputation with Tolkien.]
"Great heavens, this is but a fine blade, did you make it yourself?" Tolkien asked, inspecting the dagger with his eyes from afar.
"Of course, everything was done by me except for the materials, which I hunted myself."
[+10 reputation]
"A hunter AND a blacksmith, boy we don't see those often nowadays."
It didn't take long for Alex to raise his reputation to 50 with the blacksmith, and the moment he did, he finally asked the question.
"Do you know about some weird armor that's around these parts?" Alex didn't know if this would succeed, but it would be much more difficult if it didn't.
"Hm..." Tolkien thought for a bit, "Oh, maybe you're talking about the awakener's set, am I right?"
"YES!" Alex almost wanted to jump, but he remained calm on the outside.
"Well, I know that it's inside of the 'Undead Temple', pretty close from here, you just need to get lucky with the boss drops, but let me tell you something first, boy," Tolkien smiled.
'Here we go,' this was the start of the S-Level quest.
After all, Alex already had a rough idea of where it was, and with his extraction talent, getting it wouldn't be difficult.
But there was one problem with that equipment.
"That armor's been lost for long, and I even heard that it's been cursed, so if you do find it, bring it back to me and I'll make sure to fix it back up, touching such a legendary item would be an honor!"
Ding!
[You have triggered S-Level Secret Quest: "The Awakener's Set"; defeat the boss and find the set, then bring it back to Tolkien so that he can fix them and his reputation with you will grow to the max.]
[Failure Penalty: Tolkien Reputation reset to 0.]
This was the reason Alex spoke to him, not because he wanted to fix the [Awakener's Set], but because of the [Reputation].
Tolkien was no normal blacksmith, he was actually one of the most powerful ones in this entire game, being able to forge mythical weapons if given the right materials, and even remove/insert curses into items!
He was one of the NPCs with an SS-Level Talent: [Exorcist Blacksmith].
Building a relationship with him would be essential for later, and apart from this quest and some rare encounters, there was literally no way to raise your reputation with him to 100.
The more the game went on, the more cautious he would become, and so Alex wanted to earn his trust quickly.
"Thank you," Alex nodded, quickly leaving the shop.
"Make sure to come back boy, and also show me some of your next work if you do anything!"
"I will," Alex nodded as he left the shop.
But as soon as he left, he heard something.
Ding!
[Your 'World Map' has been updated!]
'Oh?'
He opened it up, and strangely enough, one of the '???' texts displaying a location close to the first city was replaced by [Undead Temple], and a red pinpoint was placed on it, showing the text "S-Level Quest Location".
Yes, the world map could actually also display the locations of quests, making it even better than he expected.
"Did you find what you needed?" Alice asked Alex, the cute fox ears she was still wearing twitching.
"Yeah, we're almost done, just need to find the items now, plus it's in the place where you should usually go as a new player, making it even better," he smiled, and she excitedly nodded.
"Help me level up then!"
"No worries, I will."
They left Dawn City quickly afterward, heading toward the [Undead Temple], which was a level 20-40 area of the open-world.
...
Church of the Dawn, Leader office.
"Lord Aldrich," one of the church members kneeled, "The members at the entrance have reported that the 'players' have arrived."
"Very well," Aldritch spoke, not even looking at his subordinate, instead sipping on his golden glass of wine, "But why do you come all the way here to tell me such... futile news."
"Well," The member mumbled, "Our members have detected that one of the players had the 'Pact of the Silver-Skin Killer', meaning that they killed one of the silver-skin chiefs!"
"Oh?" Aldritch raised his eyebrows, finally turning to face the person before him, "Seems like not all these fools are useless after all," he laughed, "He would make a great ally, try to see, but do not get noticed."
"Very well, Lord Aldritch," and so the member disappeared in a trail of black smoke.
As you might expect, the church of the dawn members were enemies of the silver-skins, and vice-versa, so that the 'Pact of the Silver-Skin Killer' he got meant that now, Alex's reputation among them was already set at 50/100.
"Well, well, lets see what there is in store for us," Aldritch sipped into his wine again, "Hey, you," then he pointed at another member, who gulped.
"Y-Yes, sir!"
"Any news about the 'Door of Destiny'?" he asked, curious.
"N-No, sir, people are in the basement, constantly inspecting it as always, but nothing has happened y-yet."
"Very well," Aldritch turned back, returning to his own thoughts, "Let us see how this unfolds then."