Chapter 71: Quests
Indeed!
Yone was curious whether it was a chain quest solely because he thought Overseer Rakan wasn’t that important of an NPC. Yet, here he was met with such a quest.
It should be known that personal quests were one of the most popular plus hardest quests in the game. As far as people gathered information seven years in the future, rare quests and unique quests were indeed insanely important and affected even kingdoms and empires.
However, those two types of quests were very rare and uncommon for people to find, so the AI did its best to slow down the leveling before level ten as much as possible.
Later on, and once people start exploring their various cities and reach level ten and beyond, people will slowly start to realize that the quests they had in their towns, whether it be it the most common to unique quests, weren’t the main priority for 99% of players.
Instead, quests that were called Ranked Quests emerged and many people began knowing the real value of quests and their difficulty based on it’s ranking. What made them even more appealing and easier to understand was the fact that they followed the basic ranking of items.
Uncommon, Common...Epic... etc...
In the next instant, Yone took a look at the details provided by the system.
"Requiem, you’ve proven yourself more than capable and trustworthy. But there is a task I cannot entrust to just anyone."
"There once was a blacksmith of the Golden Gate Kingdom... not just any blacksmith. A crafter of unique arms, some say blessed by ancient spirits, others say cursed by the kingdom’s enemies. He vanished decades ago, some say by force, others by choice. We need to find him. Or at least, find proof of his survival."
"His name is Kael Durnforge. Last seen near the borderlands between the capital and the fractured cliffs of Verhall. No one alive knows what became of him, but if he’s still out there, his skills may be the key to reforging an era of power long forgotten."
"Find him. Or find his legacy. That is all I ask."
Reading the robotic description, Yone mused that such a style of stories from the NPCs and even the AI itself will totally shift in the future. After all, what people thought of as intelligent NPCs and dumb ones alike are all in their initial phases, and on the second major update, those very NPCs’ intelligence will skyrocket.
’Hmm? There is even more information?’ Yone was puzzled as actually didn’t expect to have a personal quest with such details so early in this life.
He had indeed met a few of such personal quests, which by the way weren’t part of the ranking quests but were important and common quests not related to them. Even then, he never ever met a quest with such details.
’Such details can only entail something,’ Yone recalled a distant memory from a piece of paper he once read in his first years of playing Eclipse Online that summarized a pro player’s interview in a few lines.
The more quests you find in a chain quest, the more rewards you receive at the end of it, and the more description a quest has, the harder that quest is!
There was even some advice at the end of his interview...
Abandon the quest and sell its information if you are not confident enough in your skills and gear, or else you will have to bear consequences that never crossed your mind.
Yone gulped down his saliva and read through the rest of it.
Quest Objective:
Travel to the Verhall Borderlands.
Investigate rumors of a missing blacksmith named Kael Durnforge.
Follow the clues scattered across old forge camps, abandoned caravans, and historical military barracks.
Uncover Kael’s current location... or what became of him.
System Message:
You have received a Personal Quest: "Forge of the Forgotten Flame."
Only you can complete this quest.
The quest cannot be tracked on your map.
Rewards: Unknown
Penalties: None
’Holy, there are even more restrictions and another reminder of the rewards and penalties being unknown,’ Yone fell into deep thought as he carefully weighed his options.
Abandoning quests was quite common, although one needed to pay some gold for such an option, with Yone’s current fund, that was possible.
’Let’s ab... No, fuck it, I’ll do it and take the risk.’
It was true that doing two chain quests simultaneously was a pain, but if he accomplished both without dying or failing any of them...the rewards would be immense!
’Anyway,’ Placing this quest to the back of his mind for later, he went to his friend list and replied to a message that was sent to him a few hours ago after he cleared the hell mode dungeon.
"Meet me at the adventurer association hall."
He could spare a bit of time if it’s for his own benefit, and the risk was minimal given his various means of survival and high level, hence the pressure he felt after thinking it through for some time greatly diminished.
In the meantime, he used this chance to call someone he hadn’t heard from for a while.
Beep...Beep...
"Yo...Yonyyy, brother, please get me out of this place. This is a place of craziness, and everyone is bloodthirsty!" Isma’s voice came from the other side of the call, panicked and hushed. He appeared like someone who is jogging in real life and not playing a game without stamina loss prior to level ten.
Yone rolled his eyes at his friend’s words and couldn’t help but say in a sarcastic voice," Damn, you having a lot of fun Isma, I wish I was there with you. I’m totally bored here."
Right after, he placed his index fingers on both of his ears and waited.
Silence...
Then...
"You fucker, I swear if I meet you I’ll make sure to payback this! You pig of a pig, truly Amy was never mistaken in calling you that..." Slurs kept heading his way like a waterfall, non-stop and without ceasing.