A Witch’s Due

"Do you know anything about witches?"

The witch's voice rasped.

"Afraid not." Akiol responded.

The witch sighed and motioned toward a seat. "Sit, I shall tell you a brief version of witch history."

Akiol sat and eagerly waited. He loved stories of past, listening to people tell a story was a warming experience for Akiol.

The witch poured two cups of what looked like tea, but Akiol couldn't be sure. The witch handed one to him and then sat in another chair.

She took a deep breath and began.

"About 300 years ago the witches were not labeled as ancient and evil beings, in fact we were something close to magicians. Using our skills we helped the people with alchemy and magic. Humanity had prospered back then."

She took a sip of the mysterious liquid.

"However, two incidents lead to the downfall of the witches. First was a group of young witches who dabbled in forbidden magic. Creating the disaster known as undead. The second was the various races doubt. They were jealous and fearful of a witches magic, and plotted against us in secret."

She leaned back and sighed, Akiol could see her reminiscing about the past. A sad look could be seen.

"With the undead incident, those who plotted against us, used this to strike. Convincing the people that we were evil, and had ill-intention. The people who were and always will be sheep, believed it wholeheartedly. Even though several of us gave our lives to defend them all. We were hunted and shunned, kicked from society. This made us bear a grudge."

Akiol tasted the mysterious liquid, it tasted like a flat soda. Akiol drank some of it to be polite.

"Our powerful magic slowly degraded, now we need ingredients to act like catalysts for our magic. However we still can make many powerful potions. This made our popularity rise again. Now we are highly sought out, for greedy individuals who want eternal life, or those who want the legendary love potion. That is why I asked you what you wanted. Yet you claimed you wanted nothing."

Akiol nodded at this.

"I owe you something for getting those humans off my property, and a witch doesn't like to owe."

Akiol wondered why the witch said humans with distaste when she looked human herself, albeit somewhat old.

Thus he asked, "Aren't you human yourself?"

She cackled and replied, "I am neither human nor any other race. The witches live forever and thus can only be called something else."

Well it was an answer at least.

"Enough chit-chat since I owe you one I intend to pay it as fast as possible. However I will need your help."

A notification popped up:

<Triggered Quest: A Witch's Due Accept?>

Akiol tapped confirm and the quest info appeared.

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[The Witch's Due]

The witch Aurvielth has claimed that she owes you something. Help her gather what she needs for here repayment.

Time limit: 1 week

Reward: ???

Failure: Aurvielth's immense disappointment.

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That failure punishment might not seem like much to any other player, but when Akiol heard the story of the witches he knew that getting on the bad side of a witch was not the greatest idea.

He asked, "What is it you need?"

The witch then went to the shelf looking and grabbing a few jars. She then responded without looking, "Three items, first a flame red flower that grows on snow. Second, a bottle of sap from the Thosiris tree. The last item you will help me get after you get the first two."

The quest updated accordingly. Akiol thanked the witch for her hospitality and set off to do some research.

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There was an issue however, the starting villages had no libraries and he highly doubted players would know the answers, considering the game had only been out for a week.

This meant only one thing! He had to level up to level 50 in a week, and get the ability to travel to a town.

He had a strong feeling that towns would have a library, or at least someone who knew the whereabouts of the ingredients.

So Akiol intended to use a teleport scroll, but he didn't have one for Red Bush. Cursing his forgetfulness he used the Yellow Stalk scroll.

As soon as he teleported to Yellow Stalk he immediately bought two scrolls to Yellow Stalk and three to Red Bush.

Using another teleport scroll to Red Bush he went straight to the quest board.

He searched for high experience quests, not caring for the reward.

It was at this point he saw a wanted poster. It was for Scorpion, the bandit he fought for Veryl.

Taking the poster he went towards a receptionist.

"Excuse me, but I think I may have already killed this man."

The receptionist took a look at the wanted poster. Nearly doubling back in surprise they asked, "Are you sure? We would need some proof."

"Uhh, this should do right?" Akiol brought out both of Scorpion's daggers.

"Hmm, these are his trademark daggers?"

The receptionist shuffled through some papers and took one out. Looking back and forth between the daggers and the paper. They soon put the paper back, looking towards Akiol they stated, "This was one of the bandits we have had trouble hunting down. Forgive my surprise."

"It doesn't bother me."

"Since those daggers are enough proof we can distribute the reward."

Akiol received the 100 gold bounty.

Before leaving however he asked, "You said something about one of the bandits? There is more?"

The receptionist sighed and responded, "Two to be exact, they used to be in a team of three. They had split up for an unknown reason however."

"If you tell me where they might be I could try to take care of them."

The receptionist blinked, "Well since you did take down scorpion, we could distribute the two other bounties for you."

<Triggered Quest: Trio Bandits Accept?>

Akiol confirmed, and the quest info appeared.

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[Trio Bandits]

Three famous bandits have mysteriously split up. Hunt them down and restore some peace.

Reward: +2 levels (adjusted with level)

+200 Gold

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The receptionist then gave Akiol the info. This gave Akiol an idea.

"Do you guys give information here?"

To his disappointment however the receptionist replied with, "Only related to those on the quest board."

It did not matter much, this meant he had leveling to do anyway.