13 Chapter 12 - Questions Answered

An awkward silence filled the room for a moment as the Priestess just seemingly stood there for a while before she lightly coughed, and as if pretending nothing had happened said, "Ah! I guess you must be a tad curious about your situation, yes?"

Talia gave the Priestess a brief look as to indicate she knew that this a clear attempt to deflect what happened earlier, but she still followed up on what the Priestess said as she was indeed inquisitive about her current circumstances, "So, what is it that you know about me?"

"Not too much, but I'm sure it is information I think you'll find useful. However, I will only answer a certain amount of questions let's say three, after that you will need to complete another task if you have more, but to be honest if your questions are good, you should be able to gather all of the useful knowledge I have about you. Though, that still doesn't mean we shouldn't be cooperative afterwards, as I'm sure that both of us will benefit greatly in a partnership." Anita said smilingly.

The answer from the Priestess was an odd one, but she already knew what questions she wanted to be answered at the moment, anyways. If she required more in the future, she would just complete the Priestess task for her, something she was going to do anyway, as she wouldn't have aimed to look for Anita straight away if she only wanted to acquire a single quest from her, before leaving.

At the moment with the looming pressure from the Governor, Talia wanted to grow in power quickly as possible, because she had a great feeling in her mind, that her time was running out back in the Kingdom of Alcaria before she will experience a great deal of danger, one that she may struggle to survive just by relying on the lone Sir Gregory.

"Alright then," said Talia, pausing for a brief moment, "I agree with your proposal, so my first question will be simple, how have I arrived in this world?"

"We know this one for sure, although we cannot directly tell where you came from, we can sense you're a being not from this World. As for why, we can only be sure that is from the will of the God themselves, and not just from the minor Gods which most Churches primarily worship today, but the Creator God himself, the reason is that this world needs you!" Replied Priestess Anita.

Talia felt even more confused about the answer herself, after all, she grew up in Earth, a world of science, without any such mystical powers, how could the explanation that God was responsible satisfy her?

However, she also knew that her current situation couldn't be explained whilst using any common sense whatsoever, after all, she knew that within the Game, that Gods did indeed exist, but she had not heard of some God known as the God of Creation within 'Dawn of the Corrupted'.

In fact, most Churches preached that their God was the most powerful, yet Anita was there calling them a bunch of 'minor Gods', if their representatives were here right at this moment, they would attack her no matter if she was in the order of Templars or not, because of such blasphemous behaviour.

Yet she also knew that the Order of Templars had the most complete documents regarding such Gods in the world, so whatever Priestess Anita is saying must have some basis, so could the 'God of Creation' truly be responsible for her arrival?

Concealing her slight disappointment at having such a reply with only a limited amount of information, she had already thought of her next question.

"Do I truly die in this World, or is it similar to the game were I get revived?" Talia asked.

This was her second question as she believed it was an important one, in the future she knew just how powerful her opponents may be in this World, so it was worth one of her questions to find out the answer of such a question. After all, it concerns her life and death, at the same time she would have to alter and develop far different strategies based on whether she can revive or not.

"Hmm. I'm truly surprised you know about such a thing girl, most have no clue that revival is indeed possible. However, I'm afraid it is unachievable by the minor Gods, as it requires not only a great deal of divine power, but it also requires a deep understanding of the process involving life and death, one which not many are proficient in as it is one of the most difficult concepts to understand. I'm afraid only the creation God can do such a thing, and I cannot tell if you would receive such a blessing from him, as he has not been involved in this World for a long time, to the point where his name is mostly forgotten. The gods which have remained have longed forgotten their true purpose, at the same time they would not be able to do such a thing even if you desired them so. So the final answer to this question, is I don't know!" Priestess Anita said.

Talia was once again shocked by the answer, as in the end, she didn't really gain anything from the question, only theories on what may happen. Yet, she still didn't feel that the question was truly wasted, as it allowed her to gain useful information about this World, at the same time it also made her feel extra cautious about her life, as she had a feeling that although Priestess Anita was not definite about it, she indeed did not currently have any blessings which would ensure her revival after death, therefore she would have to be far more careful than the players were in the game, because after all this was a real World with genuine consequences.

She couldn't take massive risks which involved certain death, but a chance of a high reward, but there was still advantages which she did possess by playing the game, such as having a good grasp on the difficulty level of the quests, although that still was not a definite assurance, the Dire Bear which almost ripped her into pieces was a testament to that.

Now for her final question, until she went ahead to complete the next task for Anita, was one she thought long and hard about before she came to the decision to ask it.

"Why am I forced to leave the World after a period of time?" Talia asked, thinking it was the most important question based on her current predicament.

"Oh, that's a result of the strength of your soul, the stronger it is, the longer you will be able to stay here until the point were you will be able to remain here forever. But, now that it is not the case, and you will only be able to stay here for around seven hours before you are forced to leave. I will give you a freebie for this one, but your soul will naturally grow stronger as you become more powerful, however, there are specific methods which directly cultivates it, and I'm sure you will be interested in those, though you could earn one from the Order of Templar for example if you contribute big enough merit to do so." The Priestess answered slyly.

'Ah, so it means that the strength of my soul is the key, then? Anita says it will grow stronger just by my level increasing by the sound of it, but from her words, it seems pretty ineffective and rather slow to use such a method. So, I guess I will need to earn whatever method she is on about in the future, though that's something which will take time to do so, so no point dwelling on it.' Talia thought inwardly.

After getting the answer to her question, she began chatting with the Priestess for a while, before she presented her another quest, one which she was familiar with, as it was a quest which all players actually receives in the game, and that was to deliver the crystal causing the 'taint' to one of the branches belonging to the Order of Templars at a nearby Town.

Though she was sure there may be some differences because, at that point in the game, the Order of Templar had already plenty of such crystals from the players in-game, however at this point, it was only the beginning of the discovering the strange behaviour from creatures who are tainted, so the Order of Templars currently do not have much of an understanding towards them.

So in a way, it could definitely be viewed as a quest of more importance, from a templar point of view, yet she knew there was no rush to deliver the crystal as they would not be in such a desperate need of it straight away, but it true that it is the initiator of the main quest line within the game.

After receiving the quest, the icon flickered on the interface to indicate she received and accepted. Flicking through the description it was a simple one, 'Deliver the 'tainted crystal' to Priest Omar at the Order of Templars branch at the Town of Stonehead.'

Now, with a brand new quest from Anita, and the revealed information gained from her questions, she left Thornrock Inn, after bidding the Priestess goodbye.

Quickly, finding a secluded looking area in the Village, she had taken out the award which she had not used from the first quest she had completed for Priestess Anita.

And that was the magic tome, selecting to receive it from the reward interface, she suddenly found a thick book with glowing symbols etched onto the front.

Upon touching it she instantly found a prompt from the system.

*Ding! Magic Tome discovered, would you like to learn its contents? Y/N

Warning: This would result in the destruction of the object after the relevant knowledge has been transferred to the player.*

Without hesitation selected 'Yes' as it would serve no purpose to attempt to learn it manually, even though she may keep the book, she had no idea on how to decipher its contents, after all, she was not a real Mage and at the moment this was the most efficient means in learning the knowledge from the book, as it would engrave the contents inside her mind, to the point in which she immediately achieves a basic mastery over it, something which may take usual mage months, if not years to do so.

*Ding! Player learns two new skills, 'Ice Barrier' and 'Ice Spear'. Player also receives basic information about an individuals comprehension about the concept of the element Ice.*

Upon the ending of the mechanical voice, a brief pang of pain filled her mind before she suddenly felt new information filling her mind, however, unlike the memories of Princess Talia which she needed to analyse and digest in order to slowly receive the information, these added memories were seemingly etched into her mind, granting her immediate understanding of it.

Talia somehow felt she knew some theories behind the concept of 'Ice' granting her a basic understanding of the element, although the information wasn't thorough it allowed her to gain some understanding about the element, something which would be considered priceless to a Mage.

In the game Mages were said to not only aim to improve their energy reserves, but a comprehension of their major attribute was also a big factor in fights between them. As a better understanding of an element would increase the other all efficiency, power and all-around use of that specific attribute, making a Mage far stronger if they had a deeper understanding of their attribute.

For players in the game, this was also used as a means of being a 'bonus' stat for players, as for instance if they found a Magic Tome like the one she is in possession of, learning the knowledge inside it would grant a specific stat bonus such as '+ 5% Ice Magic Damage' or '- 5% mana consumption' for use of Ice Magic Spells depending on the knowledge detailing the comprehension of that element based on the specific understanding in the Magic Tome.

This is because a Magic Tome is filled with a person's own understanding of that attribute, some people know how to use their certain attribute more efficiently, therefore, their mana costs for using that element are reduced, some knows how to use their attribute better offensively meaning their comprehension increases the damage using that specific element.

Therefore, the gains from the Magic Tome were truly useful for Talia, at the same time the experience receiving the knowledge directly rather than just by getting it within the game is a completely different experience entirely, she felt as if she had a sudden familiarity with the Ice attribute, and felt a more 'comfortable' feeling towards using the Ice element as if the flow of working a spell whilst using that type of Magic has become more fluid in use.

The two spells she gained were also two good ones for her level, which can be continued to be improved in the future, they both added a mixture to her current capabilities, one a more defensive-minded one, whilst the other adding an additional offensive spell.

At the same time, the Magic Tome allowed her to take advantage more of her stronger ice affinity thanks to the Frost Dragon bloodline, which was only a mere fraction of the abilities granted by unlocking the true bloodline itself, but Talia was already satisfied with it, as she knew she could improve it further the more she evolved her beast soul form, another advantage of choosing the class would it will enable her to better utilise Princess Talia's inborn bloodline which otherwise would be useless, as its such a small amount, it likely wouldn't have originally awakened in the Princesses entire life, only the external factor of the system granting her class had allowed her to awaken the dormant bloodline.

Though, overall she was really happy with the gains made from the Magic Tome.

'Great reward, as expected from the hidden quest at the starter village, if some would have found this in the game, it definitely would have given them a great edge among the starting players' Talia thought.

Now, that she had received the contents of the Magic Tome, she should make a move to quickly use the time available to her most efficiently.

Before leaving for the Town to complete Anita's quest, she decided to finish all of the available quests around the Village beforehand, as most of them would not take up most of her time, and it would enable her to grow quicker in the time she has available.

At the same time lower level quests reward decrease, the higher the strength of the individual, so it was better to complete these ones early to gain the most out of them.

Thus, for the next couple of hours, Talia went around completing the rest of the available quests remaining in the Village based on her memory.

Some of the quests she knew in the game were not available, primarily the quests which required an additional player were not there, and a few others were also not available. However, she still managed to complete quite a few of the quests from the game, one of them involved the Town's Herbalists which rewarded a decent amount of experience and some basic healing balm which would quicken the recovery of wounds.

There was also one which she received a nice looking buckler, which she ended up selling for a few silvers as she does not use one, after completing all of these quests, she ended up levelling up an additional two levels, making her now level eight, which would be above average for players who had completed their starting quests and left the Village for Town, so she thought it was time to leave the small Village.

Ensuring that nothing was left unturned before she left and that she had adequate supplies of everything she needed before travelling a fairly large distance away, she left the Village, making way towards the location of Stonehead Town based on the direction from her memories and the map she had bought as an assurance before she left the Village.