Quest Collector
The next day, I woke up full of energy and ate my breakfast as quickly as I could since I had many plans for the day. The sooner I started, the better. I visited Dlatzi's Blacksmith to check on my new sword.
"Hello, customer. Are you here for your normal sword that you asked for?" said Philip, the shop owner.
"Yes, I'm here for that."
"Okay. JAMES, bring the SWORD."
Bang! After he said the word, a loud bang made me a little worried about the future talent, so I asked, "Is everything okay?"
"O-oh yeah, I slipped. There is nothing to worry about," said James, holding a sword wrapped in a thorned fabric.
I took the sword from James's hand and examined it. Seeing a good sword not bound by computer graphics was exciting for me. I could see my reflection on the blade, something that couldn't be done with a rusty sword. Even though I wasn't a swordsman myself, I could tell that the sword had a good balance, and the sharpness was evident with a simple look.
"Thanks for your service."
"You're welcome, customer."
After I left the store, I put the sword in my [Inventory] and took a deep breath for my upcoming task. The next location I needed to visit wasn't far from here, and I could reach it by walking for under an hour, so I departed without much worry in my heart.
I used a road mostly used by travelers and easily navigated the rough path. I saw some beautiful scenes on my walk. I looked back at the path I had come from and saw the city getting smaller with each step.
After a calming walk, I stumbled upon the place I was looking for. There was a single tree in the surrounding plain. The tree was surrounded by stones, creating a small garden for this lonely tree. I looked up at the tree's branches, but there wasn't a single leaf, even though it was summertime. The tree had died a long time ago, and I knew it too.
"[Inventory]"
[ Inventory 5/6
> Bottle of D-grade Healing Potion
> Normal Dagger
> Wound Closing Herb x 5
> Silver Coin x 3
> Leaf of Life ]
I took out the Leaf of Life from my [Inventory]. It was strange to say that this small leaf had an A-grade healing factor.
Before I proceeded, I said the word, "[Save]"
[ Skill "Save & Reset: Save" Activated ]
[ 987/1/3 9:48, has been saved as the new Checkpoint ]
I was worried… no, I was excited. Crack—I crushed the leaf in my hand and placed it on the withered tree. And that was the moment I'd been waiting for.
[ Conditions:
> Player Below Lv 10 1/1
> Remnant of Life 1/1 ]
[ Conditions Met ]
[ Generating the Quest ]
[ … ]
Ding! [ Quest Generation Has Failed ]
The withered tree in front of me turned into a pile of ashes and dust. I was expecting that, but I wasn't saddened. The reason I failed wasn't because I wasn't worthy or didn't do something special. It was because of luck. But I wasn't worried since I could try as many times as I wanted to get what I desired.
"[Reset]"
Ding! [ Quest Generation Has Failed ]
At first, I was scared to use this ability.
"Damn it, [Reset]"
Ding! [ Quest Generation Has Failed ]
I was scared of the thought of abandoning my precious time, and that made me worried. But after a little thought, I realized how foolish I was to think like that.
"[Reset]"
Ding! [ Quest Generation Has Failed ]
'Are you kidding me?' I could try everything, to get everything, without any limitation to my attempts. I could achieve anything I wanted as long as it wasn't impossible to collect, just by saying a simple word.
"[Reset]"
Ding! [ Quest Generation Has Failed ]
I used [Reset] over and over again. Finally, on my 38th try, I got what I was hoping for.
[ Hidden Quest: Trial of Beginning
Difficulty: Unknown
———————
> Seed of Beginning 1/1
> Unknown 0/?
———————
Time Limit: None
Reward: Sword of Beginning, Unknown ]
"Sigh—finally, I got it."
Apart from the quest, I obtained something familiar: a golden ball no bigger than my palm. I stored the ball in my inventory since I needed it for the quest completion. Most hidden quests do not show any information about themselves, and a player needs to find those conditions. Thankfully, I knew what those conditions were, as I cleared this before.
I headed back to Iterium as fast as I could. I planned to clear some missions to get some money since I was penniless, but I thought of doing something else.
"What do you want?"
After I returned to the city, I visited Simon. Simon Wandel was a traveling salesman I saw a couple of times in my playtime. He only sold charms and talismans that I didn't quite find appealing since they weren't on par with my character, but my character was low-level at that time, and having a talisman seemed helpful to me.
"I don't want anything. I'm just watching."
"If you don't want anything, then go. I don't want to deal with a non-customer," said Simon.
"I heard that you're looking for some Dasia Quartz. Do you still want them?"
"No, but I could get some. Of course, I need payment for my job."
"I'll give you 3 talismans if you bring me 5 Dasia Quartz. I'm going to leave this city for about a week, so bring them before I leave."
"Fine."
[ Quest: A Traveling Salesman Proposal
Difficulty: E
———————
> Dasia Quartz 0/3
———————
Time Limit: 7 Days
Reward: Strength Talisman x 3 ]
I left Simon since he wasn't the only person whose quest I wanted to take. There weren't any better quests than [Trial of Beginning] in Iterium, and most of them didn't have good rewards. But they were enough for a start, and I wasn't asking for more.
I went to Nike's Herbal Shop and used my knowledge to accept another quest from him. He was a little bad-tempered, so it took me a little longer than with Simon.
[ Quest: A Herbalist Proposal
Difficulty: F+
———————
> Poisonous Dandelion 0/1
———————
Time Limit: None
Reward: Bottle of E-grade Lethal Poison ]
For my last quest, I visited the Adventurer Guild and accepted a mission to get some money.
[ Adventurer Quest: Slime Subjugation
Difficulty: E
———————
> Slaying Slimes 0/10
———————
Time Limit: 4 Days
Reward: 2 Silver Coins ]
I packed my stuff and left the city to clear the quests. I was going to clear the quests in Adelo, but there was a problem. Adelo was a small forest, and not many monsters lived inside it. I needed a Quartz Lizard to complete one of my missions. Of course, I didn't go for a mission that I couldn't complete, but to clear that quest, I needed to clear a [Dungeon].
[Dungeons] are the homes of monsters, and I knew of a dungeon around Adelo inhabited by Quartz Lizards. But I had a huge problem… my power. I was barely level 6 at that time, and I didn't even have any combat skills, which was a huge deal. I knew that the way I handled the goblins before was by pure luck, as [Doomed Fantasy] wasn't the hardest game of all time for no reason.
I departed from Iterium a little later than I thought I would. When I reached Adelo, the sky was turning dark. Thankfully, [Doomed Fantasy] wasn't the only game I played, so I had some survival skills that allowed me to light a small campfire.
The sky was filled with many stars as soon as the sun set. It was a truly beautiful scene, and I felt refreshed by the adventurous feeling inside my heart… as if I were playing [Doomed Fantasy] for the first time.
The only complaint I had at that time was sleeping. As a game character, players didn't need to sleep unless they wanted to skip the day or night, but that wasn't the case for me, as I wasn't a game character. I slept half-heartedly and listened closely for any approaching danger.