27 Celebrity The Sage
Upon arriving near SaintessKatrina, Luke collected the paper and send out a new mission while saying.
"You have done well. Meet me at the northern village gate."
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Hidden Chain Mission Quest- The Mysterious Sage (1/?)
The Mysterious Sage is greatly satisfied by your performance. If you wish to continue to work with him, he has an important mission for you.
Task: Meet the Mysterious Sage at the northern village entrance in 60 minutes
Mission completion reward: 50 exp, +1 Favourability with The Sage
Mission Failure penalty: -10 Favourability with The Sage
Mission difficulty F
===============
Saying this, Luke walked away slowly, ignoring the stunned SaintessKatrina behind him as his figure blended in with the sparse crowd near the post-office.
SaintessKatrina was completely stunned. A Hidden Chain mission Quest! This was akin to a newly promoted hunter entering the woods to search for his first kill, and finding a dead dragon's corpse, with no one else to take credit for it!
Just has she calmed the turmoil within her mind, she realised that she had almost an hour in-game to waste, and decided to see the chats to see if anyone had gotten similar experiences. She would then go around to explore the beginner's village of Broda, and do some easy missions while accepting all the rest of them to complete in the future.
Without anyone's permission, the village of Broda had been named the beginner's village once all the rest of the players were brought here by the village chief, and explained their situation of not knowing where they were.
For some reason, they could not explain anything related to 'Ultimatum', Players, or the real world in general. Every time they would speak something the NPC's would simply hear gibberish, while the other players could hear each other perfectly.
This was also done my the game developers to prevent utter and complete chaos in the game world.
Luke had run around the village and collected the material. This was all done to bring the 4 players together, and give them a feeling that they contributed enough to have the privilege of doing an important mission for The Sage.
He then spent the remaining 40 minutes making special appearances in front of the players for brief seconds using Mind magic, before vanishing, creating a mysterious persona for The Sage.
He had found quite a few dark horses within this group of Beta Testers, ones that would grow to fame in a few versions, but he did not wish to tackle them for now.
This was because many of these dark-horse did have talent, but were also lucky enough to come across special missions which gave them certain benefits which was a large factor in their rise to fame.
However, if he decided to dabble with the future too much, they might not receive those quests, and might remain normal players. Then what would be the use of him nurturing them?
It simply made more sense to attract the better, more experienced Professional players to his side first. Increase his level to as high as he could between the 2 years from the open betas and Version 1. And then bring in more players with actual abilities who would perform incredibly in the future not because of their luck, but because of skill.
At the end of the 1 hour period, OriginalMagus reached the northern gate of the village, only to find the other 3 leaders also present there.
Just a moment ago, he was feeling extremely proud of himself and his legendary luck.
Most of the quests given in the village were normal missions one would get from fetching a loaf of bread, etc. And they barely gave 10 -20 exp.
On the other hand, The Sage was giving him 50 exp for menial jobs like finding a sheet of paper!
Furthermore, The Sage had become an extremely famous mystery NPC on the forums.
"Hey, did you hear about the hooded NPC?"
"Yes! He wears a white mask and has something written on it!"
"But before I can inspect him, he disappears! It's so frustrating!"
"You noobs! I saw what was written on his mask! It was "The Sage"! Kowtow to me mortals!"
"F"
"F"
…
The Sage had become a hot topic for almost all the players in Broda, and many of the other players who were participating in the World chat.
Some considered him a 'Merchant' NPC that randomly appears in front of players, however that was soon rejected, since he hadn't offered any goods for sale, nor did he even bother to talk.
The conclusion was that he was a hidden NPC that would create a hidden quest for a handful of players.
When this conclusion came out, All the four pro players felt like announcing they had received a hidden quest from this NPC, and their favorability was already at +2!
However, their professionalism of being a pro-player kicked in and stopped them halfway through, allowing the conversation to veer in many different directions.
However, all the pride OriginalMagus had felt was crumbled into dust when he saw the other players. But, he was still slightly vigilant of them, thinking they had just come here out of coincidence.
"What brings you guys here-"
Before he could complete his question, SaintessKatrina interjected.
"We have already discussed with each other. All four of us received that mission to come here. Stop pretending and wait with us."
Her cold and indifferent words cut deep into his pride. OriginalMagus was about to puke blood.
However, at this moment, a figure walked in from the woods outside the village, dressed in a black windbreaker, and a hood covering his hair, as a mask covered his face.
At this point, he walked up to them and handed them a neatly folded letter.
"Good to see you are all here!"
At this moment, they all received a quest completion.
===============
Hidden Chain Mission Quest- The Mysterious Sage (1/?)
The Mysterious Sage is greatly satisfied by your performance. If you wish to continue to work with him, he has an important mission for you.
Task: Meet the Mysterious Sage at the northern village entrance in 60 minutes
- Completed -
Mission difficulty F
Mission completion reward: 50 exp, +1 Favourability with The Sage
===============
"I need you guys to go to a certain barber shop in Sozra. I have marked the location of the shop on this map of Sozra. And the location of Sozra on this map of the Leon kingdom."
With this, the map on each of their interfaces grew, from restricted to the woods they were in and the Broda village, to the entire Leon kingdom. There was also a blinking city, almost 50 times the size of Broda in the centre of this map, which had a certain shop marked on it.
"Go there and tell the owner you need to meet with Barton. Make sure you do this at late night. You need to work together and make sure no one dies. Especially make sure that the letter is not given into the hands of anyone else other than Barton."
At this point, a quest notification popped up.
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Hidden Chain Mission Quest- The Mysterious Sage (2/?)
The Mysterious Sage is greatly satisfied by your performance thus far. Follow his instructions:
Task 1: Take The Mysterious Sage's letter to Sozra, the capital of the Leon Kingdom, as a party with the others who have received the quest (1/4 members in your party)
Task 2: Go to the barber shop; the secret entrance to the MI9 underground base
Task 3: Ask to meet the executive commander of Leon Kingdom's Intelligence agency called MI9. His name is Barton. Use the Identification provided by The Mysterious Sage as proof that you are working for The Sage
Task 4: Hand over the letter to Barton himself
Task 5: Ensure the secrecy of the mission even after it is complete
Task 6: Prevent the losses of your team members
Mission completion reward: 200 exp, +5 Favourability with The Sage
Mission Failure penalty: -100 Favourability with The Sage, You will be hunted down by The Sage.
Mission difficulty: E+
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"Take this badge and show it as proof to anyone who asks."
Saying this, Luke also gave them a few silver to handle their travelling expenses and food requirements. Although players themselves did not need food, the game made it so that if their food meter becomes 0, their stamina, and energy are reduced by 1/4th.
With this, he vanished into this air using the same trick he had used earlier.
Just has he was almost completely gone, a voice game from inside the town.
"Look! It's the sage! Was he having a conversation with those 4?"
Suddenly, a large number of players swarmed over as Luke's figure completely disappeared.
Just as they were celebrating on receiving a hidden E+ ranked mission, they were bombarded with questions and prevented from leaving. Eventually, they leaked certain parts of the mission, but kept the main points a secret, since there was a task to ensure the secrecy of the mission even after it was completed, or else they would be hunted down by 'The Sage.'
Within moments, a new thread became the hot topic of discussion for all the 'Ultimatum' beta testers.
"Ultimatums first E+ ranked Hidden Chained Mission Quest, given by The Mysterious NPC, The Sage!"
"Even though it is an E+ ranked mission, they get only 200 exp."
"Tch. U blind buffoon. It says Hidden Chain Mission Quest! It will be more quests after this one, possibly with greater rewards!"
…
Currently, not many people knew that the ones who had received the mission were pro-players, since these players had not revealed their nametags to the public yet.
