Arcadia Part II

“Oh, you don’t have to. That line is only for new summoners who enter the game without any guide. You can come with me; I’ll lead you inside the town.”

The adorable young lady then beckoned him to follow her. She walked straight towards an entrance on the other side that was only guarded by a lovely female NPC in brown overalls and a hat.

“Hello, summoners. How can I help you?” The young lady asked. Her red hair braided into two pigtails made her look pretty lovely.

“I’m bringing a new player to register, and this is my quest for introducing players.

Rin spoke as she extended out her hand. A card suddenly emerged from her hand upon that gesture, causing Joke’s eyes to widen. He wanted to ask how she did that, but the red-haired lady in pigtails grabbed that card from Rin’s hand before he could. When looked closely, it was a card with the word “quest” written on its front. It was the same card that Madame Fon handed her before entering Arcadia.

“Ah… a quest for helping new players, I see.”

The red-haired lady stated gleefully as she slightly shook her hand that the card was held in. The card dispersed into small particles before expanding into a blue information window floating in front of her. This had, again, rendered Joke stunned.

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Quest

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Level E

Helping new players

*introduce the game’s system

*win a duel with a bot

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Reward * Retina Pack 2 EA

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Joke stared at the words on that information window. He had some understanding that they were details about the quest. Once the red-haired lady read the information, she smiled and converted that window back into its card form, returning it back to Rin.

“Noted. I’ll register for this summoner myself, then.”

“Please,” Rin replied cheerfully.

Soon after, both ladies turned to look at Joke in unison. He raised his eyebrows in confusion before Rin realized that she had not taught him about one important thing:

“You need to hand her your ID card, Joke.”

“ID card?” The young man raised his eyebrows.

“You have to extend out your right hand like this,” Rin did so as an example, “and say ‘ID card’.”

A green card instantly appeared in her hand after she said those words. Seeing that, Joke seemed to be eager to try out what the young lady had just taught him. The moment he uttered the word ‘ID card’, a black card similar to the one he just got from Madame Fon suddenly appeared in his hand.

“Simple, isn’t it?” Rin smiled delightfully. “You may have to speak out loud to call out a card at the beginning; but once you’re more experienced, you can call a card out just by imagining it and making mental commands without having to utter a word aloud.”

This must have been what this young lady was previously doing. Joke seemed to be interested in this strange magic (?) that he had just done until Rin nudged him to quickly hand his card to the red-haired lady before him.

“Okay. Summoner… Joker?”

The red-haired lady smiled after flicking that card softly, expanding it into an information window. She scrolled down the window, looking at both Joke’s headshot—which he had no idea when it was taken—and other registration details that clearly showed that he was a beginner logging in for the first time.

“All done. Registration for new summoner completed. Welcome, Joker, to our town, Lovera. I hope you two have fun with the adventure!”

The red-haired lady said with a smile. When she closed the information window, it turned into small particles and gushed straight at Joke, causing him to stop short. That young lady then gestured towards the two summoners, inviting them into the town. Rin was still giggling at Joke’s awkwardness before nudging Joke to follow her.

“Let’s go inside first, Joke.”

With that said, Rin walked ahead into town, causing the young man to step after her—passing the red-haired lady who was bowing beautifully—amidst the glares from other new players who were lining up and starting to complain why a person got to cut cue into the town.

“Was that lady AOS’s staff?” Joke asked.

“Oh, no. She’s an NPC”

“NPC?”

“Yes. That’s an AI that can exchange conversations with us. It’s not a human like us.”

“Oh,” Joke cried out in realization before glancing back at the NPC lady from earlier, who was currently happily waving back at him. He could barely make out that it was an AI.

“There’s an easy way you can tell apart an NPC character from other summoners. If you look closely above a person’s head, you will see a diamond icon floating there. These icons dictate that that person is a summoner. Those without them are all NPCs.”

“Oh...”

Joke drawled in realization as he turned to look at Rin carefully. He then saw the said icon floating above her head. If one did not try to stare at it, the system would turn these icons off so it would not be disturbing.

“Now, I would like to first introduce the town to you,” Rin said while gesturing to the scenery around her. “This is the game starter town where every summoner has to begin their first steps here. There are various stores inside to offer goods and facilitate us. There is also a Quest Center that will hand out quests to us to complete in Arcadia.”

The young man nodded at that explanation as he looked around at the town with interest. There were plenty of summoners walking around all over the town in clothing similar to his. There were also markets surrounding its walkway with NPC offering goods; restaurants that summoners receive services; and, of course, a wooden building with a folding door and a sign written “Quest Center” attached above is located at the town’s center.

“So, what exactly is a quest?” Joke asked.

“Oh… A quest is considered a mission that the game hands out to summoners like us. Every time we complete a quest, we will receive a reward, such as money, cards, or experience points that can be used for leveling up. Of course, the harder the quest, the higher the reward.”

Joke nodded, understood, but there was still a certain matter that he was still wondering.

“And what about before—when I saw you receiving a quest from Madame Fon from outside of the game?”

“Those are also quests.” Rin smiled gleefully. “In AOS, we can receive quests from both card stores, or CF, and inside of Arcadia. Each quest we receive from different places will contain different missions. Quests handed out in each CF branch store are even different from each other. This is one of AOS’s strong points that encourage summoners to travel to various places, seeking quests to undertake in Arcadia.”

The young man cried “Oh!” aloud once again. He now had some understanding of what quests are.

“If so, then will the rewards for quests received from inside Arcadia and the ones from the outside world be different also? For instance, quests received in the game will give out rewards in the game, while quests received from the outside will give out physical rewards similar to the one you are about to be rewarded?”