Enchark: The Wyvern Quest I

"That's it? What happened to the woman?"

"She made it out alive although barely. She was scarred, physically and mentally."

Karlyle despised the ending of that 'myth.' There was barely any mention of fighting or at least some retelling of her great escape. It just ended at that.

"How could they not prove it?"

"Well, the forest could not be found."

"Not even the council?"

"The council? Pfft, as if they'd care about that. They have much more important things to do than fight creatures in our name."

The latter part of the man's statement was spoken in the most sarcastic tone imaginable. It caused Karlyle to laugh a little but then he remembered who has power over him keeping his kinetic.

"But you found it."

"We don't know if we found it, we sure hope so but by now it has probably disappeared."

"How do I find it?"

"You want to find it? Are you insane or something..."

"I just want to see it."

"Well good luck with that, like I said the forest disappears so finding it on purpose is practically impossible."

"There had to be something that let you guys and that women enter the forest, is there any similarities?"

"Well we both heard those noises and we were both heading somewhere."

"Alright then, thank you."

Karlyle got up to leave as Foster and Mimi were probably looking for him at the moment but the man pulled his arm to sit him back down. The force from that made his body bounce up when it landed on the seat.

"Are you actually going to go after it?"

"I'll need to see if my friends agree."

"I'm warning you, don't go after that."

Karlyle got up and left the room while the man's warning was drowned out by the sound of an alarming notification coming up in his vision.

[-

New quest: The Grand Wyvern of Enchark! (Mythical)

Objective: Slaughter or capture the hidden Wyvern

Reward: 1,000,000 coins spread out evenly between all contributors

Status: Pending

'Accept' 'Postpone' 'Decline'

-]

"One million?! They need to know about this... postpone"

[Input error, retry]

"Post...pone..."

[Input error, retry]

"Pooossttt, pppoonnnee"

[-

Status: Accepted, incomplete

Time Remaining: 4 days

-]

"Great, now I seriously need them to accept as well."

Karlyle didn't really know if there were any consequences to not completing a quest after it has been accepted. The worst that could happen was the total reward being deducted from your current bank account, which was possibly bad for Karlyle who had 0 in his.

[-

Immediate notice.

Due to your ranks not being calculated, the outcome of this quest will affect all of your current tourney ratings.

-]

He dismissed the notification and went inside the room Mimi reserved. They were still in there eating the food that they previously ordered.

"Hey you're back where did you go? We wanted to wait for you before getting the cake." Mimi questioned after swallowing the bite of shrimp she had in her mouth and turning around to face Karlyle.

"Don't get mad but I went to talk to the people you said ate hal-oo-so-try-p-ah"

"Never heard someone take that long to say Hallusotripea."

"Nevermind that Mimi, I accepted a quest."

"WHAT?!"

Mimi shouted in response, how could her struggling trainee accept a quest without even talking to her about it first? Karlyle could barely write a message using the Arkana Network but now he thinks he knows how the quest function works?

"HOW COULD YOU ACCEPT A QUEST?"

"Well I tried to postpone it but it wouldn't let me."

"You should've denied straight away oh my god Karlyle. What is the quest?"

Her disappointment filled the entire room while she rubbed her temples with her palms. Foster, on the contrary, was lightly grinning.

"The name was 'The Grand Wyvern of Enchark!' with 'Mythical' next to it."

This time, both of the people sitting down choked on the air around them. As they wheezed, trying to get oxygen back into their lungs, Mimi got up from her seat and slapped Karlyle with so much force he felt like his jaw shattered.

"OWW MIMI! What was that for?"

Karlyle rubbed his sore reddened cheek, trying to soothe the shocking pain.

"For being... COUGH.. an idiot! Did NOTHING in that quest name suggest this wasn't suited to your level?"

"Like what?"

"Maybe the 'Mythical' bit?"

"I didn't think that meant anything."

"Of course you didn't."

Mimi and Karlyle went back and forth for another 24 minutes till they decided to split the quest three ways. Karlyle told them the myth of the woman and the wyvern then Mimi tried to cancel the quest for him but Arkana kept throwing back an error. The group ordered the cake and ate it in silence before Foster finally brought up the elephant in the room.

"So what are we going to do?"

"We have to capture the wyvern, that I never even heard of at that, since I doubt we can kill it."

"Would my kinetic even work on it?"

"We'll have to wait and see - and pray on top of that. I'll need to get some gear, I doubt my hands will be able to do anything to its skin."

Karlyle intervened, "what about me?"

"You're gonna play bait."

"What?"

"If Foster can't inflict pain onto it then both of us will have to use physical weapons so someone has to distract it while keeping it grounded so it doesn't fly. Plus, your fire can probably rival any of its 4 breaths."

"Alright I'll try."

"Try or die, 333 thousand coins of debt will not be good for you so you might as well die instead."

"Very reassuring."

Trying to help Karlyle, Foster interrupted Mimi's slander, "hey it is going to be ok. I'll go out and buy all of us some dragon-slaying weapons... are those even a thing?"

"Just get something sharp Foster, and Karlyle go train. We can't waste any more time."

"Ok I'll head home first to change."

"No, you're going to training now."

"Yes ma'am."

Their preparations took 2 days with Karlyle and Mimi training non-stop while Foster has been going on shopping sprees trying to find the best equipment for them. Armour wouldn't do anything so he focused on weapons but turns out anti-dragon weaponry isn't all that common.

They met at the gate to the city that Karlyle passed through for the first time almost 2 weeks ago. It was now time to set out and complete the quest with only 2 days remaining.

"Let's hope we all manage to come back."

Karlyle couldn't let himself say that out loud, especially after being the reason this was happening. If something happened to Mimi or Foster, he would never forgive himself so he had to be the best wyvern bait imaginable.

"Where do we go then?"

Mimi asked. She wanted to end this misery as soon as possible.

"According to those people, you just have to walk around trying to get somewhere."

"What a plan Karlyle, if we survive you best think I'll never, and I mean n e v e r, go easy on you again. Every training session will be so torturous to the point you wish you were never born 18 years ago."

He didn't dare to talk back to her as he knew her threat was no lie.

The group walked off and continued to do so for hours. They left at midday and the sun was already setting but a fog had come up in front of them. When the fog covered them completely, they could hear roars in the distance.

"I guess we're here."

"Time to find the entrance."

Mimi teleported them all forward into the forest. The trees were larger than skyscrapers and you couldn't even see the tops of them due to the thick fog. The sounds got closer and closer but no entrance was to be seen.

"Guys, stay on guard."

At Foster's command, Mimi drew the sword she was gifted and Karlyle set his hands on fire. The sword was thin but sharp. It was an alloy consisting of obsidian, meteorite and some random metal that none of the group knew. The shape it was smelted into matched Mimi's fighting style. Due to its thin blade, and overall petite shape, it could move through the air like butter.

Karlyle only got a shield. It was thick and most likely made out of the same materials Mimi's sword was as it had the same colour and texture. He had it strapped to his back which the shield was large enough to fully cover.

"I think we're almost there."

The screams in the fog were now piercingly loud and a mountain came into view. The boulders and cobble that lay on its side spread apart and the sealed pathway opened itself to its new prey. It took the group a moment of looking at each other, taking a deep breath in unison, and saying their prayers before finally heading inside.

"We will pass this quest guys. I promise you."

"I sure hope so," was the response he got from Mimi.

"Don't worry Karlyle, it'll work out," is how Foster replied.

And just like that, they had passed the entrance of the wyvern's lair.

[-

Quest Notice

You have now entered the quest grounds, leaving will result in immediate failure of the quest.

Good luck.

-]