Next Quest

Chapter 103: Next Quest

/Howdy y'all! Tahday this little me thought to write in mah diary again for once. It's been quite some time, but today felt pretty monumentous! Y'see, it's my birthday for one, which is already a gift. Means we might even eat meat, and some of our relatives come to visit, whole place gets more lively.

But also, it's harvest day, largely. Wheat has grown tall and strong, now it's time to take in down before winter chill rolls in, ya know? We got grapes to harvest, and squash as well!

I always think harvesting is the most important part of farming, y'see, and so it seems like I got a bucketload of experience! My farming Skills shot up in level, and some even evolved all fancy-like. Now I can make all crops grow healthier, taller, and overall better just with me sweat and some water.

With my passive's stacking, any crops I tend to automatically grow much better, and with <Vitality Infusion> levelling up, I can make sure that even in rough times we can grow a quick snack or somesuch. Our harvests have been increasing with every year, and I'm not making any plans tah stop at all!/

Entry 18 from "A farmer's diary" by Billy Hill.

- - - - - -

The meal was good. Mercury couldn't really eat very many kinds of food since he was pretty strictly carnivorous right now, but Ria's cooking turned out more tasty than he'd expected.

It had been quite a while since he ate dinner like that. Actually, this must've been his first homecooked meal ever since he came to this world, not counting when Kintra was feeding him when he was depressed. He really didn't consider those very much, since the atmosphere also mattered quite a bit when it came to food.

And he had to admit, the atmosphere at Marsh's place was... great. They chatted, picked on each other a little, and exchanged pleasantries. It was laughs and smiles for the entire evening, and after finishing up, Marsh showed Mercury the guest room where he could be staying for essentially as long as he wanted.

That evening, when Mercury went into bed, he cried.

It started off slow, the warmth of the food and the company in his heart slowly fading as the darkness of the night crept in. His thoughts began to wander and to compare, to dig up any memories similar to this, and as the seconds ticked by, Mercury could feel himself getting sad.

There weren't many memories like that. Of course he had some, most of those meals spent with his brother and niece, some with his uncle, and of course the recent ones at Zyl's, but the vast majority of his meals had been lonely. He'd moved out early, and been cooking for himself ever since, but he held no passion for it. Cooking was only really fun if it was for someone else.

When it came to meals, he mostly just heated up instant food, popped some frozen pizza in the oven, made some cup noodles, quick rice, that kinda thing. Even before, when he lived with his parents, eating was more a formality. The table was silent far more often than not, and he never dared to interrupt.

So, he cried. Not because the company was bad this time, but because once again, life stood as a stark reminder of what he had lost. The friends, the little family, and those who would stand to eat at a table with him, it was a reminder of that which he'd almost had.

And that was fine. It was always up and down, a series of highs and lows. There'd been good times in this world, too, ones when he felt fulfilled, didn't think back to his old life so much. Of course, he knew those wouldn't last forever, and he knew, that eventually he might grow estranged with the people here.

After all, staying in contact was hard, and oftentimes one would just develop in different directions. It's what happened with his highschool sweetheart, Mike, and a good friend of his as well. Back on Earth, even with phones and technology, texting people regularly, it was easy to just... stop spending time with each other. Develop different hobbies, go into different fields, do different things.

Now, on Chronagen, he knew it was much harder. If he were to meet Kintra again, what would she look like? Would she even recognize him? He'd changed, and he was sure she had too. And on one hand, he knew they'd still get along, he was certain they'd chat just like old times, but then again, what if they couldn't? What if she felt betrayed since he didn't visit for so long and no longer wanted anything to do with him?

Mercury knew those things were ridiculous, but that evening, he couldn't stop them. That was just how some evenings went. It was what the fading warmth of good company might do, that nagging feeling in his stomach that would turn a nice evening sour.

And so, Mercury went to sleep, crying. Not necessarily on his own terms, not even reasonably, but because his feelings were just a little too much and asked for more room than his little heart could give them. And that was fine.

- - - - - -

When the quest to clear the place finished, Avery wanted to start heading back pretty soon. Of course, he didn't immediately give the order, they needed time to get ready, so he decided to give all his seekers some breathing room. Time to drink a sip of water, collect their bearings and get their gear together. Perhaps Avery had wolfed down an entire loaf of bread in that time, but in case he did, there would be no mention of that anywhere.

A few more minutes passed as the dismantlers did their rather grizzly work, while their field alchemist recorded the more important aspects of the thing Avery'd fought. More detailed research would be done back in Stormbraver, maybe even not by them, but he'd see. Whether or not the city was still standing, that is.

Luckily, the trek back wasn't nearly as bad as getting into the thick of it. Most monsters had disappeared after their boss was taken care of, and if they didn't, the abnormal rage within tunnels would have loosened its grip now. The scorpions would only see them as food that wasn't worth the trouble, and the worms probably also didn't want to pick a fight without being forced to.

Avery shook his head at the thought. That kind of obsessed drive, the rage and madness that drove the creatures of the tears to do what they did was honestly much more scary than those things themselves. It was simple insanity of a sort, knowing that the moment you stepped through that arch of light, you'd find yourself in a hostile environment, with every creature there trying to kill you, fuelled by a supernatural fury way beyond the scope of calming them.

But once again, that was over. After a couple more days of travelling, they'd finally made it back, standing in front of the shimmering door once again. Those with minor injuries went through first. It might be dangerous on the outside, but at least that would be predictable to some degree, not like in there.

One after another, the seekers funnelled through the entrance, and with some relief, Avery could see it begin to crack slightly as they passed. It meant that the arch wasn't permanent, but jut a one time thing. With the feeling of just passing go in a game of "Capitalistic Nightmare", the guild master stepped through to the other side.

As soon as he was out, Avery scanned the area and saw that it looked... fine. Now, there were definitely clear signs of an attack having happened. Guards on the walls, some smoke outside. They were probably burning the enemy bodies so the smell wouldn't attract any monsters.

Given that the arch had opened up on a hill, he could oversee most of the city, even noticing some scorch marks and dents on the walls, but luckily, the city had held. He didn't know how many casualties there were, but he'd have to hope they were low.

Of course, there was always someone there to report just that to him.

"Marcel, give me a status report."

"Yes. There were two attacks by the northerners over the course of a page. The first was a scouting mission, more or less. Their archers and mages attempted to lob projectiles over the walls, while our artillery attempted to shoot them down. They were most likely probing our defenses," Marcel explained.

"The second?" Avery asked.

"Much more brutal. It was a frontal assault on the gates, with plenty of firepower. They had some siege weaponry as well, catapults, trebuchets and such. Even a cannon or two in the mix. Captain Rondo entered the fray alongside Kaga, Lucia and Iris, which turned the tides in our favour. Most of the credit went to the guards and the Church of Order, though we can stomach the loss. Foss also said their guild would sponsor many of the repair operations on the walls, which means we certainly won the publicity war."

Avery nodded, patting Marcel on the shoulder. "Good job. Get someone to put the report paperwork into my office, I got some statements to draft. Also, make sure a scholar swings by our guild. We found a new monster to catalogue. Tell them I have the body in my inventory and they'll flock here like flies."

"Alright," Marcel nodded, then gave a weary sigh. Back to work he went, although hopefully it wouldn't be as hectic now that Avery was back. He took another look back, watching the arch crumble into itself and disintegrate, leaving an empty plaza. That was a nice sight at the very least.

No rest for the wicked.

- - - - - -

Mercury fell asleep feeling very tired. Crying took a lot out of him, and left him with a mild headache, but he also felt better, and with the exhaustion, he soon found his eyes growing heavy and his thoughts drifting off. Not much longer, and his lights were out.

But only for a moment, as soon after, he opened them again. Well, metaphorically of course, he did just wake up in the wide field of his dreams, and his astral body didn't exactly have eyes. What it did have was a strange growth where he kept trying to expand his mana veins, like there was pressure continuously acting and he was slowly begging to acclimate.

Seeing that, he smiled a bit. Sometimes, progress felt very far away with what he did, and seeing as he'd been working on getting his mana veins to reach further for multiple pages, this much was relieving at least. But after a short moment of checking his own body, he also looked around.

Strangely enough, something had changed. The citadel of fire in the north as still just as far as before, but he felt that the mountains and the castle of glass had moved a little closer, the same went for the fountain. Strange, but perhaps we was starting to grow closer with some elements? If he'd have to guess, it might be something like that.

For a little while, he simply enjoyed the place, the grass, the stillness, and the calm, letting it sink in almost meditatively. There was much to do, as always in there, but there was just as much of a need to relax sometimes, that much he had learned. Leyren, always.

Finally, after some time, he stretched and made himself comfortable on the soft floor, before opening up the window. 'System, what's my new main quest?' he thought, and the window popped up.

-

[Main Quest: "Looming Thread"

Condition: As a result of a lesson from old Uunrahzil, the individual has been made aware of the nothingness in between what is. They must now find it, and truly see.

Reward: 3 levels, <Weaving> affinity pass, choice of unique type spell from a suitable list.]

-

Well, shit. This was one hell of a quest. Sure, he knew he could do it eventually, and he felt like he'd been very close to seeing the threads before when Dreamweaver told him about them, but this really put it into perspective. Mercury always thought the system was fair, if a little mean sometimes, and these rewards... well, they didn't seem like the kinda thing you'd get for something easy.

He could see it immediately. The fact that there were no ability of Skill points, and not even a single gold made it very clear that the rewards were certainly on a whole different level, but that also meant that the challenge would be entirely harder than any of the quests before.

After all, the last time he got an affinity pass that was already tough, and it was only for a single Skill back then. If Mercury wasn't wrong, and taking a look at the Skill Shop he certainly didn't think he was, <Weaving> was a whole cluster of Skills. <Spider Silk>, <Thread Control>, <Thread Detection>, <Looming>, and more were all Skills he'd guess would benefit from an affinity to <Weaving>.

Honestly though, knowing the system and the context, that might not be the end of it. The affinity might even extend to dream-related Skills and even abilities, and just the scope of that pass was enough to make the quest seem nigh impossible. But then, there was the possibility of a unique spell.

Mercury had seen spells cast before. Elliot used many wind based ones and Marcel had cast a fair share during their little adventure as well, but those were simply elemental spells, by far the most common ones to be learned. From what Elliot and Esmeya explained, there were scrolls and books for those, which made learning them easy, the hard part was mastering timing, control, and mana expenditure.

But none of them had ever even mentioned a unique spell. Given how rare unique Skills were, and the fact that spells seemed to be a slightly less general, but still highly important sub-classification, Mercury knew that getting a unique spell certainly wouldn't be free.

Add to that a whole three levels, and the amount of effort this task would require seemed monumental.

Comparing it to his other main quest of starting a village, the rewards were incomparable almost. Genuinely, some Exp and Gold just didn't even come close. Actually, that made him think. What exactly would the system consider starting a village? Maybe he only had to declare his intent to do so? Well, even then, he needed something to anchor it to for sure, right?

[The individual seems to be posing a question. Utilize <Appraisal>?]

Yes.

[Quests are handed out after consideration of the system's difficulty assessment. The establishment of a village requires no more than one person and a fixed location or object. It is not necessarily a difficult task. However, due to the individual's reluctance in completing it, there have been some considerable changes to reward distribution the individual experienced, namely the usage of merit points to open up a second main quest slot.]

So essentially, he really just had to pick an area, and declare himself village chief?

[Correct, almost. A mobile anchor might also be acceptable as the village center.]

Well, that certainly was new. Maybe he really should just get it over with? No, there were still too many questions about it, and there wasn't even a guarantee that his second slot would stay open, is there.

[The system does not take responsibility for decisions made by the host and their detrimental effects.]

Straight answers, <Appraisal>, please.

[Yes. There is a chance the slot might close if insufficient desire is found within the individual. Merit may or may not be partially refunded.]

Well, then maybe now wasn't the best time. He should probably just get back to work and try to find the threads of his dream.

[<Appraisal> has levelled up! <Appraisal lv. 2 -> 3>]

What?

[<Appraisal> has levelled up.]

[Does message clarity need to be increased?]

No, no, that was an expression of being stunned you- oh. Mercury paused for a moment. Yeah, this had happened before. The last time <Appraisal> levelled up it also seemed to mock him for a little while. Seemed like growth spurts might make it enter a rebellious phase.

Mercury nodded. He knew those happened, his niece certainly was quite naggy towards her parents when she hit puberty. The cat shook his head with a smile, it felt like he was dealing with a kid suddenly, instead of textboxes that floated in front of his face.

'Thanks <Appraisal>, but I don't think I need any extra information now. You've been very helpful already,' he said, deciding to not play into its taunts. A short silence followed, before another message popped up.

[Confirmed.]

And finally, Mercury went back to meditation, one breath in, one out, looking for that state of ihn'ar within himself.

- - - - - -

Tesla had failed. He sighed once more, looking at the contraption he'd built. The bodies he had constructed for his beloved pigeon were good, but not perfect yet. He was experimenting largely using feathers from native birds and attempting to reconstruct them using their mana colour and stamina crystal signature to find their exact nature.

He knew that back on his world, there was something similar to it, some sort of code that described exactly how living beings functioned, but he wasn't a biologist, and so he had not done as much investigation on it as he now would've liked. Instead, he was left with plenty of mechanical engineering knowledge, constructing microscopes and lab equipment that was more advanced to make up for his shortcomings.

Progress was slow, but every failure was a step forward. Growing living things was borderline impossible with the techniques he knew from earth, so he had to come up with new ones on the fly. Luckily, he was able to leverage his influence and hire some druids with expert knowledge on using stamina to simulate tissue growth, both in animals and plants.

Largely, that was used to heal, and corpses couldn't exactly be healed, but by collecting stamina in specially made tanks and vats, he could use machinery for the process instead of applying Skills. Those could be shaped by the user's will, but what Tesla needed was infallible consistency, and as much as he wanted to be fast, he couldn't cut corners when it came to that.

So, he kept harvesting stamina. Not unethically, he largely grew mosses that would slowly form buds of stamina by themselves, and then he harvested them and stored it. He submerged feathers in there, runes of recreation and regrowth scratched onto them in tiny designs, made possible by machinery.

Slowly but surely, he was making progress. He had grown entire wings now, until the process stopped. Even then, most of the results were far less gruesome than one would expect. Since they had an ample supply of stamina, the body parts were perfectly healthy. Some had slight growth defects, but nothing major, instead, the process halted when it came to reconstructing more complex organs that could easily fail.

For now, his biggest roadblock were any form of internal organ. He hadn't gotten the signature right just yet, but he would, in time. It was all only a matter of time, after all, and time he had plenty.

Just to be safe though, he knocked on his wooden desk thrice after that thought. Had to be careful not to ruin his own chances.