Chapter 3 “Wizard’s clue”

Helping others is definitely a noble thing to do. Sometimes however, you pay heavy price for it. At worst, it can even lead to your death. This time however, that did not happen.

Not knowing how much time have passed, Arata woken up in bed. After opening his eyes he saw unfamiliar to him room. It was a small room and apart from the bed on which he was laying there was just a wardrobe and small table next to the bed. On his right there was a window and from which the sun was coming inside the room while enlightening it.

“So where did I end up again?”

The last thing he remembered was falling down from the tree. Still quickly stopped thinking of what happened as on the table he saw an object of his desire. Not believing, Arata rubbed his eyes but the image did not disappear. What was before him was.

-FOOD!!!!

He screamed and wolf down the food that was placed at the table next to his bed. Even though he was very hungry and any food would taste like 5-star cuisine, he found out that this food was really good. Actually, Arata has never eaten something this good before.

As he was eating, the door opened up and high muscular men with a a small black beard came in.

-hahaha, I see that you are well now, after seeing you eating like that. Good, good, I was worried for a second, it is you third day after all.

-munch, munch?

-yes, yes, first finish eating then respond, do you want some more?...

After the man asked Arata just nodded.

-you were paid up front, so there is no problem, Hey, Mary bring some more food…

More food arrived and as Arata was continuing with eating, man started talking.

-ah, I am yet to introduce myself. My name is Marco, I was once a traveler, fighter and cook. After living many years with the life on the edge, I now settled down and currently I am the owner of this restaurant. Anyway could you tell me your name as well?

-Arata.

-so Arata, the moment that you came here or was rather dragged was hilarious. The girl had it rough.

-what girl?

-I thought that it was your friend, I don’t know her. Anyway, she dragged you to my restaurant, booked you a room, and then run away in hurry. At first I thought that you were dead but that was not the case as your stomach started to grumble. Well I picked you up after that and left you in this bed. That was three days ago and now you are awake.

-well thank you.

-don’t thank me, thanks the girl.

-sure but I don’t know her.

-me neither but it doesn’t matter to me as long as I get paid, but anyway how did you end up like this?

-well I was looking for the food, then the cat, and then I fell from the tree.

Arata tried to explain as fast as possible to not lose the time of eating.

-haha, you are interesting fellow. Well I didn’t understand a thing except that you were hungry. Anyway what do you plan to do next? I see that you have two swords with you, are you going to training center?

-I was there already, for now I don’t have plans. Something like finding a job so I won’t die of hunger is my top priority right now.

-ah, one day without eating is not a true hunger. Once when I was traveling with my comrades, we were on Ostrich desert, and didn’t have anything to eat or drink.

-I have to remember to avoid desserts then. How did you survive?

-naturally, thanks to my ability to cook.

-but you just said that you didn’t have anything to eat.

-yes, there was nothing but cactuses.

-so what did you cook?

-those cactuses and parts of our leather clothes.

-what!?

-yes it tasted hideously, but it could be eaten, and thanks to that we survived. Cooking ability is best ability out there. With it you can survive everywhere.

-seems like it.

-anyway if you are looking for work you can start with me, I will give you a fair price, and if you want I can teach you some basic cooking as well.

“Well, cooking was always good ability to have. In MMOs it usually gives good stats on high level. I was going to earn the money right now anyway so getting some skills while doing so can’t be bad.”

-thanks for the offer I will gladly accept it.

With that, for five days Arata lived and worked in Marco’s restaurant. He mostly did chores, cleaning, washing the dishes, throwing out rubbish. But he earned enough, so wouldn’t have to worry about the food till the end of month. He also leveled up cooking ability quite a bit and what was important it was for free.

[ Cooking skill

Only those who know hunger know how important ability to cook is. Cooking is one of fundamental abilities for everyone yet it is strange that so few try to study it.

Cooking ability allows you to cook various things. The higher is your ability the better food is. High level food increases some abilities for short period of time. You may also cook without this skill but there will be no stats bonuses.

Current level of skill 3(67%) ]

Arata was about to move out and Marco has come to say his farewell.

-well Arata, it was nice to have you do all the labors here but I know that you have to answer your call of adventure. Try to remember the things that I taught you. Find me again when you become better and show me your skills.

-thanks Marco, I will, till the next time.

-till the next time, Arata.

As Arata moved a little he checked his inventory for the first time.

[Welcome to the inventory menu. You can see all items that you currently have as well as your current gold in here. Items that are hidden inside your bag can’t be summoned instantly in case of battle. It’s good idea to have things equipped just in case.]

“Okay, let’s see what is there.”

[Current money: 1 gold 87 silvers 35 copper]

[Item list: 1 x Beginner Clothing (e)

1 x Copper Sword (e)

1 x First Sword of Lighting Speed (e)

20 x Bread

20 x Rice

10 x Marco’s special flavoring

1 x Wizard orb ]

“Okay with this I won’t faint any time soon, but what is this?”

Arata spotted strange item that he shouldn’t have and summoned information about this.

[ Wizard orb

(Quest item) Starts vision from Wizard. ]

“There is nothing to think about, let’s just use it.”

[You have started the quest “Wizard’s Clue”

???

Rank of quest 10

Reward unknown]

When Arata used the item he started to hear a voice of someone. It was a deep voice of someone who already lived his years.

“-I don’t have time for everyone, so I will keep it short. You have caught my interest young Arata, not only you defeat your opponents in the tournament but you also tried to teach them how to fight during it. Even though you were hungry, you helped those kids with their cat. Also you have strange hair, yes it’s probably mostly because of that I even contact you. It’s been a while since I saw someone so interesting but as I said I don’t have time for everyone, still if you manage to find me, you won’t be disappointed. Here is your clue to my whereabouts, try to solve this riddle.”

[There are three paths, one leads to Heaven, other leads to Hell and one leads to the Wizard. Each of them contains two informations. The ones on the path to Heaven hold the truth, the ones on the path to Hell are lies, and ones on the path to Wizard can be both truths and lies. Find out which path is which, when you are ready to answer, use this orb.]

[Localizations of first clues:

Instructor in training center.

Spice Merchant from the south in market district.

Old man who likes to feed birds in the park.]

“Oh a quest, it is indeed different from all those stupid jobs so far. Let’s see, I am not very good at riddles but what a better thing to do than do a quest? It’s an essence of RPGs after all and I already did my part for my class. For now I have to gather the clues.”

Arata started to run around the city. The only one who was easy to find was instructor from training center.

-hey there Arata, did you come to visit old man?

-actually yes, do you have clue for me?

Arata asked right away without wasting any second.

-clue what is it, a guessing game?

-so you don’t know anything about it?

-sorry I don’t. Maybe I forgotten something, but I don’t have problems with memory.

“Instructor doesn’t seem like someone who would lie. Still the location of the clue was him.”

-are there any other instructors in this training center?

-no, there is no need for others, I am enough, but what is it that you seek?

-hmm… a latter perhaps? A clue? Something about the paths.

Probably Arata’s explanation wasn’t helpful.

-I teach the path of sword, but I don’t know what you are looking for, and as for the letter, look my pockets are… .

-something is wrong?

Instructor took out a small letter from this pocket. On the front there was a note ‘Give it to a man with strange hair’.

-well, its looks like my pockets were not empty, and your hair is strange enough I guess, here.

Instructor passed on the letter to Arata. Arata right away opened it and started reading.

[This is the path to heaven. Next clue from this path is in Library. Ask for the book of Robin Mallow.]

After that, Arata was running around to find the other clues. It took him four days to gather them all even with the help of the guards. One reason for it was because the city was quite big still it took so long mostly because the old man who likes to feed the birds was not coming to the park every day.

“This city is big, and why there is no map in this game?”

That’s were Arata’s thoughts after he finally managed to gather all information’s.

“Anyway what is with this quest? I am running around for four days and the most important part is yet to be completed.”

In all others games that Arata play so far, quests were much simpler, and you could always check the internet if you had the trouble but here you could not. If not for the guards it would take forever to find all those people.

“Okay, how is my time so far? One day in the arena, three days of being unconscious, five days of work with Marco and now that’s the fourth day that I am wasting my time on this quest. So out of 30 days I still have 17 to go. Well it’s not that I have any other thing to do, as I still can’t go anywhere until I get profession. I could level up a little as well but I don’t want to do any of those stupid jobs anymore.”

In the end, Arata was happy that he got a quest, and the thing that it was so different than any other quest was interesting. On the side note even though it should be his greatest concern right now, he didn’t worry about his profession that much as he already won the tournament.

“Let’s see all the clues once again.”

He summoned his menu and opened ‘note panel’ where he wrote down all information

[ A:Instructor-Library, B:Merchant-Main Gate, C:Old man-Chapel

A: This is the path to Heaven, The Wizard is living underground.

B: The Wizard is waiting for his student. The Wizard is living within the Tower.

C: The Wizard is living near the lake. This is a path to Heaven]

“Okay, so as far as I thought up, the path that I should choose is…”

-…

Long silence.

“Let’s think about it again, what if the first path is the path to Heaven? No let’s focus on something else first, how could wizard live underground in the first place? Path B should be heaven’s path as Wizards normally live in some towers, and he might just wait for some student. On the other hand he didn’t sound like person who would like to have students. And how about path C? Wizard lives near the lake? Well, he did sound like a person who appreciates good view and solitude. Yes, house in remote place where no one bothers him would probably be to his liking…”

-…

Another long silence.

“But in the first place he should be in this city if I have this quest on the first month and I didn’t see any lakes with houses next to it. There are no lakes here at all. Hmm, just to be sure I should check it with guard.”

-lakes? There aren’t any. Are you sure nothing happened to your head. When was the last time you look in the mirror, your hair looks really weird.

Ignoring guards other comments Arata confirmed that there weren’t any lakes in this city.

“So first C is a lie so this is not a path to heaven, it makes second C lie as well as path to heaven is a path with only truths. C has two lies which make it Hell path or path to a Wizard but Hell sounds more reasonable. If there were two paths with only lies there would be no path to Wizard. With this settled how B goes? It is possible that Wizard live in the tower but I can’t know if he has a student and also path A. If wizard lives underground then he can’t live in the Tower and if I say the second A is truth then there are two truth as it’s a path to Heaven, making it path B the path to the Wizard. On the other hand If I say that path B is path to the heaven, Wizard will be living in the tower and not underground making it A with one lie which would automatically make two lies, making it path A path to Hell. But I already have path to Hell. Path B must be path to Wizard as there is both, lie and something I can’t know. With path A being heaven it works out nicely. On the other hand if B is path to heaven then A is second path to hell which won’t work. But is C really path to hell?…”

Arata thought about it for another half an hour but nothing better come to his mind. Even though he was not 100% sure, he used the orb.

[-your answer?]

-path with instructor is the path to Heaven, Merchant is the path to Wizard, and Old Man is the path to Hell.

After that Arata again heard a voice in his mind.

“-haha, it took you a while but at least you are right, okay next challenge.”

-hey, hold on a minute! What next challenge? Didn’t I earn a right to visit you already? Remember, it’s you who were interested in me, not the other way around.

“-hmm… well, there is nothing wrong with what you said but I am bored lately, my student went on a mission and still didn’t come back. Wait did I forget about something? ... Nah it wasn’t important if I don’t remember, anyway I decided that I will play around with you a little more.”

-didn’t you play around enough?

“-no but fine I will give you a chance, if you answer this question you won’t have to take another challenge. It’s not a riddle or something that would test your knowledge. It doesn’t have a defined positive answer or rather it has multiple positive answers and you just have to name one. It is just a simple question.”

-okay I am ready.

“-so answer to me, what is it that you need to do so badly? You have five seconds.”

-well, I need to, I need to…

Five seconds passed quickly and Arata didn’t think of anything in that time.

“-haha, you lost. See you had a good time as well, why don’t we play some more. Don’t worry. There won’t be anything intellectual things this time. You had so hard time with this riddle that your head would explode if you had to take something with minimum difficulty.”

-hey!

“-okay, here is the challenge, find and climb one of the highest ‘thing’ in this city, also try not to fall this time.”

-okay, I will manage with it quickly. So what is that thing?

“-you have to find it by yourself, where would be the fun if I just told you.”

The connection with Wizard was lost.

Without any more information, once again Arata started running around in random directions. The city was huge and it was hard to point out which was the highest thing in the city. There were also some hills witch make some buildings look higher from afar. Also it wasn’t just a highest thing in the city but one of the highest things in the city. It was not defined so fining it a hard way would be the only way to do it. Arata decided that he would just climb one high building and after that he would look from there for something that was higher than his position.

Because he was slacking off as it was really annoying thing to do and also he often stopped on the way after founding something interesting, it took him three days until he found the right place. The large chapel, right in the center of the city. And the highest place was gigantic cross right above the entrance. It seemed similar to a simple Christian cross but it had one more line crossing with others. The moment he saw it from up close the message appeared that he founded the right building.

“Now that I think about it I should start from here.”

Although Arata found the location that he needed to climb up there was one small problem. There were some ‘special guards’ around the chapel and they would probably not be very happy about him climbing that cross. Arata walked to one of them and started the conversation.

-hello there, nice day isn’t it?

-good morning citizen, if you have come to make a donation talk with priestess Patrice, she should be inside the chapel.

-ah yes, I will do that later, but first, I wanted to ask few questions?

-my duty is to guard this chapel but as you can see no one is making any riot right now, so you can ask away and I will answer.

-you seems to have a nice armor much different from all others guards of the city.

-that’s natural as we are the paladins in the service of our goddess Ellsa.

“Paladin? Eh this will be hard.”

-another question what would happen if someone tried to climb at top of that cross?

-haha funny, don’t worry that won’t happen before he could even try we would stop him.

-yes, yes that was a stupid question, wasn’t it?

-if you are interesting in climbing, I heard a rumor that there is some strange person who climbed many buildings in the city in past few days, but don’t worry we will defend our sacred cross against him.

-oh he would be stupid to even try.

-now that I think about it what were they saying about him? His look was rather distinctive. Let’s see, oh yes, he had two swords on right side just like you and not to offend you a strange hair just like you…

The guard stopped for a moment but Arata already started running.

-hey wait!...

While running he could hear shouts behind him.

-Brothers! Catch that man!

“Now or never.”

Arata didn’t waste any minute and turned to the direction of the chapel.

[ Lighting speed activated ]

With double speed he managed to get at the top roof without any need of climbing. He simply ran up the wall. Still, his skill ended right after he got at top of the chapel so Arata started to climb the cross the normal way. When Arata got at the top of the cross he looked down for a moment and there he could see many people staring at him. They were both players who just started the game, and also way too many angry paladins.

Arata stopped looking in that direction anymore as maybe if he stopped looking down the whole situation will resolve by itself. He looked around and from the top of the cross he saw the gorgeous view of the whole city and orange setting sun in the west as it was hiding behind the mountains.

“Paladins will kill me the moment I go down but it was worth it.”

The thoughts of dying soon didn’t allow Arata to fully enjoy the view. Then while he was sitting there the orb that he got from the quest started to shine. And soon the voice of Wizard entered his mind.

“-beautiful, isn’t it.”

-worth every penny.

Arata answered.

“-okay, with that being done no more games, it is time that you come to me. I will now tell you where to find me. Do you see the large building with a green roof in the south part of the city.”

-the one with clock tower next to it?

“-yes exactly that one, go there at night and the light will show you the way.”

-is this another riddle?

“-I promise it’s not, you will know what I meant when you get there.”

-if you say so, for now I will enjoy the view. But could you help me a little?

“-if you want to ask me about something, do it when we talk.”

-I don’t think that it can wait.

“-hmm?”

-you see where I am, right?

“Of course I look through the orb that I gave you. The main reason that you had to climb here was that I could enjoy the view.”

-then look down for a second because I can’t anymore.

“-afraid of height hmm, don’t worry it just look bad but keep your head cool and you should get down as easily as you got up.”

-not that, look more carefully.

“-hmm…, oh, that.”

-yes.

“-well I think I can give you advice then.”

-what advice?

“-look out for the hammer!”

Unfortunately that warning was too late. Arata got hit by ‘hammer of justice’. It was a skill used by paladins. They could enchant their hammers with holy energy and throw it at their opponent. Those who got hit usually had a problem with moving for a little while afterwards. And if player on low level got hit, he would be out in a second. Still because it’s main purpose was to stun the opponent rather than kill him Arata managed to survive the blow.

Still right now Arata started falling from the highest point in the whole city, death was what surely awaited him. He also couldn’t do anything as the hammer of justice did its job, although even if Arata could move it would not be helpful.

However Arata suddenly started to slow down and then just before he was going to hit the ground where the paladins were waiting he disappeared in flash. Well, at least that was how it looked from the outside.

Unable to do anything Arata landed on the ground in more remote area where no one was walking around. He was surprised by the voices that he heard.

-he, teleported?

-hey who was that?

Then commander of paladins said in strong voice.

-it was not the teleport, rather combination of two spells. He was stunned for sure after he got hit by the hammer, but in the middle I don’t know how but his stun status ended and he casted slow fall, spell that slow you down when you fall. It’s very useful in remote area. Then as he was near the ground he casted another spell that made him invisible. That’s some rare magic that he had in his slave, but the most surprising is that he managed to do that after getting hit by my hammer. It is better that we don’t follow him anymore. There is no need to wage a war against someone this powerful just because of small prank.

-hey, hey did you hear, even commander of paladins from Ellsa didn’t want to follow this guy.

-you heard him. He must be some high level player to do things like that.

-he should have at least level 200.

-he might be even one of the top, wow we saw a legend.

-he deceived us by walking around in beginner clothes but that must be it.

-well you saw his hair right, that’s some unique customization.

All those glorified comments were directed to the person who was lying on the ground and couldn’t move at all.

“At least I am alive somehow.”

Arata focused on the most important fact as he saw that the paladins returned to their duty and didn’t search for him.

“-hahaha, you see their faces. Teleport? That would be even better but you are too far from me at the moment so I didn’t do it as it might have been unstable. I never was that good in teleportation, especially when it came to teleporting others. Anyway be happy, you have become famous.”

-… .

“-well then. You should lie down for a moment and enjoy the dirty road. I see that you took quite liking to it seeing that you don’t want to get up. Anyway because you may have lost some of resent memories from the previous impact remember, light will show the way.”

Five hours have past it was already dark outside Arata was still lying on the ground.

“In moments like this I can’t even log out”.

After getting hit by the hammer of justice he couldn’t move so he also couldn’t cross his fingers to summon a menu and press log out bottom.

“But this game is really evil. There was information that there will be no more stupid jokes and evil laughter but I don’t think that was the truth.”

That was true, the game was cruel and hard but what is a better thing that overcoming challenges?

After another twenty minutes Arata was finally ready able to move.

“The night should last for at least five hours. I have to find the Wizard before that.”

Afterwards it took him less than two hours before Arata reached his destination, after all that running and climbing, he already was familiar with the structure of city pretty well, also he knew could easily see the landmark the big clock tower that marked his way. Arata already climbed this tower before so he was especially familiar with this area.

“Light will show you a way hmm. It looks like it was another riddle after all.”

Those were Arata’s thought when he arrived at the destination and didn’t see any clue as to what that could mean. Still he was wrong this time, as the orb he got for this quest started to shine and small beam of light showed a direction. It also shined up on the wall which made a note.

[-see, it’s not a riddle.]

After he saw it he once again heard the voice of the Wizard.

“-hmm it was going to be the end but you made me wait for so long and I was bored. So, maybe another challenge?”

“What is wrong with this NPC?”

Arata was already at the end of tolerance with this quest.

“-Oh I know, I know another riddle: This time there are two paths and two wizard’s apprentice. One of them always lie another one always says the truth. One path leads to Wizard, and another one leads to certain death, you can ask only one question to one apprentice to find out which path you should take, so what is your question?”

-didn’t you copy this riddle from somewhere else?

Arata was sure that he heard it somewhere already. He even knew the answer to it but he had enough of playing around for today.

“-of course I did, you don’t deserve any great riddle of mine me, if you wanted to get a better one you should avoid the hammer and made it on time. Fine no more riddles but there is also that ritual that you must complete first.”

-I don’t want any riddles or rituals. No! I am done. I don’t care anymore. You are too damn annoying to deal with, have a nice day, bye, bye. I hope we won’t see each other again.

“-wait don’t go. Fine no more riddles, the entrance is just around the corner. You simply have to pull the torch.”

-torch?

“-yes torch, secret passage, cool isn’t? After you pull the torch you will see the staircase that will lead downward. You just have to go down the stairs, I am already waiting for you there in the first room.”

-you truly are living underground aren’t you?

“-it was on the path to heaven after all.”

Arata did as instructed and he has finally found the wizard.

[You have completed the quest “Wizard’s clue”

As annoying as he might be, he is really powerful so try not to angry him. Should you desire you can begin magic training.

Reward: You can begin magic training, which may decide what profession you receive.]

[You have level up by 100%]

[You have gained level, current level 5]

[Achievement: Feel proud as you completed your first quest. You may think that it is only rank 10 but so far 60% of player population still didn’t complete even one.]

-oh you are finally here, took you long enough. So, you want to learn a secret of magic but I won’t teach you anything, muhahahaha!

The wizard looked like a definition of wizard himself, He was tall slim, had a long gray beard and big pointed hat. He was also wearing a long dark blue robe.

-quest completed, time to go, bye.

Arata wasn’t interested in magic that much, he already thought that he secured a warrior profession and didn’t want to somehow ended up as mage. It wasn’t that he had anything against mages, well maybe now he did after meeting this Wizard but after fighting in the arena against other players and finding out how useful his actual skills were in this world, it would be a shame to not use them. Also if he was ever to tell his grandfather that he is fighting by shooting some spells at his opponents from afar, his grandfather may actually disinherit him.

-wait, wait! What’s wrong with you, don’t you want to learn magic?

Wizard’s attitude changed right away after seeing that Arata was ready to go.

-not really and I’m going now.

-no, no wait, wait! Forget the magic training, I wanted to ask you something!

-well, you may want to ask but I don’t want to answer. I am already quite annoyed that after this whole quest I got a reward that is useless to me.

-hmm… then how about this, I will give you two gold coins.

At that moment Arata turned around and sit down one the chair right away.

-now we are talking but ten gold coins, paid up front, no cheating.

-I am but a poor magician, will 5 do?

-ten.

-last offer 7 gold coins.

-and here I thought that you wanted to talk with me, was nice knowing you. No, wait it wasn’t nice, I don’t want to hear from you again.

-okay, okay. Ten gold coins here. But know you will regret it one day.

-nice doing business with you.

“I have no idea how this game work, but you can a bargain with NPC, that is something.”

-but you surely don’t want to learn about magic at all?

Wizard asked once again.

-will it change my profession to a mage?

-oh that is what you are worried about. Don’t worry about profession you will get what is written there for you. You shouldn’t worry about the future in the first place.

-so far I nearly died few times already, so I am quite worry.

-but you are immortal adventurer, what’s there to worry about. Anyway we won’t do that much I just wanted to know if you have some talent for magic.

-and why is that?

-for my studies of course.

-okay fine, so what I need to do?

Arata decided that finding out how magic at least works would be useful as well. Even though he himself wasn’t planning on using magic his opponents might.

-for now just move this orb with your mind.

Wizard took out an orb similar to the one he gave Arata and put it on the table.

-…

Arata didn’t say anything to Wizard’s explanation.

-go on I will watch.

-you really want me to get out, don’t you?

-??? ah yes first I should explain how it’s work. Oh I am sorry I didn’t mean to, I just forgotten…

“Crazy old madman with memory problems, ah so that is the definition of Wizard.”

Wizard started explaining.

-listen and remember it well. Magic is an expression of the thought. There are many skills of course and all but all first came from the image in your head.

-I don’t get it.

-ah so you wanted a ‘peasant version’, oh no problem…

Arata had really enough but he listened.

-magic can be divided into two categories, one is simple skills, easy to master and easily useable in battle, you think of something you did before and boom big fireball, tornado and things like that. But all that came from pure magic which is as I said expression of the thoughts. You should be honored to hear about it as I am one of few masters of it, it’s not a common knowledge. Anyway it’s work like this, you think of something and can do pretty much everything, as long as your image is strong enough that is. That’s the hardest part.

-so how should I move the ball?

-hmm, try to imagine a small cloud is underneath it and move it.

-cloud underneath it…?

Wizard’s explanation wasn’t too helpful. Five minutes passed and then another five. Arata gave up.

-looks like I don’t have talent, so can I go now?

-hmm, looks like cloud must been too hard for the first time. I have another idea, though. Try to image additional hand which comes out from your body. It should be easier to control it since it’s connected to you

-might as well give it a try, but somehow I don’t see it.

Arata tried again then the ball started to move a little on the table. Then after a minute or so for a few second it was hanging in the air.

-well not bad, see you do have some talent.

-it’s quite funny thing. But did anyone really managed to do it with cloud?

Arata asked as even with the hand it wasn’t easy.

-my resent apprentice managed to do it…

“That must have been someone with talent for that.”

-oh no, I forgotten!

But then suddenly the Wizard froze.

-age does it to people. I am not surprised.

Arata answered sarcastically.

-ah my poor apprentice, she worked so hard and she will fail…

Wizards started a monologue but then.

-well… the world is unfair anyway and it’s no longer my problem.

It looked like, in the end, Wizard wasn’t really troubled by it. In the first place if he was troubled he wouldn’t have forgotten about it and play numberous games with Arata.

-what you are talking about?

Arata ended up asking little interested.

-well, it’s been almost a month since I found her. I was scanning the city as I like to do it from time to time and then I saw a girl dying out of hunger right next to entrance to my hideout and because I have kin heart and couldn’t just look away, I took her in.

-I don’t think that you have kin heart but go on.

Arata remarked. There already were lies in Wizard’s story.

-well after few days she woke up. When she found out that I am a Wizard her eyes started to shine and she asked me if I can teach her. I normally don’t take apprentice, actually I didn’t have any before her, but as I said I have kin heart.

-or rather you can’t say no when girl ask you to do something.

-well one way or another I asked her to take the test, and she lifted up the ball on her first try with the cloud method. In five seconds after she started the orb begin to move, and after half a minute it was already in the air floating steadily…

“So it’s only me who doesn’t know how to do that.”

Even though Arata managed to lift up the orb with the hand method, it was barely for a second and the floating couldn’t be called ‘steady’ either.

-as I said you can’t choose your profession but, if you do various things, you may somehow affect it. Also the way she ended up in my place is also somehow destined. So after she passed the test with impressive result like that, I gave her some jobs that would make her closer to magician class just as she wanted. She did most of those jobs nicely as well. After some time I decided to put her to the final test and sent her on the mission. It was about the same time when my hideout ended up sparkling everywhere.

“I knew that he giving someone training for free was fishy.”

-and what was a mission about?

-well she had to find few things that I hidden in city, but… .

-yes?

-umm… .

-it’s your fault isn’t it?

Arata didn’t know what it was about but he knew who the culprit was.

-maybe.

-rather surely, okay what did you do?

-Arata answer me this, did you enjoyed your challenges so far?

Wizard asked to which Arata bluntly answered.

-no.

Although Arata did enjoy parts of it, his answer was clear.

-but they were at least easy, right?

-easy? You call it easy? A commander of paladin order ended up using a ‘hammer of justice’ on me. Is that your definition of word easy?

-well at least she shouldn’t fight anything. Probably…that was the plan at least, now I am not… com…pletely… sure?

-so you made her go on impossible quest to find something. The clues are not even nearly enough to find it and she will fight against something that will one-shot her right?

-wow! Your talent as a magician is great, you can already read my mind?

-no I just had the similar experience in past few days.

-but you managed somehow didn’t you.

-hammer of justice man.

Arata had the strongest argument.

-okay, okay I know that I did wrong, but for that reason I asked you to come in the first place.

-I don’t really see any connection with me coming here though.

-well it’s rather simple I want to help her, but I can’t do it directly, so in my stead you will do it.

[ Quest “Wizard apprentice”

Wizard feels bad about what he had done to his apprentice so he found an adventurer to help his apprentice. Help the apprentice in unreasonable task that Wizard prepared.

Reward: Magic cloak of your choice. There are three versions with different stats.

You can punch Wizard in the face three times. This reward doesn’t have to be executed, right away.

Rank of quest 9. ]

Rank of the quest was 9 which was pretty high. Normally you would need a party of 5 players to complete it. Although rank didn’t mean that you need to have high level, if you get the quest it was meant for your level although it might be impossible for solo players but usually you wouldn’t get a notice that you need a party. Still, Arata could not give up reward, and replayed.

-I will gladly punch you in the face. I mean I will help that apprentice.

[You have accepted the quest]

-oh that great, to find her I could give you another riddle, but we are short on time. Give me your orb for a second….

Arata throw it to him. Wizard caught it and after few second the orb started to shine and the light was pointing in the direction from where Arata came in from.

-I will now explain the details but after that, just follow the light.

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=333&t=2980