Chapter 1:

Jay, now Jay Northsand, first of his name, was having a bad day.

“God, or whatever is out in this world, I hope that this is worth it.”

+++

Name: Jay Northsand

Class: Quester (7)

Class skills:

Minimap (N/A), Description (5), Highlight Objects of Interest (3), Danger Sense (2)

General skills:

Stansa Common (11), Etiquette (5), Strongarm (3), Swordsmanship (1)

Quest:

Claim your reward! (Epic)

Traits:

Outworlder, Noble, Stansa Citizen

Karma: +18

Reputation: 7

+++

Jay ‘hyahed’ at his faithful level 5 donkey, and continued speaking to himself, ”That Duke Stansa may have not expected me to be able to find the region crystal, and may have intended to make me a noble only in name, but he clearly wasn’t experienced with my class! If-”

A vulture shrieked overhead.

Jay glared at the sky, ”You can all shut the FUCK up! You’ll be getting no free meal today!”

Jay wiped his head, the dusty badland heat was getting to him, ”I know my class won’t steer me wrong…”

…

Jay poured some water into a trough for his donkey, ”Don’t worry Betsy, it’s all going to be dandy.”

‘Betsy’ didn’t pay Jay any mind, it was normal for her master to ramble on the road.

“They say there aren’t any monsters this far out. They said something like, 'There ain’t nothing out there thataways, never mind monsters.’ "

Betsy brayed, and that was enough for Jay to continue, ”Bullshite, I say. If there’s land, There’s monsters. Besides, I’ve watched Animal Planet, they haven’t. Plenty of animal life out in these badlands, it’s out in the desert where there ain’t shit.”

His animal companion had already gone to sleep at that point, and Jay didn’t see the reason to stay up any longer.

“If I die because those cheap bastards wouldn’t escort me… I’m gonna haunt them.”

…

Jay was supposed to be in a good mood, but he couldn’t manage it,”Those damned bastards, how could they occupy the watering hole?! I was supposed to celebrate today! It’s not every day that your donkey levels up!”

The young noble watched the country-side roll by. Even with the cart moving at a rate three times greater than walking speed, It had still been over two months since he entered his barony and lost contact with civilization.

Jay couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle, ”Who would’ve thought that having a Barony over six time larger than normal would be a problem, huh Betsy?”

Betsy just snorted.

A little bit of real humor returned into Jay’s voice, ”I know, we knew that would be a problem from the start. But those pill-bug looking monsters really pissed me off. I knew that there’d be monsters out here, but if they start occupying our water sources, we’re fucked, old gal.”

Jay pulled up his mini map, his quest marker still showed up as just a blip displaying a number of gilopaces to Jay.

Jay sighed at the sky, “Another month and a half, huh…?”

…

“...”

Jay stared at a stretch of badlands that was no different from the rest.

“How the fuck, I’m supposed to be right on top of it.” Jay reconsidered his words, ”Right on top of it.”

With that, Jay took out his spade. This was the first (Epic) quest he’d ever had. He wasn’t going to give up because a few feet of dry soil was in between him and his prize.

His ‘Quester’ class was the only thing in this world that linked Jay to the extraordinary in this world. It required the ‘Outworlder’ trait for acquisition, it was the only class he knew of that gave out rewards, and it drove Jay forward constantly.

It made Jay feel truly special, and even if the only reward for completing an (epic) quest was securing a Barony, at 16, that would make Jay Northsand the youngest first-generation Baron in Stansa history.

As such, Jay dug like a man possessed, only stopping to spout nonsense to thin air every now and then,”Man, they’d call me ‘Jay the Dwarf’ if they saw me now, and if that wasn’t racist in this world.”

“Oi Betsy, why don’t you get down her and help you lazy ass! Pft, lazy ass, get it, because she’s a donkey! He-he-he-ho-ho”

“Oh she’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes! She’ll be-”

It took Jay Northsand 3 days in the end. 3 days leveraging (Strongarm) to keep progress up and fatigue in check. But eventually:

Jay heard his spade hit something hard for the 5th time that day, ”Oh god, what is it now? My shovel will break at this r-”

+++

You have connected with a high level territory crystal!

Checking your level!

Level too low! Closing connection to territory cry-

Error! Class interference!

‘Quest’ ‘Claim your reward’ has overridden territory crystal!

Checking affiliations!

Checking intentions!

Unnamed territory crystal renamed to Northsand Crystal!

Northsand Crystal attempting to integrate with Stansa Kingdom Crystal!

Authentication request received!

Invoking Ducal authority!

Stansa Dukedom Crystal confirms authenticity!

Northsand Crystal renamed to Northsand Barony Crystal!

‘Noble’ trait evolved into ‘Stansa Noble’!

‘Baron’ trait has been acquired!

Congratulations Baron Northsand, you have been integrated into the Stansa Kingdom crystal network!

‘Quest’ ‘Claim you reward’ has been completed!

‘Quester’ class has leveled to 11!

Learned ‘System Scan’ class skill!

Gained 5 reputation!

Northsand Barony crystal surrenders a treasure it has held since the fall of Kirkland Theocracy crystal network!

‘Seer’s Stopwatch’ has soulbound to you!

‘Soulbound’ trait has been acquired!

+++

Jay held his ears at the sudden influx of system messages, ”Ow! What the…”

Baron Northsand slowly read the rest of his notifications, ”...fuck?”