Chapter 5

First Quest

It was two days before James played Royal Road again not counting the 24 hours of restriction due to death. With Aimee’s help he was able to catch up on capsule repair well beyond record time. She took her job of factory security seriously and people soon got used to her they called her A7 and listened her safety suggestions sincerely. James and Aimee hadn’t started construction on her new android body yet they mostly just categorized parts. With her help he drew up a few blueprints but neither of them was satisfied with any designs yet.

Cosmos got a whisper from Aimee as soon as he felt his feet on solid ground. “Come to the starting area. Trust me your not any closer to getting that skill book than you were weeks ago.” He didn’t know who he was getting a whisper from at first, it wasn’t Kira and he hadn’t registered anyone else as a friend. Then he remembered family members can whisper each other without registering. ‘Gaea must have setup Aimee’s character as family’

“Even if that’s so I would like to stay here and try to get the faith stat so that I can use this new amulet.” Cosmos looked in his inventory and his heart sunk, ‘all that money wasted.’

“You lost it due to death along with the dagger you obtained on the first day and that last piece of bread you were saving. I’m trying to get us a quest, just come. Oh, and take off your shoes, going barefoot on this hot ground will increase your endurance.” Aimee was being very bossy but Cosmos didn’t mind because he needed all the help he could get. Though it was strange hearing the assertive ‘I know best’ commands from a little girl’s voice; He took off his shoes and ran to the starting area on the scorching cobblestone without objection.

“Why should I trust that you know anything about this quest, you are obviously a new player?” A user was asking Aimee as Cosmos arrived.

“She has been over 30 characters there probably isn’t anyone in Versailles Continent more knowledgeable about quests you can get under level 130 than her.” Cosmos replied in her defense.

“Thank you for that, yes my first time in Versailles was as an architect that’s how I know about this class quest” said Aimee. The architect had graying hair and was approximately 60 years old he jumped upon seeing Cosmos.

“You’re the party member she was waiting for, but you’re a murderer, why would I choose to share a quest with a murderer?”

“There were extenuating circumstances” Cosmos replied as if that were all the explanation required.

“Please use my knowledge in your quest I beseech you.” Aimee begged holding her two little hands together under her chin and batting her big eyes.

“Okay”

Cosmos nearly laughed watching people cave to needs and wants of children was entertaining, beautiful woman, and wealthy bribers had nothing on children.

“Ah, you’re back I was hoping to see you again.” Said the old jerky vendor Cosmos met on his first day. All his jerky was gone except one row that hadn’t dried yet. Cosmos was glad his snack stand seemed to be selling better than it was on that day.

“Hello good sir, I see business is going well, I’m glad for you.” Cosmos replied with a slight bow. The old man angrily looked back at his stand and shook his head in disgust.

“If only that were so, but as it happens my product was stolen by a murderer named ‘Mad Max’. This kind of crime is all too common and the guards are to busy to make a real difference. Punish him and his ilk then I’ll spread the word of your good deeds among the market district.”

Vigilantly Requests by the Locals

Market District locals have been greatly suffering from injustice caused by

Freemen, whom have risen in number over the last five years. The Merchants

Guild chooses to have Freemen restore their own honor rather than request

aid from over worked guards. Answer their call as a representative of all

those Freemen Foreigners summoned by Gaea the Holy Seer, whom don’t

wish to be on bad terms with the Locals. .

Difficulty: E .

Quest requirement: Each party must have an assassin; failed if any locals

are killed due to vigilantly activity; crime must lower not rise.

Cosmos would have accepted the quest in a moment if it were a simple bounty but the difficulty was E and there was implication that it was ongoing. It was hard to tell what other users level was, many people could look at each others equipment and get a good idea, but Cosmos was yet unfamiliar with item quality.

Aside from the particular look of mithral that was worn by rich users over level 200 or general users closer to 300 he could only guess at item quality.

A little known fact was that the Merchants Guild had started endorsing assassins to protect their trade market.

Aimee perhaps sensing he was about to decline a quest grabbed his sleeve looked up into his eyes and nodded her head reassuringly.

Cosmos sighed though he didn’t know if it was in relief or just acceptance then he nodded to the old vendor accepting the quest.

You have accepted quest.

“Cosmos-nim can find Mad Max to the west acquiring more items for his next adventure. My niece has an apple booth down that way he often steals from her. As long he keeps from taking over a certain value guards focus on more pressing matters. If he has already passed ask her for more information on Mad Max’s whereabouts. I have told her about you she will be helpful as long as you’re nice and well mannered.”

Cosmos noticed the knife he used on his first day was still stabbed into the vendor’s jerky stand.

“It occurs to me that you have me at a disadvantage, might I ask what your name is?” Cosmos asked the vendor politely. As James he didn’t use people’s names much but he knew Asians often got offended at being called ‘you’ so he tried to make an effort to learn and use people’s names in Royal Road.

“No, I’ll need some anonymity in my dealings with you just incase a guard captures you. It will be hard to say someone put you up to anything if you’re not even familiar enough with them to know their names.”

On their way to the west side of the market district the architect said his name was Kenneth and agreed to share his quest in exchange for Cosmos sharing the one he just got. Kenneth’s quest was a class quest that required him to go into the under-city and make repairs. Cosmos and Aimee were to protect him from whatever creatures tried to get in his way or harm him.

Cosmos was surprised at what he saw when they arrived at the apple stand; a beautiful woman with long red hair and a low cut green dress was hand feeding pealed and sliced apple to a warrior who leaned over the counter towards her. She had pale soft skin vibrant green eyes and an infectious smile that enchanted everyone who saw it.

He was smiling stupidly as he walked Cosmos probably would have bumped the warrior out of the way to approach her if Aimee hadn’t grab his sleeve and stopped him.

“You’re so amazing, your beauty and charm are wasted in a place like this you should join the brothel. In a city as corrupt as this is that’s the only place to work for one such as you, my sweet” the warrior said turning complement into insult.

“Oh I do well enough you see the people who steal from me always come back even knowing I’ll charge them double.” She replied placing a hand to his face and shoving him off the counter in her other hand she held a handful of coins.

When he stood Cosmos seen his name in red and caught a glimpse of the bloody diamond murder mark on his forehead. His name was Mad Max the murderer they were looking for.

“Thief… why I ought a” Mad Max said shaking a fist angrily.

“That’s the pot calling the kettle black isn’t it? I admit this is far more than you owe me but I assume you’re here to buy from me so I can take some out of that. Even if not, this is only a drop in the bucket compared with what you owe the rest of the market district” she said.

Cosmos was dazed if she were a real woman she’d be just his type harmonizing damsel in distress, ephemeral beauty, and spontaneous courage all into one.***Five years back James fell for an adrenalin junkie she was his base jumping instructor angry and confrontational. She had been raised as a ballerina proper and dignified one day she was fired and replaced by someone six years her junior. After that she immersed herself into extreme sports eager for someone to come save her but James encouraged her behavior so she broke up with him seeing their relationship as self destructive. She went back home and became a dance teacher for twelve year old girls; the thought that James used reverse psychology on her never crossed her mind.

Every since then angry Irish Redheads have been imprinted as the jaw dropping, mouth watering, femme fatal in his mind.***Cosmos was troubled thinking that Mad Max may assault her he wanted to attack him to protect the woman.

“Is what I’d like to say” she dropped all but two silver coins on the counter “be-gone with you!”

“You’re lucky that you came to your senses I was about to capture you and sell you to a brothel in a city my guild owns.” Mad max replied taking his coins and leaving; her face paled and she froze in fear of a fate possibly worse than death.

“He was bluffing I know him and his guild ‘Road Warriors’ there are only 12 members and not one of them are over level 200. They are no more than bandits and don’t own a single city, village, or rest stop.” Kenneth said reassuringly to her.

“Excuse me mama, your Uncle has tasked us with dealing with Mad Max and others like him whom have harmed the trade district.” Cosmos said from behind Aimee trying to sound & appear none threatening yet respectful; forgetting that NPCs respond more to fame and notoriety than appearances. “I was in hope that you could tell us of his movements that we may find a good place for a confrontation… hum… hum meeting.” Cosmos cleared his throat and rephrased the last word.

“Oh if it isn’t Cosmos, Uncle Sullivan has told me about your initial summons unto our lands. You can call me Chloe, I’d be glad to help you establish retribution against him granted that you let me take part in the ambush.”

Chloe’s Ambush

Many locals have a personal stake in their vendettas help them establish closer.

Difficulty: F

Reward: 25 fame

Failure: failed if Chloe dies

Quest linked to ‘Vigilantly Requests by the Locals’

“Agreed” Cosmos said in reply nodding his head.

You have accepted quest.

Cosmos came up with a plan that required the participation of all four of them. After nightfall he was silently waiting on the roof of a restaurant over looking the alley between it and the brothel Mad Max was so proud of. Chloe said that he always ended his days in the city by coming there & agreed to lead him to the alleyway. Kenneth was using spare supplies to build a fence with a gate across the alley opening. Aimee was in another alley practicing a single ranged attack Cosmos told her to use. The best thing he could think of for her to use as a weapon was the strap from her canteen brandished like a simple sling to launch a stone.

This time Cosmos placed all 20 stat points from leveling into agility in hope that higher agility would increase the accuracy of his attacks and his safety from falling.

As Chloe caught the attention of Max approaching the others got ready for action. She maneuvered him in-front of the alley; Kenneth let the gate swing open and held one end of a fence post diagonally behind Max; Aimee spun her sling then released one end launching a stone (little more than a pebble) at Max’s forehead. Mad Max stumbled back from the impact of the stone; Chloe smiled and shoved his chest for good measure; he fell over Kenneth’s post onto his back in the alley. Kenneth pulled the gateway door to his newly made fence closed hiding Max from onlookers. Cosmos leapt from the roof placing daggers side by side he stepped on their guards to keep his wrists from breaking on impacted.

Mad Max screamed shortly and was silenced instantly as twin fangs penetrated his armor.

Level up: Dagger Mastery [5]

+50% Agility

+15% STR

Skill: You acquired a new skill, Falling Spider Strike.

Cosmos was surprised to see his daggers almost broke he would already haft to have them repaired.

“What’s the falling spider strike? Skill window!”

Cleaning (Lv. 10%): Enables you to sweep and wash various types of surfaces.

Gardening (Lv. 70%): Enables you to plant and harvest various types of fruits and vegetables.

Cooking (Lv. 10%): Enables you to prepare and cook various types of food.

Fist (Lv. 10%): Increases attack power and hit rating of fists.

Dagger (Lv. 50%): Increases hit rating and attack power for daggers.

Falling Spider Strike (Lv. 10%): Enables you to poison struck knocked down foes, prone targets. Sin/Mana consumption: 25

Seven Deadly Sins Assassins learn to pulse sin or mana down their daggers and transform it into poison. This poison damage is equal to 1/4th of the physical damage dealt in your attack; other poisons can be made by mixing the appropriate ingredients and applied in a number of ways.

Cosmos was glad to finally have an attack skill but disappointed in its limitation to only hitting knocked down foes.

He didn’t know there were other ways to acquire skills besides being taught by another person or reading skill books. He had been asked if he wanted to save an action before but doubted that the action would use mana.

As Cosmos was looking over his new skill, Aimee collected the items Max dropped.

After the three of them turned in the quest to Chloe they got a little bit of fame and experience. She then instructed them to see her father to find out whom to help next but Kenneth insisted on getting started on his quest before continuing on a quest that would likely involve every merchant in Merchant Square.

They entered the under city in a place of Aimee’s choosing after she took but a glance at the map that was provided to Kenneth. The entry was a barred grate on the side of a scroll shop it took them a dozen feet down where it was reasonably cool and moderately dark. The architect was impressed with her familiarity of the city and asked how old she was in real life.

She was clearly having trouble deciding how to answer finally she said “My birth day was two day’s ago but I’m not really sure how old I am. My avatar’s look was originally in the mid twenties but has been adjusted down to seven so that I can be mischievous yet still rely on others for protection. That was my dad’s idea I don’t think he wants me to grow up to fast.”

“Yes I can understand that, we fathers will always see our daughters as little girls” Kenneth replied.

Cosmos silently took position at the rear of their group listening amusedly to their conversation.

Over the past few years James had given a little thought to adopting a child but ultimately decided that honor should be left to couples so that the child would have a more stable environment. He knew from experience that growing up in an orphanage was far from ideal, but feared failing as a single parent.

As they traveled in the under city most rats that seen them turned around and ran away but a few scurried past hugging the wall.

Cosmos would have been content to let them go, but Aimee surprisingly attacked them with ambition. She got her first two levels killing rats; one time a group of five of the little rodents tried slinking past. Aimee killed the first in the line with her sling then they turned around to escape and she killed the last in line with an ornate dagger that she must have gotten from Mad Max. The last three filling trapped and vulnerable tried to attack her but Cosmos stepped on one and grabbed another by the back of the neck.

After she killed the third rat of that group she quickly dispatched the two squealing in fear held captive by barefoot and hand of Cosmos.

“That’s not cute at all” Cosmos chided; cleaning blood off his hand just as it turned grey and faded away.

“You like it” Aimee joked grinning mischievously! She was quick to gather any loot they dropped though it was typically just moldy cheese or their twitchy tails.

‘…’ shudder

Kenneth laughed

After half an hour they arrived at a load supporting wall that had crumbled. The architect took out his tools from a bag of holding (it had runes to reduce weight and increase carrying capacity) Aimee started marking stones to be cut Kenneth was mixing mortar and Cosmos began cutting the marked stones with a diamond tooth saw.

Architects were clearly one of the higher paid classes.

After that wall was repaired they headed towards the next spot marked on the map. Along the way Aimee and Kenneth both nearly died in an encounter with a dire rat the size on a Rottweiler. As they came around a corner it pushed Kenneth down and bit him once before Aimee slapped her sling around its neck and pulled it off of him. It scratched Aimee a few times whilst Cosmos got behind and stabbed behind each front leg with both daggers killing it.

They soon came to a portcullis but the lever to open it was on the far side luckily Aimee was able to fit through the bars and open it. The only other way would have taken them hours to get where they needed to be. Normally a group would need a member of a small or tiny race like Halfling or Pixy to be able to fit through such a small space.

The idea of having a diverse group of individuals in one party was appealing to Cosmos; but in the end they would all be humans in the real world so it would be better to look for people they were compatible with and accumulate a variety of skills, rather than look for people biased on what race they like to play.

Spider webs were getting thick by the time they approached the next spot marked on the map. It was an arch way that had a few loose bricks, Cosmos suspected that the real reason they were required to come here was to wipe out the spider population. They had already killed no less eight spiders the size of basket balls. When Kenneth started pulled webbing away from his work area some bricks fell showing this area was in need of urgent care.

Aimee found an egg sack nearly as big as her wrapped in silky webbing she ripped it open and started putting soft fist sized spider eggs in her inventory. At this four spiders three times bigger than the others came after her, one worked its way across the ceiling from a hidden place in the shadows, others from each of the rooms two doorways, and the last squirmed free from a large crack in the wall that seemed impossibly small compared to the size of the spider coming out of it.

Kenneth killed the one nearest him with a few slashes of his diamond tooth saw “how do you like that you nasty bugger?”

“Come to me my precious XP” Aimee killed another with a combination of her sling for ranged attacks then switching to her ornate dagger for melee combat.

Cosmos easily killed the other two not feeling threatened just grossed out. “Oh my, can you imagine one of these crawling through your bedroom window and making a web in the corner?”

“I’ll never be able to sleep with an open window again thanks to that mental image” Kenneth replied.

The architect worked on the archway while Aimee gathered loot and asked Cosmos to help her gather webbing. She insisted saying “tailors, necromancers, alchemist, will all pay handsomely for most of this stuff, and even hunters wouldn’t say no to the chance to raise a spider pet; they speed up the making of traps and are useful in any number of other ways.”

A few hours latter Aimee showed them an exit. They sold loot, bought essentials, ate at a soup kitchen, and returned to the under-city before nightfall at which time they registered as friends and logged off.

The next day Cosmos and Aimee hunted dire rats for a 12 hours (real time only 3 hours) waiting for Kenneth to log on. She was leveling fast using a short bow she bought the night before, stealing the killing blow on most his targets. It was frustrating sometimes Cosmos would have a nice combo lined out only to have his foe vanish dead from an arrow before he could give it the finishing blow. Yet he knew her gaining levels was important so he put away his daggers and started fighting barehanded so she could get the final hit more easily and even laughed good naturedly when she stole a kill on a nice combo he had going.

Aimee ended up beating Cosmos to level 30 he was still only 27. This was possible thanks to the dire rats getting harder and giving more XP, he was still quite a bit stronger than her because she lacked a class and the stats boost that came with it. At level 30 she would have 145 attribute points mostly put into agility for archery but even without spending any points he had 160 split between agility and strength plus all the other bonuses his class gave like natural armor.

~ Hey look out behind you a named monster is about to attack. ~ Kenneth warned with the whisper feature from his friends list.

Cosmos and Aimee had just finished clearing a room full of nesting dire rats when he got an urgent whisper from Kenneth containing a warning.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he looked back he crouched sensing danger as much as seeing movement he leapt up and did a roundhouse kick connecting with a large white blur.

It was a dire rat, the first white one he had seen; when it landed he learned the truth of it, it wasn’t a dire rat but a wererat. Upon landing the white wererat with the name Slither in red over its head began to polymorph into its hybrid form.

AN: Polymorph (minor action) an ability of all lycanthrope where the were-creature shape shifts from one of its three forms (dire animal, hybrid bipedal humanoid, and unique individual; typically human) to another.

“It turns out I’m not the only that has learned this is a good place to level up during your first four weeks of city confinement hum?” Asked Slither from a crouched position that resembled a Muay Thai fighting stance.

“Wait, you’re a player?” Asked Cosmos “I thought you were just a named monster or mini boss.”

“Ha, ha no; I originally got a quest to eliminate 60 rats that were knocking over dumpsters behind an inn. When I realized I got more XP for killing the rats than the quest gave I decided to come down here and try to get the title for being over level 50 in your first 4 weeks.” The wererat replied companionably; Cosmos got the feeling he didn’t talk to people much.

“If you chose a lycanthrope race, you should have been restricted to starting in certain cities & this isn’t one of them.” Aimee said as she held her bow at the ready but not drawn refusing to let her guard down in front of a murderer.

“This will be a starting city for them if I can go four weeks without dying and control at-least two dozen dire rats.” Slither said taking a few steps towards Aimee as though accepting a challenge. “As for being a lycanthrope, I started as a human but contracted filth fever down here after being bitten by a dire rat, then I logged off without getting it cured first, & by the time I logged back on it had advanced to lycanthropy.”

Kenneth came swaggering up to them with his impressive arm and a half length diamond tooth saw balanced on one shoulder in a two-handed grip. “Well if your goal is not to die for four weeks you’d better not challenge us. About getting to level 50 I guess I could help by sharing my quest with you, since we already have one murderer in the group.”

Slither looked worried at the arrival of another person but his whiskers twitched and the edges of his long mouth rose in what might be a hopeful smile at the mention of a quest.

“Cosmos isn’t a murderer any more or at least his mark is gone after killing all those rats and spiders.” Aimee said to Kenneth “he just barely got the mark in the first place from one hit killing that foolish thief.”

Cosmos decided to give Slither a little more incentive to join them rather than fight them; he had seemed a little too confident about fighting him and Aimee at once by himself. “I guess I’ll spend some attribute points now, I may as well I have 130 unused I was going to wait until I had enough to put 80 into strength and agility each because every thing is so easy down here it made it more of a challenge to play with out distributing points.” Cosmos said calling up his status window then equipping his daggers after finishing.

That seemed to help because Slither immediately asked Kenneth what the quest was and if it were really ok if he joined them.

Cosmos thought that he probably watched them for a while measuring their skill before deciding to try and kill them for the XP. Slither may have even sent some of the higher level dire rats at them assuming he had enough to spare and still complete his quest with the required 24.

Slither put on his starting clothes then used polymorph again this time to his human form. Cosmos was surprised to see that Slither was albino and wondered if that was how he looked in real life. He was Asian about 5’2 tall white hair, skin, and his eyes had almost no color at all; on closer inspection they were pale blue with a pink outline around the iris. The weapon he wielded was a short sword in dire need of repair it was a diamond shaped blade with nicks and chinks all down one side and up the other it was also dull and rusty.

After a few minutes used to get to know each other Aimee began to lead them to the last place that Kenneth needed to repair.

Nobody thought it was a coincidence that they didn’t have anymore encounters with rats.

Spiders continued to be as hostile as ever, aggressively dropping from the ceiling sometimes pulling sheets of webbing with them, or pushing up from hidden holes in the floor and walls.

One time in an especially wide open area they even had to kill a few large bats; it was disorienting at first but they eventually managed to beet them without to much difficulty.

Some 16 hours (4 hours real time) after meeting Slither and still not having returned to an area they’d already fought in Cosmos finally started to respect to size of the under city. He suspected that he still knew which direction was north but it was probably just his imagination and even if it weren’t that little bit of instinct would help little in getting out of this maze of tunnels.

When they arrived at the last place marked on the map Kenneth gave the three of them rakes from his nearly bottomless bag and instructed them to unclog a drain releasing a river of sewage.

Their work must have upset the local inhabitants because an endless swarm spiders attacked. Slithers’ short sword broke so he used polymorph to change to his hybrid form attacking spiders with claw and fang. When Slithers’ health went below 50% at-least two dozen rats joined in the melee against the spiders.

Just as they defeated the spiders Kenneth finished repairing the last pillar. “Well, I guess this wasn’t a solo quest after all! Thanks for all your hard work; shall we go turn in this quest?”

The three of them looked at Kenneth in exasperation he just worked with his back to the enemy and trusted them to keep him safe. Cosmos and Slither had both nearly died repeatedly not being heavy armor type classes with high vitality had nearly cost them the quest. At-least architect class has a lot of vitality like sculptures he could have helped.

This slave driver is the worst he would have turned in the quest alone if we had all died! Cosmos thought bitterly looking at Kenneth’s false smile.