Quest: Protect the New Creation

Description: A new creation has formed under the system. This is a unique form of life that may not exist ever again if destroyed. Every new creation and every new life represent the creation of a new path. Protect this new creation in its time of need and open up more paths for all living things.

Quest Objective: Guard the new creation for the next nine hours. Fine fresh human or elven blood to feed the new creation.

Quest Reward: Title, System gift

Quest Failure: The formation of the new creation is interrupted.

Quest Failure Penalty: Loss of ten levels

Would you like to accept this quest? Yes or No

Quest: Destroy the New Creation.

Description: A new creation has formed under the system. This is a unique form of life created through the death of hundreds of people. Should it continue to exist more blood will be required for it to survive. Bring justice to fallen by destroying what their killers created.

Quest Objective: Stop the formation of the new creation.

Quest Reward: Title, Improvement of one’s source

Quest Failure: Failure to stop the formation of a new creation within nine hours.

Quest Failure Penalty: Loss of ten levels

Would you like to accept this quest? Yes or No

Zane took his time to carefully read through both quests. Truthfully, all he needed was a quick glance to know which quest he should pick. One quest rewarded him with a gift from the system while the other did not.

It was clear to see which quest the system wanted them to accept and complete. Which was why Zane spent time carefully reading both quests. He was trying to figure out why the system would create a quest that would go against what it desires.

Perhaps the system wanted to give them the ability to make their own choice. Maybe the system was trying to encourage conflict. Zane guessed it was the first option. In his mind, it didn’t make sense for the system to encourage them to engage in unnecessary violence. While Zane continued to ponder over the two quests, Brad interrupted his thoughts with a question.

“So, were choosing the second quest, right?”

“Wrong,” Diana answered. “Only a fool would turn down a gift from the system.”

“But the tree is evil. The description for the second quest said people souls are suffering. Those are people that fought on the same battlefield as us. Don’t tell me you could sit back and ignore them.”

Diana was stunned by Brad’s rebuke. Zane also felt that there was some truth to what Brad said. If the decision was up to them, Zane would have no problem listening to Brad’s words and ignoring the system gift. Unfortunately, the final decision didn’t belong to Zane’s group.

“Even if we decided to take the second quests, others may not,” Old Saber said. “If we accept the second quest then we might end up as everyone’s enemy. We can’t make a decision based on our own personal beliefs. This time we have to side with the majority.”

“And if the majority wants this evil tree to exist, we should let it?”

“Yes. There’s no point in throwing our lives away for people that are already dead. If you want you can show your disapproval by refusing to pick the first quest, but that would be an unwise decision. Of course, you can try and convince the masses to pick the second quest but based on what Diana said about the system gift, I don’t think you will be successful.”

“I’m sure I can convince them. Many people had deep connections to the people that died. Knowing that the corpses of their friends and family were used to create this tree, how could anyone agree to protect it.”

“You might be able to convince them, but make sure you don’t accept a quest before you do.” Sam told Brad while poking his shoulder.

“Uh, it’s a bit too late for that.”

Multiple groans erupted from Zane’s group. Bruce’s group was having a conversation about the two quests as well. The two groups stood apart from each other and were unable to hear what the other group was saying.

After some time passed, people began arriving at the tree. Most of them were tense with their weapons drawn. Zane didn’t know if it was because of the battle that they just finished or the potential battle that might break out from the two quests. The tension in the air increased as people began to whisper to each other.

“Everyone may I have your attention!” Brad shouted. “We’ve all seen the two quests the system offered, and I am begging you to pick the second. The tree you see before you, is an evil creature. I still remember the menacing and hungry presence it emitted when it devoured the corpses of our companions. We must destroy it!”

“You don’t have the right to say what is and isn’t evil,” Damien stepped forward and spoke. “Even if it is evil that doesn’t mean it wishes to do bad things. In fact, it may be a source of good for the world.”

“What nonsense are you saying?”

“Look at the first quest again. The system itself told us the benefits the tree could provide. Now we’re going to kill this innocent new creation based on the words of one man. That doesn’t seem right. Also, He said that the tree was emitting a menacing and hungry presence. It seems pretty peaceful to me.”

Damien pointed toward the tree covered in dark red energy. Damien was a talented speaker and he had everyone in his grasp. Zane looked at the tree and noticed the tree’s presence had mostly disappeared. It now seemed like a normal tree undergoing a magical transformation with a faint trace of hostility.

“I wasn’t the only person that felt its evil presence. Bruce and his team fought alongside us. They were able to sense it too.”

“It’s true,” Bruce agreed. “The tree radiated a lot of hostility and a great deal of hunger.”

“Okay, so the tree was hungry,” Damien said. “Isn’t it natural for newborns to feel hungry? The tree didn’t focus its hunger on a living thing but on the bodies of the dead. Don’t we eat the flesh of the dead as well? As for the hostility, it most likely felt threatened. After all I’m sure you tried to kill it when you first came here.”

“Stop using words to twist things around.” Bruce demanded. “Evil is evil. The tree consumed the blood of the people we fought with and will consume more blood in the future. It should be destroyed.”

“Do you even know what it means to be evil? Some of the people here are evil humans. That doesn’t me we’re all going to start drinking blood and killing people. Being evil doesn’t mean we are definitely going to do bad. In fact, many of the evil humans hear have done a lot of good.”

Zane found a place to sit and took out some food to eat. He wanted to show his support for Brad, but he knew that Brad was fighting a losing battle. It wasn’t his fault though. Zane and the others had neglected to properly explain the benefits of a system gift. Therefore, Brad actually thought he had a chance at winning his argument with Damien.

Potentially, a system gift could do anything. It could grant a unique title, bring back the dead, provide enlightenment to an individual’s path, or kill a sworn enemy. Zane and the other people from their world told their group that the system gift could grant them anything.

Brad and the others immediately thought about material possessions. Therefore, Brad was confident he could convince people to ignore a few material possessions in the name of justice. Zane wrongly assumed that Brad was fighting because nothing was guaranteed when it came to the system gift.

Anything can happen when an individual obtained a system gift. Sometimes the system let the individual choose their gift and other times the gift would be random. Sometimes the gift would be a material object that could be found in the world and other times the gift would be a fate changing opportunity.

“Enough!” Bruce shouted.

Brad, Damien and a few others had been arguing for more than one hour. Both groups, for and against the destruction of the tree, were doing their best to bring the masses to their side. Slowly the verbal conflict between the two groups was turning into a physical conflict. Therefore, Bruce had to step in to keep the peace.

“Everyone, take a seat and cool down. That’s an order.”

You are affected by command presence. You are restricted for the next five minutes unless someone attacks you.

Zane was happy that he was already sitting down, and he wasn’t forced to take a seat like everyone else. He thought Bruce was a decent commander, but he didn’t like being forced to do anything. However, the benefits he got from having Bruce as a commander during the Upheaval, made him willing to put up with it. Plus, Bruce never abused the ability and only used it to prevent or deescalate conflicts.

“Take this time to think about what you’ve heard and then we can all take a vote.”

After a few minutes passed, Jade stepped forward and began the vote. Zane wasn’t surprised when he saw all of the remaining elven and a large portion of the remaining humans vote to accept the first quest. Zane could see the frustration int the eyes of Brad and a few others.

“Have all of you really thought this over?” Brad shouted. “Do you understand what you’re doing?”

“Stop.” Bruce commanded. “You already plead your case, and everyone has made their decision. It’s best if you accept reality.”

“And what if we don’t accept it?” A woman that agreed with Brad asked.

“Then you’ll die” Bruce sternly replied.

“Now that that’s settled, I propose we head back to the meeting area and collect the blood of the dead elven and humans there.” Damien announced.

“Do you have a shred of humanity left in your body?” Brad said while glaring at Damien.

“Of course, I do. According to the system, I’m an evil human.”

“We’re not doing that,” Daughter stated. “Although we agreed to protect this new creation, we do not approve of the methods used to help it grow. I won’t willingly allow for the rest of the elven to be humiliated.”

“It was only a suggestion,” Damien responded with a smile.

“I would like to ask a few questions about what you all experienced.”

“What’s there to say? Some dickheads played with our emotions and got us to kill each other.” Damien looked at Bruce while wearing an angry expression. “If you hadn’t killed all those assholes, I would have personally taught them a lesson about the consequences of fucking with me. I hate it when other people force me to do things I don’t’ want to do.”

“We don’t think we killed all of them. The leader wasn’t here, and we think that there is a high possibility that the leader was in the meeting area influencing the ritual from within. Did anyone see something suspicious? Something that seemed odd?”

“I think you should give up,” Damien spoke when he saw that nobody else had anything to say. “We were all under the influence of the ritual. Even if there was something strange going on none of us would have seen it.”

“Maybe you didn’t see it because you were the one causing it,” Brad said.

“Brad, not now,” Sama whispered in an annoyed tone.

Damien looked surprised at first, but it didn’t take long for him to put on his relaxed smile. “Are you accusing me because you lost our verbal battle? You should learn to let things go. Also, you really shouldn’t throw around accusations without proof.”

“You were the last person to speak before the fighting started. Also, an attack came from the crowd, and it synced up perfectly with your word.”

“One coincidence doesn’t make one guilty.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Jade said. “However, it does make you look very suspicious. I was trying hard with my fellow council members to calm everyone down and at the critical moment you stepped forward to ruin everything.”

Bruce leveled an accusatory glare at Damien. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”