CHAPTER THREE

The First Quest(?)

“My dearest brother, there is no need to flatter me.”

Roari(Perri) remarked in an attempt to cut through the eerie silence. She doubted such an event affected Rinden too much, but the look in his eyes was seriously freaking her out.

Roari coughed. “Ahem. Well, look at you. Barely starting and already pissing off the NPCs. You do know that you’re supposed to act less wanton with age right?”

Roari continued, filling the hall with echoes of her own voice. To her surprise, Pale responded.

“I could really go for some wantons right now. Anyways, you’re one to talk. It looks like you pissed her off even harder.”

“Is that a complaint?” Roari wiggled, clearly pleased that the atmosphere had returned to normal… Well, normal enough, considering the setting.

“No, but I do have one though.”

“Oh?” Roari mused in surprise, “What is that?”

“The hell did you have to pick this location, man.”

“It was an educated choice! How was I supposed to know that you would go on and flirt with the first NPC lady you see. Like you just laid there and took it. You didn’t even log out…Ah! Could it be that you’re into that kinda stuff?”

“Educated guess, my ass. And I don’t even know how to log out.”

“Oh. I am so sorry. I completely forgot that the elderly are not well versed with the wonders of technology.”

Roari sniffed and seemingly pulled out a leather bound notebook out of thin air. At a glance, anyone could tell that it was the same book from the original lengthy opening.

“Although you automatically get kicked out after a certain amount of time, you can force a shutdown of the game with an internal password, or logout manually. To do it manually, you can either summon the user interface, or touch the tattoo on your arm.”

She showed off her shoulder which sported a greyed out tattoo of a book and quill.

“It was an option in the character creator, so you might not have one. In such a case, you just need to will it into existence.”

As he didn’t have a similar tattoo, Pale was confused. “Willing?…”

“Just think about it really hard, ya nut.”

There was a quiet popping sound and a similar book winked into existence in front of Pale. The leather cover felt smooth and worn against his skin, and the fine vellum sheets were almost silky as he pulled apart the pages with shaking fingers.

Like a personal planner, the book also had numerous tabs labeled after certain options: Status, Inventory, Lore…

And as he flipped to each tab, characters began to move across the page, as if the entire notebook was some kind of multi page tablet. First selecting the status tab, he watched the ink in the notebook rearrange itself to form a table.

Pale Storm Lv 1

HP: 100/100 (+10)

Jobless

MP: 100/100 (+5)

STR:5

DEX:5

VIT:5

INT:5

LUK:5

WIS:5

The entire setup seemed incredibly basic, and Pale could roughly guess what each stat accomplished.

“That simple huh?”

In addition to that, the notebook also had sections for the player to take notes and create logs. The section for lore was also completely empty, thus it could be assumed that the section was to be filled out manually, like some sort of journal. An adventurer’s journal.

“Yep. Although, in previous games, we normally just had bright screens popping up in front of us all the time. But after a bunch of people bitched and moaned about the lack of immersion, I guess this was their answer? That aside, don’t you think that defaulting to the typical floating interface is kinda lazy?

You put so much work into crafting the perfect world, and you got giant floating blue screens instead of a proper interface. Seems like a major oversight if you ask me.”

As Roari began her lecture, Pale paused and looked at her strangely. Despite having changed appearances, she had really not changed in the slightest.

“You know… its funny…” Roari paused as her brother uncharacteristically interrupted her teaching session.

“What?”

“How come, when it comes to life, you are wholly incompetent, but with games, you seem like a fish in the water?”

“Oi! Watch what you say. This is the game world and I can kill you now.” Roari threatened as her fighting spirit was riled up.

“It was a compliment, bitch!” Pale gave her a wide smile, and made a taunting gesture with his fingers.

“Fite me!”

They glared menacingly at one another and the temperature in the air dropped by several degrees. Years of friendly violent sibling competition had already driven their fighting spirit to the extreme, and neither would back down easily when it came down to a fight.

Even as the time slowly passed, the two of them maintained their dreaded stare. Sweat beaded down their faces in concentration. They managed to maintain the stare down for a whole five steps before their faces cracked. And soon echoes of their laughter resonated through the corridors. With the tension gone, their jovial banter continued until they finally caught up with the others.

Their cohort was already scattered about in a wide central atrium where a muscular monster of a man was lazily supervising. Aside from having arms so large that they could crush watermelons by flexing, the man seemed friendly enough. He even had a whimsical expression on his face as he waved them over.

“Come along now. I’ve already assigned everyone else to their duties.”

Like a teacher chastising some naughty students, the monstrous man smiled at them. Pinned to his chest was a shiny silver plaque where the words, Taskmaster Hoyt were engraved.

“Sorry. Sorry. We were a bit held up…Mr.Hoyt.” Perri snickered.

The giant bald man’s smile seemed to widen further as he patted the two of them on the shoulders. Immediately the two of them stiffened as if the weight of a hundred mountains suddenly pressed against their backs. But even though their limbs screamed in protest, their legs did not buckle.

“Mr.Hoyt was my father’s name. Just call me Hoyt.”

Roari and Pale frowned in unison. It seemed all the NPC’s in this damnable place had likewise damnable sense of humor.

“From your faces, it seems you must have done something to piss off the old bat. Poor suckers. Well, I suppose this could be considered fate too. Since the two of you are so late, I have already delegated all the shitty jobs to the rest of your cohort. Because of that, you two can have an easy one.”

Hoyt smiled, revealing two neat rows of white and gold teeth. While the two of them were about to question what an ‘easy’ job pertained to, they were momentarily distracted by the low grunts that surrounded them.

Turning, they found the initial group of orientation members all engaged in mundane or menial tasks. To the side, one was sweeping the floor, another, polishing a statue. They even recognized Spicy Dragon who was sweating while carrying pails of water in his hands.

Such a scene made Roari curious. In previous titles, all players would essentially undergo the same quests barring class specific quests and unique story lines. However, after looking at the bitter expressions of her fellow players, she couldn’t help but feel thankful.

“Thank you Hoyt!”

“We’ll gladly do the job.”

Hoyt beamed at the agreeable recruits as he beckoned them with a finger.

“Very good. Follow me then.”

Hoyt led them down a staircase which opened up into a lush underground cellar. Contrary to what one might expect, this cellar was free from the stench of dust and mold, instead exuding pleasant scents of spice and fresh produce. Whether it be the bins, the shelves or hanging hooks, the entire area was laden with foodstuffs fit for consumption.

For Pale and Roari, who did not exactly have the best first impression of the place, such a sight seemed all the more impressive.

After noisily clearing his throat, Hoyt began to describe the details of their quest.

“Now that we’re adding Hollow Dolls into our ranks, our food expenditure is going to increase. As you’re not beasts or unfeeling blood fetuses anymore, we can’t exactly feed you corpses or rotten flesh anymore, so you two shall be tasked with restocking our larder!”

Hoyt swept his hands towards a relatively empty shelf.

“As you can clearly see, we have no shortage of vegetables, grain and spice, however our meat stores are a bit lacking. Thus, I want you to go outside and catch a few wild pigs. After cleaning them, just leave them on the shelf and afterwards, we can all have a meal together and relax. Sound good?

“Yes Sir!”

At their affirmation, Hoyt handed them two leather handled truncheons and gestured to a little door near the end. The truncheons were little more than tree branches and were less than a foot long, sanded smooth and cool to the touch. For their first weapons, they were quite pathetic.

Wooden Club

Value: 0

Attack: 0-1

“Very good then! Just a warning though. Do not go near the barrier. Although it is designed to keep the stronger monsters out, every now and then, one slips on by.”

“Understood.”

“Also, try to preserve the skin. I can make the next group tan their hides into leather.”

Finishing the quest briefing, Hoyt also handed Pale an old skinning life. The blade was less than an inch and length, and had an attack power of zero.

With that, Hoyt then turned back, leaving the Storm Siblings to their own devices.

Although their quest was a bit mundane, such an assignment should be entirely appropriate as one of the starting quests in any standard mmorpg.

Pale heaved a sigh of relief, as they found the door led straight into an open forest. It was day time, and after staying in a musty dank prison for so long, the flow of clean fresh air into his lungs seemed to just flush out all the dust that had accumulated there.

As he looked around, apart from the stone facility that appeared to be embedded in the side of a mountain, their surroundings were entirely made up by a wide expanse of forest that stretched as far as the eye could see.

It was to the degree that becoming loss would be a certainty if not for the small dirt trail that ran through the forest.

“Oh…Well, there they are.”Roari pointed towards a drift of pigs.

Hoyt had not been kidding when he said that it was an easy quest. Having barely taken ten steps, they had already come across them.

To be honest, there were so many that Pale wondered why the hell the NPCs couldn’t just do it themselves.

‘Well, at least it kinda feels like a newbie area now.’ Pale mused.

The grass crunched and tickled his feet through the cloth wrappings, however the pigs nearby seemed completely at ease by their presence.

“Hey Bro, accept my party invite.”

Roari clumsily twirled her baton as her pupils elongated into feral slits. Eager to show off her experience, the pigs were unfortunate to be the first blood sacrifices of the day.

The moment the two of them linked up, Roari let loose a savage roar, startling Pale.

“You seem rather eager.” Pale commented dryly, but Roari had already charged forward.

Her first target was a rather small specimen just under two feet long. With bristly grey hair and a short snout, its appearance was pretty much identical to that of a domesticated pot-bellied pig. Normally such pigs are kept as house pets, but due to its size, it had just barely exceeded the range where its cuteness would’ve taken priority over its deliciousness.

It could only blame its own bad luck that it became Roari’s target. With a valorous cry completely unbefitting the situation, Roari raised her club up high.

But even as she smashed down savagely, her blow hit nothing but the earth. The pig’s small size allowed it to nimbly dodge to the size, easily dancing around Roari’s rather amateurish movements. Roari however was undeterred as she continuously smashed her club against the ground, bringing great shame to hunters anyways.

It would’ve made for a comical scene as well, if she wasn’t screaming bloody murder while doing so.

…

Oh, what the hell. Pale would still laugh anyways.

In any case, the pig didn’t stay on the defensive, as after a particularly bad swing, the tiny swine seized the initiative and tackled viciously into Roari’s side. Though the blow was not strong, the awkward positioning was enough to knock Roari off balance, sending her landing ass flat on the ground.

Damage Taken: 7

HP -7%

Momentarily dazed, Roari was at a loss as to what had happened, but a hot seething rage began to broil within her.

Her rage was made worst after hearing a clumsily stifled snort from her onlooker.

“Need some help?” The jackass inquired. “I can cut in if it’s too hard for you.”

Roari gritted her teeth. Although it wasn’t exactly fair, the two of them together could easily lock down the small animal’s movements. One of them would simply have to tackle the pig’s side and press it down, while the other bashes its brains in.

Would it be messy? Yes. Was it cruel to the animal? Yes. But such an option was better than making a fool of herself right?

…

Hell, fucking no. Roari seethed. Even if her pride was trampled into the dirt, she would rather save the remains than throw it away completely by agreeing to such an offer.

“I.don’t. Need. It.” Roari enunciated each syllable and pulled herself back on to her feet. Her hands were scratched and dirty, but the biting sting was all but forgotten as her body dripped with bloodlust for the smug bastard before her and the smug bastard watching her.

How dare they mock her! However, she would deal with her brother later. Her first priority was the damnable pig. If only because the pig wouldn’t get mad at her after getting the crap beaten out of it.

Once more charging towards the pig, she threw away all her extraneous thoughts. All of her concentration focused on nothing except how to murder a tiny animal.

“Welp. I tried.” Pale snorted as he comfortably leaned against a leafy birch, clearly intent on letting Roari play with her new friend for a little while longer.

Even the pig looked bored. ‘You again?’ It wiggled its arse in provocation, eyes focused on that unwieldly club. But even as the shadow of the club grew larger and larger in the little piggy’s eyes, Roari could not help but let a feral smile creep upon her lips.

Not this time.

Throwing her club to the side, she opted to run it down like a truck to an isekai protagonist. There was a sickening crunch as she connected.

”DIE YOU OLD BAG!”

“Squee?” The pig whined out in surprise, even as it was blown to the side. Disoriented, it didn’t even have time to react before a mountainous shadow blotted out the sun and mercilessly began stomping down.

“Squeee!”

Speechless, Pale could only watch in horror as the pig wailed in agony. It’s screams finally silenced beneath the flurry of blows. All the while, Roari was gurgling in delight, continuously stomping down with a sickening crunch.

It didn’t take long before the pig eventually turned into a lifeless grey corpse. With naught more than but a small rise in experience to indicate its demise.

Pale walked up to the corpse, and set to work. Surprisingly, the pig’s skin and flesh parted with but the lightest touch from the skinning knife. And after a few moments, a nicely dressed carcass and layer of leather was folded neatly in front of him.

“So…I’m fairly certain this was animal abuse.” His voice poured cold water over Roari’s triumphant preening.

At least she had the embarrassment to sniff and look away. Of course, Roari still felt completely justified with her actions. After all, the little pig was being a dick.

Pale raised an eyebrow as he found he could store the items in the adventurer’s journal. The materials disappearing with a brief flash of light. However, the moment the items disappeared, the ‘Inventory’ and ‘Monster Information’ tabs of his journal suddenly updated.

Short-Haired Pig Lv 1-3

Exp:2-5

A common woodland animal typically kept as pets by farmers and countryfolk. It is extremely docile and friendly around travelers, if a bit mischievous. It is commonly raised alongside young children to provide companionship and affection.

“…You monster.”

“Oh, just shut up and help me murder some more.” Roari sniffed. As a result of being partied up, she received the exact same update to her journal.

For every kill after, Pale lent his assistance, if only to spare the creature’s suffering at the hands of his dreaded and possibly mentally ill sister. Soon, he estimated that they had slain enough to fill up the cellar shelves, thus they should’ve been well on their way back to Azoth.

“Not yet.”

Roari murmured as Pale was collecting the last of the meat. The quest had finished, but Roari seemed dissatisfied.

“Excuse me?”

“I said not yet!!” There was a gleam in her eyes as Roari smiled softly.

An unsettling feeling filled Pale’s stomach, as he quietly prayed for forgiveness from whatever god that resided in this world.