Chương 74

Quest Boards"And that brings an end to the assessments," said Auroria. She performed several complicated gestures, and the archway began to power down. The white mist dissipated until the stone wall behind it became visible once more, and the intense energy burning within the runes gradually dimmed before fading entirely. I turned my attention to the others. Rel looked a little bored. Voklum, Kaelis, and Allaria, however, looked like they'd been through some shit – which I supposed was fair enough.

They had all just died violent and gruesome deaths. Sort of. Although the arcane projections weren't actually our bodies, it had all felt pretty damn realistic. The pain. The emotions. Feeling like I might shit my pants when Justice Man clobbered me in the gut. The others probably wouldn't have agreed with me in that moment, but honestly, Archmagus Zalandar deserved some serious credit for his work.

"I'll take you to the Quest Boards and explain how everything works," said Auroria. She made one final gesture to shut down the spectator screen, then led us from the room. As we followed her through the corridors, I glanced down to see Rel withdraw the Amulet of the Draeven from his inventory and slip it over his neck. He noticed me looking and shrugged.

"After using it in the Arcane Projection Chamber, I realised I may have been putting myself at a disadvantage by not wearing the amulet. Sure, it may be ugly and an absolute affront to my impeccable fashion sense, but the stats and damage-over-time ability are far too valuable to ignore." He pulled the neck of his robe forward and tucked the amulet beneath.

"Besides, now that I've got robes, I can just hide it. Out of sight, out of mind… but still capable of turning an enemy's insides to mush."

"Sounds like a win-win to me," I said.

"And you never know – the people judging fashion sense for the leaderboards might be fans of grotesque jewellery. Wearing it could bump you up a few places." Rel and I immediately opened our system interfaces to have a look. When I'd last checked back in the bandit camp, Rel had been ranked 237 th. He was now ranked 24 th. You might be thinking, Holy shit. Those judges must have some sort of weird draeven fetish.

That may very well have been true, but since then, Rel had also acquired his new robes – which I'll admit were undeniably majestic and archmagusy – and his staff. Regardless of the reason for his meteoric rise, it's fair to say that Rel was very pleased with himself. Thankfully, I was spared from having to hear about it in great and obnoxious detail because we'd reached the room with the Quest Boards. It was much larger than either Auroria's office or the assessment room, but it quickly became obvious why.

Not only were the Quest Boards enormous – each one nearly the size of the screen we'd used to spectate the assessments – but there were also around thirty people scattered throughout the room. Some were standing in front of the screens having a look at what quests were available, while others stood in small groups, talking quietly. Our entrance created quite the stir. It started with one Trialist glancing back over his shoulder when he heard the door open.

His initial expression of mild disinterest shifted almost immediately to one of ' oh shit. It's them!' I guessed news of our little disagreement with Lokta'Inif's forces had travelled pretty quickly– Wait… why did he look so familiar? I stared at him through narrowed eyes. His, however, were not narrow. In fact, they were so wide that he looked like a deer caught in headlights. And I don't mean the headlights on an old car. I mean the headlights on a new car.

The ones where, when they're driving behind you, looking in the rear-view mirror is like taking a blowtorch to your eyes. I knew where I'd seen him before. He had been among the mob Lokta'Inif brought to the battle. He must have been one of the Trialists who decided to get the fuck out of there after witnessing Rel cook Malior alive inside his own armour. He broke eye contact, turned back around, and tried to make himself look as small as possible.

I briefly considered walking over and putting his head through the wall, but decided against it. Honestly, I couldn't really blame him for choosing to stand with Lokta'Inif. I imagined that if she'd won, she'd have quickly executed anyone who hadn't shown up to support her. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"As you'd probably expect, there are five quest boards – one for each tier," said Auroria. She gestured towards the two screens on the left wall. They were the busiest, with around ten Trialists gathered in front of each.

"Those are the Tier One and Tier Two boards, so I doubt they'll be of much interest to your group." She led us over to the two screens on the back wall. The Trialist I'd made eye contact with apparently saw this as his chance to escape. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he tried to act casual as he headed for the door. He made it about halfway before breaking into some weird walk-jog hybrid that was anything but subtle.

"What a strange individual," said Auroria, watching the door close behind the Trialist. She shrugged, then turned back to face the screens.

"These are the boards for Tier Three and Tier Four quests. Now, it's important to understand that not all quests within the same Tier are created equal. Each quest also has two additional classifications you'll need to consider. Let me show you an example, and I'm sure their purposes will quickly become clear." Ursak Vileclaw Tier: Three Rating: ★★★ Recommended Group Size: 3–5 Ursak Vileclaw was once an ordinary black bear that roamed the forests to the south-west of Stonehaven.

He was captured by a summoner experimenting with forbidden dark magic. A powerful demonic entity was called into this realm, with the bear serving as its vessel. The summoner's celebration at successfully completing the ritual was short-lived. The containment circle proved insufficient to bind the creature, and Ursak broke free, tearing the summoner apart with his corrupted claws before absorbing their life essence to further empower himself. The ritual took place deep within the forest, far from any settlements.

However, since slaying the summoner, Ursak has wandered far from the site of the ritual. One village has already fallen to the demonic bear, and with each victim consumed, the creature grows stronger. Ursak must be dealt with before more lives are lost. Kill Ursak or discover a ritual capable of banishing the demonic entity from this realm. Rewards: 15, 000 gold Ursak's Mantle 50 Expedition Centre Points"There are two classifications you need to consider when choosing quests," said Auroria.

"The first is the difficulty rating. Think of them as tiers within a tier. A one-star quest is considered standard difficulty, a two-star quest indicates greater danger, and a three-star quest indicates extreme risk." I raised a hand. Auroria stared at me for a moment, then sighed.

"Yes, Peter?"

"The quest description says the demonic bear has already wiped out a village…"

"It does," she replied slowly.

"What of it?"

"A village that would've been home to hundreds of peasants?"

"That would seem likely, yes." I nodded and took a step towards her.

"The quest mentions the forests to the south-west of Stonehaven, but that doesn't exactly narrow it down."

"Well," she replied, looking a little taken aback by my sudden intense interest, "I wasn't planning to discuss this until we'd finished covering quest classifications, but anyone who qualifies for the Expedition Centre is granted access to a Quest Map. You can open it through your system interface. Once you accept a quest, the map updates to show the general location of the objective." I looked back towards the Ursak Vileclaw quest description and mentally accepted it.

Then, opening my system interface, I brought up the Quest Map. It reminded me of the sort of map you'd see in an MMO. Most of it was greyed out, with no suggestions as to what was actually there, but a small section was visible. There was Stonehaven, marked with a little flashing dot that I assumed showed my current location. Oakreach sat some distance to the south, along with the roads, forests, and villages we'd passed through during our journey to the city.

In the greyed-out area to the south-west, a small red circle marked what I assumed was the general location of the quest objective. Judging by its distance from Stonehaven compared to Oakreach, it didn't seem too far away. I closed the map, then patted Auroria on the shoulder.

"Would you mind if we take a fifteen-minute break? I have something important I need to quickly take care of. Maybe you guys could grab a snack or something. I'll be back soon!"

"I don't think–" began Auroria, but I never got the chance to hear the rest. I'd already sprinted out of the Expedition Centre. When I stepped into the street, I heard a high-pitched squeal. I turned just in time to see the walk-jog Trialist stumbling backwards. He caught the wheel of a nearby carriage, tripped over his own feet, and landed flat on his ass, staring up at me with terrified eyes. I grinned at him, then activated flight and shot into the sky.

I climbed higher and higher until the buildings of Stonehaven were reduced to little more than distant specks below me. I opened the Quest Map again. It appeared across my vision, the lines softening until they became nearly transparent, allowing me to see the world around me clearly. And then I sighed. Do you remember the early days of Google Maps? You'd be somewhere completely unfamiliar and trying to get directions to walk somewhere.

You'd open the app, but all you got was a blue dot with absolutely no indication of which direction you were facing. So you'd end up awkwardly wandering around like an idiot until the dot finally started moving and you could figure out where the hell you were supposed to go. I was facing the exact same issue. Nothing on the map was close enough to serve as a useful point of reference, so I decided to fall back on the classic wandering-around-like-an-idiot strategy.

I picked a random direction and flew several hundred metres, watching the little flashing dot move fractionally north of the city… which was entirely the wrong direction for the quest.

"Right…" I muttered under my breath. It was time to call upon everything I'd learned in maths lessons as a child.

"Okay… if I'm facing north and need to go south-west, that means I need to turn 135 degrees anticlockwise." I adjusted my course, then flew several hundred metres before checking the flashing dot again. Not quite. I made another small adjustment. Perfect.