A grand side Quest

There was a frantic discussion between the elves. Dad tried a few more times to use his healing on Yatar, but it clearly was not working. Some of the elves disappeared into the forest for a bit and came back with a makeshift stretcher. They carefully loaded up Yatar and we began to walk out of the forest as a group. They put me back on the horse giving me a chance to have a better look around. Deeper into the forest I noticed arrows in trees, burn marks, bushes and branches that had been blasted into bits. It must have been an ugly fight, but I did not see any bodies.

We started leaving the same way we came, just a lot slower since most were on foot and two elves were carrying the stretcher. After we left the forest, I was taken off the horse and my parents and I split off from the rest of the group. When we were out of earshot, they started talking. They looked to be having a hard conversation. I had yet to pick up any noteworthy grammar and my vocab was wholly inadequate, yet I did my best to see if I could follow along with any of it. I was failing. It had to be about the quest, but what they thought about it I had no idea. Perhaps the system would be more forthcoming.

“System, what exactly will dad be getting for this quest?”

[His quest reward is only available to him.]

That was predictably useless. My talking on the other hand reminded my parents that I was there. Father decided he was going to try and talk with me using simple words, unfortunately most of what I had picked up so far were nouns from the “what’s that” game. The conversation worked out to be like a game of charades with no way to confirm if I got the right answer.

The longer we tried to communicate the more frustrated everyone became, especially mother. It was like we were trying to brute force understanding between us and languages take time and repetition.

Father eventually left and wandered back into the forest. Mother and I sat there within the tall grass no longer trying to talk. When he returned, he had a small bow with him. We headed to the forest edge and I was handed the bow along with one of my mothers arrows. He pointed to a tree and mother demonstrated how to use it. Then began the next round of learning.

It turns out that I am not at all gifted with a bow and arrow. We tried this for about an hour. Mother did not look pleased with my progress and she was the one showing me how to shoot the arrows. I am sure I could practise this more, but the quest was due in less than three months and I suspected it would take me a lot longer than that to be able to do anything even remotely useful for this. Next, dad produced what looked to be a quarterstaff, well a short one anyway. When he tossed it to me, I deftly caught it and was able to mostly do a kata I learned a long time ago during a summer camp. I did not think it was that impressive, but father looked pleased, mother did not look happy about it.

Father also had a staff and he began to show me how to do new things with it. We practised together for what felt like a few hours. I was both exhausted beyond words and amazed at how natural and intuitive this was coming to me. When we stopped, I got a system notification as well.

[New skill acquired: Melee (Two-handed weapons)]

“What? System! Why am I getting a skill for this? All the other skills listed have some fantastic thing about it. This feels a bit ordinary. Can I pick up any skill by just doing them? Also, why do I not get to pick the skills?”

[You matched the prerequisites for this skill. This will let you learn two-handed weapon fighting at an accelerated pace and over time will allow you to perform at abilities beyond natural human capabilities. Until you get a class all skill assignment is automatic.]

Good to know about the auto skill assignment. “So why did I not get anything for the bow?”

[Did you see yourself shoot that thing. You suck at that. You have no natural talent and have clearly never practised it before.]

“Cold. You could have been a bit nicer in the way you said that.”

[Being blunt is kinda my thing. Now quit being a baby and show me what you can do with that staff. There is a perfect jackalope over there you can try it on.]

“Why would I hurt something so cute. Just look at things. Besides they don’t look kosher to eat.”

[Phsst. You are not getting off that easy. You don’t even need to eat them, the birds will clean up after. They breed like rabbits so there is no shortage of them. I bet you can’t even catch one you baby.]

“Fine.” I said. I activated the weapon skill and ran off towards where I last saw one jump above the grass line. It had not moved from that spot and was munching on the grass. This one only had two little nibs and not full antlers yet making it a low-risk target. As I went to swing, it jumped, I adjusted and gave it a whack midair. It went flying like a baseball way up into the air. Much higher than I thought it would. Sure enough a bird swooped down and grabbed it well before it landed and disappeared into the horizon with it.

[Congratulations, you have assisted in defeating a level 0 jackalope. XP received. Your stats have improved.]

While I was staring at the spectacle, I did not notice the other jackalopes who had noticed me with displeasure and one rammed into my side with his horns. I yelped and jumped off to the side limping on one leg. Before I could react to attack an arrow struck it in the head. Another jackalope jumped at me and I smacked this one into the ground.

[Congratulations, you have defeated a level 0 jackalope. XP received. Your stats have improved. Would you like to absorb its essence? Yes / No]

“Yes.” I stated as a few more arrows flew into the grass and nothing else attacked. I looked down at my leg and it was bleeding. My new pants were shredded. Father rushed up and touched my leg.

[You have received minor healing: Minor injuries and light bruising repaired.]

My parents did not look pleased at all with me and I could not even explain that the system made me do it.

“You did this to me!”

[Laughing, laughing, laughing.]

I might as well see if I could get anything meaningful from this. “Technically was that not a quest you just gave me? After all you ‘told’ me to do it. What kind of rewards are you going to give me for it?”

[More laughing, that was not a quest. No extra reward for you. Just be glad you got XP and essence from the second one. Since you are still level 0 you can still get XP from other level 0 beats. As soon as you get a class and your first level you will not.]

“Wait… Let me get this straight, since I can’t level until I get a class can gain unlimited XP and essence from level zero creatures? What does that do for me when I do finally get a class?”

[Look at you so clever. Yes, you can get unlimited XP and essence until you get your class. That XP and essence along with other factors such as your current stats, traits, skills, titles, sex and race will all contribute to what class options are available to you. The XP will all be used up when you become level 1 but will increase your starting point giving you a notable advantage or disadvantage depending on how much or how little XP you have. Essence from such low level creatures will be so small it will be pointless to hunt them, even at your current state it is largely pointless.]

“Where would I stand right now if I were to get a class?”

[Since your encounter and success in defeating the goblins and nightstaker you are already in the top 1% of possibilities and due to the exponential nature of XP it would be pointless to go after level 0 mobs as the benefits would be negligible.]

“Why don’t you just show me meaningful things on my stat sheet then?”

[You need to get a class first.]

“Bah.” I was going to continue to complain, by my parents were staring at me and still clearly upset with my system encouraged shenanigans.

They took away the staff from me. I was then propped up on fathers’ shoulders and we headed out walking back towards the town. The language lessons continued as we travelled and I was not allowed off his shoulders until nightfall when we stopped to camp at the edge of the forest.

Mother retrieved more of purple fruit I have become accustomed to for dinner. Thankfully for me they did not keep any of the jackalopes. Father built a shelter and we went to bed.

I awoke cold and alone. I heard a rustling sound outside and then an arrow darted into the makeshift shelter. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my staff and darted out of the shelter. Mother was standing near the entrance shooting arrows into the brush. I could see father off in the distance fighting with an orc and some goblins approaching us from all sides. We picked a bad place to camp.

Mother was peppering the goblins that were trying to get near father but was unable to get to the ones coming in from behind. I darted off. She said something to me as I ran past but I still could not understand enough so continued. One of the goblins shot an arrow at me and to my surprise I was able to knock it out of the air with my staff. Another one shot one that completely missed me. I started pulling water to my feet with ‘Foot wetter’ and since the ground was damp it was building quickly. I charged in using ‘Water step’ to increase my speed and it also allowed me to bounce around in what I hoped was an unpredictable way.

‘Identify’ was kind enough to give me a bit more information than before (Goblin: Archer, Level: 1)

I smashed my staff into goblin archer as he was reloading knocking him to the ground and then had to dodge another arrow from the second archer who turned out to also be level 1.

The grounded archer used this time to roll out of the way and stand up. Too bad for him he was facing away from me when I smacked him back down into the ground. He rolled over and pulled out a rusty dagger.

A quick glance showed me the other one as still trying to reload so I brought my staff down hard on the one on the ground. I think broke its wrist and the goblin dropped the dagger as its hand bent back in an odd angle.

The other goblin finished reloading and shot an arrow at me. I tried to dodge and succeeded in the sense that it did not hit me, but failed to remain standing. I fell down on top of the downed goblin, who in turn bit me.

The pain was extreme. I screamed out, then smashed my elbow repeatedly into its face. This did not work as it continued to bite down on my stomach.

An arrow landed in the mud beside us. I grabbed it and shoved it into its eye. It finally released me from its bite. With my ‘Night vision’ I got a good look at the thing’s face. I wish I had not. I ended up losing the contents of my stomach with the grisly sight. Goblins are nasty and the arrow in the eye was not helping. It was like a toad and a hairless cat had a humanoid baby. It was green, with a pointed bent nose and sharp ears. All its facial features were distorted unevenly, and to top it off, the skin was covered in boils and pus-filled pimples. Its fang-like teeth looked as though they have never been washed and were covered in back, green and yellow plaque along with all my blood.

[Congratulations, you have defeated a level 1 goblin Archer. XP received. Your stats have improved. Would you like to absorb its essence? Yes / No]

“Yes. I hate this world.”

[You will get use to it.]

“I hope not. I think I am infected.”

[You need a healing skill to check that.]

“Don’t I have a …” Another arrow got stuck in the ground next to me. I guess I don’t have time to banter with the system. At least this other archer sucked about as much as I did with a bow. I got up and charged him.

It was almost as ugly as the first one. This one panicked and dropped his bow when I got close giving me a chance to get a clean hit to the side of its head dropping it to the ground. Then I finished the job with a few more hits with the staff. The goblins were about my size and the low-level ones were brittle like an old person, but small like a child. The worst of both worlds.

[Congratulations, you have defeated a level 1 goblin Archer. XP received. Your stats have improved. Would you like to absorb its essence? Yes / No]

While looking around I responded to the automated system notice. “Yes. Once this is over you will have to tell me what the deal is with essence and why I have to accept it each time. What happens if I don’t accept it?”

The system responded, but I blinked it away for now as a level 2 grunt was charging towards me with a long bronze dagger.

I braced myself and then we danced. Unfortunately for him, my staff gave me a lot more reach. I got a solid hit on his ankle and he went toppling to the ground. I then gave him a solid whack to the head and he stopped moving. I took his dagger and ended him.

The remaining goblins were retreating and when I looked back, father had killed the orc and mother was still shooting arrows at the goblins.

I deactivated all skills except ‘Accelerated regeneration’ as the bite mark was both painful and concerning.

I then took this time to look at the system messages as my request had resulted in a bunch of them. Apparently, the system was most forthcoming when I was in the middle of a flight.

[Essence and Mana are closely related. Essence is the base potential a being possesses. It makes it possible to process internal mana and control external mana. Using an analogy from your world: think of essence as the battery and mana as the electricity. The bigger the battery, the more electricity potential.]

[Unlike XP that can be gained a variety of different ways and applies to each individual differently essence must be collected from mobs and cannot be shared unless a special item such as the (Magical Dagger: Essence striker) is used. This function is designed to work with parties so they can decide who gets the essence rather than just having whoever is closest get it. You must be close to the fallen creature to collect its essence.]

[If the essence is not accepted after 30 minutes it will start to dissipate back into the world as it needs a living entity to hold it. The dissipation rate is exponential and will never last more than an hour before it is completely gone. Any living creature and even plants will absorb bits of this essence as it returns to the world. If a creature was especially powerful when it died and if the essence is not collected and left behind can create anything from fantastical monsters from ordinary creatures to life-giving plants.]

[Congratulations, you have defeated a level 1 goblin Grunt. XP received. Your stats have improved. Would you like to absorb its essence? Yes / No]

I should have asked all this sooner. “Yes, and can you please make it so it auto accepts if I am by myself?”

[I have updated essence collection to automatically accept when you are not in a party and close enough to receive it.]

With that out of the way I headed back to my parents and on my way took a closer look at the dagger. (Type: Bronze Dagger) I rolled my eyes, I already knew that by looking at it. It was not in that bad of shape, just a little dull and had only one ding in it. I decided I would keep it and strapped it to my belt.

When I arrived, my mother gave a concerned, unhappy look. I put on my best innocent face and tried to hide the bite mark on my side. Father returned and also gave me an unhappy look before saying a few things I did not understand and casting heal on me.

[You have received minor healing: Minor injuries repaired.]

[You have received minor healing: Spell ineffective. Spell is incapable of removing infection.]

“I knew it! This is all your fault system.” I grumbled.