I was awoken by a notification. The notification was flashing and covered my entire HUD. I couldn’t see anything past it. This had never happened before. There is still so much I don’t know about this world. I might have had a moment of anxiety, but I definitely did not panic and thrash around in my bed for a few seconds.
I mentally clicked on the notification to read it.
You have received a Blind Quest from the System. This is a mandatory quest. Rejection of the quest will result in immediate termination. Accept Reject
What the hell is a ‘Blind Quest’. Not that it matters since I can’t really reject the quest because of the ‘immediate termination’ consequence and the fact that the ‘Reject’ button both crossed out and grayed out. I guess the System is taking no chances. I accept the quest.
Thank you for accepting the Blind Quest. This quest consists of an unknown number of tasks. Each task will be revealed after the completion of the previous step. The first task is for you to learn the Portal spell. You have 4 hours to complete this task. Failure to complete the task will result in immediate termination of Ramram, and then one random member of your House every hour after until Portal is learned. If all House personnel are dead, you will have failed the quest and will be terminated. No new House members can be added for the length of this task.
Shit, shit, shit, shit. Only four hours to learn Portal. I jump out of bed, throw my clothes on, all the while yelling for Raffel. He enters my room just as I finish throwing on my cloak. “Yes, my lord?”
“Get Fabia to meet me in my office. It’s an emergency.”
“Yes, my lord, immediately” he replied and left. I heard him running down the hallway.
I followed immediately rushing to my office. Just as I sat down, Fabia came running into my office. “What is it, my lord?”
“I have received a quest. A fracking blind quest. A mandatory blind quest” I hurriedly said, “the penalty for failure is death to our House members. I have to learn the portal spell in the next 4 hours.” I pulled the Portal tome from my storage ring and laid it on my desk.
“Oh, my gods, what can I do to help?”
“Make sure I am not disturbed. Don’t let anyone in my office. Not you, not Raffel, not even the Earl. Put guards in front of the Covern House and don’t let anyone in.” I paused, then added “but before that, have Chef send me some sandwiches and snacks. She has 10 minutes. After that I don’t want anyone coming in.” Another pause. “If I don’t come out in four hours, have everyone resign from House Tierra. Maybe that will keep them alive.”
Your task has been updated.
You have 4 hours to complete this task. Failure to complete the task will result in immediate termination of Ramram, and then one random member of your House every hour after until Portal is learned. If all House personnel are dead, then you will be terminated. No new House members can be added for the length of this task. No House member may resign from House Tierra until after this task is completed. 3 hours 50 minutes remain.
Damn it. Resignation doesn’t work. I take a deep breath. Fabia is gone by the time I finish. I take another one and then open the Portal tome.
I haven’t studied the tome before, because the first line said I needed a deep understanding of space and magic. I had a standard understanding of space for a 21st century American engineer, but only a basic understanding of Tellus Nova magic. I planned on working with the professors from the Decharte Magic Academy when they got here, but now I don’t have that luxury.
I reread the warning on the first page, but having no choice turned to the second page. The second page also had a warning to not proceed until I understood the concepts on each page, starting now. The second page was a basic explanation of a portal’s functionality. How it connected to spaces through a doorway, but with a lot more words. I read and reread the page, looking for something that I might have missed. I then pull out a notepad from my desk drawer and write down the description of a portal’s functionality. It’s pretty close to exactly what the tome says. I move on to the next page.
It has the same warning as the previous page about not moving on until I have achieved the understanding of the material presented. I read the page, reread it again, then write down the description of what the page said. After ensuring it matched, I move to the next page.
I repeat this sequence for each of the next 50 pages. Two hours have gone by, but I believe I have a good enough grasp of the magics behind the portal. I turn to the next page. It warns that the following pages have the Portal spell and that failure to learn the spell will result in death, amnesia, or insanity. Death seems to be the keyword of the day. I turn the page.
My mind is immediately assaulted by the magic of the tome. It’s a tough struggle. The magic wants to pour itself into me at a rate that will overwhelm me. It’s like holding onto a firehose at full blast. If I lose control, even for a second, the magic will destroy me. Using all my willpower, I control the magic flow. Every second an eternity, I concentrate on the spell. The deeper I get in the tome, the more the magic pushes. Halfway through and I have a blistering headache. I start to consider that this may be too much, but immediately push that though out of my mind. I can’t afford to doubt. I have to learn this spell and that’s all there is to it.
Four pages in, and two to go. Half my health is gone and it feels like my head is going to explode. My nose starts to bleed. I hold a handkerchief to my nose to stop the blood from falling onto the tome. I believe that if I wasn’t a Nephilim I would have already died at this point. But since I am not dead, I continue through the pain.
Last page. I am bleeding, not only out of my nose, but my eyes and ears, blood is everywhere. Six pages for a single spell is way too much for a single person to learn in two hours, but I had no choice. I had to shut one eye because the headache caused me to have double vision. My handkerchief is soaked with my blood, I’ve given up trying to keep my desk clean. When I finally get to the last word, the tome glows and the spell implants itself completely. My health is less than 5%. I have learned the spell, and then my desk reaches up and smacks me in the head, but I don’t pass out. I checked the timer. I had 10 minutes left. With a sense of relief knowing no one had to die, I allow myself to pass out.
I was only out for half an hour. I woke up on the couch with my face covered in blood. Regeneration took care of my injuries, but left the blood behind. I cast Cleanse on myself and then looked at my notifications.
Congratulations you have completed the first task in your quest. Your reward is one class level and two spell levels in Teleportation. You are now level 46.
Your knowledge in space magic has increased dramatically. Teleportation is now level 5.
Next task will be available in 2 hours.
That is a really nice reward. A class level and two in teleportation.
Blood still covered my desk and the tome. I cast Cleanse on the desk and tome. That’s when I noticed that the tome’s spell pages were blank. I picked it up and flipped through its pages. The explanation pages were still there, but the spell transferring part was gone. I decided to try a little experiment and pushed my magic into the tome. Slowly, the spell pages started to glow. As I pushed more and more magic into the tome the pages started to rewrite themselves. It took over half my magic, but the magic spell appeared back in the tome.
I wondered if everyone could do that. Can other mages make spell reappear in tomes? If not, was I the only one? If I was, then how did my magic differ from the other mages? Damn, so much I didn’t know. When will Professor Rither get here. I really needed to talk to someone who knew this stuff.
My stomach started rumbling and making hungry noises. I needed to let Fabia know everything was okay for now and then get something to eat. I opened the door to my office. Two guards, Rodof and Medirre, on either side were stationed there, making sure no one came in. I asked them to get Fabia and have her meet me in the kitchen. My stomach decided it was good time to growl, which made the guards smile. They left to find Fabia and I left to get some food.
Fabia and I met in the kitchen. Chef was making me a steak, egg and cheese sandwich and offered the same to Fabia, who nodded. You would have to be a fool to turn down one of Chef’s sandwiches.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I take it you were successful?” Fabia asked.
“Yes, I learned the Portal spell. It was close and I almost died, but it worked. Unfortunately, that was only step one.”
“What is the quest?”
“It’s called a Blind Quest. I surmise from the notifications that I will get a series of tasks to complete. If I fail, then I die or get terminated, which I think is the same thing. I believe it is the System giving me the quests.”
“Why did you accept a Blind Quest? They can go on for years.”
“The penalty for rejecting the quest was immediate termination” I sighed as I said it. “It’s not like I had a choice, even the reject button was grayed out. Let’s go to the office to talk.” I stood up and started toward the store office.
“What do you know of Blind Quests?” I asked after we got to the store office. The store office had privacy magic to prevent anyone from overhearing. This way I could feel free to talk about anything.
“Not much more than rumor. Apparently, they can be very long, even unending. They are supposed to be very rewarding also. Each step is designed to get the participant the tools needed to accomplish the final task. The last known person to have accepted one is Justinian, before he became a noble. Part of his reward was being made a viscount. If he were around, I would suggest asking him, but he hasn’t returned from Decharte City.”
“It looks like I don’t have any choice but to continue with this quest. I just wish the System wouldn’t force the issue by threatening my House members.” Ping, a notification flag popped up. “One second, I got a notification.”
Contract offer: If Trevor of House Tierra agrees to attempt every task in the Blind Quest with their best effort, the system will remove any threat to other House members. If a task is failed, all penalties will fall on Trevor of House Tierra. If an attempt fails because of lack of effort on Trevor’s part, contract is cancelled and penalties will be enacted retroactively on Tierra House members. Agree, Reject.
I selected Agree and felt a system enforced contract settle on me. Well, that took care of that problem. It seems the System can hear my complaints and wants my best efforts.
“I just made a contract with the System to stop it from threatening our House members. Everyone should be safe from now on. At least from the System.” I told Fabia.
“How did you make a contract with the System? How is it even possible?” Fabia seemed confused.
I just shrugged, and said “After I told you I wished the System wouldn’t force the issue by threatening our House members, I got a notification, which was the contract. I simply accepted the contract. The System had never offered me a contract before.”
“I have never heard of the System doing that” Fabia said. “It just doesn’t happen.”
“I don’t know what to say about that, but I think we need to discuss how to prepare going forward with the Blind Quest. I have no choice but to put my full effort into it. Failure has too steep a cost. What do you think we should do? My next task will be in less than 2 hours.”
Fabia thought a moment, then said “First you need to send a message to Earl Justinian’s wife and son, letting them know you have received a quest from the System. There are ten thousand things I can imagine, one worse than the other. We can’t prepare for them all, but we can get generally prepared, but we need to start with the basics. I suggest you get dressed in your fighting gear, because you don’t know what is going to happen next. I also suggest putting camping gear and supplies into your storage ring. Be prepared for a long journey or being teleported someplace else. I will get Chef started on food, Raffel will round up the adventurer and camping gear.”
“Let’s do that. I will write the message and have it delivered, then change into my battle gear. Please see to the rest.”
With that, we both went about our tasks.
*----------------------*
I sat behind my desk reviewing the Portal spell. It was a pretty good bet that part 2 of my Blind Quest would require me to do something that would require a portal. To create a portal required two doorways, one on each end. The doorways would need to be attuned to each other, which was part of the Portal spell. After attunement, the doorways would be placed where needed, and the Portal spell casting could be finished. However, that only connected the two doorways. The portal still needed to be activated and powered for the actual portal to be created. A portal could last up to three days on its initial cast. That was the standard used throughout the kingdom. It was an expensive proposition, costing thousands of mana, which was why they were seldom used. However, due to my recent knowledge infusion, I believe there is a way to have the portal continue past the three-day mark. The initial cost is mostly used up in the creation of the portal, and very little is used to maintain it. If I can figure out a way to continue to supply mana to the spell, it could allow the portal to stay open. The biggest problem was the doorways. The doorways were a complicated endeavor. This work included the infusion of runes, and I knew nothing about runes.
As I was thinking about how to overcome the difficulty with building portal doorways, my notification flag dinged.
Blind Quest Part 2
You will create a pair of portal doorways. These doorways will be 12’ by 12’. The doorways will be made from Ironwood and mithril. A diagram has been added to your inventory to show exact dimension and rune placement. Do not activate the portal. Time limit is 8 days. Failure to complete will result in termination.
Nailed it. I knew it would be portal related. Obviously, the next step will be opening a portal to/from somewhere. But for now. I need to concentrate on building the portal doorways. I brought out the diagram. It was very detailed and I was getting worried. I definitely didn’t have the skill to build it in time. I called Fabia into the office.
“I have to build a pair of portal doorways in 8 days. I don’t think I can do it, just look at this diagram. The carpentry is beyond me and I don’t know anything about runes.”
Fabia looked at the diagram and said “We should hire carpenters to build the portal doorways, since they work with Ironwood, and get a few Rune specialists. I know there are at least two that worked for the former Earl. They may still be around, since they were part of the team that opened the last portal. Raffel, come in here.”
Raffel entered and Fabia continued “We have an emergency and the count needs you to hire a carpenter crew. Do you know any?”
“Yes, I know an excellent crew, but they are normally booked up. Their work is excellent.”
“Great, go get the crew’s boss and have him here within the hour. Tell him, I will make it worth his time,” I said. “This could work, but we need people immediately. Go get the people we need and I will continue reviewing the diagram.”
Fabia and Raffel left, both understanding how important this was to the House.
Half an hour later, Raffel and a very nervous carpenter was in front of my desk.
“My lord, this is Aest. He runs one of the best carpenter crews in Forest Glen” Raffel said.
“Hhhoww cann I hhelp you, my lord” he stammered. Aest was a small man, 30 – 35 years old, 5’5”, and stood hunched over. He was missing the little finger on his left hand, and had a slight hitch to his walk.
“I need your help. You have been highly recommended by Raffel, who I put much faith in” I answered. “Please be at ease. Can you look at this diagram and let me know what you think?”
Aest looked at the diagram. He studied it quite thoroughly in fact. While doing so, he took notes and mumbled to himself. After five minutes, I asked him what he thought.
“It is very complex woodwork, my lord. The interconnection between the joints is very unusual to say the least. I would suggest a different joint, which would be more stable and make it easier to build at the same time.” He replied.
“Unfortunately, I need it built to this specification. Maybe later iteration we can experiment with your design, but the first one needs to be exact to the diagram. Can you do it?”
“Yes, my crew is capable of building the doorway, even the unusual joints,” he said, then added “My lord.”
“Can you get the Ironwood and other supplies?”
“I have the Ironwood, but it is promised to another client. The runes and mithril are beyond me.”
“Okay, who is the other client?”
Aest told us the clients name and his address. I sent Raffel to negotiate the sale of the Ironwood. “Raffel will buy the Ironwood, so I need you to start tomorrow. I am told that you have clients already and if you give me their names, I will smooth things over. I need these built in less than 7 days. Can you do it?”
“It can be done, but it will require me to add some crew members, which will drive up the costs. I can do it for 3 gold.” Aest said, while cringing a bit.
I understood that he was afraid to offend me, and he probable gave me cost that would barely cover his expenses. I needed him more motivated than afraid, so I made a counteroffer. “I will give you 6 gold if you get it done in 6 days. Ten gold if done in 5 days. Now as a show of good faith, I am going to help you with a healing, if you are okay with it?”
“A healing, my lord. What is that?”
“I can cast a spell to heal you hand and other ailments, but only if you are willing.”
“Yes, my lord, I am willing.”
I cast Diagnose and Heaven’s Heal. His little finger grew back, and his other ailments were corrected.
“Thank you, my lord, thank you.” He marveled at his new finger.
“We will see you in the morning” I said as he left.
An hour later, Fabia showed up with a pair of Rune mages. They were a married couple, Coletec and Aile, and both had worked on the Forest Glen portal doorways. I brought out the diagram and asked them to peruse the design.
After a few minutes, Aile (the husband) said “My lord. The rune work is more complex than what was required by the Forest Glen portal, but it is manageable. The use of Mithril will be expensive, about 10 gold itself. The Runes themselves should only take one to two days. Empowering them will be up to you. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to empower runes.”
“May I ask, why you can no longer empower runes?”
“I had an accident and damage my ability to hold mana.”
“May I cast diagnose on you? I may be able to help.”
I cast diagnose, then Heaven’s Heal. “I believe I have fixed your issue, but only you will have to wait until your mana refills before we can be sure. I haven’t dealt with an issue like this before.” I pulled a mana potion from my desk drawer, “Or you can drink this mana potion, and see if that works.” I tossed him the potion.
After a clumsy catch, he pulled the stopper and drank the potion. As soon as he was done, a smile crossed his face. “I do believe it work your lordship” he said and bowed. “We will do take this commission, if you will have us, my lord.”
“Of course. The doorway construction starts tomorrow, and you can work out of my house here. Does that work for you? I need the doorways completed in 6 days.”
They both agreed and then left. I had Raffel show them a room for them to work out of starting tomorrow. Covern House had lots of empty rooms, so finding them an office wasn’t an issue.
I put Fabia in charge of overseeing the constructions of the doorways, while I studied the casting of the portal spell. I was hoping to talk to Aile and Coletec about it after the rune work was done.
Excitement, rather than fear, was creeping up on me. I always did like having concrete goals and a plan to achieve that goal. This was going to work, now I just had to mitigate any issues that came up.
