Eternity answered, “You have set goals that you intend to follow. Congratulations.”
“Wasn’t the reward supposed to come after finishing a quest? Not for accepting it?”
“Setting personal goals is important for progress along your path,” Eklil said. “It is almost as important, if not more so at times, as training your skills.”
“Strive to learn and be rewarded, got it.” I chuckled. “Today’s full of surprises. So, if I set a hundred other goals, I’ll just power level? Seems slippery.”
How much easier would college have been back on Earth if this sort of gamification would’ve actually existed and worked just like this? There was always that suggestion, to turn everything into small goals and reward yourself for each one, but this took it to the next—pun not intended—level.
“I did mean to talk to you abut this, but you were preoccupied last night,” Eklil added.
Again, my ears burned even if his tone remained as friendly as ever.
“Do not make the mistake of believing the interface is stupid or forgiving.” Eklil’s eyes bore into mine. “Abuse can be punished quite severely. The interface is generous with its rewards, but cruel in its anger.”
He raised his gaze meaningfully and I did mine, suddenly feeling Eternity’s heavy presence on my head.
“Oh.”
“Please do not make me seem something I am not.” A stab of irritation wafted off the dragon. “I do not punish. But I will not allow abuse.”
Okay, that sounded far more ominous that I think Eternity intended, so I pulled my attention away from the subject. “Don’t be a jerk” didn’t seem like a difficult or unfair rule to follow.
The horde of kids was back. About ten of them clustered around us after having dealt with the luggage.
“You shone!” one of them said, eyes wide. “I told you he was a holy warrior!” The cub gave a shove to the one next to him. “See? He shone.”
“Our honoured guest merely reached another threshold on his path,” Eklil said. “You will do the same when you come of age and pursue your passion. You’ve seen this before.”
“Yeah, but ma’ and da’ just kinda sparkle. He shone!”
I stared at him in plain confusion. What was that about?!
“I want to be a holy warrior too!” That cub was not going to give up easily. “I’m gonna find a magic sword and become famous and rich.”
Funny that’s where his mind went. I was neither of those and didn’t want to be.
I frowned as I looked at my completely mundane hands. “I don’t feel very shiny,” I said.
“We can see when you gain a level,” Eklil said. “You may not have the ability yet.”
Oh. I created another note and titled it “Weird shit”. I added this one: “People can see when I level up.” So, in the end, there was some fanfare to go with a level up, I just couldn’t see it for myself. Of all stupid restrictions, this one had to take the cake. I made a third note and titled it “Eternity’s infuriating restrictions”.
“I apologise for my limitations,” the dragon purred atop my head. “I can see what you write down, Klaus. Don’t seem so surprised.”
I almost wrote something far worse than “infuriating”.
Breakfast arrived with Ienella and her gaggle of kids carrying food for everyone at the table. We ate and drank more battery acid. Chatted of small things. The kids were barred from asking me more questions since, in Eklil’s words, that would eat up the rest of my day. Cute as they may have been, I was thankful for the reprieve.
It had only been two days since I’d arrived in Carmill Hill and I was already ready to move on. That triggered some more complex feelings, but I drowned them in the bitter notes hiding at the bottom of my cup. For all intents and purposes, I now had goals and that simple act of control was already making me feel better. I’ve always hated being adrift and felt better when I was working towards something.
Idle hands are the Devil’s playground and all that. Idle thoughts go down dark, steep stairwells with broken glass at the bottom.
Velin accompanied me after we ate as I headed out of the village to see if there were more glitch artefacts around. To my disappointment, the only one still showing up as a red dot on my map was just getting its razor-beaked head caved in by one of the guards about twenty paces away from the main gate.
The guard waved at me. I halfheartedly waved back at the furry kill thief.
[AREA IS NOW SECURED]
[NODE SEAL IS NOW IN EFFECT]
[THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, [REDACTED]]
I copied this and saved it in my notes. It could’ve just said ‘Klaus’ or 'idiot on duty’, but it was ‘redacted’. Which meant Eternity was lying out of its scaly butt.
“No expectations and no quests my ass,” I grumbled as I watched the guard jog up to where he’d cast his spear at the squawker. “Eternity, if I don’t have goals and expectations on me, why do I have a special designation that I can’t see?”
I counted the two breaths it normally took Eternity to ready its annoying answer, and parroted along, “I cannot say.”
Velin, who’d been the very soul of discretion up to now, laughed.
“You are on a quest to find yourself, honoured Klaus,” he said with mirth. “It must be as liberating as it’s frustrating.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Just Klaus, please,” I answered. “I don’t know how Eternity is with you guys, but with me it’s being stingy with answers.”
“We do not have an Eternity,” he said, eyeing the small dragon. “Our interfaces don’t interact with us like yours does. We don’t really have any kind of direct dialog with it.”
Transcribed into the file, because why would anything be easy to understand?
“And what’s your class?” I asked, remembering that iepurrans liked direct speech. “I didn’t catch it if you mentioned it.”
“I have not. I am a Molten Glass-shaper. I specialise in making decorations and special windows for grand halls, churches, and mansions. I am quite well-known in my field. You can see my work in any Dragon’s Tear ballroom.” There was a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Come visit, and I would love to show off my work.”
So, I already knew of medics, the strange warriors the guards were, Eklil’s Herbalogist class, his nephew’s Light Weaver one, and now this. There was a metric fuckton of stuff to learn about everything that was possible on Oresstria and I had to keep myself from spiralling out with my questions. I was just scratching the surface and the depth already threatened to swallow me whole.
I added two exclamation points to my first goal of earning a second insight point. And, just for fun, I added in a fourth goal:
- Learn what the fuck Eternity wants with me (STOP LYING!)
The dragon pointedly ignored me.
Two days. I had only been here two days and I was already feeling like I’d lived a lifetime. There hadn’t been all that many things happening, truth be told. A few fights. A couple near-death experiences—and I was starting to feel leery about my own reaction to those, given the two points I’d dumped into Willpower. And just some training.
I had done almost nothing since I’d arrived, but it was still a lot to digest and take in. I wondered idly, as we walked through the swelling crowd, if I would get used to the feeling at some point.
For now, I allowed myself to be carried along by the pre-celebration mass of iepurrans gathered. Apparently, more boats were arriving by the hour and many more iepurrans unloaded off those. I never saw the things, given how the docks were some distance away from the village itself, but Velin explained about them. Most of the newcomers were flowing into the village by the main gates.
“There aren’t other iepurran settlements nearby, so most everyone you’re seeing is coming in by boat,” he said as we stood aside to let a group pass us by.
More children. The whole village was filled with them, their giddy cheer infecting the very air. Wherever I looked there were more of the munchkins, running, shoving, playing, hugging relatives and generally being adorable.
There were flowers now on every surface I could see. The villagers were bringing out whole bushes of roses planted in pots, each more colourful than the next—flowers and pots, I mean. It was a psychedelic riot of colours punching through the sea of long ears that the village had become. The togas were replaced by more workman-like clothes or fine wear, fashions clashing in dozens of styles as the new arrivals greeted their families.
This was a rural community deeply rooted here but with branches seemingly everywhere. Something about this coming home sparked a distant memory for me, of back in the days when my grandparents had still been alive and they would gather the whole family over at various holidays. It was the rare opportunity where we’d all be together, sitting in a cramped cottage, in a small village, eating my grandmother’s delicious cooking. A pang of nostalgia kicked me right beneath the ribs as I stood and basked in the oddly familiar notes of reunited family.
I was far from home… and never going back. Not that one could ever go back home after enough time’s passed. The village—my village—was still there, a universe away, but it wasn’t the village I’d grown in, not anymore. The old home had been sold off after both my grandparents passed, the property completely changed now.
“Klaus?” Velin asked by my side.
“Sorry,” I said and wiped the corner of my eye with the heel of my palm. “Was lost in thought a little.”
He pointed towards a stall that was opened in the main village market. There was a crowd gathered around it, the clamour beyond belief. Long tables and benches had been set up around it.
“Ienella praised that place to Areestra and higher. Join me for a cup of their tamial mead?” He nodded eagerly. “I’d never live it down if I didn’t try it. Ienella compares every drink in Dragon’s Tear against it.”
“What’s Areestra?” I asked first.
Velin pointed above, to the planet hanging in the sky.
“Holy Areestra, the cradle. It bears many names, but in Validor’s influence we refer to it by this one.”
“Ah.” Scratched one item off my ignorance list. Made a file for these naming notes. “Well, I’m all for a drink then,” I said as I began populating the list.
We made our way through the crowd. It parted, I think, for me to pass as I got more than a few bows from the people who knew who I was. Honestly, I’d just gone down a well and fought a bear in ignorance. I really didn’t feel like I was owed any sort of deference. But they did let us get close to the stall easily on a day that was growing uncomfortably hot, so I didn’t say anything, merely bowed thankfully.
Maybe they saw a hero of sorts. I was still just a guy who’d flailed through a few fights and barely knew how to clean his sword.
Tamial mead turned out to be a reddish, thick, strongly spiced mead. It was fucking delicious! And it had a fizz!
I quaffed the first tankard to the amusement of all those present. Some cheered when I emptied my tankard and asked for a second.
“Eternity, did I just drink some form of poison?” I asked under my breath as the moment caught up with me. “Or what did I just do? Why is everyone staring at me?”
“You just drank a drink that is normally sipped slowly because of its high alcohol content,” Eternity said. It floated down to my fresh tankard and spat a tiny spark above the liquid. The surface of the mead caught fire.
“Oh shit,” I grumbled and pressed a hand over the flames to smother them.
I am not a heavyweight drinker.
I am not even a lightweight drinker.
I am not a drinker at all. Alcohol goes straight through me… and I go straight to bed after a beer. My cheeks flushed already as I felt the alcohol bubbling in my stomach.
KLAUS: Eklil, please tell me you have an anti-alcohol tea or something.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Did you have the tamial mead?
KLAUS: Yes. A whole tankard. Please! I get stupid when I’m drunk.
KLAUS: … stupider.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: This morning’s tea will protect your stomach and counter the alcohol. I expected this would happen and served you a more potent brew.
EKLIL EHREEN-SEN: Please enjoy the festivities.
KLAUS: Oh… thank you.
That was, seriously, one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me on a whim.
It also proved that I’d made an ass of myself several times over already since Eklil had expected this. I took a long drag of the second tankard and it tasted just as sweet, but the point was to hide my blush. I really, really needed to learn more about the people I was interacting with. Not everyone was going to be as kind and understanding as Eklil had been.
I had the sudden and inexplicable feeling that I was being watched. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled and I felt a chill run up my spine.
I turned and looked over my shoulder, almost embarrassed by my reaction. There were dozens of iepurrans crowding the small market, so of course someone would be looking my way.
I didn’t see the cliche dark-hooded figure staring at me from across the crowd, menace in its very presence.
What I saw, instead, was a woman turning away just as I looked her way. A human woman. She was turning as if she’d seen enough and was ready to head off. The crowd flowed around her, no iepurran touching or jostling her.
My eyebrows shot up and I wanted to rise and call after her.
Eternity dropped in front of me, wings splayed out, mouth open. It bit me on the nose. And it fucking hurt!
“No!” the tiny dragon hissed as I yowled in pain.
“What the fuck?” I cried out as I shook my head.
The woman was gone, swallowed by the crowd.
“What the fuck, Eternity?” I turned my angry glare on the dragon as it settled on the edge of my tankard.
Eternity looked up at me, fangs bared, smoke puffing out of its nostrils. “I cannot say,” it growled, voice distorted with roaring echoes.
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