Quick note:

Shorter chapter, but that's because there is a LOT happening. Enjoy. Hopefully I don't have ot make any changes, as I only got one beta reader's feedback. That's why I'm looking for more.

Chapter 49: The Journeyman and the Source

Alan…

Since the portal was gone, the environment in the Dungeon was far different from only moments ago. With its removal, so too had gone the heightened sense of weight and toxic atmosphere. There was a profound feeling of relief in the survivors as they took clean breaths for the first time in hours. 

As for the monsters, the only remaining evidence that this place had once been a Dungeon was the Guardian’s four-foot-tall stubs, driven hard into the stone.

Nobody had any answers for Alan's loud question in the silence, least of all Cass. Because the moment the Portal closed, several distracting events occurred.

The first was expected for any traveled Dungeon delver.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

With the portal’s closure, all halved experience is now restored and granted to the closing group.

The Dungeon had been around for several years, far longer than others with a similar experience halving modification. As such, the sudden rush was more than welcomed by all, even if they were entirely worn out.

“Oh my god…I leveled three times!” A bloodied Shirley yelled out.

“Four!”

Even Gary wasn’t immune as he crowed, “I’m at the second gate!”

“How many points did we get?!” Jason yelled after.

But Alan asked another important question that quickly shut everyone up, “Who got credit for closing the Portal?” 

When no one answered, he looked around for the telltale sign. His eyes fell to the likely culprit, a young man who had somehow stopped the Dungeon’s search for a new Guardian before it could even truly begin.

Cassio Vale.

Lifting the emaciated form off of an insensible Joran, Alan spent a few seconds staring into the boy’s closed, fluttering eyes.

“Son of a bitch.”

***

Cass was not unconscious. Instead, his mind had been taken to his experience screen of its own volition before it shattered and left him in the darkness. His body was there, or at least, what it used to look like before he’d burned away every ounce of fat on it. He even pinched himself just to test, but he felt nothing.

It’s just an image of how I see myself.

Although he’d thought that rather than saying it aloud, it filled the space he was in nonetheless, bouncing and echoing around him.

What is this place?

A voice spoke with zero inflection, reaching his ears from everywhere at once.

The Source

This wasn’t Cass’s first dance with strangeness, so he adjusted quickly. 

And what is the source?

The heart of the System

Do you often speak mysteriously and without explanation?

Cass knew he was talking to the System itself; who else, after all, could bring him here? But there was a different pattern to how it was responding to him, and that had him curious.

Cassio Vale of Liora, you have done a great thing in closing the Dungeon. This is where you come for your reward.

Uh-huh. 

His body was all here, but Cass’s mind was still thoroughly exhausted, and that made him a little testy. He rubbed his face as ‘huh’ repeated back over and over. 

The Dungeon gets closed, and you mentally kidnap me. Do you drag everyone in here, or am I just special?

This is not a kidnapping.

It isn’t voluntary, either. My friends are out there, and they’re hurt.

And you could fix that for them?

No…

Then this discussion changes nothing. Let us continue.

Frozen images appeared all around Cass as dead Slipfangs, torn up Veilrunners, and burning Greybeards appeared, including a single Alpha. Next to each was a point total, with the two largest displayed separately from the others.

Corrupted Pylon purged: 500 points

Portal closed: 10% of all points earned since the Portal's incursion.

The screens faded, and points began to flash above as the System added everything together.

Did anyone else get credit for closing the Portal?

No. As the Quillbearer, all credit is yours.

Man, I bet somebody out there is pissed.

***

Alan ground his teeth as a smile broke out on Cass’s face.

“What a smug little bastard.”

***

The counter kept going, and going, and going. From simply killing monsters, Cass had earned over 600 points from all the expeditions he’d completed over the last few months. Adding in the purging of the Pylon gave him a flat 500 after the fact.

But closing the Portal had already pushed him past two thousand, and the total kept adding up. As he waited, Cass realized this was an opportunity.

While we’re here, I want to ask you a few questions.

Proceed.

Will closing the portal affect my Gate?

No. Your gate was completed before the Portal was closed. Activating the tier-up will have no effect.

The points had just hit three thousand as he thought, Can’t we just do it right now?

I do not linger without cause.

Why are you talking funny? Cass thought back. In his previous conversations with the System, it had never spoken this way.

You’re making a mistake in your line of thinking. The System is an apparatus of change that is designed for preconceived conditions. I am of the System, and also more than the System. 

I am the Source.

What’s the difference?

I am more. Thereby, I am less restricted.

Cass stared at the endless dark around him while the point counter continued to climb.

4,122.

4,801.

5,647.

It’s speeding up.

Yes, it is. 

I have already told you, my time is precious. You are an oddity, Cassio Vale of Liora, so I’ve spent this time studying you. But my interest is beginning to wane. 

This reading my thoughts thing is kind of bullshit. Everybody deserves an inner monologue.

That is the price you pay for my attention.

A thought burst out of him before he could stop it.

 What’s the price for completing my Gate here?

My interest returns. Let us say, ten percent of all your earned points. I promise it will be worth it.

Cass wanted to think about a way to talk the System down to a lower price, but it would hear everything happening in his mind. So he tried a quick gambit before too many thoughts could form.

Eight.

Eleven.

Fine, he quickly broadcasted. There was a slight pause, then the Source replied. 

I will be magnanimous and keep it at ten. 

Let us upgrade the gate of Junior QuestWright: Cassio Vale of Liora.

The still-rising point total was shunted aside as a screen depicting his life and choices grew to the size of a mountain.

[System Record- Subject: Cassio Vale]

Status: Junior QuestWright

Age: 18

Level: 20

[QUESTWRIGHT TIER UPGRADE UNLOCKED]

Source intervention detected

QuestWright Cassio Vale of Liora.

The Source sees you.

It sees your pain, and endurance.

Trials and moments from his experiences with Survivor flew through his mind.

It sees hope, in a void of apathy and greed.

Cass and Bella, laughing in the fields. Cass and Adya, helping people in the fifth. Cass and Ana, as a few coins slide across the table.

It recognizes righteous fury.

The burning in his chest when he first realized he’d been kidnapped. Raging against Liberty. Raging against the world he lived in. Raging against a reality that would place a Crest above the life of a small boy, hurt in Johan’s shop.

And it recognizes your powerful will.

The corrupted vellum. The Lure and the Chase. Awakening Joran and purging the Pylon. And of course, it ended on a whisper of Johnny, and a Skreel that he’d almost failed to put down.

A bringer of hope, you may be. But not quite yet. The System watches, but the Source will reward.

—

Second gate unlocked

QuestWright Tier III Threshold reached

System geas satisfied

Tier 1 Gate reward: Airscript Quill

Usage: Rudimentary

Tutorial: Incomplete: Step 4/5

Junior QuestWright Achievements: 3/16

You have done well to reach this point so quickly, but you have not used the Airscript Quill to its full potential.

Cass mentally paused, as the words stayed floating in front of him, and the countdown of points continued on the side.

18.923.

He belatedly realized the Source was waiting for him.

I don’t really know its full value, to be honest.

It is not a run-of-the-mill ability, Cassio Vale. It requires experimentation.

Well, your tutorial was shit.

The Source didn’t have a comeback for that. In fact, even the points on the side paused as whatever great power that had brought him here was stunned speechless. A few moments went by, where Cass felt metaphorical sweat dripping down his back, then it continued.

Fine.

I can agree that the tutorial needs some work. Perhaps a bit more clarity.

Or just some basic instructions.

The source seemed to ignore that as it continued on and the points leaped ahead.

As this is your second gate, which serves as a means of enhancing the first, what would you ask of me?

What was I going to get before?

The System would have enhanced the Quill to better manage energy consumption, or in your case, stamina.

That doesn’t sound so bad.

I expect more from you, Cassio Vale.

Activating the Way of the Cinder by itself would have given you the same value. 

The Quill is a gift, one that the Source itself provided to you as a means of saving your people. If you could enhance it in any way possible, what would you ask for?

Cass hadn’t known that it was the Source that he’d negotiated with back in Liora. His negotiations for the Quill had been unusual, but he hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. That now felt like a mistake.

So he sent out a thought that came naturally to him.

I want to thank you for helping me save Liora. Without you, all those people would’ve died. Myself included.

There was another short pause, then it spoke.

There is no need to thank me, Cassio Vale. Monsters. Incursions. Guardians and Portals. Their destruction helps not only you but the System as well. 

The Source empowered you to do great things, so I ask again.

 If you could enhance the Airscript Quill in any way possible, what would you ask for?

That set off a huge amount of questions in his mind, but with alacrity still kicking, even in this place, he pushed them away and focused on what the Source was asking him. In only a moment, he was going to run out of points, and then…he didn’t know what would happen.

So he went for broke and spoke from his heart.

You say this is meant to help me do great things. And, you say I’m not quite the Bringer of Hope. So help me do that. Give me everything. Give me a tool to not only take down monsters with Hybrid Quests, but also empower others to help me do it. I’m already on the Path of the Versatile Survivor, so give me a Versatile Quill.

Give me options to do things differently and be a different kind of QuestWright. One that isn’t as limited as the others I meet in the Scriptorium every day.

Let me become the Bringer of Hope. Help me, so I can help everyone else.

This will require another Tutorial.

Just make it better than the last one.

Done.

A moment passed, then words appeared in the air as his Gate closed.

Status updated: Restricted by Source

Cass had been expecting to see everything hit at once, so he was flummoxed to see his status be blocked. All the tension in his metaphysical body worked itself up as he broadcasted a loud thought.

Hey!

You can view your status when we’re done here.

Oh, look, the points have finished.

You’re a very unusual System voice.

And you have a very unusual human voice.

I am just the Source.

The point total moved to the front of the darkness and expanded. As if to emphasize their importance, a large glowing arrow appeared above them, pointing down as if he didn’t notice just how many he’d accrued.

113,594

And now my fee.

102,235

Cass was speechless as the Source spoke again.

I rounded up.

Now the real negotiations begin.

***

Alan kicked Cass’s boot as if thinking that would make things faster.

“Hurry up, you idiot. There’s more than one Dungeon down here.”