QuestWright Bk2 C60: The Operational QuestWright (V) (Patreon)

I thought I posted that last one earlier. Apologies.

Chapter 60: The Operational QuestWright (V)

They spent most of the day relaxing in the shade or walking and talking. Every time Cass started to think about work or the Quill or what was going to happen next in the Dungeon, he’d stop himself and focus on the present.

That evening, after a lovely day, Cass sat down at the office desk in his new room. Ana was up and moving around, though he didn't know what she and Jamison did all day with two Servants and a non-demanding QuestWright.

He did know enough not to ask. People could be touchy about their work.

Pen to paper moved in spurts, even though the letters were much ado about nothing.

His writing provided only minor updates to both his family and Kara because he was almost certain someone would read his mail before it was delivered. It wasn’t like he could scream out, ‘Oh yeah, my horse can level now!’ 

Folding them and placing both in the provided envelopes of his office, Cass wrote out the names and destinations, then handed them off to Ana. She promised to have them delivered first thing, then Cass went to bed and quickly fell asleep.

With his day of rest complete, a newly invigorated Cass woke up and dove into his mastery work with something akin to a fever. 

A single Stalwart came and went without a Copy being used. He’d reached 260 tokens as of that morning, meaning only Tempered remained before he could unlock Way of the Cinder. With Survivor’s Record now working on all of the Ways, he planned on moving through three physically intense Tempered Quests in a row to maximize his token gain.

Hopefully, it would be enough.

The Sustenance Quest Series, as Bella called it, went out into the world during his daily bath, then Cass quickly ate two meals, leaving the third untouched on the table. His body rounded out just a little more each day, and he could feel his strength returning twofold.

In fact, during his pushup series that morning, he’d performed the reps at a blistering pace.

It’s like burning all my muscles off is making them come back stronger than ever. Survivor gets weirder the further into it I go.

A quick step, then he was in his office, the door was closed, and the Tutorial was in front of him.

Step 7: Intentionally create a Merged Quest using this doll as a target.

Cass read it then asked, “What doll?”

A small, cotton figure appeared from nowhere on his desk. It wore a white robe and had an eyepatch covering part of its face. Naturally, it was made to look like him.

“Very funny,” Cass said to the room, but he got no response as the Source was quiet.

Not in the mood to play around and waste time, Cass shifted the Quill to its natural state, then outlined a Quest for himself.

Awaken Activated

Set to twenty minutes at twice his usual clarity, Cass focused on the doll. His alacrity-enhanced mind, attached to Awaken’s clarity, rarely allowed distraction as he cycled through several Quest-types before settling on two. Focusing and creating a delay on the first, Cass sent out a Retrieval and Support Quest at the same time.

Unlike before, this time around, he told the System to intentionally merge them when they met.

Congratulations.

You’ve intentionally created a Merged Quest by combining Retrieval and Support. Through this interaction, you’ve created a Relief Quest. Keep testing other Quest types to discover new possibilities.

Step 8: Create three more Merged Quests.

“Why?” Cass asked the room, as he only had enough stamina left to create one more before it became too taxing for the start of the day.

Practice makes perfect.

Cass rubbed his eyes, “Can you at least make it so I know what the Quest-type is after I send it? I’m working blind here.”

A logical request.

Done.

“Thank you.” Not wanting to waste time, Cass pulled up the Outliner and drafted two more. This time, he went with Scout and Hunt at once. The target was to destroy all humans, but he felt relatively safe from the doll’s possible machinations.

(EXT) Extermination: A rare Quest type related to searching out and destroying a target.

“Is there a rarity higher than Rare, and can I make them this way?”

Yes and no. At least, not yet.

Clarity gave him the boost he needed to answer the unintentional question the Source had just created, “I need to unlock Way of the Cinder, don’t I?”

When the Source was silent on that, Cass smiled, then closed the Tutorial. The doll went with it.

“Good, it was creepy anyway.”

He spent the last of his Awakened time activating Convergence while staring at the map. Most of his Quests weren’t interconnecting, but off in the oldest Fifth neighborhood, one series focused on food lit up bright as they interacted. 

Cass smiled.

Quirrel showed up, and his day in the Annex began. Mirelle had added Administrative Quests to his tally, lowering Messages down to half as much. Cass didn’t mind. In fact, it was quite useful, as Liberty had a different sub-series of Administrator types than Liora.

On his first day, he was a little slow, finishing just before closing time. Then, vellums in his bag, Cass made it out of the tower, slapped his horse fondly, and then got to the apartment at a blistering pace as Bella could feel the energy he was putting off. Adya was still talking when they hopped down and gave their horsey friend a hug.

“...so Alan says the new entrance will be ready in a week, then we’re heading in.”

“How much did it cost again?” Cass asked.

She leaned close, “Almost 800 Crests because of the secrecy required, and you’ll never believe who owned the construction company.”

“Let me take a wild guess,” Cass sighed, “Orla?”

“Yep! She didn’t fleece him from what I understand, but Marrowind Builders certainly got a good deal out of it.”

“Of course they did,” Cass said, shaking his head as they entered the apartment. Gary was gone, but Pellin was there as the System Engineer held up a small black-and-blue box close to his eyes. As Adya went to the bathroom, he smiled when Cass sat down in a chair across from him. 

“Check it out,” Pellin said, and tossed the object across the space between them.

Cass caught it and immediately felt a chill begin to seep into his hand in a familiar way. “Is this a new Whispr prototype?”

“Yep! The range on that sucker is twice that of my first models.”

“Very cool,” Cass bounced it in his hand, “What’s the next step?”

“Active message storing,” Pellin said, waving for him to throw it back. Once he had it, he moved really close and waved a hand across it as a cyan glow came off the object. Then, as Adya came back from the bathroom, he threw it at her.

Rather than catching it, she batted it to the floor.

“Hey! That cost me over seventy Crests to make!”

“Then why throw it at me?”

“I thought you’d catch it!”

“That’s a stupid assumption. Alan’s been training me in dodging projectiles, you know that.”

Abashed, Pellin nodded slowly, “I forgot. Anyways, that's yours. I’ll go over its functionality with you later. It’ll be nice not having to be the go-between for you lovers anymore.”

“Lovers?” Adya said, clearly not liking the term.

“Speaking of throwing things,” Cass said, standing up and starting to stretch as he intentionally interrupted a fight about to happen. “How would you both like to hit me with some stuff?”

Since there were two people happy and willing to throw things at him, Cass decided to try something new. As enough time had passed since the morning, Cass felt confident that he could activate a few Quill Quests without feeling a serious drag. So, the first thing he did was activate Awaken’s reflex form. 

It felt like a powerful bolt of energy had entered his body, thrumming through every joint and muscle as it spread throughout him. He took a breath to settle himself, then closed his eyes for a few heartbeats to get control over his slightly twitching body.

“This takes some getting used to.”

“Yeah, all we saw was you shoot a golden bolt into your chest. No idea what you did.” Pellin remarked.

“It’s fine.” Opening his eyes, Cass projected the Outliner on the ceiling, then did two things. First, he activated Supercharge. Then, he followed it up with the first Quest he’d ever received for unlocking the Tempered Way, Foundational Control.

However, as it had in the past, Supercharge always changed things.

[Supercharged Tempered Way Daily Quest]

Cassio Vale will maintain a controlled handstand for three cumulative minutes, traverse twenty narrow landing points using only standing leaps, and evade fifty thrown knives without blocking, catching, or striking back (another may assist).

This must be completed within one hour.

Cassio Vale
Liberty Guildtower
QuestWright

“Holy crap!” Cass yelled out.

“What is it?” Pellin said quickly, coming closer.

“Find some knives!”

“What?”

“What about knives?’ Adya asked.

“Quick, go and find some knives! A lot of knives!” Cass yelled, then immediately went over to the wall and leaned against it as he put himself into a handstand. Immediately, the System noticed.

Warning: Leaning upon objects does not count toward Quest completion

“Fine!” Cass inched away from the wall, legs up in the air. They immediately toppled, reflexes and precision or not. He’d never performed a handstand in his life.

But he was committed.

Legs back in the air, Cass stumbled across the apartment’s wooden floors. When one of his legs got a little wobbly, Awaken did its job as he started to compensate on the other side.

After falling again, he realized that he was thinking of his hands as hands. Instead, with a trick of the mind, he began to imagine them as feet. Once that connected in his mind, everything became a little easier.

Strangely, like he’d noticed in the morning and a few times before that, his muscles acceded to his demands with a previously unfound rigor. What should have been impossible became more than a little probable. 

It wasn’t easy, and he was drenched in sweat, but eventually, the Quest finished as he collapsed to the ground in a heap.

“Well, that was entertaining,” Pellin said with a laugh. “What do you have to do now?”

Cass gulped in air, “Do you…know of…any places nearby…with thin ledges.”

“Mmmm, Caligula’s End, probably. It’s all beams in the bar.”

“Great…thank you.” Cass breathed out. 

As fast as he could move with the timer counting down in his vision, Cass and Pellin sprinted to the bar while Adya was out looking for knives. The fact that she accepted his need for numerous sharp, pointy things was a little concerning. But he barely noticed in his haste to get to the bar.

Will was cleaning an already clean glass behind the wooden counter, “Watcha need?”

“Is there a ladder nearby?” Pellin asked, already excited to see what Cass would do next.

“Yeah, it’s round the bend. Be careful, though, that’s an active construction zone.”

“Thanks!” Pellin ran off as Cass was finally able to catch his breath. By the time he was standing upright, the System Engineer returned with a tall ladder and a grin.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks!”

Cass leaned it against the edge of the counter, splayed out its legs, then used precision and his heightened reflexes to make it up as fast as possible. Pellin was right, the entire top part of the bar was filled with thin ledges. However, they were only six feet away from the roof.

“You didn’t tell me the roof was so low!”

“How would I think that mattered?” Pellin yelled back.

“It just does, okay!” Cass yelled in return, then took a breath and leaped from the beam he was on to the criss-crossing one across from him. It was only five feet, but he made it as everything in his body kicked on at once to keep him from falling. 

The counter reached one.

“Yes!”

Cass leaped back to where he was, and the counter didn’t move.

“No!”

I gotta move to different beams each time. This thing won’t let me go back and forth.

As he started to bounce around the ceiling one leap at a time, Alan came walking in. He instantly spotted Cass above.

“What’s that idiot doing?”

“He’s on a Quest, sir,” Pellin said, already lounging in a chair with a drink in his hand. “Think he’s gotta do that a bunch of times.”

“Why?”

“I dunno.” He took a sip, “Great smoothie, Will.”

“Thanks! That’s five Crests.”

“Put it on Orla’s tab.”

“You got it.”

Cass continued to leap as three people in the bar stared at him, one, drinking through a straw. When the last counter ticked over, he caught his breath against the edge of the roof. That’s when Adya arrived.

“Bella said you came sprinting over here. I don’t know where to get a bunch of knives at once!”

“Standard, throwing, weighted, or decorative?” Alan asked, a beer in hand, where he was sitting across from Pellin.

“Cass?”

“Throwing!”

“How many?”

“50 please.”

“Be right back.” The old Scout put down his glass and disappeared. By the time he came back with a box of throwing knives, Cass was already down, and Pellin had returned the ladder while also returning to his drink.

Cass looked in the box, then nodded, “Okay! I need everyone to participate because I’m running a little low on time.”

Adya looked at Cass, then at the throwing knives. A connection formed.

“You want us to throw these at you?”

“Yes, please. And don’t try to angle the butt end on impact, the System will know.”

Alan picked up a knife, tested the tip, and then his arm moved quickly. Cass’s body shifted out of the way, just barely as his counter ticked down.

“Huh,” The old Scout said with a raised eyebrow, “You couldn’t move like that before.”

“Who just throws a knife without any warning?”

“Isn’t that the point of this?” Alan threw another, which Cass also dodged.

“How are you throwing those so fast?” Adya asked, picking up a knife herself as Cass dodged another.

“You’ve gotta follow through on your movements, see.” He picked up another knife, then moved in slow motion until he reached the top of his release. At a comfortable height, Alan brought it down before flinging the knife forward. It came very close to Cass’s right cheek since he hadn’t expected the slowdown.

“Throw with your stomach and your back, your arm is just the mechanism for delivery.”

Adya tried, and while it was fast, it certainly wasn’t at Alan’s speed. “Oh, I see.”

“Seriously!” Cass yelled, dodging two that Pellin tried to double-fist, “This is not a teachable moment right now.”

Alan tsk’d. “Everything is a teachable moment, Vale. The sooner you learn that, the easier life becomes. Come on, everybody, throw some knives at the QuestWright.”

Even as Cass improved his dodging skills to a heightened form, so too did everyone improve at their throwing. Alan was even walking Pellin through pulling a knife from the back and flinging it forward when Cass’s Awaken Quest ran out.

Oh shit.

Two knives were coming, and the counter was getting low. One scraped against the very edge of his robe, while the second made a very small cut against his forehead.

Neither counted.

“Alan and Adya, no more speed-throwing!” He yelled out, dropping straight to the ground as the knives sailed overhead and landed among others strewn in the dirt and wall behind him.

Alan nodded knowingly, “Ah, his speed thingy wore off. Joran told me about it. Hell of a thing. Could do wonders for us if he could make them more often.”

“That’s why I’m doing this!” Cass yelled, dodging as Pellin accidentally threw low, and it almost nicked his leg. “If I do this right, I should be able to make more of them in the Dungeon!”

Pellin already had an arm back when Alan picked up five knives and threw each two seconds after the other, always angling the same as the others, so when Cass dodged one, he was really dodging two. Adya picked up a few and sprinted over to hand them out. They were all still throwing when the counter finally ticked down.

“Yes!”

Then a knife landed in his arm.

“Shit!”

Alan blurred forward and pulled it out without blinking as blood stained Cass’s new white robe. “You got distracted, right?”

Cass wanted to cry as Fortitude kicked in, “Yes, I did.”

Adya was there almost as fast. “Are you alright?”

“He’ll heal,” Alan replied, wiping off the blood on Cass’s robe. “I’ve seen this young man heal from things nobody should come back from. He’ll be fine.”

Then he walked away as Pellin finally got there, “I think that was my knife.”

“Thank you, Pellin,” Cass said dryly.

“Was it worth it?” Adya asked.

“Let me see.”

[Supercharged Tempered Way Daily Quest Complete]

Rewards: 16.8xp, 4 Tempered Tokens, 2 Survivor Tokens

Survivor’s Record Activating…

+6 Tempered Tokens, +3 Survivor Tokens

“Yes, but I need more,” Cass said, his resolve unshakeable, even after receiving a small stab wound.

I will get Way of the Cinder tonight.

With that in mind and while still healing, albeit quickly, he activated Melee Weapon Familiarity and squared off against Adya.

“Hey Alan, you got an Axe I can borrow?”

“Ugh, fine.” The old Scout said, putting down his beer for a second time.