QuestWright Bk2 C63: Not the Same Cass (Patreon)

Author's Note:

Howdy,

So, this is late. Lots of reasons, but it's mostly personal, and I apologize. As a part of that apology, I'll just tell you the title of the next chapter.

QuestWright Bk2 C64: The Second Dungeon

Now, I've had to spend the last few days combing through and submitting DMCA takedowns for all of my books. Apparently there was a big scraping of RR, and all my shit was out there for 50 cents. Not a great feeling.

Then, I found out that there's a whole-ass database with all of my writing in it, and shocker, people are using my writing, among many others, to create AI books that are similar, then feeding it back into Amazon.

Because of all that, I'm honestly considering leaving RR. I've been posting chapters on there for 3 years and have had to submit 15 DMCA notices since. It's absolutely nutty. Don't even get me started on the Patreon scrubers.

Basically, it's hurting me in the long run and I"m very tired of it. So, I'm considering Patreon and Amazon only, and more than that, I'm considering self-pubbing QuestWright. The audiobook would still be a publisher, as I have offers for that, but I don't have any for text and I'd like the story out there. My goal is 3 books per year if possible, and currently, that's looking less and less likely. By self-pubbing, I can get it done much faster, even though I still have to write the in-between chapters.

So yeah, all that's been weighing on me and it's lit a firestorm in many popular authors on RR. I'm not the only one considering leaving because we're all getting screwed over by the scrapers.

Sorry for the downer to start the day, I just wanted you all to know where my head was at.

Anyways, here's an appropriate ReaderQuest. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Quest ID: JDM-0001-SC-EA

[Tier 1 Secure Quest]

Assignment: Secure What Matters

Protect your valuables.

Your Task

Choose one possession, account, document, or piece of work that you value and improve its security.

Examples

Back up important files

Enable two-factor authentication

Update a weak password

Store important documents in a safer location

Verify your recovery information

Make a second copy of something irreplaceable

Rules

The asset must already exist.

Your action must meaningfully reduce the chance of losing it.

Completion Condition:

One valuable asset made more secure.

Timeframe: One Week

Reward: 0 XP (Just do it)

Posterity rewards those who not only create, but preserve.

—

J D Mullenary Sr
The Original QuestWright

Chapter 63: Not the Same Cass

Ten days after first starting the Quest Web in Liberty, those same Quests shifted into the Routine-type. In all his history as a QuestWright, Cass had only had a few Quests upgrade to Routine. 

Now, he only needed to assign the delivery man to the three locations for a few weeks before the Quest Web was fully established and running autonomously. That meant more passively gained experience, and more people in Liberty were better off than they were before he’d gotten there.

That also meant it was time for more and larger webs. In this, Bruce was a godsend.

For the low, low amount of ten Crests a week, each evening, the stoic handyman gave Adya small bits of information on the woes of the Fifth Ring. Who needed a little help around the shop? Who had a lot of free time? What people deserve to gain extra experience?

All of these questions and more were plied to Bruce’s experiences in the Fifth, and the man met the challenge with long tales of woe and heartbreak. Thankfully, that was all Adya told Cass, leaving the sad stories as a gap in his knowledge.

She understood him better than he gave her credit.

For many of them, Cass assigned simple Quests as he traced out a plan. Adya would go out to meet them, coordinate with Cass when their Profile updated through Whispr, then he’d write it up and send it. Then another, and another, until three days after meeting Bruce, he was sending out twenty additional Quests a night.

Zero failures were recorded in his logs for each of his ‘friendly’ Quests. The Questor met the challenge for multiple days and at a speed visible on the Command Center.

Following the fifth day, after double-checking through Profile that certain Questors had completed four or more Quests, Cass gave them an Exponential as a reward. He considered it a bonus for good works and was sure that the added experience went a long way with everyone.

They’d probably tell others about how much experience the Quest granted, but Cass considered that cat out of the bag. As long as nobody from the Guildtower aside from Mirelle knew he was the Friend of the Fifth, it was worth it.

Of course, this hadn’t been possible before. His ability to manage long-distance Quests without wearing himself out was all due to the Way of Cinder.

The physical and mental ramifications of the Way were much more drastic than his first two. 

Stalwart helped him heal; Tempered quickened his reflexes. But Cinder made him feel alive in a way that was hard to describe. He didn’t sleep the first night after getting it, that sense of energy buoying him far beyond his need for the pillow. Not one to waste the chance, Cass worked at the Source’s shitty tutorial, almost completing the next step toward true conditional Quests. 

Though initially worried that he’d never sleep again, rest finally caught him on the next day, even if it was harder than normal to finally get some needed shuteye.

When first unlocking Cinder, Cass had been confused. The Way hadn’t come with any tokens or easily understood forms of upgrades or progression. It was two lines, bifurcated at the bottom, with singular nodes appearing at set intervals until meeting together again at the top. There hadn’t been much special about it at a glance.

But after sleeping, he’d awoken early and decided to take another look. To his shock, he found a single, steady flame floating just below the lines. Its yellow, burnished edges waved merrily as he looked it over.

Inspecting it that night, he was shocked again when he found that a portion of the flame had burned down. As a test after sending out several Quests while coordinating with Adya, he pulled it up and found it even more diminished.

“So that’s how it works,” Cass mumbled to himself in the bath.

Since unlocking Cinder, it’s almost felt like I’ve been pulling energy from somewhere else rather than my own body. Now I know. That flame is the bonus from Cinder.

To confirm, Cass found Orla at Orla’s and threw an Exponential Quest her way. While she jerked in her chair then threw a fist at the sky, he reopened the Way again to find the flame just a little bit smaller.

Success!

Cass fell asleep that night, and when he looked in the morning, the flame was fully restored.

So it replenishes when I sleep. But that’s kind of tricky. I mean, Cinder makes it harder to sleep, but I need to sleep in order for it to restore itself. It’s almost like it’s working against itself.

Lying in his comfortable sheets, a thought came to him.

What happens if I burn all of the flame away?

There was only one way to find out.

With that thought in mind and after pre-warning Adya, he set out to create as many Quests as possible. That evening, Cass became a whirlwind of goodwill as the people of the Liberty received Quest after Quest from a silent man resting in a bathtub, a glowing Quill lighting up the water.

Adya had been smart, picking people Bruce had told her about and moving about the ring section by section as she introduced herself repeatedly. Normally, it was with an accidental bump or even by visiting their place of work for some quick small talk. But together, the two created forty-five Quests before Cass finally felt some of his energy begin to drain.

Success again!

The flame below the Way was almost gone. In its place was a small, single ember, lighting up the darkness at the base of the Way. Then in the morning, like magic, it was back.

Now there was something new to test.

Cass had been so focused on working with Bruce and figuring out the next big Quest Webs that he hadn’t yet unlocked the first nodes of Cinder. At a cost of ten Stalwart tokens for one node and ten Tempered for the other, he already had enough for the next step.

It’s so weird that Cinder uses the other Ways’ tokens to upgrade. Makes me really curious about what’s going to happen when they unlock.

So, on that night, the seventh since unlocking Cinder, he had one goal. See what happens when the nodes are unlocked.

The first unlock wasn’t anything special. The Stalwart-sided node lit up like a light and stared back at him in majestic glory, but with no changes. It wasn’t until he unlocked the Tempered node that everything made sense.

Like a tailor pulling a stitch, once both nodes were unlocked, they drew together, pulling their respective Ways with them as Cass’s original Path changed yet again. Both of the Ways had the same endpoints, their long lines of nodes stretching as Cinder brought them together, but at the bottom, things really changed.

They were merging. 

Once they pulled together, instead of separate lines, small striations of Stalwart red, Cinder yellow, and Tempered green were left, intermixing throughout the area. Cass still had three Ways to work with, but each now held a similar starting point.

Then, more change arrived.

[SURVIVOR PATH: WAY OF THE CINDER- STEP TAKEN] 

First integration complete: Foundational.

New Way function unlocked: Enhanced flame recovery.

You’ve gained a slight increase to the Way of the Cinder’s passive ability.

[WAY OF THE CINDER INTEGRATING]

The first change was that two new flames joined their yellow brother, red to the left, green to the right. The second was that the small yellow flame grew in size, doubling its original state.

The third was that the Tempered and Stalwart Foundational Quests disappeared, leaving only a single Quest in their place.

Cass mentally poked at the energy in his body, but he couldn’t feel a difference, even with the transformations that had occurred.

Way of the Forged: Foundational Branch Node

Available Branches:

Stalwart: Foundational Quest

Tempered: Foundational Quest

Cinder: Foundational Quest

Of course, Cass clicked on Cinder before processing everything.

Way of the Forged

Cinder Branch

Quest: Basic Physical Calisthenics

Questor: Cassio Vale

Calling: QuestWright

Objective: Complete one full rotation

Timeframe: One Day

Questor Reward: +12xp, 1 Stalwart Token, 1 Tempered Token, 2 Survivor Tokens

Modification Available: Burning

Modification Reward: Enhanced flame recovery

Well aware that he shouldn’t say anything aloud in case somebody was listening in, Cass analyzed the changes.

Survivor, you are just the strangest path in the world, aren’t you?

First, you somehow make me heal faster. Then you bump up my reflexes. Now you can do damage to me with ‘Trials’,

Seriously, you’re the weirdest thing out there. Don’t get me wrong, System, I’m not going to complain about an entire path to keeping me alive. The benefits of getting this have kept me going in times where I surely should’ve passed from this world.

I just can’t help but note how Stalwart, Tempered, and Cinder together form Way of the Forged. That’s a thematic build-up to it that just seems so obvious, but somehow, completely bypassed my way of thinking.

And where the heck did that lamp go? I know I saw it.

Don’t play with me System!

Cass thought he heard a small chuckle, but it quickly passed from his mind as he looked at all of the nodes he still had yet to unlock in the other Ways.

Stalwart had another five to go for a total of thirteen, while Tempered was much larger, its three-tined form holding many more.

I should be able to assume that Cinder won’t merge these fellas together if I don’t have all the nodes unlocked. So, this is going to take me a while.

But what’s progress without goals?

Since he already knew he wasn’t going to be sleeping that night as a new jolt of energy had come with his upgrades, Cass accepted the Quest, but not before he clicked on a side-button that had appeared. One labeled very clearly.

Even though the flame had grown, it was still missing a portion from his day’s Quests. That was good enough for Cass to perform a new test on what Cinder had brought to the table. There was only one problem.

[Way of the Forged: Burning Foundational Quest]

Cassio Vale will complete three sets of twenty burpees, three minutes of bear crawls, and run three miles. 

Complete the Forged rotation without allowing your body to cool or rest between exercises.

Cassio Vale

Liberty Guildtower 

QuestWright

“Burpees?” Cass cursed the ceiling. “Why did it have to be…burpees!?”

The first set was fine. The second wasn’t. Even with all the energy in the world, burpees are a rare curse on the human body. After the third set, Cass was less enthused about the whole process and more than a little put-out that this was designed to help him survive.

Bear crawls were not a dignified exercise, so he stayed in his room, sharply pivoting each time he reached a wall to make the most of his limited space. And, as the Quest said, he made sure to never pause, using his expanded energy stores to keep going when others would’ve likely tapped out early.

As he stood up once the counter ticked down, Cass noticed something. A quick wave at Ana, and he was out the door and running down the hall as it stuck out in his mind.

This heat in my body is weird. I’m guessing that’s what the Burning modification really does. It feels like a bonfire in my chest.

Sweat dripped into his eyes as he made it to the stairs and quickly moved down them. More than a few turns later, he was out of the Guildtower and sprinting across the open ground.

I’m not crazy; the heat is getting stronger, he thought as he made it through the first gate and quickly passed by people on horses.

As he ran, each exhalation billowed into the night air like steam from an engine. The counter on his screen continued to tick down with each step taken as he burst through every gate and made it to the Fifth ring with only a mile left to go. 

Stretching his legs further, Cass started to loop around the ring, enjoying the freedom of running while his body burned and he fervently wished for a towel wrapped around his head. 

When the Quest was completed, he didn’t feel like stopping. 

Gone was the callow teenager who’d balked at Dev’s instructions back in Liora. After so much time working out according to the requirements of Survivor, Cass had taken on a liking for building up his body.

And the heat that had initially been uncomfortable? Now, it felt like a warm hug; a steady furnace pushing him onward as people passed by his vision left and right.

At last, after what felt like only a few minutes but was surely an hour, Cass paused to catch his breath as he stepped out of the thoroughfare and toward an alley.

In that break, he opened Cinder, unsurprised to find the former half-spent flame now almost completely restored. Closing it with a smile, Cass leaned a heavy hand against the nearby building as he caught his breath.

That’s when he heard a chuckle.

“Look at the fancy boy out on a stroll. Nice clothes there, Inner. I bet he’s from the second Ring.”

“At least,” A second voice said, a low chuckle quickly to follow. “Bet he goes for a pretty price.”

“Bet he does.”

Cass looked up to find two middle-aged men. Their clothes had seen better days, as had their dark, yellowed teeth.

No accounting for who brushes their teeth nowadays.

Cass wasn’t worried as he smiled, “I’m not worth much, fellas. Just out for a nice stroll.”

“Listen to that voice, Flip. He’s got some education to ‘em.”

“Probably swing us at least a few hundred Crests for rescuing him from the Fifth, ya’ think?”

“More, I’ll bet.”

“I’ll make you a bet,” Cass said, rolling his shoulders in their joints. “I’ll bet neither of you can take me down.”

“Sure talks tough, don’t he, Flint?” One of them said while neither slowed down.

“Sure does.”

“Your names are Flint and Flip?”

Nobody spoke as one of the men lunged toward Cass. His movements were laughably slow as Cass stepped back and slapped him across the face. The man flailed toward the ground with a crash as the next man stepped forward.

Cass met him halfway, driving the tip of his foot squarely into the man’s dirty crotch. A mewling sound burst from his throat before Cass knee’d him in the face on the way down.

The first man was getting up when Cass kicked his supporting arm out from under him, then followed with a light second kick to the man’s stomach, just below the ribs.

Like mom always said, there’s nothing wrong with kicking a man when he’s down, if he’s trying to hurt you. Though, she probably meant that in a different way.

Cass looked over both of them, logically deciding neither was a threat to him anymore as Tactical Framing cut off.

“There’ll be no kidnappings of me tonight, gentlemen. Sorry. I’ve been down that road before, and I choose to no longer walk it. Have a pleasant evening.”

Whistling to himself, he stepped over the man with the busted nose and made his way out of the alley. The heat in his chest finally started to cool down.