QuestWright BK2 C80 Pushing Limits (Patreon)

We're back! This chapter is a little longer, while the one to follow in 30 minutes is a little shorter. I'll be honest: I hit you with a hard cliffhanger in chapter 81 that doesn't get resolved until next week. This chapter is a dive into some things I've promised, while the next is character-building that gives some insight into Cass's choices going forward through the rest of the series. It's a big, big chapter, of the kind we saw at the end of the war in book 2. Just a little warning there, though I'm not 100% certain I hit the mark right in the chapter. Tough to go from editing back to writing. I had to re-read most of book 4 to get a feel for the direction of the series.

Now, let's dive in, but first, a ReaderQuest.

Quest ID: JDM-0001-CR-EA
[Tier 1 Crafting Quest]

Assignment: The Three-Material Challenge

Congratulations! You’ve received a Crafting Quest!

Unfortunately, your available resources are limited. Very limited.

Your Task

Create something useful using exactly three different materials.

Your creation can be practical, decorative, or entertaining, but it must serve an identifiable purpose.

Examples

A miniature planter made from a container, soil, and seeds.

A bookmark made from cardboard, string, and beads.

A small storage container made from cardboard, fabric, and glue.

A decorative sign made from wood, paint, and wire.

Rules

You may use any tools you already own.

Only three distinct materials may become part of the finished creation.

You cannot purchase a preassembled kit.

You must assemble or craft the finished object yourself.

Completion Condition

Produce one finished creation using exactly three materials.

Timeframe: One Week

Reward: 8 XP

A true crafter isn't defined by how many materials they possess, but by what they can make with the ones they have available.

—

J D Mullenary Sr
The Original QuestWright

Chapter 80: Pushing Limits

William…

Bella and William didn’t wait for daylight before leaving. After Alan set him up with provisions, the former Private wasted no time packing up and mentally preparing to leave his home. Before mounting, he stopped to look Cass’s horse dead in the eyes.

“Now look. They’re tellin’ me you’re some kind of smart horse. That I can trust you. Is that true?”

Bella looked at him blankly, tilting her head as if waiting for something.

“Can you understand me?”

A further tilt of the head, turning until it almost reached a complete ninety-degree angle.

“Nod once if you can under-”

In the blink of an eye, Bella doubled in size. Towering over the man, she lowered her head, then raised it slowly. When her head stopped, reigning over everything in her view, William could barely see the whites of her eyes as she lowered it back down at a glacial pace.

The man took it all in with a shrug.

“Okay, fair enough. Let’s get to Liora in a hurry; I’ve got some leveling to do.”

His complete lack of surprise greatly annoyed the draft horse. Once she was back to normal, she let William mount her, then shrank a little more.

And then a little more than that.

And so it was: a man rode through the exiting gate of Liberty, feet barely off the ground, as a mini-horse carried him through with speed to somewhere new.

Cass…

“What do you mean you’re not going to tell me anything about Calling shards?” Cass asked, as the Source had immediately denied his request.

Do you currently have a purged Book of Calling in your hands?

No?

Then I don’t need to say a word.

I believe I’ve already given your greedy mind enough information. You will learn of them when the time comes.

“Maybe we can ne-”

You have no leverage, and I’d rather not waste the time.

That wasn’t good enough for Cass. 

He started by cajoling the Source, speaking of its lack of empathy for humanity. It rebuffed him with an out-of-character, decidedly sarcastic laugh. He then tried several other methods. Trickery. Jokes. Poking the bear. Whoopsie-daisy. The false hanky-panky. Nothing worked.

But Cass wouldn’t be put off; he tried one last, rather immature attempt.

“Your mother was a llama and your father a shrew.”

That doesn’t even make sense.

As entertaining as this has been, let us move on to your other purpose for bringing me here, Conditional Quests.

“Fine.”

Cass got down to business. Conditional Quests were a new option that had appeared in the outliner around the same time that he’d unlocked them within the tutorial. No notification or additional information had appeared. It wasn’t there, then it was.

His eyes tracked to the tutorial’s words floating in front of him, then back to the Outliner. The Source was decidedly unhelpful as Cass immediately complained.

“Didn’t the tutorial originally say if/then parameters? Why didn’t you stick with that terminology in the outliner?”

Trigger and result are more accurate for what you are attempting to do.

Cass was tired, so he immediately said, “Pfft, no, they’re not. Who told you that?”

You sound fairly confident for being wrong. If and then procedures are dedicated to static functionality. Not human beings. The new terminology feels more accurate to true Conditional Quests.

That still didn’t sound right to him. Cass could’ve argued the point further, but between William, the corruption, and everything he’d gone through in the span of a day, he was worn out. Accepting the Source’s explanation, he moved on.

To learn how to be most efficient with the new style of Quests, Cass needed to experiment. Unfortunately, nobody was in the bathroom with him, and he wasn’t about to call Jamison in. That left only two options, as he didn’t want to test something new on a random citizen of Liberty.

>Adya: Can’t do it, Cass, sorry. I’m training with Alan.

>Pellin: No can do. I hit a snag putting my bench together, and not having it finished is drilling a giant hole through my skull.

>Cassio: Don’t worry about it, Pellin.

>Pellin: Now hold on. I was just at the apartment and saw Gary. He’s probably still around. I wasn’t planning on giving him a Whisprnet, since I thought it would be better to sell one to Alan. But if it gets me out of whatever weird stuff you’re doing, I’m all for it.

>Cassio: You’re a peach.

>Pellin: Yeah, yeah.

Several minutes passed as Cass splashed water around the tub. Curious if it had left, he spoke to the air.

“You there?”

Sadly, yes, I am. And no, I’m not enjoying your water aerobics.

“Can you tell that I’m naked?”

Yes, but the human body has no interest for me. Sources are not designed to feel things the way you do.

“But you have feelings?”

I have objectives.

Cass was going to dig further when a message came in.

>Gary: Hey Cass! This is so weird, man.

>Cassio: Hey buddy. Yeah, but you get used to it pretty quick.

>Gary: No, I don’t think I will. But it’s cool. Also, Pellin says you owe him a bunch of Crests. Anyways, what’s so dire that our unfriendly System Engineer had to give me one of these things?

>Cassio: How would you like to earn some experience by testing out a few weird Quests?

>Gary: Say no more! I’m signing on the dotted line with an emphatic, hell yeah!

>Cassio: Great! Are you in the apartment? I can send one in a second.

>Gary: Yep. Send away; I’ll be waiting. Nothing else to do tonight.

Since Cass was already testing one thing and he had a willing participant, he figured he might as well test another.

Quill in hand, Cass looked at the Whisprnet. Shaped like a small black box, the only thing that stood out to him was the blinking cyan light on top, a sign it was actively being used.

I’m not gonna pull this thing apart. First, it would probably stop working, and then I’d have wasted part of an evening. Second, Pellin would murder me if I damaged it. But I want to connect my Quill to the thing. So how do I go about doing it?

He flipped it over several times until an idea began to take shape. One that never would’ve occurred to him had he not been in Liberty.

Wait. What if I take a page from the Guildtower playbook? That might work.

Holding the Quill up, Cass started to shift its form.

Thinner here…it had a blocky bottom…weird tip. There.

When Cass was done, he looked at his work. It was close to an approximation of the corrupted object he’d purged in the first dungeon. The new Quill-form wasn’t perfect. It was janky and had clearly been designed by someone who had no business building equipment. But it was as close as his non-artistic skills could make it.

His reason for using this shape was simple. The Source had said that the first corruption he’d purged in the Dungeon had been actively interfering with the Systems’ ability to recognize and communicate information. 

If one thing could interrupt a connection, maybe he could reverse the idea and use its shape to establish one.

Once he was satisfied, he messaged Gary again, warning him what was about to happen. Then, he opened his outliner, filled out a simple, non-conditional Message Quest from Gary to Alan, then set it to draft.

All set, Cass placed the Quill on top of the black box. Unfortunately, it had absolutely no effect. He tried moving it back and forth, but nothing changed.

What am I doing wrong?

Lifting the antenna-shaped Quill, he looked down at the cyanic light again, then tried something else. Focused, Cass shifted a small, hollow plug extending from the Quill into Pellin’s device. As soon as it fit, he pushed down.

Cyan light flashed through the Quill's semi-translucent form. It blazed, filling the antenna until the connected forms bathed the entire room in light. All the while, Cass felt a small but noticeable drain on his energy. 

>System: External connection established.

>System: Whisprnet interface recognized.

“Hah!” Cass celebrated, holding the combined form up as water splashed out of his bath.

Congratulations. You learned how to plug something in.

“Don’t ruin this for me, man.”

Cass went through the motions, only instead of targeting a person or a vellum, he targeted the connection he’d created through the Whisprnet. The device glowed with silver sparkles before a message reached him.

>System: Quest transmitted.

>Cassio: You get it?

>Gary: Yep. It was different from your usual stuff. Had a blue sparkle-thing with some gold touches. It was pretty!

>Cassio: Neat.

Silver glow when I’m drafting on Vellums. Gold from the Quill. Gold and blue through Whisprnet. Red, for corruption.

Why is Questing so colorful?

Only a few seconds passed before Cass got confirmation that Gary had completed his Quest.

Well, that’s done, he thought, surprised by how easily everything had come to him. Time for test #2.

The outline for Conditional Quests was unique. Not only was there a Trigger and Result area, but there was another option added.

An on-and-off switch.

“Hey, Source.”

Yes?

“Why is there a switch to turn the conditional Quests on and off?”

Conditional Quests are non-standard, meaning that while you can draft them as you would any other, I believed you would use them in an even more non-standard manner. Through your anchors.

Rather than give a detailed breakdown of why I believe a switch, as you mentioned, is required, I’ll explain it simply so you can understand it best.

Did the Source call me stupid?

Imagine this scenario.

You establish an Anchor at a warehouse. Its purpose is to check inventory each day and assign a supply Quest to the nearest suitable candidate whenever supplies fall below a predetermined amount.

Following me so far?

It’s never given me this much information before. Answer smartly, Cass.

“Yes.”

Good. Now, imagine that the warehouse catches fire. Supplies are destroyed, and inventory keeps falling. But the Conditional Quest assigned to your Anchor is predetermined based on settings you designed within the outline. As such, it is still activating because it is recognizing those supplies as missing. 

Why?

“Because they’re burning up in the fire.”

Precisely, so the Quest keeps activating each day. And worse, you’ve activated several Conditional Quests for that one warehouse. Every time one of those Conditional Quests performs its assigned role, it drains your daily limit, reputation, and energy. 

That is a dangerous scenario, wouldn’t you say?

Before Cass could respond, the Source kept rolling forward with its speech.

Cinder increased your internal energy stores, but not enough to keep several active Conditional Quests drafting themselves without you lapsing into a coma. 

The ability to turn Conditional Quests within Anchors on and off was a simple addition. I made sure it was entered within your Outliner as a reward for discovering the depth of corruption within Liberty. 

A prescient gift, you might say.

I suggest you install any Conditional Quest within an Anchor with its switch set to off, and only turn it on while you’re awake and unencumbered by other assignments.

I would also keep them inactive should you leave the city again. Having Conditional Quests drain you from several dozen miles away could leave you catatonic.

“Y-yeah, good thinking there, Source. Real good thinking.”

Holy shit, I didn’t even consider that. Did the Source just save my life?

Cass didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about the idea that the Source was looking out for him. Almost every conversation he’d had with the System entity was transactional or negotiative. But still, it was a nice addition and something he’d never have thought about until it already happened.

With that in mind, Cass designed his first Conditional Quest. It was, of course, a Delivery. 

He had so much experience with the Delivery Quest-type that he could draft them half-asleep, naked, while riding Bella into a battle. That hadn’t happened, of course, but he still thought he could if the moment arrived.

With the outline plotted and memorized for the conversation to come, Cass spoke the words, then pushed the draft through the combined Quill and Whisprnet.

[Tier 1 Conditional Delivery Quest]

Attention to Gary Trenner. This Quest has triggered because you ordered a smoothie from Will at the bar in Caligula’s End.

Your assignment is to take the filled glass, without spilling a drop, and bring it directly to Alan’s table. Place the smoothie before him, then quietly say, ‘You’re welcome.”

Walk away quickly before he grows upset.

Cassio Vale

Your buddy

After the Conditional Quest was sent, Gary said nothing. Which, Cass supposed, meant it hadn’t activated yet. The wait was long enough that his impatient Baker friend started poking at him, asking through Whispr if he was messing with him.

>Cassio: Sorry, I was checking something. Do me a favor. Order a smoothie from Will.

>Gary: You’ll pay me back? His smoothies aren’t that cheap.

>Cassio: Sure.

>Gary: Is this going to be like when you used to make me give Bella treats and never paid for them? Not one Crest or bit?

>Cassio: It’s still experience…

>Gary: True. Okay.

A few seconds passed before something new appeared in Cass’s notifications.

A Conditional Quest has activated with the Questor Gary Trenner.

-5 System Reputation.

The Conditional Quest has been automatically named: 

A smoothie for Alan Callahan

Conditional Quest names can be changed by the QuestWright at any time.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

Bonus experience granted for creating a true Conditional Quest:

10,240xp

Junior QuestWright Achievement progress:

10/16

Cass whistled in his bath. He was still admiring the numbers when the Source spoke up.

That is a hefty amount of experience. Far more than you received in the Dungeon.

It makes me curious, Cassio Vale. What will you do with it?

Cass sidestepped the question. “You going to give me any tips on how to get the other 6 achievements? It’ll launch me pretty far forward in leveling.”

You know I do not like to interfere with your progress in that manner. 

You have already discerned that your Junior Achievement set is tied to the Versatile Airscript Quill. Continuing to use it in unique ways will reward you on its own.

“That’s kind of an answer, so thank you,” Cass replied. Splashing a little water in the tub, he suddenly had an idea for a little fun. 

Conditional Quests were a type that waited invisibly in the wind. Yes, he’d already assigned them to Gary as the Questor, but they didn’t appear until he fulfilled the Quest trigger. That meant Cass could do all kinds of silly pranks on his best friend.

For instance, the moment Gary went to the bathroom, a new Quest appeared. Cass wasn’t entirely sure he was going to accept it when the words appeared in his friend’s vision.

[Tier 1 Conditional Message Quest]

Attention to Gary Trenner. This Quest has triggered because you entered a restroom.

Your assignment is to finish your bodily function, then announce loudly that you have completed a delivery of the utmost importance. When I say loudly, I mean yelling at the top of your lungs.

Don’t forget to wash your hands.

Cassio Vale

Your Tormentor

>:Gary: Dude.

>:Cassio: Cool, right?!

>:Gary: Dude…

The next part was just as funny. Unknown to Gary, Pellin had been walking into the apartment when Cass received the Quest-completed notification. Cass got a bird's-eye view of the System Engineer pausing at the entrance, eyes on the bathroom, then turning and walking back out.

Cass chortled to himself.

Having fun?

“Quite a bit, thank you. What’s life without the reasons to live it?”

I’m leaving.

“Alright. Thank you for the gift, Source. That could’ve been very bad if you hadn’t told me what would happen with Conditional Anchor Quests.”

The System entity didn’t reply, but the tutorial did update. The standard congratulations appeared, then it disappeared, showing the next step before that too faded away.

Step 10: Create 20 true Conditional Quests using trigger/result parameters.

Cass sighed at the wording. 

What a smartass. 

Then, he opened his screen. 

With all of his recently acquired xp, it was time for a new path. And since he’d unlocked Cinder, Cass knew that this one mattered. Whatever he chose would merge with the Way into a new path. It was incredibly important that he make the right decision.

But of course, like any great planner, he already knew what he wanted.

It was time to see what lay within the Expansion Path.