QuestWright BK2 C83: Brand New Day (Patreon)

Hah! Got it done.

If anything feels off, please let me know. Didn't have the chance for a lot of Betareaders to go over this, but didn't want you to wait a week.

Already got most of the next chapter done, so we're looking like we're back on schedule.

Chapter 83: Brand New Day

Cass got down to his office with time to spare. He still hadn’t completed his daily Quests, but after learning the Questforge’s function, he was too excited.

Now, over an hour before Quirrel would arrive with his first stack, Cass experimented.

First, he pulled out a tiny, torn-up piece of paper that had somehow wound up in his trusty bag. It was innocuous. Common. Ripped up.

Which meant it was perfect for the first test.

Infusion’s description was broad. He could apply it to any inanimate object he could find. 

So why not start with something that was easy to forget?

There were no instructions on how to activate his newest ability, so he went to his experience screen, tapped the node, then backed out. Looking at his Outliner on the wall rather than through the Annex, Cass found a simple addition that told him he was on the right track. Around every Quest was a new and shiny white border.

Holding up the small piece of paper, Cass said his words to the System, then, without a Quill in his hand or a vellum nearby, pushed the Quest through. 

A feeling from within told him something was happening. It was a pulling sensation, as if whatever he was drafting were being drawn from deep within his soul. Then, the slightly stained piece of paper in his hand took on a white glow, and energy poured out of Cass to create it.

He slumped back in his chair as the drain kept hitting him. For a QuestWright who had only fifteen minutes ago felt completely drained, this compounding action took a real toll. He instantly fell asleep.

Time passed, and a knock at the door didn’t wake him. Nor did a shoulder shake, until that same action became more of a shove.

Blinking gritty eyes, Cass looked up at the impassive face of Senior QuestWright Mirelle. She did not look impressed.

“Hit the bottle a little hard last night?” She asked tightly. “You look terrible, and I don’t mean because you remind me of the pirates I’d read about in children’s books.”

Cass scrubbed away the sleep from his face. “Just a little out of it, sorry. How can I help you, Senior QuestWright Mirelle?”

She tilted her head and looked him over again. “This can wait, you know. If you’d like to call in a sick day, we do allow those, but rarely. I’d have to report it up the chain, of course, but people get sick. It happens, QuestWright Vale.”

Cass thought it over.

Conditional Quests. Inscriptions and Infusion. This damn vibration in my chest. It’s not the worst idea to have the day off. After all of Survivor’s upgrades, I don’t think I can even get sick anymore.

He then gave a gentle nod. “I think that would be best, Senior QuestWright Mirelle. I appreciate you looking out for me.”

“Of course. Tomorrow, we’ll start going over Crafting Quests. I hope you have your templates ready.”

“Y-yeah.”

Shit.

Cass left the area, explaining to Quirrel, as he passed him on the way out, that he wouldn’t be in for the day. The Clerk wished him the best, then Cass walked out of the Scriptorium’s doors. But he didn’t head for the tower.

A few messages through the Whisprnet later, he had Pellin's location, and, as luck would have it, Gary was with him.

The walk was interminably long. He spent most of the exercise trying to keep his feet under him and his head held up. Infusion had done a number on his stamina, and there was nobody to blame but himself. He should’ve known, after creating the inscription in the first place, that it would come at a cost.

It didn’t use experience or reputation to create Inscriptions. That only left one place to draw the energy from. Something couldn’t be created from nothing, and in this case, that something was Cass’s stamina.

Pellin’s shop was in the fifth, as Orla had agreed to. Situated in the far west of the ring, Cass’s walk took on a pensive, if tired, mood as he noticed just how deserted the city felt. Due to the harvest, the only people he found within the fifth were children and those tasked with looking after them.

When he arrived, he wasn’t shocked to find the shop had a large, overbearing door, thick enough to impress at first glance. Following the System Engineer’s instructions, he knocked twice, paused, knocked once, then knocked three more times. A small cyan glow came over the barrier before it lifted on its own and Cass peeked his head in.

“Hello?”

 “Get in here, doofus!” Gary’s voice bellowed. “He’s doing something weird.”

Cass held his head as the Baker’s loud voice had set off a headache. Two steps in, the door closed behind him, and he finally looked around the place.

Everywhere his eyes traveled, he saw metal, monstrous body parts, and the telltale glow of the System.

“What the hell, Pellin!”

“I’ll hear no complaints!” He yelled back. “Now be quiet, I’m working.”

Cass sidled up beside his large friend to watch the mad engineer at work. Gary looked disgusted as they both watched Pellin dip his hands into a bag holding something pale. It took him only a moment to realize it was monster blood.

“My god.”

“Shush! This is very delicate.”

The engineer worked over an oddly convex tabletop. In fact, it was growing more curved the longer he looked at it, bulging out from the wooden frame holding it together as if it were going to explode. 

Pellin splashed the blood across it, rubbing and kneading it into the wood with a concentrated look on his face. After a few seconds, the bulge began to smooth out, causing the engineer to smile. While one hand kept rubbing, the other touched a seated metal pad attached to the wood. Small sparks of static system energy flashed with each button press until a field of cyan energy rose from it. The expanding sphere tried to encircle the table, but each time it reached the blood, the energy would shy away as if it were scared.

“Shit.” Reaching toward another bag, this one filled with red stains Cass didn’t want to know about, he grabbed it, then cursed again and threw it to the ground.

Looking at the two of them with desperation in his eyes, he said, “I need one of you to bleed on this.”

“Fuck no.”

“Ain’t happenin’,” Gary said at the same time as Cass.

“Please! This is the last step necessary to finish this gods-damned bench and get me past my second gate!”

“I-” Gary said, looking at his weakened hand with trauma evident in his eyes. Cass knew what he was thinking. With a soft touch on his friend's elbow and a whispered weenus, he stepped forward.

“I’ll do it.” Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his small knife, then asked Pellin, “How much do you need?”

“No idea.”

While Cass tried to figure out the best way to proceed, the two other people in the room bickered.

“You’re kind of a shit engineer, Pellin. I always know the exact process in everything I bake. You’ve gotta think of your Calling as an art that should be studied.”

“Screw you, Gary!” Pellin shot back, slathering another batch onto a new bulge. “This isn’t the time, and this isn’t baking. I’m trying to modify a System blueprint with anomalous materials, you yeast-filled bumpkin. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing!”

“Fair, but harsh.”

Pellin blew long, sweaty hair out of his eyes. “It’s how I feel; don’t limit me. Cass, you about done figuring out how to cut your own skin? I’m dying over here.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Cass walked close, put the edge of his hand on the knife’s blade, then swiped across it with a pained hiss. Blood poured forth as he squeezed his fingers together, pressing more to come out.

He leaned his hand out while under Pellin’s instructions, aiming at the center of the tabletop where most of the monster blood met the wood. Three seconds went by before his efforts stopped against his will.

“Aw shit, Cass. You’re healing too quick,” Gary commented.

“Cut deeper!” Pellin yelled as a particularly large growth began on one side. “Hurry!”

Cass cut himself a second time with a groan, deeper this time and aiming it over the bulge. Pellin yelled again, his voice sharpened by the fear that all his work was about to come undone.

“The middle! The middle!”

Cass did as asked while the mad engineer punched buttons with one hand while still smoothing pale monster blood across the wood from the corrupted tree they’d destroyed not long ago. When another bulge came, he was ready, and Cass cut himself two more times as Restoration took his self-afflicted damage as a challenge.

Slowly, the bulges became less pronounced, and the System sphere grew. Cass’s eyes picked up that it expanded best where his blood was clearly laid on top of the monster fluid, so he did his best to cover it loosely as his headache turned into a full-on migraine.

Then, someone was standing beside him. Adya gave him a grimace as she cut her own hand, pouring it beside his. He gave her a sharp smile as he cut himself again.

“You guys have the weirdest relationship,” Gary commented on his other side, his strong hand stretched forth, already leaking.

“Focus!” Pellin yelled.

“We’re just standing here bleeding you idiot!” Gary fired back, shaking his hand and spilling droplets across the room.

Cass felt light-headed all of a sudden, stumbling to a knee as he was forced to brace himself. Gary and Adya continued his job without him as the Scout said, “Take a rest, we’ve got it covered.”

Gary snorted. “Bleeding for levels. What are we, Combatants?”

“Yes,” Adya said right away.

“Oh, right.”

Sitting in a chair after moving several objects out of it, Cass leaned back and closed his eyes to ward off his migraine. For a second time that day, he’d fallen asleep. When he woke up, Gary and Adya had bandages around their hands, and Pellin was rubbing the tabletop with a cloth.

“Did-” Cass cleared his throat. “Was it successful?”

“Hells yes.” Pellin said with a grin. “And I appreciate what each of you did for me. Don’t think I’ll forget it. Pellinblasts for all.”

“Why did we need to do it in the first place?” Gary asked as Adya came close to Cass.

“Got a booboo?” Adya asked, holding up her own bandaged hand before giving Cass a chaste kiss then sitting on his lap.

“It just hurts, alright? Why is everyone a dick nowadays?”

Pellin cleared his throat. “To answer your question, the System wouldn’t recognize the corrupted wood. No matter what I tried. So, I had a thought. What if I put monster blood on it.”

“That’s what happened with the Lure Quest back in Liora,” Cass commented. “I accidentally made a corrupted Vellum.”

“Exactly! You see, I’ve been thinking about things since Adya told me about what the Source said to you, Cass. There’s multiple systems out there. Corruption, like the vellum you made back in Liora, is a blending of the two. You took System energy, then applied it to something with monster blood on it, which created something else entirely new in the world. That got me thinking. If the monster’s have their own system, and it’s tied to their blood, then why can’t it be tied to our blood too.”

“What’s our System called?” Adya asked, interrupting the excited engineer.

“The System,” Gary said in a deadpan.

“No, that doesn’t work.” Cass replied. “System is a category for something we’re talking about. Just make it simple. Ours is the Human System, the monsters have the Monster System.”

“Perfect,” Pellin said shortly, still rubbing the table. “Anyways, I didn’t want to make a corrupted System Engineering bench. That would cause me all kinds of headaches and probably get me into some trouble. So, I took the corrupted deadwood, splashed some monster blood on it to kick off their energy, then used my installed System diagnostic pad to contain the experiment. That wood is a hell of a conductor of energy, naturally, since it grew directly from the corruption. Now, I can do some fancy things I wouldn’t have been able to before.”

“Why did you need human blood?”

“For the human System to recognize it. That way, our System wouldn’t just see monster blood and think it was something to eliminate. Like recognizes like.”

Adya was flummoxed as she said, “Then why did you need monster blood?”

“Because it lets me push the limits of what our System is capable of. Our System has a lot of limitations, while from what I can tell with my sight ability, the other one is a lot less restricted.”

“How so?” Gary said, stepping close to look at it.

“Watch.” Pellin pushed a few buttons on his keypad, and the bench shrunk down to the size of a single-step footladder.

“What the hell!” Gary said as he moved closer. Eyeballing it, he looked back at the engineer. “That’s just like what Bella can do.”

Pellin nodded with a grin. “She gave me the idea. I’m not like Cass. I’m not the best at coming up with new ideas all the time. But, I’m very good at engineering. Show me something that can be done, and I’ll find a way to engineer it, only better. Look.” Pushing Gary back, then a few more steps, Pellin pushed another few buttons, then quickly shuffled back himself. After three seconds, the bench expanded riotously, filling a large portion of the room.

“See. Now I can adjust the size of my workbench for my projects. And, if you’ll excuse me, I have a gate to complete.”

Moving over to another chair, he pushed aside a few small items, then sat on the rest in his haste to see his results.

Adya snuggled up to Cass as he asked her, “Where’d you come from?”

“Oh, I was just checking on Pellin. Didn’t know you guys would be here or that you were self-mutilating without me.”

“That’s a big word.”

“Two words, really.”

He kissed her forehead, then looked to Gary, “You close to your gate?”

“Yeah,” the big man said, leaning against a wall. “I should have it in a few weeks. Your daily Quest thing is super helpful. I’m pulling in big numbers right now.”

“How are things going other than that?” Adya asked.

“Me and Felicia broke up.”

“Really?” She asked, as Cass mouthed the name to her in confusion. She gave him a wink as Gary continued in a more somber tone.

“Yep. I walked in on her and Mark going at it. I was like, bye Felicia, and that was that.”

“Sorry, man,” Cass said softly. “That’s rough all over.”

“It’s fine. Hey that brings me to another thought. You know how we have to close the third dungeon soon and all that?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course,” Adya said right after.

“Well,” he continued. “What’s gonna happen when the Guildtower goes to the Underdark on the next lottery and notices that there’s no second Dungeon anymore? Or even, find the remains of that tree thing you murdered.”

“Purged,” Cass replied automatically. “Shit, I think you’re right. They’re going to freak out the moment they get down there.”

“Kind of makes our need to clear out the Dungeon even higher now, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t they start looking for us right away?”

“Yeah. I think they will.” Cass rubbed his chin, belatedly realizing he hadn’t shaved that morning. “When’s the next Lottery again?”

“A little over three weeks from now,” Adya said. “I’ll have to tell Alan, I don’t know why he hasn’t thought of it.”

“Maybe he has,” Cass replied. “Remember the army he’s building up? That’s probably why.”

“That old man never likes to tell us what’s really going on,” she huffed.

They spoke a little longer, then Pellin opened his eyes and jumped up in his chair, yelling, “Aha! System Matrix Engineer, baby. And I’m level 23. Gonna do so much cool shit now.” Looking around the room and catching the vibe, he said, “Why do you all look like your cat died.”

“Because our short timetable is shorter than we thought. We need to talk,” Cass said seriously.

“Oh.”