Chapter 44 - Quests and equipment.

As he entered the temple the priest that gave him the quest moved towards Balthazar of his own accord. "Why is he looking at me like that?" thought Balthazar as he saw the priest looking at his face. The priest suddenly raised his hand and showed him his palm while he mumbled some spell at him. There was the yellow dot above the priest. So, he thought that the priest is giving him some quest and began to check his quest log.

"Shadow, your mask is blinking in flashes of gold and silver," said Quiet Fire pointing at his face.

Balthazar wasn't able to notice that his mask was flashing, the effect was hidden from him. He then realized that the priest was waving his hand towards his mask and it was flashing in response to the spell.

"When I heard that you foiled the plan of a great mage, it piqued my interest. But, you seemed to have found out something a lot more interesting in your adventures, Mr. Shadow," said the priest.

"The mask you donned; it reacts to the power of the altar of gods. You have acquired the recognition of a relic of one of the 12 great lords. I have seen many powerful creatures, but the material seems to be more resilient than the skin of a wyvern. You have been given a great gift. Take good care of it and know that it by extension you are a member of the temple. Kindly act in accordance noble adventurer," said the priest.

"Devout Priest, could you provide me any more information regarding the relic of the lords."

"I am but a minor deacon at the branch of the temple, I am not capable enough nor informed about such powerful artifacts. Such knowledge is not something a priest of my rank is privileged to. But I can refer you to someone who once taught me, the great priest Luciophel. He will surely help you."

System: Meet the great priest Luciophel of the 'Temple of the Twelve' of the white heart city to further investigate the origins of the mask of shadows. Received a letter of introduction from the deacon.

"Thank you, Deacon. I have also completed the quest given by you and can be of further service to the temple," said Balthazar and immediately a couple of notifications popped up.

Quest Completed: Help the village against the menace of the wolves.

Wolves Killed: 63

Performance: Outstanding.

Quest reward: Temple of the Twelve Reputation +5; experience points +150;

The quest when given by the village headman usually rewarded about 50 to 75 experience points when it is completed. Only the temple quest allows the rewards to acc.u.mulate if more than the required number are killed. This is a feature that few organizations within the game follow. But the experience was something that Balthazar could easily gain and was not the reason for him accepting the quest.

Shadow Tyrant presently was at level 3 and had already begin to acc.u.mulate reputation in the Blackrock village region and the White Heart City region. But he considered the temple reputation to be worth a lot more than either of these. At this stage of the game, he is probably one of the strongest players in the game.

Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human)

Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village

Title: None

Job: Assassin

Level: 3

Exp: 415/800

HP: 2000/2000; MP: 650/650;

Physical Attack: 52

Defense: 41; Attack Speed: 30; Movement Speed: 32; Willpower: 12; Balance: 20; Focus/Search: 26; Reflect: 1; Magic Resist: 8; Luck: *; Charm: *;

Attributes: Strength 26, Agility 24, Endurance 15, Intelligence 12, Vitality 22, Perception 12.

No Special Racial Attributes or weakness.

Free Attributes Points: 0

The temple reputation has a certain use as when a player manages to gather sufficient reputation, he would be considered a soldier of the temple and would be given the same title. This title allows one to have a natural enhanced resistance and damage towards the members of the other factions, which would be very useful in the later stages of the game.

Also, he needed to collect the life essences of dark faction. In the dungeon runs, he only managed to gather 92 life essences. He would probably need to acquire more for further upgrades in the later stages of the game. So, the temple reputation would be useful for that too.

As he was waiting for the priest to prompt something that would give him the quest which players received at level 3 from the temple, the priest said something he didn't expect.

"I almost forgot. Captivated by the relic, I neglected the main purpose of our meeting. You have successfully stopped the plans of the Worgen Great Sorceror Arsenus. While we thank you for the services rendered, I would also have to request to do this," said the priest holding out a small disc.

"This is a high-grade teleportation disc. It can be used to create a permanent teleportation point. Though you managed to stop Arsenus. The failed ritual causes a few smaller space-time tears near that location. These could allow few lesser creatures sent by Arsenus to infiltrate our kingdom. I would like you to create a teleportation point near the cave that would allow the followers of the light to take action against them. We have already sent a few members of the temple, but they haven't reported back. I hope the light of the twelve blesses you in your endeavour."

Balthazar immediately understood that this was a continuation quest for his previous one and is being given by the temple. As he took the teleportation disc from the priest, he got a new quest.

System: New special quest:

[Hold back the Warg's: Help to hold back the advance of the wargs at the blackrock hills]

Create a teleportation point near the cave to stop the growing number of Wargs at the blackrock hills.

Received Quest Item: Teleportation disc.

Progress: Return to BlackRock hills and find the cave ( To be completed).

Now that he received a quest from the priest and the yellow dot hovering over the priest's head disappeared, the one he previously expected wouldn't be given to him. He was disappointed a bit as he lost his chance to complete a quest, he knew that he could easily pass through. Moreover, the quest was a team quest, that could only be done at level 3 or level 4.

As he turned back in disappointment, he saw his teammates standing there. "Of course, I can have one of them take the quest and join their team," he thought. He quickly took the team towards the priest.

"Devout Priest, I have a few friends who like me are followers of the temple of the twelve. The wish to be of service to the great cause of the twelve great lords," he said introducing the team to the priest.

The priest looked towards Quiet Fire calmly and acknowledged her. She had already done a quest at level 2 and obtained her inspection skill from the temple. He then observed the other three new members who came to the temple.

"Ah, three more adventurers that want to serve the light. I hope there would be more of you as the time passes. There is something that you can do but it will be hard. Go to the Blackrock hills and stop the mining operation of the goblins. They pay no heed to the safety measures and are polluting the river. You better increase your strength before you attack the goblins," said the priest to Quiet Fire

Quiet Fire immediately thanked the priest for giving her the quest. As she was checking the quest details Shadow Tyrant asked her to share the quest details.

[Stop the goblin miners] (Team Quest. Difficulty: Hard)

Quest Description: Kill the goblin leader to stop the goblins from mining at the blackrock hills.

Progress: Find the Goblin Leader; Goblins Killed: 0

Team quest: Can be shared with 4 more members. 0/4

Following the details, a quest request was sent to him by Quiet Fire in order to join the team. Though the team quest can be done by even a single member, it is always recommended to do it with a team as the difficulty is not scaled by the number of members in the team. For better rewards and performance grade by the system, it is best to fill up to the maximum number and kill accordingly.

"What does the priest mean by increasing our strength before we attack the goblin camp?" asked Blinding White.

"It is a level 3-4 quest. The NPCs who have a good impression of you tend to give some clues to help you out in such a way. You guys can at least improve your gear before you go for the quest. Do you guys have any more quests to submit in the village?"

"I didn't focus that much on quests. At the time, I just too the quest from the headman and went to the dungeon after leveling up a bit," replied Blinding.

"We have a few quests. But only one per person. We didn't want to fill up our quota of four secondary trade professions, right now. We want to take some time to decide which is the best for earning money," said Quiet Fire.

"That is a sensible move in general for games, but you can remove a secondary profession from your trade skills anytime you wish. The only problem is that you would lose all the trade profession related quests and the proficiency when you do that. Moreover, I heard that the quota is going to increase. So, just take whatever you find and use it to increase your experience," said Balthazar.

"OK. We will try out the other tradesmen NPC quest in that case."

Vita-nova had focused on the trade professions as much as the main professions. The level of detail of the combat increases with the level so that the players can slowly get used to it. The same concept was applied even to trade professions. All the trade professions which are seen in real-life are made as close to reality as possible. Even the mythical ones such as runecrafting have been made extremely close to what the myths suggest. That is why Balthazar had them work on filling up the slots for the trades. It is best to gather a decent amount of proficiency even in the gathering trades which most exploratory teams take up.

"Why don't we meet back at the temple in 30 minutes. You guys do whatever you want in that time. I need to finish up the guide for Blue Dart. We also need to discuss, the distribution of loot among us, if we are to work as a team for a continued duration," said Balthazar.

"OK"

"See you at the temple gate in half an hour."

"Wait, Quiet Fire and Little White Feet before you go doing your quests, I got something that might help improve our strengths. Come with me."

Balthazar made his way to the Tailor and Leather working shop to finish the quest. The Tailor NPC Lydia gave a repeatable quest till a person reached level 5. But most stopped doing the quest as the amount of experience they got after level 2 doing the quest was too little. They would at least get money on selling the resources than completing the quest.

But once the quest is completed 6 times, a person's relation with Lydia improves and she begins to sell her handmade apparel to the player. This would be an easy way to get hold of leather and cloth armor. But the number of apparels she sold per day would be limited to 20. Still at this stage, Balthazar knows he would have monopoly over the wares she sold. These kind of quests were offered in every beginner village of the game so that the players are could easily adapt to the realistic way the trade professions are played in the game.

As they reached the tailor, they could see that it was quite sparse around the shop. The tailor sold only white trash clothes of lower level. Only really unlucky guys would end up losing them at this stage of the game. The low experience given by her already made her a pariah. Players would rather go to merchant's like Hart where they could get coins for their resources, especially when the resources and coins are scarce. Moreover, the coins can be used to purchase potions and supplies and can also be distributed evenly within a team but not the experience. Not everybody could solo kill wolves and rabbits at this stage of the game. They usually formed teams to kill them.

[Lydia] (Tailor)

Level ...

Protected by the system.

As soon as they approached her, she started her usual dialogue.

"Brave adventurers, could you please provide me resources for my shop. Assuredly I will repay you for your help."

System: Lydia's Request: Gather 10 wolf furs or rabbit pelts for Lydia to make clothes. (Repeatable)

Balthazar already had 47 wolf furs and 18 rabbit pelts with him. He quickly put them up for Lydia to take.

"+10 experience points"

"+10 experience points"

"+10 experience points"

"+10 experience points"

"+10 experience points"

"+10 experience points"

System: Improved Relationship status with Lydia to Friendly.

"Brave Sir, Shadow Tyrant, I thank you for your patronage. These are clothes that have been made personally by me. Please, have a look at them. They might interest you," said the NPC, displaying a new set of clothes.

The new ones on display ranged from level 2 to level 5 Black Iron leather and cloth armor. There were some special items which Balthazar wanted to buy.

[Explorer's Hooded Cloak] (Black Iron Cloak)

Level 2-5

Defense +10%

Agility +10%

Perception +10%

Cost: 80 coppers

There were others but right now Balthazar didn't want to spend, the little amount he had, in fully equipping himself with black iron armor. He chose the explorer's cloak for himself and provided the pictures of a couple of items.

"Pick one each suitable for you. We can come shopping another time when we have more money," said Shadow.

Soon, the two of them soon selected a couple of clothes. Quiet Fire chose a pair of boots which would increase her damage while Little White Feet chose a pretty white gown which would increase her intelligence and health.

[Mage sandals] (Black Iron footwear)

Level 2-5

Restricted to mage class.

Intelligence +20%

Agility +5%

Cost: 80 coppers

[White Gown] (Black Iron gown)

Level 2-5

Restricted to Healer Class.

Intelligence +10%

Vitality +10%

Cost: 70 coppers

These were clothes with very good attributes. Lydia had similar ones in stock but the amount of coins that the team had weren't enough to buy them. Shadow had already told Blinding to stock up on basic health and mana potions to go through the quests. These three items had cost him a total of 2 silvers and 30 coppers. He would only have 20 coppers after the transaction.

As he pointed out to the three items in the display. They were immediately put into his hands and Balthazar selected 2 silvers 30 coppers and put it on the table.

"Since you have more than 200 reputation, you would be considered to have equal privileges to the village head. 20% off on all purchases in the village," said Lydia returning 46 coppers back to him.

"Thank you," said Shadow accepting the coins. He immediately called Blinding and rest of the team to tell them that he will make all purchases they require as he would be given a discount of 20%.