Chapter 4: Quest Complete

A small Greenhouse Roach crawled across the green grass of The Blessed One’s oasis, it carefully grabbed a small Milkflower with its mandibles and slowly picked it, placing it on its flower garden carapace. Chittering in happiness, it moved to go find another flower, but it was quickly trampled over by the traveling party of scavengers on their first quest.

“So, how much longer do you think this quest will take because we haven’t been attacked yet.” Reina spoke up, “I’m bored.”

“You don’t count those vine things that chomped at us earlier?” Leonard said as he looked at his ankles and winced.

“Eh, they weren’t that dangerous.”

Daniel piped up, “Their biting hurt like crazy though.”

Josh sighed, “Quiet down or at the very least whisper, we don’t know what’s in this forest.” He turned to face Elizabeth, “You see anything dangerous near us?”

She shook her head but using her perk looked around their party’s general vicinity once more. Again, all she saw were plants, some small critters, most of which looked like roaches, and dirt. There was also a sna-. Wait, a snake?

“Everyone, spread out!” The group scattered to hide behind anything that could give them cover. 

A large glob of acid shot out of the trees from where Elizabeth saw the snake missed her but unfortunately grazed Leonard who took the hit for Reina who didn’t manage to get behind something.

He let out a loud scream as the acid started melting through parts of his E.H.S.A and fell down onto the forest floor writhing in pain. The scent of bubbling metal filled the air.

“Leonard!” Reina screamed as she attempted to run to help him but she was stopped by Daniel who pulled her behind a tree as another acid glob hit where she previously was. He shook his head at her.

“Kill the thing first, then help your friend unless you wanna get both you and him killed.”

She glared at him but relented as she understood his logic. She wouldn’t be able to move Leonard out of danger and would only expose herself if she tried to do so, even if he was laying there exposed, the snake seemed to be smart enough to know that he was out of the fight and to focus on the rest of them.

He pointed to a tree several meters away from their position, “It’s hiding there, you’re an infiltrator right? Could you try sneaking behind it and stabbing it?”

“Yeah, I could but it already knows where I am, how would I?”

“Trust me, we’ll draw its attention.” Reina turned to look at Leonard who was still writhing in pain, she wanted to dissuade him from putting himself in danger, but just from his body language alone, she could tell he wasn’t going to change his mind. 

She attempted to calm down her own beating heart as she got ready to flank the acid-lobbing snake.

“O-Okay.”

“On my mark.” He motioned toward Elizabeth and Josh who were taking cover beside a log and rock respectively, they nodded their heads as he signed his plan toward them. 

“Three,” Elizabeth pulled out her bow.

“Two,” Josh got into a runner's stance.

“One,” Daniel prepared to run toward Leonard’s body, eyeing his gun as he did so.

“Mark!”

Josh dashed away from the rock he was hiding behind, drawing the snake’s attention. The beast attempted to shoot a glob of acid at him which thankfully missed as he quickly ducked behind a tree instead melting a poor dog-like creature that tried to pass through sneakily.

Hissing at its failure, the snake prepared to shoot another glob of acid at Josh. Elizabeth disagreed with its course of action and shot it with her bow piercing its body. It let out a horrible shriek of agony as it focused its attention on her instead. It was tempted to try and pull the arrow out of its own body using its tail, but the Swalloa remembered that its prey often bled out to death and didn’t wish to die the same way.

She quickly dodged away from the log she was using as cover as it dissolved under the creature’s acid spit, cursing how she missed the snake all the while, it wasn’t even that well camouflaged! It was light green in a dark green forest!

The Swalloa prepared to get close and swallow Leonard whole and run to hunt the rest of the group later, it had already taken more damage than it was comfortable with. Better to hide and lick its wounds before attacking the rest. Then it heard the sounds of someone creeping up behind it and turned to face the one who dared to get close, but a few bullets put a stop to that as Daniel managed to grab Leonard’s rifle and put a couple of rounds into the beast.

It screamed in rage and all but launched itself toward the one who did the most damage and pain to it, that being Daniel. 

It crashed through several small trees and slithered through several rocks to attempt to reach Daniel to swallow him whole. Elizabeth shot another arrow at it, but it simply dodged it without even glancing at her. 

Daniel, who was still standing in front of Leonard’s body, rolled out of the way of the Swalloa, dropping Leonard’s rifle as he did so. The beast quickly turned its body around and used its tail to wrap itself around him and started squeezing the life out of him.

The sounds of Daniel choking filled the air causing Elizabeth to fire another arrow aiming at the beast’s eye while Josh pulled out his spear and lunged at the beast. 

Unfortunately, the beast could easily counter both of them. It closed its eyes so its reinforced eyelids could simply tank the arrow coming at it and it temporarily loosened its hold on Daniel to flick Josh with its tail. 

He crashed into a tree as the back of his E.H.S.A was pushed to its limit as the armor broke apart from the force. He let out a grunt of pain, the taste of blood filling his mouth, and tried to get back up, but his leg was broken in a way he didn’t even know was possible. He could only prop himself up against the remains of the tree he crashed into, lamenting a possible total wipe, but as he saw a flash of movement he let a small grin appear on his face. 

Elizabeth let a quick curse escape her lips and let out another as the Swalloa let Daniel go. He didn’t get back up.

“Reina ran didn’t she?” Elizabeth spoke to no one in particular, “Near total party wipe on our first quest, how annoying.” In grim defiance, she pulled her bowstring one last time, intending to get at least one more shot on the beast.

“Nope, look up you scaly bastard!”

Both Elizabeth and the Swalloa looked up at where the noise came from and there Reina sat on one of the trees, Leonard’s rifle in hand. She smirked, “Don’t really know how to use this, but I do know how to pull the trigger.”

One last quick burst from Leonard’s rifle and the creature fell over dead. 

“That–that,” Elizabeth stammered as her eyes went from Reina to Josh who was staring incredulously at Reina, to Leonard to Daniel, and back to Reina. “Why didn’t you appear sooner!”

Reina flushed under the helmet of her E.H.S.A, “Well I had to sneak around that large snake to grab Leonard’s gun.”

Elizabeth let out an angry sigh as her hand massaged her forehead in frustration, “I mean, why did you have to pose in a tree and then announce you’re going to shoot at it? You could’ve just shot it then and there once you got the gun!”

“Well… I-I wanted to give everyone more satisfaction when I killed it? I was also kinda pani–”

Elizabeth just ignored her and moved to help Josh, “Check on the others please.”

“O-okay.”

Reina moved to check on Daniel. She didn’t really know how to check for a pulse and so just checked if his chest rose and fell. Of which… it didn’t. Panicking, she called out to Elizabeth, “He-Hey! Elizabeth! Do you know CPR or something? Daniel isn’t breathing!”

Quickly rushing over after making sure Josh was somewhat comfortable on his log, she checked once more for a pulse, of which she found a faint pulse. Immediately, she placed her hands over his chest and started doing chest compressions.

One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three!

A long gasp came out of Daniel’s mouth, and a series of violent coughs followed. 

“You alright, you reckless idiot?” Elizabeth whispered after making sure he was okay.

Daniel let out a few more wet coughs, “Ne-never been better. Just having a large snake coming out of nowhere and crushing my ribs felt so therapeutic.”

Elizabeth deadpanned, “Well if you’re feeling better already, I’ll just go check up on Leonard then.” As Daniel nodded, she turned to face Reina, “Keep an eye on these two, I’ll go check up on your friend.” And without even looking at her, Elizabeth ran over to assess Leonard.

Most of his E.H.S.A was fine, but the right side took the brunt of the damage. It had nearly melted right onto his skin, but the last layer barely managed to hold under the acid attack. Elizabeth lightly slapped his helmet to see if he was alive as his E.H.S.A was just too thick to be able to tell if he was breathing.

“Ack–five more minutes…” Leonard complained, “I don’t wanna go to college again.” 

Elizabeth thought to herself, At least he’s alive at least, but…

“I’m not your mom, wake up!” She started lightly shaking him at which Leonard fully got to his senses again with a wince of pain as his brain once more caught up to the fact that he got his on his right side with a glob of acid.

“Did we manage to kill it?”

“Yeah, Reina killed it.” Elizabeth would give her that much at least, even if her dramatics could’ve caused a team wipe if the snake wasn’t as surprised to see her just crouching in a tree. But she supposed luck was on their side. She got up and held a hand to help Leonard up.

“Hopefully when Josh feels better he can try to fix your suit later and maybe increase the armor.” She turned to look at the corpse of the snake that attacked them, “I have a feeling that maybe we shouldn’t be here so early, that or Reina jinxed us earlier.”

Leonard got a serious look underneath his helmet, “This place was probably programmed to lure us into a false sense of security. Reina shouldn’t have rushed into here.”

Josh called out from the two of them, “What’s done is done,” the pair looked over to see that Reina and Daniel were gathering some plants and twigs for him and he was using them to craft makeshift bandages and a splint, “But, at the risk of jinxing us again, I feel like that was probably the boss encounter for this quest, it should be easier from now on I think.” He threw a couple of those makeshift bandages over to Elizabeth.

Item Name: Milicide Bandage Type: Consumable, Medical Properties:  -Very Sanitary -A mix of alcohol wipes and bandages -Lasts for one-day Description: A makeshift bandage created by Josh Suade, it’s made up of Milicide Mold and Glowgrass, the Milicide Mold sterilizes and sticks to the area while the Glowgrass makes up the actual bandage. Quite well made, but at night when the Glowgrass well… glows, it becomes a shining target for others to focus on.

 

“Mold?” Elizabeth questioned once she finished reading the description, “You made this out of mold? Are you sure this is safe?”

“That’s what I told him,” Daniel and Reina spoke at the same time. They turned to face each other and Reina shakily grinned when Daniel offered her a fist bump.

Josh sighed as he put the splint on his broken leg using some rope, “Not really, but it's the best thing I can make right now. But we have a bigger problem right now, 'cause I don’t think I’m in fighting condition.”

Daniel snorted, “Obviously, but we also can’t leave you alone, we don’t know if the snake was an apex predator or not, for all we know it’s not the biggest nor is it the most dangerous thing in this jungle.” 

“You’re saying we should give up.” Leonard said while Elizabeth carefully put the Milicide Bandages on his body, “Ow.” He winced as the alcohol-like properties of the Milicide Mold kicked in. 

“Maybe, if the pond is nearby, we could send Reina and I to grab what we need and run.” Daniel clarified, “Reina has a stealth character and I’m decently fast. Elizabeth,” She turned to face him, “You need to stay behind to make sure Josh and Leonard stay alive.” He paused, “Of course, only if our objective is close by.”

Elizabeth double-checked where the pond was, “It’s closer, but I can’t really tell how close it is.” She turned to Josh, “Give them your survival knife and some of your supplies if they decide to go, we probably won’t be using some of them in our current condition.” 

Leonard piped in, “You could try running in the right direction for twenty minutes and come back if you don’t find anything. Daniel’s Hunter’s Instincts perk should allow him and Reina to easily backtrack.”

There was a period of silence as everyone contemplated what to do next. 

“I’m willing to go if you are,” Reina said slowly as she side-eyed Daniel, breaking the silence, “I’m the least injured person here.”

“Sure, I’m willing to risk it,” Daniel replied as he got up.

Sighing in exasperation, Elizabeth glared at Reina, “Don’t get each other killed, run immediately if you encounter something even remotely dangerous.” 

Reina nodded, “Got it, I won’t let Daniel get hurt.”

---

Sigma-Upsilon let out a sigh of relief, the group had managed to not only survive the Swalloa but kill it. To be honest, he didn’t expect the Beast Tamers to choose the beast, it may not have been a top apex predator in his little garden but it was decently powerful for a secondary consumer. 

But the Beast Tamers were correct in their assessment of how the Swalloa could be dealt with, they should get a reward of some sort for this. He got up from his chair and turned off the computer he was using to observe the group through his various cameras.  

“Hmm, maybe reinforcing their armor plates and improving their A.I?” He mumbled to himself, “Yeah that could work.” He clapped his metallic hands together and one of his messenger drones came by.

“Alert the Beast Tamers that their chosen beast has fallen, the humans have proven their worth. Observe them, but if a wild beast decides to attack them, do not help them but they are not to assist them either..”

The drone beeped cutely in confirmation before flying out his laboratory window to alert the First Tamer of the Blessed One’s message. 

“Alright, now let’s plan out what reward I’m giving the group for completing their quest and plan out the rest of my actions.”

He dragged out a large whiteboard hidden behind one of his machines, pulled out a marker and started drawing out his plans. Obviously, he could’ve done it with a computer but sometimes It was nice drawing things out once in a while.

“Okay, so obviously I should repair those E.H.S.As of theirs cause they’re kinda wrecked after the fight with the Swalloa.” He drew a very rough sketch of the E.H.S.As on the whiteboard, “I should probably upgrade them too, they’re kinda rough, mostly built for environmental protection, so some minor changes could be added.”

He stopped to think.

“Actually, I could try reworking their E.H.S.As into something like power armor rather than the oversized hazmat suit it currently is.”

Adding a heatsink or two alongside a large battery pack to their suits would probably be necessary and the modifications would make their E.H.S.As heavier than they already were. An added shoulder laser cannon would definitely add some weight to Leonard’s E.H.S.A. Even something like thermals and an improved helmet would add some weight.

He shook his head, “I guess I should just repair them for now, but… becoming a merchant shouldn't’ be too bad. They probably don’t have a lot to trade but just dangling upgrades to their suit could get them to do more quests for me.”

A beep drew his attention to a returning messenger drone, he ejected the futuristic USB and plugged it into his handheld holographic video player. 

An image of the First Tamer appeared, wearing a cloak of fur from a beast he hunted personally giving him a feral look. On his shoulder was a Cocorrot, basically a parrot that can eat chocolate. And yes of course, Sigma-Upsilon made a chocolate plant.

“By your will, it shall be done, Blessed One.” He bowed and the video stopped.

In Sigma-Upsilon’s opinion, it was kind of wasteful to use storage space for something as small as this when a note would work perfectly fine but whatever.

Dismissing the drone, Sigma-Upsilon went back to his whiteboard to plan out the future.

---

Reina was unusually quiet, Daniel noticed as the two of them jogged through the forest. Sweat clinging to their skin as the E.H.S.A’s cooling systems desperately tried to reduce their body temperature. As the pair approached the waterfall the humidity of the air kept increasing.

Luckily, they didn’t encounter any hostile creatures on the way. Or at least if they did, it either thought they weren’t worth the effort or it was still stalking them and they were about to be ambushed. In the latter case, they’d be screwed later.

But Daniel brushed off these concerns and focused back on Reina, he’d only met her for what felt like a day, but he could tell she was acting unusual. 

“You feeling okay?”

“No-Not really,” Reina quietly replied, “I’ve just been thinking.”

“About what?”

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She mumbled something quietly.

Daniel raised an eyebrow underneath his helmet, but simply waited for Reina to build up the courage needed for her to open up a bit.

“How are you so okay with what happened?” Reina mumbled more loudly than before.

Ah, that explains why she’s acting like this. Daniel thought to himself. He turned his head around to observe his surroundings as he spoke, “Have you played VR games before?”

“I-what does that have to do with anything?” 

“Humor me I suppose,” Daniel answered vaguely. 

“I’ve played a couple of VR games, mostly stuff like Agriculture Simulator or stuff a lower-end VR headset could handle. Until I got a new one that could handle Dust to Ash,”

“Ah that explains a lot,” As Reina let out a small squawk of indignation, Daniel continued, “I mean, the games that the average low-end VR headset could handle typically aren’t very action-oriented. Whereas Elizabeth, Josh, and I have had very high-end VR headsets for a while.”

He took a short breath, “We know each other from playing airsoft together in some events, and when we all discovered that we all owned VR headsets, we transitioned into VR mil-sim games, survival games, anything that could allow teaming up together.” He turned to face Reina, “So to answer your question, it's because we’re used to it. Besides, most games reduce the pain it’d actually cause, so Leonard probably screamed 'cause he wasn’t used to the pain like me.”

Reina shifted as she continued walking, “That still doesn’t make me feel better and Elizabeth is still going to be mad at me.”

“It shouldn’t, I’m only explaining why I’m fine with what happened and Elizabeth is… she takes these things more seriously than Josh and I.” Before Reina could ask why he signaled for her to stop moving and the two of them huddled around a tree and saw their target destination. 

While the Fifth Gatherer described it as a pond, it was more like a slightly smaller lake connected to a large waterfall coming out of a ruined building which was… strange. That meant that there was somehow a constant source of water in what looked to be a very run-down student dorm. But Daniel did have to admit that the place was extremely beautiful. The waterfall causes a constant source of mist to come out of the pond giving the entire place an ethereal feel and he saw more creatures here than the entire group had seen on the trek to this place.

A small crab-like creature roamed the dirt perimeter surrounding the pond whereupon it found a couple of small stones, picked some up and then ran to its small shelter underneath a fallen log and started to block some of the holes by attaching the rock using some kind of sticky substance.

A dog-sized vulture-like creature was observing the crab the whole time and as soon as the crab started blocking the holes the log had, it quickly lost interest in its possible prey and flew somewhere else.

“Damn, you really can’t see anything in real life like this nowadays.” Daniel mumbled to himself, he turned to Reina who had the look of someone who finally understood the meaning of art.

He smirked, “Like what you see?”

“Ah-wah-eh?” Reina questioned?

Letting out a small chuckle, Daniel walked out to the perimeter of the pond and Reina followed him after a brief brain recalibration. 

Slowly, he placed his left hand in the water and while the E.H.S.A didn’t let him fully feel the water, he still got some of the sensation and sighed in satisfaction. 

“You think this’ll be safe to drink?”

“M-maybe? I don’t think we have ways of testing the water. And we’ll be swimming in it to get the samples that the NPC asked us to and I don’t think we’re very sanitary.”

“Then maybe I’ll ask the ‘Blessed One’ if I can get something to drink for my reward, cause this is torture. There’s water everywhere but none that I can drink,” Daniel joked as he started taking off his backpack and other items, simply leaving his E.H.S.A on and nothing else.

“You just make sure my stuff doesn’t get stolen by something and I’ll go diving for what we need.”

Reina shook her head, “Couldn’t we just build a net or something, there might be something dangerous down there and I promised Elizabeth that I’d keep you safe.”

Daniel sighed and relented, “But how’ll we build a net in the first place?” 

“Um, do you think we can just tie a rope to your spear and then use it like a fishing rod?”

Daniel blinked, then shrugged. “That’ll work.”

He grabbed his spear and brought out some rope, which Josh had managed to scavenge before they got here and tied it to his spear using a very thorough clove hitch combined with a two-half hitch for adjustability to recreate how he can pull a fishing line closer. 

“Now what shall I use for bait?” Daniel questioned the air, Reina simply pointed to the crab in her hand which she had caught while Daniel spent way too much time trying to tie a two-half hitch correctly. It snapped at her with its pincers but she simply moved her head out of the way. 

“I… don’t think that a whole crab could work as bait.”

“But its leg could work, you’ve played survival games,” Reina said as a small grin formed on her face under her helmet, “Kill it and maybe we’ll be able to eat the leftovers later.”

Daniel sighed in annoyance as he got out Josh’s survival knife, but at least Reina was acting more normally now.

---

“Excellent work.” The Fifth Gatherer commented as he looked at the samples the group had brought him, “You all have returned shaken, but not broken. And these samples are exactly what I asked for.”

Five different kinds of fish and five different kinds of aquatic flora lay in front of him, moving quickly the Fifth Gatherer gestured to a drone which proceeded to collect the samples of the fish and plants that Reina and Daniel had caught, the pair didn’t really pay attention to what they’d caught but they kept some to maybe eat later.

Species Name: NeoCod Type: Fish Traits:  -Bioluminescent Scales -Fish Base -Piranha Teeth Alignment: True Neutral Race: Bestial Description: Watch out! This is the surface level equivalent of an angler fish but its whole body is the lure at night. This fish glows bright green in the night to lure any smaller fish that it comes across to make hunting easier, but to a regular scavenger, this makes any body of water they come across as beautiful as the night sky.

 

Species Name: SwillGrass Type: Amphibious Flora Traits:  -Sweats Alcohol -Blue Flower -Tall Stem Alignment: True Neutral Race: Plantlike Description:

 

Species Name: Chrome-root Type: Aquatic Flora Traits:  -Narrow Leaf Blades -Silver Rhizome -Volatile Oil Secretion Alignment: True Neutral Race: Plantlike Description: Asia would’ve been celebrating, if it wasn’t gone, the equivalent of ginger in this forsaken wasteland created by the mysterious ‘Blessed One’. It’s technically reusable as the oil it secretes is what gives it the taste of ginger. It’ll be quite valuable if traded for this is one of the few spices that still exist within the wasteland.

 

Item Name: Rock Salt Type: Consumable Properties:  -It’s literally just salt from a rock Description: Harvested from the bottom of a pond by Daniel Hunter after he dried up some water in his hands. Makes for some good seasoning, especially since seasoning is extremely rare

 

The Fifth Gatherer continued speaking, “The Blessed One is impressed, I shall escort you to him at once! Follow me.” The robot started marching away from the clearing, he would’ve also commented on how Daniel and Reina gave each other high fives but since his back was turned he didn’t notice it.

Even Elizabeth and Leonard’s exasperated sighs as the two noticed Daniel and Reina’s little celebration didn’t interrupt the Fifth Gatherer’s pace as he dutifully marched step by step to bring the proven Fragile Ones to his lord.

Though Reina and Daniel’s celebration quickly turned into annoyance as they realized they got roped into the dreaded escort mission. 

The FIfth Gatherer may have matched their jogging speed which was a godsend compared to the usual escort mission, but it was also a jogging speed which meant that they couldn’t sprint over there. So it was a pretty traditional escort mission.

Thankfully they managed to get to where the Blessed One was staying without any interruptions. The building they were brought to was quite large, it wasn’t the largest building but it was probably the second largest. It also had what would’ve probably been a large circular and beautiful skylight, if it wasn’t broken and overgrown with plants. In fact the entire building was taken over by nature, vines caressed the walls and flowed out the windows with their flowers blooming a dark blue contrasting the wall’s gray and white paint scheme.

Three robotic mannequin-like guards stood at the main entrance dressed in camouflage riot police outfits, the left and right guards held an electrified baton in their left and a pistol on their right while the leading guard held a ballistic shield in his right and a longsword in its sheath on his waist. The Fifth Gatherer knelt in respect and nudged the group of survivors to do the same.

Elizabeth, Josh and Leonard quickly emulated the Fifth Gatherer’s movements. Daniel and Reina also did so too but much more sloppily than the rest, but the guards thankfully didn’t really care. 

“Greetings to the honored Second Royal Guard.”

“Greetings to the honored Fifth Gatherer,” said The Second Royal Guard before turning his head toward the survivors and nodded in respect as the group stood up, “I presume you all to be the day’s honored guests. The Beast Tamers informed me of your successful takedown of the Swalloa, a very impressive feat.”

Reina flinched, which Daniel noticed, he tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a comforting nod. Elizabeth ignored the two, but Leonard let a small thank you escape his lips just barely loud enough for Daniel to hear.

Josh shrugged, “It was a team effort, everyone contributed.”

“Ah, but I heard that one of your men was ambushed by the beast?” Reina flinched harder this time.

Elizabeth hastily interjected before Josh could respond, “It was my fault that he was ambushed, as the woman on watch I should’ve scrutinized our surroundings much more carefully.” 

The Second Royal Guard merely stared at her, there was a heavy silence as Daniel and Josh’s fingers itched for their spear but the guard nodded in appreciation. 

“It takes good character to admit one’s mistakes,” The Second Royal Guard said carefully, “The fact that you know of your failure will undoubtedly cause you to never make that mistake again.” He turned around and opened the door that led further into the building, “I welcome your group into the Blessed One’s abode and laboratory.” He motioned toward the royal guard on his left and nodded at the Fifth Gatherer, “I shall finish escorting them to the Blessed One, you are dismissed Fifth Gatherer.”

The Fifth Gather knelt once more and the group farewell before walking away to return to his duties. The sounds of his marching faded away into the distance as the Second Royal Guard spoke, “Follow me. I implore you to not wander off…” He trailed off, before he took a more threatening tone, “...Lest you be restrained for abusing the Blessed One’s generosity.” 

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