Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Cults and Quests

It only took three hours for Timmy’s dad to establish a new guild. Actually, let me rephrase that. It only took Peter that amount of time to manage to coerce a group of about fifty people to follow him through preaching, devotionals, and waving a battleaxe in their faces. Timmy seemed like he could care less about the amassed following of idiots. He was content to spend time with his dad looking through the bulletin board posted outside of the guild hall. His dad understandably seemed less enthused with developing a cult following.

“All of you should be working to help us clear the floor. Not standing around watching us search for quests.”

“Such wise words from our savior!” Peter shouted from within the swarm of cult members. It was easy enough to spot him considering he had taken to wearing what looked like a bright orange construction cone on his head, along with a sash. The sash was clearly made by him and had the words ‘Cult 76’ crudely stitched on it. “We shall join them in this conquest. Come, brothers and sisters. The time to grab a quest is nigh!”

I sputtered as the crowd swarmed the quest board, grabbing whatever loose pieces of papers pinned to the board they could find. They whisked away Timmy and his dad, leaving me alone in front of an empty board. Sighing to myself in frustration, I stepped closer to see if they had dropped anything. No such luck, however.

A low whistle came from behind me. “Cult 76 really cleared that out fast.”

“We’re really calling them that?” I asked, turning away from the bulletin board to face Lyfeti.

He shrugged his shoulders, grinning. “It’s what Peter says. Who am I to disrespect a top player?”

“Guy’s a psycho is what he is.”

“Can’t argue with that, but, anyway, were you searching for a quest?”

I nodded. “I figured it would be an easy way to start earning gold since I’m going to need some gear before I can start worrying about cranking out levels.”

“That makes sense.” He reached into his back pocket, fishing out two wrinkled-up pieces of parchment. “I’m not going to have time to do both of them since I’m going to be training with my friends later, so pick your poison.”

Walking over to him to examine them closer, I realized he had chosen a rescue mission and a collection mission. I didn’t particularly care for one more than the other, but the rescue mission had a much higher reward. And I was strapped for cash and equipment, making it an easy choice. I grabbed that request from his left hand and nodded my thanks. 

“You sure you just don’t want to team up with my friends and me?” Lyfeti. “I promise they're all cool people.”

“No, that’s ok. Thanks for the invite, but I’m more of a solo player.”

He sighed wistfully. “More like a loner, although I guess you’ve always been like this. Ever since I first met you.”

I shuddered, thinking back to back when we met and how that dungeon full of jump scare had me screaming and nearly crying at every turn. Those devs had decided that would be fitting for a Halloween event, and I tried convincing Lyfeti that they were all sadistic bastards. Now I knew just how right I’d been. “I’d rather forget all that, thank you very much.”

He chuckled, throwing up a backhanded wave, and departed from the guild hall. Rather than reading through the request’s details, I decided to follow his lead and jump straight into the action. After all, the bold title had more than enough information. How hard could finding some lost girl be?

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Alright, I’d be the first to admit it. I’d screwed up not preparing better before heading into Beginner’s Woods. The thick underbrush of the forest made it like looking for a needle in a haystack and the heavy canopy overhead blocking out any source of light didn’t help matters either.

“I should’ve just joined Lyfeti and them…” I mumbled to myself.

Even bringing a torch would have been better than nothing. Then, I’d have some light, and if things got too frustrating, a means to raze the entire thing to the ground. With such morbid thoughts in mind, I continued on, careful to avoid the slime monsters underfoot. They were weak creatures, and the only thing I feared about them was getting my boots dirty. There weren't actually any monsters that could pose a threat to me, unarmed or not. Ninety-five percent of the forest was just slimes, and the other five percent were goblins. Those were a little more threatening but only barely. Their horrid looks and putrid smell were much worse than any of their attacks.

Growing increasingly annoyed, I traced a finger in the air. The menu appeared before me, and I swiped over to the skill tree. While skill trees were by no means a unique feature to SSO, the endless combination of skills to choose from and mix and match was. I searched for the recon skills, then scrolled down the list until I came to the skill I wanted.

[Party Flare].

It was a somewhat glitched skill that would mark where your party members were and proved helpful in chaotic, high-level boss raids. It worked in that regard, but they hadn’t factored in solo players trying to use it. Instead of marking our nonexistent friends, it would instead mark where NPCs were around us. Potentially a huge boon in something like a FPS game, but generally useless here. Well, except for this very specific situation I found myself in.

I spent the necessary skill shards, watching my total drop from ten to eight; I wasn’t too worried about spending them like this since I would get more for leveling up and defeating the floor boss. Closing the menu, I wasted no time in casting [Party Flare]. The flare soared into the sky, shooting past the tree line and bursting overhead with a loud boom. While I couldn’t see the explosion above, I did now see a red outline, not one-hundred meters out from me. It was hard to make out from where I was, but the target appeared to be hiding in the entrance to a cave. A steep stalagmite jutted from the roof of its mouth, surrounded by thick layers of moss.

Regardless of that, I pushed forward. My steps were quick yet remained cautious of the monsters, jutting tree roots, and the constant underbrush. When I arrived, I pushed cautiously into the cave. My hand trailed on the stalagmite upon realizing the cave went underground. Calling out to her would be my best option since the visibility was worse there than it was out here.

“Hey, I’m here to take you back to town.”

No response.

“Are you injured?”

Still, no response, so I had to pivot to my next plan. I ventured inside, darkness seeping around the edges of my vision. I couldn’t see a thing anymore, except the vivid red outline of the girl as I walked further and further inside. My footsteps echoed against the stone walls, and there was a perpetual sound of dripping water.

“Hello…”

My voice cut off in panic when the red shape appeared next to me, the smallest shimmering of a blade made clear to me.