Chapter 13: Chapter 13 – Quest

The day started as the sun dawned and its rays hit the unsuspecting windows of the campus buildings. Coincidentally, alarms activated on few rooms, waking people from their dreams as light spread across their rooms.

“Hah.”

Outside, sounds of heavy breathing tickled the cold air. Then inaudible gasps and hateful mutters followed. The voices disappeared for a moment before steps rang out on warmly lit slabs of stones, and three people emerged from a hidden turn of an establishment. They ran at a rhythmic pace and passed early birds after another. One had a simple form of jogging, while the other two moved lethargically.

Slowing down, they stopped after they had reached a four-story building.

Casa wiped his sweaty face with his shirt. He walked towards the door while breathing moderately. “The quests aren’t particularly hard. I also didn’t pick any monster subjugation missions because you’re both beginners.” He swiped the key card on the scanner and the door handle made a click.

“But I picked interesting quests you will surely like. So, don’t worry.” Casa said as they entered the residential building.

Entering their humble abode, the trio placed their shoes into their rack and began heading for the kitchen. James arrived the fastest and placed his mouth under the fridge’s water dispenser, drinking from it directly. Noah came a little later and saw the barbaric scene.

However, instead of being disgusted, he became envious. So, he sent him a hostile glare as he twisted his lip.

“Are you done? I’m already dying here.” Noah said.

James did not reply but only kept still, watching the water gush towards him. Soon, he stopped and left his station.

“Do we have food from last night?” He asked.

“No, you already ate all of it earlier.” Casa said.

By this point, Noah had finished drinking in the same manner as James and sat in the living room. James approached the fridge. Opening it, he found the right ingredients to cook what he wanted.

“I guess I’ll make the breakfast.” He said with a smile. Placing the ingredients on the island and retrieving the chopping board, he began to work.

 

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“The first quest is finding someone’s lost cat.” Casa said as he grabbed the remaining sunny side up eggs from James’ plate, who gave him an eye.

“Classic, sounds like fun.” Noah said. He stood up and left his plate on the sink.

“Oh, it’s not just a ‘cat’. It’s a manufactured summon cat.” Casa emphasized.

“What’s the difference between them?”

“A summoned cat is like a toy, so it moves predictably, so it’ll be easier to track.” Casa shrugged. “Or harder if the manufacturer gave it several complicated behaviour. People likes to order more features to make it seem like a normal cat, apparently.”

“That doesn’t sound fun anymore.” Noah joked.

Casa rested his palm on his stomach. “Sounds awesome to me. The second quest is one escorting someone to a private collection area.”

“What?” James’ raised voice resounded behind him. “Didn’t you just say you only picked non-combat quests?”

“Yes. Even though this is an escort mission, it isn’t a combat one. You’re more like a decoration to prevent people from getting ideas when we’re outside the city.”

“What about the third one?” Noah asked.

“The third one is a search mission.” Casa left the dining table and came back holding a paper containing a person’s image. “The quest says we need to find the person shown here.” He turned the paper around, showing it towards Noah and James.

A young man appeared on their faces. He had a light skin tone, dark hair that resembled night, stern black eyes and brows, and a wide, cleanly shaved jawline.

He doesn’t look like a criminal. Noah became surprised at the unexpected face. He expected to see a scary and bruised face. Instead, he saw a clean and innocent-looking man. But before he could say those words, James said it faster. “Why does he look so handsome as a criminal?”

Casa laughed and pointed at the bottom of the paper.

 

[Search Mission Quest #2C9MCV73L9Z89AX

Please find Eric McKay, a 28-year old man who works as a plumber. 5 ft, 7 in. Black hair, wrinkled face, sharp nose. Last seen in 138 Oswald Street, Phoenix, AZ wearing a blue vest and jeans.

Contact Audrey McKay for more details.

Reward: $50, 15 Adventurer Credits]

 

“That’s because he isn’t.” Casa smiled. “It’s probably a personal matter, so Miss Audrey right here didn’t report it to the police. Instead, she posted on the city quest board. Maybe she already contacted the police, but they turned her down. Now, she’s come to Adventurer’s Guild for help. Anyway, it looks like an easy one for us.”

“So, what do you think?” He asked.

“Hmm.” James grabbed the paper. “Why is it an easy quest? I feel like it’s harder than the summoned cat since we’re searching for a human.”

“Because instead of searching blindly like the one with the cat, once we accept this quest, the system will give us Miss Audrey’s contact details. Then she’ll give us a better understanding of the situation. And we’ll have more information to locate the man.” Casa looked at Noah.

“What do you think?”

Noah became quiet. In his opinion, the most interesting quest was the summoned cat. Lukas had only mentioned about summon magic being used for manufacturing toys. He didn’t tell the two how the toys were made, nor what companies created them. So, now that there’s a chance to learn more about them, he’d gladly take it. Moreover, Noah knew anyone would like to spend more time chasing magic-robot hybrid kitties than finding a partner or sibling missing because they had an argument.

Moving on, the escort quest sounds the least interesting mission for him. Even though they gave a chance to travel outside and fight some monsters, their role was mostly ornamental, a tutorial-esque mission, which is fine. But it was, rather, a waste of time. He could replace it with a much more interesting mission. Something that which needed effort.

For the last quest, as long as nobody had taken the quest reward, maybe they could attempt it after they had found the missing cat quest quicker than expected. Choosing his next words, Noah opened his mouth.

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“Why not take all of them?” His words piqued their attention. “Let’s take the summoned cat quest first. I feel like taking on a simpler mission in the morning. Then if we have more time, we can take the second and third quests.”

“That could work. I’ve never thought about that.” James said.

“Alright.” Casa put all the papers on the freshly cleaned dining table and then he headed towards his room. “I’ll go register the summoned cat quest first. The other two will have to wait once we’re done with it. For now, take a bath and prepare.”

The two nodded and went back to their rooms as well.

 

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Casa gripped the steering wheel and turned the car to the right. “The local guild here had some Platinum and Mithril rank adventurers. That was pretty sick. They stared at me, so I panicked and said ‘hi’ accidentally. They smiled though, but it almost gave me a heart attack.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your adventurer rank?” Noah asked, curiously.

“Me? I’m only Iron-rank.” Casa parked the car on a spot. “I can only do F-rank monster slaying quests by myself. I don’t usually join groups. And if I do, they’re also monster slaying quests F-rank or higher.”

The vehicle slow down as they approached a two-story residential building. They left the vehicle and began walking towards the house. Casa knocked on the wooden door.

“I don’t have the time and brains for mystery-type quests.” He paused. “That’s why I picked two quests, leaning more on the thinking side as practice.”

A shame for him, but Casa didn’t say it out loud. He could change that within this month, with the help of these two. But how? He would let them take more investigation-related quest with the occasional monster subjugation. That way, they will receive battle experience to adapt to their new environment, and he could improve on his critical thinking abilities. Which was something he didn't care about during his studies. But now, he does.

Noah nodded and was about to say something when the door partly opened, revealing a woman in her thirties. Wearing an overly bleached silk skirt and black pants, she stared at the group in confusion.

“Can I help you?” The woman said as she shook Casa's extended hand.

“Hi, we are the Purple Cat group. Are you Emilia? We accepted your quest today,” Casa said, noticing the two do a subtle eye roll as he continued. “We’d like to know more about your cat before we get to work.”

“Oh.” The woman said. “Yes. I am Emilia. Please come in.” She opened the door, and the group went inside.

The woman swept various toys laying on the ground. She placed them in a neat little container in the living room, just short in sight of the entrance door. Noah and the group entered the living room and saw multiple cat furniture. Some stuck near the sides of the room, with one close to the couch facing the flat television on the east.

“Come sit.” Emilia sat on a chair perpendicular to the couch and grabbed a folder from a compartment of the wooden center table.

The group sat on the couch, while Emilia opened the folder and revealed papers related to her cat. She then passed it to the trio. “This is Ron’s manufacture details. The paper in the back has his custom features.”

Casa accepted the files and passed it to the two. “Where did you last see him? Do you have any other concerns you have?”

“Uh.” Emilia’s ears slightly reddened as she said. “He likes to hide and meows a lot. I last saw him here when I left for work around eight on Wednesday morning. I’m sure I closed the door, so when I came back. Ron was gone. I searched for him around the house, but he wasn’t here. That’s when I saw the windows of my room open.”

She sighed while shaking her head. “I probably left it open the night before, and he got out using that way.”

Casa nodded and asked a few more questions. The two jotted down her answers and inspected the cat’s files.

The group left the house after a few more minutes of interrogating the woman. To sum it up, they hadn’t received a good starting point to locate the missing cat. But they did, however, learn its behaviour within the house.

Closing the door of the vehicle, Casa asked. “What do you think about it?”

“Finding it may be harder than I expected.” Noah said in the shotgun seat. “I think we have less information to work with than if we had taken the trail quest.”

“Yeah. I thought it was going to be easy, but I guess we’ll just have to search for it based on its custom behaviour.” James said as he placed the cage they recieved from Emilia on the seat beside him. He pondered for a moment. “So, let’s search all around the blocks here?”

“Yeah, we could split ways.” Casa pulled out his phone, clicking on a map application. He pointed towards their location and made a circle with his fingers. He split the area into three slices. “We’ll each take a third of the area. How about it?”

“Sounds good to me.” Pulling out his phone, Noah did the same actions and inspected his area.

“See you around in an hour?” Casa said. The two nodded, and they all split ways after getting off the car.

Noah’s survey area occupied the leftmost third, so he started near the middle, just like the other two. He stared at the picture of the cat in the quest paper he had taken earlier in their apartment. A purple-coloured cat, which reminded him of the name of Casa invented before they left.

“Let’s call our group, Purple Cat.” He said proudly as he stuffed index cards, pencils, and some necessities to his small bag. “So, we have a better chance Ms. Emilia right here would take us.”

Ugh. Noah looked below towards the information.

 

[Search Mission Quest #2CC9D82KF0AJ10V

Find a missing summon-manufactured cat named Ron. Purple-coloured fur, Black-coloured ears, Siamese-breed. Manufactured by Xutra Pet Inc. Last seen on 12927 Myer Street, Phoenix AZ.

Contact Emilia Canford for more details.

Reward: $30, 10 Adventurer Credits]

 

Siamese-breed. He searched for the cat’s look on the internet. Sleek bodies and tails and pointy ears. A cat who likes interaction.

A cat that usually plays with people but wasn’t easily found. This is going to be challenging. He raised an eyebrow before moving forward.

 

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