Chapter 15: Chapter 14

Endless Quests

There are some Quests you just can’t finish for some reason or the other. These are some of the most rare and most rewarding Quests one can get. Those who are known to have one such Quest are always a target for the greedy and maleficent. Unknown to most, each person has to get access to endless Quests in their own unique way and they can’t be given on.

 

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Arthur had been living on the street when he got teleported to somewhere with random people from all around the world. Some didn’t even know how to speak english. 

 

His mother had never really recovered from giving birth to him. Still it took five years for her to fall into critical condition and another three years for her to die. Arthur had been eight when his mother breathed her last breath and couldn’t really comprehend what that meant. He could know and it did not make life easier for him.

 

His father had never liked him and thought him responsible for his mothers condition. When Arthur’s mother had died it had broken his father, not that he ever got the chance to really experience that. His father had given him three days to disappear and never show up before him again. Arthur gladly took him up on that offer. He knew what his father could do and he also knew of the various weapons that his father had in their basement.

 

Since then he got around by begging and stealing and hunting small animals. In his opinion his mind matured a lot earlier than that of other children. Life wasn’t kind to him, but he persevered and developed a sense for people he could likely rob without being noticed.

 

Arthur didn’t know his exact birthday anymore, but it happened when he was 16. He just appeared with a bunch of random people in the middle of the forest, all only carrying what they had on their person, which for Arthur was basically everything he owned.

 

It had been chaos in the beginning, but after two weeks some jerk declared himself as the leader and made sure they all knew by punishing all those who went against him before them all.

 

It was one thing to be beaten black and green with a wooden club in front of hundreds of people, but being raped in front of them by more than 20 men was on a whole nother level. Arthur had no idea what their self proclaimed leader had against women, but it was something fierce or he just enjoyed destroying their lives.

 

Arthur had stayed as far out of the politics as possible. He didn’t care about the people who had died in those first two weeks. There weren’t any dangerous animals in the forest, in Arthur’s opinion there were altogether not enough animals around. It was as if someone had started to terraform a planet, but forgot to add the majority of the fauna.

 

Some had scavenged plants in desperation and Arthur had watched them closely. This way he found out what was edible, without having to die because of poison himself. It sounded cruel and in a way it was, but Arthur liked to live.

 

After 3 month some sense of normality had settled in and they had started to build some kind of village. It was crude, but nobody cared and everyone was happy having a roof over their head.

 

Arthur had become known as the kid better left alone after people had tried to take his belongings and especially his three knives. These knives had been his partners for more than three years and in the current situation Arthur would like to keep them. That wish wouldn’t close the wounds he had inflicted, but Arthur didn’t care and it seemed their leader couldn’t care less as long as he always paid his ‘taxes’.

 

The women of the camp had gone silent after the first punishments, but Arthur knew they had banded together by the misterious disappearings of those who raped the weak. That had stopped afterwards too. The only other deaths had been because of illnesses.

 

In the year afterwards he had become friends with a girl from their village. Her name was Kai and she had been strong willed and could back it up. They weren’t lovers, but friends though they still sometimes enjoyed having sex together. Arthur now knew the surroundings of their village like the streets of his home city and always had a place where he could hide should the need arise.

 

There hadn’t been much in the way of seasons and it was mostly warm all year around. They still didn’t know what had happened and were now sending out scouts and scout partys to find out what was going on.

 

After two years Kai got ill and Arthur spent most of his time tending to her needs. He wasn’t able to sleep a lot as he now somehow had to provide the taxes for both of them. Two weeks later Kai had died and Arthur felt hollow for the next 3 months.

 

The scouts had found what remained of another crude village. There had been signs of a battle involving guns. Whoever had fought there didn’t leave anything valuable behind. So all the scouts could do was bury what had remained of the dead. The leader of their group decided to increase security after that. He was cruel and an asshole, but stupid he was not.

 

It had been three years now and they were all sure of one thing, they weren’t on earth anymore. The village now had a few new additions in the form of babies, be they wanted or not.

 

It had been three years and now the first sign of what the hell had happened to them appeared in the form of a message in front of everyone.

 

Hello Humans,

Welcome to the universe of Lotusriver. Your universe has sent you as an invading force and to kill this universe, which will integrate it into your old universe. As a reward all of this universe will become humanity's territory.

You are now given a chance to decide for yourself and must choose a side to stay on in the coming conflict. Ally yourself with this universe or fight against it!

Parents may choose for their children under ten years old. All children under ten without parents will become inhabitants.

Note that standing with this universe will give no rewards and will make you an inhabitant of the universe. All inhabitants of the universe will act more aggressively towards invaders.

 

Arthur read through the message. There was no denying it, as everyone saw the same and you couldn’t make it go away. The announcement was weird, because it definitely came from the current universe, but it didn’t promise any rewards. Also, how the hell would you kill a universe? Arthur didn’t know and didn’t want to make it his life goal to do so. 

 

There also had to be a reason for the message only appearing three years later and to be honest, if their universe had truly sent them to invade this one, why sent them without all of their technology.

 

It made simply not a lot of sense in Arthur’s opinion. Another screen appeared before him.

 

Your leader chose to fight against the universe. You may now choose for yourself.

 

That was weird too. Why show what their leader chose and only then let you choose yourself? Arthur didn't know, but he allied himself with the universe. Another screen appeared.

 

You are now an inhabitant of this universe, congratulations. Your mana integration will be aided by the system to make sure you stay yourself. Beware, for you are on your own in your village.

 

And there was the catch. There was mana in this universe and it would do something to you once you came in contact with it. Mana meant magic though and the thought of magic excited Arthur, at least until he read the last sentence.

 

Why was he the only one to choose this universe in their village? There were at least 30 people living here who would choose the exact opposite then their leader just to spite him and he couldn’t be the only one who found the announcement weird.

 

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Nothing happened in the next two days. Arthur could always feel that he was compelled to act differently towards the others, which made it easy to ignore. Arthur thought it was more meant for animals than sapient creatures and the latter just got included or something.

 

Arthur woke up during the night and felt different. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the feeling was there. Another screen opened.

 

Mana integration complete!

You now have access to the system and can view your status.

 

Status

Name	Arthur Hunter	Stats
Race	Halfling	Str	1
Age	19	Agi	1
Level	1	Per	1
Health	100%	Int	1
Mana	10/10	Wis	1
Mana regeneration	0,10/min	Wil	1

 

Calling him Halfling was just rude. Arthur stood up and noticed what had felt weird before. He had been small before with a height of 150cm, but he had lost 30cm for sure. Arthur didn’t get time to become angry or think about what the game-like status meant. Another window popped up.

 

New Quest: Survive the next 5 minutes!

As inhabitants you have been integrated 5 minutes before the invaders. Surviving inside your village is unlikely for you as invaders have a 90% chance to become monsters during the integration.

Possible side objective: While fleeing take clothes for two tall females with you and run north or away from the rising sun.

 

Arthur now had no idea what was going on, but he could act fast and decided to trust the message. They hadn’t had much in the way of clothes, just animal hides as it was warm all year. He took all his things and two sets of hides that had belonged to Kia and he chose to keep as memory.

 

Once he had all those things he crept out of his shack and ran as silent as possible into the direction the system called north. It was the middle of the night, but Arthur had lived here for three years, he knew where the sun rose. 

 

Once he was about 500m in the forest he climbed a tree and decided to look at what would happen in the village.

 

For seven minutes nothing happened, then the first pained animalistic cry sounded out. Multiple shacks collapsed and things, or as the system called them monsters started to fight themselves everywhere. There were some that looked like goblins or kobolds. Out of the leaders' hut something Arthur could only describe as ogre emerged while putting half of a somewhat human body into its mouth.

 

Arthur was terrified of that ogre. The thing was easily five meters tall and a mountain of muscle. He wasn’t the only one terrified and all the small monsters decided to flee, an action Arthur followed a second later. He wanted to live and no matter what the hell was going on in the village he wouldn’t survive there.

 

He ran north as fast as he could hoping that whatever needed his clothes would provide some safety for him. He was about  five kilometers away from the village when stopped running and held his breath hoping not to get noticed.

 

There a few hundred meters away from him a two meter tall white fox with three tails stood. It was beautiful, but Arthur had other problems right now. The fox turned its head and looked at him. Arthur began to pray to whatever existence governed the system that he would like to not get eaten today. He could swear he saw the fox rolling its eyes as it started to calmly walk in his direction.

 

Arthur didn’t know how long he had held his breath, but when the fox was about 20m away from him it stopped and he breathed out. The fox looked at him for a moment and then grinned, showing its large terrifying teeth.

 

“Would you kindly provide two sets of female clothes for me?” It asked in a female voice.

 

Arthur stared for a moment, not comprehending what just happened and then blacked out. He could hear the fox sigh before he lost consciousness, hopefully not for the last time.

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