How did Brock get that silver-class quest? It was illegal for newcomers to obtain that in the city, yet he said the Libra Guild didn’t seem to mind. It was strange since they were the New Beginning’s only police guild. All of their members were braves of the justice gods. They were strict in upholding the law. Why would they allow this? Unless —
“It’s a loophole,” I gasped in realization. Everyone focused on me. When they silently encouraged me to go on, I continued, “The rules stated we’re not allowed to get that within the city. The keywords there, within the city, that means anyone can get or posts a dangerous quest when you are —”
“Outside the city,” Li finished.
“Right, the quest starts in three days,” Brock said. “We have to be at the Azure Dragon Gate by eight in the morning.”
“Azure Dragon Gate?” Wilt tapped his chin. “If I remembered correctly, that’s on the eastern part of the Outer Wall.” His eyes bulged. “That means this quest is —”
“In the Yellow Zone,” the rest of us gasped.
“Right, so who’s excited for this adventure?” Brock asked.
No one said a single word. Recognizing the dangers in that place, we went pale that he got us a one-way ticket back to Earth. I was much paler as if my soul was about to seep out.
“Do you’ve any idea what you have done?” Wilt berated. “You should have told us before you signed us up.”
“You shouldn’t sign us up in the first place,” Katie snarled.
“I know how dangerous this is,” Brock said, “but we have a good chance to live this through because —”
“We don’t care!” Katie roared. “Alex, please give some sense to this… this dunderhead.”
The Finnish girl nodded. “Brock, I understand you’re doing this for us. We wanted to have a guild in a short time as much as you do, but this is a high-class quest we are talking about. You should have consulted us before you made this decision. We are supposed to be a team. Whatever happens in the Yellow Zone, we’ll be putting our lives into completing this quest. Do you think we’re ready for this?”
Brock’s grin fell after a long look at our dismaying faces. “I’m sorry, I should’ve told you this before I signed us up,” he sighed. “But I’m going to return this scroll to make things right.”
“Good,” Katie said with her arms crossed. “Apology accepted.”
“Juice’s still warm, though.” Li dejected while holding his bottle.
“Quiet,” Wilt hushed him. “She’ll freak out again if you say that.”
“I already heard that.” Katie glared at the two, making the rest of us anxiously prepared for another of her outburst.
“No, no, that’s still my fault,” the jock said. “I’ll buy new drinks after I return this.” We were a bit surprised by his sincerity. He turned around and walked dejectedly. “Guess we can kiss that nine thousand chaffs goodbye.”
“What?” we all snapped again.
“Wait, Brock,” Katie exclaimed as her hostile tone disappeared.
“Huh?” He stopped to glance over his shoulder.
“You said something about nine thousand chaffs, right?”
“Uh, yeah. There’s a nine thousand chaffs reward for completing the quest.”
Alex gasped, “That’s fifteen hundred for each of us, or we can surely buy —”
“A flag of our own,” Wilt finished. Uh-oh, there was a sudden change in their tones. I didn’t like where this was going. “Can we take a look at that for a second?”
Brock blinked. “Sure.”
Upon opening, Wilt read the scroll’s content. “It says here we are to escort a Jormungand caravan back to their home turf. Something about transporting luxury goods.”
Brock nodded in confirmation. “That’s why they hired about three hundred braves for this escort quest.”
We dropped our jaws after hearing that. We never thought they could hire that many just to guard some caravan.
“Three hundred,” Katie gasped in disbelief. “What are they guarding? Unicorn tears?”
“And wyvern scales, snipe furs, gemwoods,” Brock added. “Lots of expensive stuff I’ve heard. Well, I better get going, so let me take that.”
“Hold on,” Wilt exclaimed. “Maybe this isn’t bad. It’s only an escort job. Besides, we’ve got three hundred with us in this quest.”
“Technically, it’s two hundred ninety-four.” Li corrected, not counting us, six.
“And some hundred Jormungand warriors to back us up.” Wilt read the rest of the scroll.
Uh-oh! They slowly changed their mind, all because of a big reward.
“T-t-this isn’t right,” I stuttered in protest while trying to come up with a reason not to take this quest. I couldn’t risk my life going out there. “W-we’re still inexperienced. Who knows w-w-we m-might attack by some m-monsters or outlaws.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you earlier,” Brock explained. “We got briefed by the Jormungands. They said that outlaws don’t have more than fifty members, so they don’t attack a caravan this big. The same goes for monsters. Plus, we’ve got our powers to defend ourselves.”
“Sounded like we have the advantage,” Alex swallowed. “So we’re taking the job?”
We all turned to our leader. He pondered for a bit before tilting his head. “If everyone here is confident that they are ready, we’ll take this quest.”
Li, Alex, and Brock nodded in assurance. They then glanced at me to hear my answer.
“What about you?” I quickly glanced at Katie, hoping her strong dislike towards Brock might veto on taking this quest.
After some consideration, she sighed, “Fine, whatever. Nine thousand chaffs is a pretty sweet deal. But just this once. Just once. Until we get our guild.”
“Then it settled,” Wilt concluded. “We are taking this quest.”
I bit my lower lip when they all nodded to seal the deal.
“Does this mean I’m not in trouble?” Brock grinned sheepishly.
“Don’t get your hopes up, Mister,” Katie hissed. “You’re still paying for those drinks.” The rest agreed, to which the jock sighed in compliance.
“You okay, Sam?” Alex noticed my face still paled.
“Y-yeah, don’t worry.” I raised a fake smile while grasping my legs from shaking. I was afraid to tell them my reason not to be in this quest. Of course, they would feel sorry for me if I told them. They’d probably kick me out of this party out of pity or might burden them from accomplishing our goals. Perhaps, we’d no longer be friends anymore.
After three days of preparing for our first high-class quest, the gang met up in the station across our apartment by dawn. We took a trolley and headed to our destination. Traveling to the Jormungand territory was five days and another five days for the return trip, so we packed a ten-day worth of supplies. According to Brock, our employers would be the ones providing meals to the hired ones. There were also public baths for each caravansary, a way station for caravans.
We arrived at the Azure Dragon Gate, a double steel gate with a Chinese castle-tower on top. The Outer Wall was as tall as the city wall, with numerous war guilds manning on top to guard against whatever threats in the Yellow Zone. Due to its sheer size, no one had maintained it for a very long time. Because of that, thick vegetation like mosses, shrubs, and other small plants covered its surface for centuries. That was why the Outer Wall was green from afar.
Once everyone exited the trolley, there were hundreds already assembled at the gate. The Jormungands wore olive-green armors, which could tell us apart between them and the hired ones like us wearing casual clothes. A pair of Jormungand members came forward and asked for our scroll. Wilt handed it to them for inspection. After checking our signatures, one of them stamped it with a seal that bore their crest. They then headed to the other arrivals after returning our scroll.
Later, we met Sally and Travis. The pair had joined the Ruby Lynx, a copper-class adventurer guild. It was also their first high-class quest, and they got dozens of experienced and novice members with them. The gang never bore grudges to those who left after we formed our party, plus we’d been keeping in touch with them as friends.
We headed for the caravan in the middle of the crowd. I was expecting a train of horses or camels or whatever animals they used here for transport. Instead, we gawked at the enormous, lumbering creatures, hundreds of them sitting on the ground.
“It’s a giant fat tapir-headed elephant thingy.” Katie described these creatures strangely the same as mine. They were thrice the size of an elephant, with a head of a tapir, short tusks, and elongated neck capable of turning its head behind its shoulders. Each of them had their backs covered in almost two tons of cargo and gears with thick ropes and nets to secure them.
“They’re called behemoths,” Sally said. “I’ve heard these gentle creatures can drink so much water, they can survive the long journey like camels.”
“But we’re going to ride those, are we?” Katie asked in an eager tone.
Sally shook her head. “The Jormungands said that they are used for carrying cargoes. We’ll be on foot for the entire trip.”
I must admit, it looked fun to ride one of those creatures, but we were disappointed that we couldn’t.
“Everyone, gather up!” a Jormungand member cried. “Our commander has something to say!”
In the middle of the caravan, two people stood on top of one of the behemoths. One of them was Indian, fully dressed in armor from one of India’s ancient eras.
“Hello, everyone,” he greeted aloud. “I’m Commander Raja, and I’ll be in charge of this caravan. This is Lieutenant Del Rio, my second-in-command. She’ll be in charge of all of you, hired ones. Hope everybody’s fine today. Let’s all get along and help each other out on this ten-day adventure.”
The crowd applauded, though many like Wilt, Alex, and myself were making neutral stares.
Lieutenant Del Rio was a bit of a mystery. She had pony-tailed red hair and was quite tall for a teenage girl, wearing medieval armor with modern clothes underneath. I wasn’t sure whether she was from the Americas or Europe, or which era she hailed from.
“Alright, listen up,” she exclaimed in a haughty tone. “I got one rule and one rule only. Obey our command, and you’ll live to get paid. We’re not threatening you. We’re just telling you how to stay alive once we’re out of this gate. Is that clear?”
Almost everyone nodded in reluctance. Every word the lieutenant said was coated in callousness. Many of us had second thoughts about this quest, but that all changed when the horns were blown.
“Everyone, let’s move out!” Commander Raja shouted when the behemoths began to rise on their feet.
“Alright, gang,” Wilt said as the steel gate swung open, “let’s stick together no matter what.”
We were now in the Yellow Zone, a place with the yellow sky, and all around us was sand. In front of me, from both sides, on the horizon, the mountains that formed, everywhere was all sand. The whole caravan was traveling through the desert. We expected blistering heat and hot wind bombarding our faces, but we got none of them even though I was wearing my favorite hoodie coat. There was nothing to complain about except the sand that got into our shoes. Despite the never-ending surprises and weirdness around us, everyone had to watch out for dangerous creatures and outlaws lurking somewhere. Checking my phone, it was out of range of any signal, including Wi-Fi. We were on our own out here. “Brock,” Katie called when he strode ahead of us. “Huh?” “Why are you walking barefooted?” His shoes were dangling on his backpack. Looking down, he was walking without them. “Oh, the weather isn’t that hot. I feel like I’m strolling on a beach.” Our
Five days had passed, and we reached the Jormungand border. There was nothing in sight except for a lone obelisk where we waited around. An hour passed, another caravan arrived from within our employers’ territory. We spent the remainder of the day transferring loads between the two. At sundown, we rested. Three days later, our caravan was now heading back to the Great Blue Zone, with cargoes full of finished goods that the Jormungands produced. When we traveled to their territory, everyone was on guard of their surroundings. Now that we were going home, there were laughter and chatters throughout the caravan. This quest wasn’t as exciting or dangerous as our party expected. Although, we did get to experience what it was like in the Yellow Zone. Still, I needed to be vigilant, especially since we were at the back of the caravan. “Two more days, and we’re finally home for that sweet nine thousand chaffs.” Katie grinned while shooting her arms in the air. “How
Upon arriving, the entire battlefield was twice larger and bloodier than we fought at the back of the caravan. Dozens upon dozens of dust piles trampled under the feet from both sides that were engaging in a messy melee while blades and projectiles flung over our heads. Amidst the chaotic battle, we found six behemoths lying on the ground. Two of them were dead. We also found Commander Raja shouting orders to everyone not far from us. Katie scurried toward him with an angry face. Wilt, Li, and I shared concerned looks. We went after her, understanding that there could be trouble. “Hey, Commander!” she snarled, which got his attention. “You said the raiders weren’t as many as fifty. You said we’re safe in numbers. But look around us. We are all under attack!” When our fellow hired ones heard what she said, they all glared daggers at the commander. “I know, I know,” he admitted, “but this had never happened before.” “What do you mean?” Wilt aske
“Extra, extra!” a newsboy cried. “The Black Sun conquered Eagle’s Nest. No actions made by the big shots.” I groaned on my bed after hearing another awful news from the window. I got up and headed for the balcony to check what was happening on the streets. It had been eight days I stayed in my apartment, only to come out to wash my clothes at the laundry shop; that was enough for me to stretch my legs. Things had never been the same ever since we got back. It was nine days ago. After the raiders scattered in retreat while leaving their wounded behind, I was lying on the ground, exhausting all my rage and adrenaline rush from pummeling them left and right. My friends rushed toward me, overjoyed to see me alive. Then they chastised me for recklessly attacking the raiders alone. As the whole caravan began recuperating, Commander Raja ordered all the newcomers to gather in one area to rest for the day while everyone worked. We were happy that the commander sympathized wi
The whole gang was here. My phone had received their messages that they were coming. Now that everything was back to normal, we were going to have a celebratory lunch for completing our first high-class quest. I held my breath and opened the door, just slightly enough for my head to stick out. “Hey,” Wilt greeted. “Hey,” I replied. After a brief pause, he said, “May we come in?” “Um, yeah, sure.” I swung the door wide open. Upon entering, they were astonished to see mounds of gift baskets and letters all over my apartment. After we got back home, I’d been getting invites and gifts from different guilds for eight straight days. That was why I was a bit embarrassed about letting them in. Li was staring at the basket of chocolates on top of my desk. “Go ahead,” I told him. “Help yourselves.” “Thank you.” He bowed before making a dash toward the chocolates. “Don’t mind if I do.” Brock followed behind, so was
By nighttime, we arrived at the Party King’s castle. The girls wore knee-length dresses, blue for Katie and white for Alex, though Katie tied her bushy hair into a bun. Wilt, Brock, and I sported coats and jeans while Li added a longer robe to his attire. According to the locals, Rad’s parties were the best of the best ever since the Boston Tea Party’s founding. Due to the power of Dionysus, he and his guild were in charge of every event in the city, including Christmas, giving them tremendous influence in the Great Blue Zone. From sundown to sunrise, “It’s a little paradise here in this world,” they said, and people would pay gold to get into one. Since our invitation was free, this was a better choice to celebrate completing our first high-class quest instead of eating in a pricey Chinese restaurant. We went to a Victorian-era department store this afternoon, finding a perfect outfit for each of us. The place had almost every piece of clothing from different timeli
“That was quite a show when you messed with those raiders,” Rad exclaimed. “I like the part where that truck rammed you — BOOM! Then, like Superman, you lifted the darn thing in the air and — SMASH!” he laughed hysterically. “The best part is — no one got recalled.” “Wait a minute, how did you know all this?” Wilt inquired. “You weren’t there when that happened.” Our leader was right. We all nodded to agree. “What are you talking about?” Rad asked. “It’s all trending on Viewcom. It got over ten thousand views.” A confused look crossed each of our faces. “Viewcom? The greatest thing on the internet since Quest. And the internet itself.” “My liege,” one of the girls reminded him, “these are newcomers.” “She’s right,” the other said. “Viewcom is only a week old. They haven’t yet been informed.” The Party King’s eyes widened before bursting into laughter, “Ah, silly me. That Chernobyl cocktail earlier ga
It had never crossed my mind that I would ever meet this girl again. On that first night, I was mesmerized when I first saw her soaring in front of the full moon. A teacher I once knew had said that we, boys, would sometimes do stupid things for a girl. I, for one, ran an entire section of a castle wall just to check her out. She was even more beautiful at a close distance; crystal-blue eyes, a heart-shaped face, and red freckles on cheeks resembled autumn leaves. Now that I got one last glimpse of her, it was time to leave. I did understand why my heart right now was hammering like crazy, but for me to go and talk to her was impossible for two reasons. One, I had zero experience in making the first move to woo a girl; I even stuttered when I got nervous. Two, by the looks from her sad eyes staring at the moons, something must’ve happened that made her unhappy. Deciding to leave her alone, I tiptoed my way back toward the entrance. “Hello.” As I whirled aroun