《Story quest》
After making sure that the surroundings are quiet, Haroon summoned Brat on standby stage. Haroon wanted to know what happened before he fainted.
– “Hey, Brat.”
– “What is it, Mas? I’m so tired.”
He didn’t expect him to be kind, but its voice was quite gruff. Though, he could feel that it is tired, so he decided not to be angry at it.
– “You? Tired? I could have died because of you.”
– “That’s my words. Because of your greed, I had to spend every ounce of my strength, and I can barely move now!”
– “Just, forget it. I’ve got a question for you.”
Haroon decided to stop there and decided to ask that he has been wondering about.
– “What is it? Make it quick. I need to sleep more to restore my strength.”
It was trying to start up the fight again, but Haroon patiently asked the question.
– “Did I order you to kill the Warrior? I just don’t remember doing so.”
– “Not by words, but you desired with all your heart: that you want to kill the Warrior. So I had to use all your pathetically low mana and elemental force AND health, but it wasn’t enough so I had to use all of MY mana and elemental force to reach the god damn Warrior!”
So that was why. Its words were arrogant and bratty, but it couldn’t lie because it was a spirit. Now that it mention it, he did remember desiring it with all his heart.
– “Alright. Just, don’t do whatever before I say so. The human mind is quite impulsive and could be regrettable when it was turned into the action.
– “Ay, ay. I’ll remember that word perfectly well. That makes my life easier. Also, my level and stat have dropped quite much, so feed me good things.
– “Got it. Rest well, then.”
Brat went back to rest, hearing its master’s first kind words.
Maybe the reason that he’s acquired an intermediate skill skipping mastering the basic one is Brat’s amazing capability. If that’s the case, Brat’s stat must have dropped by a big amount.
‘I’ll have to get an item with full of mana for Brat.’
It was when Haroon was standing up, determining his mind. Someone was moving in Devron’s cart. Devron’s cart was covered in a leather tent like other carts, and he saw it through a small gap.
‘Huh? Who is it at this hour?’
It was that moment. With a siren sound with a familiar voice, a small window was displayed in front of him.
– You have received a story quest
Story Quest – Serial quest
Escort the V.I.P.
Difficulty level: D
A V.I.P is moving along with the merchants. She was hidden away as a child so that she will be protected. She may be a 14 years old, young girl, but her true identity is very surprising. People who want harm of her has found her, and grown larger so protecting her became harder. Expect dangers, and assist her with all you’ve got.
Rewards: Major increasement of stat Luck, +300 Fame, +30 S.P. The V.I.P. might give you a special reword upon the arrival of the viscounty’s estate.
Warning: Failing the quest decreases your fame, and decreases chance to get new quests.
‘Level D quest is quite high in other games. It is labeled as a story quest, is that why?’
He wasn’t sure about the quest system in Beyond. Usually, F was the lowest difficulty. Quests with difficulty level of D was usually very hard, and it needed to proceed carefully as a group.
30 Soul Points and the increase of Luck did interest him, but he found the second reward very suspicious. The V.I.P. ‘Might’ give him a special reward? In other words, it also meant the V.I.P. might not give him a special reward. He doubted if that kind of reward can exist.
But still, it was the quest that the system of Beyond has given him by itself, not by an NPC. He was tempted by the fact the quest was a serial quest, and that it is a story quest. Moreover, he was just assisting the escort, so the rate of success was quite high. He wasn’t sure, but he thought this might be a good favor.
‘This is the first quest on my first journey. I’ve got a good feeling about this. I’ll do my best on this.’
– You have accepted the quest.
‘So that person must be the V.I.P.’
Obviously, the quest was given to him when he saw the silhouette in the cart.
‘Then I guess we will accompany with them for a while.’
He thought it wouldn’t be so hard. As he and the Quad Wanker impressed Tain by showing an excellent performance on the battle, he imagined that Tain would actually want them to accompany them.
Haroon wasn’t sleepy as he has been sleeping for a long time in the day, and because of the excitement of receiving the quest, he shut his eyes and tried to get some sleep.
Just as he thought, Tain and Meilan visited him early in the morning.
“We found that this journey is way more dangerous than we thought. Unlike the last time we took this path, we are having battles with monsters almost every day. 3 has died already, and more are injured. We even hired 10 wandering mercenaries, but I am still not certain of the safety to Viscounty Parson with current 25 members.
“Won’t you go with us, Haroon? I really like your members as they seem good and educated. The merchants don’t like our members as they are quite….wild,” Meilan added.
The situation went as Haroon favored, but he hid his joy and acted as if he was going to refuse it, and agreed to accompany them to Viscounty of Parson. Daily pay was offered at 3 gold. Haroon stole a glance at Philip, who seemed little bit astonished, and learned that they were not paying cheap.
“Boy, That’s reassuring. Your skills are above our average. Then, please guard those two carts. This is Devron. I have an acquaintance with him for some time now. And this is Doran. He’s traveling to his hometown with his two kids. Please take good care of them. The kids are scared of our mercenaries. Devron, Doran. This is mercenary Haroon. He will be escorting you to the Viscounty of Parson.”
It will take about 4 days to Viscounty of Parson. Tain paid Haroon 6 gold in advance. Haroon put in his pocket without hesitation, and when with the Quad Wankers, they went to meet the owners of the carts.
“The name’s Haroon, the leader of Mercenaries of Gust of Wind. This is Philip, Gitan, Serinn, and Ritrina, the members of the guild. We will be accompanying you to the Viscounty of Parson.”
“Nice to meet you. I’ve seen your skills in the battle. My name is Devron.”
Haroon recognized that voice. It was the voice of the old man who gave advice indirectly. His face was tanned, wrinkled with age, and was emotionless like a mask.
“I am Doran, and these are my kids, Sepher, and Sepia. Thank you for escorting us. Sepher likes you very much, Mr. Haroon.”
Doran seemed late 30s. He had very kind impression and politeness, which one wouldn’t expect from the merchants. Red-faced boy standing next to him seemed about 10 years old. The boy was watching Haroon with admiration. And the girl standing next to the boy was grasping her brothers pants. She seemed about 2 years younger than the boy. She had a cute smile with dimple and big eyes.
Though it should be Devron and Doran who should be welcoming them, it was actually the Quad Wankers who welcomed the situation. It was because Doran has volunteered to prepare the meals.
Haroon and his members were surprised to taste Doran’s soup.
“Boy, That’s the soup I am talking about!”
Gitan’s eyes lost focus tasting the soup.
“I’ve never had such delicious soup. I almost feel sad that this bowl isn’t bottomless.”
“The texture and the smell of fresh mush are driving me crazy!”
Opposed to Philip who likes to save words, Serinn and Ritrina were going crazy for Doran’s soup as they’ve been almost starving for last few days. Not to mention Gitan who likes to eat.
“Boss, this is what we call ‘food’, isn’t it.”
“I think the same, Philip.”
Thanks to Serinn and Doran, they learned that foods are one of the things that are required to be happy.
The Haroon and the members went to Doran’s cart to thank her for the good foods. Sepher and Sepia heard Haroon’s voice before Doran could, and ran down from the box seat, where they were sitting with Doran.
“Thank you for the delicious soup. We couldn’t have rested this well without your soup, Doran.”
“Haha, don’t mention it. My kids have been worrying about you. It’s my pleasure that you’ve recovered well,” said Doran.
In the middle of talking, he faced away from Haroon and saw his kids carrying something heavy from the cart and tried to help them. But the kids were faster.
“Haroon, here!”
“I’ve got some too!”
They were hugging quite large sacks and it seemed heavy for the kids. Though it was hard for them to hand Haroon the sacks, their face was still bright. Haroon received first so kids won’t need to carry the sacks.
“What are these?”
“Hehe! Why, it’s your throwing weapons. My dad and the other adults collected these. And we made them clean!”
Haroon checked inside of the bag. Just as Sepher said, lots of cleaned throwing knives were neatly stacked up.
“Oh, Sepher, Sepia, that’s so generous of you. I thought they were lost, and you’ve found me such my precious items!”
Haroon smiled back to them. Their innocent eyes were full of joy.
“Doran, thank you very much.”
And Haroon had to thank him too.
“It’s not much. It was a little thing we could do to say thank you for saving our lives. Not only me and my kids, but every merchants and labor workers have collected them.”
In fact, Haroon thought about the throwing knives several times. He didn’t really need them, but it was true that he felt empty without it. Gladly, Haroon started to stack them in his belt. Then he realized he doesn’t recognize some of them.
“I don’t think these are mine….?”
Doran overheard it from the distance.
“Consider it as our gift. It is another small thing that we could do for you.”
Unlike the throwing knives set that the throwing weapon trainer has given him, the size and weight varied very much. Which might be a little inconvenience for him, but Haroon gladly accepted it. Some of it even had a few jewelry decorated. Opposed to what Doran said, these were a little bit too much to receive as a gift.
But Haroon decided to gladly receive them. After all, he was a mercenary who is hired to protect them. If he can protect the merchants with these weapons, he thought, he would gladly receive them as well.
He rearranged his crossbelt with his own throwing weapons and new weapons which had similar sizes, shapes, and weight. He put away the rest of them in the sack and stored in his inventory.
Haroon felt reassured by feeling the wight from his crossbelt. He felt grown up once again. There weren’t any statistical change in his stats, but it was his mind. So he felt proud of it.
Then he realized it wasn’t the throwing weapons that made him feel proud of himself. In Beyond, he was living a valuable life where other people can rely their lives on him, unlike how he was living a meaningless life in the real world as an incompetent person. And this is why he was feeling proud of himself.