Nostalgia was what Sage felt when the light came back to his eyes; fearful, horrid, nostalgia. Laying on his back, his eyes scoured the island filled sky. He had returned. He stood up and surveyed his surroundings. The islands still floated in all their majesty, though now, wherever he had teleported to, there were many more around him; high and low the islands bobbed lethargically, carrying mysteries of all kinds. Or perhaps none at all, but even that was a mystery to him.
When Sage got a proper grip on his bearings, the realization that what he stood on, the apartment-sized plot of land, was the same one, or an eerily similar one, to when he had first appeared in this world. Was there a reason for that, or was it a coincidence? Perhaps it was a spawn point of sorts. What else would it be? He shook his head while clearing it, he wasn’t there for that.
Before accepting the quest and weekly task, Sage opened up his menu, went to skills, and clicked on them all. He hadn’t done it before, but if he sought to traverse the unknown world, he needed to understand what he was capable of.
{Wave Burst: Lvl 1} Essence | Novice Skill | Active
Cost: 3 Ess
Gather your essence and release it in a cone-shaped burst. Deals 10 damage for the period of usage.
{Freelancer: Lvl 1 | Max Lvl} Unknown | Veteran Skill | Innate
As an Unknown, you are free of the limitations that bind classes. Freely use any skills you please.
{Essence Connoisseur: Lvl 1} Unknown | Veteran Skill | Innate
You are one with the essence. You understand it as if it were yourself and are second to none at controlling it. All actions that consume essence will have their costs reduced by a quarter.
So Unknown must be his class, not the title given to those without classes, he wasn’t sure about that. He still couldn’t quite understand why he had those two skills, but the reasoning behind their existence wasn’t important to him. Seeing as he didn’t get any notification of their creation, he assumed they were class skills and that connecting with the card is what granted him them.
Wave Burst was unfortunately his only attacking skill. Flash’s of yesterday’s events played in his mind; Rorrin flipped at Esmerelda and her skill only attracted one scorpion, judging by his reaction to Sage casting his essence skill, and the earthquake that followed, Sage couldn’t even fathom how many he’d attract. He had to refrain from using any skills, but if his coming encounters were anything like his last one, that would be easier said than done.
Sage watched as a desert island rose from below to pass him by. He wasn’t close enough to jump to it, not that he wanted to, but he could see onto it well enough to make out two creatures fighting with each other. One was like the scorpion from before, but the other was like a snake formed from cacti. He watched the two with eager eyes. If he was anywhere near them, they’d be blurry eyes, but from a distance, he was allowed to marvel at the creatures foreign to him. How many new experiences did this world hold?
Sage reprimanded himself, he was here to complete the task and quest and then go home, there was no time for detours of any kind.
Sage decided to start the weekly task first. He opened the menu and traversed the submenus until he reached the description.
The backbone of an adventurer is their skills. Skills grow stronger through consistent usage, but can also be enhanced directly by powering them with essence. Find an essence vein and charge a skill with it. Will be awarded 30 essence. [Accept] [Home]
He clicked accept.
[Task Accepted]
Sage smiled. He raised his head and looked at the islands around him. He looked back down to the notification, it slowly faded away. He looked back up. What exactly is an essence vein?
The thought hadn’t occurred to him at first, Sage had no idea what an essence vein was; he had no idea where to find one or what he was meant to do when he did. His eagerness betrayed him. For someone with such little knowledge of the world, the weekly task seemed much too advanced for him; even the locale around him was much too advanced. Why plop a beginner here? So many questions.
The task would have to wait until he gained a better understanding of things. For now, a beginner’s quest with a ranking of F, what Sage assumed to be the lowest, was much more suited to his capabilities. A couple of submenus and home touches later, and he was at the description of the quest.
Welcome, new adventurer. Now that you’ve obtained your card, there is much you need to learn before you can step out into the world of questing and hunting and dungeon raiding. Head to the nearest starting town and speak with the guild association to get you sorted out. [Accept] [Home]
His fingers hadn’t moved quicker than they did now.
[Quest Accepted]
The notification faded after time, but left behind a new feature that caught his eye.
[Nearest Starting Town- 4000 ft away | Head down]
There was the next problem, one he had noted in the back of his mind but had hoped would remedy itself; he was thousands of feet off the ground with no means of getting down. Holding back a sigh, Sage surveyed all the islands around him, they were all too dangerous. Even if he could find a way down from the sky prisons, it wasn’t worth falling prey to a truck scorpion or a cactus snake, or whatever else this world had that wanted to kill him.
An idea struck him. Sage started searching for small platforms like his own. They not only needed to exist or be near him, but they also needed to be headed down— not the easiest requirements to fill.
For what felt like twenty minutes he searched. Finally, a piece of land smaller than his came tumbling across the sky. It moved at quite a fast pace, it could take him closer to the ground; how close it would bring him he did not know, the islands may reach close enough to the ground enough for him to jump off but that was an issue for then.
Sage jumped onto it as it came down. His jump felt powerful, more so than any other he’d taken in his life. The stats were legit. A smile crept onto his face.
Platform after platform, handful of minutes after handful of minutes, Sage traversed countless islets until he reached an impasse. No matter how long he waited, an hour, two hours, he didn’t know— though it definitely hadn’t been that long— there were no more platforms heading down. He stood on his current one, cruising slowly across the horizon, far underneath any other piece of the land. The land, which he noted with grim eyes, was further below him than the islands were above him.
He wasn’t getting any lower than he already was, it was a harsh truth. As if to rub salt in his wound, the platform suddenly started to rise, taking him further from the ground. He watched as the distance meter he so desperately worked to lower began to rise along with him. Sage resigned himself to it. What he didn’t expect, however, was the speed at which the platform rose; it started slow, but after a moment, it had reached a speed that made him unable to move. His surroundings were a complete blur and he felt as if he rode a roller coaster, a deadly one that he feared, because he could not see, would smash into the underside of another island.
It did not, thankfully. It slowed its approach periodically until it moved at its usual speed. All his effort had gone to waste. He gripped the grass beneath him and held his curses back, what the hell was he to do? He gazed up to the sky and what he saw banished all annoyances from his mind. There was an island about the size of a basketball court. It was close enough that he could make out some form of farmland on it, and next to that, he couldn’t believe it, was a house.
Sage beamed with excitement. Not solely for the appearance of the house, but for the apparent human figure that stood at the edge of the island.
“Hey!” Sage waved his arms vigorously. The figure moved, or seemed to, and suddenly, all the islands began to shift. He didn’t understand their movement at first, but after his platform picked up speed headed downward, he realized all the islands were moving in reverse. With his hands buried deep into the dirt, Sage clung on for dear life. He thought of Jessica; he had hoped to not think of her here. Being in this place made him feel as though he prioritized himself over her and thinking of her only emphasized it.
When he finally stopped, Sage’s eyes remained shut, and he kept his body hugged to the ground. What had just happened? There was a brief thought in his head that the person on that island had done this, but that didn’t make any sense. Regular sense, that was. Sage wasn’t quite in tune with the magical world just yet and it didn’t seem like he would be getting the opportunity to be.
He gave up. Getting off the islands wasn’t going to happen, and that meant he wasn’t going to complete any tasks or quests. His shoulders slumped along with his face as his body deflated.
“Open menu,” he said.
There was no choice but to go home.
“Exit world.”
With closed eyes, he prepared his body for the twisting that came with entrance and departure. It did not arrive. Slowly opening them, his eyes fell onto the notification in front of him.
[Exit Failed | Must Complete or Fail Active Quest]
He rubbed his eyes and looked at it again. The message was the same. Convulsions reverberated through him uncontrollably. Was he laughing? Heaving? It wasn’t clear.
“What am I supposed to do! Jump off!” Sage yelled to the sky as if there were someone orchestrating this all.
He looked over the edge of his platform and an idea, a ridiculous, inane, idea, came to him. The recoil from Wave Burst was like propulsion, could he utilize that to break his fall after jumping off? He must have gone mad.
A loud ring shot through his ear and a message popped up in front of him.
[Special Task Now Available]
A special task? There was no such thing under the task menu, even though he often overlooked minor details, he wasn’t such a fool to miss one of three options on a screen.
[Tasks]
{Daily Tasks}
{Weekly Tasks}
{Special Tasks}
[Home]
Or was he?
Upon opening the tab and reading the description for the task that was present, Idea Task, as it was named, it was clear to him that special tasks were situational and sporadic; they didn’t always exist and must appear when they decide too.
We’re all struck with ideas from time to time, some brilliant while others, not so much. But who decides an idea is foolish? Have you tried to do it? Bring to fruition the idea you sought to cast away. You will be awarded 20 stat points, the Creative Thinker Buff, and Fall Boots. [Accept] [Home]
As foolish as the task was, and as evident as the world ploys to kill him were, Sage had no other choice. The quest had to be completed and, with his current capabilities, finding another way down was nigh impossible and just as suicidal. He could wait to find another group of adventurers, but not even they were a safe bet. Sage took one more look at the beauty around him, one way or another, he wouldn’t be laying eyes on this place for a while— he hoped it didn’t turn out to be forever.
Against his will, Jessica made her way into his mind. Though, perhaps it was for the best, as it solidified his original desire to return back home. Quest, and whatever he learned along the way, and then home. He would return to see her tomorrow evening, he promised her.
With his essence at twelve, he could fire off four bursts on his way down. Whether that was enough or not, he’d soon find out. Sage took the plummet. Had he waited any longer his reasoning would’ve prevented him.
The air battered his face as he fell. With eyes plastered to the quest distance bar, he watched as it plummeted, he wasn’t sure how far the town would be when he reached the ground, but he decided on using a blast every seven-hundred feet or so.
Seven-hundred feet came in seconds and he fired his first burst. The recoil suspended him in the air momentarily. In the brief moment of stillness, his eyes purveyed the expansive land beneath him. The details were impossible to make out, but when he gazed upon the secret-filled land, he saw adventure.
The second blast came, and then the third. His mind was too preoccupied to analyze the now clearer scenery. The ribcage shattering boom of his heart could be felt in his throat. The ground was fast approaching. His eyes were no longer on the meter but on the empty field beneath.
With his fear at its limits, Sage used his final burst. It rocked him too far back, making him unable to see how far he had to go as he continued to fall. Fear overtook him, but it was a short ruling as he hit his back on the ground before he could even form ideas of how soon he’d die.
Laughter took control of him, it was hysterical and full of relief. He actually just jumped off an island thousands of feet in the air. That would have originally been enough thrill for his lifetime, but not anymore. Sage sat up and was met with a notification
[Special Task Completed | 20 Stat Points obtained | Creative Thinker Buff Activated | Fall Boots Obtained]
A congregation of blue energy in the shape of boots appeared between his outspread legs. When they materialized, they appeared to be typical, black, leather boots. Sage picked them up and inspected them, only noting the single white wing on the sole of each of them as unusual. Were they actually anything special?
The quest notification popped up in front of his face and made a ding noise before shrinking back to its corner. He was only 238 feet away from the town.
Sage stood up, legs strong, and tossed the boots over his shoulder. If this was the thrill of being an adventurer, he might be addicted.
