As the night sky shone above the Dark City with its numerous glistening stars, Bari walked through the streets of the Bright castle with a deep contemplative look on his face. It wasn't necessarily night time, it was just so early it was still dark out.
He had woken up early due to all the constant movement of Nightmare Creatures and people within the Dark City. Unlike his expectation of everyone sleeping when it was night, there seemed to be a lot of people who were nocturnal.
'Did I really make a mistake coming here?' Bari thought to himself as his hands covered his face, scratching his temple in exasperation. It was hard, and he meant really hard to fall asleep. At first it was all the movement, but then it was all the weird and rather intimate activities the people of the forgotten shore partake in when behind doors.
Bari shivered remembering a rather 'excitable' couple who enjoyed whipping each other while being strapped to their beds.
'No. Coming here was not a mistake,' Bari thought to himself as his eyes pierced through walls and grazed upon several nightmare creatures.
'Unlike the forgotten shore's sparse expanse and numerous dwellings of nightmare creatures who were of the Awakened and Fallen rank, within the Dark City, all nightmare creatures were of the Fallen and Corrupted rank.
While that should not have made much of a difference, it was the fact that there were thousands of Fallen and Corrupted creatures with such a tight space. Compared to the forgotten shore, where Corrupted creatures were a few miles away from each other.
'This means two great things for me. One, I would have enough nightmare creatures to be able to hunt in abundance. And secondly,'
Bari's gaze shifted as his greedy eyes feasted upon several nightmare creatures. 'There are a selective few with Attributes he absolutely needed to have'
As Bari peeled his eyes away, seeing the nightmare creatures get restless at being gazed at so intently. He sweat dropped when he passed a rather memorable house.
"Yeah… I'm never facing that direction again when sleeping" Bari spoke to himself as he made his way towards the Quest Hall.
Within the early hours of the morning, the Quest Hall of the Bright Castle was spotted few people, with the occasional sleeper here and there chatting and planning along the long rectangular tables, and a single staff behind the counter.
"How can I help you?" The new staff member Bari did not recognise asked as he drew near.
"I'm here to check any primary quest I uhh might have gotten."
"Ahh, yes, what's you name?" The staff member asked
"I'm Bari, I'm under the scout category."
"Alright, I'll be right back." The staff member smiled before walking through a set of doors.
Bari expected very little from the primary quests, as such, he gazed upon the secondary board and looked at the quest that interested him. Most of the secondary quests were extermination and retrieval of specific materials, with only the occasional job within the Bright Castle.
'Seems very time consuming…' Bari thought to himself with a frown.
Just as he thought this, Bari spotted the staff member approaching from behind.
"Here, you seem to have 13 new primary quests for your choosing." The staff member said with a smile on his face before walking away to help another sleeper that just arrived.
Bari grabbed the quest papers before skimming through each one, seeing their description.
"Oh okay, they aren't that different from the secondary quests. Most of them are resource retrieval with only the occasional extermination, exploration, and team up." Bari muttered to himself.
Looking at the rewards, Bari notices that resource gathering quests offer a portion of the resource and a soul shard each. While the extermination quests offered a soul shard or two, in addition to the soul shards you would receive from killing the nightmare creature.
'While this is good and all… wouldn't I be better off just killing nightmare creatures I want?'
'The time it would take for me to come back, get a set of quests, and head out to hunt specific nightmare creatures is longer than just hunting them individually. ' Bari narrowed his eyes in disappointment.
'And, its not like teaming up with different people to complete multiple quests would be any faster. I'm several times stronger than anyone within the Bright Castle.
'No. While it doesn't offer me any gain I inherently value, it does offer a sort gain that would help me get out of here. That is reputation. Currently, I could most likely take on the Crimson Terror, however, I currently have no way of entering the tower.'
'From what I saw, there's a barrier preventing anyone from entering the crimson spire which needs seven specific keys to open. Where and what these keys are is a mystery I hoped to find within the Dark City.'
'And only through a good enough reputation, could he have enough influence to gain the knowledge of where all the seven keys were.
'So while they don't offer me much, if I complete them while also gaining the attributes I'm looking for, I'll be hitting two birds with one stone.' Bari thought with a smile of his face
Bari had done a lot of thinking last night, when he had found it hard to fall asleep due to the constant movement. As such, he had pondered on what exactly drove him, what he truly wanted. The conclusion he came to was that he wanted his family safe.
And to do so, he needed strength. And currently, he had three ways of growth accessible to himself.
1 Skill: This is his skill in swordsmanship and all other forms of combat.
2 Attributes: This is his accumulation of attributes that boost his strength.
3 Soul cores: This is an avenue for growth that currently gives me the most amount of strength.
While he indeed possessed these three avenues for growth, he had hit a metaphorical wall in his skills. His eyes allowed him to understand and replicate skills in an instant, with this, he was able to master the Immortal Flame combat style but…
"Well, thats inaccurate…" Bari paused before muttering to himself.
While yes, he had mastered the style's standard form to absolute perfection, it was the styles innate ability to adapt and incorporate other styles into its own that made it great, to take inspiration from other styles and the user's aspect in order to build something unmatched. On top of that, the styles and any other styles reliance on essence was paramount. He would not be able to master his style until he actually had a feel for essence.
So, to say he had mastered the style, would be incorrect. He had mastered the style's basic form in which he could no longer improve. And while he had started to incorporate his aspect into his fighting style, he would never be able to take it into the next level without essence, or a branching ability of his aspect he had yet to discover. So he had officially hit a wall that could only be surpassed through the experience of combat and ascension.
This left two other branches he could step into in order to grow, Attributes and Soul Cores.
Farming soul cores seemed to be his secondary priority. It did not matter how many he gained now, he would only keep gaining more as he ascended. One thing, however, that would stagnate the more he ascended would be his ability to gain attributes.
It would only keep getting harder and harder as he ascended. Right now was his best opportunity to seize the most amount of attributes, but he couldn't spend the rest of his life here. He still had a family waiting for him back home.
As Bari kept thinking and skimming through different quests, one in particular made him pause.
"Dirt?" Bari spoke out loud with a confused expression.
***
Quest: Dirt
Type: Procurement/Scouting
Description: Bring or locate fresh soil to the Bright Castle's Agriculture Department
By: The Agriculture Department
Rewards: 1 Soul Shard For every 250 Kilogram of Dirt
Time Limit: N/A
***
The staff who heard Bari's confused question smiled and walked over while peeking at the Quest he was holding.
"Yeah, that one confuses many at first," The staff member said, chuckling to himself.
"Seems odd does it? Well that's because fresh dirt is rare within the Dark City. You might have seen the ordinary black dirt that's all around the Dark City right?" leaning on the counter
Bari nodded in agreement as he reflected on his walk towards the Bright Castle.
"People usually call it false dirt or black dirt. That's because while they resemble dirt, they hold no actual minerals or actual things dirt possesses. They are more akin to concrete."
"However, while rare, dirt is known to be found in certain locations within the Dark City. It's a very time consuming quest, however, it holds no time limit of completion, so its one you can complete if you encounter any."
Bari nodded in understanding before pausing.
"Is someone's aspect, seriously, the ability to create paper?"
The staff member paused, stunned by Bari's question, before keeling over in laughter.
"Pfft, you really must be new here. No, it isn't, nice guess tho."
Bari frowned in confusion, "Then how are you guys able to produce so much paper and ink?"
The staff member smile "There are many utility based aspects within the Bright Castle, currently, there are two sleepers managing the production of paper and ink. One is able to forcibly make things grow, that's why we usually have so many Dirt Quest and resource gathering ones. while the other is able to turn material into different forms."
Bari takes this all in, finding the inner workings of a civilization within a wasteland filled with literal nightmares rather interesting.
Saying his goodbyes, Bari picks out several other quests before heading out, noticing that the sun was just starting to rise.
***
Quest: Metals & Leather
Type: Procurement/Extermination
Description: Bring a nightmare creature that possesses an alloy like body to Nightmare's Kitchen under my name.
By: Shamrock
Rewards: 2 Soul Shard
Time Limit: 3 Days
***
***
Quest: Leather and Scales
Type: Procurement/Extermination
Description: Bring a nightmare creature that possesses a scales and leather like body to Nightmare's Kitchen under my name.
By: Keith
Rewards: 2 Soul Shard
Time Limit: N/A
***
***
Quest: Dirt
Type: Procurement/Scouting
Description: Bring or locate fresh soil to the Bright Castle's Agriculture Department
By: The Agriculture Department
Rewards: 1 Soul Shard For every 250 Kilogram of Dirt
Time Limit: N/A
***
***
Quest: Sewerage
Type: Scouting
Description: You are to scout out the Dark City's Sewer system, specifically, under the western quadrant.
By: Boros
Rewards: 5 Soul Shards
Time Limit: 14 Days.
***
***
Quest: Team Up
Type: Scouting
Description: You have been requested to join us in our hunts for this afternoon.
By: Boros
Rewards: 5 Soul Shards
Time Limit: Today, Noon.
***