Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

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[Your quest has been updated]

[Visitor of the Wooden Heart

Many creatures…

...

>Requirements:

Meet with this foreign being and understand its motives behind its visit 1/1

Or put a short end to its trespassing 0/1 /Not possible/

Wait for Muddan to partake in his Ritual fight 1/1

*Optional* Challenge Muddan into a Ritual fight and preferentially, win 1/1

]

[You have completed the Quest, Visitor of the Wooden Heart]

[Your Reputation with the Karkavan has increased by 40]

[Your standing with the Karkavan has increased from Outsider to Honored Warrior]

[+1978% Level XP]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[Level up]

[You were the first player to reach Level 40!]

[You have achieved Level 40, your previous special privilege has been worn off]

[For being the first to reach Level 40, Skill experience gain has been tripled and the likeness of gaining new Skills from all sources has increased slightly]

[This privilege will last until the player reaches Level 50]

[DING]

[Chain Quest, Visitor of the Wooden Heart part 2 has activated]

[The mysterious warrior has been knocked out after a satisfying fight, but his reasons and goals are still left half-answered.

Requirements:

Wait for the Karkavan Warrior, Muddan to recover 0/1]

[DING]

[With a burning determination and against all odds, you defeated an impossible enemy, a tale fitting, yet required, for a Champion]

[You have Attained a new Tale! Great Warrior!]

If the continuous ringing of the notifications wasn't enough, Dale was completely baffled by what he saw when he grabbed his spear:

[Failure (Normal)

Rating: 4-Star

Gives the Temporary Skill: Throw 2-Star(Active)

Requirements: Strength: 30; Constitution: 25; Dexterity: 25; Mana 10

Description: A makeshift spear made from the junction of two components, a sharp thorn of unknown origins, and a sturdy shaft made from Laviate Steel.

As the name implies, it is a failure, a disgrace to the materials used in its confection, the miners that spend days mining the ores used in this would be shamed and revolt in their tombs just by looking at it.

It won't break, and it'll cut that's for sure, this puts it at a fairly high grade as the materials within it won't leave their wielder disappointed.

Surprisingly, this abomination of a weapon seemed to have changed upon facing a great enemy, imprinting within itself the Skill of its wielder.

Regardless, such a phenomenon isn't anything special as tales of items carrying on the skills of their user across time are uncountable, but even so, it does say something…

Although, is this due to its wielder's high skills, or due to the spear itself?

]

"..."

Dale cleared his ears and throat as he read through these words.

There was a lot to read, but he had to bring Muddan to the village as soon as possible so he could heal.

'I have time.'

So he decided to read it all on the way, trying to calm his mind as he did so.

…

"Urg… Huff!"

As he finished reading the first few notifications, pulling Muddan over a pile of dirt, Dale grunted in displeasure as he let out a sigh.

In the end, he leveled up, even going beyond Level 40...

There it went his plans for the upcoming Event… His goal of staying low-level and improving himself beyond it went down the drain.

But he can't have it all, can he? Sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses, it's how things go, and overall, he isn't really upset, just a bit conflicted.

After all, maintaining his Level despite the unending sources of Experience all around was bound to be an arduous task, especially since the Event will only happen within a week.

Forcing himself to take on a passive approach until the event might cause more harm to his plans than good, so if things went on like this, might as well go with the flow.

Regardless, he was happy nonetheless, leveling up can be a pain, especially at Higher Levels, and if the first part of this Quest gave so much Experience, Dale could only expect how much he would get for the consequential parts.

It did not come for free though, Muddan was by no means an easy opponent, sticking with his Title of Warrior and certainly, the hardest enemy Dale had faced yet, even if these weren't the deepest injuries he has ever taken.

And if Muddan himself was only at the start, he could only imagine what would be waiting for him at the end of it all.

Dale closed his eyes due to the dust in the air, thinking as he walked:

'Honestly, I somewhat expected my Quest to update, I just didn't imagine it to end just like that.'

'I gained a massive heap of Experience and even some Reputation with the Karkavan…'

'It doesn't have an use right now, but this will certainly play its part when I do meet them since this is what this Quest seems to be pushing me toward.'

'Still, it remains to be seen if I'll accept helping this sudden visitor or not.'

His eyes sharpened slightly.

'Albeit... The current circumstances aren't giving me that much wiggle room…'

'If I have to face a monster deep in the forest, then I might as well make friends with a tribe that lives within it, no? Especially one that came for help.'

'They may know of things that can completely alter the course of tomorrow's expedition.'

'I can't just let this opportunity roll by without doing anything.'

/Pop!/

/GULP!/

Dale continued to drag Muddan across the ground, opening his inventory and taking out a health potion, removing its seal with a clear "pop" and shugging its contents down his throat.

He wasn't afraid of other players as he was still within the cloud of dust, he could barely see a few feet ahead, what to say, anyone?

Especially since they should still be rather far away from his current location.

/BURP!/

'The healing potions made by Yumi have a different taste to what I got from the stores back in the Tutorial... It's fruity, and I like it.'

'Perhaps because they use the fruits from the forest as a base ingredient?'

'The potions I get from players tend to be... I don't know... Like those green shakes my grandma used to make when I was younger?'

Feeling a bit better, Dale's steps became more and more firm, trembling less as he started to recover his control over his muscles.

His attention was soon drawn to the other notifications...

'However… The rest took me by surprise.'

"Hm..."

'A new Tale? It's been a while since I saw such a notification, and I really didn't expect it to appear now.'

'Defeating an impossible enemy? This is awfully close to the Title a player can get if they defeat a monster 10 Levels ahead of them.'

'It's called, Slayer, and it comes in many stages, from Slayer 1 to Slayer 5… Or that is the highest someone has managed to reach so far.'

'The record was made by a Level 7 player killing a Challenge Level 50-60 monster using a foul strategy of trapping it within a cage and kitting it to death, and since he got the Stage 5 Slayer Title, the monster had to be at least Level 57.'

'Titles don't really do much for players, as they are mostly to show off.'

'But as proved by others, Titles can affect the NPCs' opinions of them and how they address them, from hostility to hospitality, from contempt to fear, a Title can completely alter how they interact with you depending on how unique the Title is.'

'Not the same for HardCore players, as the way things work for them is different...'

'For example, a normal player could kill a Mutated Warewold near a starter Village and receive a few coins as a reward, but if a HardCore player did, they would be cheered by the Villagers and be called a Hero.'

'It's a bit more organic...'

'This game is a bit too deep sometimes…'

'Going back to me now, if I got such a Tale… Then I can likely get a better one.'

Dale then became a bit awkward.

'The fight itself was pretty uneventful, more of an exchange of brute strength than a fight where...'

'In the first place, what is a proper fight?... I'm straying off the matter...'

'What I wanted to explain is that, if I properly set up my Skills and have more time to learn, then I can definitely take on Muddan easily, and perhaps, even a stronger enemy.'

'The question then becomes, how stronger would an enemy have to be for me to be worthy of receiving another Attainment?'

'And why should I be accumulating these? They certainly aren't useless… But they also don't seem to hold a purpose as of now.'

'However, its an incentive, as this new Tale proves my previous point.'

'Instead of increasing my Level of power, I should aim at increasing my own capabilities instead, and one day, face an even stronger opponent while maintaining a Low Level.'

'That, however, is paradoxical since, if I were to defeat a strong enemy, I would get stronger regardless...'

'And any enemy I face in the meantime would also contribute towards that...'

'It would be both reckless and a waste of time to not hunt anything at all in the meantime.'

Shaking his head, Dale continued with his walk across the desolate fields.

His spear glowed faintly as the blood on it dried up...

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Notes