Sky World Vol 1 Chapter 1.4

VOLUME 1

Chapter 1: Altaria Island
Part 4

Junichiro Mikimori’s Sky World PC (player character) was named “Jun”.

Many players’ characters’ names were based on their real names. This was especially true in the case of Sky World, as people preferred to register on their academic tablets.

However, Junichiro was a gamer. He never really liked the idea of characters being the same ent.i.ties as the players controlling them. “Jun” was, by no means, the same being as Junichiro Mikimori. Sticking to this belief, Jun always immersed himself into his characters, as if they were his real self.

It has been three months since the Birthday.

Even now, Jun still couldn’t decide whether he would be ‘Jun’ or Junichiro Mikimori.

Beginning from the day after his arrival at Gazar, Jun began on his actual mission.

He met with the residents in order to gather information about possible quests.

Even when Sky World had still been an MMORPG, NPCs (non-player characters; in other words, people who were not controlled by a human) and players engaged in natural discourse. Because each NPC had a unique AI, it was difficult to tell players and NPCs apart.

For example, the girls selling fruit in the market would greet customers differently each time. Occasionally, they’d hand out apples for free. Sometimes, they even made jokes. Every once in a while, they caught colds and closed down their stores temporarily.

After the Birthday, everybody living in the game was human, or at least Jun thought they were.

However, they sometimes did act in a very systematic manner.

In that case, it meant that they had a quest to give.

Quests, a key feature of MMORPGs, were requests or commissions.

“Deliver this letter to the chief of the another town” is an example of a typical quest.

A player doing that quest would receive the letter from the quest giver and head on over to said town. There, he or she would locate the chief’s residence and hand over the letter to the chief. After that, the player would receive experience points and/or reward items.

These types of quests are called system quests. They are very common in games.

There were many system quests in Sky World.

One could even go as far as to say that there were an infinite number of them. Each island had more than 100, and there were thousands of islands.

In Sky World, most system quests could be started at a Society of Adventurers’ office. Priests of the G.o.d of Adventure handed adventurers stone-like gems called Quest Stones. Adventurers could usually complete those Quest Stone missions quite easily. The reward for those missions were different every time.

Quest reward items were extremely varied; they were chosen randomly. Sometimes, it’d be just a few measly coins. Other times, it could be a rare and powerful equipment item that was never sold by NPCs. The infinite use Healing Wand that Jun used on Kasumi yesterday was one of these rare rewards.

“I would like you to defeat the King of the Giants that lives in the nearby cave.”

The priests, with their solid white robes, all looked the same.

In actuality, some were old and some were young. With each pa.s.sing day, different ones with different personalities would show up. As far as Jun was concerned, that was a good thing.

Jun, upon getting the Quest Stone: “Savage Giant King,” called out, “Wait!” towards the inner part of the church.

“Give me another.”

“Huh?”

Unintentionally, he b.u.mped into one of the priests.

“Going back and forth to turn in and receive quests one by one is a pain. So far I have completed 80 quests in the three towns on this island, and my quest completion rate here is a little over 70%. Aren’t there about 30 quests to receive here? Just give me all of the ones I am eligible for now.”

When system requests were completed, quest completion rates went up. In Sky World, requests that affect one’s quest completion rate were as a whole referred to as quests.

“This is your first time setting foot in this church. You still don’t have enough Affinity with us&h.e.l.lip;”

“I understand that Affinity with the church is expected&h.e.l.lip; but&h.e.l.lip; Anyways, in which city do I have an insufficient Affinity?”

“Give me a moment. Please wait here.”

The priest closed his eyes and recited a short prayer.

Shortly after that, he nodded his head with an unpleasant expression on his face.

“There are twelve more quests that you can take on.”

“So I lack Affinity for the rest of the quests, right? Well, I guess that’s fine. Can I have those twelve quests then?”

“What an ambitious adventurer.”

The priest then continued by briefing Jun on each of the quests.

“No need to waste time explaining each and every one of them to me.”

“Quests are the G.o.d of Adventure’s trials. Of course I would want to explain them in detail.”

“And explanations are good and all, but I prefer figuring quests out on my own.”

“Huh?”

“I do quests because they’re fun.”

The priest’s jaw dropped.

“Increasing my quest completion rate is like collecting figures or trophies. Clearing quests makes me happy.”

“Hmm&h.e.l.lip; That’s an interesting take on things.”

“Well said. I guess you could finish all of the quests in the cave at once without having to go back and forth.”

“Uh&h.e.l.lip; what about those other quests?”

“We’ll talk about that when we meet again, OK?”

Jun left the church somewhat upset.

Most quests (approximately 80% of them) consisted of killing a monster and retrieving one of its drops.

Dungeons, such as caves and ruins, were areas in which monsters sp.a.w.n very often.

In Sky World, monsters did not have parents nor did they try to reproduce. They simply appeared.

In general, monsters could not stray too far from their sp.a.w.n points. Even so, monsters occasionally sp.a.w.ned near towns. Sometimes, they sp.a.w.ned in big groups near people. Quests calling for the elimination of those groups of monsters were very important for keeping them under control.

However, when a certain amount of time elapsed, they would simply resp.a.w.n.

Because of this, their respective quests would also be reissued when that happened.

Only one adventurer could take on those types of quests at once. This meant that no other adventurers would be able to interfere. Jun liked that rule. It meant that he would be able to aim for 100% quest completion on this island without too many impediments.

“What a weak monster.”

In the Limestone Cave, an area designated as a dungeon, Jun took out some Reptilians all by himself.

Attracted by a floating ball of light, monsters came running in one by one. However, the Limestone Cave was not very large. It was, at most, two or three body lengths wide. Luckily, these monsters could not take many hits from a magic swordsman, the cla.s.s with the highest raw attacking ability, before falling.

He defeated those monsters without getting hit more than a few times.

As soon as the last monster disappeared, the Quest Stone in Jun’s bag began to shine.

“Yes! I finished this quest!”

Jun took the shining rock out of his bag. It was a stone approximately the size of a fingernail. In just a moment, it would transform. While he watched attentively, the Quest Stone changed into an azure ring.

“Hmm&h.e.l.lip; A stat point increase ring.”

Jun swiped his left hand in the air, his tablet appeared, and the ring’s stats appeared on its screen.

“+2 STR. I don’t need that. I’ll sell it.”

With that thought Jun remembered the face of the girl he had met yesterday.

Any way he looked at it, she could only be a newbie. She didn’t seem to have grasped an understanding of how gameplay worked.

Jun shook his head. Yesterday, he just happened to b.u.mp into her when she needed a.s.sistance. Helping others out was just proper adventurer manners.

However, there was no obligation to offer additional help after the initial incident.

“I’ll think about that later. Anyways, the next quest is&h.e.l.lip; ‘Retrieve the Demon Beast’s drink’.”

Apparently, there was supposed to be a fountain deep inside this cave spewing out water full of monster attracting energy.

That water was necessary for a separate quest. He had found out when he was asking the town’s citizens for quest information. He could kill two birds with one stone by fulfilling both that quest and the monster-killing quest.

“Hmm&h.e.l.lip; I wonder if I could gather some herbs too. I’ll try looking around for some.”

He had already maxed out his gathering skill for time like this when he would want to gather some herbs. Jun could now use his tablet to find out the name and characteristics of any herb almost 100% of the time.

Because of his focus on efficiency, he was able to complete many quests simultaneously.

“I’m so busy.”

The amount of quests that he had not yet completed had been steadily decreasing.

“Very busy&h.e.l.lip;”

Smiling, Jun continued searching throughout the dim cave.