Cass walked into the center of the first floor and was unsurprised to find Moore calmly standing behind the long desk. However, what was slowly becoming unsurprising was how meek Kara acted around him. She’d entered with a yell, but now stood silently, a forced smile on her face as Brendan and Chancey chittered nearby.

  Cass walked over and placed the drafted Quests in front of the man, “All done, those on the right are Tier 2.”

  “Ah, excellent,” Moore said, picking up each and reading them to himself. A moment later, he nodded, “These will do, but I would like you to practice being more official in your drafts. I noted several small errors that could distract a new Questor. Please modify these two to include directions, and this one to remove a touch of Old English.”

  Cass made the changes, then nodded, “I’ll try to keep those off your desk in the future.”

  “Very good,” He lifted up the Tier 1 Quests and handed them back to Cass. “You’re the QuestWright in charge of the first floor. The honor of placing them on the board is now yours.”

  With a small bit of ceremony to the action, Cass took the small stack of vellums and held them lightly. Stepping over, he was aware of the three others standing and watching him as, one by one, he pinned them up. Stepping back, he nodded, then turned around.

  Kara smiled at him, “So, QuestWright. The Guild Master has given us a few hours each day to pilot the Pathfinder project, and I’ve set aside time for designing our competency tests. Where should we begin?”

  “At the beginning,” Cass replied, feeling a sense of excitement bubbling up in his chest.

  The beginning, as it turned out, was the area Adya had shown him earlier that separated the downtown area from the Depot. Liora was a broken honeycomb. Random openings existed in various locations as the city had grown haphazardly, rather than with a planned approach. It was likely that, as it was built on top of the ruins of San Antonio, buildings and districts had grown in spurts.

  If a person took ten steps outside of what was considered “downtown”, they’d find themselves in a completely different area.

  So it was with a slight feeling of righteous justice in his heart that Cass brought his three Pathfinder co-conspirators to their first project. It was just at the start of the northern quadrant, where a few children could be seen kicking a ball across the street. The smell of the area was a mixture of old sweat and something worse, while the people living there didn’t look much better.

  “This is filthy,” Kara said with a sigh.

  “And yet, it’s right outside of downtown,” Brendan commented, his buoyancy for once seeming deflated.

  Cass took a few steps toward several small, basic material shops. Shops, however, were a heavy word for the leaning stalls covered with torn tarps. “Liora’s a large city. And naturally, the Council has focused its resources on the areas that they feel need it the most.”

  “That means other areas get forgotten.” Kara pointed out.

  “Exactly,” Cass said without a smile, “But that’s where we come in, and hopefully others will join us down the line.” He pointed at a small section of the wall where a brick had fallen out. “People, and places, guys, people and places. These areas have been forgotten; we’re here to show them the Guild cares.”

  Brendan asked, “How’s this going to work?”

  Cass scratched his head as he looked around, “Well, I’ll be assigning a few Quests, proactively, and you two, my Clerkly friends, will hand out the Guild pamphlets to anyone who wants to take them. Guild Master Hollis has assured me he’d fund our project here, and just like that, this,” He spread his hands out to encompass the area, “will be shiny like new.”

  Chancey raised her hand, “We’re just giving out pamphlets?”

  Noting the subservient tone in her voice, Cass said, “You don’t have to do that.” He even went so far as to step over and gently pull her hand down. “I’m not your supervisor. We’re teammates in this. You and Brendan are here to hand out the pamphlets.” His eyes caught a few wary looks from the people in the area, so he added an addendum. “And to be charming.”

  “Charming,” Kara asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Of course,” Cass said with a smile he didn’t feel.

  This was the first step of a much larger plan. He couldn’t stumble now. But, even with Adya’s description of things, he hadn’t known the area was this bad. Rats were scurrying across the ground even as they were ignored.

  Clearing his throat, he continued, “This isn’t the main thoroughfare to Downtown, it’s just a side street, but that doesn’t make it any less important. The people who live and work here could use a little help. That’s all we’re doing.”

  Hearing Kara cough, he got to the point, “And if some of them decide they’d like some extra experience, then, all the better.”

  “Okay!” Brendan said, brightening up, “I love to help people.”

  “Me too,” Chancey said with a dimpled smile.

  “Great!” He pointed at the kids kicking the ball around. “Now, why don’t you go tell them all about the wonders of the Guild, while Kara and I talk to their parents. Sound good?”

  “Sounds great!” Brendan said with a smile as he and Chancey hopped over with enthusiasm. Cass and Kara, meanwhile, had a much tougher job to do.

  Approaching three men standing behind their shops, Cass tried to infuse some friendliness into his voice without overdoing it. “Hello, my name’s Cass, and this is K-”

  “Not interested,” A man in a round turban interrupted him. “Go on back to your Guild.”

  Not a great start, Cass thought to himself. He was preparing to try again in a more straightforward manner when Kara spoke up with a glare.

  “Screw you, dirter.”

  “Hey! You can’t talk to us that way!” One of the other men behind their stalls yelled at her. “You’re from the Guild, thought you guys were all supposed to-”

  Kara threw a sharp finger his way, her arm a blur, “I may be in the Guild now, but I’m from the Depot. You bunch of dirters have been sitting here, wallowing in your petty sales, and you think you can tell us to leave? Better plant yourselves in the ground and hide because we’ve got a license from the Liora City Council to fix up your little pigsty here.”

  “Kara,” Cass whispered to her, “Why are you antagonizing them? We need their help to get things off the ground. Plus, we never got a license, just permission from the Guild Master.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “License, schmicense. Cass, these are my people,” She said with a quiet grin, “Calling them a dirter is like saying they wouldn’t know a broom if it brushed against their backside. Trust me, that’s why Hollis assigned me to you.” She turned back around, “As I was saying, you filthy miscreants, we’re going to do what we want, and if you don’t like it, you can go to hell.”

  The first man spluttered, “Dirter? Miscreant? What in tha hell are ya thinkin gurl” He said, an accent appearing for the first time.

  “I’m thinking you’re all a bunch of low-levels without the gumption to do anything about your lot in life.” She brushed an imaginary bit of dirt from her shoulder, “This place is so disgusting that I feel like I’ll catch a disease just from breathing the air. And your kids,” She pointed at the children laughing as Brendan tried and failed to kick the ball. “How can they even stand being here? Hell, more than that, how can you allow them to be here? It’s disgusting!”

  The men followed her eyes, and there was a noticeable softening to them as their eyes moved from the piles of dirt and refuse to the children. Cass knew this was his chance, so he stepped up, “I wanna start out by saying I’m not from the Depot. I was born and raised on the Grounds, and my family kept me pretty close for reasons that always seemed to change. But, I’m here to help.” That shifted their eyes from softening back to the hardness he’d originally seen.

  Don’t talk about helping, got it.

  “Help your kids, that is.” He said, picking up where he left off but following Kara’s angle. “I’m a QuestWright, and I work in the Liora Guildhall Quest Registry. My job is to assign Quests for the good of Liora, and I’ve decided to start here, with this area.”

  “What, we tha most shitty place in Liora?” A third man yelled from the back, his hands planted on his hips.

  “Just the closest, you filthy ass!” Kara yelled at him, causing his mouth to drop open.

  Cass smiled internally but kept his face blank, “She’s right, about being the closest, that is, and what we plan on doing here is important. We’re going to fix up the walls, clean the area, remove the vermin, and provide you with a nice place to work. The only thing we ask of you is not to actively attempt to stop or delay us. How does that sound?”

  “Ya think you’re better than us?” The first man asked, taking a step away from his table.

  Cass held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks. “No, but I think we’re all Liorans, and we should help one another out when we can.”

  The man spat to the side and walked away as Cass looked at Kara, “So?”

  “They didn’t try attacking us,” Kara said with a shrug, “That’s gotta be positive. People in the Depot don’t like it when others try to encroach on their trades. Every time a new shop opens, there’s a lot of hazing and bad looks. Especially in these areas where the rent is low for a reason.”

  “Alright, well,” Cass rubbed the back of his head, “Let's get started then.” Seeing a laughing Chancey playing with a few of the kids, Cass called over Brendan, who was holding the small of his back after missing the ball and falling to the ground.

  “Can you go get us some brooms, a few bins for trash, and let Mr. Moore know that we’re beginning? And-”

  “Okay!” Brendan said with a smile as he turned and sprinted toward the Registry.

  “I was also going to ask him to grab a few more things…” Cass said to Kara quietly.

  “Clerks!” She slapped her forehead. “Why don’t you make a few Quests, and we’ll get started?”

  “Right,” Cass said with a nod, firming up his resolve. He looked around and analyzed the situation. The walls on both sides had several bricks either missing, crumbling, or holding several cracks. In fact, he even spotted several rectangular objects underneath certain people’s stalls, holding them up higher to the sky instead of where they should be.

  Shaking his head, he removed a notepad and pencil, then counted the bricks that would need replacing. He could’ve gone with a rough estimate, but he knew that in order to make this as cheap and therefore viable as possible, he should always try to keep costs down.

  Following that, he estimated it would take several people's time to clear the street of garbage, sweep the area, and then wash it. Varmint hunting was tricky, but it wasn’t something a Combat Calling would need to be assigned. That meant he could assign a hunt Quest to a person and test out if it would unlock a special title.

  It wasn’t likely, as killing bugs and rodents was just standard par for living, but if he made a Quest out of it, that might be enough to tip the scales. Based on the several dozen he’d seen, and not counting repeats, it would take at least two people to find and root them out.

  Then there were the stalls. That was going to be the tricky part. There were options for upgrading them, but he’d need someone to go over the basics with him in order to understand how to frame the Quest.

  Writing everything down, he approached the second man, who’d seemed insulted by Kara’s name-calling. “Excuse me, sir. But could I ask your name?’

  “James,” He said with a sniff. “What do you want?”

  Pointing at the stall with his pencil, he asked, “How would you like a new stall? Or even a storefront.” He’d noted there was plenty of space between the wall and the man’s shop. “We could build it in, install it, and leave you alone, just like I promised.”

  “What’s the cost?” He said, his expression very obviously dubious.

  “Help us clean up the area here,” Cass said, pointing at the worst spots with his pencil, “and we’ll call it even. I’ll even throw in a Quest to get you some bonus experience.”

  “Wait, bonus experience?” James asked, and that hit the third man back as well, “You can do that?”

  “He’s a QuestWright, you numbskull!” Kara yelled as she moved a few bricks into a pile, “His whole job is assigning Quests for experience!”

  Cass tried laughing softly to take the sting out of it, “She’s right, my whole Calling is built around Quests. So, how about it?”

  The man scratched his chin, “Can I get a few of my brother’s kids over here? They’re young and new to their Callings, I bet they could use the experience too.”

  “Absolutely,” Cass said with a smile, “The more the merrier.”

  After he left, the third man did too, until it was just Kara, Chancey, Cass, and the kids in the street. “Did they leave their kids behind? That would never happen on the Grounds.”

  “Pschh,” Kara said, lugging several bricks over, “That’s par for the course here. Learning from your mistakes is like a Calling all on its own in the Depot. We don’t get coddled like you did.”

  Cass didn’t feel any rush of anger from her tone. He knew, Kara being Kara, she was only trying to explain the area to him. Instead of being upset, he mentally noted the different upbringings, then put his things down and helped Kara as Chancey continued to entertain the children, even going so far as to turn the Guild pamphlets into hats they could wear.

  About fifteen minutes later, Brendan arrived with the requested items, then was promptly sent out again for more supplies. Cass let Kara do the honors of informing him, then immediately regretted it as she showed just how much she didn’t like Clerks. Luckily, Brendan didn’t seem to understand sarcasm.

  “We love watching you run back and forth.”

  The sun was high in the sky before the two men came back, several late-age teenagers in tow. James introduced Cass to each one as Kara grabbed some pamphlets and handed them out. All the new arrivals seemed excited by the possibilities, and the QuestWright and Guild Trainer spent some time explaining Pathfinder to them.

  Asking for some space, Cass stepped away. The QuestWright looked out on all of the locations and forthcoming tasks with an intense focus. In most Quests, he created a singular assignment, granted it to the Questor, and off they went. But this wasn’t something small. It was several Quests that could build upon one another.

  So why couldn’t he design them that way?

  And that’s just what he did: creating a dozen new Quests tied into the area. Unlike general Quests, each and every new Quest had very specific instructions, connecting them to each other in a sequence of events that would make everything flow smoothly as one Quest’s description bled into another. After he handed out the tenth and watched the excited teenager glow gold, a notification sprang up.

  [SYSTEM NOTICE]

  Bonus experience granted for inducing a Quest Web:

  320 Experience

  Initiate QuestWright Achievement progress:

  6/12

  That one stumped him, “What the hell is a Quest Web, and why do these things keep happening?”

  [Tier 1 Construction Quest]

  This is not a repair quest. It is a minor act of creation.

  Objective: Construct one physical object that didn’t exist in your space yesterday.

  Parameters:

  – Must be assembled by your own hands

  – Must be made using items you already have access to

  – It may look stupid. That’s fine. The System has no opinion on elegance.

  Examples:

  Legos

  A book stand from a cereal box

  A key holder from magnets and string

  A phone rest made from chopsticks

  A wall hook made from a spoon

  Timeframe: One Week

  Completion Condition: It works. It does what you wanted, however jankily.

  Shape it. Fail it. Fix it. Make it yours.

  Reward for completion: 6 XP

  System Note: This is the lowest form of invention. It’s also the first.

  J.D. Mullenary Sr.

  The Original QuestWright