Cass didn't know what to make of the experience loss, nor the free minor node unlock. Would the next achievement grant two? How fast would that speed him up through Waypoint?

  It weighed on his mind as they continued to work on new test types. Grouping the others wasn't as difficult as it seemed. Scout and hunt went well together, while construction and a few others would have to be on their own.

  He still didn't know enough to create proper templates for construction, let alone Crafting. As such, Moore decided to hold off on both, instructing Cass to instead focus on getting everything else ready for the following day. All in all, they ended up coming up with three different tests, and Cass still couldn't stop thinking about the loss of experience each time he drafted a new one.

  It seemed that Pathfinder would involve sacrifices. Of his time, and reputation when the inevitable failed Quests came around. And now, of his experience. But it was all a part of a larger goal. He could take these hits on the chin, because he knew what they were doing mattered for the good of Liora.

  It was easy for Cass to see that the loss of experience for each new experimental quest would hurt in the beginning. But as more people took on Quests and as his quota grew, it would all come to a balance in the end. It was a short-term bit of pain for what would likely become a lifetime goal.

  A city filled with Quests.

  But that wasn't all they did in the day. Cass and crew went back to the side street, where things were just about in order. There was still some cleaning that needed to be done. There was still a bit of construction that needed to be finished. But overall, things were looking much better. As Kara, Brendan, and Chancey helped the Questors finish fixing up the area, Cass spent his time speaking with others to convince them to come to the Registry Sunday for their first tests.

  When they were finally preparing to leave for the last time, they shook hands with the same men who only four days ago had thrown them angry glares. It was a nice turn-around, and a great moment for Cass, because not long ago these people had thought that the Guild didn't care about them at all. When the group finally left the area, it was to many smiles and waves as they walked away with their heads held high.

  They had left the area in a much better state than it was when they’d arrived. Now, it would be on those same people to keep it that way. Maybe even with a requested Quest or two.

  Knowing they had a little bit of extra time, Cass had the crew follow him to a different portion of the Depot. In this instance, Adya had warned him multiple times beforehand that the area's condition was extremely rough.

  She was right.

  Chancey held a hand up to her face to cover her nose from the smell drifting towards them when they arrived. In this part of the Depot, it was a location that rarely saw people, mostly animals. A moving thoroughfare for the transport of herds from one location to another within the city. There were no shopkeepers or children here. As such, it was never properly cared for and was filled to the brim with refuse and filth.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Kara said.

  “No,” Cass replied. “This is exactly what I want to do. Yes, there aren't people here, and yes, it's something that will rarely be seen by others, but think about how nice it will be for the people who travel through this alley not to have to deal with this kind of…” Without a way to adequately describe the area, he just waved at it.

  “Well,” Brendan said with a grimace as he kicked a patty of animal feces with one dainty foot, “At least we won’t have to fight with anyone to clean things up…”

  “True,” Kara said with a matching look, “And it’ll be fast…just…can we not do this kind of task too often?”

  “Deal,” Cass said with a smile, “and I’ll make sure all of you get a Quest for this."

  They returned to the Registry promptly and spent the rest of their time attending to their individual duties. Cass started working on the second construction book, while Moore dealt with some petty infighting among the companies throughout the day. Kara said she might have a solution to speed up the work even more and promised to return the next day with something from the Alchemists. Cass didn’t know what it was, but he had hope in his heart that she would succeed.

  Because the smell clung to his clothes even though they’d left the area far behind.

  When it was time to turn in, Cass had a quiet dinner and then returned to his room. Activating the second daily Quest he’d gained from Stalwart, he chose a standard workout rather than the intense ones he’d been going with. He didn’t want to go to sleep full of adrenaline and brimming with muscular swelling. Plus, there was something almost pleasant about how simple the standard workout had become over time.

  After that, he spent the rest of his evening studying the Depot’s map before quickly falling asleep.

  Saturday dawned with optimism. Cass went over to the Stables first thing so he could meet up with Bella, and just about cried as he performed his daily Quest with punishing regularity. As he was about to leave, the burn of healing heavy in his muscles, a forgotten ability came to his mind.

  “Oh my god…no.”

  Bella snorted, then hooved the ground.

  “I…I forgot all this time…I can copy any Quest each day.” When she shook her head, he clarified, “I think I can do this twice and it won’t cost me anything…I’ve been using it all this time to create copies of Gary’s Quest so it wouldn’t count against my total, but I hadn’t considered copying Survivor Quests...”

  Bella naturally didn’t understand, but for Cass, this was a revelation. He was already planning on doing a standard Stalwart Quest at night with the second choice daily he’d unlocked. But if he could use his ability on any Quest…

  Cass pulled it up to read the description again.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Copy: Once per day, copy any Quest without it counting against your daily total.

  Upgradeable

  “Any Quest,” Cass said as he rubbed his eyes. He could copy any Quest without it counting against him.

  Sighing at the lost time and future pain, Cass let the burn of his muscles cool down slightly before activating the ability and diving into another Intermediate workout with internal sorrow. This one had a greater focus on his upper thighs and calves, a particularly cruel second workout that went beyond the first. Pushing himself to the brink, he completed every time and numbered counter until he was as red in the face as a cherry tomato.

  Wiping the sweat from his forehead, a useless endeavor as much more continued to pour down, Cass got the notification he was looking for and so much more.

  [Stalwart Way Daily Quest Complete]

  Rewards: 8.4xp, 2 Stalwart Tokens, 1 Survivor Token

  Pain is in the Proof activating…

  +2 Stalwart Tokens

  Cass gulped down air as he looked at his main screen, “Already…back…at eight…tokens.”

  Bella whuffed, a few non-sweat-covered hairs moving as he wearily nodded back at her, “Yeah…it’s worth it.” She neighed at him, and he swore he could almost hear the laughter. “No, I’m not killing myself, and why would you laugh at that?”

  He wrapped up with a treat for his equine companion, then went off to his shower, shave, and breakfast with the trio of weirdos. Adya was quiet as ever, though every so often she would slip in a word here and there. Cass took that as progress and tried to encourage her with small talk when the others were quiet.

  Pellin, meanwhile, had been increasingly frazzled as he mumbled to himself in the spare moments of the morning. “Have to convert the energy over, otherwise it’ll run into framing errors…System won’t like that…will need to create an adaptive loop.”

  Orla, however, spent long periods of talking about money and her travails, then would bite into an apple as if it were made of granite.

  Crunch.

  Before they split up for the day, Cass handed Adya a new Quest, pausing for a moment as she looked like she was about to say something. There was a long pause where she just stared at his face, and he chose to be patient. But, when she didn’t say anything and walked away in a strange hurry, Cass watched her go with a confused look on his face.

  Then, someone slipped three metal discs into his hand.

  “Your split.” Orla said with a barely contained sneer. “I'd better get the second contract, or we may go belly-up. We’re not being frozen out in the Stream, but we’re close to it. We need some income, or we can’t take on any more crafters, and we’ll become stagnant.”

  She put her hands on both of his shoulders, an unusual amount of seriousness to her expression. “Cass, we can’t be stagnant, it’ll kill us right out of the gate. So please, tell me that you’re getting ready to dive into a big project in the Depot that’ll need lots of small parts to get going.”

  “About that…”

  Orla wasn’t happy that Cass had chosen to clean up an alley rather than do something like his last job. But when he promised it would be fast, she relented, stepping away with a determined walk that seemed to encompass the entirety of her being.

  As it was Saturday and their first attempt at Pathfinder testing wouldn’t occur for another day, the group then headed out to the alley they’d spotted the day prior.

  When they got there, instead of finding impure refuse and disgusting nooks and crannies, they found an overall-wearing Orla with two strapping men working beside her. And in her hands was something he never thought he’d see…a broom.

  “Finally! We’ve already been working at this for an hour.”

  “It’s been ten minutes,” Clarified a man with a handlebar mustache. Pulling off a glove, he reached a hand out to a confused Cass, “Name’s Jeremy. I think you’re the fellow who’s responsible for me gaining a level much faster than expected. Much obliged.”

  Cass reached out and shook the man’s gloved hand, “Hey, Jeremy. Nice to meet…” The man’s name and face finally settled in his mind. “Oh, you’re from Common Solutions?”

  “That’s right, boss,” The other man said as he shoveled what looked like an eclectic mix of animal waste into a bagged bin nearby. “Orla told us we’d have a better chance at making some money if this project were done sooner. We figure, why not head over and help out?”

  Cass flashed them all a smile, “Well, I can’t argue against that. Let me introduce you to everyone.” By the time he was done, his reputation with Common Solutions had gone up by two, and after handing out Quests as promised, everyone settled into the routine of scrapping and bagging animal feces. What was interesting was that there were no cleaning Quests, and delivering one scoop of feces to a trash bag just wouldn’t work.

  Instead, Cass was forced to assign it as an Administrative task, and he could hear Kara’s snort after she read it.

  After that, Cass rolled up his sleeves and dove in with the rest of them. Guild robes weren’t exactly the best outfit to wear, but he was assured they were easy to clean. At least he hoped so.

  Following the cleaning up of one side of the alley, Brendan and a green-faced Kara walked along the edges, spraying a similar cleaner to the one used in the stables. It was an invention from the Guild’s alchemists, and would break down the most minor leftover bits into smaller parts for easy sweeping the following day.

  When asked about what was in the solution, Kara said it was a Guild secret, but told him as she’d told Brendan, “DO NOT get this stuff on your skin.”

  Cass took her word for it as he, like everyone else, ignored Orla’s complaining in the background the entire time. Moving to the other side of the alley, he attacked it with a singular mindset, his improved physique coming in handy as some of the compiled refuse was quite heavy.

  As he worked, a small smile found its way to his face. This was work worth doing. This was something that mattered, even if it was small.

  After they’d finished the other end, Kara had everyone move out of the area as she and Brendan sprayed the final portions down. The only sounds that could be heard when they finished was a slight bubbling as the solution wore down what had to be years of piled-up filth.

  Having thought ahead, Kara pulled out two signs attached to small sticks and planted them at both ends of the alley.

  Warning: Dangerous for the day. Return to this alley next week.

  Cass thanked her as he hadn’t considered that, then said he’d try to check on it during his Free Day, and they were done. They’d also gone far beyond their allotted time limit.

  Hopefully, that wouldn’t have any repercussions.

  Saying goodbye and a hearty thanks to Orla and the Common Solutions fellows who’d shown up, the Guild group headed back. Brendan and Chancey were speaking animatedly, talking about the good they’d done with the day, and even Kara was being kind to them in return.

  Cass smiled as they spoke, their discussion leading to what areas they’d fix up next and who they’d meet. It was nice, this feeling.

  They arrived at the Registry in high spirits and were immediately and unceremoniously thrown out.

  “Get clean, then come back so I can yell at you,” Moore said with two arched eyebrows.

  Cass took it in stride and walked the trio over to the Stables. Stepping up to the cleaner the Guild used on the horses, a chorus of complaints came his way. But when he reminded them that if it was good enough for Bella, it was good enough for them, they shut right up. The water was cold, but after working so hard to clean up what Kara affectionately called Shit Alley, it was a pleasant experience.

  Swapping his robes out for new ones in his room, he promised himself he’d clean them in the evening and left on his way to a good old-fashioned beatdown from Mr. Moore.

  Which is almost what happened. It was a long-winded speech about responsibilities, but as far as Cass could see, nothing had happened in the Registry while they’d been gone. Nothing except four young, low-ranking people asking about Guild Passes. With a promise to come back on the morrow, Moore said he was encouraged by their enthusiasm.

  Cass finished out his time in the Annex studying, then wrapped up his evening with a heavy dinner, a smile to remember the day, a light workout for some quick tokens and experience, then he was out.

  Tomorrow was testing.

  Symphony book 2- Displacement, is now available for pre-order:

  What the series holds:

  Worldbuilding (literal and metaphorical)

  System building (literal, it is a "Creator" competition)

  Creature design

  Old gods

  Pretty dang funny

  Squirrels...lots of squirrels

  This is a Sci-fi LitRPG that melds into Fantasy the longer it runs.

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