After awakening and cursing yesterday’s Cass for not cleaning the robes, he completed the grisly task with a grimace. After finishing up and setting them out to dry, he was about to leave when he found an envelope had been slid underneath the crack in his door. Opening it, five large silver coins fell out.

  “Fifty Crests…just like Moore said.”

  Cass placed them with their smaller brothers and sisters in his bag, then shouldered it and started his day down at the stables. An excited Bella put him through his paces in the Riding Arena, her bucking seeming to be almost predatory in a fashion. When he told her, while still healing and catching his breath, that they’d be doing it twice, she practically bounced across the area.

  “Why do you enjoy hurting me so much?” Cass mournfully asked her, receiving a powerful eyeroll in return. Though his core was on fire and his butt felt like it had been furiously paddled, and not in the fun way, Cass repeated the exercise with hesitant sadness.

  How do people manage to put themselves through this? Are all riders masochists?

  When he finally rolled off of her, only falling a dozen times across both of the timers, Bella snorted in satisfaction. He barely heard as he checked his notifications.

  [Stalwart Way Daily Quest Complete]

  Rewards: 5.1xp, 2 Stalwart Tokens, 1 Survivor Token

  [Stalwart Way Daily Quest Complete]

  Rewards: 5.1xp, 2 Stalwart Tokens, 1 Survivor Token

  Pain is in the Proof activating…

  +1 Survivor Token

  He spent a moment catching his breath, then mumbled to himself, “That puts me at…ugh… twelve Stalwart and thirty Survivor…Survivor Tokens.” Bella pranced across the area as he involuntarily heaved once, his sickness splashing across the ground and pushing the horse away by smell alone. “I’ll… be there… before you know it.” He couldn’t stop himself as he vomited right there a second time, the dual burn of healing and acid keeping him from speaking again.

  When the horse began to neigh loudly in the background, Cass took that to mean that Bella took his discomfort as some kind of victory.

  Stupid, spirited horse and her joy at my pain. He wasn’t really mad at her, but it was nice to vent at the draft-horse mentally, nonetheless.

  After limping her over to the same cleaning station he’d used on himself the previous day, Cass put her through a complete scrubbing, making sure her tail got extra attention. Giving her a treat and promising Gary would be by with another later, Cass wasn’t surprised when another notification dropped in.

  Your reputation with the draft-horse, Bella, has increased by 22

  He paused at the edge of the barn, “Did I get two extra reputation because I got her to laugh?”

  Shaking his head at how ludicrous his world had become, he shifted the bag on his back and made his way to the Foundry. Following an excruciating climb of the stairs as his muscles protested any kind of added pressure, Cass made it over to Nathan for his weekly payment.

  Reaching into his bag, he produced not two, but four of the larger Crests, sliding them across the man’s axe-burdened table.

  “Twenty for last week, and twenty for this one.”

  Nathan’s smile told him he’d made the right choice in paying early, as did a small notification.

  Your reputation with the Liora Guildhall has increased by 1

  After shaking hands with a promise of returning next week, Cass made the long climb down as he considered Reputation yet again. There was no reason that his Guildhall reputation had increased right then and there. It didn’t affect the Guildhall as a whole, only a single Crafter within it, but that got him thinking as he made his way to the Rings.

  What if Nathan decided right there to tell people that I pay my debts? Or, more importantly, what if he decided to tell others that I’m trustworthy? Kara said before that the System rewards trust, so, is that how my Reputation keeps increasing so quickly?

  It was a working theory, and that was all it was at the moment. But he had to admit it felt right.

  His increases with Bella had always come along when he completed something he’d promised to her. In fact, the only Reputation loss he’d ever suffered with the Draft-horse had come about when she’d been upset with him. The large gain in reputation he’d had with her today was system-influenced, but those two points that came after almost seemed added on. Like she’d decided to trust him more…or just because she was laughing. He didn’t know.

  By the time he got to the Rings for his weekly training, Cass observed three things. One, he still only had working theories about Reputation. Two, the burn in his muscles had finally started to drift away. And three, he discovered a sweating Adya already battling against the simulated Driftclaw. The greased-up monster roamed across the ring with near impunity as she spun and leaped to dodge it. Her grace was impressive as always. He stood there and watched her for a long time as her movements seared themselves into his brain.

  When the dome began to drop, Cass politely waited a few moments for her to catch her breath before asking, “Why aren’t you attacking?”

  “Hey,” She said, wiping a small glisten off her forehead. “I’m training in acrobatics. Since the simulation feels like life and death, it’s better for me.”

  “Oh,” Cass scratched his head, “Do you think I should do that?”

  “It can only help you, Cassio.” She said with a smirk dusting her face.

  Cass shook his head at the final appearance of humor in the woman, then grabbed his buckler, pulled out his axe, and stepped into the second ring.

  Feeling good about things, he set it at one Skreel with high intensity. Onward it came, and after the initial brace, he decided to try moving as Adya had.

  That, it turned out, was a mistake.

  Pushing off the ground, he tried to leap like her. And while he certainly gained a strong push off the floor, as noted by his sailing past the creature, his grace left much to be desired as he landed in a heap, rolling across the ground to the clash of metal.

  The dome disappeared as the monster dove immediately onto his person.

  “Hah…hahaha…” He heard just outside the ring. When he looked over, his buckler’s edge holding his head, he found the Scout trying very hard to keep from laughing. “You looked like a log tossed into rough waters. Bobbing up and down.” A final, “hah,” escaped her lips before she shook her head. “Maybe…not so much on the dodging. You need to play to your strengths, not mine. I’m dodging because I don’t have the strength to hit it hard enough. I have to time my attacks. What’s your strength?”

  My strength…

  Cass didn’t say anything as he lay there thinking for a moment. Getting up, he re-activated with the same intensity, and as the creature started to come in, angled his hand correctly, swung back his axe, and threw it forward. Right as it screeched, the axe buried itself in its skull.

  The monster disappeared as his axe fell to the ground with a clang.

  When he looked over at Adya, she nodded with a big smile on her face, the first he’d seen. “Very nice. You are, as always, surprising, Cassio Vale.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  As she turned around to continue working on dodging, Cass stepped over and picked up his weapon, then went back to the post. If dodging wasn’t his thing, then he’d have to overwhelm his opponents in unique ways. Like he’d said to himself in the past, he wasn’t truly a warrior.

  The next Skreel came in, and he missed his throw. While the axe bounced off the dome and settled not far away, Cass didn’t reach for it again. Instead, he used that time to develop his shieldwork. Moving the buckler in front of himself, he worked on learning how to use his strength to push his opponents off-center and out of balance.

  When the dome finally came down, it was five minutes after its initial activation. The second time was seven, then eight, then twelve. Never once did he pick up the axe.

  He was running out of time, as testing was due to begin soon, so he decided to give it his all in one final bout. Picking up his axe and walking to the post, he thought about how Skreels moved and what their likely trajectories of attack had been.

  Forming a plan in his mind, he touched the post, activating two high-intensity Skreels at once. They came sprinting, and Cass met them in the middle. Taking one long, stretched-out step, he kicked off with his back foot and punched into the first Skreel with his buckler leading the way.

  The angular monster flew back into the edge of the dome, falling to its back as Cass was already turning to the other one. When he began to feel pressure after angling his shield to meet its long-nailed hands, he tilted the shield down from the top rim. That opened him up to its bite, but as it extended its oddly boned neck, it instead felt the bite of his axe burying itself in its skull.

  While the Skreel started to disappear, freeing his weapon early, Cass leaped back. The moment he’d knocked the other monster away, he’d begun a mental count in his mind for how long it would take the creature to reach him after the initial setback. And he’d been right. Four long nails were touching only air as the monster missed him entirely. With a decisive and powerful step forward, Cass bounded, buckler held in front of him.

  Shield ramming the monster and putting it off balance, Cass took a step right as he slashed the axe across. Its ever-sharp blade cut through the monster's arm with light resistance as the disconnected appendage fell to the ground and disappeared.

  Following up on his short-thought plan, he spun back, buckler held out to bat away the remaining appendages' attack, then charged again. As the off-balance monster tried to regain its footing, it instead had an axe struck deeply into its chest, ending the simulation.

  A few clapping sounds echoed across the area as Adya looked at him with raised eyebrows.

  “You’re much stronger than you seem. I’d struggle pushing them around that way.”

  Cass caught his breath as sweat dripped into his robe, “I’ve been working out.”

  She left one eyebrow raised while looking him up and down. He didn’t know how to take that.

  “So, what’re you going to do with the rest of the day?” He asked with more than a bit of awkwardness.

  “I planned on being here. Why do you ask?”

  Cass stepped out of the ring, “Well, we’re doing some testing today to get people signed off on new types of Guild passes. I was wondering if you’d like to be a part of it?” He couldn’t see her as he placed the buckler back on the rack. “It should be…an okay process, as I think we worked out most of the kinks.” Turning around, he found the Scout very near to him.

  Bouncing on her toes, she looked him dead in the eyes, “Is this what you were telling us about last week? You’re starting the new Guild passes?”

  Cass went to scratch the back of his head, but had forgotten the axe was still in his hand. Putting his arm back down, he nodded, “Yep. I think it’ll do a lot of good for the city.”

  Adya paused, her eyes searching his for a long moment, then nodded, “Lead the way.”

  Together, they walked over, retrieved his bag, and arrived at the Registry with a few minutes to spare. Moore gave him a look that implied, "Why are you almost late?" without saying a word as Cass went to the Annex and set his bag down.

  Sitting in the chair with Adya standing near his shoulder, he pulled up the outlines and prepped the single template they’d decided to begin with for bronze passes.

  Stiffly, he created ten Transit Tests, losing fifty experience in the process. Curious, he pulled up his experience screen and discovered the loss was from his floating experience and not his accrued. For some reason, it would’ve felt like a small betrayal if the System had decided to deduct from the total amount of experience he’d worked for.

  As for why he’d only created Transit Tests, it’s what they’d agreed upon as a group for the new starter Guild Passes. When each person upgraded their Guild pass, Moore had suggested that they should change colors to signify an achievement. They ranged from bronze to silver, gold, and finally, platinum, a shiny and attractive silvery-white.

  There were other plans in the works for improved Guild passes as people became more reliable, but for now, this would suffice.

  Tests created, Cass lifted up the small stack of Vellums and, with Adya by his side, brought them over to Moore, who looked at them for a moment before saying they were fine.

  Then, they waited…

  And waited…

  And waited some more…

  After two hours of sitting around and chatting about nothing, with the odd Company party coming in for some rare Questing on a free day, Cass went back to the Annex. Moore already had a list for him, and it was better to work on things now than wait and have more work later.

  He pumped out thirty Quests, made another ten for Common Solutions with a few spares for Adya and Gary, then re-entered the main floor of the Registry.

  And he waited…

  Kara started to work with Brendan on forming the perfect push-up, while Chancey busied herself by biting her nails, a disgusting habit Cass sadly shared with her. Then, finally, two people showed up.

  Into the Registry walked a young man and woman, their clothes dirty, but with bright, shiny looks in their eyes. As they entered, the two seemed to look everywhere at once. As if this were some mythical land they’d suddenly found themselves in.

  Then again, with how the Companies had monopolized the Quests, maybe it was.

  Cass smiled at them as he recognized their faces from their first attempt at Pathfinder.

  “Forest, Belinda, it’s nice to see you here.”

  The young man gave him a grin while Belinda looked away, “Thanks,” He said, putting his hands in his pockets as if he didn’t want to dirty the place. “This is quite a, uh, place you have here.”

  They made a little more small talk before getting to the crux of them being there. With three clerks and a seemingly bored scout watching them, Cass confirmed they were there to be tested for a bronze guild pass, handed them their tests, then it was off to the races.

  Kara sprinted out of the building in a blur to get to her place, while Chancey and Branden went to theirs at a much more sedate pace. The duo picked up their messages from Mr. Moore, who handed them over with an overstatedly grave importance, then they walked out.

  And in walked three more.

  “Is this where we get the passes?’ A large man with a sly twist to his face asked.

  Cass gave him a smile.

  By the end of the day, nine had taken the test, including Adya. And the final step of the pilot program was in full swing.

  Cass stepped over to the Guild Master’s office that day and gave him a rundown of what they’d done in the week. There was no pat on the back, only a reminder that he could add ten new Guild Passes per week, and that they needed to come up with a process for upgrading them, now that they’d been granted to the first group.

  As Cass was about to leave, he remembered a question he needed to ask.

  “Hey, how does Reputation work?”

  “What do you mean?” Guild Master Hollis asked, turning back around as he’d thought their discussion was over.

  “I mean, everyone gets experience, but we seem to get Reputation. I’m just curious if you’d explain how it all works.”

  “Oh, right…” Hollis sat down in a heap. “Hrmm…we’re not the only ones. I know of some powerful Beast Tamers who gain reputation as well, though theirs are much more specialized. As for QuestWrights, you know, I’ve wondered about it a lot as well. I mostly gained Reputation when I performed acts that seemed to align with the group's personality. Merchants like money, craftsmen like expertise. That kind of thing. As for System Reputation, it was always tied up in somehow improving the world. Making it safer or helping people work together. I used to get it for the oddest reasons sometimes.”

  Well, would you look at that, Cass thought with an internal smirk. “What about with horses?”

  “Horses? Can’t say I ever bonded with a horse.” Hollis scratched his chin, “I’ll tell you a secret if you can keep it quiet.”

  “Of course, Guild Master.” Cass said, feeling some excitement enter his veins.

  “When the Reshaping happened, and before I met my wife,” His face seemed to twitch into a deep well of grief before it leaped back to normal. It was terrifying in how fast and practiced the motion was.“I had a dog with me not long after I got my Calling. Stacy. She followed me everywhere, and after a few adventures in survival, I noticed I started to gain Reputation with her.”

  Cass couldn’t stop himself from asking, though, he knew the answer, “What happened?”

  Hollis gave him a wan smile, “She died, saving me, and I never bonded with another animal. Cassio, if you have a Bond, cherish them. It’s a connection that, aside from close family, you’ll never experience again.”

  “I will, sir, thank you.” Not wanting to poke at what was obviously an emotional subject for the man, Cass turned the knob. Just as he was stepping out, the Guild Master couldn’t help saying one last thing.

  “Be careful when you get to two-fifty in Reputation. You’ll be surprised.”

  The door closed behind him as Cass looked back at the smiling man.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  Hollis laughed as Cass walked away to eat his dinner, thoughts of what would happen when his grungy draft-horse hit that specific number.

  Howdy!So, before I dive into the ReaderQuest, here's how the raffle works. For all of you who have been completing Quests, you now have the chance to earn a fancy badge. That's right, there are two badges on my Etsy located here:

  All you have to do is tell me in the comments that you'd like to enter your name for the raffle. Every 5xp you spend from your ReaderQuests enters your name once, and I'll pull only one name for the first ever run-through. I plan on doing this every 3 months or so because it's fun and it doesn't break my bank. So, hopefully you've been knocking out a few Reader Quests, and without further ado, here's a new one that's a slight preview to next week's chapters!

  [Tier 1 Diplomatic Quest]

  Assignment: Offer the Opening

  Every day, someone gets overlooked. Not out of malice, but momentum. The System requests that you interrupt that.

  Step 1:Choose one person from your extended orbit; someone you’ve drifted from, argued with, or simply never connected to deeply.

  Step 2:Send them one brief message. Not a speech. Not an apology. Just an acknowledgment:

  “Hey, I thought of you today.”“Hope you’re good.”“You crossed my mind. That’s all.”

  Step 3:Do not explain. Do not expect a reply. Just open the door.

  Completion Condition:Message sent, just screenshot it.

  Timeframe: 1 weekReward: 5 XP

  Diplomacy begins before the words matter.

  —J.D. Mullenary Sr.The Original QuestWright