Chapter 28: First Quest

Since I had some Points to spare, I exchanged 25 Points for 5 Powerstones.

[Points Remaining: 268]

With that taken care of, I moved on to creating the quest, filling in the remaining fields of the form.

[Quest Creation Form]

- Quest Name: Wood Gathering Quest

- Prerequisite: None

- Quest Info: Collect wood from the surrounding forest to help build and expand the castle.

- Quest Type: Repeatable

- Objective: Gather 100 Units of Wood from the forest, and drop them within the castle territory.

- Reward: 1 Powerstone (F)

When I entered 100 Units of Wood as the objective, the System recommended a reward between 0 and 1 Powerstone.

But when I increased the requirement to 200 Units, the recommendation changed to 0 to 2 Powerstones.

"Wait... a 0 Powerstone reward? Is that even possible?"

That was basically no reward at all. It meant they would be working for me for free.

But after thinking about it for a moment, I understood why the System considered it reasonable.

The goblins now saw me as some kind of powerful being. I had not only saved their lives, but also helped them evolve into stronger forms. Even if I offered them no reward at all, they would probably still be willing to accept my quests.

But...

I wasn’t that heartless of a ruler.

They were my citizens, not slaves!

They deserved fair compensation for their work!

By my calculations, if I sold 100 Units of Wood back to the System, I could get 30 Points in return.

The shop sold 3 Units of Wood for 1 Points, but when buying materials back from me, the System would be taking a 10% transaction fee.

That meant 100 Units of Wood were worth around 33 Points at the shop’s standard rate, minus the 10% fee, leaving me with 30 Points.

And 30 Points was roughly equivalent to 6 Powerstones.

So, paying 1 Powerstone for the labor meant I was giving them roughly 16% of the value I could get from the wood.

That seemed pretty fair to me.

And if they did a particularly good job, I could always consider giving them performance bonuses later.

Not to mention, whatever profit I made would eventually be reinvested into the castle, which would improve their living conditions as well.

It was basically a virtuous cycle!

"Yeah, let’s go with it!"

Once everything was set, I pressed the [Create Quest] button.

[Are you sure you want to create this quest?]

[Warning: Once a quest has been issued, it cannot be modified unless you take it down. Once it has been accepted, it can no longer be modified or canceled!]

I paused to read the warning carefully.

So, basically...

No take-backs.

That meant I needed to be careful. I definitely didn’t want to accidentally add an extra zero and end up paying ten times the intended reward or something ridiculous like that.

At the same time, this rule also meant I couldn’t scam my own citizens by canceling a quest right before they completed it.

Which was actually pretty nice.

"Tch, I’m not that evil, you know!" I muttered toward the System. "Unlike you, you scammy System, I would never scam my own citizens! Haha!"

Finally, I double-checked every detail one more time to make sure everything was correct before pressing [Confirm].

The moment I did, a scroll icon appeared in my vision.

The quest information swirled into it, and a second later, a physical scroll materialized inside my Inventory.

Its description perfectly matched the quest details I had entered.

Now came the next question.

How exactly am I supposed to distribute it?

A new System message immediately answered me.

[To issue the quest, either give it to a citizen or post it on a flat surface.]

[If you give the scroll to a specific citizen, it will be assigned to them only.]

[If you post it on a surface, that surface will become a Quest Board. Anyone who sees the quest can accept it.]

"Alright!"

That sounded simple enough.

I followed the instructions and focused on one of the stone walls.

A sheet of paper suddenly materialized on the surface, displaying the quest details in neat writing.

Then...

DING!

The sound echoed through the room.

This time, it wasn’t just inside my head. It was loud enough for the goblins to hear.

Gopuro and Gopuran immediately perked up, their heads snapping toward the wall.

They scrambled to their feet and hurried over to the notice, staring at it for a solid minute.

"Ooo! Wara wara!" Gopuro exclaimed, his eyes widening with excitement.

Gopuran was no different. The moment she finished reading the quest, her expression brightened with obvious enthusiasm.

The two goblins placed their hands on the paper.

[Ding!]

[Gopuro has accepted your "Wood Gathering Quest" quest!]

[Gopuran has accepted your "Wood Gathering Quest" quest!]

"Nice!"

Excitement surged through me.

"But wait a minute!"

Something suddenly occurred to me.

The quest on the wall was written in English.

How the hell could the goblins understand English?

"Hmmmm... Is this the System’s doing?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"If the System can make the goblins understand English, then it must also have some way for me to understand Goblish, right?"

But since neither goblin had an [English] skill listed on their status screen, I figured it had to be something else.

Perhaps the System used some kind of magical writing that automatically displayed text in a language the reader could understand.

In other words, the quest details appeared in English when I looked at the paper, but when the goblins looked at the exact same sheet, the words might have automatically changed into Goblish?

That would actually make a lot of sense.

Still...

There has to be some way for me to understand these guys!

For some reason, I felt certain of it.

After all, how was I supposed to rule over my citizens if I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying?

Maybe once I upgraded the System Shop further, I would be able to unlock some kind of language skill?

I really hope that’s the case.