Chapter 199: A Normal Quest

Two days after the first supervised return to Powerforge, Luke stood in the pale-stone courtyard again. Shaw had approved the second dive only after repeated scans showed no delayed change around the damaged pathway and no renewed cold in Luke’s wrist.

This time, the Bureau gave them ninety minutes and allowed ordinary low-risk gameplay beyond the arrival district. Luke could travel, accept basic quests, and take part in ordinary low-risk combat when a quest required it, but Reinforce, Arcane Thrust, and Quickstep remained off-limits. Lauren could use Oracle’s Glimpse in brief bursts, provided she ended the attempt as soon as any strain appeared.

Luke curled and straightened the fingers of his right hand once. They all responded normally, so he lowered the hand and turned toward the city beyond the courtyard. He did not check them again.

Lauren appeared beside him a moment later in her Oracle equipment. Violet lines glowed faintly across the blindfold over her eyes, and her long black hair settled down her back as the arrival light faded. Luke gave the outfit one openly appreciative look before facing the archway. Lauren noticed and answered with a small smile, but she spared him the commentary.

"Quest board?" Luke asked.

"Before you find something expensive to buy."

Luke adjusted the spear across his shoulder. "You make me sound irresponsible."

"I’m giving you a chance to prove otherwise."

They left through a wide archway and entered the city properly for the first time. Pale stone buildings climbed the gentle slope ahead, their upper floors connected by narrow bridges draped in ivy. Blue lanterns floated above shop signs while players moved through the streets alongside armored guards, merchants, and local residents carrying baskets or pushing handcarts.

A blacksmith argued with a customer over the price of a shield near an open forge. Children chased one another around a fountain farther up the street, and several players crowded outside a bakery while comparing equipment. Luke slowed when they passed the first weapon shop, where one long spear with a dark shaft and broad leaf-shaped blade sat near the front of the display.

Lauren made it several steps farther before realizing he had stopped. She waited until Luke caught up.

"It had a leaf-shaped blade," he said.

"It also had a price."

"Hard to miss."

Lauren’s smile made it clear that she considered the matter settled, and Luke looked back once before following her toward the central square. The quest board stood beneath a tiled shelter near the fountain, with notices covering most of its wooden surface and players constantly moving around it.

A warrior complained that someone had taken a wolf hunt while he was still reading the reward. Nearby, two robed players argued over whether gathering mushrooms counted as adventuring, while a woman in bright silver armor tried to convince her party that escorting a merchant’s goats would be easy money.

Several requests were obviously beyond what Shaw had approved. One involved clearing a Bone Nest from an abandoned mine, while another warned that a giant had been seen north of the city. Luke passed both until a smaller notice near the bottom caught his attention.

[Courier Recovery]

[A medical courier was attacked on the western road and forced to abandon a satchel containing prepared medicine.]

[The courier returned safely. Recover the satchel before the remaining medicine is damaged or stolen.]

[Last known location: beyond the second western bridge, near a broken roadside marker.]

Luke accepted the request before reading any farther. Lauren leaned closer as the notice faded from the board.

"You skipped the reward."

"I’ll check it after we bring the medicine back." Luke had barely finished speaking when the system accepted his choice.

[Quest accepted: Courier Recovery.]

They left through the western gate and followed the road into low green hills. Knee-high grass moved beneath the wind on either side of the packed dirt, white flowers clustered around weathered stones, and dense pine forest covered the slopes farther away.

Luke breathed more deeply without thinking. The air smelled of pine, damp soil, flowers, and distant wood smoke from the city. Out here, nobody was asking him to test his fingers or explain what he felt inside his wrist.

Other players passed them during the first ten minutes. Two archers returned toward the city carrying the antlers of something much larger than a deer, while a heavily armored party headed west with bedrolls and supply packs strapped across their backs.

Luke watched the party long enough for Lauren to touch his left elbow. "You’re already wondering where they’re going."

"I was curious."

"We have somewhere to be too."

That was enough to pull his attention back to the road. The second bridge crossed a narrow stream running between rocky banks, and beyond it they found the broken marker mentioned in the notice.

Wheel ruts cut sharply off the road. One dug deep enough to expose wet soil beneath the grass before both tracks stopped near a cluster of bushes. A shattered glass vial glittered beside a stone, while a strip of torn brown leather hung from a thorn branch farther ahead.

Lauren crouched beside the leather. "This came from the satchel."

Luke studied the crushed grass continuing toward a shallow ravine. Trees grew close together below, and the slope was steep enough that a panicked cart could easily have overturned there.

Violet light brightened across Lauren’s blindfold. Luke waited without reminding her to keep the glimpse short, and after several seconds the light faded without any sign of pain.

"Something large is near the ravine," she said. "I saw it charge you twice."

"Could you make out what it was?"

"Not clearly. Broad body, low head, something hard across the front."

Luke brought the spear into both hands. "Did you see anything we can use?"

"In one future, you try to stop it head-on."

"How does that end?"

"You leave the ground."

Luke looked toward the ravine. "That’s useful."

They followed the trail beneath the trees, where roots and loose stones made the footing less forgiving than the road. Luke carried the spear in a compact guard and let his stance adjust to the slope instead of trying to move as though he were still on a training floor.

A scraping sound came from the bottom of the ravine, and something stepped from behind a fallen pine. It resembled an enormous boar, but slabs of gray stone covered its forehead, shoulders, and upper back. Two blunt tusks curved from either side of its jaw, while blood darkened the fur around one rear leg.

The missing satchel lay behind it, caught beneath the exposed roots of the fallen tree. The boar pawed at the soil when Luke shifted closer, but it did not charge.

"I think we found the courier’s problem," Luke said.

Lauren remained several steps behind him. "It moves when you cross that bare patch."

A strip of exposed dirt separated them from the fallen pine. Luke lowered the spear point and took one careful step toward it.

Truth Behind Motion sharpened the animal’s movement. Its front legs braced and its neck lowered, but the intent disappeared the moment Luke stopped advancing.

He stepped back, and the boar eased out of the charge without leaving the tree. Lauren angled her blindfold toward the satchel.

"It’s guarding that area."

Luke noticed broken branches wedged beneath the stone plates along its side and the uneven way it kept weight off the injured rear leg. Whatever had happened during the courier’s escape had hurt the animal too.

"If it wanted us, it would’ve come already."

"That’s how it looked in the glimpse."

Luke studied the ravine instead of the monster. A thick pine stood several yards to his left, close enough to give him something solid to put between himself and a charge, while the slope behind the fallen tree gave Lauren a path to the satchel if the boar moved far enough away.

He pointed toward the pine. "I’m going to pull it left. When it follows me, get the bag."

Lauren’s mouth curved slightly. "You say that as though the large angry animal has agreed."

"We’ll ask it."

Luke moved sideways until the pine stood almost between him and the boar. He struck the spear shaft against the trunk, and the animal flinched toward the sound before settling again.

A second, harder strike drew a short rush. The boar stopped before moving far from the fallen tree, which told Luke exactly how reluctant it was to abandon whatever it considered its ground.

Lauren opened Oracle’s Glimpse again. The violet light lasted only a few seconds this time.

"Come closer from the left," she said. "If you reach the edge of the bare ground, it commits."

"Does it keep following?"

"For a little while."

Luke started toward the position she indicated, but Lauren caught his sleeve before he went far. He stopped and turned back toward her.

"One of the futures ended with it catching you."

"Then I’ll stay out of that one."

Lauren pressed her lips together, clearly fighting a smile. Luke reached the edge of the bare patch, shifted his weight forward, and the boar charged.

Luke moved behind the pine instead of meeting it. One tusk tore a strip of bark from the trunk as the animal thundered past, then its front feet dug into the dirt while it fought its own momentum.

Through Truth Behind Motion, Luke caught the turn before the boar completed it. Luke circled the opposite side of the pine, keeping the trunk between them and forcing the animal to continue rotating if it wanted to face him.

"Go," he called.

Lauren was already moving. She crossed the bare ground and reached the fallen tree while the boar tracked Luke around the pine. Her hand closed around the torn strap, but a root had grown through the broken leather and pinned it in place.

Lauren pulled harder, and the movement made the boar’s attention snap toward her. The animal started to turn away from Luke.

He stepped out from behind the pine and struck the stone plate over its shoulder with the side of the spear shaft. The impact barely moved the animal, but it immediately faced him again.

The second charge came with less warning. Luke retreated along the ravine instead of trying to hurt it, keeping the spear between them while the uneven ground forced him to shorten his steps.

The boar closed faster than he expected. Luke angled the shaft across its head and pushed just enough to keep one tusk away from his ribs, but the impact twisted the weapon sharply in his hands and drove him two steps sideways.

His first instinct was to wrench the spear back. Mercer had punished that reaction too many times for Luke to follow it now, so he let the shaft travel with the force, turned with the impact, and rebuilt his grip from a stable stance as the boar rushed past.

"Almost!" Lauren called.

Luke reset before the animal finished turning. The boar charged a third time, and Truth Behind Motion exposed its commitment to Luke’s right side before the charge could adjust. He moved left, let the animal pass, and used the middle of the spear shaft against its shoulder to keep it from correcting toward him.

Loose stone shifted beneath Luke’s rear foot. His balance broke for half a second, and the spearhead dropped toward the dirt before he managed to recover. By the time he reset, the boar was already turning again.

Lauren ran toward him with the satchel over one shoulder. "Got it."

Luke backed toward the slope without taking his eyes off the animal. Lauren stayed beside his left side as they climbed toward the road, and the boar followed only as far as the edge of the ravine before stopping.

Luke lowered the spear slowly while the animal watched them from beneath the trees. After several seconds, it turned and limped back toward the fallen pine.

"It really was guarding the tree," Lauren said.

Luke watched the injured rear leg disappear behind the roots. "It was hurt already. No reason to make that worse."

They returned to the broken marker before checking the satchel. Two bottles had shattered inside the padding, but eight sealed vials remained intact along with three wrapped packets and a small box of tablets.

Lauren held the bag open while Luke compared the contents with the list attached to the quest. Everything important had survived, so they started back toward the city at a quicker pace.

The western gate came into view with plenty of time remaining on the session clock. Luke’s arms still tingled from the boar’s impact against the spear, but his right wrist felt no different from the rest of his game body.

The apothecary who had posted the request worked from a narrow shop just inside the walls. Shelves packed with bottles covered every wall, dried herbs hung in bundles from the ceiling, and something bitter simmered in a copper pot behind the counter.

The elderly woman took the satchel from Lauren and opened it immediately. When she found the sealed vials, her shoulders dropped.

"Good," she whispered. "There was enough."

She gathered the surviving medicine against her chest and called toward the back room that the fever draughts had arrived. A tired voice answered from behind a curtain, and Luke’s attention shifted toward it just as the quest notification appeared.

[Quest Complete: Courier Recovery.]

[Reward received.]

Luke glanced at the reward, dismissed the window, and stepped aside so the apothecary could hurry into the back room. Lauren waited until they were outside before slipping her hand into his left one.

"You still haven’t checked what we earned."

"It can wait."

Lauren squeezed his hand once, and they started back toward the square together. By the time they reached the central square, more than half an hour remained, and several new notices occupied the quest board.

[Roadside Survey]

[Inspect the damaged waystone along the old eastern road and report whether the route remains safe for travelers.]

[Location: eastern road, beyond the abandoned orchard.]

The notice only asked them to inspect a damaged waystone and report whether the old road remained safe. Lauren reached past Luke and accepted it before he moved on to the next posting.

[Quest accepted: Roadside Survey.]

Beyond the eastern gate, the old road disappeared between the hills beneath the afternoon light. Luke adjusted the spear across his shoulder, and they headed toward it together.