You have been offered a quest: A Final Peace

Someone or something has been desecrating the corpses of once honorable dwarven warriors. Find this being and put a stop to it.

Objectives:

- Defeat whoever or whatever is creating the zombified dwarves (0/1)

- Assist fallen dwarves in beginning their journey to the afterlife (1/37)

Rewards:

- 200,000 EXP

- One (1) Epic Ranked Dwarf-Forged Item (Random)

- ???

Failure Conditions:

- Death

- Complete destruction of the body of a fallen dwarf

Penalties for Failure:

- Lose one level

Would you like to accept the quest: A Final Peace (Yes/No)

You have been offered your first Quest!

You have unlocked the Quests tab of your status screen!

Quests will be generated by the System based on your actions, goals, and circumstances.

Tip: You may only have three active quests at a time

Octavius blinked owlishly as he read the messages in confusion. Even with the game-like nature of the system, he had dismissed the notion of quests after none had appeared during his entire time within the tutorial. Now it seemed as though such an assumption was incorrect.

Maybe they just weren't available in the tutorial? Or maybe it has something to do with the World Dungeon, he wondered, Or perhaps they're just rather uncommon to get. At least it's optional.

As he read the objectives, rewards, and penalty, he puzzled over whether he should accept the quest or not. At the moment, his main objective was simply getting back to Earth. Towards that goal, he was trying to find any thralls that had been pulled back through the portal as he destroyed it.

200,000 experience points will get me to level 25, he realized, then I'll be able to upgrade my class and will hopefully see a large boost in my combat strength.

With that in mind, the quest was beginning to look rather tempting. The one thing that he didn't like, however, was that it didn't clearly define the failure conditions. What counted as failing? What counted as the complete destruction of a body?

Beyond that, he didn't like the idea of facing thirty-five more zombified dwarves. If they caught him somewhere where he couldn't take his time, he'd be in serious trouble.

After a moment, he decided that he should think on it for a while before making the decision. He still had only just entered the World Dungeon. For all he knew, whatever was creating the zombies was level 100 and would crush him without a thought. He dismissed the two windows with a wave and stood back up.

A pensive frown made its way onto his face as only the message informing him of unlocking the quest system disappeared. The (Yes/No) of the quest prompt remained directly in front of his eyes. I guess that I need to pick now, he realized.

Leaning against the wall of the hallway, he thought it through. He most certainly needed more strength, and this quest seemed like a great way to gain it. Even if he didn't end up completing the quest, dispatching even just twenty-five zombified dwarves for seven thousand experience points each would make up for the lost level, not to mention any loot and skill levels that he gained.

With a determined set to his jaw, he mentally pressed the (Yes) button at the bottom of the window.

You have accepted the quest: A Final Peace; it has been added to your quests tab of your status page.

Dismissing the window, he pulled up his status page.

Name

Octavius J. Asher

Race

Human (F)

Level

23 - 119141/145000

Class

Spearman

Titles

Forerunner, Titanslayer I, Skill Forger

Health

662/700

Stamina

732/760

Mana

508/700

Strength

48

Dexterity

50

Agility

45

Constitution

38

Vitality

35

Perception

32

Intelligence

35

Wisdom

30

Will

45

Free Points

0

Status Effects

None

Skills

Identify (Lvl 15)

Speech (MAX)

Instant Thrust (Lvl 5)

Whirlwind (Lvl 3)

Spear Fighting Affinity (Lvl 6)

Mana Manipulation (Lvl 2)

- Shadow Manipulation (Lvl 2)

- Harden Shadow (Lvl 4)

Quests

A Final Peace - Someone or something has been desecrating the corpses of once honorable dwarven warriors. Find this being and put a stop to it.

Eying his mana, he decided that he would look for somewhere relatively defensible to rest for an hour before continuing his exploration and starting his new quest. With that in mind, he mentally clicked on the 'A Final Piece' quest.

You have been offered a quest: A Final Peace

Someone or something has been desecrating the corpses of once honorable dwarven warriors. Find this being and put a stop to it.

Objectives:

- Defeat whoever or whatever is creating the zombified dwarves (0/1)

- Assist fallen dwarves in beginning their journey to the afterlife (1/37)

Rewards:

- 200,000 EXP

- One (1) Epic Ranked Dwarf-Forged Item (Random)

- ???

Failure Conditions:

- Death

- Complete destruction of the body of a fallen dwarf

Penalties for Failure:

- Lose one level

Ok, so no new information there, he saw, I guess that I may as well get a move on.

Letting his shadow sense guide him, he walked over to the other fallen dwarf. Crouching down, he repeated the ritual of placing his spear in its limp hand. As soon as the subsequent light show came to an end, he checked the quest's status. He nodded in satisfaction when he saw that his progress had been updated from (1/37) to (2/37).

He bit his lip as he considered his next course of action and quickly decided to search the bodies and the battle site for loot. With a thought, he shrunk the area of his shadow sense until it only stretched a handful of feet around him. With it so small, his natural mana regeneration was able to keep up with his consumption. Even if his mana pool wasn't refilling, it was also no longer emptying.

Starting from the first corpse of a zombified thrall, he scanned it for anything of use. Unfortunately, he found nothing on it except a few ruined blades and scabbards that had long ago fallen into an irreparable condition.

Moving down the line, he saw that the various bits of armor and weaponry were all in poor enough condition that they weren't worth even considering keeping. With slightly diminished hopes, he continued his search with the dwarvish corpses. A frown made its way onto his face as he studied their armor.

Even in its poor condition, it would most definitely still offer a great deal of protection but was the wrong size for him and looked extremely heavy. He also searched for any belt pouches on them but found nothing. The only thing that was still in decent enough condition and that could be useful to him was the massive tower shield.

Old Dwarvish Tower Shield (Uncommon) - A well-crafted and mass-produced shield made for dwarvish formation combat. Despite its age and disrepair, its solid metal construct still offers more than adequate protection.

With a sigh, he dismissed the message. A massive metal tower shield would be more of a hindrance than a help to him, considering his combat style. With one last once over, he continued down the hallway past the ancient battle site. As he moved, he stretched his shadow sense to a full twenty feet again and held his spear in a low ready position.

As he walked through the plain stone hallway, he wondered what the hallway was a part of. The way that the corpses had been arranged when he found them, it appeared that the two dwarves had given up their lives blocking a larger force of thralls from passing. He already knew that the thralls used to have some type of empire and that they'd fought with the dwarves. Maybe that was a remnant of that conflict, he theorized, That would imply that these tunnels were once part of the thrall's imperial holdings. Maybe a transportation network of some sort.

He frowned as he came up with the theory. It fit with all the facts that he knew, but something seemed off about it. His intuition told him that he was missing something major about the history of the thralls, dwarves, and ulindre. It was clear to him that both the ulindre and the dwarves hadn't evolved on Cadila. Unlike the thralls, their biology was entirely different from the native fauna that he'd found.

As he walked down the now perfectly plain hallway, he considered how he was going to complete the quest. When he had used his mana manipulation skill on the zombified thralls, he had noticed a thin filament of the muddy-green mana stretch off down the hallway and slightly to the right. When he then killed the zombified thralls, it had vanished down the corridor.

I guess that heading toward the source of those lines of mana is going to be my best bet, he decided, Hopefully, they weren't able to sense when I killed the zombies.

As he realized the possibility, a frown made its way onto his face. Such a thing would greatly increase the difficulty of his quest. He knew that his best chance against a large number of zombies was to pick them off one by one. If whatever was creating the zombies knew that they were being picked off, it would gather them into groups if it had any level of intelligence.

Well, there's nothing that I can do about it now, he thought, All I can do is be prepared for anything.

As he walked silently down the hallway, it began to slope downward at a slight angle. Octavius took note of it but otherwise paid it little mind. The tunnels were bound to have changes in elevation at some point along their lengths.

Soon, he had walked for just about three miles from the site of the ancient battle. The tunnel suddenly leveled out once more, putting him on edge. After another handful of steps, a foot entered the range of his shadow sense. He instantly froze before eying his mana bar.

After confirming that he still had a good amount of mana, he expanded his shadow sense in front of him down the hallway. The body of the thrall that the foot belonged to was quickly revealed along with a dozen of its friends. Taking a few steps forward, the tower shield of a dwarf was revealed to him.

Before, it had only taken a touch to awaken the zombies. Now that he knew what they were, he wasn't going to waste his chance to dispatch them quickly. Breathing in slow, quiet breaths, he crept up to the first corpse.

As he moved farther down the hallway, the boundary of his shadow sense moved with him. The moment that he closed within five feet of the first corpse, he sensed the walls of the hallway turn outward thirty feet from him.

At the entryway to whatever room or cavern laid beyond the hallway were four heavily armored dwarvish corpses. He clenched his jaw as he studied their fallen bodies. There was no way that he'd be able to dispatch them without waking them up.

Taking a few more steps, his shadow sense expanded five feet into the room and found nothing except the helm of one of the dwarves that had rolled off its head when it fell. Slowly, he canceled his shadow sense spell and instead activated mana manipulation.

Looking down at the corpse of the thrall at his feet, he saw the thin filament stretching from its navel into the room at the end of the hall. Whereas the awakened zombies had all had a small core of muddy-green mana at the end of the filament, the unawakened zombie had a much smaller core that was only the size of a nickel. Even with its smaller size, however, it seemed to regularly pulse with energy as if it were some type of magical heart.

As Octavius angled his spear over the dead thrall's abdomen, he thanked whoever was responsible for the thrall's lack of armor. While they were all alive, their exoskeletons would've acted as an incredibly versatile set of armor. After their death, however, it would offer little resistance to his spear.

Concentrating, he funneled mana into his spear and carefully thrust it into the nickel-sized mana core. The thrall seemed to twitch once before going perfectly still.

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 35) and gained 3281 EXP (1/4)(35)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

It's pretty much just free XP, he realized with a grin. As he approached the next unawakened zombie, he wondered how they could physically stand up. After all, it was their exoskeleton material that supported their body weight. Without it being hardened, he didn't understand how they could so much as take a step.

Dismissing the idle thought, he quickly and efficiently dispatched the next zombified thrall.

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 33) and gained 3093 EXP (1/4)(33)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

Moving down the hallway, he dispatched seven more of them with fluid motions.

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 34) and gained 3188 EXP (1/4)(34)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 34) and gained 3188 EXP (1/4)(34)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 33) and gained 3093 EXP (1/4)(33)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

...

You have killed Common Zombified Thrall Legionnaire (Lvl 34) and gained 3188 EXP (1/4)(34)(1)(3)(1.25)(100)(1.00)

As he killed the ninth zombie without any difficulty, a new message appeared.

You gained a level!

You are now Lvl 24, 2833/150000 EXP to Lvl 25

+5 Free Stat Points

Although he'd been expecting to level up, the message still caught him by surprise as he withdrew his spear from the body of the thrall. What was originally a smooth movement became jerky in an instant. The sudden movement caused the thrall's corpse to move slightly and bump into the next thrall in line.

Suddenly, the seven small pulsing cores of mana in his senses tripled in size and started to output a steady glow that was only visible to his mana manipulation skill. A soft curse escaped him as he quickly took two steps backward to put space between himself and the zombified thrall that was stumbling to its feet.

Acting quickly, he canceled his mana manipulation skill and started using shadow sense once more. Now that the magical cores weren't a target the size of a nickel, it would be far more useful for him to be able to sense all of their movements.

As the zombie took its first step toward him, his spear flashed forward and ended its life. As it fell to the ground, he dismissed the message informing him of the experience that he gained. Stepping over its body, he dispatched the final two zombified thralls with well-placed strikes.

As soon as his easier to deal with opponents were slain, he quickly approached the dwarves. In their armor, they struggled to stand, and he wanted to take advantage of their current disarray.

The moment that they were all standing in a line and facing him, his task would suddenly become much more difficult. His shoulder still ached from the deep bruise that the other zombified dwarf had given him over half an hour before. Even though he healed significantly faster than a base human, he didn't have any health potions. If he received a debilitating injury like any of those that he received within the tutorial, he'd be as good as dead.

As he closed on the struggling zombies, he engulfed them with his shadow sense. His focus immediately snapped to the nearest one as it used the wall to pull itself to its feet. He grit his teeth as he watched it begin to shamble toward him.

His mana bar was already far from full. If he dealt with these four the same way as he had with the others, he'd barely have enough mana left over to cast shadow sense before gaining the mana exhaustion status effect. His fingers clenched and unclenched around his spear's haft as his mind raced from idea to idea. He had to think of something, or he'd be forced to sprint back up the hallway and kite them along as he regenerated mana without his shadow sense as a guide.