The doors to the fortress were still open. I shook my head at that oversight as I went through them, closing and barring them behind me. I took a few moments to replace the stone blocking the doors and then headed down the stairs to the guard room. Brutus and Bala were there, still on guard, and those doors were open as well.

"Did anything come through while I was gone?" I asked.

"No my lord." Brutus said. "Are the doors secured again?"

"They are." I said. "This area doesn't need to be guarded while it is sealed. Thank you for guarding it while I was gone."

Brutus nodded and he and Bala headed down the hallway to the fortress stairs ahead of me. I dropped back a bit and dropped into the main simulation. Chantelle was there and the simulation was zoomed in to a ward that was expanded out so that all of the symbols were visible.

She noticed me arrive and twirled her hand in the air, the ward rotating to a fixed point and then stopping at her gesture. The hand gestures weren't required in any way, as modifying the simulation was as easy as moving her hand was, but it did add an air of mastery to her manipulations.

"Look, here." She said, pointing to a symbol that was near the start of the ward.

There was a flash of energy at the top of the symbol that then progressed down it, erasing as it went. When it reached the bottom the destroying energy went in both directions from the symbol, further into the ward and back to the symbols earlier, destroying as it went. The ward itself was disconnected from the mana source and was floating untethered as the energy destroyed it.

"That first symbol is the one that defines the projection field of the ward." Chantelle said. "The destructive energy somehow travels back from the actual projection field and attacks that symbol first, then flows through the rest of the ward. I can put a triggered splitter symbol that will activate on the destruction of the first symbol, and then the first symbol of the second path can be to cut the thread and isolate the ward."

She was manipulating the ward as she spoke. First she inserted a symbol that was forked like a 'Y', but had another leg that was coming up in the third dimension. The input was at the bottom, that connected to the mana source, and the outputs were the tops of the 'Y'. The fourth looked like it must be the trigger as it was connected to the symbol on the left of the 'Y'.

The rest of the ward was the same, with the projection field symbol duplicated, and a new symbol before it on the right of the 'Y' that was linked to the connection between the left 'Y' and its next symbol and the joining symbol that hooked the symbols back into the rest of the ward.

"And it should work like this." Chantelle said.

The same flash of energy started at the first projection field symbol, but as it got partway down that part of the ward was cut away from the rest of the ward. The energy destroyed it but couldn't get to the rest of the ward.

"There shouldn't even be any flicker to the ward when it switches over." Chantelle said. "Then it is just a matter of stacking in enough isolators so that he thinks his power doesn't work on the new wards."

"Have you actually tested it out there?" I asked, indicating outer simulation.

"Well, no." Chantelle said. "I've written them into both sets of wards, the ones for the fortress and for the claim. The guy would have to break the wards again for it to be tested. Why was he breaking the wards anyway?"

"I didn't ask." I said. "I think he was just using it as a doorbell, though."

Chantelle nodded and then went back to studying the ward.

"I could have it trigger a physical barrier on a variable that would make it expand quickly..." Chantelle said. "It would take a big burst of power, but it would shove him away when he tried to break the wards."

Chantelle reached up her hand to tweak the ward but then stopped and waved it away, returning the simulation to a normal scale of the ward room.

"What did he want, anyway?" Chantelle asked.

"His name is The Instructor." I said. "And apparently he helps out new Champions. He told me quite a bit about how things work for us. I will have to go and save the Plains Keepers, though, as he said that he will be attacking them with an army of winter monsters that are worse than is usually seen in this realm."

"And you believed him?" Chantelle asked.

"I did." I said. "He was very believable in his motivations, and there wasn't a convincing reason for him to lie about the other things he said. Though he did say it was a misdirection, it was a misdirection in the form of an actual attack."

"So you will be leaving then?" Chantelle asked.

"I was told that I should form an army to fight his army." I said. "But I only need to save the minimum viable population of Plains Keepers. I would prefer to save more than that, and all of them in the ideal result. But if I can avoid risking any of our people by getting there first and negotiating with them before the army arrives that is what I want to try. I would need you to be safe first, though."

"I have been working on my personal barrier." Chantelle said. "If I am connected to the fortress mana crystal, as I am with my own pendant, I can hold out indefinitely. With the new smaller and more focused symbols anyone who tries to break the ward will get a very nasty surprise. Like losing an arm."

Well that certainly sounded as though she had it under control.

"Make sure you can protect the people that can be used as hostages against you too." I said. "It worked against us before, and I would rather not repeat it."

Chantelle nodded. "I will work something out." Chantelle said. "Although with my father preparing against the sort of attack that took him down last time we should be safer."

Chantelle went back to her ward and I turned my focus to my body. I had walked it to the bed in my Pocket Dimension and sat down on it.

There were several things that The Instructor had mentioned about my System interface, but the one that stood out that I wanted to explore was quests. Being able to define and offer tasks that had their rewards guaranteed by the System.

When I opened my Goal Progress I sent a request at the interface to the System requesting that specifically. I just did the same this time but for Quests. I had a clear image of what I thought it should be, focusing on that while believing that The Instructor knew what he was talking about. After a few moments, and resending the request I got a response.

Error accessing undefined functionality... Error resolving...

System Evolution approved...

Implementing Quests...

Success: New quest tab available.

That seems to have worked. I created a data packet for a new quest, assigning it to Dael, Veya, and Mal'Thorn requesting them to meet me at the portal at the top of the fortress and sent it to the System interface.

Error: Invalid quest, reward required

Hmm. I had an idea for the rewards of the quests that I gave out. I converted some stone into the super stone that the fortress was made from and formed it into a coin five centimeters wide, a quarter of the size of my palm, and half a centimeter thick. It was quite hefty at that size, weighing about fifty grams, twice as much as it looked like it should.

Being that thin the coin was transparent and a deep blue, as though it was made from sapphire. I formed an intricate design on both sides, and along the thin edge of it. On the front I quartered the design and put in a symbol for each of the four biomes. A tree for the Forest, a mountain for Mountain, a seeding grain for Plains, and a fish for Ocean. The back of the coin got symbols for the four original gods that existed. A halo for Good, devil horns for Evil, a snowflake for Winter, and a sun for Summer. And around the edge got a vine wrapping the whole thing.

Once I had it designed it was simple to duplicate four copies of it, three for the quest and one for me to duplicate more from.

I made the quest again, this time designating the coins as the rewards, one for each of the targets. The three coins disappeared and I spent some time making more, as well as creating a stock of mana crystal orbs. A few minutes later Dael arrived at the top of the stairs and I went to see him.

"My lord." Dael said, bowing. "I saw... A display projection for a quest? It was a blue square in front of me, at the top was the word 'Quest' and under that a description, telling myself, Veya, and Mal'Thorn to meet you here. Under that were the words 'Accept' and 'Refuse'. I thought 'accept' and it went away. It came back when I felt the need to see it again, this time with 'Active Quests' at the top."

Veya had come as Dael was explaining, nodding along.

"This is something you did, yes?" Veya asked.

"It was, yes." I said. "It's a new Champion thing I just got access to. Did you get a coin?"

"You mean a Fortress Coin?" Dael asked. "It was listed as a reward, but I haven't received anything like that."

Mal'Thorn arrived, breathing a little heavily. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could three coins materialised out of the air, one in front of each of them.