Marx stood across from the volatile Tear. It seemed that every time they cleared it, it became wilder and more unbridled, and yet the challenge on the inside only became easier and easier.
The more people they entered with, the more casual it became. So instead, Zarek began to fudge the numbers a bit, entering with three at a time and replacing the third. He only kept himself and Priya consistent, and as expected, the difficulty of the Godsfall Tear stabilized and remained even.
'What an odd Tear indeed. The more people you enter with, the easier the actual challenge becomes…'
This wasn't because they could throw more people at the Heroes, but instead because the Heroes themselves actually became physically weaker. It was the oddest thing that Zarek had ever seen.
And then, finally, they were granted their final Atom Link Talent. As for how Zarek knew it was the final, it was because upon exiting for the eighth time, the Godsfall Tear finally gave way and collapsed.
Zarek, Marx, Zade, along with five of their brothers, ended up with the Talent.
—
[Hidden Quest Requirement Met]
[Quest {Hero of Arcona} Triggered]
-
[Accept Quest?]
[Yes] [No]
—
'How fascinating…'
Zarek knew that this was almost certainly a Role Quest. He had other plans for what his Role would be in this life, so he wasn't very interested in it. However, he happened to know of a method to cleanse himself of a Quest that wasn't too inconvenient to reach from here, so he decided to accept it for no other reason than to see the description.
After seeing things through to this point, it would be ridiculous if he didn't take the extra step beyond.
—
[Quest {Hero of Arcona} has been Accepted]
Description: [Arcona, a world lost to time and with a history ravaged by the same, only has one chance of survival. Myths tell of eight Heroes who will rise in times of trouble, eight brothers that stand shoulder to shoulder in the face of their world's destruction. Unearth the secrets of Arcona and awaken the Legend of the Eight Arcona Heroes.]
—
Zarek stared at this for a long while, his heart rate slowly increasing as he did so.
This wasn't a video game. The system didn't just randomly create tidbits of lore to send people off on wild goose chases. There was no such thing.
If it was speaking about this Arcona, it meant that this was a real place. But Zarek had never heard of such a thing before.
Could it really be that this was the thread he was looking for all along? The first thread to unwind some of the secrets of where this system came from and why this Godsfall Apocalypse was happening to them?
Zarek looked up, his eyes slowly landing on Marx.
At this point, these people had no consciousness about hiding their intent, or covertly checking their notifications. If they received something, Zarek would definitely notice. However, Marx wasn't acting like he had, neither were any of the others.
This meant that… Zarek was the only one to receive the Quest.
'If that's the case… could it really be that Marx received this Quest before and chose to keep it hidden? How…'
Zarek's pupils suddenly constricted as he felt something else. All of a sudden, there were seven new nodes in his mind. It was subtle, but he could feel the positions of Marx and the others as though a new sensory perception had been formed within him.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashford]
Role: [Hero Candidate]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: D-] <?>
>[Dexterity: D-] <?>
>[Intelligence: D-] <?>
>[Endurance: D-] <?>
>[Charisma: D-] <?>
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: E+] <B->
>>[Abilities: Mirror]
[The world's matter…]
>[Harmonic Recall: D-] <B+>
>>[Abilities: Echo]
[The echoes of the past…]
>[Atom Link: F-] <A+>
>>[Abilities: Link]
[The particles of the world…]
>[Empty]
Skills:
>[C Class Scouting: C+] <C+>
>[Quick Step: F-] <E->
>[Rushing Turbulence: F-] <E->
…
Notes:
—
Zarek's thoughts felt as silent as the system's lack of a note this time around. He stared at his screen for a long time, almost feeling the changes rather than actually registering them.
First, his Growth Potential had taken an odd turn. He had no idea what it meant for them to be replaced with question marks. Had they gone up? Or had they gone down?
He suddenly had an extra Talent Slot, and that made no sense to him at all. No matter how talented the person, three had always been the limit. He had met the strongest existences across the world, killed more than his fair share of them, and learned everything he could in his last three lives.
Never, not once, had he ever seen anyone with more than three Talents. In fact, the reason there were so many powerful items that could allow you to swap, replace, or take in new powers was because everything had to be perfectly optimized to maximize the limited slots one did have.
Then there were these Skills. He had never learned any of them, so why the hell were they here? And why were there so many?
His limit as a D Class Warrior was five Skill Slots, so why were there ten on this list? Not a single one of them was worth much of his time, let alone a Slot, but that was far beside the point.
Then there was the fact the system actually had nothing to say. Not a single word? No snarky remark? No rebuttal for the ages? No dig at his love life?
Zarek slowly regained his focus, looking toward Zade and the others. Suddenly, he understood what was happening, but he wasn't sure if this was actually something that he wanted.
He was fine with making Zade and Marx an ally. He wasn't fine with them being so inextricably linked to his future progress.
What would happen if one of them died? What if their progress couldn't keep up with his own? Would that matter? Could they be replaced? If he was the only one that received the Quest, were they just extras that could be swapped in and out?
Zarek's jaw settled, his gaze shifting to a map that had appeared at the corner of his status screen. An arrow pointed him toward the direction he needed to go for this Quest to truly begin…
'What do I do this time?'