CLA.S.S NEUTRAL: Stranger Is Coming

Annoying Strangers. Help Nameless. Somebody's Anger.

The inn turned out to be a small house where the villagers usually gathered to eat and talk to each other after a hard day. Unfortunately for the players, there was no wine, no beer, and no other alcohol. They could only drink ravz (something like a brew), milk, and roonf (a drink resembling tea with jam.) However, there was an abundance of food and a small book with a menu on each table. Fried potatoes and a large piece of meat with an appetizing crust were roasted over the flames. The inn owner was cooking a salad of ordinary cuc.u.mbers and tomatoes himself. It all looked very delicious.

Several cooks and waiters helped him, and the players talked loudly as they ate and drank everything that was available. Inhaling incredibly delicious flavors of food, I sensed that I was very hungry. It's strange that I did not pay attention to it before. Perhaps it was the reaction of the consciousness to the pleasant food odors.

"Sit down, Stranger, and eat with us!" Karavel said. "Chef, bring us food for four people!"

"I need two meals," the orc ordered sternly, and then added, looking at his brother, "Please."

"Wait a minute, please." The inn owner nodded and put another large pan on the flame.

"While the food is cooking, tell us your story, Stranger." My interlocutors tried to make me offer them a quest, so I had to spontaneously come up with a story.

"Once upon a time, when I was young, my father told me about our ancestors. They came from another world, like the current immortals. It happened fifteen thousand years before the other players' arrival."

"That's a f.u.c.k.i.n.g long time!" the orc exclaimed. The dwarf nudged him with his elbow, and the orc looked down guiltily.

"Go on, Stranger!" The warrior looked at me with interest. "They were great magicians, able to use the energy of space and emptiness. In this world, there was no one who could compare with them.

One day, my father said that the times were over because my sister was born. She was able to learn the ancient knowledge of the dynasty. An ancient wizard who had always hunted for this power learned about it.

However, the books he had stolen didn't reveal their secrets to him. So, he decided to kidnap my sister to take her power.

With the support of demons, several necromancers, a death mage, and two other magicians, he attacked my ancestors' village.

Everyone in our family was a mage with great power. We weren't as powerful as the ancient magicians, but we still surpassed the energy of most of Rainea's residents.

But it didn't help us. Everybody was killed, and the village was destroyed. The wizard kidnapped my sister, killing two of my companions. He thought I was too small to be killed, so he just cast a spell of nameless oblivion on me. Because of this, I can't remember either the mage's name or my parents' names. Even my own-" I didn't finish my sentence as a bright flash blinded me.

Effect 'Full Recovery' is applied

"Did it help you?" the orc asked hopefully.

"Asshole, it's ancient magic! You just used a scroll for nothing," the dwarf sighed and, muttering something in his lush beard, added, "Fedya, this is a rare quest, even a unique one! We must accept it!

"Shoorik, if all complicated quests could be solved only with the help of a scroll that you can buy in any shop, it wouldn't be interesting.

"Excuse my brother, Stranger, he's still young and therefore doesn't understand much."

"Even though I can't do magic, I'm not a bad alchemist. I know the recipe of the potion, which should help to free my sister. Unfortunately, I can't remember its name, but I do still remember the ingredients."

"How long ago did these events take place?" the dwarf asked. "How old was your sister?"

"It happened ten years ago." I sighed and added, "My sister was exactly eight years old."

"She might have died a long time ago." The orc frowned.

"No! She's alive!" I got angry, jumping up from my chair. "I can feel her power, so she's still living."

The orc got a strong slap and the indicator of his HP began to show ten points less. "How can we help you?"

"What about saving your sister?" Dwagold suggested.

"You won't be able to do it; the wizard is too strong," I replied. "Find me the components, and I'll deal with him myself."

"Well, this mage is incredible, indeed. Look, Vanya," the orc pointed over me. "He doesn't even have a name. Can you imagine? It's very interesting."

So, the players don't see my nickname, my class, or the rest of the information for some reason. This is very good because I'm afraid that otherwise they would reveal my lies ahead of time.

"Name the components, and we'll surely find them."

I started to fantasize. "A bottle of crystal water, a box with the Dust of Interworld, White Glow, sprouted seeds of the sacred Stone Lime, the Bony Bear's eyes, an emerald fox's hair, a fly agaric from a silvan's head, and a Neutral's blood."

"It's awesome!" the dwarf exclaimed. "I've never seen such components in this game. This stranger obviously came from higher levels!"

"I told you the same!"

"What you will offer us for our search?" Karavel asked. "You have to understand that we're not going to help you for nothing.

Well, what can I offer them? Despite the fact that the senior player wants to seem smarter than everyone, he seems to be quite young. I can only assume that he's less than twenty years old, and his brothers seem to be even younger. I like this game!

Suddenly I had an idea.

"I can offer you this." I took a shabby book out of my bag. "It's…"

"Just useless stuff," the orc seemed to get slapped, interrupting me from the eldest brother. To be honest, I was going to hit him myself if he interrupted me again.

"Ow! It hurts! I'm sorry."

"Ancient knowledge," the dwarf muttered instead of me and licked his parched lips. "We'll be able to…"

"You'll be able to do a lot, but you'll have to study them yourself," I added.

"Do you agree?"

"Yes!" the dwarf and the man answered in chorus, and the orc muttered something unintelligible.

"Where's the message?" Brafmapurta asked in surprise. "Have you decided to complete the quest without me?"

"Don't worry, Shoorik. You're a member of our team." The elder brother waved his hand. "But we really don't see the notification."

I hadn't thought about that, and I mentally hit myself on the head for slowness and unlocked the achievement 'Slow-witted II'. I then decided to improvise a little more. I took out a piece of parchment and wrote:

Quest 'Help to Nameless' is offered

Description: The evil wizard deprived this man of everything: family, homeland, friends, his own name, and even the memories about it

He has the only surviving sister

But he doesn't know what she looks like or what her name is

He hopes that the unknown potion will help him to return his name, memories, and save his sister

Terms: to help Nameless find the components of the potion

Reward: + 100000 to your Experience; + 50 to your Reputation with the Nameless, the Book of Knowledge belonging to the Dynasty founder

Quest Class: hidden unique

Note: It's possible to receive an additional quest.

I handed them the note. I was glad to watch their surprise; the dwarf tried to say something but failed. The orc looked at the note carefully, scratched his head, and then it was my time to be surprised.

Skill 'Literacy' is obtained

Description: To preserve knowledge, intelligent beings used speech, transferring information from generation to generation. Anyway, there were wars and epidemics. Therefore, sometimes, information was distorted too much during many centuries. So, this method of knowledge acc.u.mulation turned out to be ineffective. So, intelligent beings have come up with something more convenient

Skill Class: normal

Skill level: 1

I was glad to have learned the skill. I happened to create a fake quest to get rid of the annoying players, and I had received bonuses immediately.

"Brother, we've got so few reputation points because he's a very important character, isn't he?" Brafmapurta asked.

"You're very observant," Karavel praised him. "It's great that you're spending so much time with us. You're getting smarter every day! We have to accept this quest and possibly get the next one."

Apparently, a player gets few reputation points if he deals with an important character. I'd better remember that.

"Why did you wait for ten years?" the orc looked at me. "You could have found out something and saved your sister during this time."

"Do you think I didn't try?" I got angry, not realizing the cause. "I looked for these ingredients everywhere! I prayed for the gods' help and made contracts with the guilds of warriors and mages, I appealed to the Shadows brotherhood, but no one could help.

I tried to do everything myself, but I immediately forgot everything because of this damn curse as soon as I was close to the whereabouts of the ingredients!" I got up from the table and left the inn without even tasting the food because of the anger that I thought belonged to someone else.