Merlin

Merlin?

James was utterly confused, the original owner of the quest had to find the house all by himself, and even when he did, Merlin didn't pay him any mind, for the first 48 hours Merlin even refused to open his front door. Even after opening the door, Merlin just asked the young man to leave. James heard that it took over a month of begging at his door just to have tea with him. James wasn't planning on waiting that long, he was going to start the quest by having a one-sided conversation with Merlin, but for him to come and personally greet him, what was that all about?

Merlin already knew what James was thinking, so he just gave the 2 of them a warm smile and started explaining.

"Well, I normally don't greet visitors with hospitality, but I couldn't let the disciple of Cronus wait outside, wouldn't want to make him mad now would I."

James was in shock, he knew how powerful Merlin was, in research on everything related to magic even most gods couldn't hold a candle to him, but to see through one of the most powerful god's power in an instant, he had never expected that.

When seeing the shocked face of James, Merlin just let out a little laugh.

"Hahaha, don't be so shocked young man, I am not able to see through his powers, but do you think I wouldn't recognize those eyes."

James had a realization, he had never actually looked at himself after spawning in, he didn't know how his eyes looked, and now he was curious, but he had some more important things to do.

"thank you for welcoming us sir Merlin, we have come here to discuss something, would you mind if we did that inside?"

"Of course not, it is only proper that I invite you, I'll get some tea."

Before Merlin had even finished his sentence the 3 of them were already standing in a cozy cottage with a lot of entryways to other, more professional rooms, some of them were for crafting, while others were for research and storage, but James knew one thing for sure, by the amount of Devine might, mana, and eternal energy he could feel from most rooms, they had more treasures then the whole empire combined.

While James was deep in admiration of all the treasures, Merlin came back out, with tea that seemed to contain an awful lot of mana.

"Here you go, my specialty tea."

James and Iron just started sipping from it, it was incredible, they could just feel the energy flowing into them. They couldn't even stop until the cups were empty, at that moment they got another pleasant surprise.

System: All stats + 5

Iron wasn't that joyful about it, it was only 5 points after all, but James was over the moon. That it said stats and not Attribute generally meant that it included hidden stats, just for drinking some tea.

"Amazing isn't it, it is made from seven colored fruit, but don't worry, drinking this tea will not bar you from eating them. Could you tell me now about this matter you wanted to discuss?"

"Yes, of course, sir Merlin, we came here for 2 things, the first of which is that we heard you are having a difficult time solving a specific set of ancient runes that is said to contain some draconic magic, I think that I happen to know that specific rune language, so I would like to help. The second thing has to do with a trade, but we can talk about that after the first is completed"

Merlin's ears perked up when he heard that, he had indeed spread some rumors about it to hopefully get someone that could solve them to come to him, but he had never expected it to be so soon.

"that is indeed correct, and I would be very happy to have your help young man. If I'm not mistaken, I put the reward ad becoming my disciple, but that isn't an option for you, Cronus wouldn't be too happy about that, but I'll owe you a big favor."

System: you have triggered the legendary quest, "Merlin's helper" by Merlin accepting your help, he is willing to give you a favor in return.

Quest Details: Merlin has a set of ancient runes that is said to contain draconic magic, the only problem is that the specific rune language is extremely niche and was only used by a specific number of people, even in ancient times. Find out what language it is and learn it, then decode the runes before Merlin gives up on you.

Quest Rewards: A favor from Merlin, the size depends on how fast and accurately you complete the translation.

Quest failure penalties: Merlin will be hostile toward you

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This quest penalty even further deepened the admiration James had for Merlin, a legendary quests penalty should be account crippling, after you fail it, you simply couldn't play the game anymore, and the system considered being an enemy of Merlin to be just as bad as that.

"Thank you for the chance sir Merlin, but I and my partner here have to quickly go back to our world, so it will be a couple of hours before I can start."

"No problem young man, I had that thing lay in storage for almost 100 years, a few extra hours shouldn't matter."

"Thank you, we will be back."

James and Mike then proceeded to log out, stepping out of their gaming cabin.

When he did so James realized that his thank of S-grade Nutrient fluids was empty, he found this only natural due to the 2 immense challenges he had overcome, so he filled it back up and after looking at the clock and realizing that he was already late for their scheduled day 1 meeting when strait to the conference room.

Everyone, even Mike, was already sitting there when James arrived, full of excitement on their faces.

"I guess you guys' first day went pretty well?"

All of them started talking through each other in full excitement, this lasted for a while before James put a stop to it.

"Okay, calm down, Charlotte, give me your report."

Charlotte immediately stood up.

"We managed to equip me and 1 other member with a rare skill, all of us have managed to get to around level 9, it will take about 5 hours for all of us to reach level 10, all of us are equipped in full Bronze grade armor and weapons of level 5 and above. Regarding the items we have collected, it involves 3 forging designs of the Bronze grade and 1 for a Mystical-Iron longbow, our gold total comes to about 103."

"That's pretty great, now Rick."

Rick then stood up in a hurry.

"Our Teams equipment and levels are about the same as Charlotte, but I have managed to get a level 10, secret silver shield. I also managed to get the title, [demon hunter], giving me nobility everywhere. Our gold total is about 87."

"you can sit back down Rick, Livia what about you?"

"yes, for levels we are also around level 9, we managed to get 3 rare skills, and most of our team is wearing Bronze grade armor. We have also found the location of the dimensional merchant, but it is not an environment [Tier 0] players can enter, our gold total is 156."

"Great, let us know if everyone is [Tier 1], then we will go there immediately. Now last but not least, Olivia"

James was excited about Olivia's progress, unlike the others she could already start with her quests.

"Our members are around level 6, with only a few having Bronze equipment, but we did start 4 epic quests to get pieces of legendary equipment or chests that contain them, we also managed to get 2 [Tier 1] mystical flames, 1 [Tier 3] one, and that Ancient foraging book. Our gold total is about 210."

James was overjoyed, he had set relatively high expectations for all of them, but they had shot past them, super guilds would at most have collected a few tens of gold, yet he already had close to 500 thanks to all the weird quests they did.

"Everyone did great, Olivia, when I reached Level 10 and am done with my quest I will be visiting you for the ancient book of forging, I will also be helping you on some of the quests that require killing. I have gotten a fortunate encounter and all my stats are over 1000 now, this will be in about 10 hours."

Everyone was stunned by James's words, they had the best armor and weapons available, yet their highest Stat was not even 50.

"Everyone dismissed, there should be a system update happening about now, so everyone rest up until that is over."

James then left the conference room and checked 1 last time that the update was happening, and just like he guessed, there was an update that would last 12 hours.

James told everyone to rest, but especially Mike, after gods Domain was back it would take James around 5 hours to finish with the runes, by then Mike had to be in top form for his challenge.

Just like the rest of his team James also took a well-deserved rest, he was so tired in fact that he slept for 11 hours, only waking up 1 hour before gods Domain would start up yet again. In that 1 hour, he took his time doing some stretching, had some breakfast, and stepped back into his capsule.