Duality Merged - Chapter 11 Return

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Compulsory Quest Obtained: Purge-Order

Greetings, Travellers, and congratulations on surviving your trial! As the new owner of Earth, it truly does warm my heart to know that so many of you made it. I am, however, distressed at the volatility of Earth’s Humans. The chaos they’ve brought to existence in the light of recent events is truly astonishing, and your help would be much appreciated.

Conditions for completion: Assist your Goddess, Eotz, in restoring order by removing any unstable elements.

Conditions for failure: Refuse in acting on behalf of your Goddess, Eotz, or perform to an unsatisfactory degree.

Rewards: A boost of five levels in any one combat Talent, one starting weapon, one set of Tedrasian clothing, elementary knowledge regarding Tedrasia.

Additional rewards are attainable.

Penalty: Access to the world of Tedrasia will be further delayed by an indeterminate amount of time.

!! THIS QUEST IS COMPULSORY AND CANNOT BE DECLINED !!

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The Quest notification effectively put a halt to any further conversation; the information contained in the Quest sent Charles and the others into a thoughtful silence. Charles wasn’t surprised at the revelation that the world had become chaotic during the last week; a deity confirming its existence would do that to any society, even if only through immaterial screens that popped in and out of existence. The ensuing ‘chaos’ from this shouldn’t, however, be sufficient to push Eotz into asking for demanding, rather, that they help restore order, seemingly through any means necessary. Something else must’ve happened to push people over the edge, leading to the ‘divine decree’ before them. One could even get the impression that Eotz actually wanted them to ‘cull’ the ‘volatile’ populous due to the language used, an impression Charles indeed had.

Grim as the Quest may be, the rewards weren’t something they could, or would, pass up; Charles had already suspected that Tedrasia wouldn’t be the most technologically advanced if their combat Talents were any indication. This meant an actual weapon and attire to fit the culture of this new world could prove to be a crucial factor in the future. The ‘elementary knowledge’ reward would, hopefully, assist in choosing a fitting weapon, should that reward not be predetermined. The potential usefulness of the five Talent levels was self-evident unless the levels were just numbers and had no other effect.

Charles didn’t have time to speak with his companions before being thrust into sudden darkness feeling a sickening degree of vertigo at the unexpected movement. The darkness didn’t remain for many moments before it gave way to light once more. Charles knew the black-out and the abating vertigo were the tell-tale signs he’d been ‘moved’ again, this time to what he recognised as the city square only a couple of kilometres from Janette and his apartment. Janette had moved up beside him, Molly’s hand firmly grasped within her own, as they all took a moment to gather themselves; the feeling of being ‘teleported’ wasn’t exactly pleasant. They weren’t alone in the town square, although Charles couldn’t see how many people there were. He’d started growing uncomfortable within the all-enveloping silence that permeated the entire square, so he grabbed Janette’s free hand and made to push through the masses, an action that seemed to slowly ‘awaken’ the rest.

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You have left the Hunting-Ground ‘Trial Forest’ and is therefore entitled to any additional rewards for the completion of the Quest: Survive.

Additional Reward: One Legacy Extract

Evaluation: Body restructuring is required due to unknown Trait and incompatible racial mix contained with your body. A suitable Legacy Extract has been created based on your Traits, Talents, Titles, and personality traits shown during the trial.

!! YOU ARE REQUIRED TO CONSUME THE REWARD WITHIN 24 HOURS !!

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Charles paused as he read the notification, having barely walked for ten minutes. Janette seemed to have received a notification of her own, one much like his own, he’d wager, but still wanted to make sure, “Did you get a Legacy Extract, Sister?” She gave a nod, a response he had expected; they were quite alike, after all. “Did you get any additional rewards?” Janette asked Molly, who seemed lost at the sudden question, though she did shake her head. She hadn’t done enough to warrant any, Charles thought. It wouldn’t make sense if she had, seeing as neither Janette nor himself had received any rewards based on their actions.

As his current trail of thought came to an end, he found himself observing his surroundings. It wasn’t the first time he’d walked here, but never had it looked so decrepit. The road had giant potholes and various greens growing out of the cracks, much like the sidewalk. The buildings on either side of the road looked worn with cracked paint and fractured facades. Things had changed, that much was clear, but Charles couldn’t help but feel sceptical; while the city may, indeed, be crumbling, this still shouldn’t be enough to cause the amount of chaos he expected they’d find.

It took them half an hour of brisk walking to reach the apartment complex that served as the siblings home. The large four-storey building had taken on a brownish-grey hue and looked particularly dilapidated; it hadn’t exactly been the most well cared for building in the city before, but never had it looked this bad. Charles led the way towards the top floor, worried at the complete silence; the other inhabitants usually made some amount of noise, whether that be a crying child, a TV, or the arguing of a young couple, there was always some signs of life present. When they reached the door to their apartment, Charles let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding in, but found the electric lock unresponsive, something that ultimately only proved to be a slight nuisance, as it forced him to use his key and manually unlock it.

Janette made a beeline for the kitchen the moment the trio stepped inside the hallway of the modest studio flat. Opening the fridge, hungering as they all were for something besides apples, she called out, “There’s no power.” Charles couldn’t help the sinking feeling in his stomach when he heard her, “What about the water?” he asked, his worry growing when his sister turned the knob without result. They had some amount of canned foods, but no more than enough for half a week if they rationed it to some extent.

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Hello, dear Travellers. I do believe you should be privy to the information on what has happened on Earth while you were gone.

I’ve let the world devour some of the ‘constructs’ that would prove to be detrimental or useless for the future development of this world, resulting in what you’d refer to as a ‘global power outage’ if I’m not wrong. This has allowed a lot of mana to circulate, which I’ve used to fuel the cleansing of all the various bodies of water. Not only that, but I’ve also reforested a large majority of the world, effectively erasing the scars you’ve left all over the world in your pursuit of comfort. This worlds ‘hunger’ was beyond my expectations, however, and it has therefore ‘nibbled’ at some of the other buildings.

While this will certainly prove to be greatly beneficial in the future, it has caused a great deal of ‘problems’ to spring up, due to your governing body being unable to lead efficiently. This, coupled with some technology being affected by mana, making them useless, has resulted in law-enforcement being crippled due to a sudden lack of weaponry.

The rest is obvious.

Best of luck in your Quest.

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“That would do it, I suppose,” Charles muttered after having read through the ‘letter’ from Eotz. A citywide power outage has caused criminality to spike numerous times in modern history; one could imagine the results of a global power outage. The lack of running water certainly wouldn’t help the situation any, leading to even more people panicking and causing crime to spike even further. But, as if that wasn’t enough, the law enforcement, the people whose job it was to restrain these people, might very well be without their primary means of weaponry: firearms. Teargas and tasers might not work anymore, either, thanks to the apparent influence of mana. Their riot gear might do wonders but, without electrical communication, any large scale suppression would end up being highly unlikely to work.

The world was, truly, a chaotic hotpot of opportunity, Charles thought. Not only would he be able to ‘vent’ any leftover frustrations, but he’d even be rewarded for it. Later, he told himself, restraining the manic smile that had crept on to his face. Now, he’d eat until he’d throw up, suddenly a lot less concerned at their potential food problems since he realised there were plenty of people he’d be able to convince into sharing. Water wasn’t an issue, either, since there was a giant river running through the city a couple of blocks away. He realised that might be part of the reason why the area was as calm as it was: the water had been magically cleaned, and there was plenty to go around.

The afternoon and evening went by uneventfully. The trio discussed their future plans as they ate what some would refer to as ‘canned garbage meat’ due to their ignorance. Charles had shared his thoughts on the situation with the others, already having expected that Janette had thought of much the same. “I want to check on my mother. She doesn’t live far away,” Molly said, worried about her mother’s current circumstances after having heard what Charles and Janette said. “That won’t be a problem, Dear Molly,” Janette smiled soothingly, “That’ll have to wait until later, though We need to get a feeling for how things are in the city, first.”

“Before that, Sister, I believe we should consume this ‘Legacy Extract’ as we’ve been told to,” Charles stated, surprised at what appeared on the table: it was a palm-sized glass vial containing a mix of swirling reds and purples. It had blinked into existence with a bright light that, oddly, only covered the vial itself. The show had caused everyone to sink into a stupified silence, the idea that magic may very well exist finally settling within their minds. There was, however, only one vial, and Charles ‘knew’ it was his. “Where’s mine?” Janette asked confusedly, also somehow ‘knowing’ it wasn’t her reward, just for another vial to appear, this one containing a white liquid with a slight blue hue.

Charles had an inkling as to what was to come the moment he picked up the vial, but even the idea of having his body changed moulded, to fit someone else’s ideal, wasn’t enough to unsettle him. It wouldn’t be the first time, he smiled towards Janette who, like Charles, also ‘knew’ that she’d change once more. “I suppose we should get it over with?” he suggested as he made his way towards the only bed in the entire house. It was, luckily, big enough to hold both Janette and himself, while Molly shouldn’t have any problems should she decide to lay with them. Charles called his Status into existence, wanting to memorise it so he could compare it with his future one.

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Status of Charles *No Surname*:

Race: Human???Homunculus???

Condition: Healthy.

[ Traits ] [ Talents ] [ Titles ]

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Traits of Charles:

[ Human Adaptibilty ], [ Amplified Regeneration (Incompatible) ]

[ Amplified Regeneration (Incompatible):

Accelerates healing of the body and stamina regeneration beyond the norm.

!! THIS TRAIT IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH YOUR RACE !! ]

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Talents of Charles:

[ Quarterstaff Proficiency Novice I ], [ Torture Novice III ]

[ Torture Novice III:

Increases the effects of torture on a target. ]

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Titles of Charles:

[ Traveller ], [ ABNORMAL ENTITY ]

[ ABNORMAL ENTITY:

Your existence is an impossibility. Change, or be erased.]

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