Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 259

“Yep,” Mane could finally reply to Hildegarde’s comments now that there was no one around.

“Wait a minute,” Mane suddenly exclaimed and startled Hildegarde, who almost fell off his shoulder due to his sudden action.

“What,” Hildegarde sounded irritated? She flew above Mane with a look of annoyance on her face, obviously from the fact that Mane had robbed her of her favorite ‘couch’.

“He said we’d go hunting tomorrow. I was just thinking that it would be a shame to miss a hunt because of that meeting” Mane looked apologetic seeing Hildegarde’s dissatisfied expression. It wasn’t his intention to shrug her off his shoulder.

“I doubt that would factor into this,” Hildegarde stated while waving her tiny hands. She slowly flew onto Mane’s shoulder and settled herself on it once more.

“You normally wouldn’t worry about something like that. So why are you concerned this time?” Hildegarde wondered. Mane had waited long to be allowed to go out and fight against something other than Dan. Waiting another day wouldn’t change much. It was strange that Mane was worried about something that he would normally consider trivial.

“That’s because it’s appeared on my status,” Mane sighed and said. He then displayed his status for Hildegarde to see what he meant.

Name: Mane

Age: 15

Current Setting: Healthy

Physical Attributes – Strength: 3.2

*Agility: 4.7

Stamina: 3.9

Test Difficulty: Chaos

Testing Ground: Chaotic Era

Daily Quest: Complete Dan’s morning training [Completed]

*Tomorrow’s Daily Quest: Go hunting with Dan

Goal: End Goal – Become Chaos

Completion Rate: 5.02

Skills: Speedy Chaos [Active skill] – You have caused chaos after only one month of entering the testing grounds. You run towards chaos, and it runs towards you. Run Wild Supreme. Be Chaos! {Permanent increase in Agility stats by 1.5. Additional 10% increase in speed when activated}.

“It appeared as a daily quest,” Hildegarde sounded surprised as she appraised the information that was displayed on Mane’s status. And she was right to be. Since Mane started his very predictable lifestyle of training every morning, and reading the texts Dan had presented him every evening, the daily quests had become predictable as well. Now, Mane’s daily quest was always [Complete Dan’s Morning Training]. And it had remained that way till now. Mane always completed his daily quests, and after two weeks of constantly going beyond the completion requirements, he unlocked a feature – a gift – for his hard work. The reward was a simple yet efficient gift: the ability to see the Daily Quest for the next day. It was simple yet tremendous. This was because the ability to see what one must achieve beforehand was always precious. It allowed one to plan for any inconsistencies and surprises, and also informed one of any new changes to an otherwise predictable affair.

So basically, whenever Mane received his Daily Quests, the Daily Quest for the next day would also appear. But it only did late in the day. It appeared before nighttime, but not early morning or early afternoon. It usually appeared in the late afternoons. Since Mane had spent most of his time today with the twins, it was no surprise that the Daily Quest for tomorrow had appeared. But the morning training was not what had appeared. It was his scheduled hunting with Dan that had. Normally, this wouldn’t have been worrying. After all, since this was the first time Mane was going hunting, it was no surprise that it had been recorded as a Daily Quest. However, his chaperone had explained how Daily Quests worked to him a long time ago. And by that description, that meant that the quest was probably harder than it looked.

“Daily Quests are more like schedules. They actually follow the needs of the tested. For instance, if you had an unstable life, with different things happening to you each day, your Daily Quests would be just as spontaneous and unpredictable. But since you follow a routine lifestyle, your Daily Quests have grown to follow that pattern as well. In the case of someone who lives methodically, when the Daily Quest changes, it is not a simple thing. For a person with an unplanned way of living, daily changes in the Daily Quest are expected and do not pose a greater level of difficulty. But for someone who usually follows the same pattern like yourself, when the quest changes, it means it is more difficult to achieve completion. This is because, for people with a routine way of living, when there is a change, the system analyses which one is more relevant, more difficult, and could give a better reward, and settles on that one”

This was the explanation Hildegarde gave him the first time Mane experienced a change in his Daily Quests. That change, was to duel Dan. And indeed, it was vastly harder to accomplish than the usual quest of [Completing Dan’s Morning Training]. It wasn’t just because of Dan’s strength. The Quest Completion didn’t require him to win. It only required that Mane duel the older man. After all, the Quest read, [Duel Dan]. That was all. Yet Mane could remember how difficult it was to get the older man to spar with him. It wasn’t easy to accomplish, and Mane had almost failed the quest. Completing the quest increased his completion rate and gave him better rewards than the usual Daily Quest, which proved that Hildegarde was right when she said relevance, difficulty and rewards were the three aspects the system considered before deciding on a Daily Quest. So now that the hunt Dan had promised him appeared as tomorrow’s Daily Quest, Mane was very worried. This was because, if it wasn’t the harder of the two, it wouldn’t have been picked.

“I get why you are worried now,” Hildegarde sighed as she took her eyes off Mane’s Status screen. It was true that Daily Quests were important, but it was okay to fail a few. After all, the Will of the Dreamscape didn’t expect that the tested would be able to complete each quest. There was a penalty of course, but not completing a Daily Quest wasn’t equivalent to failing the entire mission itself. So it was tolerable. But Mane was a perfectionist. He didn’t want to fail even a single one. Although Hildegarde did inform him that there was a hidden reward for anyone who was able to reach the ‘End Goal’ without failing a single Daily Quest, that wasn’t the reason for Mane’s obsession with his perfect streak. He didn’t care about the penalties, and he didn’t care about the rewards that came with achieving such a feat. What he cared about was the fact that it was a challenge. To Mane, each Daily Quest was a daily challenge. And for someone who chased after perfection, failing a challenge once wasn’t part of the agenda. It wasn’t tolerable.

“Yeah.” Mane succinctly said and stood up. He dusted his clothes and headed inside.

“So what now,” Hildegarde, who was still seated on Mane’s shoulder asked as he entered the house.

“I continue with my experiment until Dan returns,” Mane stated resolutely and walked towards his room. Since there was nothing he could do by worrying, he could only prepare himself for tomorrow – both mentally and physically. But that would have to wait. Normally, he did a few experiments in the afternoons. But he spent most of his time with the twins, so the day was almost over. Since there wasn’t much time left, Mane thought he would use the little time he had left to focus on his experiment.

“You still haven’t given up huh,” Hildegarde stated helplessly. “I told you that if it was possible, it would have appeared as a Daily Quest,” she continued.

“And I also told you that it could be a Hidden Quest,” Mane argued.

“You’re really stubborn,” Hildegarde grumbled.

“I agree,” Mane smiled and said. His words almost caused Hildegarde to fall off his shoulder. Mane ignored the fairy on his shoulder and entered his room. The small room he had moved into a month ago hadn’t changed much. The major difference was that there was a large stone tablet at the corner, and a small knife was next to it. There was nothing on the tablet; it was completely blank. The knife was crudely made, and wasn’t eye-catching in any way. Mane didn’t pay particular attention to the tablet. It was there to record any progress he would make. So far, he hadn’t discovered anything noteworthy. But he hoped that would change soon.

Mane placed a cloth on the floor, and sat cross-legged on it.

“Hildegarde,” he softly mumbled.

“Fine; I’d keep watch” she replied, albeit unwillingly. She flew off his shoulder and onto the table. Mane nodded in thanks and closed his eyes. This was what he had been doing for the past month. Although he didn’t feel the presence of Edict or Chaos, Mane didn’t give up on discovering them. It may be that he would have to complete his mission before they would appear, but he still searched. Every afternoon he would meditate, calming his mind and searching for the presence of the Edict – that which birthed Wielders and Scholars – and Chaos – its bane and the reason for the existence of Spiritualists. So far, he hadn’t sensed anything. But he didn’t give up.

If one was to look at this logically, if Hildegarde, who was stronger than him and a fairy – one of the creatures very sensitive to Edict – couldn’t discover its presence on this planet, it was silly for Mane to attempt it. But that was exactly the reason why Mane kept on trying. There was something he hadn’t told Hildegarde. And if she thought about it hard enough, she would also notice this discrepancy. There was no Edict, but she was able to fly. The fact that she could not be seen or heard could be attributed to the interference of the Dreamscape because they were passive skills. But flying was active. Even if this was an illusionary universe, fairies were very real, and her flying was no illusion. How could she fly, if she wasn’t connected to Edict? After all, the wings of fairies were made from energy. The question was:

Was she somehow able to use Edict that was outside this planet; or had she connected to the hidden Edict on this planet?