RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 200

He continued to practice his tame beast skills in the area, and he got experience on successfully taming a new beast. Every new beast captured would also give him a bit of taming proficiency. Taming proficiency was something he had never received before. Even in his previous life, he only bought pets that were already tamed and used to maintain and feed them.

This new skill was completely new to him in practice. He had heard that it would be increase in proficiency whenever the beast is fitted with new armor made by the player himself. It would also increase if the beast leveled up under his care or if he manages to successfully heal a crippled pet successfully. This specific feature allowed healers and especially druids to be far more successful than other occupations as tamers.

He continued till it was another one and a half hour left for nightfall. He kept a timer so that he would be reminded to get back to the town and prepare to get to the coast when the members of the Valhalla Raider would retreat. By the time, the timer notified him, he had four pets, three black tongue lizards and one silver scale snakes all of which were in his pet pouch and at low health.

He put the time half an hour early as he only had a map to get to the coastal guard station from the gates of the town and he couldn’t use hearthstone to get to the Welog town without reputation. Trying to get through to the station by getting to the beach through the marsh was a lot more dangerous and he could lose his life as he didn’t know about the dangers that he could face. He was almost close to level 18 and he wanted to avoid dying if possible.

He quickly made his way through the forest towards the town and didn’t aim to kill any beast that interrupted him. He was already at level 17 and with his stats he was faster than any other beast at level 15 or below.

After he came out of the marsh area, he make his way to the coast. The coast was filled with dark brown colored coarse wet sand that spanned for a kilometre. There were a bunch of herbs on the coast and as he was previously informed there were a few players that were moving around wearing the badge of the Valhalla Raiders.

There were a few crabs and lobsters moving across the beach which were all around a meter long and quarter meter high. A large variety of common crabs, lobsters, turtles, etc., would be found in the sea and coasts and most of these could increase their levels up to 100 or so without any special food requirements. Just a lot of common food would slowly increase their level and also their size along with it. So, these were later discovered to be very useful as pets in the waters.

The problem was most of the crabs, lobsters and tortoises cannot swim in waters and are more of a burden than a help in naval battles. Some could swim to flee away, but they don’t have decent direction control. They can walk freely on land even under water but not swim. So, they could only be used to fight at the coast or beaches. Sometimes they could be used to explore underwater regions in the game.

He observed them from a distance through his scope in stealth. The players were all retreating from the beasts that they were fighting as they kept looking to the sides. Few of them were on look for anything that the tides might sweep on to the beach. He moved parallel to the coastline in order to reach closer to the area in which the coastal guard station was located.

After 15 minutes or so, he was able to see the coastal guard station on the beach. By that time, the players of the Valhalla Raiders came out of the beach and started to get back to the town. It was dangerous to hunt in the dark and that was much worse at the beach. The tides rise at the beach and comes much deeper on to the land during the nighttime and it would bring the beasts riding on the water. Even standing close to the coast would be considered a danger as a crab could suddenly jump from the water to attack players.

Balthazar could just see a couple of archers from the Valhalla Raiders guild who were in his visible range. They were just looking over the beach casually. They also didn’t care as they knew that apart from killing, if they ended up looting anything on the beach, the coastal guard would forcefully take those things back.

Shadow went into stealth and slowly made his way towards the station. The station was a large wooden cottage spanning about 100 square metres. It was actually built at a height of 4 metres above the beach floor balanced on a number of wooden logs and stones. It was built in the centre of the beach so that the corps would be able to easily access the beach and keep a lookout for any monsters that are trying to sneak out onto the land through the mud. It was quite big and would be visible from quite a distance, if not for its camouflage. It was painted in the same color of the mud in the beach. As he came close, he could see the words ‘coastal guard’ written at its centre.

There were no stairs onto the place, but a few metal ladders descended from the top floor. There was one at the entrance, which could be used by the players. It would always be down except for cases when there were attacks which would make the ladder a liability. As Shadow came close to the ladder, he was hollered by a guard who was at the top.

“Adventurer, state your business,” said the guard who was standing just at the top of the ladder. He wore the uniform of the coastal guard of the five elements empire and badge. The uniform was blueish green in color, a mix of leather and plate armor with a picture of a ship on their sleeves a badge with a circle have five colors and anchor super imposed on it.

“I was sent by the temple to find out about the supplies that failed to reach them,” said Shadow pointing at the badge pinned on his chest.

“Oh! It is better if the lieutenant explains it himself. Come on up,” said the guard indicating him to come up the ladder. Shadow went up the ladder and followed the guard to the office of the lieutenant. It was just past the main hall, where the guards all assembled.

“Boss, this one here is from the temple. He came here for the supplies which we failed to provide the temple,” said the guard as he left Shadow in the office and left.

“Adventurer, I am extremely sorry for the delay in the delivery. I agree that we have promised to send those supplies in exchange for the deacon’s services, but these were items that we didn’t receive ourselves. We honestly can’t provide you with the items and want to request the deacon for an extension of the delivery by a week. I will personally make sure that the supplies would be delivered in time,” said the lieutenant Bloom. He was a typical military NPC with a short crop haircut, shaved beard and moustache.

This usually required a player to go back and I form the deacon following which he would be given details of the supplies and requested by the deacon to use any means possible to speed up the delivery. Alternatively, he could talk with the lieutenant to get the details and offer his help to speed up the process. Balthazar didn’t have much time and was hoping to get some reputation as quickly as possible. So, he chose to further converse with the lieutenant.

“Sir, if you have any difficulty in delivering the supplies, I hope that I could be of assistance to you. At the very least, I wish to provide a better and detailed explanation to the deacon. So, could you please elaborate on the problem?” asked Shadow.

“Hmmm!” sighed the lieutenant as he indicated Shadow to sit in a chair by his desk. “There has been a substantial increase in the number of monsters attacking the coastal line. The causalities increased and we had to request the services of the healers of the temple. They provided them in return for a few of the green aquamarine gemstones that were the specialty of the bay. These could be used heal some affliction caused by the monsters of the Murk Water bay at a much faster pace and coastal guard have collected a decent number of them and were always present at our headquarters. So, it concluded that we would provide these items,” said the lieutenant explaining about the transaction between the temple and them.

“These were precious resources, but the headquarters still spared a few for the temple. The problem is that they were sent to the town branch and we did send one of our men to deliver it, but he had gone missing for the past three days,” said the lieutenant. “I know the night guards at the town gate, and they have seen him entering the town, but no one knows of his situation. They told me that he had gone in the direction of the temple. So, I am not sure what happened. Half my men think that the temple has him captured and is trying to get more compensation from us.”

“Can’t I have a simple quest, for once,” thought Balthazar as he heard the story. This was clearly developing into a complex quest which more than what he had expected. “I guess it is expected if I take one of the quests which are set aside for iron-grade members,” he thought.

“Is the current deacon aware of the issue?” he asked. Any other question is meaningless after the story which the lieutenant told. The only thing he could determine is the existence of any communication problem between them.

“Huh!,” said the lieutenant looking a bit confused.

“You can’t do that without verifying if the issue is from the temple or your own end. The deacon is also a suspect,” said Shadow as he realized the problem faced by the coastal guard. “The deacon believes that I am working on the side of the temple. So, how about I try and find out about the truth?” suggested Shadow.

“I am working for the temple and not a personal puppet of the deacon. If he is doing anything disgraceful, it is my duty to set it right,” said Shadow acting all righteous in an attempt to convince the lieutenant.

Quest Changed: Missing Supplies.

Quest Description: Find out about the missing guard in the town. Check the deacon’s activities and find out his role in this matter.

“Fine. I trust you because I know that adventurers like you don’t work under deacon. Please, don’t disappoint us,” said the lieutenant shaking his hand. Shadow went to the main hall of the coastal guard station as he wanted to check for any quest from them before he went back to monitor the deacon. The only ones available were collection quests and quests for forging services and provision of weapons. It did seem that the coastal guard of the five elements empire was in a situation of conflict or/and active recruitment.

He wanted to select the forging services option, but it was not available to him right now. It could only be accessed if one had a reputation in the coastal guard services. The forging services quest were more like tests. It would provide the player with specific designs, materials and the workshop withing the station. He would only be required to create the equipment, but it tested his proficiency.

There would be a system set percentage of success that he would need to have at least one success for a certain set of materials needed for the weapon creation. This would be the average success rate of the systems forgers of the players level for that weapon. He would need to maintain a specific percentage of success, else he would be required to compensate for the materials that he had wasted. If he had better percentage of success, his rewards would be based on the amount of materials that he saved. It was a hard thing and a gamble for almost all current players, but for Balthazar it was an easy one due to his experience in his past life.

As he couldn’t take the forging services quest, he took a few collection quests. It was hard to gain entrance into the coastal guard. He only managed to do so because of the quest he had with the temple. So, he decided to make the best use of it. He could also get some contribution by exchanging a few weapons. He quickly exchanged a few of the weapons that he had crafted with them gaining a contribution points of 20 before he left. The weapons being the ones below level 15, only the dark gold twin swords were accepted and were given 20 points for a pair of them. The other collection quests were for items usually found on the beach, but he doubted that the patrol would let any player take them at this time.

With that he decided to go back to the temple to pay a visit to the deacon. Knowing the game, Balthazar knew that there was a high chance that the deacon could as well be the culprit. He had no real trail to follow as the lieutenant didn’t provide him one. This would confuse and stump a lot of players, but Balthazar had realized that there were other options.

He could talk to the deacon and based on the reactions and the actions taken by the deacon, he could find out the truth of the matter. He could also keep a lookout at the temple, but that was time consuming and would have uncertain results. In short, he needed to start up his own investigation as neither the temple nor the coastal guard were going anywhere with their own investigations. Moreover, it wasn’t like he could do anything else as it had already become dark and he couldn’t do any hunting or such activities.

He first went to the guards at the gate to ask them about the situation. He went to the gate and asked them for the information. Initially the guards were unresponsive as they couldn’t give such information. But Shadow showed them his badge and told the information that he got from lieutenant Bloom, they began to talk. The last they saw him was moving in the direction of the market.