88 – Tailor

Vivi’s number one priority was dropping [Warp Anchors] around the mortal kingdoms, but luckily, she could work on her secondary goal while doing so. Reuniting Vanguard.

The tame, rolling plains of the Central Kingdom blurred beneath her as she headed for the first major city that she intended to drop a teleportation point in. Solace was a notable city in its own right, but she might not have made it her first destination if not for another excellent reason to visit.

Malach, the prior Tailor of Vanguard, lived there.

She wondered how she would handle meeting another previous craftsman. And the one she had worked with the most extensively out of all, second not even to Mae. A majority of the equipment Vivisari had worn throughout her career had been either crafted outright by the beastkin tailor or seen repairs and modifications through.

Musing over what meeting him would be like, and over Vanguard’s future, her thoughts drifted to that final announcement of Rafael’s the previous day.

That of the new Quest.

***

The day before.

“The next Quest has appeared in the guildhall,” Rafael said.

Vivi was more caught off guard than she probably should have been. The first of the mythical-tier Quests had explicitly referred to itself as stage one of Vanguard’s restoration; it would have been stranger if a second hadn’t appeared at some point. In all the events of the past few days, though, it had honestly slipped from her mind.

She was so intrigued that the manaburn nausea faded into the background. “It has? What is it? And what’s the reward?” The last of those questions was particularly interesting, because stage one had given them the Codex. A lofty standard to set.

“I transcribed a copy of the Quest for my lady’s perusal.” Rafael pulled a parchment out of his inventory and held it out to her. “Please read through at your leisure.”

She took the paper and did so.

***

~ Mythic Quest ~

The Restoration of Vanguard, Stage Two

The embers rekindle. A great threat emerges. Heroes heed the call.

With steel and fire, Vanguard once led the mortal kingdoms into an unprecedented era—at great personal cost. The peace they bought with blood has now been threatened. New and old alike must pick up their blades and hammers, else all will be lost.

What shape will the new guard take? The remnants shall decide.

Task:

– Fill all craftsmen roles. {1/8}

– Induct one bronze-rank adventurer. {0/1}

– Induct one silver-rank adventurer. {0/1}

– Induct one gold-rank adventurer. {0/1}

– Induct one mithril-rank adventurer. {0/1}

– Induct one orichalcum-rank adventurer. {1/1}

– Induct one Titled adventurer. {0/1}

Rewards:

– Progress Guild Tier from one to two.

– One item harvested from the Reaper of the Lost Harvest will be reforged into a Lv.2000 relic with no level requirement.

***

Vivi read the words once, then twice to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. As she lowered the paper onto her lap, a frown crept onto her lips. “It’s easy again. Not as much as the last, but still easy.”

“Especially relative to the reward,” Rafael agreed.

“A second artifact, this one from the Reaper. If it’s at all similar to the Codex, that’s going to be a substantial help.” Vivi hadn’t actually needed to lean on the book’s power during the breach at Prismarche—her regular mana pool would probably have sufficed, much to her regret—but she had confirmed the extent of the Codex’s usefulness. It supplemented her strength in a not small way.

“One might even infer the next artifact will be more powerful, seeing how it comes from the next Quest in the series, and indeed uses a stronger Cataclysm as a base,” Rafael said. “But that it’ll be at least on equal footing is the safe assumption.”

“It worries me the System is helping us so blatantly,” Vivi said, remembering that troubling line of thought from earlier—that interference suggested the System thought they needed help. “But I think it makes more sense now. It’s our world against the starving Other, as Remian put it. ‘Even an insect from our world would throw itself upon those beasts, gnashing and biting, without reservation,'” she quoted. “They are anathema.’ I doubt he chose those words carelessly. Even the Concepts fought back, so of course the Grand System wants to do so too. And I’m its best conduit.” Her brow furrowed. “This is assuming a higher level of sapience for it than maybe is appropriate, though. How much do we know about the Grand System, anyway?”

Rafael appraised her calmly, since the question was probably strange, but he knew of her ‘memory issues.’ “Objectively? Only what can be observed. But it is said that the Grand System was created by the heavens to shepherd us along our paths. It is of divine make, undoubtedly, but whether the gods exert their will through it directly, or whether it has a mind of its own…” He shrugged. “Nearly every aspect of the Grand System is a topic of much theological and philosophical debate.”

That was what she’d assumed. She’d only asked in case she was missing something obvious, or something well known. “No matter what the case is, I’m glad it’s in our corner.” She rubbed the side of her head, trying to ignore the manaburn aches pervading her body. “When the guild goes up another tier, maybe more of the vault will open up. That’s also worth looking forward to. But the requirements—recruitment. I already wanted to contact our previous members, though that’s something that needs to be done sooner rather than later, now.”