A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 328: A dumb decision

Following along, Eldrian soon entered one of the other larger tents. A circular table with a map spread out over it in the center of the tent. Like all the tables it was far higher than was comfortable for Eldrian to use. Coming up to his chest.

Seeing no chairs in the tent, Eldrian improvised by taking out one of the water barrels he still had in his dimensional storage. Having only moved it from his inventory to the dimensional ring, but not thrown it away.

The barrel he had in his inventory was a Quater Cask, holding fifty liters and just the height he needed to get a good view. Luckily his avatar was strong enough to lift it with little problem, relatively speaking.

Climbing onto the barrel, Eldiran looked at the map of Kynigo forest. Updating his system map with the newly made camp and a few other landmarks added on this one.

"Why did you bring me here?" Eldrian asked as he looked at the plans drawn on the map. The system somehow knowing to not add them. He was curious if he could add it, so he played a bit with the map while talking.

"I thought to ask you if you have any advice for catching the ghoul."

"Why? It can't be that hard." Eldrian replied, confused why they would call on him. Compared to everyone else here, he was not strong nor experienced.

"Do you recall Ayden?" Thesolis asked, Eldrian nodding in confirmation asking if he was here.

"He is not, however, he told a few of my colleagues about your efforts during the siege. Even though you were the weakest, your contribution was nearly equal to his. Most who heard this discounted his tale, unable to accept that you can be as useful as a divine caster."

"However, knowing what I know now, I feel that what he said was the truth. I also confirmed with Kydone that you managed to almost heal her. Something believed to be impossible without divine magic."

Eldrian listened and waited for her to continue, which she did after seeing him still waiting for why he was here.

"I would like to ask if you would be willing to act as bait."

"No, no-no." Eldrian quickly replied, not in the mood to die. The request was even less appealing now that he had a plan on how to reach Tier 3.

"Let me finish first," Thesolis said, pointing to a few areas on the map. "So far, it has only attacked patrols in this region. Thus we can assume its movement is limited by something. However, when we go out to find it, we find nothing. It also only targets patrols without a Tier 6 and without a divine caster."

"The ghoul is also extremely adept at stealth. Even Kydone said she could not follow its tracks, she was not even certain if she would be able to hide from it."

While impressive, this news just made Eldrian more certain of his choice. He did not want to take any more risks. In fact, once this mission was done he planned to not do another until he reached Tier 4 at the very least. Certain that Tier 5 will be a massive hurdle that would likely take too long to do nothing but training.

"This means it must be Tier 6 at the most, all we need is for people to hold their ground until help arrives. If we succeed, you will be given a steel emblem to redeem after the mission."

[Quest Received: Unkown danger (Unique)]

[Quest Giver: Thesolis]

[Quest Rank: A]

[Quest Description: Currently a ghoul assassin is on a rampage in the forest. Help find and kill it, along with other possible dangers working with it.]

[Quest Reward: 2 Levels & Steel Emblem]

'Rank A. There is more to this mission.' Eldrian thought, having gotten a rough understanding of the system's ranking system. Quests were ranked not based on the difficulty to the player, but the universal difficulty. Taking into account all the players, NPCs, enemies, their levels, Tiers, and types.

This meant that while a quest rank can differ, the difference comes from who will participate. Likely even the location of the quest is important.

Thanks to this it is possible to roughly calculate what was to be expected, as long as you knew your side's strength.

For example, Cleanse the Forest was rank A. However, it did not require any fighting. Its difficulty was in the dangers that one can encounter and the number of enemies needing to be found. Any single encounter could lead to your death, hence it being ranked as A.

The test of ability quest was instead Rank B. It also had no combat requirements. Its difficulty came from needing to find something that might help without any guidance. Nelida's Journey was C-Rank due to distance and not enemies.

The First Expedition quest was also ranked A, and it did not change when they discovered there were more enemies. Hence the system already knew of them and added them. Eldrian knew now that Rank B was what kingdoms got if the beasts' and expedition's numbers were the same. Rank A if the enemy was nearly doubled, Rank S when it was around four times more.

This meant that they certainly weren't dealing with just a ghoul. The description also alluded to this. If he went with a group of four Tier 5's, then likely they were facing one Tier 6 or a few Tier 5's. Possibly a Tier 6 and Tier 5.

However, them having reinforcements made the quest rank a little unclear. Eldrian did not know how the system took them into consideration, or if it even did.

Eldrian waited for her to say more and when it became clear she was done he asked, "How would I be of help? I am by far the weakest in the camp."

"But you have a unique way of approaching things. You also won't truly die. The danger to you is far less than to others." Thesolis countered, unable to understand why he seemed so unwilling.

"It is too dangerous, why don't you rather just ensure the area is only patrolled by Tier 6 patrols?" Eldrian countered back.

"Then it will cause other places to be weakened," Thesolis replied, becoming slightly frustrated. "Besides, the entire point of clearing the forest is ensuring there are no threats behind us when we go into the corrupted area. Why are you so afraid?"

Not knowing how to explain Eldrian tried asking, "Have you sent a lone Tier 6? The ghoul might feel confident then."

"No luck. It ignored the Evules when he tried luring it out that way."

'Well... Evules does not exactly scream week.' Eldrian though, recalling the massive centaur nearly three meters tall. "What about..."

After a few minutes of back and forth, Eldrian finally felt like they truly had tried everything else. He still did not know why they thought he might make a difference, but he was willing to give it a shot. Only because there truly seemed to be no other way.

Still, he did not wish for NPCs to also die needlessly. "I'll do it, on one condition."

Not having expected any conditions, Thesolis was taken aback. "What is it?"

"Let me try acting as bait... Alone."

It took a couple of seconds for Thesolis to recover. "That is insane. The hope of adding you to a group is that you can at the very least bring back knowledge of what type of ghoul we are facing. We do not think the wounded centaur will make it."

Nodding Eldrian countered, "Just let me try. I will likely be killed in seconds and it will all be a waste, but I would rather that than having others die with me. You are right, my death won't be permanent. Theirs will be."

Again taken aback, this time by Eldrian's complete turnaround, Thesolis asked, "Are you sure?" Eldrian nodding confidently, getting a quest update as he did.

[Quest Updated: Unkown danger (Unique) - Solo]

[Quest Giver: Thesolis]

[Quest Rank: S]

[Quest Description: Currently a ghoul assassin is on a rampage in the forest. Help find and kill it, along with other possible dangers working with it.]

[Quest Reward: 3 Levels & Steel Emblem & Unkown]

'As expected, it is determined by numbers and strength averages. Rank A already meant we would die, Rank S means nearly certain death.' Eldrian mumbled softly, wondering if it was still a good idea. Cursing himself for even considering to chicken out. It was now certain that he would be facing a Tier 6 at the least.

"How am I going to try and survive for you guys to arrive? And how am I going to inform you that I am in danger?" Eldrian asked, feeling like this was just a good way of losing 3 levels.

'There goes that reward.' Eldrian thought with a sigh, he had gained one from finishing the Test of ability quest. He had totally missed the notification due to his rush to meet up with Jen that day. Still, the reward was just that. Something he could lose so easily. Levels truly meant little in this world.

While half-listening to Thesolis's reply, Eldrian worried that this might be an attack aimed at him. He knew that a ghoul's attack damaged the soul. On top of that, there was more uncertainty in unknown dangers.

He just could not understand how he could be found so quickly, and more importantly how the enemy could know and react before the empires.

*Check Author Note for why I did not update*