{This is a P-a-t-r-e-o-n Exclusive! If you wish to read ahead, head to my P-a-t-r-e-o-n. https://www.p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/easyread. Remember to remove the Dashes.}
~~~(POV: Lyatt Scott)~~~
~~~(Date: February 7th, 2297)~~~
I'm awoken from my sleep by the alarm from the system. I lean up and look at the countdown in front of me. There is less than a minute until the game goes live. I stand and come to terms with the fact that I really am alive again. While I can't explain why I'm back, I've come to terms with it. It's strange. It seems like something you would read in a book or novel. I watch the counter reach 0, and the area I'm in disappears in a flash, and I'm floating above Libertas. The world is massive. Out of the 6 years I played. Only 15% of it was explored.
[Welcome to Libertas!]
[A world filled with Mysteries and Adventures!]
[You and the rest of the player base will all spawn at the same player level! On the upside, You get to choose anywhere you want to spawn for the first time in Libertas! Feel free to pick anywhere!]
The opening message from the system plays and a list of the thousands of places for a new player to spawn appears. There is a search bar. No one is going to use it. The Libertas Devs really just throw you into it. Lots of players really loved that about the game. I use the search bar and look up the small village of Horris. It's a farming province in the southern region of the Termal Empire, located in the county of Barbos. I select the location, and the system asks me to confirm my choice. After I do, I explode in glorious light, and I spawn at the respawn post in Horris Village.
I take a deep breath, and the air fills my lungs. The sweet smell of the crops comes through, and I release. I never get tired of Libertas. I look around my immediate area, and I can see some NPC's already looking at me. A guard decides to come over. Horris only has a few of them. "Hello, welcome to Horris Village. If you need anything, just ask. The locals and I are glad to help." The NPC's in Horris village is said to be very friendly. I can see that's true now. I smile at the man, and my first question is about the man who gives the quest.
I take a breath and think about what my first words should be. "Would you happen to know where a James Bloat is?" The guard smiles and nods his head. Devin never said specifically where he found James Bloat, only that he resides in Horris Village. The guard motions for me to follow, and I do. I walk behind him through the tiny village, and from time to time, little kids and villagers wave at me. I wish every place in Libertas was this welcoming. The Termal Empire is notorious for being very rude and hard people to deal with. Horris is an exception here.
We come to an older-looking brick house. There is moss and holes in the wall. "Old man Bloat lives here, but he's pretty strange. He talks in the third person and only talks to people smart enough to solve his riddles. Only a few people in the village personally know him. If this all you needed?" I nod my head, and the guard says goodbye. James Bloat, Devin didn't explain much about the man when he posted how he got the quest. Only that he's an odd man and is a trickster with his words. I lightly knock on the door to the house.
I hear the thump of a cane coming towards the door. It creaks open, and Bloat looks at me with one eye. He only has one. "Well, James meets a new face today. James needs help with something. But James won't let you help him unless you can solve one of James' riddles." This is where my individual knowledge comes in. Devin said in his post that Bloat has many different ones, and Devin had to keep trying until he got one of the riddles right. Devin got Darkness Incarnate 2 years after the game came out and solved all this himself after joining the game late. I nod my head, and a grin spreads across his face.