Chapter XVIII: Lady Mireille Beauvale Quest Line Part 1
"So, what do we do now?"
"We talk to Lady Mireille," I said. The ! icon was still flashing above her, so her quest line was still available. When I got close to her, a screen appear:
Would you like to continue? Blue O. Red X.
I wondered if I was going to be talking to a real NPC or if this was an actress Stardust Studios had hired. The Central System operated this world. It was commonly called the most advanced AI on the planet, though, with the way governments and militaries liked to lie, no one could be sure. Even if it was, it was one of the most advanced AIs.
It could render the world, keep track of every player in the server, generate encounters, and run dungeons and labyrinths all at once. While it wasn't as advanced as the Cardinal System in the SAO anime, it couldn't generate its own quests and it needed maintenance by the Stardust engineers, it was leagues more advanced than any other gaming system.
It was even able to synthesize voices, making the need for voice actors minimal. The only time a voice actor was ever used was when a professional actor was given an NPC avatar. The Central System could control NPCs, though most of them only had limited ways to interact. They had a script and if a player went off script, the NPC wouldn't be able to cope.
At certain times, such as events, particularly quest lines, or the official narrative, the Central System could focus its computing power to make NPCs appear more life-like. On the low end, this just meant that the NPCs were a little less rigid. On the high end, the system-controlled NPC could hold entire conversations with you. They felt like real people.
The high-end consumed a lot more processing power, and though it was still utilized, Stardust Studios had taken the steps to hire actors to log in and play certain roles.
This was obviously a quest line, and if it was important enough, we might be dealing with a high-end NPC. Or an actor.
In any case, I hit the O.
The screen disappeared and the NPC girl looked up. "W-who are you?"
"I'm Chevalier Phénix. These are my companions, Sage, Ghost Lantern, and Namikaze. You are Lady Mireille, are you not? The daughter of Marquis Alphonse?"
The girl sniffled and whipped her tears away. "Yes."
"What are you doing all the way out here?"
Lady Mireille whipped the rest of her tears away. "My father has instructed me to take this letter to my uncle."
As she spoke, she pulled out a letter from her dress. It was faded yellow, with an elaborate wax seal.
"My uncle commands the garrison at Fort Lux. He needs to read this letter immediately."
Fort Lux was just outside the Infernal Forest. According to game lore, they were defending the city and the lands around it. The Darkness was already creeping into the forest, corrupting the wildlife, but his garrison was keeping the majority of it at bay.
"My knights were slaughtered. My father outfitted them with enchanted armor, but we were attacked by mortals. The knights weren't prepared to fight other humans. They wanted to ransom me to my father for gold.
"It is of the utmost importance that I deliver this letter to my uncle. If I fail, Lutetia will be consumed and the bull work against the darkness will be lost."
Another screen appeared in front of me:
Lady Mireille has requested your protection! Escort her safely to Fort Lux!
(O) (X)
I looked back at my friends. Amos was making a face. "I hate escort quests. You know she's going to be useless."
"They always are," I told him. She was going to be our burden and make everything harder than it needed to be.
Kanade shrugged. "Yeah, I'm game."
Euphie was eyeing the girl. "I think we should help her."
"Fine. Just accept it," Amos caved.
I clicked the O. Mireille's health bar was displayed predominately under mine.
Having her in the party came with pros and cons. Since she was with us, we didn't run into any monsters. Not a single Wolf, Boar, Frenzied Buck, or anything. The downside was that she replaced every encounter with bandits. She was a magnet and drew every bandit in the area straight to her.
The Infernal Forest wasn't huge, and she seemed to have a grasp of it. She pointed us in the right direction, so we weren't getting lost. If that was all there was to the quest, we'd have finished it in half an hour. Maybe an hour.
The quest took three hours. Every ten minutes of walking, bandits ambushed us. Every. Single. Time. The bandits weren't insanely leveled, but each encounter brought at least ten bandits. That was on the low end. Sometimes there would be twenty bandits! It was never more than twenty, but they were able to swarm us, prolonging the time for each encounter.
It was like grinding away at a trash mob that never seemed to end. A mob where each of the monsters gave pitiable amounts of EXP. After two and a half hours, I had leveled one time.
Euphie made level four, but Kanade and Amos were still stuck at three. This quest wasn't so difficult as it was time-consuming. By the time we left the forest and caught sight of the fort, I wondered if the developers did this on purpose. Made a quest so annoying it discouraged players from taking it.
Well, at least we caught sight of the fort. We were on the final leg of the quest.
But of course, it couldn't be that easy.
Between the edge of the forest and the fort was a trimmed grassland. Standing in the middle was a man dressed like a knight, decked out in full armor. "Sir Calares? What are you doing here?"
I looked at the girl. "Who is Sir Calares?"
"He is a knight in my father's service. He commands the defense of the wall."
"Not anymore, Lady Mireille. Lord Alphonse will pay handsomely for you to be returned alive. I am here to collect the gold that is owed to me."
And he drew his huge sword.
***
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