!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
AXE THROWING MASTERY ACHIEVED! 3/5
"Ah… shit," Vol listened to the announcement, pleased for a split second, before he cursed, realizing that he'd misremembered the number of mastery points required for axe-throwing evolution. For many of his skills, he had needed a mere 3 points, but for others, he needed 5. If there was a pattern to that skill assignment, he didn't recognize it yet.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
QUEST DELIVERED!
UNDERSTANDING
COMPLETE THIRTY AXE THROWS AGAINST THE TREE 0/30
TEST TEN AXE THROWS WITH HANDS IN DIFFERING POSITIONS 0/3
HELP A DRUNKARD OFF THE DOCKS WITH AN AXE THROW 0/1
REWARDS:
WEAPONS PROFICIENCY: +5
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE +2
Finally, it had come. Just when he was beginning to grow frustrated, the System bestowed another quest on him. The quests seemed to come in the moments that he needed them… And now, he had definitely needed them, if only to settle his growing unrest.
He noted the rewards. Gods! For a single quest, it was offering a 25% improvement in his weapons skill stat. That would mean that he would gain skills even faster, wouldn't it? Or at least, until his skills caught up with it.
The general knowledge stat was also a welcome bonus, though he had no idea what the stat affected yet, and the System still had not deemed it appropriate to explain that.
The quest contents, though… Were they not just practising what he was doing before? He'd already thrown his axe against the tree over fifty times, and that had taken ages to get a response from the System, indicating that he'd achieved a mastery point.
If he had to guess, it would take him over two hundred throws before he'd manage to achieve something similar.
But those second two parts of the quest were different. What were they meant to illustrate? That there were other ways of gaining mastery of a throwing skill? That he should try different things? He already knew that, but was not repetition the heart of learning? Was it not best to do something that was endlessly repeatable, just to get the work in?
And what was this… What did that last part suggest? Help a drunkard into the docks? Was the System asking him to murder again? Is that what he was becoming? Someone who murdered innocent people who were just minding their own business.
!! SYSTEM REMINDER: YOU CAN SIMPLY IGNORE A QUEST IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH IT.
Vol clenched a fist. Of course, he wasn't going to ignore it. It was just… Doing the same thing over and over, there was no glory in it. A hard fight with the lawmen, and with Usar's guards, that had been rewarding. He would have liked to do that over and over, until the sky cracked, and his body exploded with newfound strength.
It was just the killing of innocents that was beginning to grow tiresome. The fur merchant was one thing. He'd had something to offer, and Vol didn't regret making the kill. The fur merchant's wife was another… She had been a pleasant enough woman. It seemed a waste to have killed it. It had only inspired further trouble for himself in doing that.
Now, killing a drunkard? What was the good in that? What sort of trouble would that invite? Would he once more have guardsmen chasing after him? He hadn't seen any in this town, but that didn't mean there weren't any.
It was equally likely that whoever he attacked would result in animosity forming between himself and the raiders. Was the System just setting him quests so that it could delight in watching his charisma plummet?
!! SYSTEM REMINDER: THIS QUEST DOES NOT INCLUDE CHARISMA DEBUFFS.
He checked again. The System was right. It didn't. Before, after revealing that charisma debuffs did exist, it had included them as a warning in any quest rewards that it offered. So perhaps he could trust the System to make good on its promise there… but still, it felt like such a waste, ensuring potential trouble for the likes of a mere drunkard.
He'd be killing an unarmed man for the sake of mere curiosity.
Was that going to stop him? No.
But at least he could complain, and at least attempt to moralize it in some sort of half-arsed way. He heaved a sigh, and resumed throwing his axe at the tree.
He was only a few strides away from the longhouse that he was staying in. Here, the trees grew closer enough that their bows extended out over the roof of the house. The occasional man came out rubbing his eyes, drunk already.
Some would notice Vol, and in their drunkenness, see nothing odd about him casting an axe against a tree. They would merely grunt, and go back to the act of melting snow with their urine.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
QUEST TASK COMPLETE!
COMPLETE THIRTY AXE THROWS AGAINST THE TREE 30/30!
Vol acknowledged it, and stretched out his shoulders, as he went to check the next task.
TEST TEN AXE THROWS WITH HANDS IN DIFFERING POSITIONS 0/3
What did that even mean? Did that mean he had to throw an axe three times, or did it mean he had to throw an axe ten times, with ten throws each in three different positions? Because they were the System's words, it stood to reason that it was down to the System's interpretation, rather than his own.
Typically, he held his hand nearing the end of the shaft when he was hefting the axe for a throw. Now, he decided to put his hand right on the end, merely to test it. It felt awkward, as though every little movement resulted in far more spin than he intended.