Cardinal: King's Line

After finishing up his business, Darius reviewed his options once more. He could try the standard grind game and hope to get good stuff from monster drops with his luck stat, he could commit to completing quests and bounties to take the NPC prestige route to power, or he could take the dungeon rush route, which is exactly what it sounds like. Ultimately, Darius put his spin on the options and walked to the Bounty board.

This was also exactly what it sounded like, there was a list of monsters with some level of detail on what they are and why they have been given their respective bounties, the bounty hunter would then go out and kill the creature in question and bring back whatever the Bounty requested you to get as proof you killed the thing. You claim the bounty and you can then keep the items to trade in for whatever other valuables they are worth- Bounty rewards are entirely subjective and can be anything from items to skill books, to building rights, to promised tutorage, to standard coin- It's value would be measured objectively through some metric or the other and the Fortress would give you a price equivalent to the offers each bounty puts up.

The part Darius liked about the bounty system was the fact that as a bare minimum, the level and nature of the target were open; for instance, the guy with the highest bounty Darius could see was a Dark NPC of the Devil Race. Despite being Rank 1 Level 50, It was the regional boss of all Europe Kingdom starter Zones and was the be all end all enemy of the early game in this specific kingdom, especially considering the game explicitly states that NPCs can and will improve if given the time and opportunity. Darius astutely turned away from this and went as far down as he could before gazing at something far more doable.

For 70 Silver coins, he would have to kill a level 10 wild boss out in the level 5 - 10 zones not too far off from the Barracks. it was a Kobold (Dog Humanoid) that was fully decked out in the best gear of the challengers that failed to beat it. He wasn't going to challenge it directly now for obvious reasons but he accepted it as his shortest immediate goal to beat. The money would do him well and the experience he could get would allow him to climb multiple levels as long as he was a low enough level when he eventually beat it.

After that, he checked the price list for monster parts that could be traded for coins and found a list of fairly low-level monsters whose materials got good prices making a list of them for himself, he then filtered it down to monsters found in the Kobold Wild Bosses Territory. After doing all of this He was left with the horn of a dire wolf, the tongue of a goblin and the eye of a Cyclops monster known to be in the ranges of level 5-7 in general.

Darius then made his way to the quest boards and looked for quests in the territory of the Kobold Wild Boss he was after, most were much too difficult to even consider completing at level 0, especially since level suppression was a thing in this game that wasn't nerfed in higher ranked regions. There only seemed to be miscellaneous quests that required one to waste time pandering to requests of varying NPCs within the Bastion, or, going to fight impossibly high-level enemies that one could only be played to death by at his level.

In the end, Darius refused the miscellaneous quests, they simply didn't interest him, and he decided to join a player party instead. He wasn't planning on committing to this game so he saw no reason to pander to his ego by hoarding exp. He only needed to be strong enough to get the job done, not to top the game's rankings.

Darius scanned the various player parties that were being formed and looked for ones with the optimal build of a damage dealer, an assassin, a ranged fighter, and either a mage or a healer. He had no expectations of finding a healer this early in the game as he figured mages would be much more realistic to find in a starter town. Not that healers don't exist but rather they were as rare as your standard Lamborghini Urus, you knew they existed but wouldn't be able to find one simply passing by for the life of you. Darius eventually found a party that roughly fit the specs, they had two long sword wielders, a twin dagger wielder, an Archer, a Bow staff wielder, and a 5 foot 9 young woman holding a cane.

Both sword wielders were male, both standing at 6'0 roughly, one being a blonde pretty boy and the other being a brown-haired more average-looking bloke, the woman wielding the dagger stood at 5'5 with a much leaner build than the others. she looked to be the open bubbly type from how the group interacted so he made a mental note to ignore that one.

The archer was a brunette male who stood at 5 foot 10, his quill had 30 poor quality arrows even when just eyeballing the quill on his back- the Bow staff wielder was a male who had a similar build to Darius, standing at 6 foot 2 with a lean built frame wearing a very 'kind' smile on his face. The two sword wielders were white British, the dagger wielder was a mix of white Japanese, the Archer was Chinese through and through, the Bow staff wielder with a buzz cut was Egyptian while the cane wielder was a blonde American young woman who looked to be in her mid-20s give or take.

Darius approached the group straightforwardly and stopped in front of the Archer confusing the other members of the group who decided to watch first and respond after. "I want you and two of the close-range damage dealers in your party to join me for a few quests at a guaranteed combined commission of 60%, you would not have any rights to monster drops", Darius offered, getting straight to the point, "You don't plan to hire the services of the mage in this party??", The Archer asked in turn, implying that Darius guessed right when he assumed this guy was the party leader.

"I refuse", He said dryly, Ignoring the fact that bringing a mage would warrant the group a higher percentage of the rewards or at the very least some priority on monster drops, having a mage early game is much too expensive for the type of quest he planned to undergo. Plus mages were known to be stubborn to a degree no matter what the game and he was here for a mission not to be some random bloke's free therapist.

"That makes sense, along with myself I will bring along one of my swordsmen and my assassin", the archer in question informed Darius who frowned but agreed, social gripes were one thing but he was short on time and wasn't fond of the idea of lagging behind the player base no matter how mission-focused he was. "My I.D is Basilisk, I plan to get the Tank class" Darius introduced with an outstretched hand, " My I.D is Enemy Soldier, As you can see I am aiming for a variant of the Archer class", the bow wielder name Enemy soldier, or just Soldier, reciprocated before calling the Blonde Sword wielder and the brunette dagger wielder over to Join him and informed them of the deal, as such the two introduced themselves.

"My I.D is Stellar Blade, and I plan to go for whatever variant of the Magic swordsman class this game has", Said the blade wielder who I will refer to as Blade unless otherwise necessary.

"My I.D is Cruel Silence, I am going for a Rouge-Assassin class", said the dagger wielder who I will refer to as Silence unless otherwise necessary.

Darius nodded and gestured for the 3 to follow him so Soldier informed the rest of the party of the situation on the ground and told them to stick to their parts of some original plan. Darius didn't ask and had no intention of ever doing so, just as long as he could get a move on. Darius led the 4-man party to the quest board where he retrieved 4 quests that required them to go to the territory of the Kobold wild Boss, and they were as follows:

Quest: Cull the Stragglers

Quest Type: Regional Quest

Quest Difficulty: Platinum Rank (0.1%)

Quest Description: The Kingdom of Europe is one that survived a great civil war brought on by a group known as the [Divine Hall] A cult that sought to rise to power and claim the Empire as a slave for whatever 'god' they served, they failed even to dent the empires army and were forced to disband and flee, hiding under the protection of Bandits spread throughout the Empire waiting to rise once more. Kill the remaining Members of the Divine Hall and rid the empire of this scourge once and for all. Hand in the badges attached to the souls of the Hall members as evidence of your kills, they are to be brought in dead.

Completion Percentage: 2.5% {25,000/1,000,000}

Rewards:

Outer Member- 10 silver coins + 1,000 exp

Basic Member- 50 Silver coins + 1750 exp

Core Member- 2 Gold coins + 2,500 exp

Minor Priest- 5 Gold coins + 5,000 exp

Core Priest- 10 Gold coins + 15,000 exp

High Priest- 50 Gold coins + 20,000 exp

Fabled Priest- 1 Platinum coin + 45,000 exp

Deacon- 10 Platinum coins + 70,000 exp

Hall Master- 75 Platinum coins + 100,000 exp

Divine Sage (The Head of the Organisation)- 500 Platinum coins + 500,000 exp

Grade: TBD

Quest: Raven Killer

Quest Type: Raid

Quest Difficulty: Bronze Rank (12.5%)

Quest Description: The Ravens Bandit group Branch Near the Iron Bastion is rumoured to have 2 Outer members of the Divine Hall under its protection, Raid the Bandit hideout and kill the 2 Divine Hall members, Bring the crest of the Branch head and the soul badge of the 2 hall members as proof of completion.

Completion Percentage: 0% (0/2)| 13.27% (0/1) (0/2) (1/10) (15/100)

Rewards: 1 Gold coin + 250 reputation with the Kingdom of Europe ((+ 100 exp per [Claw]+ 1,000 exp per [Wing] + 5,000 exp per [Eye] + 10,000 exp for [Bandit Head]))

Grade: TBD

Quest: S.O.S

Quest Type: Escort

Quest Difficulty: Extreme Rank (40%)

Quest Description: Protect the Merchant Balelo as he traverses through the Raven Bandit Group's territory to Reach the Boiling Rock, This protection only needs to last until he is clear of the Bandit territory when you will receive your payment

Completion Percentage: 0%

Rewards: 75 Silver coins, 1 free Uncommon Item per Party Member & 1 Merchant Guild Pass

Grade: TBD

Quest: Widow's Lament

Quest Type: Fetch

Quest Difficulty: Extreme (35%)

Quest Description: Army General Risha Vaal lost her husband and child to the Terantulae Queen who protects the Raven's Bandit group territory, Kill the Monster and present her with its head and you shall receive your reward.

Completion Percentage: 0%

Rewards: 85 silver coins, An Uncommon Item of your choosing from the Fortress Vault & A special reward from Risha Vaal herself ((+ 5000 exp for kill))

Grade: TBD

"I take it you have some sort of plan to complete these quests?", Soldier asked as he looked over the 4 quests Darius chose. The first one required them to kill some guardian beast, and the other required the group to wipe out a bandit group who were protecting two cultist lunatics; the third required them to escort some merchant through the territory of the bandit group in question, while the final one was asking us to kill multiple cultist lunatics of assumed increasing power as they went up the ranks. If he wanted to take out this bandit group why not just say that, why all the theatrics in hiring them with a commission?

"Yes, I do... At the Core of these quests are the Raven Bandit group with the two Divine Hall members and the Queen Terantulae serving as various Bosses that we are guaranteed to encounter anyway", Darius started, " The main idea was to accept a series of quests that would allow us to maximise the benefits this group gain from raiding this Bandit group... Once the last few members join us we will discuss the plans in greater detail", Darius concluded as he invited Soldier, Blade, and Silence to a party which the 3 accepted.

A half-hour later 3 more players approached the group from the direction of the weapon store- From left to right was a 5 ft 8 lean White-American male wielding a Tomahawk, a blonde American woman who stood at 5 ft 5 had a much more defined slimmer build wielding a bow with 50 arrows in her quill like Soldier and an Arabic woman with dark brown hair kept up in a short crown braid, she had a standard Halberd clipped to a holder on her back. "Meet my comrades, they are new to gamer culture so I will introduce them... From left to right we have Mighty Bjorn who is going for a warrior class variant, Guerrilla Queen who is going for the Archer variant, and Immortal Lancer who is going for a spear knight variant build", Darius introduced before adding the three to the party to which they also accepted.