Everyone sat around the table.
In the middle of it sat the sealed letter from the guild.
Everyone knew the stigma.
When your boss was looking for you, it meant trouble.
They all stared at the envelope for a long moment.
Aiden glanced around the table and saw that everyone seemed to be sweating just as much as he was, and not just because of the heat.
"I-I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"
Selene suddenly yelled, grabbing the envelope.
She tore it open.
Everyone flinched as if expecting the letter to explode, curse them, or unfold into a tiny guild representative who would start yelling about unpaid fees.
Instead, it was just a folded piece of paper.
They all stared in abject horror as Selene unfolded the first half.
Kaelen rushed to her side, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
"It's too much," he said, grabbing her shoulder. "You can't take all this burden on yourself!"
Selene turned back to him with a solemn look and placed one hand on his shoulder.
"I-it's okay. Someone must make this sacrifice."
Kaelen was then grabbed by Liora and Thalia, who dragged him back as he yelled,
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
Selene unfolded the last square.
"Remember when they said you and Jax were the drama kings?" Will asked inside Aiden's head.
Aiden and Jax just stared at the stage-opera-worthy scene happening in front of them.
Selene looked at the page like it might leap out and bite her.
Then she blinked.
"O-oh. It's just an invitation."
She spun the letter around so everyone could read it.
Plate Games
If you have received this letter, then you are part of a new team recommended by a Steel-rank or higher team due to your promising talent.
You have been invited to attend the Freshplate Games in Bearreach, Flinkeq, in three months.
Representatives from the Jade Lions, Courage Torch, Sandsharks, and Cackling Crows guilds will be present to evaluate your performance and potentially scout participants.
The games will be hosted over one week with 32 teams participating.
The final reward is as follows:
A custom creation from Snowforge Guild artisan Coal Zizegal.
To be eligible for the games, your team must fit the following criteria:
More than 4 members, but no more than 6.All members must be at minimum level 15.You must have at least 10 completed quests, not including plate quests.
Good luck in your preparations.
To learn more information, seek out your sponsor below.
Sponsor: Todis Jackle
They stared at the letter for a long moment.
Everyone looked a bit starstruck.
Even Thalia, who was normally calm and composed, seemed to have frozen slightly.
Aiden looked around the table, trying to figure out what exactly this meant.
Then Jax did a backflip and started dancing.
The others started looking between each other, excitement slowly spreading across their faces.
"You know," Will said, shaking his head, "we are really showing our country bumpkin right now."
"I will give myself a brain freeze," Aiden threatened silently.
Jax looked down at the letter.
"Okay, so we're doing this, right?"
"Is that even a question?" Liora asked, crossing her arms. "Absolutely."
"Then we still have to do a lot to prepare," Kaelen said, pulling out a piece of paper. "Not to mention actually getting there."
He went around the table, asking everyone for their current level and XP before writing it all down.
Kaelen: LV. 8
XP: 7,750 / 15,000
Liora: LV. 8
XP: 13,200 / 15,000
Thalia: LV. 8
XP: 1,012 / 15,000
Selene: LV. 9
XP: 16,200 / 17,000
Aiden: LV. 8
XP: 12,061 / 15,000
Jax: LV. 8
XP: 8,600 / 15,000
"We have the required number of members," Kaelen said. "But we need levels and quests. Considering that Porcelain quests offer one thousand XP per completion, aside from in-quest actions, and doing the math, let's say for convenience that everyone is at ten thousand XP."
Aiden did not like where this was going.
Kaelen kept writing.
"Then subtracting the nine thousand XP we would get from the remaining quests we need…"
He paused.
"One hundred fifty-seven thousand XP."
Aiden stared at him, slack-jawed.
The others seemed to be doing the same.
Liora shot to her feet.
"Where in the hells did you get that number?"
"Well," Kaelen said, turning the paper around. "Every level-up requirement goes up by two thousand XP. So if we use ten thousand XP as a rough baseline for each of us, that means five thousand, plus seventeen thousand, plus nineteen thousand, plus twenty-one thousand, plus twenty-three thousand, plus twenty-five thousand, plus twenty-seven thousand, plus twenty-nine thousand, minus nine thousand from quest base XP."
He tapped the final number.
"That gets us one hundred fifty-seven thousand."
The group began discussing it.
Aiden just sat back, took a sip of water, and stared at the ceiling.
Inside his head, Will joined him in the numb silence, sipping his own incorporeal glass of water.
"Hey," Aiden thought. "Remember when we got excited about two hundred fifty XP?"
Will nodded.
"Yeah. Good times. Life wasn't so complicated."
"We have another issue," Thalia said. "Bearreach, Flinkeq is not close. Even if we stop from town to town, it is around twelve major stops and one thousand six hundred sixty miles of travel."
She traced her finger across the table as if following an invisible map.
The group started discussing routes.
Aiden stood.
"I'm going to use the bathroom."
He stepped out of the Steel Palette and took a deep breath.
He kept hearing big numbers. Numbers too large to picture properly. If he heard too many more of them, he was fairly sure his brain would pop.
Instead, he tried to think about what he knew of towns and places in Balwuk.
"Flinkeq should be south and southwest of here, right?" Aiden asked Will as he walked down the road toward the adventurer's guild.
"Like your train of thought," Will said. "Little steps first. If we were headed that way, we would need to cross the Alcanian Land Bridge. That means our next stop would be directly south at Beeridge."
Aiden nodded and kept walking.
After another minute, he reached the adventurer's quest board.
It took some searching, but eventually he found three quests that seemed to take place in Beeridge.
He grabbed the pages, tucked them under his arm, and walked back to the Steel Palette.
When he returned, the others were still discussing what to do.
Aiden walked up and placed the quest pages in the middle of the table.
"If any of you say one more number with more than three digits, I'm going to blow a blood vessel," he said. "Here are quests for Beeridge. Let's start with this."
Buried Barrel Bandits (E)
An old storage cellar collapsed beneath the Tap & Tumble Tavern, revealing a smuggler tunnel where three rogue goblins have taken up residence. They have been drinking old mead and now think they own the tavern. Clear them out without spilling the mead.
Reward - 750 gold + 1 bottle of Arcane Mead
Failure - 500 gold for tavern damage
Feral Ale Slime Clean-Up (E)
An experimental brew called Wild Hop No. 12 exploded in the brewer's basement, creating a bouncing ale-infused slime. It smells amazing but is eating wood, clothes, and copper pipes. Extract it intact or neutralize it gently.
Reward - 850 gold + 1 Unstable Brew Sample
Failure - 600 gold for floor repairs and lost barrels
Brewmaster's Nose (E)
Old Brewmaster Tugg has caught a nasty noseblight and cannot judge the latest batch of Berryboom Ale. He insists only someone with "a true herbalist's nose" can verify its balance.
Reward - 700 gold + 1 Brewer's Favor Token
Failure - 300 gold for mislabeled brew
The others stopped to read them.
Jax placed one paw on the slime quest and slid it forward.
"I agree," he said. "Let's take this one step at a time, starting with this."
Liora looked over the quest.
"What's this about eating clot—"
"To adventure!" Jax yelled.
Then he bolted out of the Steel Palette without meeting anyone's eyes.