73. Objectives

73. Objectives

“I honestly don’t even know where to start,” I said, looking at all of the options which opening my new menu had brought up.  There were just so many of them, and they all looked so promising.

“I suggest you start with [Objectives],” Thomas said.

I quickly found the option and selected it.  A new menu came up.  There was an option to add a new objective, but to my surprise the space under ‘current objectives’ was blank.

“There’s nothing there,” I said.

“Of course not, you haven’t entered anything yet,” Thomas explained.  “So far the algorithm that has been writing and assigning quests for you has been examining your actions and simply guessing at your motivations.  This menu is for you to give it more direct input.  The system will continue to run in the background as before while you’re out adventuring, but the quests you give from now on will be more tailored to fulfilling the goals that you have entered in this menu.  You can change them, add new objectives, or mark objectives as complete whenever you wish, but you can only access this menu from the throne.”

I considered his explanation, then began to make a list.

• Bring Nial Kingslayer to justice
• Investigate the murders of my uncles
• Protect my mother, and my brother once he is born.
• Remove the bandits that are infesting North Shire
• Investigate the presence of corruption in North shire
• Stabilize and secure both North Shire and Thornmarch

I tried to think of other quests that I would like to assign, but decided that those six were the most important at the moment.  Since Thomas promised that I could change it anytime I wanted, I decided that was good enough for now.

“Okay.  What should I do next?” I asked.

Thomas shrugged.  “Whatever you want.  Explore and play around with the system.  You could review the players who have been gathering Reputation with you, if you want.  You can also see the other quest givers who are linked and allied with you.  You can assign them tasks, but you need to actually communicate those tasks to them physically in some way before they’ll be able to act on the goals you assign them.  And there’s also several options to help you manage your territories, so you’ll probably want to spend some time reviewing those as well.”

I nodded, but then I paused for a moment as I recalled something which had been bothering me ever since Uncle Auroras had mentioned it.  “Thomas, is it true that Thedum is making it difficult for Travelers to cleanse their [Brand of Sin] because of me?”

Thomas hesitated, then shrugged.  “Honestly, Hail, I don’t know.  I’ve mentioned before that we don’t have complete control over Thedum.  It’s somewhat frustrating, but he’s too useful and important to the operation of this world for us to actually do anything about it.  It could be that he’s taking your feelings into consideration, but you’d have to ask him directly.”

“Can you summon him again for me?” I asked.

“I don’t have to.  He’s been listening since you said his name,” Thomas said.  “You’re his avatar, after all.  You can invoke him pretty much whenever you want, Hail.  You don’t have any more control over him than anyone else, so he may not respond, but he is definitely paying attention.”

“I really wish you hadn’t told him that,” a booming voice said, somehow muttering despite its clarity.  I jumped in surprise when I recognized the deity’s voice.  “I don’t want him relying upon me anymore than you do.”

“Thedum!  Is it true?” I asked.

“Is it true that I monitor more or less everything you do?  Yes, but that’s always been the case.  You have been under my protection for your entire life, after all.  Making you my avatar has changed the nature of that relationship somewhat, but I haven’t significantly increased the amount of attention I pay to you since then,” Thedum answered.  “I did lose track of you while you were in the lobby, and while you were in the Deadlands with the avatar of Death, as those domains are outside of my authority.  But otherwise I always have a sliver of my awareness focused on you.”

“The Deadlands?” I asked, suddenly feeling pale.

“You didn’t know?” Thedum asked, sounding surprised.  “Well, don’t worry too much about that.  The myths about those zones aren’t exactly accurate, and you were never in any more danger than you are right now.  You were just, as I said, outside of my authority.  Even had you died, you would have returned to the lobby, and you would have been able to revive in one of my temples as usual.”

Despite his reassurances, I still found the idea that I had spent an entire week inside the lands where spirits went to die troubling.  However, Thedum had misinterpreted what I’d asked.  “Is it true that you are making it difficult for Travelers to obtain [Mark of Redemption] because of me?”

Thedum paused for a minute.  “It is not exactly false.  There are a number of factors which I have considered in assigning the difficulty of the requirements for converting [Brand of Sin] into [Mark of Redemption].  The largest factor for the majority of Travelers is the act which caused them to gain the brand in the first place, which for virtually all of them at the moment is engaging in battle with you while you were in your avatar form.  I have set this variable the same for all Travelers, whether they were aware of the significance of your appearance or not.  Or rather, that value was negotiated with your, I believe that Thomas referred to it as your subconscious.  At the time, your subconscious was demanding that I raise it as high as possible.  If I were to lower that value, many Travelers would find it much easier to earn the Mark of Redemption.”

“Would you?” I asked.

“If you ask me to,” Thedum answered.

Did I want that?  I had been troubled by this matter ever since Auroras had told me of it.  The truth is that I’m not certain I would ever stop resenting the Travelers who had fought and killed me simply because I had become a worldboss.  However, that didn’t mean that I wanted to drive them into the arms of the adversary.  “I don’t want it to be too easy,” I said at last.  “But I don’t want them to give up because it’s too hard either.  I mean, if all they did was show up to the battle, that is.  Everyone who was in <The Endolphins> deserves what they got, I think, and I don’t care if they give up or not.  Could you lower it just for the other guilds?”

“I will adjust it based on whether they were present for King Rain’s death,” Thedum declared.  “It will become significantly easier for the majority of Travelers to earn the [Mark of Repentance] going forward.  I will not be adjusting the other variables.  Those who have progressed along the pathwaysthat open up once they obtain the [Brand of Sin] will still find that the path to redemption becomes harder the further along they have traveled.”

I considered his response.  “So if they gave up because I made things to difficult, this wouldn’t make any difference?”

“It would still make a significant difference for most of them,” Thedum explained.  “The other variables which would affect their path to earning a [Mark of Redemption] would be the commission of egregious crimes such as murdering Natives or completing quests for factions aligned with my adversary.  Not very many have progressed that far down such paths simply because of the frustration of removing the brand.  However, I am not willing to lower the requirement for those who did, and I doubt that you would be able to convince me to do so if you were so inclined.”

I considered his words, and then sighed.  I wasn’t thrilled about the idea that some Travelers who wouldn’t otherwise have allied themselves with darkness had done so because of my stubbornness, but if they were killing Natives and doing other unspeakable acts already, then I’m not certain I wanted them to come back to the light anyway.  “I guess that’s fine then.”

“If you’d like, Hail, I can make an announcement on the forums on this matter,” Thomas volunteered.  “I believe it would be best if this matter looks like a hotfix from the administration rather than having it appear to be related to you in any way.  Many Travelers have been calling for something like this for a while now, so it will appear natural if we address this in a blue post.”

“Sure, I guess,” I said.

“Do you have any other concerns which require my direct attention, Hail?” Thedum asked.

“My curse,” I said quickly.  “Can you remove it?”

Thedum sighed.  “Yes, but not without cost.  Specifically, I must return you to level one to cleanse you of the curse, so there is no point in removing it at this point in time.  [The Gray Man’s Touch] will be lifted when the current gray man dies, so the only way to remove it without losing your current progression would be to kill Auroras Teoran.  However, if you were to commit such an act, or cause your followers to do so, I would be forced to reject you as my Avatar.  Which is, of course, why the other gods lobbied Death to have it applied in the first place.”

“That is not what I wanted to hear,” I admitted.  “What about the version of the curse that I spread to Travelers?”

“Any god, except for Death, my adversary, and her allies, can remove [Reaper’s Embrace],” Thedum answered more cheerfully.  “There is still a cost, but it is somewhat variable.  They may either trigger the effect of the curse, or complete a quest, the difficulty of which depends on the amount of experience they have gained from [Through the Valley of the Shadow], although the difficulty has an upper limit. If they remove the curse immediately after receiving it the cost is negligible, but even if they use it to level from level one to two hundred, they should be able to complete the quest to remove it.”

“Well that’s a relief,” I said.  “I’d have felt really guilty if Corinth had to start over because of me.”

Thedum was silent for a moment, and then a light appeared before me.  The light condensed and took form, then faded, leaving behind a plain silver ring.  I quickly [Analyzed] it.

Ring of Holy Light

While worn, suppresses the spread of [Reaper’s Embrace]

“I can give you this to prevent you from spreading the curse unintentionally,” Thedum said.  “However, that is the limit of my ability to intervene in this matter.”

“Not to sound ungrateful, because thank you for the gift and I really appreciate it,” I said, “But I don’t suppose that you could put some Dexterity or Intelligence on it?”

“No,” Thedum said.  “You will have to give up one of your gear slots to wear it.”

“Well, it was worth a shot,” I sighed, switching the new ring for my [Turtle Shell Ring], which I had gotten for killing a rare spawn.  Of my two rings, it was the weakest, and I expected to continue wearing the [Ring of the Blackest Night] that I had gotten from defeating Gyudue for some time.  I could switch the ring back when I was preparing for combat, but I figured I’d be wearing Thedum’s gift the majority of the time to stop myself from accidentally cursing my friends.

“If I think of anything, can I call for you again?” I asked Thedum.

“It is not that conversing with you requires any significant effort on my part, of course, but I do rather that you progress on your own without me as much as possible,” Thedum admitted.  “Especially because a number of the other gods are less than pleased that I have made you my avatar.  It has shifted the balance between us in a number of ways, which has forced me to negotiate and make a number of concessions.”

I frowned.  “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Thedum laughed.  “That is exactly the problem.  Please, Hail, don’t concern yourself overly with religion.  If you truly need my help me, I would prefer it if you remained aloof from matters of religion.  You may call on me whenever you wish, and I will provide whatever help I am capable of, but the more helpful you are to me, the more jealous the other gods will become and the more concessions they will demand of me.”

“That is not exactly the way that I imagined the relationship between a god and his avatar,” I admitted.

Thedum made a sound that sounded like a shrug.  I’m not sure what a shrug sounds like, but that’s what it sounded like.  “Focus on your own goals and aspirations, Hail.  You may call on me when you see no other way forward but divine intervention, and know that the other gods will not turn their backs on you simply because you are my avatar, although it may strain your relationship with some of them.  If you truly want to help me increase my influence in the pantheon, however, it would actually benefit me if you were to complete tasks for my allies.  At present, however, I believe that you have enough on your plate simply dealing with your own troubles, so I advise you not to get involved with matters of religion.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I agreed.  “Thank you, Thedum, for the advise, and the ring.”

“You are welcome, Hail,” Thedum said, and I sensed that his presence had lessened.  I turned my attention back to the new system which was available to me.