A Day’s Worth of Problems, And More
Long groan.
“Tired?” I ask, already knowing the answer. Both Penelope and Gwen both have been seemingly up all day with me, as I ran around doing various tasks.
I know Gwen and Jhonny both posed as the King and Princess of the Deolarian, speaking of which, I have only seen Gwen. Though I do find it odd that she reappeared as herself, I don’t find it all that odd, as the shell, and that is basically what the avatars are, a shell of the person you are imitating. Well, that shell can only take or do so much, so a way to no longer need to wear those shells is to break character.
Generally breaking character of a shell would involve casting unaffiliated magics or doing things that would cause disruptions to the natural symmetry of the avatar being worn. Yeah, even after saying it, I don’t understand the process either.
All I really know is that, if I am not careful, I can easily break the avatar. I think Gwen can do this as well.
I know the avatar is fine and once again in my pool of potential avatars to wear, as I can reassign it to myself or others.
Looking at it, that is a really underdeveloped aspect of my growth. One that I have ignored for far too long. Then again keeping track of those thirteen avatars, along with who is using them is a bit much a times. So maybe I’m right where I need to be.
That said, I have my to do list for today.
Yep, a simple task list like one would expect for any normal Tuesday.
The sad part is, even with that list, I am fairly certain I am missing things. It’s okay though, today I will be focused, I will be dedicated, and I will get my GSD card back.
“Yes, sadly I am not used to these long shifts anymore,” Penelope says, her words coming from out of nowhere.
Shake my head.
I am lost for a moment, as I try to piece together why Penelope is talking, and more importantly what she is talking about.
Long moan.
Gwen for her part stretches her back, causing an audible pop to be heard as she sighs contentedly.
“Mmm, agreed. I know we volunteered to take these first few shifts so the others could get some sleep, but your first Cassie 12 Hour is brutal,” Gwen responds.
Again, I am still lost.
Did I miss something? Part of their conversation? What are they going on about?
“Cassie 12s?” I ask, figuring that this is something about me, but for the life of me, I can’t tell what.
“Yeah, four of us have been assigned to you,” Gwen began, but was quickly cut off by Penelope.
“To be your assistants and help smooth out any problems that might arise during your day,” Penelope cut in, seemingly smoothing out some of the possible sharpness that was in Gwen’s phrasing.
“Yes, so to help out, we offered to take the first shift that would follow you through midnight and help focus you focus on preparing for your next classes.” Gwen continued.
As Gwen spoke, Penelope’s gentle face winced slightly at the way Gwen seemed to cause blunt force trauma with her words.
“A schedule?” I ask trying to clarify.
“Yes, Jhonny will be up in a bit to join you for his Qi training. Then to help with the inclusion students, he will stay on as Princess Octavia De’Arcaneri, while you select with of the Deolarian hopeful, you will accept as incoming Freshmen.” Gwen pressed on.
There was a lot to unpack in that statement, and suddenly I wondered how I got here.
I’m guessing this was all a continuation of me asking the girls if they were tired, then had my thoughts about my missing avatar, made my personal list for the day. Only to now realize that Gwen and Penelope are both in charge of their own list of requirements, for me.
“So, we now have Deolorians as potential students?” I ask, trying to clarify at least one part of this conversation. This would also help to explain why Jhonny kept his disguise as Octavia, well part of why he kept that form.
“Yes, since the complete unification, there has been a huge push for inclusion of undead elven Deolorians to the Spiritlight Valhalla College admission program,” Penelope nicely interjected.
Hearing that, I could only nod in agreement.
“Yeah, with Spiritlight and Valhalla in the college’s name, it almost seems like it would be tailored for spirits,” I could only help but agree with the Deolorians’ wishes, they were valid. Especially now that we had allegedly merged fully with the Deolorians, thanks to the wedding and whatnot.
Honestly, I’m not entirely certain what happened during the time that I was gone, but there are a lot of Deolorians walking about, now that I think about it. I got used to them being up on the surface during the Legrand invasion, but it seems that they never went back?
I don’t know, it seems rude to ask about, especially as it has been a month since it happened.
Honestly though this was fine, and in fact should hopefully provide really good talent. I’m curious about the Deolorians and what insights they can provide to magic, to ancient elven lore in general. Then I realized that a few of the Ancient Elves might only speak the archaic Deolorian Empire language? Meaning to communicate with them I would have to speak in a second language, not wait, a third language as I’d also have to speak in Mana Language to Raygunnr, and the general language for most Midnight Hunter students.
That’s when, I decide to cut it down to two languages, the Mana Language of the Teleiotís, and the basic language that everyone but ancient elven ghosts would use. This is perfect as it would help me to complete my sixth personal task for the day, and provide emphasis on the subtask for that particular bullet point.
For a moment I think about asking them for everything that I am supposed to do and try to optimize my own list for the day. But I think seven full tasks along with two sub-tasks is enough for my day.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
In fact, I wish I could kind of lock my own list in place, and then add in all the seven items I’ve identified as my priority for my first day back, this way I can have an excuse for why I had to bail on other tasks, like teaching Bloodline Awakening classes that happen so late in the day that you can’t help but waste half your day waiting for the class’s time slot to begin.
Chime.
That’s when I heard and felt the world coming to my aid.
Seeing the message, I blinked.
Yeah, being blind but still able to see the world and system messages is odd, and takes a moment to get used to again.
Then seeing the message, I can’t help but smile as I had been missing these interactions for so long.
I know I got a deluge of them when I first got back, but most of those errored out.
This one though, this one made me feel like I was back where I once again belonged.
“Uh-oh,” Gwen and Penelope both say in unison. They were both in the process of taking an involuntary half step back, before they heard the exclamation coming from the other, turned, locked gazes, then turned back to me. Shock and fear evident on their faces.
“What?”
“You’re smiling,” Penelope responded first.
I was about to respond, but Gwen cut in and clarified.
“Creepily, we were talking about your itinerary for the day, and then you started smiling,” Gwen pressed on.
Daughters, they always know how to bring you back down to earth in the harshest way possible.
Hearing this from their point of view, I could agree. Or at least I could see things from their perspective. I normally hate Cassie do lists, but if I set up my own quest to complete my to do list, then it is a win-win. I can’t get yelled at for not completing what was not originally on my check list, but I will also get a quest completion for completing my own list.
There is the slight pause that comes from the fact that the system has accepted my own personal list as being tough enough for a quest completion reward. But I also realize that by taking on the quest I risk nothing, while earning a reward for my hard work and diligence.
Seeing absolutely nothing wrong with this and only possible gains to be made, I accept the quest, not quite expecting what happened next.
Perhaps, if I took a moment longer to think, I might have been able to mitigate some of the headaches that would happen next.
That wasn’t too bad, especially as the quest hadn’t fully shown what it interpreted as the measurable objectives of my own personal goals for the day. Then with horror, I noticed that the quest had an apparent dropdown tab that revealed to me just how terrible the system thought my goals were and what I would need to do in order to accomplish them.
Wow, just wow.
Those numerical objectives really do put a whole new level of complexity into this process. I must apparently evaluate twenty students that are worthy of joining SVC. Meaning they can’t be terrible as I must meet my graduation rate here coming up. In addition to that, ten of these students need to be from the Deolarian empire, meaning ten will likely be in remedial studies with Raygunnr to at least learn Mana Language, until they can learn to speak common.
The Classes I’m okay with, also what exactly is quality time? Is that us playing catch? Then realizing there is likely a deeper meaning to that, I realize, this is likely the system forcing me to actually teach the poor girl. Four hours of instruction, I’m assuming a few of the hours from my Magic classes will count to this, but there should be at least one hour after classes where I will be required to teach her independently.
Also, I might need to check and see how it quantifies the time. Can I manipulate it by talking to people in general, and her being there is enough? Or do I need to speak to her in a one-on-one basis?
Gah, this entire thing is a bit much.
Honestly, I am almost impressed with the level of intricate and measurable details that the quest provided, leaving no gray area for completion.
Yet, I’m almost glad that failing this quest won’t cause any problems for me. I mean, I see what I did here, and realize this might be a bit much, especially for my day back.
Okay, now that was just mean.
The system, after apparently, reading my own personal trepidations about not being able to complete these seven tasks in one day, made it so I had to complete them in one day, if I wanted to be able to do this again.
Meaning that it, that is the system, I really wanted to complete these tasks for whatever reason today.
For a moment, I wondered what task seven entailed. I think this, because fixing problems related to a war is awfully vague. Does this mean that there might be more spirits of destroyed skill books that I could Perfectly Resurrect again? Would setting up an ambassador with the Teleiotís count towards this effort? Would healing residual scars and other similar activities count?
“Uh-oh,” Gwen began, her words pulling me out of the introspective state that I am currently in.
I stop thinking about the dilemma of this quest and what failing it would now entail.
Basically, I have a daily tracker of things I need to do for the day, and I can get paid for doing them. This is a no-brainer to keep. Yet, I can’t help but pause as the sheer enormity of it all.
“What, uh-oh?” I question.
“You stopped smiling,” Penelope responded, her own voice concerned, but she was doing a much better job of trying to hide her apparent fear of what was going on.
“It’s fine,” I explain dismissively.
Shock.
Once again, Penelope and Gwen both take that exact moment to pause, stare at each other and then look back at me.
Again, it is so weird to see Gwen responding the same way I would, even though I know she too is blind. Yet, she is doing a great job of blending in and at least trying to be on the same mental page as Penelope.
“What is fine?” Gwen pressed.
“It’s nothing,” I begin.
“Nothing?” Penelope doubled down.
“Fine, I just managed to assign myself a daily quest log, and it seems that I will be able to do this again in the future, but only if I succeed in completing today’s tasks.” I begin.
With that the two paused, clearly staring at me and waiting for me to go on, but I am done for the moment.
“Isn’t that a good thing? Basically, a way for you to keep your daily personal goals in check?” Penelope asks reassuringly.
“Well yes,” I begin, but am cut off by Gwen.
“You are always going on about being organized, this is a great way to keep your tasks right at hand and ready to go,” Gwen posed.
“Yes, but if I fail, then I will never be given this chance again,” I reply.
“Oh,” Penelope responds understandingly, nodding her head as she takes it all in.
Gwen on the other hand is as matter-of-fact as usual.
“Then don’t fail.”
“Oh, why didn’t I think of that,” I respond.
“Is the quest tough?” Penelope asks.
Not wanting to push this out any further, I show the quest, the drop-down menu of tasks needing to be completed. Then the notification about the quest failure.
“These don’t look too bad,” Penelope begins and then turns to Gwen. “We can take these down and help her.”
Gwen nods, “I was thinking the same thing. Also, it is good that she has a quest component dealing directly with the Legrand War, as there are several things we needed to broach with her anyways.”
They say to each other.
Then they both begin taking their own notepads writing utensils and copying my quest components verbatim.
“We’ll help you to facilitate these conditions,” Gwen spoke as she wrote. And not for the first time, but maybe something I didn’t recognize enough, I realized how amazing Gwen had truly turned out to be.
As they write down my quest components, I am allowed to think about ways I can try to solve some of these conditions myself, without anyone’s aid.
Honestly, the entire process was too vague. Oh, would me teaching my first classes at school count? Making it so I could get those three knocked out by just teaching? You know, showing that we are no longer going to be stopped due to actions related to the war?
Nothing.
There is no response, almost as if I can feel the system giving me a sidelong glance and all but daring me to try to double dip with these quest objectives. Knowing the system it would make me teach an extra class like Magical or Qi based Bloodline evolutions to meet the standard.
Ding.
Wow, once again the system is trying to mess with me. Once again, this quest has a drop-down menu showing the two tasks required.
Yeah, this quest sucked as well. Thirty days to come up with two different courses? Again, kudos to the system for coming up with clear measurable goals, but, I think this is definitely a quest that we can let slide to the wayside.
At least, letting this all fall to the wayside was my plan. Especially given that Mallory hopefully missed the notification in her Guild Leader’s tab, as she should be sleeping right now, given that it was roughly two-ish AM? I don’t time is tough for the blind.
“Dang it,” Gwen responds, apparently seeing something. “Mom, I’m told to ask you what you did.”
“What, I didn’t do any…” I begin trying to tout my innocence, especially since my biggest crime is apparently thinking. Thinking in ways that the system can bug and annoy me to force me to delve deeper into. I tried to protest but Gwen just cut me off.
“Never mind, hold whatever thought you had, as she is apparently incoming.” Gwen responds with an annoyed look on her face, then pausing for a second she adds in one last jab, “thanks mom.”
SWOOSH!
Before I can respond to the verbal jab, there is a temporal displacement, as a bedraggled Mallory arrives, with only part of her hair looking clean and pressed, while the other half looks incredibly mangled.
Yeah, someone had apparently awoken her from her slumber.
“Explain!” Was the one word the completely bedraggled Mallory used to take control of the whole situation.
Apparently, she was not happy from being awoken, either.
“Well…”