Chapter 138: Task Test
In other words, players could sell items back to the system for the price listed in the second-level mall, receiving points in return. Those points, however, could only be used to unlock the third-level mall.
The second-level mall had two conversion rates for gold dragons: 100 gold dragons for 5 points, and 500 gold dragons for 10 points.
Ian, naturally, chose the more efficient option.
Soon, after paying 2,000 gold dragons, he had unlocked the third-level mall.
After a moment of consideration, Ian settled on two purchases.
The first was a Valyrian steel swift sword, a light and deadly blade he intended to arm the water dancer, Yada Maul. With the unparalleled armor-piercing ability of Valyrian steel, Yada would be invincible in the coming contest, even if he were to face a fully armored knight.
The second item was a jar of weirwood seed paste from the mall's random selection. In the long run, activating his greenseer abilities ahead of schedule was an investment that would surely pay for itself.
If he could have, Ian would have preferred to wait until the monthly settlement date to make his purchases. The points spent would have helped solidify his position at the top of the leaderboards.
Unfortunately, time was a luxury he didn't have. Hazan's contest was a mere three days away, while the end-of-month settlement was still five days off. The Valyrian steel blade had to be in Yada's hand before the competition began for it to be of any use.
Furthermore, the random items in the third-level mall refreshed at the monthly settlement. With only four slots available, Ian had no guarantee that the weirwood seed paste would appear again anytime soon.
Once the items were exchanged, Ian immediately consumed the paste.
Bitter. That was his first reaction.
The second spoonful, however, was much more palatable. By the third, he thought he could taste a hint of sweetness. From there, it grew better and better, the flavor shifting until it tasted of honey, of fresh snow, of pepper and cinnamon all at once.
Ian finished the rest quickly, at last finding himself staring into an empty jar, a strange sense of longing lingering on his palate.
Based on Bran's experience in the histories, this was the moment he should have felt a connection to the weirwoods, a flood of visions and whispers. But there were no weirwood trees here, and he lacked the profound, innate talent of a Stark.
His only reason for eating the paste was to enhance his spiritual power and gain the prerequisite needed to level up his 'Greenseer' skills.
After sitting in silence for a while, Ian felt no discernible change. He logged into the system again to check his status.
[Ian: Strength 32, Agility 27, Mental Strength 19]
[Skills: Basic Etiquette, Basic Literacy (Common Tongue), Proficient Swordsmanship, Advanced Horsemanship, Intermediate Lance, Basic Skinchanging, Basic Greenseer]
[Attribute Points: 0]
[Skill Points: 4]
[Points: 60]
[Items: Scroll of Basic Skill of Choice, Skill Upgrade Scroll]
His mental power had increased by a full six points, and he had acquired the foundational Greenseer skill. The thirty points had been well spent. Unfortunately, it was a one-time improvement; consuming the paste again would have no effect.
Now, however, he was left with only sixty points, a dangerously low reserve.
Ian's mind was made up. He went to the door and called for Rohr, who was standing guard outside.
He planned to use his two optional tasks for the month to replenish his points. More importantly, he would use the tasks to test the information he had gathered about the red-robed woman from the banquet.
He had deliberately saved this month's two opportunities for just such an unexpected contingency.
Normally, the system's optional quests were useless for intelligence gathering, as their descriptions never changed. But after discovering the bug—the loophole wherein a mission would resolve instantly if the root cause of its failure did not exist—Ian had found a way to exploit it.
The woman in red was a variable that was simply too great to ignore. This wasn't about him seeking to get involved in her affairs; it was about ensuring she wouldn't become a problem for him. Her close relationship with Prince Hazan's fiancée was a complication, especially given the close cooperation he would need from Hazan in the days to come.
If this potential threat wasn't neutralized, Ian knew it would weigh on him. He had suffered a great loss in King's Landing because of a similar oversight, and he would not make that mistake again.
"My Lord Earl, you sent for me?" Rohr asked, stepping into the room.
If Rohr weren't an NPC, Ian imagined the man would feel a certain awkwardness, having personally witnessed his transformation from Ser Lucian Lannister to Lord Ian Darry.
"Yes," Ian said. "We're going to continue the test from before. This time, the content is…" He proceeded to lay out the script he had just devised for Rohr.
Rohr repeated it back to him verbatim. "The red-robed woman, Celia, has invited me to the Red Temple on the mountaintop to find her. I suspect this is a conspiracy. If I can uncover her plan, you will pay me this gold coin. If I can ensure she will pose no danger to me, my mission will be considered complete."
Ian wasn't aiming for a high difficulty rating this time. Even a quest as monumental as 'Defeat the Khal or Defend Pentos' had only been rated as medium. Until he understood the rules governing quest difficulty, chasing a high 'theoretical difficulty' was pointless.
What mattered now was confirming whether the woman in red truly had a plot against him or harbored any hostility. The logic was the same as his last test: the mission to defend Pentos had been resolved instantly because the khal was never hostile to the city in the first place.
If this new mission was judged complete right away, it would mean Celia had no conspiracy and was, in all likelihood, unaffiliated with any player faction.
If the opposite were true, Ian would have to seriously re-evaluate his future cooperation with Prince Hazan.
He logged into the system, and the task box popped up immediately.
[Triggered Mission Discovered: Thwart the Red-Robed Woman's Conspiracy]
[Task Description: The red-robed woman, Celia, may be plotting against you. Ser Rohr hopes you can uncover her purpose, or at least ensure that you will not be endangered by her.]
[Mission Reward: 1 Gold Dragon]
[Additional Reward: Unknown]
[Accept (Consumes 1 Point)]
A moment later, a second notification appeared.
[Optional Mission 5 'Thwart the Red-Robed Woman's Conspiracy' Complete]
[Mission Difficulty Rating: Easy]
[Mission Reward: 1 Gold Dragon]
[Additional Rewards: 1 Point, 1 Attribute Point]
Ian let out a slow breath of relief. It was good to know the woman in red was not hostile.
Easy? Seeing the difficulty rating, he felt an unexpected surge of excitement.
Although the rewards were two points and two attribute points less than a medium-difficulty quest, this was proof that optional tasks were not all locked at the same level. If he could trigger an 'Easy' quest, then perhaps, with the right script, he could find a way to trigger a 'Hard' one.
With that thought, Ian began to list out his completed missions, searching for a deeper pattern.
[The Truth of the Black Falcon's Death] - Judged Difficulty [Medium] - Theoretical Difficulty [Hard] - Actual Difficulty [Hard].
[The Mole in Illyrio's Trading House] - Judged Difficulty [Medium] - Theoretical Difficulty [Medium or Hard] - Actual Difficulty [None].
[Defend Pentos] - Judged Difficulty [Medium] - Theoretical Difficulty [Extremely Hard] - Actual Difficulty [None].
[Thwart the Red-Robed Woman's Conspiracy] - Judged Difficulty [Easy] - Theoretical Difficulty [Medium or Hard] - Actual Difficulty [None].
The last three quests were all completed by exploiting the bug, giving them an actual difficulty of zero. Yet their judged difficulties were different. This meant the system's rating had nothing to do with the actual difficulty of completion.
As for theoretical difficulty, his own estimates for three of the quests had been higher than the system's final judgment.
Wait… Illyrio. A guess sparked in Ian's mind. Could the difficulty be related to the identity of the person who issued the quest?
Magister Illyrio was a man of immense status. The gap between him and the other two quest-givers—Ser Rohr and the mercenary captain Dorian—was vast. Could the status of the issuer apply a modifier to the mission's difficulty?
Ian focused on the two bugged quests: [Mole in the Trading House] and [Red-Robed Woman's Conspiracy].
Both quests were based on non-existent threats and had similar theoretical difficulties—if anything, the latter was riskier. Yet the former was judged [Medium], while the latter was judged [Easy].
This seemed to prove his hypothesis. The quest from the Magister of Pentos was rated higher than the one from a simple household knight.
Still, he thought, the test scripts I've come up with are rather crude. The method is sound: frame the mission so that its failure hinges on a single, unknown factor. If the mission completes instantly, the factor doesn't exist. But what kind of script could yield more critical, more specific intelligence? I need to find a better way.
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