Seeing the first notification screen pop up, Quinn wasn’t too overwhelmed. He knew that at some point, he would see a notification pop up saying that one of the Cursed planets had been taken over. Especially since it had been a long time since one appeared. Seeing it was a reminder that he had to keep marching on.
However, soon after, not just one notification appeared but two more. Now he was only one planet away from the quest failing. His eyes couldn’t leave the number as he read it over and over.
‘Just…one more?’ Quinn’s whole hand was shaking as a feeling of dread was coming over him. His stomach was churning, wanting to escape from himself, and he started to feel incredibly cold.
‘What is happening to me?’ Not even Quinn understood himself why he was feeling this way.
He never thought just failing a quest from the System would make him feel like so, but there was a reason for it all, and it was his own fault.
Quinn had already sacrificed so much for the quest. He had no clue what was happening to those in the Cursed faction. The fighting had started multiple hours ago, and he could tell from the bond that they were still fighting.
Still, he told himself it was for the quest. Once he would complete the quest, he could go off to help them. He had put the quest up so high above in importance, above everything else, telling himself that if he was to fail this quest, he wouldn’t be able to help the Cursed planets or those in the Cursed faction from Hilston.
It was the only way he could concentrate on such a task while other things were going on.
All of these thoughts had been used for motivation, and now they had come crashing down crushing him until his last breath.
‘Quinn, Quinn!’ Vincent yelled in his mind, grabbing his attention. ‘Don’t lose hope! The quest isn’t complete yet, and there is always something that we can do! Don’t let a stupid system be the decider of everything before it actually happens. There are still things we can do.’
Quinn awkwardly laughed inside. The System had already decided his course of actions for him. It was why he was in this challenging situation in the first place. Once again, the thought of the System being an actual Curse rather than a gift came to mind.
Swiping away the notification screen, Quinn looked at the Dalki mothership in front of him. It was still a far distance away, and he needed to take down five more.
Not just five more, but five more before the Dalki took over one. How long would that even take? Quinn wouldn’t be surprised if the next notification screen appeared any second, failing him.
‘What happened? How did three get taken over so fast? I thought with the long waiting period something must have happened?’ As Quinn was thinking things through, there was really only one answer he could come up with. It had to do with the planet evacuations. If a few of them were complete or in the middle of their process, the quest would mark them as having lost their planets.
Quinn had managed to convince Helen to try not to concentrate the forces too much in one place, but in the end, he couldn’t just tell her not to try and save people’s lives just because he was worried that the System might make him weaker if he fails. There wasn’t even a guarantee that it would be the case. Then how would he feel after if he was to ignore the quest?
‘Quinn, I have a suggestion that might not solve our problem but gives us a chance.’ Vincent said. ‘I’ll be honest with you, I agree with your train of thought. Due to how big of a quest this is and based on what has happened in the past, I think that the rewards would be good if we were to complete this quest.
‘After all, if the System really is using my ability, my powers within itself, then just this level of a task is too high. Which I hate to say, but I think that if we were to fail, it would also mean that the penalty would be large as well.’
This wasn’t what Quinn wanted to hear, so he was starting to wonder just where Vincent was going with all of this.
‘If we fail the quest and you can’t complete it, then there is a chance you could go down a few levels, your stats are affected or something else. I know your worries. You worry that you’re not strong enough to face Hilston, or the five spiked Dalki he is facing, but if your stats went down, then it would just be the same. This is why I think we should use this time. At this moment, all of your stats are unaffected!’
‘So I should just give up on the quest, abandon all of these people on the Cursed planets? Even if I didn’t complete it, I should at least help them eliminate the Dalki to minimise the losses. Maybe I can continue to level up from them!’ Quinn questioned since he had levelled up another time since he had fought all those before, currently bringing his level up to 69.
In his mind, even if he lost the stats, there was a good chance that at level 70, Quinn could evolve, which would make up for the loss, but even then, there was no guarantee.
‘No, my solution is, let me fight.” Said Vincent. “My solution is to let me use your body and head to the Cursed faction. You can use the Dalki strength and control two at the same time. Even if you run into tough ones, you can face them, and if needed, borrow energy and continue to take down the ships.
‘If you need to use your original body, I can always come back here, thanks to Wevil and Linda. I will fight in your place, Quinn and help out those in the Cursed faction as much as possible.’
This was a solution Quinn hadn’t thought of. For so long, he had been fighting by himself, and even when he had others, there was no one other than Sil that was currently at the level where they could help. There were times where Quinn wished he could clone himself, and perhaps this was the closest situation to it.
In the end, the risk involved in this situation was lowered. If Vincent couldn’t take on Hilston he could at least help all the others on the Cursed ship. At the same time, if Quinn ran into another great foe in the Dalki, he could take some of his own energy from his body, and if he died, he would only be placed back in his original body.
‘I can only control your body. If I could, I would take your place and be the Dalki taking down the motherships. This is the best way, and I promise I will try my best to save as many lives as possible. Quinn, trust me, I know how much the Cursed people mean to you, and I know how much you want to help everyone.’
Thinking about this, Quinn felt like he had no choice. The idea of the penalty was too strong.
‘Vincent…do your best out there. If there’s any trouble, then I will be back. I trust you…kinda.’ Quinn said, thinking back to the strange girl he had seen before.
With that, Vincent was soon off in the shadow and was heading back to the Cursed ship. Quinn was now in control of the Dalki body they had just captured and had two more by his side.
Quinn and the two Dalki continued to travel together. What Quinn was finding strange was how little Dalki there were on this planet compared to all the others before. Even in the scout team he had met, there was only a few.
‘Is there a type of dangerous beast on this planet that has been killing them? Or is it because they know the force on the Shelter is small, but they still sent a mothership, so that can’t be the case.’ Quinn wondered.
Eventually, Quinn could see the mothership up ahead that was floating at the base of what looked like an inactive volcano. The others that Quinn had seen had all been somewhat active. Either in smoke, eruptions or spewing out some substance of some kind, but this one was larger than the others and was doing pretty much nothing.
When he had reached the foot of the volcano, he had expected to see another camp of Dalki that was being established just as he had seen all the times before, but there was no such thing. Instead, in the distance, Quinn could only see a single Dalki standing there.
‘What, where are all the Dalki? Did they stay onboard the ship?’ Quinn thought, but something was strange. As Quinn got closer, he was expecting some sort of ambush, but there seemed to be no such thing. Hiss cautious nature was telling him something was up, because the strangest thing of them all, was the fact that the Dalki that stood there on its own, was wearing clothes of all things.
******
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