MMORPG : Ancient WORLD - #11 - 11 Forechester Castle

[Rank Promotion Quest] [Rank One]

Objective 1: Kill 100 Common Monsters and 10 Elite Monsters

(OR)

Objective 2: Kill 10 Rare Elite and 20 Elite Monsters

Completion Time: 2 Days (48 hours)

Failure penalty: One Week (In case of Quest failure player will not be given the promotion quest for one week)

Rewards: Promotion to first Rank (????) (????) [Rewards will be determined by player performance]

…..

Important Info: Player needs to kill the beast by himself; any outside help will not contribute toward the quest.

The less time the player takes to complete the quest, the better skills the player will get, and if particular conditions are met player can get the advanced version of the class and gain additional skills.

…..

Quest Progress:

1: Common Monsters (0/100) Elite Monsters (0/10)

(OR)

2: Elite Monsters (0/20) Rare Elite (0/10)

…

After getting the quest, Alex left the mage tower toward the city gate, where he could find a carriage.

Alex reached the bustling city gate. Many players were going in and out, some heavily armed high-level players and some new players.

Alex searched for a carriage that he could use to travel toward the level 180 dungeon that would help him complete the Promotion quest quickly and with the greatest result possible.

Alex found an empty carriage; he walked toward it and asked the owner.” Sir, I want to travel outside the Hail Forest to the Dead Swamp area.”

“Adventurer, it will cost you two gold coins.” The carriage owner said, not even looking at Alex

“OK, Let’s get going,” Alex replied, not getting offended by the Coachman’s behavior.

“please sit inside the carriage, sir.” The Coachman’s said in a respectful tone this time.

The Coachman’s behavior changed because he knew that Alex was not like every new player that would run away after hearing the price.

All the NPCs were getting angry because new players were annoying them.

New players treat them like every other game character, not like real people with human-like emotions, and their ignorance was causing trouble for all the other new players.

After the carriage left the royal city the coachman asked Alex, “What business do you have near the dead swamp? If you don’t know! that area is infested by powerful and higher Rank monsters.”

“You’ll be killed with your current strength, so I advise you not to go into the internal swamp area.” Coachman said.

“I have some friends that will be exploring the [Forechester Castle]. I am going there to experience some high-level raid.” Alex lied with a straight face

“OK, that will be fine then; if you want some information, I can provide that for some extra money.”

“OK, I’ll think about it,” Alex said while thinking about what he could gain extra from this adventure.

Alex’s real reason for this adventure was to complete the Rank Promotion mission on the highest grade.

One will question Alex’s motive for visiting such a high-level dungeon when he needs to kill monsters and complete his promotion quest in 48 hours.

‘Forechester Castle is a level 180 dungeon and a hot spot for players to level up, but it also hides some deep secret that will be uncovered after one year.’

‘Forechester Castle is an undead and ghoul monster-type dungeon. The dungeon has some records that players can find in it.’

‘The dungeon was once a great castle that a powerful family ruled, but according to the record, the castle was cursed by a dark magician and turned into a plague house, destroying and killing everyone there and turning them into undead and abomination that suffer until the end of time.’

‘The castle has three hidden chambers that can only be raided once. Those chambers provide significant rewards, and Alex’s target was one such chamber, the lowest Rank chamber with a level 35 cap.’

The second and third chambers will only be opened after clearing the first chamber; the second chamber has a level cap of 100, and the third chamber has a level cap of 200

‘In my previous life, a mercenary group found these chambers and cleared them; they didn’t publish much information other than the chambers bosses, and what they got was nothing significant from the first two chambers. The third chamber has the Castel lord as the final boss, and he dropped the full unique Rank level 200 Armor set with good stats.’

‘I smell some Bullshit! My last encounter with the hidden boss and this story have many things in common.’

‘In my previous life, someone found and got only some good loot to make a story about it and become famous through it, and these mercenaries also found a hidden dungeon.’

‘They got something better than one will usually get, but their story has some hole, or I am overthinking things.’

Alex thought about all the significant events in his previous life, contemplating how many such events were fake or half-truthful.

Alex knew the mindset of humans very closely. Humans have an innate desire to show off but hide their treasure or anything that can benefit them even slightly, so even if someone gains some good treasure, he will not give the correct information even if someone else cannot obtain it.

‘My previous life knowledge is reliable and gives me an advantage over every player, but it also has wrong information. With consistent change occurring because of me, most of the player-related knowledge will be useless in a couple of years.’

‘The Time I have is enough for me to build a strong group of people that can help me and have my back whenever I want in this cruel world.’

After traveling for two hours and enjoying talking to the Coachman about different things happening in the Ice kingdom, Alex finally reached the dead swamp area.

“Thanks for the ride,” Alex said to the Coachman after paying him five gold coins. He paid extra because the Coachman was entertaining him the whole way through some good stories that Alex knew that some of them were not just legends.

“Thanks, Adventurer, for the generous bonus; if you need some information in the royal city, you know where to find me, “Coachman said as he starts waiting near the other carriages for the next customer that wants to go back to the royal city.

Dead swamp and the Forechester castle dungeon had many players visiting them every day, and those who didn’t have a mount or wanted a relaxing journey back would use the carriage.

Alex left the area and started his journey toward the dungeon, Which was located in the outer region of the dead swamp area.

The carriage coachman told Alex the legend of how this swamp was not always there; it was a clear water basin area all around the castle.

After getting cursed, the water area was turned into a swamp infested by strong and hideous monsters ranging from mindless crocodiles to savage lizardmen affected by the curse.

Alex walked through the dead tree area toward the pitch-black castle one could spot from far away; it looked majestic and terrifying.

After walking for five minutes, Alex reached the castle gate wide open with the players roaming the giant castle ground.

Some were selling stuff like potions for extra money, and some were strategizing for the raid, but all of them had one thing in common they were all high-level, and Alex was the only newbie there.

“What is a newbie like you doing here? Wants to buy power leveling service,” A giant player with a height of over 7ft asked putting his hand on Alex shoulder.

“No, I am here to meet a friend, “Alex replied, entering the castle. ‘Power leveling is an excellent way to get to a higher level without wasting time, but higher level players charge too much money; maybe I can use this service someday.’

After entering the castle, Alex walked straight to the graveyard at the back of the castle to find the grave of the lord’s first child that would open a hidden passage to the first secret chamber.

Reaching the graveyard, Alex saw hundreds of gravestones in a large area; without wasting any time, Alex walked straight toward the graves where the castle lord’s family was buried.

The secret to the first hidden chamber is in the graveyard, and the other two chambers are inside the castle.

To open the first chamber player need to take the castle lord’s first child(Clifford) gravestone and place it in the place of one of the servant’s gravestone; then, the hidden chamber will open.

Game players are curious creatures. The puzzle was complex, but the players knew something was hidden in the graveyard because a player could take the gravestones out and replace them with other tombstones.

The graveyard has hundreds of gravestones, and with restrictions placed there that more than fifteen gravestones can’t change place at the same time, the players don’t have any clue and believe that maybe it is just a waste of time.

The players stopped solving the graveyard puzzle and focused entirely on the castle.

It all changed when a member of the Raven mercenary found a hidden letter in the castle library that said [We brothers will keep this secret and take it to the grave with us].

The letter has two bloody thumbprints on it with the C.F. signature.

The player knew that F stood for the Forechester and the signature can only belong to the main family member with brother words; in the latter, he narrowed it down to Clifford Forechester.

After that find, it took some time before he found the sworn brother’s grave and uncovered the secret chamber.