The Curious Case of Yui the Fighter II

---Chapter 4: The Curious Case of Yui the Fighter II

“Hey, we should take care of a quest for Yui today!” suggested Striker in an excited voice.

It’d been another few days, and the party had all gathered again in their usual garden meeting spot. The goal of a party is to help each other take care of difficult quests. It was a common approach, and this way the group would all be working together to get stronger and progress their characters. However, after several outings, Striker had realized that they hadn’t handled any quests for Yui. Thinking it was the only fair thing to do, he decided to speak up about it so she wasn’t the only one being left behind.

“Oh, right! Now that I think about it, we still haven’t helped her with any quests yet, despite her being the newest in the group.” Mint realized.

“Yeah, that’s true…” Quartz glanced over at Yui.

In all the time I’ve known her, she hasn’t actually mentioned any quests… How strange.

Everyone’s attention turned to Yui, who only blinked with all these eyes on her.

“Well, um…” Yui muttered, as if trying to figure out what to say.

“Hm? It’s totally fine you know. Just tell us what kind of quests you’re workin’ on and we can help. Even if it’s a simple one!” Striker encouraged with a friendly smile.

“You see… Well, I haven’t really taken on many of the quests…” Yui whispered, feeling guilty for disappointing the party.

“Huh…?” Striker was totally confused.

“I thought so…” Rokugo spoke up.

“What do you mean?” Mint asked, wanting further clarification.

“It has to do with what we discussed the other day.” he noted.

“You mean about all the grinding Yui must’ve done to get such a high attack stat?” Quartz started to pick up on what Rokugo was implying.

“Correct.” Rokugo nodded. “For most players such as ourselves, a lot of the EXP that goes into building our levels comes from the complimentary EXP awarded for completing quests. That EXP helps boost our level, but it only gives an average increase to individual stats.”

“Well yeah, duh. That’s how the game works.” Striker was still trying to wrap his head around the topic.

“But fighting monsters is different.” Rokugo continued. “Although the actual amount of EXP for defeating any single monster pales in comparison to that which you gain for completing quests, the stat increases from such battles is another factor entirely.”

“I get it.” Quartz nodded. “In the long term, your style of battle has a greater effect on your stats. Despite that, a lot of our EXP is supplemented by standard quest reward EXP. So for Yui… since she got to the same level as us primarily through grinding…”

“Whoa…” Striker realized what they were getting at.

“Indeed.” Rokugo smirked. “If Yui ignored the quest system, and simply continued fighting until reaching her current level, then it’s only natural for her stats to be above average.”

“Yeah, I’d heard stories of really hardcore players doing things like that! But it’s so dull and repetitive that most players wouldn’t play that way.” Mint noted. “I’m really surprised to hear you of all people took such an approach, Yui…”

“Well… I did do a few of the quests early on!” Yui was feeling rather embarrassed. “I just ended up fighting a lot, and before I knew it, I kinda… um… forgot about quests.”

Yep, that sounds like Yui alright…

Quartz had already started to get accustomed to Yui’s brand of weirdness, the little quirks in her playstyle like this didn’t faze him as much as it used to. Still, he couldn’t help but feel greatly amused by Yui.

“And here I thought I’d heard at all, haha.” Striker simply laughed at Yui’s explanation.

“Yui, you are just too cute…” meanwhile, Mint seemed to be quite relaxed.

“C’mon guys… I’m not that weird, am I?” Yui pleaded, her face red.

“Who cares if you’re weird or not?” Quartz spoke up.

“Quartz?” Yui looked up at him.

“This is a huge game, with all kinds of things to see and do. Who cares if you don’t follow the usual path? It doesn’t matter whether you’re weird or not. It’s a game. Play how you want.” Quartz nodded to himself in a self-satisfied manner, feeling like he said something profound.

“You’re right…! Thank you Quartz!” with that, Yui jumped onto him, giving him a big hug.

“Gwah! Yui, what are-!” and then the two clumsily fell to the ground as Quartz’s seat tipped over.

“Well, well, get a load of these love birds over here.” Striker chuckled.

“Too cute, I swear.” Mint grinned, stifling her laughter.

Rokugo simply adjusted his glasses, pretending to ignore the situation.

“Oh, come on you guys…” Quartz muttered with a smirk, while a smiling Yui cheerfully clung to him.

After things calmed down, the party eventually headed out to take care of a quest for Striker instead.

---

“Early as usual, even on the weekends, huh?” Quartz chuckled.

“Mm-hm.” Yui responded quietly, with a smile of her own.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and Yui had messaged Quartz, inviting him out to this location. Despite it being the middle of the afternoon in real time, a starry night sky hung over the two. They stood at the edge of a small pond in the middle of the Eastern grasslands. Normally this would be monster territory, but monsters seemed to keep away from this specific spot. It had been pegged as an oasis of sorts because of that; a nice spot for players to relax without having to trek all the way back to a town.

In the middle of the pond was a small patch of land with an ordinary tree at the center. The two stared toward it as they relaxed by the shore of the pond.

“It’s been a while since it’s been just the two of us.” Quartz noted. “I was surprised when you invited me out like this.”

“Yeah… I’ve just been thinking a lot.” Yui appeared unusually wistful.

“Has something been bothering you? …About the party?” Quartz asked nervously.

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s nothing like that!” Yui waved off his concern. “They’re all nice people! It’s been fun playing with you all!”

“I see… That’s a relief.” Quartz sighed. “I’m glad you’ve started to fit in with them.”

“Yeah!” Yui nodded.

“It’s been… fun. Having you around, that is.” Quartz glanced away, feeling embarrassed.

“Hehehe! I’m glad!” hearing those words warmed Yui’s heart.

“So…” Quartz quickly collected himself before continuing. “What’s up then? You said you’ve been thinking a lot.”

“The other day, when everyone was talking about quests… I wasn’t being entirely truthful.” Yui murmured.

“What do you mean?” Quartz gave Yui a look of concern.

“I do have… one quest. A priority quest.” Yui revealed.

“A priority quest, huh…?” Quartz pondered.

The main storyline of Myth of Genesis Online involved a particularly long series of quests that were slightly different depending on your class. During this series of quests, players would occasionally receive something classified as a “priority quest.” These were quests that would lock the player’s ability to receive other quests until it’s completed. This system was typically reserved for quests issued during climactic plot points of the game’s main story. It was intended to build tension and passively guide the player toward completing the quest at a pace to make the in-game storyline feel more believable.

“I see. It’s not uncommon to get stuck on a priority quest every now and then.” Quartz smiled. “You could’ve asked the party for help. I’m pretty sure priority quests never require solo play.”

“Oh no, that’s not why I kept quiet! It’s more like… I don’t think this quest should exist.” Yui looked down.

“Huh? I don’t understand…” Quartz tilted his head. “It’s one of the main story priority quests, right?”

“No, it’s not a main story quest…” Yui answered, feeling troubled.

“What…?” Quartz was now utterly confused.

The devs had only ever used the priority function on very specific main story quests. He’d never heard of any ordinary quests ever being set as priority, since it’d be way too intrusive to the player’s freedom if such a quest just fell into their laps during casual play and locked them out of completing other quests.

“Let me show you…” Yui tapped the mark on her forehead, bringing up her status menu. After swiping to her quest screen, she turned it and shared the display with Quartz.

“What’s this…?” Quartz muttered.

Sure enough, the quest screen displayed one lone quest, marked as a priority.

The name of the quest was unfamiliar to Quartz. Its title was… ‘In Search of the Precious Tear’.

[To be continued…]