Some Sage Advice

Wilhelm strode towards one of the many shelves and located an ancient looking book in a matter of minutes, which really impressed Daffodil. The book looked almost identical to every other book in the store, but Wilhelm confidently handed it to Daffodil without even opening it to confirm it was the one he was looking for.

“That’ll be twenty gold,” Wilhelm said as Daffodil took the book.

“Twenty gold!” Daffodil groused but still summoned the coins from his inventory and placed them on the counter with a little more force than necessary. He took a good look at the book and was glad he faintly recognized the cover.

“What’s the book say?” Asterion asked, peeking over Daffodil’s shoulder as he cracked it open.

“This is the only book I know of that talks about the Four Sages. Honestly, I’m surprised you even know about them, Daffodil. I thought only I and a handful of other merchants were aware of its existence,” Wilhelm explained. Daffodil translated other merchants as NPCs. Surely no players knew about the existence of these shrines, otherwise they would’ve been clamoring to find them.

“Good thing I read the flavor text,” Daffodil mumbled under his breath as he scanned the table of contents. Once he found what he was looking for, he flipped to the corresponding page and read aloud, “The Four Sages are four shrines hidden throughout WanderQuest. Each shrine presents a trial that must be passed. Once the trial is completed, the champion will receive an invaluable reward and the shrine will become deactivated.”

Asterion said, “What if someone’s already completed the trial? We shouldn’t be wasting our time traveling all across the continent for a reward that someone else might’ve already claimed.”

Daffodil nodded his head in agreement but said, “It sounds like no one else has even heard of these shrines. I don’t think we have to worry about one already being deactivated. And from what the book is describing, it sounds like the rewards will be crucial in defeating the Demon Lord. It’s better to find the shrine and risk gaining nothing than skip out on the reward to save time.”

Asterion hesitated for a moment before agreeing with Daffodil’s plan. “Where are the shrines?” he asked.

Daffodil skimmed the next few paragraphs before his eyes caught on the word “location”. Unfortunately, the sentence surrounding that word was, “The location of the shrines is unknown.” He groaned before continuing, “Four riddles have been unearthed and it is suspected that the answers are the hidden locations and son of a birch!” Daffodil turned the book to Wilhelm and pointed at four italicized stanzas. He assumed they were the riddles but there was just one problem. They weren’t words but strange scribbles.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded as he waved it closer to Wilhelm’s face. “Is this a joke? Or are you selling faulty books now?”

Wilhelm smirked slightly before schooling his face into an innocent looking expression. “Oh did I forget to tell you? The riddles are written in a language no one can read. Someone surely would have solved the riddles by now otherwise.”

Asterion groaned as he rubbed at his face. “What do we do now, Daffodil?” He turned pleading eyes on Daffodil, and Daffodil came to the realization that he was the current leader of their two person party. How had that happened?

He tried to think of a solution. They were no match for the Demon Lord as they were now; they needed some high level equipment. But where else could they find items strong enough? Random quests might give them something good, but any quest with a reward that beneficial would take way too long to complete. He didn’t know what the Four Sages would give them for completing the trials and he didn’t know how long each trial would take, but if the shrine locations were this heavily guarded they had to be holding something really good. Legendary even. Finally he said, “Wilhelm, please can you give us any other information?”

Wilhelm considered the two of them. After a long pause, his stoic expression seemed to cave and he said, “I’ve heard rumors that there’s a place called the Well of Knowledge. Apparently, if you drink the water from the well it will give you untold answers.”

Daffodil nodded his head as he processed the information. “So if we find this well and drink from it, it’ll let us decipher the riddles?”

“It might,” Wilhelm said. “While you will be given a wealth of information, there’s no guarantee it will provide what you want to know.”

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Asterion said. Daffodil turned to look at the man and smiled. He was glad to see that even if Asterion had been acting a little differently the past day, he was still able to make tough decisions when it came to it. “Even if it doesn’t help us read the riddles, it’ll probably still provide us with some information we can use in our fight.”

“I agree,” Daffodil said. “So, Wilhelm, where’s this well?”

Wilhelm shrugged. “I’ve no clue.”

“What?!” both Daffodil and Asterion exclaimed in unison. Daffodil added, “Why would you get our hopes up like that?

“I’m sorry but even as a bookkeeper I don’t have information on everything. But Caspia is a city full of people. If you look hard enough, I’m sure you can find someone that does know the location.”

Daffodil groaned but nodded. “Well thanks I guess.”

Wilhelm returned the nod and said, “I wish you luck on your journey.”

Daffodil placed the book in his inventory and he and Asterion left the shop. He felt a little downtrodden but didn’t let his spirit dampen too much. After all, they had some semblance of a lead, which was more than they’d had yesterday. All they had to do was find someone who knew the location of a well that sounded almost mythical to Daffodil. How hard could it be?