Chapter 14: Hot

As anyone who's played games knows...

Quests play a crucial role in RPG games.

They provide experience points, rare items, NPC relationship changes, skill acquisition, and much more.

Beyond that, they also serve as guides that connect characters and advance the game's story.

And Demons Saga, being a VR RPG, was no different in this regard.

To be blunt, this game had no real storyline to speak of.

The only goal given to players was to defeat the demons sealed throughout the world.

Players are thrown into this vast world with just that single objective.

To make matters worse, even after nearly half a year since the game's launch, not a single demon has shown its face.

As a result, players end up wandering aimlessly, unsure how to progress.

In this situation, quests were the only things giving them any sense of the world and its lore.

Of course, since NPC AI changes in real-time, no two quests are ever exactly the same.

While there are some similar quests under the "repeatable" category... that's about it.

Once a player completes a quest, it's gone forever.

That's how rare and precious quests are.

So how can players learn the game's story with such limited quests?

Or rather, where can they even get quests in the first place?

Fortunately, the game company provided a direct answer to this.

+

[There are two ways to obtain quests]

First is accepting missions from the Adventurer's Guild bulletin board.

The guild has numerous problems to solve, so you can almost always find quests there.

However, these missions tend to be consumable and rarely relate to the main stream.

Second is getting them from NPCs.

NPCs occasionally give out quests. While many are trivial, they have a higher chance of being main stream related than guild quests.

Main stream related quests fall into two categories.

First, quests that directly relate to the main stream.

Second, NPCs that are themselves related to the main stream.

This has been GM Gaia.

Have fun playing Demons Saga everyone.

+

No one knows exactly what the developers mean by "main stream".

The game company's always been secretive. It could be demon-related, or quests that hugely impact the game's world.

What matters here is that NPC quests are precious.

So it was only natural for Chae-rin to jump up and shout:

"A q-quest!"

That precious quest came to her!

But that wasn't all. Given that it was just a simple errand, this clearly wasn't a "main stream" quest. How much impact could running errands have on the world?

That left only one possibility.

[lol a quest popping up here]

[Wait, does this mean he's an important NPC?]

[nah we don't know yet it's just a 'chance' could be a trash quest]

[Don't get your hopes up, lots of false alarms before]

[But his face alone looks important af lololol]

"?"

The only one tilting his head in confusion was Yor, who hadn't read the notice.

Thanks to Player's Eye, he knew she'd received a quest.

But so what? Was that really such a big deal?

Yor didn't even know how he'd given out the quest in the first place.

He just spoke, and a quest appeared.

"...Quest?"

"Ah! It's nothing!"

Finding it awkward that he was the only one out of the loop, Yor changed the subject.

He could always ask about it later. Right now wasn't the time.

"So, can you go get those things?"

"Of course! I'll be right back!"

And so Yor managed to pass his errand onto Chae-rin.

He felt a bit bad, but well... he'd make sure to reward her properly.

"Ah, turn off the stream when you leave."

"Oh, right!"

Yor didn't forget to keep the path to his home hidden.

*

"Let's see... tissues, soap, cloth, fabric..... bread and holy water..."

After reaching the city, Chae-rin immediately turned her stream back on.

Since she'd told viewers she'd restart once out of the forest, they quickly flooded back in.

Current viewer count: 4,300. Impressive numbers even after leaving Yor.

Seems people were drawn in by news of the quest appearing.

Viewers commented on Yor's shopping list:

[Man's practically moving house]

[Could set up a new home with all this ya]

[Why's he asking for so much? That's months of supplies right there]

[No wonder a quest popped up lol]

Chae-rin agreed with the viewers.

As they said, Yor's list was quite lengthy.

Good thing he gave her money for it, otherwise her gold would've taken a serious hit.

Looking at the list, she could deduce several things.

Asking for so many things at once suggested he rarely left the forest.

While it could just be laziness... she sensed he had reasons for avoiding the city. Though she couldn't quite figure out what those reasons were yet.

Among the items listed, bread was one he specifically requested.

Had to be pastry with strawberry jam, he'd said. Made sense he'd crave bread living out there where he probably rarely got any.

'But what's with the holy water?'

The one item she couldn't understand was holy water listed at the very bottom.

He even wrote "as much as money allows" for the quantity.

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn't figure out what he needed it for.

Holy water was, as commonly known, an item made by clergy.

Pure water infused with divine power by priests.

Since it required extended effort from at least mid-rank priests to create, it commanded quite a price.

As such, supply was quite limited.

Its use was even more puzzling.

While it weakened and dealt extra damage to evil-attribute enemies...

Demons Saga had barely featured any evil-attribute enemies so far.

With even demons themselves yet to appear, what more could you ask for?

That's why holy water was considered a noob trap item in-game.

People would call you a newbie just for buying it.

[Looks like our Yor oppa's a noob too...]

[He's living this as reality you idiot]

[fr tho why's he buying so much holy water?]

[Maybe there's a demon sealed nearby lol]

"...hmm."

Though curious, she didn't dwell on it too deeply. Right now completing the quest was the priority. She needed to get back to the Forbidden Forest before nightfall.

She continued her shopping with that in mind.

*

Should use the delivery service next time.

"Huff huff... got everything here... haa... haa..."

Several hours after sending her on the errand,

I finally received all the items from her.

She unloaded everything from her inventory and carried it over.

Though I helped too, there were so many items it was exhausting work.

Watching her, I thought:

'So they really do have inventories.'

Well, that's standard for games. Not particularly surprising.

Even in this world, subspace pouches were widely used.

You could think of it as a variation of that.

[Man's trying to kill himself lol]

[Got work loading trucks tomorrow and I'm watching loading here too ffs]

[idiot lololol]

[I quit]

[Go do some loading yourself]

Since we were in the cave, the stream was currently on.

As long as the path here wasn't shown, I'd allowed streaming inside.

Having decided to partially expose my existence, I could tolerate this much.

"Whew, it's hot... Moving around so much got me all heated up."

As I was lost in thought, she suddenly flung open her outer coat.

Revealing the ample breasts constrained beneath.

For some reason she only wore a brown tank top under her coat.

The cleavage was clearly visible. There seemed to be a slight sheen from sweat.

I cleared my throat and asked.

"Ahem, um... why just a tank top under your coat instead of armor?"

"Huh? Ah."

She scratched her head sheepishly and explained:

"Actually, I always unequip everything when coming here in case I die. Hehe..."

"......"

So that's why.

Now I understood what I'd done earlier.

They probably felt similar to how I'm feeling now back then.

The bigger issue though was that I seemed to be the only one feeling embarrassed.

[What a total coward lol]

[Look at her sweat lol]

[Cover up already it's gross]

Her chat window remained calm as ever.

Times like these really make me feel how much the world has changed.

"...Wait here. I'll get your payment."

Though it was quite a pleasant sight, I quickly headed to storage to hide my reddening face.

Though I might look like a beggar living in the forest, I was fairly well-off.

This place was crawling with dangerous monsters, and their corpses were worth money in this world.

And I regularly eliminated those creatures.

'A few of these should do.'

Thinking that, I tossed her some items.

"Here you go."

"Huh? Huuuh??"

Her eyes went wide.