[ti]quest[/ti][Q][C/Wolf] White Water

Despite the announcement six months ago of the new area called Ostellia being unlocked to those players willing to find a new way of ‘cleansing the corruption’, Wolf felt that the game seemed pretty dead lately. Reports of low active player count, and the claim that Unovr was ‘dead’, buzzed across her newsfeed like wildfire. It wasn’t usually for games to have their ups and downs. Yet, the woman couldn’t help but feel down at this fact. There was something about Unovr she loved. Whether that’s pokemon related or something else entirely, it was unclear. However, Wolf couldn’t stop playing even with the longer player matching times and such bugging the game play. What she didn’t expect though, was a direct message notification to pop up as soon as she logged on.

DIRECT MESSAGE FROM Josh Devlin
“ Hey, Wolf! You busy? I discovered a new Quest just off the coast of Ostellia, on Route 7's shores. Think we'll be going out to sea. You interested? “

For a second, the username was unfamiliar. She pondered who this player was, or when they met. But just as quickly as the forgetful Wolf struggled to remember, it came back to her. Right. He was that player she did the ‘battle your rival’ tutorial with. Ah. Yes. How long has it been? Honestly, Wolf has lost track of time both in the real world,and in Unovr. And with the game being so slow, the hybrid didn’t expect anyone to message her let alone ask to do a quest in Ostellia. Admittedly, the silver haired player hasn’t ventured into the new area yet even though she spent the bytes maxing out her tall grass hp like recommend.

She typed quickly…

DIRECT MESSAGE TO Josh Devlin
“ Oh hey. Nah. I’m not doing anything important right now. Sure! Send me the quest details if you can and I’ll head over there. “

“And send.” The verbal cue wasn’t needed. Yet, she found herself doing it anyway. The chime of a message sent rang in her wolfie ears, leaving her to wait for a response. Now that she thought about it, this might be her official first quest in Unovr. She chuckled to herself. That’s kinda of funny. She's been playing longer than he and yet again, she's the one that hasn't done a queat.

Despite being one of the many players who had ‘early access’ to area three after the world event, this was actually Wolf’s first time being in Ostellia. One thing was for sure, it felt very ominous to her. Pale golden orbs flickered to the setting sun that barely peaked over the vast blue ocean horizon now, wondering what time was considered ‘night time’ for the game. As soon as she approached the meet up location, a flood of notification began to pop up before her.

Oh look! You’ve found a RUSTED KEY! It’s been added to your inventory!

A new quest called DRAGON’S DEN has been added to your quest log! Check it out for more details!

Quest DRAGON’S DEN has been activated! Searching for quest partner...

Quest partner found! Follow the location marker on your mini map to officially start the quest!

“Are you done now?” the wolf human hybrid mumbled under her breath, cleared each notification one by one until there were no more. The transparent mini map in the top left corner in her line of sight became opaque and expanded slightly, flashing a red marker on it before returning back its default custom setting. Her brows scrunched, blankly staring at the marker before her gaze lifted to the dock not too far from where she stood. “Why do I have this sinking feeling that, that boat isn’t going to be good enough?”

A cool night breeze washed over the beach, only adding to the strange feelings she was already getting. Taking in a deep breath to calm her nerves behind the screen, the player moved towards the sketchy looking dock with an equally questionable boat padlocked to it. And just as she did, pale golden orbs lifted to see that Josh Devlin was indeed already here.

Quest partner found! Quest DRAGON’S DEN will begin momentarily….
Good luck player!

“Hey Josh,” the woman greeted, a hand rose to give him a single wave, “Thanks for the invite. Are you ready to do this?” Pale golden orbs fell upon the lock in front of her, pulling the RUSTED KEY from her inventory and holding it up to Josh. “I think at least one of us is required to take the boat or at the very least, unlock it form its shackles.”

Part of her was a little bummed that she was the one being ‘forced’ to use the tiny rowboat out in the open sea. That rowboat didn’t look the most reliable, especially in a vast amount of possible rough waters like this. But on the other side, Wolf didn’t have a ‘huge’ water mount like Josh Devlin ’s Dewgong. Yes, she had her dratini who was arguablely the same size as the ice and water type. However, Lagertha was still young in Wolf’s eyes and she didn’t feel like should could handle the swells of the sea can give. Her pale golden orbs fell upon the small rowboat. Though, Lagertha might do better than that thing. She also had Cragon, her frogadier, and Jethro, her Marshtomp she could use. Hmmm…

“Alright,” the player replied, swinging the key around rather carelessly for someone who was normally quite careful, “Sounds fair enough.” Mentally, Wolf had no idea what he was talking about. She didn’t even know there was an aquatic mount tutorial to do. Did she accidentally skip another tutorial? Crap. Well. Good thing she was taking the rowboat then. Though, the hybrid should be sure to check it out after.

Moving to the lock, the ployer inserted the rusted key into the hole. A simple twist of her wrist, the locking mechanism tumbled and the lock popped open. Both the rusted key and the lock vanished, a soft musical chime rang in her wolf like ears and another series of notifications flooded her vision.

New Objective! Document invasive species carrying lights across the sea.
New Objective! Document spiral-shaped constellation.
New Objective! Investigate the Dragon's Den's whirlpool.

Pale golden orbs were quick to read them before letting them vanish, hearing Josh seemed to have got the same ones. “Yep,” the woman sighed, moving to carefully get in the rowboat, “It seems like it.” For a moment, the hybird was quiet. She struggled to balance in the darn thing, arms flailing out to catch her balance before she finally managed to sit down in the middle. And in that moment, something accrued to her. She’s never rowbaated before. It can’t be that hard, right? She sure hoped so.

Letting out a loud unnecessary breath of air, her gaze shifted to Josh. A brow rose. “Do you think it would be,” her hands rose to give air quotes around her next work, “‘cheating’ if I had a pokemon pull the boat along instead of me actually rowing it? Because, it might be a while if I do this by myself. I’m not no professional rowboater.” And despite this being a game and clearly not real, the fear of drowning seems to still be bugging her at the moment.

As soon as she got in the boat and took a minute or two to balance herself in the center, the hybrid began to regret her decision about agreeing to use the rowboat herself. Pale golden orbs flickered to meet Josh Devlin ’s, a look of uncertainty and skepticism flashed before her. This really didn’t seem safe. Like, yes it was just a game. But still, it didn’t feel right. Or perhaps, that’s the point. Whatever.

Wolf took a moment to silently debate on whether she wanted to challenge the games rules for this quest or challenge her own willpower to trust this two seater boat in a possible violent ocean. And after a minute or two of thinking, the hybrid chose to the middle ground. Kind of. Reaching into her ‘pockets’, the woman plucked out safe guard. The sphere burst open, an almost six foot blue serpent matnrlzied in the water next to her. The dragon type’s large gaze moved from the human riding a pokemon to her handler in a boat.

“Can you just like… stick by me? I don’t trust this boat.” Lagertha gave a small nod, disappearing under the water’s surface before popping her head out again. “If the swells get too much for you, let me know. We can either put you in the boat with me or I’ll put you back in your ball.” The dratini let out a flutter of soft seemingly agreeing cries, slithering her body in the water. With that, Wolf turned back to Josh and gave him a nod indicating she was ready.

Row. Row. Row.

Although technically, she wasn’t breaking a sweat behind the monitor (though a finger cramp may be in the future). In game however, the canine and human hybrid was really working up a sweat. A sweat line formed along her brow, soon a droplet of sweat rolled down the side of her face. In fact, she was so focused on paddling and keeping up with the other player that she wasn’t really paying attention to next marker on the mini map nor any swells/rough waters that began to show its face.

Wolf felt a little more reassured by Josh Devlin’s words that they are in this together and that he will aid her in her time of need if it came to it. Yet, the hybrid couldn’t shake the feeling like this quest was going to one of the more challenging ones to say the least. And unlike Josh, this was Wolf’s first time taking one of these quest in the new area. Although she did upgrade her tall grass hp, maybe putting some byte into her pokemon or her herself would’ve been a good idea as well. Its too late now.

At the mention of the dratini, the hybrid let out an exhausting sigh and took a moment to gather her stamina from rowing to answer his series of questions. “Oh- Lagertha. Actually, I didn’t catch her. Someone else caught her and put her up for trade. They didn’t have anything in specific they wanted in exchange so I gave them one of my extra pokemon I caught.” Wolf took in a deep breath, lifting her arms above her head to stretch her shoulders before falling back down to start the rowing again. “I think they are a rare find using the fishing rod. I tried to get one myself, but gave up after few hours.”

With that, the hybrid returned to rowing the boat. The waters only seem to be getting rougher the more out to sea they got. And soon, paddling became more and more difficult to do. In fact, Wolf has to ask Josh for breaks the more times the further they got out there. However, the horde of Nihilego carrying lights of varying colors over a whirlpool was something to see. Wolf’s eyes widened, taking Josh’s advise and being sure to stay clear of them. The whirlpool though, was strong.

“I have yet to encounter an ultra beast,” the woman admitted between pulls on the paddles, trying struggling against the pull of the swirling water, “Are they that powerful in the game?” Pale golden orbs flickered back to the horde only to return to Josh. “The announcement wasn’t lying about them. They do seem to be invasive here.” To be honest, Wolf really should go catch at least one of the ultra beast in here. Although she wasn’t really a fan of any of them, having one might come in handy. “Do you have any of them yet?”

Wolf wasn’t very good at casual conversation nor small talk. And doing while ‘rowing’, didn’t help that fact either. Luckily though, this Josh Devlin was kind enough to not only slow down but give her small breaks. Her brows scrunched at the mention of Everstones, trying to recall if Unvor even had those here. “Don’t we have to pay bytes to evolve pokemon? I’m pretty sure as long as you don’t buy the evolution, you don’t seen anything to keep it a Dragonair.” The player let out a loud breath of exhaustion, massaging her hands behind the screen. “I’m just not a fan of dragonite. Dragonair alone is much better.”

The hybrid tried to focus solely on rowing the boat. Yet, she couldn’t not occasionally peak at the Ultra Beast so close to them. “You have two of them already,” Wolf replied, her voice accidentally getting a little too high pitched for her liking, “Dang man. Guess I really need to buckle down and explore more. Which do you have?” In her opinion, all the ultra beast designs were super ugly. The only saving grace was some of their tryings.

Just as quickly as they gotten close to the dragon’s den, they were leaving and heading towards their next objective. Her gaze flickered to see the color changing, thank the lord. And just when Wolf was starting to feel a little at ease, the other player was quick to remind her that they weren’t done yet. Her head fell back, pale orbs lifting to the swirling sky. “Great,” the player mumbled in a low tone.