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SLW Chapter 3 : The First Quest
🕑 Added 2025-01-25 23:59:33 +0000 UTCHis eyes locked on a flapping banner with the green cloth bearing the unmistakable black silhouette of a bear. It was as if a fist had just struck his chest.
"House Mormont… This is Bear Island," he whispered, his heart sinking.
Bear Island was the seat of the powerful House Mormont, whose people were as unyielding and hardened as the island. The house of the Mormonts was proud and very loyal, but their lands were very, very far from the south—all but inaccessible to the comfort one could enjoy there. The island was small, cold, often besieged by the elements, and little in numbers. People here were sturdy, hereditarily rooted folk habituated to survive at the roughest point of Westeros.
Aeron's mind went racing as he viewed it all with new eyes. The dark forest that seemed to enfold the stronghold, the harsh, unforgiving ground, the chill in the air never seeming to relent—this was a place where only the very strong could survive, let alone thrive. He had read about Bear Island, but reading about it and being here were two very different things.
“I thought this place was Pyke at first,” Aeron muttered to himself, his breath visible in the cold air. “But now… I don’t know if this is better or worse...”
Something even stranger happened as the frustration and despair swirled inside him. A translucent screen floated in front of his eyes, suspended in the air only inches from his face. It was like something from a video game-except it felt far too real. His eyes widened as he took in the details displayed on the screen.
[SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
Aeron's eyes blinked as he stared back at the floating interface. It was something straight out of a fantasy game, yet here it was in front of him, making the situation all the more surreal for him. The screen flickered momentarily before showing a series of details.
Quest: Recognize Your Location Status: Completed
Listed below the quest notification was a status screen, almost resembling a character profile in any game. The status screen, read as follows :
Name : Aeron Grim
Job : Necromancer
Unknown : Unawakened.
Title : All-Knowing ( Instantly understand new concepts,+50% learning speed, Automatically identify items, creatures, and magic. )
Level : 1
Fatigue : 0
HP : 100 MP :100
Strength : 20
Health : 10
Agility : 10
Intillegence : 10
Sense : 10
Available abbility points : 0
Passive skill : Tenacity Level 1
Perception: +10 to Sense when analyzing or strategizing.
Job specific Skill : Shadow Extraction (20 Soldiers limit)
Inventory:
Begger Clothes
Rations (1 days worth)
Rusted Dagger
Status Effects:
None
Aeron's jaw dropped as he read over the information. His status was there, much like a character sheet, listing health points and mana with a section for something unknown, though it was noted as "Unawakened." A wave of his hand scrolled through the screen as he tried to make sense of it all.
"What... what is this?" he muttered, trembling with confusion and wonder. "Is this some kind of joke? Or... am I really in a game now, is this the goddess doing?"
The screen was steady, giving no answers but confirming this wasn't a hallucination. Aeron's eyes flickered from status screen to surroundings. It hit him that he was being given a system, much like those in the games and stories he had read about, and that it was designed to help him navigate this harsh new world.
He stared on at the screen as another line of text flickered onto it:
[WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WESTEROS]
Your journey begins here, Aeron Grim, Survive.
Aeron’s frustration and sense of helplessness momentarily gave way to a cautious sense of hope The system might be his only ally in this harsh new world, but the reality of his situation still weighed heavily on him.
He sighed deeply—his breath fogged in the cold air—as he muttered to himself: "Survive?! I had somewhere more magical in mind. A calm place, in the middle of it all, where I don't have to struggle just to survive day by day."
His thoughts wandered to the hundreds of stories he had read about heroes and adventurers who possessed unimaginable powers to do unbelievable things in amazingly fascinating worlds. He wanted a world in which he could mold his destiny through sheer will, magic flowed freely, and all challenges had limitless strength.
"But no," he continued; the bitterness in his voice was at this point too strong to be missed, "I'm stuck here, on this godforsaken island, with nothing but the biting wind and the promise of bad weather. I had imagined great powers of might and magical kingdoms to be found. But no, I scrape by in a world where survival is the only goal."
He cast his eyes upon the rough landscapes of Bear Island, the cold, merciless landscape before him. Reality was much different from the ideal pictures he had in his mind. In this new world he set foot in, everything was harsh and unforgiving; each step was a very tangible reminder of the enormous gap between this world and the peaceful, magical one he had imagined.
"But maybe…" he thought, the narrowing of his eyes even further in determination, "if I play my cards right and use this system to my advantage, I can even have this place mean something. Maybe this will help me find a way to carve out just a bit of that magic and power I've been longing for, even if it means shaping the world into something closer to what I've always dreamt of!"
Further along the walk in the stronghold, a rather problematic thought struck him. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said under his breath, "I don't even know what period of time this is. I hope it's after the Night King's defeat, or at least during a peaceful time like when King Jaehaerys I Targaryen ruled."
He paused, his mind racing with the memory of the man who had threatened him moments ago. His spine tingled just at the mention of the Wall. "The Wall… if that man threatened me with the Wall, it means the Night's Watch still exists. And that also means the dead are still out there."
Aeron's stomach churned at the thought. "Fuck," he said aloud, "Bear Island is not that far from that hell. If the Night's Watch still exists, then the threat of the dead must still be real. I've got to be careful, but i think i can counter that...”
He paused, milk-white breath rising into the chill air as he hatched up his next step. "I still can't tell what time period it is," he grumbled to himself. "These guys never change for thousands of years always swords, horses, and shit. I need to find out about the king, but asking directly might make me suspicious or seem weird something, they behead people here for stupid things!"
Aeron scratched his head, thinking how to obtain the information without drawing undue attention. "They might expect ignorance from a lowborn. I'll need to be clever about this.”
He took a look around through one of the walls of the stronghold, seeing people perform their daily business. "Perhaps I may find a way to ask about some of the recent happenings or political issues, all the while not being overly inquisitive; maybe I will be able to slip it into local gossip or news.
With a determined expression, Aeron began to formulate a plan. “I’ll need to blend in and gather information gradually. The more I know about the current state of affairs, the better prepared I’ll be, I'll use my knowledge about this world to my advantage.”
Suddenly, a new translucent screen flickered into view right in front of his face. It was the same system interface he had seen before, but this time it displayed a new quest.
[NEW QUEST: SURVIVE]
Timer: 24h
Details: None
Reward: Skill : Rulers Authority
Skill Description ; Ruler’s Authority is a form of Telekinesis , it does not cost mana.
Aeron's eyes widened in shock. "What?" he then said. "Survive what? I need to KNOW MORE! This is NOT FUNNY!"
He waved his hand a few times at the screen, as if to make it spit out some more information, but the interface remained blank. The timer added a sense of urgency to the cryptic message.
"What the hell?" he muttered, irritation in his voice. "Is this some kind of joke or test? I need to know what I'm up against!"
His eyes wandered around the stronghold. He was getting a really rotten feeling from this quest that had just popped up seemingly out of nowhere, and the lack of information was setting his nerves on edge. "I can't just sit here and wait. I need to find out what this is about before time runs out!"
Determined not to be caught off guard, Aeron began to assess his surroundings more closely, looking for any potential threats or clues that might explain the mysterious quest. His sense of urgency grew as the timer continued to tick down, and he knew he had to act quickly to ensure his survival.
"This is not a simple one," he thought, and his mind went spinning. "There has to be something I overlooked. I will just keep alert and ready for whatever."
