There are four main types of quests a traveler can take on. The most common type is simply called “Quest.” Trillions of quests get completed across the expanse every day, the travelers aiding the people of the expanse for a nominal fee. A quest can be pretty much anything. As long as somebody is willing to pay the fee, a suitable traveler will eventually step up to do whatever needs to be done. Be that saving a cat from a tree, or assassinating a king.
Main quests are the next step up. These quests have attracted the attention of the system, for one reason or another, and are of greater importance. Only accessible by trading in a main quest token, which is somewhat rare as a reward from the system in their own right, the system picks from all potential applicants to send out the ones most suitable for the job. Since main quests offer greater rewards, as well as opportunities to tier up, they are well beloved within the traveler community.
Beyond even main quests, are Campaigns. Only acceptable by guild masters that can promise the needed manpower and are of good standing with the system. When things go truly awry in a spectacular fashion is when the system calls for a campaign. Planet spanning wars, a world being overrun by monsters, or galactic forces at each others throat. Or sometimes even a system organized traveler training exercise, promising great rewards for the winners, while the dead are considered weakness leaving the organization.
And finally, Tier-Up quests, or for the monsters, Evolution quests. Every traveler wishes to grow in power, and these quests are how the system decides who is worthy… and who isn't. The system takes a look at the traveler wishing to ascend, and assigns them a quest that properly challenges and tests them. As such, the mortality rate for these quests is the highest among all quest types. Many of the hopeful travelers meet their match during their tier-up quests and perish, just another face lost in the masses. Whoever manages to reach tier ten under these conditions is considered a true traveler.
Next to these main types is an eclectic type of miscellaneous quests labeled as “special.” These are exclusively given out by the system, usually as a reward. Their content can vary wildly, but due to their rarity and often tailor-made nature, they are a highly coveted type of quest.
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I woke up after a good night’s rest, as per usual, in a mess of mucus. My biology really wasn't playing nice with common beds, and maybe I should look into personalized solutions first, before spending all my money on food. Of course, I needed to have money first. Jorm still hadn't sold off all of my stuff, so it would have to wait for a while. I extended my eyes, taking a look out the window after opening the curtain with a tentacle. Perfect weather as always. I'd been told that the weather was tightly controlled by means of magic and technology, so this was the norm.
I stared outside for a while, following the occasional spaceship hovering above the planet with idle fascination. I'd have to see if I could get a tour of one in the future. They'd been a cool, yet almost unreachable concept back on Earth, yet were commonplace here. Eventually, I uncurled from my odd sleeping position and gathered my thoughts. Today was the day.
I was a voidling. Not just any voidling either, an emperor, if the system was to be believed. I had a rare opportunity, even among travelers, to visit the void whenever I wanted. I technically belonged there, even more so than on a traveler hub world. Of course, while my species all but screamed that I was a very important person in the void, didn't mean that it was so. I had barely any idea what the void was truly like, and to be honest, didn't have the best of experiences whenever I visited. For now, the void, while quite comfortable to float around in, was a quite scary place to me.
That opinion had been formed on an incredibly small sample size, but among the bad, there was some good as well. Mainly Tim. Well… Only Tim, to be honest. So far, the friendly bartender has been my shining beacon of hope. The one voidling that made me think the void wouldn't be all bad, and that I merely had some unlucky encounters so far. Last time I visited, I was unfortunately caught out at an awkward moment in my evolutionary journey, which caused a massive hunt for little old me. This time, things should be different, though. I no longer carried the coveted seed within me, the energy held within spent to fuel my ascent to royalty, and, eventually, emperor status.
If anything, I suspected that I'd be massively popular once more, if for completely different reasons.
After spending some more time idly watching the world go by through my window, I decided that it was finally time to go. I hopped off the bed and focused on my crown. The void crown had been with me for a while now but had yet to see any use, aside from looking rather stylish. As with all skills, intimate knowledge on how to use it was implanted into my brain the moment I got it. But, since the system had blocked all dimensional travel due to the void invasion causing lasting damage to the boundaries, the knowledge had been sitting uselessly within my mind.
It was really rather simple, in the end. The void crown was made from pure void energy, according to the skill description, but that was not all it was. It was technically a literal piece of the void shaped into the form of a crown. A piece of the void over which I held absolute dominion. Sure, it was but a tiny fraction of the void, and I couldn't really do too much with it, but it was exactly that enormous feat of claiming a piece of the notoriously free-spirited void that signified a royal's status. The one incredibly important thing I could actually do with my control over my own personal piece of the void, was traversing between the main dimension and the void.
Actually, I had no clue what the dimension I was currently in was called, or if it even had a name. Or how many dimensions there were, for that matter. I should probably ask somebody at some point.
I shook my head to rein in my wandering mind, and got back to the task at hand. I exerted my control over the void, my crown seemingly unfolding and swallowing me whole, depositing me into the infinite blackness of the void. The crown snapped back into its usual form almost immediately upon arriving, yet I barely noticed because I was too busy taking it all in.
I had been here before. The endless, empty, darkness of space, twinkling lights barely visible in the distance. I was floating along, basking in the feeling of having returned home. In all my visits before, I'd never felt anything like this. It was as if I'd spent months, even years abroad on a business trip, and had just stepped through the door into my own home. Which was weird, since the void was most definitely not my home. Yet, the void welcomed me like I was part of it, and I felt like a missing piece had slotted into a gap in my very soul. I idly noted that the range and quality of information of my void feelers had vastly increased, compared to being in the real world… or whatever it was called.
I took a deep breath, void energy filling my lungs, causing me to feel refreshed like never before. It was like I was a fish that had been forced to live on land, and somebody finally took pity on me and threw me back into the water. I couldn't help but bask in the incredibly comfortable feeling for a while, only a tiny part of my mind screaming about how wrong all of this was. It would seem like my evolution into a voidling emperor had tied me to the void in more intimate ways than I could have ever believed without experiencing it.
It took a while to shake myself out of my stupor, eventually managing to refocus on the task at hand. There was a certain bar I needed to visit, and more importantly, the barkeep of said establishment. I was just about to use my void guidance skill to find the way to the only place I was familiar with in the void, when I froze in my tracks.
Something was watching me.
No, not something. Someone. The mere act of being watched made me unable to act, the pressure of unimaginable power weighing down on me. The sheer authority of absolute hierarchy suppressing my ability to think properly. Before I could process what was happening, I felt something grab me, and I was whisked away.