I should probably make one. Or Four.

Deep Focus was a must. I couldn’t ignore that bonus to skill experience.

Spellweaver was another MVP. Not only did it give me more magical skill experience, but I’d be able to alter spells on the fly. That seemed incredibly useful.

Accelerated Learning also seemed like a no-brainer. It boosted experience across the board, and if the last quest was anything to go by, quest experience was especially valuable.

That left me with one Talent Point.

I could grab Intimate Attunement or Sensual Resonance and potentially learn more spells through sex. But was that really realistic? How much sex was I actually going to have?

One of the Will Talents would probably help if I ran into another Master Vampire or someone else tried to control my mind. I’d done pretty well against the last one, though, so maybe I didn’t need to invest in that just yet.

Arcane Efficiency looked good for the mana discount, but so far I was doing pretty well on that front.

Resonant Casting would be useful for reducing casting time. But if I was going to invest in that, I felt like it was something I needed to commit to. Spark Lance only took two seconds to cast. Getting that down to one second might take five more Talent Points.

That probably wasn't worth it right now.

Analytical Appraisal was interesting. It would at least give me a basic idea of what I was up against. And if another Talent piggybacked off it later? That could be really interesting.

Since I was learning that the System was something everyone had access to in some form, and I was going to see a System expert anyway, I decided to take Analytical Appraisal as my last Talent.

I finished up at the stream, pulled my wet pants back on, and headed back toward the girls.

“Ready?” I asked.

They both nodded, and we set out.

As we walked, I peppered Valentia with questions. “How do you get quests?”

“Usually you pick them up at an Adventurer’s Guild,” she replied.

“How does that fit in with the whole System thing? Does the Guild have some way to assign the quests?”

She shook her head. “Not as far as I know. They just post them and anyone can take one.”

“How do they know which ones are quests?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Can anyone give you a quest? What makes a quest a quest? I mean, could you give me a quest to brush my teeth and if I did it, I’d get experience?”

She laughed. “No teeth-brushing quests. I honestly don’t know what makes a quest a quest. The few quests Ami and I have picked up were at the Adventurer’s Guild, and each one was a real quest.”

“What about quests in the wild? How does the System know when to assign you one?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Like, just before the vampires showed up last night. I got a quest called ‘Lady of the Night’.”

Ami stopped dead and turned around. “Ye what?”

I stopped too. “I got a quest with four success criteria. The required one was to survive. The others were optional. And what’s up with optional criteria? How does the System know what to make optional?”

The two looked at each other.

“What were the optional criteria?” Valentia asked.

“One was to protect you. The other was to protect Ami. And the third was to defeat the Master Vampire.” I paused. “I failed that one.”

The two of them just stared at me.

“What?”

“Those types of quests are really rare,” Valentia said. “And the System only gives you quests you can actually complete.” She hesitated. “Which means you could have defeated her.”

I laughed. “No way. She was way too fast and strong for that. I hit one of her dog girls with my sword and it didn’t even hurt her.”

“You only got those four criteria?” she asked again.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Survive. Protect you and Ami. Defeat the Master Vampire.”

“Not the Vampire Spawn?”

I shook my head.

“It might mean that you couldn’t defeat them…” Valentia mumbled.

“Or it might mean that they weren’t important enough,” Ami countered. “Or strong enough. Tenth-level adventurers don’t get quests to kill a single goblin.”

They looked at each other, then at me.

I put up a hand. “Don’t look at me. I have no idea what’s going on. I’m not even from this world, remember? I got here just before the Fleshwoods showed up. And that quest just told me to survive.”

“Ye got a quest for the Fleshwoods?” Ami asked. There was utter disbelief in her voice.

“Yeah. I don’t think I was supposed to kill them. I still took one out, though.”

“Ye killed a Fleshwood?” Ami was nearly shrieking now.

“Yeah. I collapsed the bathhouse on it and hit it with a dozen Spark Lances. Pretty much tapped me out of mana.”

She looked at Valentia. Then at me. “I canna do this.” She threw her hands up and marched off down the road.

I looked at the blonde.

She shrugged. “You know, she really did go to Greyhaven for adventure. I don’t think that was the only reason, but it was one of them. And I think she’s having trouble with it. She doesn’t like to fight. I think that Lutin she killed was the first real combat she’d ever been in.”

She sighed. “Then you come in with two Personal Quests, kill monsters that are impossible for the two of us to handle together, and somehow survive.”

“Four quests,” I corrected. “But one of those had a single criterion. Just survive.”

She frowned. “What were the other two quests?”

“The first was to go to the Adventurer’s Guild, learn how to move, get a weapon, learn to fight, and cast a spell. Regular tutorial stuff.” I shrugged. “The other one was to go back to Greyhaven after we escaped. There was no way I was doing that one.”

She watched me closely. “You failed that one?”

I shook my head. “No. It’s still there. I’m just not doing it.”

“What does it say exactly?”

I shrugged. “It’s called The Fall of Greyhaven. Criterion one is survive. Criterion two is optional - return to Greyhaven.”

She stared at me. “That’s not a quest to go back to Greyhaven.” Her expression hardened with sudden concern. “That’s…” She shook her head. “We really need to get you to that System Sage.” She turned and hurried after Ami.

“Come on. Let’s go.”