Restarting From Genesis

Merlin made his way toward the plaza where he saw a couple of robed figures carrying yet another group of ice sculptures away from the wizard college.

The culprit this time was sitting on a chair in the plaza while a smaller man in a pure white robe was tending to her wounds.

It appeared as though the aggressor had managed a single lucky hit on the wizard, as there was a bloody dagger lying on the plaza floor and the wizard's robe was clearly stained with blood.

"Bloody immortal bastards, I'll get Pyrena to incinerate their corpses next time." The ice wizard swore as Merlin walked towards the building. "I won't be satisfied until I watch them choke on their own ashes."

'That's an ice wizard with a fiery temper,' Merlin thought to himself as he slipped into the wizard college.

Merlin walked toward the receptionist's desk, where an older man was sitting patiently, waiting for Merlin to approach.

"Good evening, how can I be of service?" The receptionist asked with a kind voice.

"Hello, could you please point me in the direction of the task hall?" Merlin responded.

"Certainly," The old man said before muttering a brief arcane chant.

A few moments later, a ball of light had appeared before Merlin and began moving in the direction of a doorway.

Merlin thanked the older man before chasing after the orb.

Fortunately, the location of the task hall wasn't too far away, and only after a couple of turns Merlin had found himself in a large room, oddly reminiscent of an adventurer or mercenary guild, albeit without the strong scent of old booze and smoke.

The room itself was somewhat packed, from individuals covered in various coloured robes to some wandering around in generic clothes, to even the one individual who was walking around wearing a full suit of armour.

There was a large desk at the far end of the room where several robed figures were sitting and speaking with those who approached.

There were large bulletin boards lining the walls that were covered in sheets of paper that had been loosely pinned to them, each containing a unique task, the name of the requester, a list of the rewards and sometimes a list of requirements that one had to meet to undertake the task in the first place.

Instead of doing what many of the other wizards in the room were doing, standing around staring at the walls of quest forms, Merlin walked directly towards the desk, and after waiting in line for a few moments, was greeted by one of the people sitting behind it.

"You didn't come with a form, did you come to make a request, or do you wish for a specific task?" The robed figure asked.

"I'd like a specific task, or a couple of tasks if more are available," Merlin said, "I'll be travelling to the Necropolis, I'd like to know of any tasks involving undead or other tasks specific to that region."

"The Necropolis, give me a moment, I'll take a look," The robed figure said before muttering a chant.

Several strands of mana extended from the man's fingertips, attaching to various forms throughout the room before they were suddenly reeled in.

Several sheets flew towards the robed man, stacking neatly in a pile in front of him.

"Let us take a look, shall we?" The man asked before flipping through the quest forms.

"Hunting down a demi-lich?" The man muttered to himself before glancing at Merlin, noticing his badge he quickly shook his head and threw the sheet onto a new pile.

"Vanquishing a Gravekeeper? No."

"Defeating an Undertaker? Certainly not."

The man shuffled through the stack of forms until only six remained.

"These are the remaining forms, which would you like to take?" The man asked while spreading them out for Merlin to see.

"Claws of a ghoul, the flesh of a zombie, vampire fangs, ectoplasm, skeleton bones..." Merlin mumbled to himself as he read the quest requirements out for each, "and the arm of a zombie?"

"Strange tastes, but it's not my place to judge," The man said, "So, what would you like? There's a line forming."

"I'll take them all," Merlin announced.

"Overzealous," The man muttered as he stared at Merlin with annoyance. "Eh, what the hell, it's your funeral. Another zombie for the Necropolis..."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Merlin said as he grabbed all six quest forms.

Several notifications appeared before him, and he accepted them all.

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[Common Quest] Rotten Flesh. ⢠Reward: 100 EXP, 100 Wizard EXP, 50 Wizard Points

[Common Quest] Welcome to the bone zone. ⢠Reward: 100 EXP, 100 Wizard EXP, 50 Wizard Points

[Uncommon Quest] Give me a hand. ⢠Reward: 140 EXP, 150 Wizard EXP, 75 Wizard Points, 1 Gold

[Uncommon Quest] Ghoulish Grasp. ⢠Reward: 200 EXP, 150 Wizard EXP, 100 Wizard Points

[Uncommon Quest] Fangs for nothing. ⢠Reward: 180 EXP, 120 Wizard EXP, 100 Wizard Points

[Rare Quest] Ghost Goo. ⢠Reward: 250 EXP, 200 Wizard EXP, 140 Wizard Points

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'Alright, that's nine hundred and seventy experience, eight hundred and twenty wizard experience and five hundred and fifteen wizard points,' Merlin calculated everything in his head. 'Oh, and one gold.'

He took his forms and made his way out of the wizard college, quickly finding his way into the plaza where he saw no trace of the ice wizard or the vindictive players.

While he started walking towards the road to Macedonia, Merlin glanced at his chat, seeing what was going on there.

"Hey guys, I'll need a couple of new mods, Is anyone interested?" He said to the camera orb floating around his head.

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[User] Invictus_1863: Sure, but what happened to the other two?

[User] SaintMRP: Sure! I'll do it.

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"The other two are going to be in the game playing in about an hour, they can't moderate the New Genesis stream anymore." Merlin said, "And Saint, aren't you going to be logging in soon? Like in five minutes?"

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[User] SaintMRP: Yeah.

[MOD] Quinntessential: Hey, we're still here!

[MOD] Quinntessential: And look who joined us.

[System] Moderator Quinntessential added BellaBambi as a VIP.

[VIP] BellaBambi: Helloooo everybodeeee~

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'Oh dear god, he's using my stream to flirt with streamers.' Merlin thought to himself while shaking his head.

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[User] ... : Is that the real BellaBambi?

[User] ... : I clicked on her profile, and it is.

[User] ... : Bambi, are you going to be playing New Genesis too?

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'And with a single greeting, she took over my stream chat," Merlin internally sighed, 'That's the power of fame I guess.'

Merlin made his way to Macedonia, he occasionally checked his chat just to see what was going on, but it seemed as though the streamer was there to stay, at least until she was allowed into the game.

'If he tries to invite her into our party, I'll hit him...' Merlin thought to himself, knowing exactly what was running through Quinn's mind at that moment.

He quickly sent Quinn a private message.

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[Priv] Merlin: Don't even think about inviting her to our party...

[Priv] Quinntessential: Huh, why not?

[Priv] Merlin: I'm not going to waste time and resources carrying her, it's obvious what's going to happen.

[Priv] Quinntessential: She's a famous gaming streamer, she'll be a good teammate.

[Priv] Merlin: Remember that time you added that spy into our guild because you thought "she" was cute? And then "she" stole all our guild loot and ran off after you carried "her" to max level and equipped "her" in all the best gear.

[Priv] Quinntessential: Wait, it's not the same. She's got thousands of viewers watching, she wouldn't do that, it'd hurt her reputation.

[Priv] Merlin: You own a poster of her, her overpriced themed keyboard and that dirty mousemat of her that you hide every time your parents enter your room.

[Priv] Merlin: Dude, you're a mark. You know full well that her fanbase won't criticise her for anything outside of announcing that she has a boyfriend.

[Priv] Quinntessential: ...

[Priv] Merlin: It's not happening man, I know you're not dumb enough to fall for it again.

[Priv] Quinntessential: Fine... But I'm getting that signature before I do anything to offend her.

[Priv] Merlin: Feel free to blame me as much as you need.

[Priv] Quinntessential: I will.

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'That idiot never learns,' Merlin sighed to himself, then chuckled when he remembered how heartbroken he was about the spy who ended up being a guy twice his age.

'I can't afford to carry a leech, so he'll just have to live with the tough decision," Merlin thought to himself, 'My time and resources are one thing, but my viewer base would be something difficult to get back if she leeched those too.'

'He wouldn't be stupid enough to ditch us for her... Would he?' Merlin had a strange thought that started to worry him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind as he continued down the road.

Merlin glanced back to the stream chat, where he saw people finally talking about the game once more.

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[User] Queen106: So you've stocked up on quests, what now?

[User] Invictus_1863: Time for the undead raid!

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"Now we'll make our way to Macedonia, grab a few friends, maybe pick up another couple of quests on the way to the Necropolis." Merlin announced, "Then it's time to slaughter a horde of undead... and hopefully not all get mauled to death in the process."

As he was coming up to Macedonia, he received a message from Nora.

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[09:40:32] Nora: Are you close to Macedonia?

[09:41:43] Merlin: I'm only a couple of minutes away, I can see the farms now.

[09:42:25] Merlin: Are you guys all grouped up?

[09:43:51] Nora: Mason is just finishing up on a quest, he'll be ready in a few minutes.

[09:44:23] Nora: I mean Tiny, sorry.

[09:44:46] Merlin: It's fine, I knew who you meant.

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