Shadow Gambit Read Free

what the reward for completing it would be. Typical. As an adventurer you were more or less expected to show up at a quest location and figure things out from there.
 
    “ Not sure if this is worth our while,” I said to Phlixx who had already lost interest and cartwheeled around. “I'll save it for another time or trade it.”
 
    I was about to slip the scroll into my inventory when a chat request popped up in my vision. At first I thought it was Mudhoof bugging me again, but dollar signs appended the request label.
 
    Spammer? Couldn't be. My filters were good at keeping unwanted solicitations from gold farmers and other pests from trying to sell me their crap. If it was a spammer, I'd report them to the game's administrators. Let management deal with him.
 
    I initiated the chat and a large view window appeared in front of me. Within the window was the face of a large gray owl. Beneath him was the name Ogden Trite. “Greetings!” said the owl, ruffling his feathers as he spoke. “Thank you for accepting my chat request. I am most eager to speak with you. You are Vivian Valesh, the Shadow quester, yes?”
 
    Waving a hand I said, “Yeah. But I'm not interested in what you're selling, pal. In fact, how the heck did you manage to get may chat identification if you're not on my friends list?” My list of in-game friends was short but distinguished. Or so I kept telling myself. In reality I didn't have many friends, in-game or otherwise. I am a solo player at heart.
 
    The owl's eyes widened to comical proportions. “Oh, I am not selling anything at all. In fact, it is you I wish to buy from, if you are interested.”
 
    That's a switch, I thought. “What could I possibly have that you want?” Currently, I had little up on the auction house for sale. What items I got from questing sold within minutes of my listing them.
 
    Ogden chuckled, and his owl avatar's feathers bristled with the motion. “I'm interested in the quest scroll you recently obtained moments ago. Would you be keen on selling it?”
     
    Shocked, I said, “How did you know I had this?” I looked around the base camp again, but other than the old crone, no one else was nearby. “I haven't even listed it anywhere.”
     
    Ogden said, “I pay an exorbitant monthly fee to a Locators Guild each month for them to tell when a new quest becomes available. And they just now informed me of your quest scroll.”
 
    “ There are quest scrolls appearing all the time,” I said. “The Locators Guild must charge you a bundle.” There were billions of quests throughout the game's universe. The vast majority of them carefully logged on various internet sites and wikis. And thousands more were added daily. With billions of players the game needed to generate new content all the time.
 
    “ Well, that's true,” said Ogden. “But I don't pay for a daily list of everything. My interests are far more specific. I am only interested in one kind of quest.” He paused.
 
    Making an effort to not roll my eyes at him, and wanting to end this conversation, I took the bait. “And what kind is that?”
 
    “ Legendary Quests,” he said.
 
    “ Legendary Quests?” I said, surprised. “Do they even make those anymore?” Every quest had a rarity degree assigned to it depending on what the end quest item reward was. From common items that had no real value, to ultra-rare items that fetched huge sums on the auction house.
 
    Then there were the fabled Legendary Quests. So rare that out of the billions of available quests, the Legendaries numbered only a few dozen. And completing these quests gave the player a unique one of a kind item unlike any other in the game. Most other quests could be repeated by players and finishing them gave you the same reward. Not Legendaries. They were a one time quest.  Once completed for the first time, the reward item changed to something more mundane.
 
    “ Yes,” Ogden said. “But, as you are well