Chapter 300
I left the Order's headquarters in a hurry, taking a portal exit that put me a few blocks away from one of the few coffee shops still up and kicking. After a bit of dark roast and rumination, I came to the conclusion I could worry about what the absence of the Personal Objective meant later.
There was a good chance it was nothing. Supporting that, none of my existing, outdated quests displayed the objective as failed. Perhaps it'd been long enough that keeping my identity guarded was meant to be assumed, and the objective had only been there as an early guard rail.
More to the point, I'd already failed it, intentionally. As a merchant, Kinsley—the first person I'd divulged my secret to—was a bit of a gray area. But Nick and Sae were Users, and despite belonging to the exact group of people I was supposed to shield my identity from, I'd told them explicitly.
Smart or not, Nick needed to hear it.
Similarly, Sae was so vulnerable and alone at the time that keeping her in the dark would have been borderline exploitation.
I told myself it made sense. I'd received unachievable objectives in quests before, but never—to my knowledge—because the criteria itself was simply inaccurate to reality. I received the quest to help Jinny before she died. Her death was imminent, and given the swiftness with which it happened, there was little anyone could have done to stop it barring some form of precognition. But up until the moment she died, it was still achievable.
"You're going to bring me back, right?"
I drained the coffee, trying to force the caffeine to clear my head through sheer power of will. All it left me with was jitters and an empty cup. I'd been too deep in my head lately. And when I found myself lost in the feedback loop of my own thoughts, there was generally only one thing that helped.
Getting back to basics.