The Ugly Rat’s question hung in the darkness after the battle, and Ketal kept his mouth shut long enough to chase it to its root. The answer, once he stripped it of everything extra, was simple. He just progressed the Quests.0

At the beginning, the Quests had been manageable—annoying at times, but straightforward, the sort of tasks that honed one’s edge rather than chipped it. Then, at some unmarked point, the curve bent upward. The next prompts grew harder, and harder still, until even Ketal could not clear them without thinking, planning, and spending himself. They were no longer chores; they were ordeals.0

However, seeing the difficulty spike, Ketal did not balk. He took it as a sign. If the system raised the stakes, it was because a reward worth the risk waited somewhere ahead. Perhaps, he thought, there would be a way out of the White Snowfield at the end of that road. On that hope, he pushed every Quest with his full strength, leaving nothing in reserve.3

At the end of one such path, he saw the thing he had never once encountered within the White Snowfield. Something malformed and singular enough that even his battle-trained mind filed it under one word: uncanny.0

The moment he laid eyes on that uncanny thing, a Quest appeared.0

[Quest #784]0

[Respond to the presence before you.]0

[Info: Completing this Quest...1