Chương 115: Chapter 111 – Harbor Watch

Mark was abruptly woken by someone shaking his shoulder.

"Mark. Wake up." Mark groaned and rolled over. Then he was shaken again.

"Get up now, Instance timer only has a couple minutes left; if you're not there, another group will take it." Mark finally climbed out of his sleeping bag and gathered with the other 4 half-awake people. Brian said, "Why am I up before the sun?" The man said, "Two minutes on the timer; figure out why they're after you once you zone in." Mark, Brian, Garrick, Nick, and Rod, the two road workers, were lined up in front of the instance portal. Brian said, "You know, no one has bothered to tell me what an instance is."

Fighter says, "It's the glowy thing there; walk in or we're taking your spot." With that said, Garrick and Mark each grabbed one of Brian's shoulders and frog-marched him into the portal. Brian said, "Gah, why did you not warn me about the bright lights?" Garrick laughed, "Not lights, that's the sun." Mark brought up the Harbor activities report and reviewed it since he had not thought to read it before entering.

[Mistwater Harbor Activities] Available Activities: • Combat | Contribution: Very Low • Utility | Contribution: Very High Cooldown: 2 Hours Instances Available: 0/2 They had entered a Utility instance so the contribution would be high. He laughed when he saw the combat instance. The fighters were not running the utility, so its value kept going up and the combat down. Which of course was very good for their group.

[Harbor Utility] The Missing Markers A harbor expansion project stalled after survey markers disappeared. Objectives: • Locate markers. Estimated Time: 2-3 hours Brian finally opened his eyes and started to look around.

"Guys, where are we?" A sailor walked past them heading toward the dock, and Brian just followed him with his eyes.

"And where did all these sailors come from when we got here last night, there were a dozen guys around a campfire; there are hundreds of people walking around." Mark explained about the instance and how they work. You go in, get some kind of assignment, and then you do it and leave and get rewards. Brian asked dozens of questions as they went over the different types of instances like fighting in the cave. Mark told him about a cooking instance he had completed.

Garrick told him about one where he had helped build a dam. Mark talked about his first couple cave runs fighting things. Brian said, "So you mean it's like a game." Rod said, "Only if dying is part of the games you play. You can die in here. This instance should be low level, but they lose one or two people every week at the cave because people are stupid and take too high of risks." Brian said, "How do I leave? I don't want to die."

The group calmed Brian down and let him know that he wouldn't die today, and they went about figuring out what they were to do. Mark opened his map and was happy to see that the area where they were assigned to work was labeled on the map, so they started walking that way. Brian was surprised how lifelike and real everything was. When they got to their assigned area, they started looking around. The first marker was easy to find; it had been knocked over, and some dirt half-covered it.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The next one they found was being held by a level 2 shorebird. Everyone but Brian was at a high enough level that they got no experience, so they let Brian take care of the problem. It was funny to watch him; he pulled out the bow and knocked an arrow and took aim. But he was way outside of a good shooting range for his skill and missed. The next thing everyone knew, the bird was pecking on Brian's back.

Nick knocked the bird off Brian's back, stunning it, and then handed Brian his knife and pointed at the bird. Brian came to his senses and stabbed it a few times until it stopped moving, and then he looted it. Brian said, "Guys, why did you just stand there and watch one of you should have killed it." Garrick answered, "Like you, we once were low-level. Unlike you, we were lost somewhere by ourselves and almost died trying to stay alive. We want you to gain skills and learn to survive in this world.

And these things are little; they can't do real damage to you." Rod said, "Speaking of damage, turn around and pull up your shirt. I will clean the wound and put a bandage on it. You will be healed in no time." They went over and picked up the marker. But looking around, they could not find the obvious place it belonged. Nick finally grabbed the marker, went back to the first marker they placed, and looked around.

With his own surveying skills, he figured out quickly where it belonged and put it in its place, and the second marker was marked complete. The next two markers went pretty easy, and they were on their last one when they found five level 1 crabs that Brian spent a half hour trying to shoot with his bow. It was funny to watch him, but he did not get hurt this time. The last marker glowed and found its correct location, and the exit portal appeared. Then all went out and looked at the completion message.

[Harbor Utility Complete] The Missing Markers A stalled harbor expansion project has been successfully surveyed. Objectives Completed: • Locate Missing Survey Markers Rewards: Mark • Harbor Contribution +100 Brian • Harbor Contribution +100 • Skill Gained: Archery 2 Garrick • Harbor Contribution +100 Nick • Harbor Contribution +100 • Surveying 5 Rod • Harbor Contribution +100 • Surveying 4 They finished the instance in just over two hours, and when they got out, the sun had already started to rise.

When they got out of the instance, they headed back to Harbor Watch and sat around the firepit where someone was making breakfast. Mark asked those around the fire about their instance runs. And was given a list of activity names and their earned contribution. Broken Net 45 Dock Rats 15 Crab Infestation 10 Smuggler Tunnel 8 Pirate Ambush 8 Warehouse sweep 6 Mark let them know they had received 100 contribution, which immediately made some of the fighters grumble.

And then he pointed out that the system was trying to even out the activities done, and because they were constantly running the fighting ones, the contribution kept dropping for the fighting activities, and the utility was going up. Because they finally did a utility, the next one would probably be a little lower. But looking at the list so far, if they don't do utility, they will get to the point where the system will give them nothing.

One of the fighters said that fighting has pirates, and he is going to keep doing it until he gets a pirate variant. And he pointed out the contribution store now had a pirate sword for only 200 contributions, and he wanted it. The group talked about the different things they found in each instance. The pirates were out on the water, not anywhere near the dock.

The warehouse sweep was in a completely different harbor, and the crabs were on a beach on a small island with no way off and a ton of crabs trying to eat them. But the important question they wanted to know was what changed. Mark told them he was not sure. They had figured out, when the street sign and the dock repair happened, that each run something different had changed. For example, somebody found a map hanging inside one of the warehouses that wasn't there yesterday.

And one of the storage yards has a gate now. They think they have found and identified all the changes, but they are not sure because it's such a big place. People were running out to inspect the harbor after each group returned. Not all the changes were obvious, like the light and the street sign, but they were sure there was something new every run, and they were trying to document them all. Mark, Brian, and the group of horse wranglers all said goodbye, and they headed north to get the wagons.