Establishing Quest

Establishing Quest is the System’s principal bridge between novice status and active participation in the Climb. Designed for inexperienced Climbers who have not yet joined Parties, it combines an accessible objective with an outsized reward, making it both a tutorial mechanism and a social gateway. Will’s first assignment demonstrates that the apparent simplicity of an Establishing Quest conceals real danger: the mission concerns the Kaith, a hive-mind species whose strength becomes deadly in groups, and its completion places Will on the path to the Second Floor.

Definition and Eligibility

An Establishing Quest is presented directly through the System as a formal mission rather than merely a suggestion from an experienced Climber. When Will visits Leon’s General Store, the System announces that he has received one and names its objective: “Establishing Quest: Break the supply lines!” The assignment concerns a wider military situation. The Kaith have pushed into the First Floor and are under an extermination order for higher-level Climbers; although their primary nest is already under siege, the Kaith continue to receive supplies through unknown channels. Will is required to locate those channels and sever them so that the main force can drive the Kaith back to the Second Floor.

The quest carries a decision window of fourteen minutes. Leon explains that this is the time available to decide whether to accept it, not a countdown for completing the mission. His explanation places Establishing Quests within a clearly regulated progression system: they are generally easy missions assigned to new Climbers, but their rewards are disproportionately large for the level of difficulty. The category is also restricted by advancement and organization. A Climber cannot take an Establishing Quest after reaching level five, and cannot accept one while already in a Party. These limits make the quest a deliberately early opportunity rather than a repeatable source of advancement.

Social and Instructional Function

The quest’s practical purpose extends beyond its stated objective. Leon describes Establishing Quests as a way for young novices without Parties to meet potential teammates. His joking suggestion that a new Climber might even meet a future spouse among the recruits gives the system a deliberately ordinary social dimension, but his haunted expression and abrupt shift back to practical advice also undercut the romance of the idea. The quest is a structured meeting place for inexperienced people entering a dangerous profession, not simply a combat assignment.

That social function is especially important for Will because he is still learning how Classes and abilities operate. After his pemmican sacrifice is consumed by the Class Trial Altar and fails to generate a Class Seed, the System later asks him to choose his Primary Abilities. Will pauses to study the meaning of “Resourceful Climber” before selecting those abilities, seeking context rather than treating the interface as self-explanatory. The Establishing Quest therefore arrives at a moment when he needs both formal direction and practical companions. It supplies the external objective around which those needs can be organized.

Will’s First Assignment

Will’s quest is not a harmless exercise. Leon explains that the Kaith are hive-minded creatures living on the Second Floor, capable of constructing enormous bridges from their own spit and whatever materials they can obtain. Individually they are dangerous; in groups they are deadly. The quest’s beginner status thus refers to its role in progression and its relative accessibility, not to the absence of lethal stakes.

During the search for the supply line, the participants divide into seven groups and scout a branching network of caverns plunging into darkness. The expected division of danger shapes their tactics: Kaith warriors should be at the front line, where higher-level Climbers are fighting them, while the workers are more comparable to creatures normally found on the First Floor. The mission consequently requires reconnaissance, navigation, and coordination as much as direct combat.

Loth’s methods show how the assignment rewards resourcefulness rather than brute strength. A bucket-sized barrel of soil covered with food scraps houses dozens of insect species, which Loth controls with ease. At every tunnel branch he leaves an arrow marking the route back, using the luminescent juices of crushed glowbugs to make the signs visible on the walls. When Will reaches a dangerous ledge and nearly falls into the emptiness below, Loth throws him a rope and tells him to hold it against the wall. The quest thus becomes an immediate test of cooperative fieldcraft: survival depends on tools, improvised signals, controlled creatures, and another Climber’s timely intervention.

Rewards and Progression

The Establishing Quest produces a decisive advancement in Will’s trajectory. After a period of recovery, during which he becomes Charged and has his stitches removed, the System announces a new quest: “Ascend to the 2nd Floor.” The notification congratulates him for reaching level five on his first Establishing Quest and places his performance at rank 1053 among that year’s Aspirants. The result confirms the category’s “outsized reward” in concrete terms. Completion does not merely provide an isolated payment; it brings Will to the advancement threshold that opens the next stage of the Climb.

The quest also defines the limits of haste. Will and Loth later consider progressing toward the Third Floor, but they must first spend a day acclimating and gain additional levels. The fastest route to the next Floor is to follow behind a Bus and help clear the Key Site, provided the Climbers are present and do not actively sabotage the group. Yet Loth recognizes that entering a higher Floor below the current Floor’s maximum permitted level would be foolish. Establishing Quests therefore initiate advancement without abolishing the system’s other constraints: level requirements, acclimation, Party rules, and the danger of ascending too quickly remain decisive.

Narrative Significance

Establishing Quests function as executable rules that convert an inexperienced character’s uncertainty into a sequence of permitted choices. The System issues the objective, supplies a fixed decision period, restricts eligibility, and records the resulting level and rank. At the same time, the mission cannot be reduced to an interface prompt. Its objective connects Will to the larger conflict between the First Floor’s Climbers and the invading Kaith, while its structure forces him into cooperation with other novices and exposes him to the material realities of exploration.

The concept also creates an irony at the heart of Will’s rise. The quest is advertised as an easy beginner mission, yet it sends a Classless or newly developing Climber into dark caves against a hive-minded enemy and demands that he locate an unknown supply network. Its ease is institutional and comparative, not personal. By the time Will reaches level five, the quest has fulfilled its double purpose: it has established him within the progression system and shown that every apparently generous rule still funnels him toward greater danger. Its final reward is not safety but another command to ascend.