FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife-Chapter 46: Testing, testing, testing!

With the second system box at my disposal, I’ve now taken quite some time to think through my options. And with the pattern of what potentially worked now marked down, my best bet was to try something that replicated what worked as closely as possible.

That being the case, I had no desires to just rewrite the first prompt that worked while swapping only the parts that I wanted to change.

No, that would be too easy and, in the long term, counterproductive.

The golden-lettered prompt worked because of something. And if my gut feeling was on point, it worked because of this quest-reward structure.

And to test it out, I now had to find two more elements to complete the pattern.

First, a quest that I could easily complete, as to verify the validity of this prompt and whether or not it had any bearing on the real world. That being the case, I had no plans to repeat the same mistake and change the body part of the saintess I was to touch to complete the task... regardless of how happy I would be to do so.

After all, in the real world, there would be consequences to my actions!

’That’s right,’ I thought as I reinforced my conviction, ’as much as I can, let’s just leave the saintess out of the equation here,’ I’ve decided, only to then quickly come up with a self-aimed rationalization for it, ’I need to test if involving her affects the validity of the prompt, after all!’

With those thoughts in my mind, I quickly managed to come up with a simple task I would have no problem completing. And given how I could already confirm whether or not the stuff I’ve written in those system-like boxes would translate to real changes back in the real world, I didn’t even need to turn my quest into something that I would be able to do right away.

This part here was born out of nothing but a feeling, a sense of fairness, and the logic of the quest-reward structure.

There were only a few things I could accomplish while out in the nothingness by the road leading up to the town. And while hoping to keep the simplest of stuff like exercise for emergencies... 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Okay," I nodded my head as I raised my finger to the second, empty system box, "let’s go with it."

My hand moved, my finger leaving a shiny trail of light in its wake. And in just a few slightly uncomfortable moments, I took a step back to admire my creation.

"Quest: Create charcoal. Reward: Ability to see the prices of the items while actively trading them."

The structure was perfect. Quest, reward. And just to go the extra mile, both the quest and the reward were directly related to the biggest thing I was doing back in the real world!

And yet, after just a moment, most of the words vanished, leaving the box with just two of them left.

"Quest: Reward: "

’Shit...’

I squinted my eyes before raising my hand to rub my chin.

"So the structure works, but neither of the things I tried to infuse it with goes..."

I only thought about it for a moment before taking a step forth and trying again, this time correcting myself over the issue I’ve thought about before. And a few seconds later, I stepped back again to see whether the new implementation worked.

"Quest: Start, control and complete a process of turning wood into a potential replacement for coal in Greg’s smithy. Reward: Ability to see the actual prices of the items host touches."

The elegant light of the words hung in for a moment, only to then flash...

And for half of it to vanish.

A failure. But also a success.

After all, while the "reward" part of the prompt was now gone, the "quest" part remained!

’Just like I thought,’ I grinned with satisfaction, ’it was the problem with wording!’

What it meant to create? What was charcoal? And how could that word reference anything if this material wasn’t officially discovered in this world yet?

And as expected, by changing the wording of my quest to pinpoint what I meant, I’ve managed to ensure the system box would accept it. As for the reward part...

"Maybe the concept of a market... no, of a factual price of an item can only apply in a proper, market-based economy?"

Once again, I rubbed my chin as I tried to work around the limitations of concepts that existed in this underdeveloped world. And before long, my finger moved towards the system’s box again.

"Quest: Start, control and complete a process of turning wood into a potential replacement for coal in Greg’s smithy. Reward: Upon touching an item before making a trade, host can see a system window with information on what price the trader will be comfortable paying for it."

For the third time, I took a step back. And just like when I took three tries to get my first prompt to work, after three attempts, I’ve managed to make the entirety of my new quest stick around!

"It worked..." I’ve muttered after staring at the box for a while, fully expecting it to just break into a shimmer of light, leaving me with nothing but the quest part of it around.

And yet, it didn’t. Rather than vanishing, the text within the box clearly worked, causing the box around it to shrink down and match the text’s size.

"Just like elements in a puzzle," I thought, smiling to myself, "once it clicks, it joins the bigger picture and allows you to move on."

I shook my head before taking a step back from the now locked system box, a step back both physical and mental. Next, I tapped my hands down on my thighs, a feeling of a job-well-done feeding into a satisfied smile on my face.

I’ve gathered enough information for now. From the prompt’s structure, through how my wording of it had to fit this world’s common sense, all the way to how I likely had to match the effort put into the quest part of the pattern for the reward to stick around. Then, I also had the information I could learn with Selia from all the failed attempts I made.

And while I could quite easily remain for quite a lot longer, running around in circles and trying to get my hands on even more data, enough is enough. Plus, with how easily I could return to this weird space, what would even be the point of stopping myself from going back and consulting the saintess?

"The question now is, how the hell do I get back?" I thought out loud as a wry smile appeared on my face. "Last time, I woke up because of all the emotions that tugged at my soul. But now?"

I shook my head.

It wasn’t all that easy to just produce intense emotions out of nothing, especially when doing it with a clear purpose in mind.

Yet, right as I’ve realized just how challenging it could prove to go back, the nothingness around me shattered only for my consciousness to surge up, through the endless expanse of perfect void.

Then, before I knew it, I opened up my eyes, only to be graced with the sight of Selia’s underboob and the sparks of pleasant curiosity brimming in her eyes as she looked down on me with a happy smile.

"It worked, didn’t it?"