Recommended Level: None (Focus on gear upgrades)
Key Unlocks: Axiom Force, Force Palm, the Glide ability, and your first Blacksmith (Turnali, in Hernand).
Watch for: the five Trials of Kindness quests only run once — each one hands you an item the following questline needs.
1. The Trials of Kindness
Kliff's first goal in Hernand is not combat — it's five small acts of kindness scattered around the city. Every one of them pays forward into the questline that follows, so it's worth clearing all five before moving on.
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1
Where Rumors Gather
Visit the Hernand Tavern and take part in an arm-wrestling match — the town's gossip mill, and where the chapter's other threads first get mentioned.
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2
Mysterious Man
Give a coin to an old beggar. It's a small gesture, and by most accounts it's the one that puts the engraved key in your hands.
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3
True Wisdom in Kindness
Investigate the sewers beneath Hernand. No boss waits down here — this is exploration and observation, not a fight.
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4
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Help a group of distressed villagers. Straightforward, and one more name the city remembers you by.
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5
Heart Beyond Borders
Speak with a child and return a lost cat to its owner. The last of the five, and the one most guides point to for the pendant that later matters.
2. Traces: Into the Abyss
The items from the Trials of Kindness aren't souvenirs — the wooden key, the letter, the pendant and the Hernandian Attire all get spent here. This chain is puzzles and traversal, not combat: nothing in it is a boss fight.
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1
The Mystical Key
The wooden key from the beggar starts glowing and becomes a Mystical Key. Put on the Hernandian Attire so the guard lets you through, then carry it to a room on the second floor of Hernand Castle.
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2
The Axiom Archive & Polar Opposites
Midway through this chain a white crow gives Kliff a bracelet — that's the moment Axiom Force unlocks. Use it inside the Axiom Archive to work through the Polar Opposites puzzle.
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3
Abyss Without Balance
The letter from the noble woman matters here — it feeds directly into solving the Abyss Without Balance puzzle. Near the end, observe the Skill Will from the Apparition to learn Force Palm, and finishing the puzzle itself opens the Abyss power supply and unlocks Glide.
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4
Woman in White
The chain closes with the Woman in White, who hands over a Faded Abyss Artifact and a Palmar Pill — and sets up the move into Chapter 2: Golden Greed.
3. The Aftermath & Upgrades
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1
Meet Turnali, the Blacksmith
Turnali is Hernand's blacksmith and handles all your basic refinement for this entire first act — repairs, forging and weapon upgrades all go through her.
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2
Upgrade Your Sword
Refinement in this chapter runs on Iron Ore — buy it from Hernand's merchants or mine it yourself from the mountainsides nearby. Bring some to Turnali and upgrade your sword at least once before moving on.
4. Chapter 1 Completion
✅ Before Leaving Hernand...
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 6 September 2026 against Game8's and PowerPyx's Chapter 1 walkthroughs and a VULKK.com main-story guide — all three agree on the five Trials of Kindness quest names and that they feed into the Traces questline (PowerPyx and Game8 use the singular "Trace" for that chain; VULKK uses "Traces" — this page keeps the plural since it's the more commonly cited form). All three also agree Axiom Force, Force Palm and Glide are unlocked in this chapter through the Axiom Archive and Abyss Without Balance puzzles, and that Turnali is the first Blacksmith, in Hernand, working with Iron Ore. Sources differ on which specific item each Trials of Kindness quest hands over, so this page doesn't assign one reward to one quest. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle — nobody here has played it.