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, and 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. Rewards for the Trials of Kindness as a whole: one Silver, two Standard Inventory Expansion Tools, ten Lentils and five Apples.
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, and 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. In the pit, watch the blue apparition place the power cell to learn Force Palm; then use Axiom Force to set the Abyss Cell in front of the wall, Force Palm to punch it in, and Force Palm again on the cog in the middle to turn on the Abyss power supply. The Abyss Artifact waits up the stairs above the cog.
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4
Woman in White
The chain closes with the Woman in White: walk forward from the Abyss Nexus to meet her, then leap from the Abyss and press Square / X at the prompt. Kliff's wings come out and you glide down to Hernand; this is where Glide first appears, so keep some stamina for the last stretch to the ground. Reward: a Faded Abyss Artifact and a Palmar Pill, and 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 that forge.
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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 the guides of Game8, PowerPyx and VULKK. Sources differ on which specific item each Trials of Kindness quest hands over, so this page doesn't assign one reward to one quest. Checked again on 8 October 2026 against Game8, PowerPyx and VULKK. What is still unverified is the only thing reading cannot settle: nobody here has played it.