‘What’s so unusual?’
“As I have mentioned before, quest with that kind of difficulty is impossible to appear at this stage. Furthermore, even though I said the SSS difficulty is representing the total quest as a whole and not its individual quest, the ones you have completed are still way too easy to be a part of the SSS chain quest. So, there is a chance that the difficulty designated here is a blunder.”
‘Huh? Is such a thing possible? Do you mean like a bug?’
“What bug? Why bring up insect all of a sudden?”
‘No, I mean, like glitches… Mistake! Yes, do you mean there has been a mistake on my quest description? Is such a thing possible?
“I would say no. But after being with you all this time, seeing all those alien entities, I’m not so sure anymore. There are things at work here that I have no knowledge of. Which irritates me, you know? Since I am supposed to know everything.”
‘Listening to you, it reminds me again about the time when I first met you.’
“What about it?”
‘The Goddess Serenity, she mentioned that there are dark forces in this world that have tried to get rid of her. That it was these forces that were responsible for imprisoning her in the first place. At first, I thought that she being imprisoned and I being there to save her was some kind of a main quest’s storyline that was made by the developers of this game world.’
“What is a developer?”
‘Uh… Creator, the creator of this world.’
“Okay.”
‘Right, back to it. Now after I think about it. Me going to the place where the goddess was imprisoned was a total fluke, There was no quest to guide me nor any clue that point me in that direction. I was simply trying to find out what has caused the change to my world and was simply blindly chasing for an explanation. Furthermore, the place where the Goddess was imprisoned was guarded by a high-level and high-grade guardian monster that was impossible to be defeated by any player during that Tutorial Period.’
Jack did not mention that apart from that guardian monster, he could enter the room where the Goddess was imprisoned was also due to him possessing the Administrator Key-card, one which he had gotten from the poor sod who was killed, from whom he also had gotten the God-eye monocle and the item that gave him his second class.
Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure that he was not meant to come upon the room with the Goddess and was not meant to free her. Whether the fact that he did was a good thing or a bad thing, he was not sure. He would hope it was a good thing. The Goddess seemed like a very nice lady. She had given him many great things, including Peniel.
“Hey, I can sense your feeling but I can’t hear your thought if you don’t project it at me. You are pondering about something?” Peniel complained.
‘I’m sorry. What I’m trying to say is, that there might be as the Goddess had said. There are dark forces at work, something the Goddess was fighting against.’
“And you think this chain quest of yours is connected to these dark forces?”
‘I don’t know. Maybe? What I know is that the Goddess imprisonment had something to do with what you called alien entities. Such as my second class and this monocle I’m wearing. And since the trigger of this chain quest was also what you called an alien entity, perchance it is somehow connected?’
“That was quite a long stretch, but a good one. Are you trying to make up a reason to give you more confidence in doing this quest?”
‘Ah, you got me there. All right then, I guess I will go take a rest now. No use to worry about these things too much. We will deal with them as they come.’
On the next day, Jack checked his radar and saw the Grim Sand Drake was still following them. There was nothing he could do about it. He just continued to pay attention to his radar, he would give out an alert sign once the drake made its move at them.
The Duke told him to inform Captain Salem if the drake is about to attack them. The captain had given him some kind of a tool that would send a sign in the air to warn everyone. Jack thought the tool was similar in function to the flare gun from his real world.
During their morning trip, they fought against another monster in Jack’s hunting list, the Bewitching Spider. The monster’s appearance was an overgrown tarantula. It had hair all over their bodies. Its attacks mainly in melee, its bite caused Poison status effect in addition to another new effect, Charmed. One affected by this Charmed effect experienced hallucination and would start to attack their own allies.
It also possessed range attacks that shot out silky web which bound its target’s movements for a short time. Overall, the monsters posed not much threat to the vanguard troops. They only need to watch out for any soldiers that got the Charmed effect and quickly restrained said soldiers before they wreak havoc amongst the troops.
They traveled for half a day more before they reached the border town of Thesewal.
Looking at the town from the top of a hill not far from the town, Jack could see this town to be much smaller in size than the capital Thereath. However, the walls surrounding it appeared to be as sturdy, if not sturdier than the capital’s walls.
As they went closer, Jack could see a series of rune diagrams carved onto the walls. Commander Quintus explained to him that despite their small size, such border towns had protection as good as the largest city in the country. This was because they might need to defend themselves from an invasion of foreign forces.
Jack could also see several battalions in patrol in the area around the town. One such battalion approached their vanguard troops. Captain Salem went forward and showed his identification. The battalion then led them towards the town. They waited outside the town entrance for the main army to arrive.
All along the journey until this town which lasted around a week and a half, the players had reaped massive benefits. Every one of them had increased their levels with a record-breaking speed. Half of them were already level 25, with the other half at level 24. Jack himself had his Warrior level at 24 while his Mage at 23.
Jack had a stock of 14 free attribute points and 8 free skill points for both his Warrior and Mage classes. He decided to use them all. He dumped all his free attribute points to his Reflex. His previous 91 reflex points were boosted to 105 points. Now all his attributes except for luck were in three digits.
For the 8 Warrior skill points, he invested them all into Flash Step, bringing the skill to level 11. He could now instantly move to a maximum distance of 4.5 meters away with the skill, adding versatility in his maneuver. The stamina needed was increased to 15 though, a 50% increase.
For the 8 Mage skill points, he put them all into Body Double. After experiencing its effectiveness in the battle at Crestfall Plain, he thought it was time to strengthen this skill. It was now level 9 and his doppelganger could now last for 13 minutes long. His MP cost was increased to 65.
When Bowler asked about his level, Jack informed him honestly. John who heard, asked, “how come your level is among the lower of the team when before you are among the highest? Wait! Don’t tell me. Are the experiences you received divided between your two classes? Hahaha! Doesn’t that mean as long as we are in the same party, we will eventually leave you in the dust?”
The bugger didn’t even bother to wait for him to confirm his hypothesis. Yet, his guess was spot on. Still, it didn’t make it less annoying. Jack turned to Jeanny, “Jeanny, can you do me a favor and kick him out of the party?”
John laughed more instead, “hahaha. It was precisely because Jeanny is the leader that I dare to make a mockery out of you, because I know that Jeanny is not the type to…”
He suddenly went quiet.
“It’s done,” Jeanny said.
“Wahahaha!” It was Bowler who was laughing his ass off now. “Serve you right, you prick!”
“Sister Jeanny, I never pegged you as a person who liked to joke. This joke is a bit too excessive…,” John said to Jeanny.
“Will you behave yourself?” Jeanny asked.
“I will,” John nodded like a child who had just been reprimanded.
Jeanny then invited him back to the party.
