“What about you guys? Do you remember during the meal you had before you turned sick, did you guys drink? Where did you get your drink from?”
One by one they indicated the same water barrel as the first soldier.
Jack borrowed a cup from one of the cleaning soldiers who still followed him around. He poured some water from that barrel into the cup. It was just plain water, nothing special about it. Until suddenly a marker appeared.
“Your monocle is acting up again,” Peniel commented.
‘Or my investigator talent,’ Jack thought.
The marker had marked the water with descriptions linked to his current quest. The drinking water in this barrel was the cause of the disease. He had finally found it.
Yet, it was not the end of his quest. The quest mentioned that he had to also eliminate the source. He doubted the water barrel was the source. He did not believe destroying this water barrel would grant him quest completion.
He was about to ask the soldiers some questions, but before that, he went to the other barrel and pour some water. He had to make sure. He observed the water from that other barrel. No marker was indicated by his God-eye monocle. He then gave his question, “who fills the water in these barrels?”
One of the cleaning soldiers said, “the ones on this side of the wall were filled by me.”
The side he mentioned was where the barrel with the clean water. “What about this one?” Jack indicated the barrel with the contaminated water.
“I… I did,” another of the cleaning soldiers said. He was anxious. “Did people get sick because of me?”
“I don’t think you did it intentionally, but tell me where did you get the water for this barrel?”
“We always get our drink water from the same place, from public drink water outlet from which spring water was brought from the outside of town via a conduit,” the first cleaning soldier said.
“We… well…,” the anxious cleaning soldier tried to say something.
“You did not get it from the usual place, did you?” Jack asked.
“I… I found a new spring which is closer. It saved me the time to get the water from there.”
“Why didn’t you report it?” Another soldier asked.
“I… I did not think it matters, the spring looks clean, and I also boiled it first before I brought it here. So I just kept on getting the water from that new spring in secret… It is my fault! I am so sorry!”
“Although it had caused the disease, no one dies, so you should be grateful for that,” Jack said. “Still, you did it because you are lazy, and it caused a problem, so you should be punished. But that is between you and your superior. For now, I need you to take me to this new spring you mentioned. I will put in a good word for you if I managed to solve this case.”
“I… I will take you there!”
“Great, let’s go,” Jack said. He dismissed the other soldiers.
He and Bowler followed the soldier as the guy led them to the back of the mess hall. There was a small wild garden there. A small part of nature in this otherwise militaristic town.
They walked through tall grasses to a tiny rocky hill at the center of the garden. The soldier led the two circled around the rocky hill. Jack soon saw a small stream coming out from between the rocks of the hill. The water flowed freely through the ground before entering a gutter by the side of the garden.
“See? It looks like normal clean water,” the soldier said of the stream.
“It does, but there are things you can’t see with normal eyes,” Jack said. His God-eye monocle had already picked up a marking on the water. A thin red line extended from where the stream came out as they stretched into the distance. Jack assumed the line showed where this stream had come from.
“Lucky you have that monocle, eh?” Peniel commented.
‘Yeah, otherwise it will be a hassle to trace the source of this stream,” Jack agreed.
“Okay, you can go now. I will take it from here,” Jack said.
“Great, good luck.”
Jack turned to the voice. Jack’s words were meant for the soldier, but it was Bowler that answered. The guy was not too interested in helping him with this quest, was he? But then again, Guss said no outside influence. Although he had gained help from his friends which he thought should still be acceptable, maybe he should deal with this last part alone.
“All right, you two can go,” Jack said again. This time he meant it for both of his companions. He then walked away following the trace indicated by his God-eye monocle.
The trace continued far away. A couple of times he had to circle buildings because the trace was running through under them. Then he reached the town wall. The trace went outside. He opened his Map and checked the position of the Town gate. It was not far, but he was worried that the trace would disappear if he left it for too long. So he ran as fast as he could to the town gate.
The guards stopped him at the gate. Unlike the capital which only checked people who entered, here they still performed a check even if you were leaving. He impatiently showed his kingdom faction badge. The guards soon let him passed. His Map was still open as he ran to the part of the wall where the trace was on.
He breathed out in relief when he saw the thin red line extending out from the wall of this side. The line went further into the wilderness. Jack was worried. If it went too far, he would start to find monsters. Maybe he could still cope with one, but if there were more, he could only escape.
Then another worry emerged. The quest said to eliminate the source, what did it mean by that? The system won’t throw a monster as the source now, would it? If it did, won’t it be a harder one to deal with in comparison with the normal monster in this wilderness?
Despite his worry, he continued to follow the line. Luckily, it did not bring him too far. Unluckily, it brought him to a large opening in the ground. There was a slope that brought him into the hole.
Jack was despondent. The setup really did not bode well. Still, he went into the hole. As expected, there was a single red dot not far away, and this cave seemed to bring him to that dot.
Intend to see this quest to the end, Jack crept slowly forward.
He soon came very near to the red dot. In front of him was an opening to a large cavern that opened up further down. He crept carefully to the edge of the opening and peeked down. He immediately knew why the quest was designated with A difficulty.
At the bottom of the cavern was a titanic spider which seemed like the great-great-great-grandmother of the Bewitching Spider that dominated the wilderness around Thesewal town.
Jack used Inspect on the monster.
Grim Brood Great Grandmother (Special Elite Boss, Insect), level 43
HP: 215,000
Jack almost fell and made noise. The Creator of this world truly had no creativity in naming.
Despite its comical name, the monster still inspired Dread in Jack’s heart. Level 43 Special Elite, how the heck did he suppose to eliminate this thing?
Jack could see the red trace which had brought him here, stopped at the puddle of water below the boss. There was a stream that came out from the cavern wall and filled up the floor, before the water flowed down another small hole that would bring it into town.
There were innumerous eggs around the cavern floor that was flooded with water. The water must have been contaminated by the secretion from these eggs, which then caused the disease in the town. Now that he thought about it, the disease had rather similar symptoms with the poison effect of the Bewitching Spider, which caused a continual decrease of HP and hallucination.
So he could surmise that the objective of his current quest was to destroy those eggs, but he was also certain that oversized Grandmother won’t just stand aside and let him do the deed. Another point he thought of was, could the quest target instead be this Boss itself? If he used a trick to destroy the eggs, what preventing the Boss from laying eggs again? So one way or another, he had to deal with the Boss.
He observed the situation. After a few whiles, he backed away slowly.
“Do you have a plan?” Peniel asked.
‘Yes, to get as far away from here as possible. Say sorry to Guss, and when I get back to the capital, beat that lying Gruff till I am satisfied.’
“I don’t think any of your hits will cause any damage to him.”
‘Which is why he should let me hit him till I’m satisfied.’
“So, you are really giving up?”
