Second World

”Where do you find that flower?!” Bowler exclaimed.

”Oh, just some part around here,” John answered, ”but donʼt bother to go searching. You wonʼt find the same flower like this. There is only one in the entire area.”

”And how do you know that?” Jack asked.

”Because I have done the same quest from Adventurers Association that asked for this flower two days ago. I can only find one after going around the entire foot of this hill searching for it. I came back here again for another of the Associationʼs quest yesterday, and found the flower at the same spot again. I guess that after I submit the quest, the flower respawned. I then pick it up just due to curiosity, but it didnʼt respawn even after one day had passed. I assume that as long as I hold this flower, it wonʼt respawn.”

”Then you know we need that flower for our quest. please give it to us, will you?” Bowler asked in a friendly tone.

”No. I wonʼt give it to you,” John replied calmly. ”Not unless you do me a favor.”

”Are you blackmailing us!?” Bowler couldnʼt stay calm anymore.

”Oh, Indeed I am,” John replied without a hint of guilt.

”You really have balls to pull this stunt! Canʼt you see that you are alone while there are three of us? What stop us from just killing you and take the flower?”

”Then you are still ignorant of the rule in this world. When we die outside of the safe zone, we lose all our items, but it doesnʼt mean that we drop all our items for others to take. We will only drop some random one or two items. So the chance of you getting this flower was minuscule at best.”

”I–If so, then the flower will disappear and it will respawn, right?”

”I donʼt think so. I think it will only respawn if you declare the quest fail and retake it again after. But you are welcome to try if you like,” John said indifferently.

”You are really a detestable fellow,” Bowler told him as he lost his temper.

John replied with a shrug.

ʼIs he telling the truth?ʼ Jack directed his question to Peniel in his mind.

”Itʼs more or less as he said. But I will add that a quest item taken by unaffiliated party will be automatically removed from their possession after five days had passed. Same thing as if it disappears due to the owner getting killed, it will respawn after three days. Or you can do as he said, cancel the quest and reapply the same quest again.”

All options were the same where they have to waste time. The fastest would be to cancel the quest and reapply, but that would have them return to the capital and came back again later.

”Letʼs just kill this prick!” Bowler said to Jack in anger.

Jack thought about it for a bit. He then asked John, ”what kind of favor do you need?”

”That sounds more like it,” John grinned. ”Nothing much, I just need help clearing a cave from monsters dwelling inside. You see, itʼs for my quest. So you help my quest, I help yours. Everyone got their happy endings.”

”What help, you are clearly hindering ours!” Bowler was unwilling.

John shrugged again, he said, ”think about it. If you look for this flower yourself, you might spend the entire day just searching for it. Trust me, because it had happened to me. Now if you help me clear the cave, not only you save time running around the hill searching for a single flower, but you would also get experience from killing the monsters in that cave. Wonʼt that be more profitable?”

”Profitable my ass, I just donʼt like your attitude!”

Jack gestured to Bowler to calm him down, then he said to John, ”come over and letʼs talk more about this cave then. Oh, and tell your two friends back there to come over as well. There is no need to sneaky.”

John frowned when he heard Jack, but his expression soon returned to his calm demeanor. He glanced back and yelled some words, then he came down to where Jack and the others made their camp. Not long after another two people came to view, from their garments, one was also a Magician, another was a Ranger.

”This is Pointy Tip, that one is Weird Trap,” John introduced the Magician and the Ranger as they approached. ”And I am Saint John.”

He then took the liberty to sit down near the bonfire, and invited everyone to take a seat as well.

”Who makes you the host?” Bowler said unhappily as he sat down.

”Donʼt be too hung up on the details,” John said. ”Come, letʼs discuss about the plan to raid the cave.”

Jack Inspected Johnʼs two comrades. Both of them were level 11. He then said, ”first thing first, we are not going to help you for free, and that flower doesnʼt count. The drops from the monsters will be divided, with us taking priority, as our group is averagely higher in level.”

”Iʼm only interested in clearing the quest,” John said. His two comrades turned to him with wide eyes. Jack assumed they were unhappy with this condition, but oddly they didnʼt voice out any objection.

”That is generous…” Jack said with suspicion. ”Seeing as you are looking for reinforcement, I reckon that you have ventured into the cave? And the monsters inside are too strong for you to handle?”

”The monsters inside are strong,” John nodded. ”But they are not the main problem, we can still eradicate them with patience. The problem is there is a boss-like monster inside. And we canʼt be considered to have cleared the cave as long as that boss is still inside.”

”How strong is it?” Jack asked.

”Level 20,” John answered.

”F**k me! Level 20?” Bowler exclaimed, ”you go and find other people to help you complete that suicide quest of yours. How the heck you get an Adventurers Associationʼs quest that gave out such an impossible mission?”

”I took the mysterious quest, the one with many question marks on it.”

”Why would you do that?”

”Iʼm curious,” John shrugged.

”Only a fool took a quest that is so ambiguous!” Bowler scolded.

Jack coughed.

He thought about the level 25 Priest of Phobos who he had fought before. This time it was level 20. He had no chance to defeat the level 25 elite NPC, but if it was level 20, perhaps he could still cope? He asked Peniel, ʼdo you think we can win against this level 20 boss?ʼ

”Depends whether it was an Elite or a Special Elite,” Peniel answered.

ʼThe boss is only 6 levels difference from me, with my double attributes increase from dual-class, our attributes difference shouldnʼt be that far off, right?ʼ

”If it is monster below level 15, then yes, it should be. But after level 15, attributes increase for each level are higher than before level 15. This is to cope with Adventurers who had upgraded to Advanced class, their attributes increase per level are also higher. So if it is a Special Elite level 20 Boss inside, I would say that the difficulty will be somewhat similar to that level 25 Elite Priest you fought.”

”Did you see if that level 20 Boss is an Elite class or is it Special Elite?” Jack asked John.

”I donʼt have time to do an Inspect. We ran the hell out once we found out it was level 20,” John answered.

”Then how do you know it is level 20?” Flame asked.

”well… There were in fact four of us originally. The missing one was a Fighter who did the Inspect. He blurted out level 20 before he got squashed by the monster. And hence we immediately escaped.”

”Then ask that friend of yours, he should resurrect in town already, shouldnʼt he?”

”He is not my friend, we just met at the Adventurers Association and we formed a party together for this quest. After he died, he disappeared from the Party list. So I have no way to contact him now.”

John looked at his other two comrades. ”Did either of you happen to add him as a friend?” He asked them.

His two comrades shook their heads.

Jack sighed, ”well, I guess there is no other way but to go see for ourselves. Letʼs go then.”

”Now?” Bowler complained, ”I thought we are going to rest.”

”Why waste time? Iʼm not tired yet. Are you?” Jack replied. ”We didnʼt continue searching for the flower because it is too dark to do the search. But the cave is dark anyway. So it makes no difference if we go in by day or by night.”

”Actually…” John interjected. ”We should still wait till tomorrow morning, we have another party coming for reinforcement.”

😉