Second World

”There is one, it is at the top of the rocky hill where you fought the Fire Jackals. But you will need to pick up the quest in the Silver Hall,” Peniel answered.

”How strong is the monster?”

”It should be around level 16 or 17.”

”It is just a basic monster, right.”

”For a low-level hunting quest, naturally.”

Jack pondered about it, if he fought as a Warrior, it should be no problem for him, but as a Mage, he was not sure. Not to mention the others might be in danger of going against the monster. After some thought, he decided to try it. Itʼs boring to repeat the same fight again and again, letʼs give the team something more exhilarating, Jack thought with a mischievous grin.

After taking nine hunting quests in the Bronze Hall, Jack went to the Silver Hall. It was basically the same as the Bronze hall, except the board contained a different quest list. The quest in this hall had difficulty from C to B. The quest with the lowest hunter point was 15 points, while the highest he saw with difficulty B provided up to 99 hunter points.

”There it is,” Peniel flew up to the board and pointed the list for him. There was not yet any player that had amassed enough points to get to Silver Hall, so she was free to appear here.

Kill 1 Small Rock Golem

Difficulty: C

Rewards: 16 silver coins, 1000 Experience points, 25 Hunter Points

”I only need to kill one?” Jack said after reading the description.

”You should be more worried if you are only asked to kill one,” Peniel said. ”That means itʼs going to be a tougher opponent compare to those that ask you to kill many.”

”All right, Iʼll go for it. I need to see more varieties of this world. Iʼm going to go out on a journey to a further place one of these days, so itʼs better to see as much as I can before that. If anything goes wrong, I can always just sacrifice those poor sods.”

”I think you have embodied too much of that bad-mannered arrogant persona you used for your disguise.”

Jack went and took the quest. He then went back to the West gate. This time they were short one person, Suckit. Jack frowned after seeing it, did he bail?

He sent a message into the Party chat, Suckit was still registered as a party member. ”Suckit, where the f**k are you?!”

He received a message soon. ”I… I am sorry, chief! I am really tired, Iʼve never worked for so long before in my life. I need to rest, can you leave me out of it this time? Please?”

”If I donʼt see your fat ass in five minutesʼ time from now at the West gate. You better quit Death Associates. Or else, I will ask for you and Iʼm gonna flay you alive for as long as possible, and then send you to reset all your levels and equipment. I dare you to test me!”

The others that were around were stunned by the message. They kept their silence. Some of them were actually interested to see if their leader was okay with Suckit bailing. If he was, they were going to find some reasons on the spot to bail out as well. But they did not expect the guy to be so ruthless. Now they were relieved they didnʼt do like Suckit.

There was no reply from Suckit after Jackʼs message. Jack didnʼt send any more messages as well. He just stood there waiting calmly. Before five minutes passed, they saw a fat man came running at full speed towards them. Suckit arrived and was panting heavily.

”Okay, letʼs go,” Jack said.

”C–come on! Give me a minute to rest, will you?” Suckit uttered.

They repeated the route that they had gone through two times before. By the time the sun was setting, they were at the Harpy Valley, in the middle of battling the Green Harpy, Bald Eagle, and Giant Worm. When they came out of the valley, the sky was dark already.

There were stars in the sky, but unlike when he was decimating the Lizardman Settlement, the moon was not full anymore, so it was not as bright as that night. The moon was a little bit more than half tonight, although it was not as bright, visibility was not too bad either.

However, for Jack, he could see as clearly as during daylight. It was the passive ability of his Dragonʼs Eye skill. There was no need for him to bring a torch any longer. For others, some of them still prefer to use torches at night. Undo, Suckit, and Flowerrain took out torches and equipped them on their off-hands.

They arrived at the rocky hill. Eager to finish the trip as soon as possible, they went and battled the Fire Jackals fiercely. Utilizing the same tactic and formation, it didnʼt take long for them to kill thirty Fire Jackals to complete the quest. When they were about to head down after fulfilling the quota, Jack told them to go up instead.

”Huh? What for?” Bangstick asked.

”We have one different hunting quest this time. The prey was up there at the top of this hill,” Jack informed them.

”You are kidding, right, chief?” Suckit said with an aggrieved expression.

”Nope,” Jack replied with indifference. ”Now move your butt up.”

Reluctantly, they all followed. Every one of them was now cursing inside their mind. What had they done to deserve being paired with such a demanding leader?

To save time, Jack took advantage of his radar to avoid the Fire Jackals as they moved up the hill. His team members were actually wondering how come they kept stumbling on the Fire Jackals when they were roaming around the foothill, yet they did not meet even one when they were on their way up.

When they were near the top, Jack noticed on his radar that the red dots were getting scarce. In fact, the area within the radius of 100 meters around the top was completely devoid except for one sole dot. Jack figured that one sole dot should be the mark they were looking for.

When he got nearer to the red dot, he still did not see any monsters. There were only rocks and boulders scattered around. Where was the golem? He wondered.

”What are we looking for here?” Undo asked.

”My hunting quest objective, it should be around here,” Jack answered.

”We are wasting time here,” Warpath complained with discontent.

”You do what I tell you to do,” Jack said sternly. ”Now stay alert. Ready your weapons.”

The others heard the warning but did not really put it to heart. There was no living thing around that could be seen. They all agreed with Warpath that they were only wasting time here. They were eager to go back to the city and back to the inn they had rent to rest their weary bodies after a full day of walking and fighting.

Jack readied his magic staff and round shield as he continued to approach the red dot. Despite there were times when he had doubted the radar, it had always proved true in the end. So it must be the same this time, there was a hostile being a few meters ahead of him, even though he still could not see one.

Was it hiding behind that large boulder? Jack wondered. He took a roundabout way to maintain distance while searching for an angle to look behind the boulder. He would not want to get jumped by the monster when he got too near. But when he got to an angle that made the back of the boulder visible, he still could not see any creature.

He made a quick circle all around the boulder. Was the monster playing hide and seek? Where it continued to move opposite from his direction so he could not see it when he was circling the boulder? But he didnʼt believe there was such a playful monster. Furthermore, Warpath and the others were not moving from their original place, so they should see the creature if it really did play hide and seek with him.

He was confused now, did the God-eye monocle finally broke this time? He walked forward and approached the boulder. The red dot was directly in front of him now, but he still saw no creature anywhere. Even if it was invisible, it should have attacked him at this range already, it was a hostile red dot after all, but he saw no movement.

He looked back at the lot waiting some distance away. They had the expression that said ʼare you done messing around already?ʼ

😉