Second World

On his way back to Amyʼs Bakery, he thought about what to do for the next day. He decided to ask Bowler, Fierce Flame, and The Man out again for monster hunting quests. Probably they could journey further this time. The day after tomorrow, he would visit the Adventurer Associations to see if he could find any high-level quest.

During his walk, he also heard players discussing Corporate United as the mastermind behind the robbers incident. The robber incident had caused a lot of grudges to many independent players and small guilds. Now that rumor of the culprit had surfaced, it had become hot gossip.

It seemed that John had passed the orbs to White Scarfs, Jack thought.

When he arrived outside Amyʼs Bakery and was just about to open his message interface to send Bowler and the other a message to meet tomorrow, he saw Silverwingʼs group not far away.

”Have they managed to buy that plot of land?” Jack wondered. He went over and approached them.

Silverwing noticed him and greeted him with a smile, ”good evening, Mr. Storm Wind. You have made quite a name for yourself, and also made several new enemies at the same time. Your courage is truly admirable.”

”Donʼt be so smug about it, all of them will think that you are behind me,” Jack teased back. ”So we are in the same boat actually. We need to take care of each other.”

The two of them laughed from the exchange.

”Could you two cut that out? Itʼs distasteful,” Bluedaze said with disgust.

Sinreaper chuckled, ”but itʼs rare to see master Silverwing expressed himself so freely. It seemed that our master had considered you a true friend.”

”Well, Iʼm flattered,” Jack said.

Silverwing made an awkward cough. ”Enough you two,” he then said to Jack, ”that Saint John is a rather interesting friend of yours.”

”I say it was more like irritating than interesting,” Bluedaze commented.

”Thatʼs him all right,” Jack agreed with Bluedaze, ”so how many coins did he squeeze out of you?”

”We are in need of coins for buying this plot of land, so we said we will buy his information at a later date.”

”Oh? I heard the players talking about the Corporate United and the robbery incident. Thatʼs not your guildʼs doing?”

”Thatʼs us all right,” Silverwing said.

”But I thought you said…”

”That friend of yours said he trusted us, so he gave us the two recording stones and said he will pick up the payments when we have coins to spare.”

”Oh, I wasnʼt expecting that from him.”

”Well, our guild did have a good reputation, so I didnʼt find that strange.”

”Nah, trust me. This guy always has an angle. You had better settled that debt once you can.”

”Wasnʼt him your friend? You donʼt sound like you believe in him much.”

”Itʼs not like he is a bad person. Itʼs just that he always seemed to have a way to use the people around him to his advantage. Additionally, I am not too close to him. Our paths crossed a few times and we worked together, thatʼs it.”

”I see, sort of like us then, but we can be considered friends, right?” Silverwing said with a smile.

Jack smiled awkwardly. ”I will treat you as a friend if you treat me as one,” he said, then tried to change the subject, ”seeing you guys here. I assumed you have managed to buy this plot?”

”Yes, we have just completed the transaction. Now we just need to collect a little bit more coins to build the guild base.”

”So you guys manage to beat Death Associates after all.”

”Thanks to you! Our intel in the guild had indicated how wary that guild of you. They had trodden very carefully, afraid that you will ambush them in the field, which caused them to slow down their coin gathering activities.”

Jack laughed at the comment and said, ”congratulations on being the first one then.”

”Actually, though we are the ones that had managed to get this plot of land. We are not the first guild that had buy land for guild base. There is another one that had beaten us to it. And from what we heard, they are even about to construct the guild base soon.”

”Really? Who is it?” Jack asked.

”They are over there,” Bluedaze informed as she pointed.

Jack looked in the direction she was pointing at and saw another group not far from them. There were not many people in that group but he seemed to recognize one of them. He tried to remember where he had seen the person. After a brief moment, he remembered that he had seen the person during the meeting held by the three guilds. The person was the middle-aged man who led the Saint Edge group during the meeting, William of Wellington.

Saint Edge? Jack was surprised by this. How wealthy was this group? He knew from John that they were the ones that had hired him, even spending 30 gold coins for it. And they still had enough coins to be the first one to buy the plot of land for their guild base? He had known Saint Edge was a famous guild, but now he could see that the guild was really not simple at all.

They had been the mastermind that had disrupted the three guilds while remaining in the shadow. This kind of guild was very much the type to be wary of. He hoped he didnʼt have to come into confrontation with them in the future.

Jack had a brief chat with Silverwing and the others before returning to Amyʼs Bakery. When he entered the shop, he was greeted by the cheerful Amy.

”There is a letter for you,” She said as she handed him an envelope.

Jack was puzzled. An envelope? Who could it be from? His friends would simply send him an in-game message. This letter messaging was so old-fashioned. Was it from some players or guilds who were not on his Friends list?

He thanked Amy and accepted the letter, but didnʼt open the envelope until he was inside his room. The envelope was locked by a wax seal, the kind that was commonly used during the medieval era to verify that the letter was unopened. There was an engraving of the letter T in the wax seal.

”This is interesting, that was the symbol of Themisphere royalty,” he heard Penielʼs voice as the Fairy came out and floated beside him.

This letter was from NPCs? Jack thought. Intrigued, he broke the wax and took out the letter inside and started reading it.

”Greetings, young adventurer, Sir Storm Wind of the Outworlders. Your exploits had come to the attention of royal kingship. Duke Alfredo particularly had sung praise on your behalf. We have a proposition that might be in your interest. A carriage and an entourage will be sent to you by the morrow morning at 8 AM. We will be delighted with the grace of your presence. Yours truly, Mason, Royal Advisor.”

Royal advisor? Jackʼs eyes bulged out.

”How high is the rank of royal advisor in this kingdom?” Jack asked Peniel.

”Apart from the royal families? He could be considered the number two person,” Peniel explained.

Jack whistled. An invitation from the number two NPC in the kingdom? Now that was intriguing. It seemed like his initial plan of going on a hunting quest trip with Bowler and the others would have to wait. Meeting the royal advisor of this countryʼs ruling power was much more interesting.

He spent the rest of the night training on forming the runes of his available spells, especially Mana Detonation. It was a spell used for combat especially for close range, so he would need to be able to cast it fast.

He trained until he felt tired before retiring to bed.

The next morning, he woke up early. Since there is time to spare before the time stated in the letter. He did some stretching and then performed several martial art moves. During his younger days, especially when he still lived with his grandfather, such morning exercises were common. It was a long time already since he did such exercise. Despite this current game world didnʼt require such exercise to help with physical fitness, doing it gave him a sense of clarity.

During his practice, he realized his high attributes allowed him to perform many moves which in the past were extremely difficult. He still remembered all his grandfatherʼs teachings. If he could learn to control his body better and get used to it, his level of aptitude shouldnʼt be any less than those martial art prodigies. As for fighting experiences, he was not any less than those top players.

After finishing his exercise, he ate breakfast which had been prepared by Samantha.

”There was a coach at the front,” Amy came reporting. ”The rider said it was for you.”

Jack had just finished his breakfast. ”All right, Iʼll be heading out,” he said.

😉