Second World

”Yes,” Serenity agreed. ”We only came as a counterbalance to Fearʼs appearance. Now that he was gone, it was time for us to leave as well.”

There was still much Jack wanted to ask, but he did not dare to stall these divine beings. He bid them farewell, ”thank you again for your help, we can rest well knowing such benevolent divine beings such as yourselves are watching over us.”

”Fawner,” Peniel chided him with a whisper.

Jack also waved at Honuren who nodded back at him. The three then left as mysteriously as they appeared. Serenity simply faded into nothingness, but in a more graceful way than Fear. Hope and Honuren turned into two pillars of light that shot up into the cloud.

”Were you really that upset when you thought I was lost?” Peniel asked after those divine beings were gone.

”Nah, I was fine,” Jack replied, but then added. ”Well, maybe a little. You know, a little-tiny-tinsy-bit worried, perhaps.”

Peniel was quiet for a while before saying, ”thank you.”

Jack turned to her in surprise, ”what are you being so formal for. It doesnʼt suit you.”

”Hmph, do not expect it so often,” Peniel said as she flew away.

At this time, the rest of the army arrived. Commander Quintus ordered them to spread out to search the perimeter. It was doubtful that the cult was still around but it was still prudent to make sure.

”Thank you for coming to my aide, Your Grace,” Jack said when Duke Alfredo approached him.

”Iʼm just glad that everything went well. That was pretty perilous just now. I never expected those Divine Beings to appear here. It seemed that this matter with the cult is more serious than I thought, considering they truly have a mad God backing them. We will need to tread more carefully in the future.”

”Hey, we also have divine beings backing us, two of them some more as evident to what had happened just now,” Jack consoled.

”Didnʼt you hear them? You are the one getting marked, we donʼt have the same backing,” Captain Salem reminded.

”Well, but they did say those divine beings were not allowed to interfere. If that Fear guy involves himself personally again, Iʼm sure those two will come again as they did just now.”

”Letʼs hope that is the case,” Duke Alfredo said.

”Oh, by the way, I have something for you, Your Grace,” Jack said as he remembered something. He took out a bottle. It was the All-curse Expulsion Potion that he had gotten from the dungeon.

”I believe this should be the thing we had come to look for,” Jack said as he handed the bottle to the duke.

Duke Alfredo took it into his hands as he gave it an inspection. He then looked at Jack, gratitude could be seen in his eyes. He gave Jack a slight bow. ”Allow me to express my appreciation, Mister Storm Wind. You have been a godsend in my endeavor to recover this cure and you have proved yourself again to be the greatest aid I can hope for in this quest of mine. My wife and I are forever indebted to you.”

”Um… No worry. Really, itʼs not a problem,” Jack felt awkward with the dukeʼs formal gratitude, he quickly added. ”I hope the Duchess can recover soon with that potion.”

”I believe she will,” Duke Alfredo said with a smile. It was the most natural smile Jack had ever seen expressed by the duke.

Jack felt happy for the duke, he genuinely hope the duchess would truly recover, it would have been a big waste of efforts otherwise. As if to reassure him, a notification voice was heard, ”Congratulations on completing the Chain Quest: Duchessʼ Cure. Receive rewards of 120 gold coins, 1,500,000 Experience points, and Golden Noble Headband.”

Jack was stunned by the announcement. So much! He thought. With this gold reward, he had 362 gold coins in his bag already, enough to upgrade both Ellieʼs Restaurant and Amyʼs Bakery for their second upgrade. He was looking forward to doing so once he returned to the capital.

Even from the experience reward alone, it was extremely abundant. As he was wondering why he didnʼt hear the sweet notification voice that informed him of his level up, he remembered about the Lightning God Blessing. He looked inside his inherent skill and saw that its experience bar was half-full now.

It really ate up all the experience received, Jack thought. Great, thanks to the completion of the dukeʼs quest, the time needed for him to feed this greedy inherent skill had been cut down to half.

He then looked for the new equipment in his storage bag which was the last reward the notification had informed him of. He found a simple-looking gold-colored headband. Upon closer observation, he saw multiple runes covering it. He used Inspect on it.

Golden Noble Headband, level 28/58 (super rare medium armor)

Physical defense: 69

Magical defense: 69

Durability: 50

Wisdom +8

+20% resistance to all mental status ailments.

Purify the Mind and Body (Active ability): Cleanse all status ailments, immune to all the new status ailments for the next 10 seconds. Cooldown: 1 hour.

Another super rare, cool! He exclaimed in his mind. His current gear was slowly getting replaced by better-grade equipment. This should help to keep him ahead of the others.

The defense on this headgear was slightly different than the other medium armor, it had the exact same defense between physical and magical defense, he preferred such balance though. The armorʼs abilities were also great. His current helmet gave him 40% resistance to Dizzy and Disoriented. Even though it will be a setback for these two status ailments if he changed his headgear, all his other mental status ailments gained a boost.

The active ability served almost the same function as his Purifying Pendant. The difference was his pendantʼs one was passive ability. It activated automatically once he was inflicted by a mental status ailment, while this new gearʼs allowed manual activation, which gave more versatility. Additionally, Purify the Mind and Body not only affected mental status ailments but all status ailments, so physical ailments could also be cleansed.

With all these improvements, he immediately replaced his current headgear. One thing that Jack thought was slightly regretful was his look. The Silver Guard Helmet gave him a rather cool and intimidating appearance, while this Golden Noble Headband only covered a small portion of his head. It made him look like a certain monkey king from the East.

While he was enjoying the rewards, he realized that Duke Alfredo had been waiting patiently with a book in his hand. ”Is that for me?” Jack asked.

”This is a spell that had accompanied me during my early adventurer days,” duke Alfredo said. ”I hope it can help you in yours.”

Jack was elated, there was even an extra reward. Jack received the book with glee. Not forgetting to thank the duke politely, of course. He checked on the book immediately.

Technique Book: Myriad Ensnaring Chains (Super rare Consumable)

Grant the skill: Myriad Ensnaring Chains

Restriction: Any Advanced magic class

ʼSounds imposing,ʼ Jack thought. He was just about to learn the technique book when he heard Penielʼs voice, ”whatʼs that ugly thing on your head?”

Peniel had been flying around and had just arrived back.

”What do you know? This is what we human calls the latest cool fashion,” Jack replied. Not admitting that he actually agreed with her. Look was not important anyway, this headband served him better, that was enough. Function before form, if he might put it.

Peniel ignored his statement and said, ”I sensed that you have just completed the chain quest and gotten the reward?”

”Yes, it was really generous,” Jack described to her all the rewards he had received.

”As I have suspected,” She said.

”Suspect what? Why do you suspect anything?” Jack asked.

”The whole thing doesnʼt make sense for an SSS quest. The rewards themselves had proven so. They are too pitiful as rewards for a quest of that grade.”

”Pitiful…?” Jack was speechless by Penielʼs comment. He had been jubilant over his gains and this fairy was calling them pitiful.

”Yeah. If I may say, the only item that was aligned with that quest grade was the Lightning God Sphere you got after defeating Eldingar. The others were only the rewards of roughly an S rank chain quest.”

”Really…?” Jack was skeptical of the fairyʼs evaluation.

”Are you doubting me?” Peniel asked while giving him a sideways glare.

”No, of course not, mam,” Jack hurriedly answered. After thinking a bit, he then said, ”if what you said is true. Could it be someone hack the quest to change its grade?”

”Hack? How do you hit something that is not tangible?”

”Uh, I mean tamper! Could someone tamper with this quest, and make a change to it? Give it a higher grade to its description than it should be?”

😉