Second World

Jack told him about their experience, as Silverwing and his retinues listened with fascination. He didnʼt tell them about the experience gathering trick by utilizing NPCs though, but even if he did, there was nothing they could do. It was not like there was a way for them to gain command of an army even if they wanted to.

They did express interest in how he managed to join the kingdom faction though, which allowed him to go on that expedition. He simply said that he had done a quest for a duke which impressed him enough that he had received an invite to join the kingdom faction. Hearing that, Silverwing secretly sent messages to his questing teams to search for all quests pertaining to nobles and for them to perform those quests with merit.

Jack also mentioned meeting another countryʼs force which turned out to be a nation of orcs. He did not mention the other five countries though, as he had not seen those other races himself. He had only heard them from Peniel, so he kept that to himself.

He also mentioned the existence of a player organization called World Maker which worked together with an NPC force called Cult of Phobos. He asked them to be wary of this organization and to give him the information if they ever met such a guild. Silverwing promised to do so.

Jack didnʼt spend too long a time chatting with Silverwing, he excused himself once he thought was appropriate. Before he left, Silverwing asked another question, ”what is your level now?”

”Twenty-eight,” Jack replied honestly.

The three gasped. They were at level 25 and they had just gotten to that level not long ago, and they knew for a fact that most of the other players were still at level 24.

What if I tell them the rest of the surviving expedition members were level 29? He thought. Though it would be entertaining to see their reactions, Jack decided against it. He left the room.

After he left the room, he did not immediately go to the room next door that housed John and Jeanny. Instead, he went to another VIP room not far away. The reason was because he had gotten a message from Ellie about a guest.

He went into the room and uttered, ”Heya! How are you doing, just Dylan?”

Dylan who heard him said, ”can you please drop that? Itʼs very childish, you know perfectly what I meant when I asked you to just call my name by Dylan.”? And then to Ellie, he said, ”what is he doing here anyway?”

”Hey, hey, is that how you talk about your employer? And arenʼt you still a kid? Whatʼs wrong with being childish with you?” Jack said and took a seat beside Ellie. There were three drinks on the table and three plates of peanuts as snacks for the three of them.

”You are the only kid here! And what employer? Arenʼt you just a middleman?” Dylan replied with a scoff. Jack had told Ellie to keep his ownership of this restaurant a secret.

”All right, all right. Letʼs stop ridiculing each other. So, you brought the rosemary we asked for?” Jack asked.

”He did,” Ellie answered.

”How many?”

”Enough to make around thirty dishes.”

”So few?”

”Few my ass!” Dyan spat out after hearing Jackʼs comment. ”Do you know how difficult it is to find that ingredient? Iʼve roamed through two towns and only managed to find one at a corner shop. It only has a limited stock. Iʼm charging the maximum price here for that ingredient!”

”Price is no problem. How soon can you get another batch?” Jack asked.

”Maybe another week. The shop owner did say that he will try to procure a larger amount after I promised to buy them all again. It will probably be faster if I donʼt have to use a caravan and can teleport directly there using Zone portal, but the promise of that duke doesnʼt come through. No invitation for me to join the Kingdom faction is yet to appear.”

”No need to complain. He only said that he will try his best, he did not exactly give you his promise.”

”Why are you defending him? Are you his good friend?”

”As a matter of fact, I am!” Jack replied with a grin, remembering when the Duke clapped his shoulder and expressed his appreciation.

”Stop boasting!” Dylan said, then to Ellie he said, ”for this second rosemary batch, I want front payment.”

”No problem,” Jack said.

”Why are you the one answering? I ainʼt talking to you,” Dylan replied curtly.

”No problem,” Ellie answered.

Dylan looked back and forth between Jack and Ellie, trying to figure out their relationship.

Ellie added, ”since you have proven to be such a good procurer, I have several other ingredients that I needed. Here is the list. If you can get them, I donʼt mind paying for the maximum price as well.” She then turned to Jack and asked, ”what do you think?”

”I think that is a good arrangement,” Jack replied.

Dylan looked back and forth again between the two of them. He then decided to not think too much about it. Matters of the employer were not his business. All he needed was to procure the requested supplies. Kept the business strictly professional. He glanced at the list given by Ellie. There were a lot of ingredients inside, considering the restaurantʼs booming business, they must have afforded lots of unconventional recipes that needed many rare ingredients.

He had been eating the peanuts while conversing, he now found out that his plate was empty. Out of the three, only Jack did not touch his plate. Dylan pointed at Jackʼs plate, ”do you mind?”

”Go nuts,” Jack said.

Dylan chuckled, ”heh, thatʼs a good one.” Then he took the peanuts on Jackʼs plate and continued munching while reading Ellieʼs list.

When his eyes arrived at one of the ingredients in the list, he couldnʼt help but blurt out, ”small poison gland?” Whatʼs a restaurant needed this ingredient for? To poison a customer?

Ellie simply shrugged and said, ”itʼs something a friend of mine asked for.” By friend, of course, she meant Jack, who had sent him the request beforehand. He needed that ingredient to give to Pointy Tip to create the Poison Salve. The large poison gland that he gave Tip could only produce twenty doses. He would need to source the ingredient if he needed a stable supply.

Dylan decided not to pry. As he thought before, kept it professional. He stored the list as Ellie handed the gold coins for him. After receiving the front payment, he stood up and headed for the door.

”Leaving already? No chat with your old pal?” Jack asked.

”What old pal, I just met you twice including now,” Dylan then looked at Ellie and said, ”I will let you know once I got the ingredients.”

After he went out the door, Ellie said to Jack, ”you really enjoy teasing that boy, donʼt you?”

”Despite his all-serious-business manner, he is a fun kid,” Jack replied. ”How long do you need to cook all that thirty dishes of Well-Done Steak?”

”Whatʼs the hurry? If I donʼt have to cook for other customersʼ orders, I can cook them all within one day. Do you want to introduce this dish to the public immediately?”

”Oh, they are not for selling. I want all those Thirty dishes for myself, you can just deduct the cost from my share of profits,” Jack replied. The Well-Done Steak gave a boost of 20% for exp received within six hours. He needed it as he had to generate lots of exp to satisfy the gluttonous Lightning God Blessing. Otherwise, he would not be able to level up at all.

”All right, but I can only cook during my off-time if it is not for the customer. Might need several days for all thirty dishes.”

”Donʼt worry, you wonʼt be cooking for customers tomorrow.”

”Why is that?” Ellie was puzzled by Jackʼs statement.

Jack gave him a wide grin before saying, ”we are going to upgrade the restaurant.”

After informing Ellie of his intention, he let her went to inform the employees about the coming upgrade. Considering the previous upgrade, it should take at least one day for the process. They would start the upgrade process once the restaurant closed, which was in half an hour time more. He decided to go to the room which John and Jeanny were at, as he waited for the restaurant to close.

When he entered, he saw that the two were still discussing heatedly with Peniel. Since the guildʼs success would be tied to Jackʼs success as well, Peniel didnʼt have reservations to keep information from the two. The two didnʼt waste the chance as they asked everything they could think of.

Seeing the three were so focused, Jack didnʼt disturb them and just sat at the corner and watched them. He soon lost interest as he was always not that into such technical stuff. He would leave much of the guild business to the two.

A waiter soon came and informed them that the restaurant was closing. Jack was grinning as the two reluctantly stopped their questionings. He told them there would be more opportunities later, itʼs not like Peniel was going anywhere.

Once they left, Jack went to the cashier and took away his profits. Three weeks had passed since he last took his profits, hence it had accumulated. Even after deducting Dylanʼs payment, he still received 59 gold coins. He had a total of 398 gold coins in his bag!

He then activated the restaurantʼs upgrade interface. Time to upgrade the restaurant!

😉