Second World

Jack thought his 15,323 hunter points were already impressive and he could exchange for at least one item from the exclusive exchange list. But looking at the list now, he felt like his thought just now was the brunt of a joke.

Jack then asked the staff, ”How many points do I need to reach diamond hunter grade?”

”one million hunter points, sir.”

”One… one million…?” Jack couldnʼt imagine how long he would need to collect those many points. His current accumulated points were 16,513 hunter points.

”Donʼt worry. The higher-level quests gave more points. If you raid higher-level settlements, hideouts, or outposts, they will also give more points.”

”Fine, I guess I have to work harder. I see some other maps in the regular list, whatʼs the difference?” He scrolled down again to where he had seen the maps.

”Those maps show partial information only. For example, only show the main cities, only show basic monsters in the region, only show small monster caves, and things like that. The complete map shows everything.”

”I see, what about this bloodline? I heard you mentioned it before,” Jack scrolled back up to the exclusive list again.

”It is something that gives passive effects and can be leveled up. A higher grade one can even give active skill.”

”This one here is not a high-grade one?” Jack asked.

”No,” Peniel answered.

Jack decided to just save his hunter points. The lesser maps might be useful even though they contained partial information, but he had a personal guide who also had the same information, so there was no need for them.

When Jack rejoined with Sinful, Jack asked him to show the way to Adventurers Association next. The situation was the same as in Hunters Association, the same layout but more extravagant compared to Thereathʼs counterpart. Jack went into the Silver Hall and observed the available quests on the hanging boards. The highest difficulty available here was only B difficulty. He looked for the one that rewarded the most exp and adventurer points.

There were some mystery quests, but he avoided this. He was simply looking to increase his Archmage level, he didnʼt want to get entangled with an unknown quest that might end up taking a too long time to complete. After looking around, he couldnʼt find one that could give him enough exp points to level up, even if he set his exp setting to 100% for Archmage. So he simply chose one that gave out 50 adventurers points. He just needed 46 more points to upgrade to Gold rank. He should be able to find better quests in the Gold Hall.

The one he chose was a simple delivery task within the city. It was recommended for three people. Sinful was beside Jack at the time. Jack asked him if he was also a member of the Adventurers Association. Sinful said that he was and he was also a Silver Adventurer. Jack then asked him if he was interested to team up on that quest. The exp points rewarded were the same if Jack took the quest by himself or with another partner. Sinful looked at the quest Jack mentioned and agreed to it.

But while Jack could head to the VIP hall, Sinful needed to queue to get the quest. Sinful went to queue while Jack head up to the VIP hall. In front of the VIP counter, Jack mentioned the quest he wished to take. He also asked the staff if he could have another adventurer friend take on the same quest without his friend needing to queue below.

The staff asked for Sinfulʼs full alias and if the person was inside this building. Jack answered yes. The staff then said that he had sent an invite for the quest to Sinful. Jack sent a message to Sinful, ”do you get a quest-invite?”

Sinful sent a reply promptly, ”Yes, I did. Is this your doing? I have accepted the quest, I no longer need to queue. I will wait for you downstairs.”

Jack thanked the counter staff and went back down to meet with Sinful. The quest was rather straightforward, they simply had to take a package, which could not be stored into inventory, from one end of the city to the next. So it was a rather long walk. They ended up in a ghetto in the South part of the city and were besieged by three level 25 basic human thugs.

Jack asked Sinful to protect the package while he dealt with the thugs. It was a simple matter to Jack considering his opponentʼs lower levels. They completed the job without a problem and Jack got his Gold Adventurer Badge. He didnʼt bother to look for the Gold-rank exclusive list as he knew he wouldnʼt be able to afford it. Instead, he looked for a quest that provided sufficient exp points.

There were many, the Gold hall provided quests with A and S difficulty. He took an A difficulty quest which upon completion, should push his Archmage level to 35. He didnʼt bother with the S difficulty quests for the same reason as not taking the mystery quest. He didnʼt want to waste too much time on these quests.

The quest he got was called, Help merchant Yilus retrieve a stolen object, the time limit was two days and two people was suggested for this quest. Sinful was still a Silver adventurer, so he should not be able to join this quest. But when Jack asked again at the VIP counter, the staff informed him as a VIP member, he was allowed to take a lower rank adventurer to join the quests. Sinful was rather surprised when he received the quest invite again and was glad about it.

After getting the quest, a location had been marked on both Jack and Sinfulʼs map. It was the coordinates of merchant Yilusʼ location. Knowing the place, Sinful took Jack to the marked location. It was a shop in the ghetto they had visited before.

The shop was the largest building in that part of the city, but it appeared rather shady. Jack and Sinful went in and asked for the merchant. There were two attendants in the shops, both appeared rather unfriendly. Jack wondered how this shop survived.

The attendant asked them to wait and then went into the closed section with a grunt. Not long after, he came out accompanied by a rather chubby man with small eyes, the guy looked no less shady than his shop.

”You are the one looking for me?” The chubby man, who was a level 35 special elite, asked.

”You are Yilus? You posted a request in the Adventurers Association about a stolen item. We are here for the job,” Jack said.

”Ah! Of course, of course,” Yilus exclaimed. His round face suddenly beamed with cordiality.

”Come, come, we will talk as we walk,” the merchant said as he took a very large hooded cloak, wore it, and walked out of the shop. Jack and Sinful who were confused about why they were discussing the job outside, didnʼt move at first.

”Hurry up, will you. Itʼs almost night already. I want to show you the place before that!” Yilus called.

ʼShow what place?ʼ Jack thought. And how did he know it was almost night? The whole sky was dark in this God-forsaken country, but the two of them still followed.

They had a rather long walk. On the way, Jack had been asking about the details of the job but Yilus simply said he will explain later. Instead, he just chatted about unrelated stuff.

They slowly left the ghetto and came upon the business districts where Jack had walked around earlier today. Yilus brought them further into an area occupied by many big residential houses. Sinful explained to Jack the place they were at was the place where nobles lived, mostly vampires. This city was unlike Thereath where commoners were prohibited entry from the noble district. There were, however, more guard patrols in this place compared to the other areas. Jack wondered why the merchant took them to this kind of place.

They soon stopped outside an estate. Jack could see a manor not far away. The estate was not as big as Duke Alfredoʼs but was still impressive. Yilus didnʼt bring them into the estate but instead took them to one corner of the street which had a good view of the manor.

He looked around as if afraid someone was watching. With him wearing the hooded concealing cloak, Jack was afraid it might give a passerby a wrong impression.

He then said, ”the stolen item is inside that mansion.”

It took a while for the words to register, Jack soon blurted, ”What the heck? You know where the stolen item is?”

”Yes, it is inside the mansion. Did I not say that just now?”

”Then why do you need us for? Just go and report to the soldiers. They can take back that stolen item of yours,” Jack said.

”Well… The situation is a bit complicated.”

”Whatʼs so complicated about a stolen item?”

”The soldiers wonʼt be able to take back the item…”

”Because the person who has the item is a noble?”

”That is one of the reasons.”

”There are other reasons?”

”Well… I might have owed the noble a bit of debt, and he might have taken something of mine as an assurance, which I have involuntarily relinquished…”

”What the f*ck?! That is not a stolen item!” Jack uttered.

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