Second World

Jack went directly to the place where Silverwing informed him. It looked like a high-class pub if compared to the real-world facilities. Itʼs nothing like the Thugʼs Nest in the slum district. The exterior had several outdoor settings for people to drink and chat on both the ground floor and the second floor.

The interior was filled with dim illumination amongst the cool grey color walls. The tables and chairs were set apart to allow enough movement space. There was a group of bards entertaining the guests with their songs on a stage. Maids in alluring outfits treaded around the tavern bringing the guests their orders.

Jack asked one of the maids where he could find an Outworlder called Silverwing. The maid was holding a tray with cups of ale on it. She called to his colleagues who were free and told her to bring Jack to Silverwing. The maid brought him up the stairs to the second floor.

The second floor had much of its space partitioned thus appearing not as large. Jack was directed to one of these partitioned rooms. The maid knocked on the door of the room, which was soon opened.

Jack recognized the person that opened the door. It was Silverwingʼs beautiful second in command, Bluedaze. After seeing it was Jack, she invited him in. Jack thanked the maid and entered the room.

The room was an enclosed space with walls without any windows. The wall was made of what looked like fiberboard which served as a good soundproofing material, which was out of context considering the medieval setting of the city. Silverwing probably chose to meet in this private room to keep a secret about what they were talking about.

In the middle of the room was a ceramic table surrounded by leather sofa chairs, there were six persons aside from Bluedaze who sat on those sofas. The ones Jack knew among them were Silverwing, the old man Sinreaper, and the runner up in the Tutorial leveling competition, Warpath.

Silverwing and Sinreaper nodded with a smile when they saw Jack entered, while Warpath displayed a hostile gaze. The other three were women, a beautiful young woman, a beautiful adult woman, and a beautiful middle-aged woman, all three exuded elegant bearings. Jack was wondering from where Silverwing found these three generations of beautiful ladies.

Silverwing stood up and made the introduction, ”I believe you have known about him, Mister Storm Wind, the one who holds the first rank in our Bay City tutorial ranking.”

”He was just lucky, there is nothing special about him,” Warpath commented.

Silverwing chuckled at the comment, while Jack ignored him. Silverwing proceeded to introduced the others to Jack, ”You already know me and my teammates, and you should know Warpath here as well.”

”Yes, the runner-up,” Jack commented.

Warpath smashed his hand on the table as he said with anger, ”what did you say, punk?! How about we had a duel now to decide who is the runner up?”

Jack was surprised. The ceramic table was fine after being slammed with such force. The ceramic was obviously a sturdier version compared to the real world one.

”And the ladies are?” Jack turned to the three women.

Jackʼs indifference infuriated Warpath even more. He was about to erupt again when Silverwing cut him, ”This is Jeanny, here is Selena, I believe you had heard about her as well? She was the sixth rank during the tutorial level ranking.”

Now that Silverwing mentioned it, he vaguely remembered her. These two were using common names, could they be using their real names?

”And this here is Queen Magenta,” Silverwing said as he referred to the middle-aged woman.

Holy shit, that was clearly an alias, Jack thought. He had met a man who was shameless enough to call himself Saint, now he met a contender who did not shy away from calling herself queen.

The woman gave Jack a short glance, her gaze let Jack know that the woman was an arrogant one.

”These three ladies are from the guild Wicked Witches, and Queen Magenta here is their co-leader,” Silverwing continued. ”Please take a seat, brother Storm Wind.”

Before Jack even sat down, Queen Magenta said, ”you told me that you would present a reliable helper, co-leader Silverwing. You do know how important the operation is. We have made an effort to hire mister Warpath here, but you instead invited a nobody.”

”How can you say that,” Bluedaze said. ”Mister Storm Wind had the first rank title in the tutorial ranking. Certainly, that means something.”

”Donʼt interfere when leaders are talking, little girl,” Queen Magenta said. ”As mister Warpath had said, he was just lucky. No one had heard anything about him in the gaming community. How can he be considered as our equal? Co-leader Silverwing, you are a co-leader of a large guild, you should have known better. I am starting to wonder why you have been appointed to your position with that kind of judgment.”

”Thatʼs right,” Warpath commented with a sneer as he picked up his cup of ale and drank it.

Bluedaze was about to retort when Silverwing stopped her. He simply smiled at their insults as he glanced at Jack, afraid that Jack might feel offended. Jack however was indifferent as he copied Warpath by taking the cup of ale that had been prepared for him and drank it.

He then said to Queen Magenta, ”I understand the gravity of our coming operation, and I can assure you that mister Storm Wind is crucial in our success. After all, the item we were after will be given to the one that holds the higher rank. So if you are so sure that our helper is inferior, shouldnʼt it be better for you?”

”Heh, I donʼt think there is anyone you can find that will be better than mister Warpath here. But still, if you just bring a useless person, our whole operation might instead fail, and that will be a waste of everyoneʼs time.”

”If that happens, then White Scarfs will compensate you,” Silverwing said with confidence.

”Heh, thatʼs better.” Queen Magenta said with a sneer.

”Now, shall we start our discussion?” Silverwing asked.

Queen Magenta gave a slight nod.

Silverwing then looked at Jack and Warpath, ”For you two, I would like to summarize first that the reason for us inviting the two of you, is to help us in a mission. It is a joint operation between our two guilds, White Scarfs and Wicked Witches. And the mission is to clear a dungeon.”

”A dungeon?” Jack asked.

Silverwing nodded, ”the dungeon is at a ruin located at the foot of Mount Thenias south of the capital. The dungeon is similar to other VR RPG games, it has a separate world inside filled with monsters, we need to defeat the dungeon boss in order to clear the dungeon. The reason why we need to clear this dungeon will be the secret of our two guilds. Itʼs sufficient for you two to know that we need one of the reward items for clearing this dungeon.”

”How do you know what reward item you get from clearing this dungeon?” Jack asked.

”We have people who did research on this kind of things, a common player like you donʼt need to ask too much,” Queen Magenta said.

”Our people learned it from finding the information in the library,” Silverwing didnʼt hide their source of information, queen Magenta frowned at his honesty. She didnʼt know that after all, the fact that Silverwing had sent more people to scour the library was due to Jackʼs message.

Silverwing then continued, ”the reasons that our two guilds had joined hands to clear this dungeon are because currently, only our two guilds know about this information and that we have tried to clear it by our individual guild, but we have failed.”

”Itʼs that difficult? Even with the support from all members of your guild, it still canʼt be cleared?” Jack asked.

”The reason is not because we donʼt have enough members. Itʼs that we donʼt have enough experts. The dungeon has a limit to the number of people that can enter. Only a party with a maximum number of ten people can go in and challenge the dungeon.”

”Ten…,” Jack mumbled while giving it a thought.

”As you know, all of us have been thrown into this game world without much preparation. Our guilds are just a splinter of what we really are. Most of our experts are unknown if they have also come into this world. The ones we have in this city are limited. When we tried to clear the dungeon with the experts we have in our guilds individually, we have failed to clear it. The difficulty is very high, but one which in our opinion can still be overcome with enough top experts. And that is what precipitated this meeting.”

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