Second World

Andrea did another chant and the holy magic stone radiated a ring of white light. This ring sent down tiny droplets of lights onto the pool. The water on the pool, upon receiving the essence, became more clear and transparent. The murky feeling that Jack felt from before was gone.

The process continued for some time. The green light that shrouded Peniel soon vanished and she was visible again. Jack didnʼt see anything wrong.

”Itʼs done, you can return,” Andrea said to Peniel.

When Peniel returned to Jackʼs side, Andrea said, ”I thank the both of you. Iʼm extremely grateful. We are truly in a bind. Now, we can hold out until we receive our delivery. By the way, whatʼs your purpose here? You said you were looking for me?”

”Yes, I have this parcel for you,” Jack said as he took it out.

Andrea received it. She was opening the package as she asked, ”where is this from?”

Jack heard notification that his delivery faction quest had finally been completed. He heaved a relief, he thought for a second that he would be given another parcel again. Jack answered Andreaʼs question, ”Itʼs from the Grand Healer Girolamo from Themetus.” At the same time, Andrea had finished unpacking and the thing inside was a magic stone with brilliant white color.

Jack looked at the magic stone in Andreaʼs hand, turned to the magic stone inside the hanging candelabra above that was still raining tiny lights onto the pool, then back to the magic stone from Girolamo again. His eyes twitched upon recognition.

ʼDonʼt tell me that is…ʼ

Andrea looked up and rubbed her temple.

ʼDamn! It truly is. You are really too hasty, woman. So all that ceremony just now was unnecessary…ʼ Jack cussed inside, but he maintained his cordial expression outside.

It seemed that Andrea was also having the same thought. She put the holy magic stone aside and smiled warmly at Jack.

”I thank you for having delivered the package and thank you both again for the help just now,” she said.

”Isnʼt that…” Peniel was about to comment on the holy magic stone.

ʼPeniel, hush! Donʼt say anything!ʼ Jack stopped her telepathically.

Peniel was confused but she didnʼt say anything. Jack and Andrea continued to smile at each other as if they were the best of friends.

”You have helped me with my predicament. Here, let me reward you with small gifts,” Andrea said as she fished out ten small bottles and filled them up using the water from the pool. He handed those ten bottles to Jack.

Jack received and inspected them.

Holy Water (Uncommon consumable)

Use on non- Undead/Darkness/Demon: Recover 2 HP each second and +30% resistance to all status effects for 2 minutes.

Use on Undead/Darkness/Demon: Inflict 500 damage, afflicted creature loses all recovery ability and is weakened for 2 minutes. Cooldown: 2 minutes

”Oh? It has different effects depending on the type of creature it was used on,” Jack said after reading the description.

”Well, since our matter is done, can you please leave? I need to lock this place up and harnessed more of this holy water for my healers above.”

ʼThere you are, being hasty again,ʼ Jack thought, but he didnʼt mind. He never planned to spend a long time here anyway. He only wanted to complete his delivery quest. But as he was about to go out the door, a thought occurred to him.

He turned around. Andrea was right behind him, giving him a face that said, ʼWhy are you still here? Iʼm in a hurry.ʼ

”If you donʼt mind me asking, lady Andrea. What is your thought of the political situation of our kingdom?” Jack asked.

”Hm? I never involved myself much in politics,” Andrea replied.

”But Iʼm sure you are aware of it. Do you know that we have three candidates to replace the current king? Do you have any thoughts as to which candidate you will be supporting?”

”Three? I only heard of two, prince Therribus and prince Rhemos. Both of which if Iʼm allowed to say, is not to my liking. Anyway, the kingdom never sends us any aid, so I never see why we should involve ourselves with them.”

”There is a third candidate, Prince Alonzo. He was the smallest heir to King Themos. But he was also the most benevolent. He liked to help people and treat others fairly, much like you! I bet you will like him if you meet him, and I bet he will love to help you in your cause. He will very much approve of what you are doing here, helping all these people in the slum.”

”Well, if he is so supportive, I bet he wonʼt mind giving us some funds, would he? We are always in need of coins as we are doing most of our healings in charity, after all.”

Jack paused for a bit. He gritted his teeth as he fished out 100 gold coins. ”Consider this as a token of goodwill from Prince Alonzo. If you donʼt mind, maybe you can arrange some time to meet up with the prince? I can help set up the meeting. If you can, please also help to send out good words about Prince Alonzo to your patients, and how he supported this infirmary.”

Andrea looked at the coins in Jackʼs hand for a bit before deciding to accept them. ”I will have to discuss further with our factionʼs leader about giving our official support. I will accept these coins as goodwill and agree for a meeting.”

”Great!” Jack said. At the same time, he heard a notification voice that his Chain faction quest had received an update and he received 1000 merit points. He quickly opened his Quest page.

Throne of Themisphere (Chain kingdom faction quest)

Difficulty: SSS

Rewards: ???

Support Prince Alonzo in ascending the throne.

Part 1: Gain support from Blacksmith Circle

Difficulty: S

Rewards: 500,000 exp, 30 gold coins, 3000 merit points, additional rewards possible

Meet with blacksmith Haestus and form an official alliance with the Blacksmith Circle.

Completed Hidden Part:

Open a negotiation to gain support from Healer Society

Rewards: 1000 merit points

It was as he had expected. The influence that Prince Alonzo required is not only support from nobles and military personnel, but also factions. Just as how he was tasked to gain support from Blacksmith Circle.

”Is there anything else? I still have many tasks to attend to,” Andrea said. Her hastiness attitude returned.

”Another thing. If you need any help in delivering again, you can send a request to my guild. I guarantee my guild will carry out your request with haste,” Jack said.

”Really? Because the last delivery was not so satisfactory,” Andrea said while giving Jack a side-eye.

Jack smiled wryly, ”no worry, our guild members are professionals and will carry their tasks with utmost priority.”

”Where is this guild of yours then?”

Jack opened his map. Andrea recorded his Guild Headquartersʼ coordinates.

”You donʼt have a representative inside the city?” She asked. ”But this distance is not far. Itʼs still okay, I guess. I will send a request if we need something.”

Jack thanked her and left the building. He thought about Andreaʼs question. Maybe they did need to buy land inside the city to construct Guild Base. To allow the natives easy access to them if they want to hand out guild quests. His Influence skill had improved so it should help the guild in attracting special guild quests not available in the Guild Associations.

Jack summoned Pandora and went back to the noble district again. Since Duke Alfredo was in isolation and he doubted he would be allowed entry if he went to the palace by himself, he went to Commander Quintusʼ mansion instead.

Luckily, the commander was at home again. Jack informed him about Andrea and the Healing Circleʼs willingness to open a discussion for showing their support to Prince Alonzo. Commander Quintus applauded Jack for his initiative. He said he would talk with the prince first thing tomorrow and they would send a representative for a further talk with that faction.

While Jack was there, Jack asked if he could just submit a completed faction quest there or if he should go to the commanderʼs tower to do that. The commander said he could process his request there, and took him to his home office.

On the way, Jack asked what about the outworlders who were recruited by Prince Rhemosʼ side. Did they also take their kingdom faction quests from the commanderʼs tower? The commander answered that there were different processing centers handling faction quests. The commander warned Jack though, to just use his tower. The other centers were under other princesʼ camps so they might not be friendly if Jack went there.

After submitting the faction quest, Jack received a standard reward of 50 merit points, and then,

Completed all deliveries: 500 merit points

Take too long a time to complete deliveries: deduct 400 merit points

He had been sent all over the country for this delivery quest and all he got was a friggin 150 merit points? He would have cursed his heart out, but it was due to this quest that he managed to earn Healer Societyʼs trust and hook them up with the third princeʼs camp. So, he did not complain.

Now that he learned the chain faction quest granted much more merit points upon completion, he decided to just focus on it.. He did not take another random faction quest.

😉