Jack left the farm in a foul mood. Nothing could dissuade the darkness of his thoughts. He walked quickly, ignoring the pungent scents of wildgrass and honeymallow blossoms. The only thing that kept the worst of his anger at bay was focusing on what needed to be done.
I need one more level to reach the minimum threshold of Attribute Points for Soul Fusion. With Soul Fusion, I’ll finally be able to take some serious strides toward getting stronger. And, with that divine skill accessible, I’ll be able to focus future levels and AP on my other skills.
He stepped onto the central road leading into Thistlebrush’s western gate. The queue for the city’s entrance was thankfully short, and Jack got into line without a word to those in front of him. There were three of them—one guard in his military reds, while the other two were an older couple in well-made cloaks. They appeared to be either wealthy merchants or some sort of nobility. Though given that they lacked a carriage, or palanquin, or whatever nobles in this damned world used, he suspected they were either minor nobles or just down on their luck.
Their guard turned to study him. Jack met his gaze, unflinching as the man sized him up. The male noble flitted his attention toward Jack when he caught where the guard was looking. He sniffed rudely, as if the Earth mechanic were nothing but an unfortunate pile of excrement they were forced to stand next to.
“What?” Jack spat.
The guard took a step forward menacingly. Jack inspected him.
[Hunter Thuleson - Level 14]
[Description: Lowborn red knight escorting minor nobles into Thistlebrush. He secretly despises all nobles, but will die for them in the hopes his family is properly compensated.]
Jack was taken aback by the description, and a tiny sliver of his rage slipped away.
“Move along!” a masculine voice called from the gate, and the tension between Jack and the trio broke.
He peered around the nobles to see who was at the gate. Jack first caught sight of red hair. He cursed softly and shook his head. His luck was extraordinarily awful today. Within a minute, Captain Yelena Stark noticed him in the line and promptly bypassed the nobles, allowing one of her subordinates to deal with checking their papers.
“You,” she hissed, stomping toward him.
The large sword strapped to her back glinted in the sunlight. But given how quickly—and easily—she approached him, he had to guess her Strength stat was scarily high. On a whim, he Inspected her.
[Captain Yelena Stark - Level 28]
[Description: Mayandon captain of the Red Knights.]
That was it.
No insight into her personality, history, or class.
Just how does Inspect work? If I level it up more, will it give me more useful information? How do I level it up? I should ask Olric—
The thought was akin to an injection of poison, and his anger redoubled.
“Yelena,” Jack responded coldly. He didn’t have time for another of her unprompted interrogations about mushrooms, or whatever else she decided to corner him with.
“Get out,” Yelena commanded, pointing back up the road. “I don’t care what your excuse is. You’re one piece of trouble I don’t need right now.”
“You can’t do that!” Jack shouted. “I have papers!”
It sounded lame even before he finished saying it, but he held his ground nevertheless.
Yelena closed the distance until they were barely a foot apart. “I don’t care if you’re King Cortland himself! You are trouble. And right now, Thistlebrush is a chain spell just waiting to go off. So, leave. Now.”
Her finger never stopped pointing back up the road.
“I am a citizen. I have papers. I have a job at Olric’s farm. See, here?” Jack held up the documents from Olric. “Everything is approved, and official, and all the right people’s cheeks have been kissed. So, will you please just do your job and let me through? I don’t have time for this today!”
“Why are you so desperate to get inside my city?” Yelena asked, the heat of her words dropping to a dangerous chill. “What are you planning?”
“I’m planning on getting some things for Olric! Beyond that, what I’m doing in the city is my own damn business!” Jack had enough of this, and so his words flowed out, unfiltered and doused with his pent-up rage. “Is it because I’m lowborn? Is that how you bleeders get off? You prey on the weak, all the while the nobles like those two get in with a friendly wave and a pat on the back? Is that your ‘procedure ’? Doesn’t it make you sick? Aren’t you supposed to be fighting for us little folk? What, are farmers not worth your time protecting?”
Jack could instantly tell he struck a nerve, as Yelena shrank back as if he’d struck her. He felt a pang of guilt at letting his anger out, but neither could he force up an apology at that moment.
“Leave.” Captain Stark turned away from Jack. “Don’t force me to make you.”
She walked away.
All of his accumulating pity for her evaporated in a hot flash of fury.
“Hell. NO!” He bellowed and stormed after her.
He’d gone through too much, done too much, to let some gate patrol hinder him now. Yelena ignored him, taking long strides back toward her post. Her luscious red hair flowed freely through the morning air, but Jack’s indignation blinded him to its beauty.
“I am going in,” he stated resolutely.
“Oy, bub,” a middle-aged knight spoke up, getting in Jack’s way. “I wouldn’t try that if I were you.”
He recognized him as the sergeant from when they visited Olric’s farm after the raid.
“I have my papers. Go on and check them. I’m allowed inside,” Jack stated and handed the man his documents.
To his credit, the sergeant did glance them over. Apparently, whatever he saw was beyond dispute, so he instead shifted his questions to his captain.
“Uh, ma’am? Why are we denying this fellow?” he asked in the perfect balance between urgent and deferential.
“He’s a catalyst we don’t need right now. You know what it’s like in there. The slums are out of control, and everyone’s jumpy. This one is only going to make it worse. I can just feel it.” Yelena said scathingly.
“Yes, ma’am!” the sergeant said with a salute Jack didn’t recognize. He turned to Jack. “Sorry, sir, but it appears I can’t let you in. Captain’s orders. Come back in a few days, and we can check again for you.”
All of Jack’s plans were crumbling in front of him. He couldn’t go back to the farm. Not now. Perhaps not ever. He had no place to go. Nothing except moving forward in his goals. They were his only solace, his only direction. And now, this woman was abusing her power to prevent him from doing the one thing he knew he could fix right now.
“No,” Jack said, feeling heat spread out from his chest. “I refuse. Let me in.”
Captain Stark was in front of him in an instant. She was so close he could smell the faint honey and lavender on her breath. But as pleasant as those scents were, they contrasted with the chiseled fury of her expression.
“Do you want to die, Mr. Thatcher? Is that it? Do you want to get lynched for looking at the wrong person, or perhaps I can find some nobleman willing to trample you to death with his horse? Is that what you want? Say the word, and I’ll save them the effort and stick Archimedes into your gut and be done with it!”
Yelena barely raised her voice, but she didn’t have to. Her red hair was backlit by the rising sun, giving her the appearance of an angel of war backlit by fire. But in that moment, expression frozen flame, she was a demon to Jack’s eyes.
They stayed there, each waiting for the other to make the first move. It might’ve gone on for an eternity, but a loud masculine voice cut through their stalemate like an inelegant bladestroke.
“Captain Stark! What in the holy hells are you doing ogling that citizen?”
Both Jack and Yelena turned, and Jack noticed as a haggard knight with an unkempt beard approached, swaying drunkenly.
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“No one’s paying you to flirt, woman. Now, check his papers like a good little soldier and be done with it!” the man yelled, though there was no need.
“Major Booth,” Yelena responded haltingly. “This man is–”
“I don’t care,” Booth cut off. “He’s a level ten nobody. He’s not why I’m here. I’m here because of you. Now, stop antagonizing the poor fool who stood you up, and at least pretend to be one of Ardent’s knights, will you?”
To Jack’s shock, Yelena still hesitated. “Sir, he–”
“NOW, STARK!” Booth roared.
She saluted her superior, who, Jack noticed, had a rather large bald spot near the crown of his head.
“Citizen Thatcher, you are approved to enter the King’s city of Thistlebrush,” Yelena said officially, reminding Jack of someone reciting a medical label.
“Thanks,” he muttered and gave a nod to this Major Booth fellow. He strode past, plucking his document from the flabbergasted sergeant as he went.
Finally, Jack thought in dark satisfaction. The universe is finally repaying that woman for all of her arrogance. Maybe God works here, too!
Grinning, he secured his documents once more and headed down the western thoroughfare, uncaring of the argument that sprouted up behind him. Yelena could deal with whatever her commander had in store for her. He didn’t care. Right then, all he cared about was finding an easy sidequest.
As Jack walked, he pulled up his character sheet to triple-check how much EXP he needed to hit level 11.
“I need about 8,000 EXP to reach level 11,” Jack surmised. He shrugged and glanced around. “How hard can that be?”
His gaze swept over the tense crowd of merchants, nobles, and workers. There was an electric energy to their dozens of conversations. And say what he would about Stark, she was right about one thing. This city was walking on a tightrope. It was like the very stones beneath them hummed with a frenetic, impatient sort of energy.
To his left, a young woman threw a ripe melon back into the face of a younger boy behind a stall, screaming something incoherent. In front of him, a noble slapped an old man for tripping on a cobblestone. He could hear someone whimpering softly down a nearby alleyway.
He would have to be careful, yes. But on the bright side, this sort of tension probably meant a lot of people had unattended sidequests.
I’m going to find a less intense street, though.
His gaze still sweeping for the likes of Sathem or Derrick, Jack moved around a stalled wagon pulled by a pair of chromoxen. He apologized to an older woman he bumped into, then slipped up a narrow side street. Jack moved quickly, wanting to put as much distance as he could between himself and the main thoroughfare. But as he walked, he kept his eyes peeled for anyone who looked like they might need help.
He made it about half a mile inside the walls of Thistlebrush when he came upon an absurdly old woman. She was on her hands and knees, crying softly as she numbly padded the street’s cobblestones with her wrinkled hands.
“Oh… Oh no. Where did it get off to?” she was whimpering.
Jack knelt down next to her, careful to keep his distance in case he startled her. “Excuse me, ma’am? Do you need help with something?”
The old woman startled and jerked her head up. He could immediately tell the poor woman had cataracts in both eyes, turning her amber irises into pale beige dishes.
“Sven? Is that you?” she asked with a warbly voice.
Jack Inspected her quickly. To his surprise, he also got a notification that Inspect leveled up!
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Inspect, has leveled up!]
[Inspect: Level 4?6. Rank: Novice]
Whoa! Two levels for one Inspect? Just what is so special about this old lady?
Even more curious, he cast the skill again and read:
[Guntila The Wise - Level 34]
[Description: A woman old enough to have witnessed a turning of the ages. She was once a powerful mage who assisted in countless battles against the encroaching shroud. But her mind, like her beloved Sven, abandoned her to the cold realities of time. She is a shade of who she once was.]
Jack’s heart sank as he read her description. “I’m sorry, Guntila. My name is Jack. Is there something wrong with these cobblestones, or did you drop something?”
She gazed at him for a long moment, her plain green dress and wool shawl fluttering in a breeze that traveled up this side street. Her eyes were as glassy as ever.
“I…I lost my ring. It was his ring. I lost it, but I need to find it before my Sven gets back,” Guntila said. Her milky eyes sharpened just a fraction. “Can you help me? I would be most grateful, young man.”
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ [New Side Quest Unlocked] ║
║ THE LOST RING - PART 1 ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════╣
║ QUEST OBJECTIVES ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? Travel to the northeast district ║
║ of Titanhold. [0/1] ║
║ ║
║ ? Discover who picked up the old ║
║ mage's ring. [0/1] ║
║ ║
║ Quest Difficulty: Hard ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST REWARDS ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? 1,500 EXP ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
[Accept quest?]
[YES or NO?]
Jack forced down his disappointment at the amount of EXP this sidequest offered. Instead, he reached out his hand and offered it to Guntila.
“Here, let me help you up, Guntila,” Jack said.
After a moment, she accepted. He slowly lifted her back to her feet, which were covered with nothing more than thin brown slippers.
“Now, which house is yours?” he asked gently.
“Oh, thank you, Sven! Our house is just over there!” the old mage exclaimed and flashed him a toothy smile.
He led her to the short porch in front of a tiny home squeezed between other, larger complexes. She fiddled with a few runes above the handle, but after a moment, there was a hiss of released air, and she waddled inside. As soon as the door closed, Jack heard a woman speak up behind him.
“You’re wasting your time,” she said.
Jack turned to see a woman in her twenties. She wore mismatched boots and a thin silk dress with a torn hem, exposing most of her curvaceous legs. The dress’s straps were so thin that her considerable chest was practically falling out of her bosom. Matted and messy brunette hair framed a face colder than glaciers.
“Excuse me?” Jack asked, stunned by the vehemence in her words.
“Guntila has had enough of leeches like you. I don’t ever wanna see your face around her home again, ya hear? You people are poison to her,” she declared with no small amount of bitterness.
“Lady, I just agreed to help her find her husband’s lost ring! Hell, I just helped her up from the cold street, and now you’re blaming me for being a leech? What’s wrong with you?” he demanded.
“That ring has been lost for years, idiot,” she retorted. “Go. Now.”
Jack was a bit disheartened when he heard that, but at least the System gave him an idea of where to start his search. Besides, this Lost & Found quest probably wouldn’t have existed if she’d just misplaced the ring a few minutes ago, much less have the ‘hard’ difficulty slapped onto it.
“I’m going to get that ring back for her,” he said resolutely. “And why’d you call me poison?”
She tossed one of her brown locs behind her pale shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Hope is poison.”
The words were spoken with such adamantine confidence that Jack struggled to know how to respond. After a few moments, he decided to focus on what he always did:
What he could do.
“I’m going to get it back. You’ll see. And I’m not going to ask for a damn thing. Some people actually like to help.” Jack walked past the woman and didn’t turn back when she huffed and mumbled something under her breath.
He’d prove her wrong.
Now, it was time to return to his favorite part of the city: the Titanhold slums.
