By the time Jack and Rydel came to after their night of celebrating, it was nearly noon the next day. Both were doing fine, not feeling too hungover. Rydel was the first to say anything. "Let's call Zariff and fill him in on all this. First, let's mention that fox of yours and then we'll get his opinion on the whole mine situation."
Jack nodded groggily and said, "Sure, sounds like a plan captain."
Just as Rydel pulled out his contact crystal, his stomach gurgled and growled at him. Without saying a word Rydel got up and bolted for the door. Not having any intention of stopping him, Jack understood that Rydel would feel better after clearing out his system.
He took advantage of this time to change his bandages and apply the new ointment. After that Jack opened up his notifications. His eyes blinked a few times as if they didn't believe what they saw. There were multiple new achievements and some of them were even completed.
[Register Bowser as a beast companion: completed]
[Lower public opinion of Royal Court: completed]
[Raise public opinion of Adventurers Association: completed]
[Beat Leodoro II to lv. 10: in progress]
[Unlock companion telepathy: in progress]
[Unlock companion bloodline: in progress]
[Unlock companion mirroring: in progress]
[Discover the goblin benefactor: in progress]
[Find Byron Balt: incomplete]
[Find any survivors: incomplete]
[Find the goblin city: incomplete]
[Destroy the goblin city: incomplete]
Jack was blown away when he saw how long his list of new achievements was and grew excited to see three had already been completed. He instantly claimed them, not hesitating at all.
[Register Bowser as a beast companion: claimed]
[Officially register Bowser as a beast companion with a mutual seal. Special reward: 20 skill points.]
[Lower public opinion of Royal Court: claimed]
[Lower public opinion of the Royal Court by means of rumors and gossip. Reward: 5 skill points]
[Raise public opinion of Adventurers Association: claimed]
[Raise public opinion of Adventurers Association by means of rumors and gossip. Reward: 5 skill points]
Now thirty skill points richer, Jack smiled as he read over the other achievements. Some were expected, like those about Leodoro II, who Jack assumed was the crown prince and those about finding the survivors and the goblin city.
The others stuck out to Jack for different reasons. Curious, he checked the other two incomplete achievements.
[Find Byron Balt: incomplete]
[Find Byron Balt, the son of the Balt Guild Leader. Reward: varies on the state you find him in and whether or not you can bring him out alive.]
[Destroy the goblin city: incomplete]
[Destroy the newly formed goblin city. Reward: EXP offered varies on the degree of destruction caused.]
Reading those deepened Jack's smile. He now recognized his new friend Jard Balt as the Balt Guild Leader, ensuring that he now had a powerful local ally. And with an achievement willing to award him EXP directly, how could Jack not get excited.
Those two achievements were mentally marked as some of the most important to the current Jack; he would make sure his plan would complete them to the best of his abilities.
Jack moved on to look over the three new achievements involving his beast companion. He was extremely interested after he noticed they involved the rumors Jard had mentioned about the mutual seal.
[Unlock companion telepathy: in progress]
[Advance companion telepathy to lv. 1. Reward: 5 skill points.]
[Unlock companion bloodline: in progress]
[Advance companion bloodline to lv. 1. Reward: 5 skill points.]
[Unlock companion mirroring: in progress]
[Advance companion mirroring to lv. 1. Reward: 5 skill points.]
Jack was now laughing hysterically, even though he didn't realize it. He couldn't contain his joy when he understood that his achievement system had given him a way to directly access the abilities he wanted the most.
But before he jumped into his skill list, he was startled by his last achievement in progress.
[Discover the goblin benefactor: in progress]
[Find out more about the goblin's recent rise in power and who was the one who caused it. Reward: 100 EXP, 10 skill points.]
Unsure of how he got such an achievement, Jack began to ponder what might've caused it to appear. All he could think of was the earlier conversation with Drad and Slivia. Jack questioned whether they had hidden anything important, almost certain that they had.
He didn't think for too long as he put the idea to the side and immediately opened up his skill list, checking out the first of his three new favorite skills.
[Companion telepathy: lv. 0]
[Communicate with your beast companion telepathically. Advance to lv. 1 to unlock. 0/10 skill points]
That smile instantly flipped when Jack noticed the price to advance the skill to the next level. Thanks to the other skills he advanced, Jack noticed that every level up would cost double the previous.
An example was how to level up his bow skill to lv. 1 it had cost his five skill points, but to advance it to lv. 2 and lv. 3 it would cost him ten and twenty skill points respectively. But to level up his companion telepathy to lv. 1, it would cost him the same price as any other lv. 2 skill.
From one perspective, this might cause some people to wait and level it up later. However, Jack understood that if it cost him twice as much to level up a skill, that skill must be worth twice as much as any regular skill.
He checked the other two companion skills and discovered that they followed the same trend. Somewhat reluctantly, Jack spent all of his newly earned thirty skill points on the three skills.
[Companion telepathy: lv. 1]
[Understand your companion's feelings and share basic communications. 0/20 skill points]
[Companion bloodline: lv. 1]
[Inherit the initial level of your companion's bloodline abilities. 0/20 skill points]
[Companion mirroring: lv. 1]
[Any skill, spell, or item that affects you can also affect your companion to a minor extent. 0/20 skill points]
Jack also jumped back to his achievement list and claimed the fifteen skill points from unlocking his companion abilities before he distributed them among his skill tree. In the end, he upgraded his stealth to lv. 2 and advanced his health regeneration to lv. 1, the skill he had picked up thanks to the ointments he had been applying for the past few days.
Before he closed out of his hero menu, Jack checked his stats. Shocked, Jack saw that he was already lv. 3 and was halfway to lv. 4. Confused about the sudden advancement, he looked at the tossing and turning Bowser.
Jack quickly opened up Bowser's stats, now available to him after forming the mutual seal. There he found his answer; Bowser was already halfway to lv. 3. Witnessing this firsthand, Jack started to comprehend the advantage of having a mutual seal.
If they were sharing EXP, wouldn't they both level up at a pace that no one else could match? This would help Jack with his leveling problems.
After seeing that, Jack determined in his mind that the next achievement he completed must be to discover the goblin benefactor. Not only would it give him more skill points, but it offered an instant 100 EXP.
Advancing in levels was similar to advancing skills, every level would need twice as much EXP as the previous level. Lv. 1 required 25 EXP, making lv. 2 and lv. 3 cost 50 EXP and 100 EXP each.
Jack and Bowser would need 200 EXP to reach lv. 4, but they were already halfway there with 100 EXP. Discovering the mysterious benefactor would instantly raise both Jack and Bowser to lv. 4, why wouldn't he want that before entering the unusually dangerous azure mine?
Waiting for Rydel to return, Jack did his best to plan out what skills he would upgrade next and what order he would chase his achievements.
Eventually, Rydel returned and whipped out his contact crystal, but Jack stopped him from contacting Zariff and said, "Wait, there's more to this story then we thought. The goblins have a secret benefactor and those two clerics should know something about it."
"How do you know that?" asked Rydel, a little apprehensive to believe such a statement.
"The same way I found out about the threat to Zariff's life. You know I was right then, and you know I'm right this time too," stated Jack. "We need to talk with those two again, after that we'll better understand the situation, making sure that we can respond to the situation the best we can."
"Hmm, I guess it's worth a shot. Let's hurry up and find them," said Rydel.
Both of them hurried to ready themselves and locked their bedroom door after exiting. The sleepy Bowser was still yawning as he laid on Jack's shoulder.
Trom was standing by the stairway as if he had been waiting for them. Trom said, "If you're looking for those two, they just checked out this morning."
Startled, Jack asked, "Got any idea where they went?"
"I'm not sure, but I think some of the staff overheard a few things," answered Trom, as Jack tossed the man a gold coin. "Their morning server heard them discussing something about leaving town and fleeing into the forest. I'm guessing they'll try to hide out for a while. They headed for the nearby mountains, just east of the azure mine."
"Thanks, Trom," said Jack as the two hunters bowed and took their leave. Trom smiled as he stashed his latest earnings.
"Kid, it seems like you were right. Though they didn't share the full truth, they wouldn't go so far as to hide away in the mountains because of us. There's got to be something big behind all this," guessed Rydel.
Jack nodded and sighed, "They shouldn't have hidden anything; if they needed protection, who better than the association."
"There's only one organization here that could scare them that much," said Rydel. "I think you can already guess it."
Not too surprised, Jack arrived at the same conclusion.