Before Jack could move out of the dead-end where he fought the Bone Rats, the system sent him a notification.

  [Congratulations! You have completed the sidequest: The Lost Ring - Part 1. Intrinsic rewards dispensed.]

  Immediately afterward, a second notification popped up, replacing the first.

  ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗

  ║ THE LOST RING - PART 2 ║

  ╠══════════════════════════════════════╣

  ║ QUEST OBJECTIVES ║

  ╠══════════════════════════════════════╣

  ║ ║

  ║ ? Locate Jeremy Vaskir. [0/1] ║

  ║ ║

  ║ ? Acquire the black pouch of ║

  ║ enchanted bone marbles. [0/1] ║

  ║ ║

  ║ ? Return the pouch to Tuck, ║

  ║ leader of the Bone Rats. [0/1] ║

  ║ ║

  ║ Quest Difficulty: Hard ║

  ║ ║

  ╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

  ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗

  ║ QUEST REWARDS ║

  ╠══════════════════════════════════════╣

  ║ ║

  ║ ? 3,500 EXP ║

  ║ ║

  ╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

  “Yes!” Jack exclaimed.

  This sidequest was a chain quest! And as these two notifications confirmed, that meant that he would be getting additional EXP with each phase he completed.

  I might be able to get enough for level 11 with just this one sidequest! Jack realized.

  Sure, it was still labeled with the ‘hard’ difficulty, and finding and beating up the Bone Rats had been no joke. But he could do it. He knew that now. If all went well, he’d be level 11 by the end of today.

  So elated was Jack that he nearly missed the exact details of this next part of The Lost Ring sidequest.

  “Oh… Oh, no. That Jeremy,” Jack mumbled, his eyes still alight with the new quest notification.

  He needed to find Jeremy Vaskir—the same one who’d humiliated and beaten up étain. The same one who was the mayor’s firstborn heir and was tied to the Red Knights as an Initiate… Whatever that meant. Jack would need to find him and force him to give back Tuck’s enchanted pouch.

  “What is happening with my life?” Jack asked the wind.

  It didn’t answer.

  Grumbling, Jack started to make his way back toward Thistlebrush proper. Something about this whole situation was off, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. His mind was laden with this puzzle as he retraced his steps. He passed the graffiti and dozens of half-dead humans huddling in the shadows.

  Why? He kept asking himself. Why was Jeremy—a noble’s son—in the Titanhold Slums?

  Something jagged and sharp pressed against Jack’s throat, and he stopped moving just in time to avoid self-decapitation. Jack looked up sharply, even as he felt warm blood begin to snake down his neck. Mere inches away was Greta, holding one of her glass daggers to Jack’s throat. She did not look happy to see him.

  “You trying to play both sides, ey, Jack? Is that what this is? You come over to Rigs’ territory, looking to get some dreamsnatcher? You hid it well, boy. I didn’t peg you as a dreamer.” She spat the last word as if it were poison.

  Jack slowly raised his hands. “Look, I had no idea this was Rigs’ territory–”

  “Bullshit. Everyone knows this is where the dreamer dens are,” Greta retorted quickly.

  Her blade bit deeper into his neck. That feeling of offness spiked in the back of his mind, and Jack’s eyes narrowed.

  He Inspected her.

  [Greta Tundle - Level 14]

  [Description: Myrtle’s right-hand general, now forced to take on a role she always feared. She is doing her best to keep Myrtle’s dream alive, but knows that she is failing.]

  Okay, weirdly insightful. Just what is this skill? Jack wondered, but forced himself back to the present situation. Right. I have a knife to my throat. This really should hurt more.

  If he had to guess, his Phoenix Blood passive skill was already working wonders beneath his skin, healing the worst of the injury even as it was being inflicted. Now that he was paying attention, actually, he could almost feel a slight bubbling in the blood dripping down his neck.

  That won’t matter much if she lobs my head off. I need to de-escalate. How?

  His mind whirred, and he tapped into his Perception stat. Instantly, the world slowed as his cognition ramped up. It wasn’t temporal manipulation, or anything so cosmic. It was simply that his mind could process information much faster. That said, he could feel that his reserves of Perception would run out soon, nor did it make him a genius.

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  But what it did do was give him time to think.

  She wants to keep Myrtle’s dream alive.

  She’s in a war with Rigs over Titanhold.

  Yelena mentioned something about how the slums were ready to explode. That means the conflict has only worsened.

  Then Jack thought of something new. Something he could use. He released his hold on his Perception pool and blinked once as the world returned to its normal speed.

  “Why are you here, Greta?” Jack asked, surprisingly calm even as his blood dripped onto the ground.

  Surprise flitted across her expression. “Why–No, I’m here with my knife in your throat because you messed up. You’re playing both sides like the bonepicking rat you are. It’s time you paid for your–”

  “No,” Jack said simply. “If you were hunting for me, you wouldn’t have waited this long. It’s not like I was exactly hiding my position well. No, you were here for something else.”

  An idea struck him.

  “You’re here for Rigs. What, did you want to strike a deal?” he asked.

  Something dark blanketed her expression, and she readjusted her grip on the knife.

  “You’re here to kill him, aren’t you?”

  It was less of a question and more of an observation.

  “So what if I am?” Greta said with a huff.

  One of her dirty blonde strands of hair fell out of her maroon bandanna. Irritated, she tucked it behind an ear with her free hand.

  Jack smiled placatingly. “I’m not going to stop you. Greta, believe it or not, I’m not here for the world quest, your turf war, or anything even closely related to it. I’m here to help an old woman recover a ring she lost. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but it’s the truth. I have a sidequest and everything.”

  Greta narrowed her eyes. “You’re right. That sounds like a half-assed excuse to get out from beneath my blade. Besides, why would a runt like you help some random old lady? And what’s to stop you from pocketing this ring the moment you get it?”

  Jack realized telling the truth—that he felt bad for Guntila—wouldn’t fly in this conversation. So he decided to tell another truth.

  “EXP,” he said quickly. “The sidequest is pretty decent. It’s a good way to gain a level without heading into the shroud with nothing but my fists and good intentions, you know?”

  Greta chuffed, but nodded.

  “I’m on your side. Or, at least, I’m on Myrtle’s side. I owe her that.” Jack swallowed.

  He was starting to feel the burn of exposed flesh and knew his passive skill was getting an absolute workout right now.

  “I haven’t forgotten our deal, Greta. Let me get a little stronger, then I’ll help you… deal with Rigs. And if I try anything, we’ve already established you can sneak up on me without an issue,” Jack finished.

  Greta took her time weighing her options. He was just about to take his chances and shove the knife out of his neck when she moved. With a rapid flick of her wrist, she pulled her dagger away, spun it free of his blood, and then sheathed it behind her back.

  “Fine. I don’t like it, but right now, I have more important things to do than weed out whose side you’re on.” Greta bit her lower lip, and Jack was struck by just how young she was. Or, at the very least, how close in age they truly were. “I’m going to hold you to your word, you know. Next time I see you, you’d better be ready. Rigs needs to die.”

  She took a single step closer, her eyes burning with zeal. “And if you even think about getting in my way, I will cut you down so quickly that you’ll have plenty of time to consider your failures as your head slips from that pretty neck of yours.”

  Greta raised a hand, and a thin wire shot from inside her linen wrappings. It hissed through the air for a moment, then went taut. Greta’s blonde hair billowed in the wind as she was suddenly yanked skyward. Jack watched her go and rubbed his neck while the ninja-like woman disappeared over one of the many nearby rooftops.

  “That’s just not fair. She has a freaking grappling hook, and all I have are sparky fists,” Jack mumbled.

  Beneath his fingers, the thin wound she’d inflicted was already disappearing.

  [Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Phoenix Blood, has leveled up!]

  [Phoenix Blood: Level 0?1. Rank: Novice]

  “Nice,” Jack commented.

  With a roll of his freshly healed neck, he sighed and picked up his pace, this time careful to watch his surroundings. He made his way back to the wall of buildings separating the two parts of town. Tapping into his meager Dexterity, he ascended the side of an old cobbler’s shop and then dropped down to the other side without issue.

  “I’m getting rather good at sneaking through this town,” he noted with a small burst of satisfaction.

  Jack walked briskly through the afternoon winds, stepping into alleys or pretending to purchase items from bored vendors each time a patrol passed. Fortunately, none of them contained Derrick, Yelena, or Sathem. Still, with his recent run-in with Greta at the forefront of his mind, he knew he’d need to be more careful.

  In Greta’s case, she had stayed her blade because she still wanted something from him. Derrick or Sathem just wanted revenge. If he was caught by either one, he had no doubt in his mind that they would kill him, but would probably be rewarded for it.

  He was not safe in this world.

  Nowhere was safe for Jack Thatcher.

  But I’ll make myself safe once I get enough levels. I’ll make it so that they can’t touch me even if they try.

  Jack’s expression hardened into steel. He could do this. He could still fix this.

  With a set jaw, Jack moved through the city. He lacked a geographical location this time, but decided to start with the mayor’s house. He made his way into the northwest portion of Thistlebrush. It was getting to be mid-afternoon, and his stomach growled as he strode through vendors grilling meat, slicing up fresh fruits, or offering all manner of bread goods. The fresh meat was the hardest for Jack to pass up. It sizzled intoxicatingly with fat and was generously coated with some sort of spicy sauce.

  He moved on, shaking his head when the vendors offered him their wares.

  Still, it reminded him that he really needed to open up all of his quest rewards from his previous sidequests and world quests. He was pretty sure at least a few of them had money of some kind attached to them, but he really didn’t want to have to hoist all of that with him now. He didn’t have pockets, much less a money pouch that wouldn’t get stolen the first time he was in a dense crowd.

  Just another thing to fix when I’m done here. Jack slowed, a thought occurring to him. I wonder if this world has dimensional pouches? I haven’t seen anyone use them, so maybe they’re super expensive. He shrugged. Something to look into, I guess.

  Jack made his way to the mayor’s estate, which was as gaudy and guarded as he remembered. If he wasn’t sure it was Vaskir’s estate before, seeing several private security with a ‘V’ emblazoned on their leather chestplates certainly did the trick. At least, he thought it was a ‘V’. Now that he studied it, it looked like there were odd curves around the twin peaks of the letter. Plus, wasn’t his mind just translating all of the words and letters of Aethros into English? That meant that this could be an entirely different symbol here.

  Hell, I wonder if it’s like the Roman ‘V’ to the English ‘V’ sort of thing. They look the same, but one is a letter, and the other is a number.

  If that was the case, perhaps this ‘V’ looking symbol meant something else? Either way, Jack was fairly certain, given the quality and density of the security, that this was the mayor’s house. He decided to wait a block away in an alley’s entrance that faced the main gates.

  He waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Each hour that passed, Jack’s impatience grew in equal measure to his hunger. He paced the alley and even did some light shadow boxing to pass the time. It barely helped. Still, right as the sun was beginning to set above the western walls, his patience was rewarded.

  Out from the gates came a bundle of six young men, each wearing a crimson sash across their chests. They were all laughing and shoving each other. The tone of their little troupe was tense. Frenetic. Dangerous.

  Whatever they were up to, Jack decided it was not going to be good. Just to be sure, he Inspected the man in the center of the boisterous group.

  [Jeremy Vaskir - Level 9]

  The description was the same as before, and with a wave, Jack dismissed the information. He had his target.

  Shoving off from the wall on which he leaned, Jack left his brief refuge and started to follow the group of young men back into the city.

  It was time to hunt a noble.

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