“I want to make one thing abundantly clear, Jack Thatcher,” Yelena seethed. “You are trouble. You are everything that’s wrong with this world. You are selfish, dishonest, and cause trouble where it isn’t welcome. I stopped those insufferable worms from their disgusting deed because they crossed a line. More importantly, they are under my direct jurisdiction as a Captain in the holy order of Red Knights.”
She dug her forearm into his chest with enough force to make escape impossible. “But that is the ONLY reason I intervened. You are not worth saving, Jack Thatcher. If I see that you are about to perish because of your own stupidity, I will sit back and watch, grateful that at least we’ll be rid of one more dishonorable man.”
“What is your problem with me?” Jack demanded. “I just did your job, you ungrateful woman. I just saved that girl from a horrible fate, but instead of thanking me, you berate and belittle me?! What, does punishing me make you feel strong?”
“I would’ve dealt with them,” Yelena retorted, but Jack caught the slight tremor in her voice.
“You wouldn’t have known to come if they hadn’t made such a scene. A scene, I might add, that wouldn’t have happened unless I stepped in. Admit it. You never would’ve known that Lucy girl’s fate until it was too late. They were going to do it in broad daylight. That’s the order you keep. Your laws let vermin like Jeremy and the others run rampant, while you stomp out the good until they are too afraid, or too dead, to stand up for what’s right.” Jack met her gaze, his own fury at this turn of events matching her own.
“Get out of my sight,” Yelena whispered and dropped her hold on him. “You know nothing of what’s really going on in this city.”
Jack stepped past her and straightened the pitiful remains of his blue tunic. “That’s just a pretty excuse for turning a blind eye to what’s right, Stark. Your world is corrupt. I’d rather die than defend something so riddled with rot. If doing the right thing kills me next time, don’t get involved. For all I know, you’ll join them.”
His words appeared to crush something inside the redheaded captain, but he couldn’t force himself to care. He’d just saved a woman---a citizen of this town, Yelena was allegedly sworn to protect---and the first thing she did wasn’t to go check on her, but to threaten him. It was despicable, and he hated every bit of it.
Screw this world, he thought. If this is what they value, I don’t care that it opposes me. I oppose it.
When Jack left, Yelena did not stop him. His knuckles hurt, but the worst of his pain was slowly healing with his combined Constitution and Phoenix Blood. A thought struck him as he maneuvered down the street, and he huffed in realization.
I can overclock specific stats. What would happen if I overclock Constitution for a few moments? Would it heal me up?
It felt so obvious when he thought about it, so he reached into himself until he felt that strange proprioceptive connection with his attributes. He pulled on Constitution and immediately felt all of his metabolic processes accelerate. He took in a deep breath as he felt his blood speed through his veins and arteries. Sure enough, his body began to heal more quickly.
I think my class skill for Phoenix Blood isn’t just a fancy title. I think it changed, at least in part, the actual makeup of my blood.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about that---having the System change something about him as fundamental as his own blood. Still, at the end of the day, if it meant he survived this horrible place, he would take all the help he could get.
As he walked, he continued to perform short bursts of his Constitution until he felt like his body was back at a manageable spot. He had to stop prematurely, however, as his stomach began to rumble.
Right, he thought sheepishly, grabbing at his gut. I just accelerated my body’s natural processes. Sure, I healed faster, but sweet Lord, am I hungry.
He knew he had coins from his sidequest with Felix, but feared his ignorance of the exchange rate between all the different types of currency. Hell, he didn’t even know how many currency types there were!
But I’ll pass out if I don’t eat anything, he concluded.
Jack pulled up the quest reward notification.
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST REWARDS ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? 10 Silver Coins ║
║ ║
║ ? 4,000 EXP ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
[Congratulations! You have completed the sidequest: It’s Just a Pond. Intrinsic rewards dispensed. Extrinsic rewards on standby. Please confirm for dispensation.]
Jack mentally confirmed his choice, and there was a flash of light in front of him. He cursed as 10 silver coins all fell to the cobblestones, clinking and rolling off in every direction. He scrambled to catch them, groaning in pain as he forced his body to stretch and twist so soon after his recent fight.
When he trapped the final runaway coin, he stood up and stretched out his lower back. As he did, he gauged to see if he’d acquired any onlookers.
It’d be just my luck to beat up a bunch of bad guys only to get mugged because I dropped all my hard-earned coins.
So far as he could tell, no one had noticed. He slid into a narrow divide between two homes a few yards away from a busier street and looked at his recent gains. The ten pieces of silver were all stamped with an ornate crown on one side, and the distinct silhouette of Steward’s strange throne on the other. It unsettled him to see that rotting throne posed so majestically on the currency, but he let the complex emotions it elicited go. Right then, he had other things to focus on than getting back at the bastard who brought him here.
His stomach growled again, and he felt lightheaded.
“Right. Food first, then notifications,” he promised himself.
Jack looked around for a convenient spot to put his coins, but all he had was the black pouch. Shrugging, he opened it to put the silver coins inside. The moment he did, a wave of dread spread through his body, and he nearly dropped his coins and the pouch.
There was something undeniably wrong about what lay inside. At a glance, he could see that about ten bone-white marbles lay in the black pouch, each with a single rune burned into its surface. They practically oozed magic, though Jack couldn’t say what kind it was. But what he could tell was that these were ridiculously powerful.
Hesitantly, he Inspected the black pouch and its bone marbles.
[Black Pouch of Emberbone]
[Quality: Unknown]
[Description: Ten bones taken from eldritch horrors, dead gods, and a single dragon, these marbles were once a gift to the infamous King Emberbone. Their purpose remains a mystery, but it is rumored that those who hold a specific bone might be able to tap into an echo of the powerful creature from whence it came.]
“Quality… unknown?!” Jack whispered in disbelief.
He instinctively glanced around, some irrational part of him assuming that others could read the same description he was. No one did.
He glanced down at the pouch, and he instantly wanted to snatch a few of the marbles for himself. They were simply too powerful not to take at least one. But the moment his hand started to reach inside the pouch, he remembered Jeremy and the other nobles.
They took whatever they wanted, thinking they earned or owned it. That’s probably how Jeremy got these in the first place.
Just the idea of behaving like that bastard halted Jack’s hand. Gritting his teeth, he put nine of his silver into the pouch and cinched it shut.
“How you win matters, Jack,” he told himself, even as the other part of him died a bit inside at not taking his ‘percent’ of the spoils.
Feeling both lighter and heavier all at once, he exited the thin alley and entered the bustling street. It was nearing evening, and everyone appeared to be out to either dine or head home from a day of working. He easily found a vendor selling some sort of grilled meat stuffed inside a warmed bun. It was generously drizzled with a white sauce that pleasantly tasted like something between mayonnaise and a creamy alfredo sauce. It balanced the sharp spices of the meat perfectly.
“Here you go,” Jack said tentatively, handing the barrel-chested man his silver.
The man’s eyes widened, but he easily palmed the large coin and brushed his hands nervously on his own apron.
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“Can I get two more to-go?” Jack asked.
“Of course, milord!” the man said with a thick accent.
The cook quickly made two more of the delicious sandwiches and wrapped them in some sort of parchment paper. Jack had briefly fretted that this world didn’t have the concept of a fast food order, but he was clearly worrying over nothing. The man handed him the two wrapped meals and seventeen copper coins. He delicately placed his new coins into the cramped black pouch and went on his way, eating his sandwich while clutching the other two in his hand.
Jack walked southward to return to Tuck. He passed a few restaurants along the way, and noticed that several tables were sharing an emberdraw together. It was fascinating, and even a bit relieving, to know that the practice wasn’t just something Olric did. The spiced aromas of the caffeinated tea, combined with his well-deserved meal, made his tired muscles relax.
Smiling softly, he pulled up his notifications. There were a lot.
[Congratulations! You have completed the skill quest: The Way of the Pugilist. Intrinsic rewards dispensed.]
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Pugilism, has leveled up!]
[Pugilism: Level 10?14. Rank: Apprentice]
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Phoenix Blood, has leveled up!]
[Phoenix Blood,: Level 1?10. Rank: Novice]
[New skill quest unlocked: The Fire Within]
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST OBJECTIVES ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? Survive a deadly encounter with a ║
║ poison or toxin [1/1] ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST REWARDS ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? Rank up skill to Apprentice ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
[Congratulations! You have completed the skill quest: The Fire Within. Intrinsic rewards dispensed.]
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Phoenix Blood, has leveled up!]
[Phoenix Blood,: Level 10?13. Rank: Novice]
Jack’s eyes widened at the windfall of skill upgrades, and he was even more pleased at the fact that he didn’t have to seek out some deadly toxin just to level up his passive healing skill. But while those were amazing, they were not what stopped Jack in his tracks.
He read the next notification once. Twice. Three times. He could barely believe it, and yet there it was. Maybe this world was less messed up than he assumed, if this sort of reward existed.
[Congratulations! You have received a new title: Underdog]
[Title Effects:]
- [+50% damage against all enemies when fighting alone]
If that had been it, Jack would’ve been over the moon. But it wasn’t.
[Congratulations! Your title, Underdog, has evolved into: The One Who Stands Against.]
[Title Effects:]
- [+50% damage against all enemies when fighting alone]
- [+10% to all stats when fighting alone]
- [+5% increase to both buffs when fighting an enemy five levels or higher than your own]
It was an insanely powerful title before, but now, with its evolution, it was leagues better.
“Just how did I unlock this title, much less evolve it?” he wondered aloud.
His only other title made sense, as it was from his role as the Banisher. But this one…
Could it be that I just needed to fight a certain number of times in unideal circumstances, or is it something more? Olric mentioned that the System waited until you wanted to help before giving out sidequests, so maybe it has something to do with intent. Maybe the reason I didn’t get it during the kraken fight, or even my fights with the orcs, was because I would’ve fought then anyway.
He mentally reviewed his latest battle.
I didn’t have to do that. It wasn’t required for my sidequest. But I did it because it was the right thing.
This brought up all sorts of issues in Jack’s mind. If this was what the System valued, why wasn’t more of Aethros’s culture reflected in that? But then he remembered his own world.
We value altruism too, even if we aren’t rewarded for it like this. Maybe they just don’t know?
That felt unlikely, but then another, more somber, thought occurred to him.
What if they know about it, and either manufacture circumstances so as to get it, or simply can’t qualify for it?
Either option felt horrible, but Jack had to admit that, regardless of how he achieved both the original title and its evolved variant, he was grateful for the boost. It was going to make his imminent dive into the shroud all the more possible.
“First, complete this sidequest, get the EXP to reach level 11, then begin spamming Soul Fusion. Once I get enough power, I’ll begin my exploration of the shroud and level up some more,” he mumbled to himself between bites of his sandwich.
His plan in place and meal finished, he made his way to the slums. It was easier than ever to get over the ‘wall’, and he made quick work of backtracking to the spot where he said he’d meet Tuck. The daylight was fading fast, and it made what little warmth that suffused this abandoned section of the world dissipate rapidly. The two sandwiches in his grip were cooling noticeably, and he half-wondered if he could use his legendary class’s affinity with fire to warm them up.
I bet Steward would spit blood if he knew I was using a legendary class to microwave some sandwiches.
“You came!” a young boy’s voice squealed, and Jack felt a thin form collide into him.
Startled, he looked to see Pip hugging him around the waist, his tiny kitten trailing behind him with her tail flapping proudly in the air.
“I did, yeah,” Jack said with a laugh. He pulled Pip away and knelt down. “Here. Like I promised. Some small gifts for you and your little friend over there.”
“Turnip,” Pip said with a puff of his chest. “Her name is Turnip.”
“Right, Turnip. Well, these should tide you both over for a bit.” Jack handed the boy the two sandwiches.
One might’ve thought Jack had just handed Pip the keys to the universe by the way his face lit up and his eyes watered with tears. The boy and his kitten rushed to the side of a wall, and Pip helped open the parchment so that the cat could get at the meat inside. He ate with surprising care, savoring each bite and morsel with more patience than even Jack had demonstrated when he ate his own.
“Well, color me red and call me a bastard, you actually did it,” Tuck’s nasally voice announced from the opposite side of the dead-end.
Jack turned his attention away from Pip and Turnip. He rose up and met Tuck’s cocked chin with an even gaze. Beside the large boy, all of his Bone Rats sneered and otherwise posed as bigger than they actually were.
Compared to the horrible young men he’d just fought, the difference between them and the Bone Rats couldn’t have been more obvious. These were just kids, desperate to be tough enough to be left alone, whereas Jeremy and his goons were cruel and vicious for the dark pleasure of it all.
Jack knew then that he’d made the right call. Tuck was no saint, but neither was he like the noblemen’s sons.
“I got it, all right, but I need something from you,” Jack said.
“What?! You trying to swindle me out of our deal?! I knew it! I–” Tuck started, but Jack raised a hand to stop his tirade.
“I don’t have a coin pouch, or purse, or whatever you want to call them. I don’t need anything fancy, but just something that’ll hold them to my belt,” Jack said.
Tuck raised an eyebrow and folded his hands over his chest. “Well, I’ll be damned. You snatched some of Vaskir’s gold, did you?”
“What?” Jack stammered. “No, I just had some on me, but I don’t have a purse for it. Just give an extra one you have, along with the ring, and we’ll call it a day.”
“Sure, sure. The coins are yours. Right,” Tuck answered knowingly. “I knew I liked you, clean boy. Fine. Mudspit, hand me that pouch you always got that’s empty.”
“But Tuck–” a pale boy with a patchy jacket started, but Tuck cut him off.
“But nothing! We all know you wear that thing to make ya look all sophisticated like some noble’s rotten servant. Just take it off and hand it over.”
Glumly, the boy did. Tuck took it, then procured the jeweled ring from his finger. There was a small flash of light as its power returned to the tiny gemstone, and Tuck wavered slightly on his feet.
“You first,” Tuck said.
Jack considered his options. He knew he could take all these kids again, but would really prefer not to. After another moment, he took out the black pouch and poured out all of his coins, careful not to remove any of the ten bones inside.
“Here,” Jack replied, tossing the closed pouch to the gang leader.
He caught it easily and threw the other pouch back to Jack. To Jack’s relief, the ring was inside, and he quickly put his remaining silver and copper inside. With a few quick ties, it was safely secured to his belt.
Jack looked back up to see Tuck frozen in place.
“What? What is it? All ten should be there, right?” Jack insisted.
“Yeah,” Tuck said in a whisper.
It was so unlike the boy that Jack’s next words died on his tongue. The calloused Bone Rat leader sounded… relieved? No, it was more than that. He was shocked.
“You… gave them back.” Tuck stammered.
“Yeah, that was the deal, right?” Jack answered.
“Yeah,” Tuck replied, glancing up at Jack. His eyes were red and puffy. He wiped at them angrily and sniffed. “Boys, let’s go. Pip and his cat are off limits now. Anyone who pinches from them will answer to me. Is that understood?”
“Sure, Tuck!” said a few of the boys, though others grumbled something about cat soup.
The Bone Rats started to disperse, but Tuck lingered behind, his back turned to Jack. He honestly wasn’t sure what came over the boy, but decided speaking up right then wasn’t the right move. He was starting to consider that Tuck might re-neg on their deal, possibly even weaponizing the strange marbles in some way, but Tuck spoke up.
“No one would’ve given them back,” the boy said, his back still turned.
Jack was briefly stunned by the boy’s admission. When he didn’t continue, Jack replied, “Well, you’re wrong. I did.”
Tuck turned to face him, something between anger and grief marring his features.
“I know!” he screamed. “That’s just it. No one in their right mind would’ve given a slum bastard like me something like this. I know you Inspected them. You knew there was supposed to be ten. But you gave them all back. I triple-checked. They’re all the real deal. Why?!”
Tuck took a step forward, desperation overriding the other emotions glistening in his gaze.
“I…” Jack was about to say that it was the right thing to do, but he heard how hollow those words would’ve sounded even before he said them. “I didn’t want to be like them. They took from you. I didn’t want to be like that.”
The answer seemed to strike Tuck to his core.
“You didn’t…” No more words came from the angry child, and he started to walk away.
Before he left the loose rectangle of the dead-end, he tossed something over to Jack.
“For treating me like I mattered,” Tuck whispered just before he disappeared behind a corner.
A white sphere arced through the air, and Jack caught it. Inside his palm was one of the ten marbles. He couldn’t tell which of the creatures it had come from, but he could immediately gauge the power stored inside this item. The black rune etched onto its surface reminded Jack of the Nordic runes from back on Earth, but it seemed older than that somehow.
“Thanks, Tuck,” Jack replied softly, pocketing the marble into his new pouch.
For the second time that day, Jack was forced to reconsider his opinion of this world. Maybe not everything about it was unredeemable after all.