Chapter 63. Clue about the Cult
"So, what can you tell me about the Cult of Phobos?" Jack asked.
"Are you from the Adventurers Association?" Amy replied with a question of her own.
"Yes," Jack answered.
"I didn't expect them to post a quest for this," Amy spoke to herself while she fell into thought.
She then realized she had murmured aloud and immediately apologized, "I'm sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you everything from the beginning.
"Originally, I went to the Adventurers Association in order to put up a request to look for my mother. She is the real owner of this bakery and is a skilled master baker. My skill doesn't hold a candle to hers. Anyway, she went missing when she made a delivery to one of our customers in the slum. I went there looking for her and found out that she was last seen around an area in the slum which is the private property of a group. After I went asking around, I was informed that this group had just recently settled in. They refer to themselves as the Cult of Phobos. I tried poking around further, but I began to think they noticed me and I got scared and left.
"I have a feeling that there have been people following me since I went to the slum, and there have been two occasions where I almost got into accidents. I'm afraid that those almost accidents weren't really accidents; I think they were warnings from the cult.
"So I went to the guards, but they think that my mother has just gone on a business trip as she often does. But she has not! She always tells me if she is going away. But the guards just didn't take my word seriously.
"So I went to the Adventurers Association, hoping to put up a quest to look for my mom, but I don't have enough coins for their rate! I did tell them about the cult though. I guess they are also interested in them if they put up a quest themselves.
"I have a request, sir! Since you are going to investigate them, would you mind also looking for my mom? I don't have anything to pay you with, except an offer of our bread and cake, but she is really important to me. Will you help me?"
Jack heard a system notification after Amy's words.
"You are offered a quest: Finding Amy's mother. Do you accept the quest?"
The girl did say that there was not much reward in this, but how could he reject the plea of this sweet young girl? Doing what a fine gentleman would do, he accepted her request.
"Oh, thank you very much, mister… I haven't actually caught your name, I'm sorry," she apologized with a red face.
"Storm Wind," Jack said. He then asked, "Where is this place you said your mother was last seen?"
"I will show you, open your map please."
"My map?" Jack was confused.
'Your Map system window,' Peniel interjected. 'Natives can choose to interface with your Map system if they want to point you in a direction.'
Jack then opened up his map as requested. He saw that most of the areas in the city were still filled with grey fog. Amy stood up and used her hand to shift the map. The view moved following her hand's movement. She stopped after a while and pointed.
"This is the area," she said. In the place where she pointed, the grey fog suddenly cleared up and revealed the layout of several houses.
'That was neat,' Jack thought.
"Mr. Storm Wind, thank you very much, sir!" Amy then said in excitement. "I have been confused as to what to do. You have been heaven-sent, sir. Please make yourself at home. Please try this bread; I made this on my own, not as good as my mom's though. I will be outside watching the store. If you need anything, just holler."
She then went out with a lively tiptoe. Jack watched her go; he would hate to disappoint this cheerful girl. He made a commitment to himself that he would try his best to find the girl's mother despite the low reward potential. He opened up his Quests window and took a look at this new quest.
*
Finding Amy's mother
Difficulty: C
Rewards: 2 silver coins, 3400 Experience points, 30% discount at Amy's shop
Go to the area in the slum indicated by Amy to find clues about Amy's mother's whereabouts
Time limit: 2 days
*
It was the same time limit as the Cult quest, so he thought they really might be connected. Which should be good; he could kill two birds with one stone. But why was the difficulty so much higher?
'Peniel, what level adventurer is usually required for a difficulty C quest? It doesn't give a recommendation on how many people are needed or what level.'
"Only Association quests show recommendations," Peniel answered as she materialized in front of him. It was actually a long time since he saw her in person. She had been hiding in her own separate dimension all this time.
"You are not afraid she will come back and see you?" Jack asked aloud.
"I'm not that strange to the native people. We seldom appear in front of them of course, but it's also not a big deal if we do… About your question of C difficulty; it usually requires you to be advanced class level 15 to 20."
"Oh… that's bad then," Jack said.
"Yes, and if this links to that mystery quest you took from the Association, it is safe to say that it is also a C difficulty quest in actuality."
Jack pondered this revelation.
"Maybe you should just cancel the quest with the Association and take another quest instead," Peniel suggested.
If it was just the Association quest, he would have done so. But after Amy's hopeful gaze as Jack promised to look for her mom, there was no way Jack would back out.
"No, we will proceed with both these quests," Jack said with resolution.
"Are you sure? It might be more than you can handle," Peniel warned.
"I had better prepare then," he said and took out the Transformation Box. He placed it on the table and took out the three staffs he had bought previously and the standard magic staff he had used since the beginning.
"So how do I use this thing?" He asked Peniel.
"Touch it, and activate it with your mind," Peniel answered.
Jack proceeded as instructed. The Box flared with dark grey light and its five sides opened up into one flat platform. A holographic image appeared above this platform. There was a box shaped image and a text message telling him to put the item to be transformed inside this box.
Jack took his original magic staff off the table and inserted it inside the box. Another three boxes appeared and the text changed; it now told him to insert normal staffs into each of these boxes. Jack put the remaining staffs into the available boxes. The text then changed again asking him if he was sure he wished to proceed with the transformation. Jack clicked accept.
The text disappeared and the four boxes rotated more and more rapidly. They finally collided with one another, resulting in a bright flash of impact. When the flash receded, Jack saw a lone staff floating above the platform. Text was floating above the staff saying that the transformation was successful. He grabbed the new staff and took it out of the box image. The platform immediately rearranged itself back into cube shape. Jack inspected his new magic staff.
*
Repeater Staff, level 5/25 (uncommon magic weapon)
Magical damage: 24
Range: 10 meter
Attack speed: 1
Energy: 50
Energy automatically refills when out of combat
*
The staff's ability was quite good, Jack figured. He would no longer have to worry about running out of ammo in between fights.
He then stored the Transformation Box and the staff and took out his Storm Breaker and the rare sword he had won in the bet with Grimclaw. He proceeded to feed the rare sword to Storm Breaker and chose the ability that increased damage when attacking.
*
Storm Breaker, level 12 (rare one-handed sword, bound weapon)
Physical damage: 64
Attack speed 3
cannot be destroyed
bound to Storm Wind
Overlimit: Release the weapon's hidden power that adds an additional 150% damage as chaos damage, increases weapon range by 2 feet, and decreases target's defense by 65%. Duration 85 seconds. Cooldown 8 hours
Dexterity +2
When user receives damage, damage on the next attack to the enemy who dealt the damage will be increased to 150%
*
Jack was surprised. Not only did the upgrade to Rare increase the weapon's damage and add an additional ability, it also increased the power of the already powerful Overlimit skill.