Chapter 73. A Call for Help

'Oh? What about the Fast Slash?'

'A so-so skill. Not much use, actually, in my opinion. A leveled-up Power Strike is still better. The Body Double, on the other hand, is very useful. It's not a pure offensive or defensive skill, but it can really make a difference when used correctly. As for the skill book, you can get them another way. Also, since you have that Containers of Souls, you don't really need to rely on skill books anyway. It's better to use the adventurer points for other items.'

Jack nodded. He thanked the lady at the counter and then left the Adventurers Association.

He spent the rest of the day doing his quest.

For this quest, the description suggested three people at level 10. Jack didn't want to share the rewards, and, besides, he figured that since he had two classes and both were higher than level 10, he should be able to solo it, no problem.

He did manage to complete it, but not as smoothly as he had imagined he could.

During the escort, he and the merchant were ambushed in the slum by four thugs. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a piece of cake for Jack to take care of those four thugs. But he had to keep the merchant safe as well, which severely limited his offensive options.  The thugs came at them from four directions and he couldn't be in four places at the same time. So he had to run back and forth dealing with whichever thug got closest in order to keep them away from the merchant.

He did finally manage to kill all four thugs.  The merchant suffered a good deal of damage, though. He lost more than half of his HP during the altercation and he wasn't at all happy about it. He berated Jack the entire rest of the way until they reached their destination and the mission was completed. Jack still received the same amount of experience and adventurer points as indicated when he took on the quest, but the monetary reward was halved because of the unsatisfied customer.

Since he had killed four thugs, he inspected the Container of Souls in his bag. There were four souls accumulated. Each thug gave him one soul. That meant he had to kill 1000 times just to get one basic skill point. That sounded like a lot of work.

Peniel, who sensed his thought, told him, "Higher grade enemies will give you more souls each. Those four thugs were only low-level common humans, it is reasonable to only get the lowest soul point from them."

With that explanation, Jack felt better. He should be able to collect souls faster once he got stronger and challenged higher grade or higher-level opponents.

He picked out another quest the next day. This time it was a simple delivery quest, offering 5 adventurer points. He completed it in half a day. He was on his way back to Adventurers Association to cash in the quest when he received a message from Bowler.

"Brother! Where are you? Flame is in trouble. We are in the Slum district. Please come if possible!"

After reading the message, Jack opened up the Map system. He was in the slum as well, but he did not see any green dots on his map. The map covered around a four kilometer square, while the slum district was around six times that size. Bowler and Flame must be in another part of the slum, so Jack sent a message to Bowler.

"I am in the slum district as well. Where are you exactly?"

Not long after, he received a reply, "Thank God! We are in the Western part of the district. Flame is in a bar called Thug's Nest, while I am in a small alleyway facing the front door of the bar. The bar is being surrounded by those asses from Weary Wolf gang. Come find me in the alleyway, I'll explain everything."

That annoying gang again! Jack clenched his fist. He needed to teach them a lesson for messing with him and his friends again and again.

"Ask him to send you his coordinates, he should be able to see the option under the map window," Peniel informed Jack.

We can do that? Jack thought and looked at his Map interface. There was indeed an option at the bottom of the screen to send coordinates. He immediately relayed the instruction to Bowler. Not long after, he received the coordinates.

He then sent Bowler a message, "All right, I'm on my way."

'Those assholes, aren't they afraid of the penalty for assaulting another player inside the city?'

"I don't think your friends have been assaulted yet. If they have, wouldn't it be too late by the time you arrived?" Peniel responded to his thought.

"Oh? Then what are they doing to Bowler and Flame?" Jack asked her.

"I have my guess, but it's better if you find out about the situation first. The noisy guy said he would explain once you arrive, didn't he?"

''You're right. Okay, let's head over there.'

Jack set a quick pace, as the place Bowler described was pretty far away. He was close to the outer city wall before green dots appeared at the edge of his Map. Once he found the dots, it was much easier. He immediately headed in their direction.

As Jack came near, he saw many people standing around a building. From his radar he saw those people as blue dots, meaning they are outworlders like him, not native NPCs.

'That must be the bar called Thug's Nest.'

He spotted two people he recognized: Boulder and Flowing Fox.

'So, she really came back to life after dying in the Tutorial period,' Jack thought. 'Good to know.'

Jack used his God-eye monocle to scan her; she was level one. As Honuren had said, those who died in the Tutorial period lost all their levels upon coming back to life. And it seemed that she had not made any effort to recover her level these past three days. She was yelling towards the bar. Jack couldn't make out what she was saying as he was still a distance away.

Jack saw a green dot in an alleyway that was facing the bar's front entrance and walked there. The players that were surrounding the bar were focused on the building, so they didn't notice him walking to the nearby alleyway. When he got near, he heard a low whistle.

He looked in that direction and saw Bowler waving for him to come over. He was hiding behind a house while he peeked at the group surrounding the bar. When Jack came near, Bowler pulled him to the back of the alley to keep the Weary Wolf people from noticing them.

"Flame is inside?" Jack asked him.

Bowler nodded with an anxious expression.

"What happened exactly?" Jack asked him again.

"We went on a quest together," Bowler answered. "After we completed our objective, we stopped at that bar which we saw during our quest. It sells some beverages that actually taste quite good. Flame was planning to spend more time in the bar while I decided to go back to the Association to submit our quest. The gang appeared just as I was leaving. They tried to block me, but I was already in an open area, so I ran from them. They didn't dare to launch an attack on me so they didn't follow.  But they know Flame is still inside so they've targeted her instead."

"So what are they doing exactly?" Jack asked as he peeked out at the gang, "Have they just been standing there all this time?"

"They are waiting for Flame to lose her patience," Bowler replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I talked to a friend in the White Scarfs who I'm still in contact with. He told me that they had researched about the city's fighting penalty. Apparently, if you attack someone, you will be marked with a criminal imprint. If such a person bumps into a city guard, they will be captured and put into prison for ten days. But there is actually a way to attack without the risk of being marked."

"How?"

"By luring your enemy to attack first. In this way, your actions are considered self-defense and are not subject to the penalty," Bowler said.

Jack remembered Peniel had mentioned this as well. He started to get the picture.

"So they've surrounded the bar to keep Flame from leaving, with Fox throwing insults in the middle, and they're just waiting for Flame to get fed up and attack them. That's when they will take action?"

Bowler nodded, "that's my guess. And from the look of it, it might just work. I've been sending messages to Flame asking her to stay cool, but from her last reply, she seems to be close to snapping point."

Jack thought about the situation. If it was like this, there was nothing he could do either. He could not go and attack them to allow Flame to break free. They would just get what they wanted that way as well; he would get a criminal imprint and they'd get to gang up on him in the bargain. Even if he could defeat them all, he would lose his freedom to go around the city, as he would be captured the first time he met a guard.

'So it is as I had guessed,' he suddenly heard Peniel's voice.