Chapter 64 - 64. Finding The Cult
With these two upgrades, he had increased his fighting prowess, but he still did not feel it was enough. He then took out his Apprentice Hammer and Mobile Anvil. He used all of his available iron ores to upgrade his new magic staff all the way to level 12, making it the same level as his sword.
He was lucky that there was no fail upgrade on all attempts. Starting from level 8 upwards there was a probability of failure. When his staff was level 11 upgrade towards 12, the possibility to succeed was 80%. Maybe his luck stat did help him on all four attempts.
Repeater Staff, level 12/25 (uncommon magic weapon)
Magical damage: 38
Range: 10 meters
Attack speed: 1
Energy: 50
Energy automatically refills when out of combat
"Confident enough now?" Peniel asked him.
"It will have to do," Jack answered as he stored his Hammer and Anvil. "I don't have available resources to upgrade anymore. However…"
He took out his Cooking Stove. "Don't forget about the buff from meals. Every bit helps."
He made Chicken Soup which could increase his attribute points, but didn't immediately consume it. He stored it inside his storage bag. He looked at his restorative items, he still had some leftovers from the Tutorial world, they should be enough for now. If he still had any iron ore, he would have made a Whetstone as well.
"All right, let's head out," he said.
"It's getting dark soon," Peniel said. "Aren't you going to rest for the day and start tomorrow morning?"
"Why wait when you can get it done today?" Jack replied. "I ain't tired yet, and we are going to sneak into private property. Won't it better if we do it in the dark?"
"Why are you saying we?" Peniel said as she hid back to her separate dimension. "Good luck," she said.
"@#$*"
Amy offered him a basket of bread when he walked out. Jack rejected it by saying, "give it to me when I brought your mom back." Her eyes teared up when she heard the confidence in his voice.
Jack followed the direction shown on his map to get to the place Amy had indicated. With a clear direction, he didn't waste time getting lost. Thought he still sometimes had to circle around building blocks as there was no straight way in the direction he was going. It took him almost two hours as the slum was in another part of the Capital, and he was not going to spend coins to hire a carriage in order to save time. The sky was already dark by the time he arrived.
The slum was significantly different from the Business and Residential districts. The streets were narrow, filthy, and unattended. Less activity was seen on the street. Some ruffians sat by the side of the street, eyeing anyone that came through, like an owl waiting for a rat to cross by. Jack's attire surely picked their attention.
However, it was not tempting enough for them to rob. If Jack wore merchant or noble clothes, then it would be a different story. Robbing an adventurer was like a gamble. You could just end up hitting a poor bastard, or sometimes you could even end up being the one that got robbed, so they left Jack alone. As he traveled, Jack was wondering how a sweet girl like Amy was safe traveling around such a place.
When Jack reached the place marked by Amy, there was nothing special. It was a street with slum houses alongside it. There were still a few people hanging around on the street despite it being evening. He looked for a person that looked most friendly and asked him about the Cult that had come to this part of town recently. He blanched and made some excuses then disappeared inside his house. The others who heard Jack's question turned their gaze to look elsewhere when Jack looked at them.
They are afraid of the Cult?
Jack was clueless now. He couldn't ask around, so where should he find out about where to find this Cult? As he stood there at a loss, his God-eye monocle made some noises. An object by the side of the street was highlighted in his view.
Jack approached it and found out that it was a loaf of bread that had already gone stale. Some small texts appeared beside the bread as the monocle analyzed it. It said it was connected to Amy's mother quest, and then traces of footprint were highlighted on the street. The monocle indicated the footprint as belonging to Amy's mother and it went along from where the bread was all the way to the end of the street, then disappeared at the turn.
"Damn! Your monocle is good stuff!" He heard Peniel's excited voice. "It can even do high-level tracking. This usually can only be done when Ranger got their advanced class and even then, they could only do low-level tracking at first. You are really cheating, man."
"Of course it is, that's why its name is God-Eye. With such a domineering name, you couldn't expect any less, could you?" Jack said with pride as he responded to Peniel's comment, but the fact was he was quite amazed by this monocle himself.
He followed the highlighted footprints along the street, until it came to a deserted warehouse surrounded by wooden fences. The front gate was barred with wooden blocks. There was a small door at one side of the fence, the footprints disappeared inside this door. There were several rough-looking guys hanging around the fence.
Weirdly, the radar indicated these guys with red dots, which indicated them as enemies. All the NPCs he had encountered thus far in the capital had been represented by white color dots, so this red color came as a surprise. However, these guys who were red dots didn't immediately attack him once he was in range like those wilderness monsters.
They however, all looked at him hostilely. He came nearer to check their reaction. One of the guys growled in menace. Another one spoke out, "What are you doing here? Don't you know this place is a restricted area?"
"Oh? I'm sorry, I don't see a sign," Jack replied innocently.
"You want a sign? How about I give you one?" The man brandished a hand axe.
"I don't want any trouble," Jack said as he lifted up both his hand.
"You don't? Then piss off!"
"All right, all right," Jack said as he backed off. When he turned the street out of their view, he made a round turn and came to the back of the warehouse. It was the same situation where some sentries were keeping watch. There was definitely something important in the warehouse to have people keeping watch. There was also a small back door on this back fence. He scanned the sentries. Each of them was level 8 Ruffian (Basic Human).
Level 8, not too strong, Jack thought. He was half expecting them to be level 50 like the guards, but that would be unreasonable. He would just give up on the quest if that was the case.
'Hey, Peniel,' he called out telepathically.
"What?" She answered.
'We were forbidden to fight in the city, right? But what about for natives that were marked as red dots? Red dots indicate enemies, right? Will we still get a penalty if we kill them?'
"If you are attacked first, or they are already registered as red by the system, then no, you will not get a penalty."
'Well, that's a relief,' Jack said. 'That will make things simpler.'
He took out the Chicken Soup he had prepared earlier and promptly consumed it. His stats increased due to the food effect. He pulled out his sword and magic staff. There was no need to conceal his dual-class to NPCs or monsters. He could unleash all his abilities. He sneaked until he could get closest to those sentries without being noticed.
"Let's test my new weapon now, shall we," he said as he aimed his staff and cast Energy Bolts.