Second World

"Never mind, he must be too lazy to come. Since you have come, let's hope that you are up to it," Guss said with a sigh. He then seemed to notice something and said, "I see you have an Investigator talent, maybe that's why my brother chose you, despite your low level."

More like because I'm gullible enough, Jack thought dejectedly. "So what is this task about?"

"There has been a range of cases where people get a disease. The disease cannot be cured by our healers and causes the victims' health to deteriorate. But as long as they were tended, it is not fatal and the ones afflicted will be cured by themselves after a few days. However, the occurrence of these diseases kept on escalating. It will be difficult to manage if the affliction kept on increasing. My healers can't seem to find out the cause."

"What kind of disease?"

"They lost control of their senses, and will just lay down unresponsive. Their health will continually decrease as if when one is suffering from poison, but in a very small amount. My healers use healing spells and restorative potions regularly to keep them safe. The ones that were already cured said that they suffered from hallucinations. My healers can't cure it so they just let the disease runs its course until the sick ones healed naturally. The kingdom does not have resources to spare on this case so I decided to send a request to my brother's League of Champions. I had a token that binds that idiot brother of mine to help in my request, but there is a loophole that he can be represented as long as one is also a member of the faction."

Was this why that brute helped me to become a member of the League of Champions? Jack couldn't help but think this way.

"I will need you to investigate the source of this disease and prevented it from affecting my people again," Guss announced.

Jack heard a notification then, "you have been offered a quest, Investigate the strange disease in Thesewal, do you accept? Please note that rejecting the quest and failing it will incur a penalty."

Motherf**ker! Jack cursed in his mind. What was this about a penalty? That Gruff had clearly lied to him!

"He must refer to the no penalty part as the quest for you to come to this town, so he was not technically lying," Peniel said. "Since you were offered another quest. That B-level quest from Gruff is considered separate from the task that Guss is about to give you. The lying that we sensed when we talked to him must be referring to when he said he did not know about what task Guss is asking."

'Well, thank you for explaining that!' Jack said sarcastically. 'Doesn't really help our situation now, does it?'

"What happened if I decline your request?" Jack asked Guss.

"I will file a complaint to League of Champions. The agent that they sent, in this case, you, will have your challenge points deducted."

"But I don't have any challenge points yet," Jack said.

"In that case, you will be kicked out of the faction and get banned from ever applying again," Guss explained.

Well, ain't that shocking, Jack mocked himself.

"If I fail to complete the task, do I get the same penalty?" He asked again.

"Yes," Guss affirmed.

"Fine, fine! Let's get this done with," Jack said as he accepted the quest. Since rejecting now would be the same as failing later, might as well bet on trying to solve the task. He opened up his quest list afterward.

Investigate the disease that is inflicting the soldiers of Thesewal and eliminate the source

Difficulty: A

Rewards: 10 gold coins, 75,000 Experience points, a random rare medium armor

Time limit: 2 days

Motherf**ker! Jack cursed again in his mind after seeing the difficulty level. Peniel had mentioned before that A-level difficulty was where the quest was usually meant for Elite class adventurers of level 30 and above.

"Oh, and you can't get the help from the military," Guss added.

"F*ck! Why?" This time he can't help but cursed out loud.

"You are a representative of the League of Champions. It doesn't matter for me as long as you solve the case, but if the faction found out their agent resolved the requested task with outside's influence, you will be given the same penalty as if you failed the quest."

"Great!" Jack swore to have a proper word with Gruff when he got back to the capital, for entrapping him with this unreasonable request.

"Let's get this over with, where is the place you put the soldiers that are inflicted with the disease?" Jack asked.

"I will ask someone to bring you there," Guss said.

"I will also need to talk with some of the ones that had been cured. The most recent ones if possible."

"I will round them up."

Guss then made another call to the outside. A guard came in and gave a salute. Guss told him to take Jack to the infirmary. Afterward, he told Jack that he would bring the ones who were cured recently to the infirmary later.

Jack followed the guard out of the Town Hall.

On his way, a soldier came to him. He recognized the soldier as amongst the ones that followed the Duke's entourage into this town. This soldier had gone away with the others to perform other tasks when he and the Duke went into the town hall.

The soldier called to him.

Jack looked around to make sure that he was the one that was being called. He asked his guide guard to stop as he waited for the soldier to approach. Jack inspected the soldier to be a level 35 Elite Human of Sergeant rank called Ronnie.

"Hi, mister Storm Wind. I'm Ronnie," the soldier introduced himself.

"Anything I can help you with, Sergeant Ronnie?" Jack asked.

He made an awkward smile as he glanced at the guard beside Jack. Jack made no attempt to dismiss the guard away. The soldier in front of him was level 35, which meant he was much stronger than Jack.

Seeing that Jack intended to keep the guard, he finally said, "I'm sorry. This might come out as odd and forward of me, but if you don't mind, can you help to introduce me to the prince?"

Jack frowned, and said, "you are right. It was odd and very forward of you."

The soldier laughed apologetically, "truly sorry. It's just that I heard that you are very close with the prince."

"What business do you have with the prince?" Jack asked.

"This might come as cheesy to you, but I have always been a fan of the prince. I have worked hard to increase my rank, but I really hope that I can be a part of the prince's personal guard. If you can introduce me to him, he might see my sincereness and allow me to be his guard. I want nothing but to ensure his highness' safety."

Jack stared at him for a long time that he started to feel uncomfortable. He finally said, "I see that you are unwilling. Never mind, I bear no grudge, thank you for your time."

The soldier went away quietly. Jack was still watching him.

"He was lying," Peniel said. Jack's Investigator talent which allowed him to detect lies had made a second tingling a while ago.

'Yeah, but which part? That he was a fan of the prince? Or the part where he wants to ensure the Prince's safety?'

"Don't know," Peniel replied.

Such an unreliable ability, Jack complained.

He asked the guard to resume taking him to the infirmary.

The infirmary was a large but simple-looking boxy building, as with most other buildings in this town. Aesthetic was not really the essential aspect when most of the occupants were soldiers.

When he went inside the infirmary, he could see rows of beds all around the expansive hall. It was like an emergency barrack where everything was laid in haste. There was no foyer, every available space had beds on them, allowing only some pathways in between them for people to move around. Almost all the beds were occupied, and there were maybe a hundred of them. This disease problem seemed more serious than it sounded.

However, even though there were many patients, the place was eerily quiet. There were a couple of healers checking on the patient, but otherwise, everything was tranquil. The patients appeared as if they were simply having a sleep.

Jack walked around observing them. Now that he saw them up close, he could see that there were small numbers of damage points appearing above them from time to time. The damage was only in a small tens point damage. For NPCs who had a high amount of HP, such an amount was negligible.

The healers walked around the patients applying healing on the ones who had their healths lowered too much.