Chapter 318 - We Got This

Chapter 318 We Got This

There were two new quest objectives.

The first one was to investigate the swampmen incident in Crookes just like Jom had predicted.

“Hold on, didn’t we already kill the swampman?” Terry asked in surprise—he had scrounged out some normal rations in the cottage thanks to Pikes’s sharp nose and was now cooking it on the hearth.

And since the objective of the chain quest was written briefly unlike main quests, side quests or event quests, Jom could only offer his own predictions.

He hence revealed his theories, making deduction along his trail of thought while tidying his thoughts at the same time. “There are two possibilities. Either the swampmen are like parasites residing in the city, and we have to find the ‘queen’ and kill it to accomplish our quest, or the swampmen are unleashed on purpose here by a certain faction in the city.” “But isn’t it possible that there are just a handful of them that managed to slip into the city, and it’s quest accomplish if we kill off the others?” Terry asked. “That’s simpler and more direct…”

“The keyword in the quest is ‘investigate’. If things were indeed the way you put it, the quest would instead say ‘destroy’ or ‘slay’.”

“So troublesome… what about the second objective of the quest?” Terry mumbled in irritation while using his spoon to stir the wheat stew dangling over the hearth.

“See for yourself. It’s not like you don’t have a System page.”

“Urgulumu…” Terry muttered unintelligibly while sneaking a sip of stew, but Jom had the feeling that he was most probably saying something along the lines of ‘that’s so troublesome’.

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Compared to the first quest objective, the second quest objective was much simplerafter the investigation, they have to come up with something to personally inform Meredith, the mayor of Crookes about the truth. “But it only looks simple.”

Knowing that Terry wouldn’t understand the implied complication, Jom offered an explanation. “A quest where you personally inform the mayor definitely wouldn’t be easy?”

“Really? I don’t think it would be that hard. If the Lucky Brothers can infiltrate the Secret Eye hideout and the Silver Eagle Castle, why not us?” Terry protested unhappily.

It was worth mentioning here that Edward’s group which had been instrumental in both incidents never enlightened the others about the actual truth, whereas the fat-and-skinny duo of Terrosche and Silva would brag about it every day at the taverns. Many Players, unaware of the truth all believed that they were really adept at infiltration especially since the two living treasures had earned the title of Explorer of the Seven Seas, a title only first-rate Players possess… Therefore, unbeknownst to the Players, the duo’s infiltration simply meant going to their target location, throw a fuss and go on a rampage. Jom was one such Player who had been fooled as well, although that was not the point.

“Getting past the guards and the perimeter to meet the mayor wouldn’t be a problem, but don’t forget that the specialty of the swampmen is that they could kill humans and imitate their appearance, and could replicate their victims’ memories as well. That ability is especially valuable when it is used against important people, and the most important person in Crookes is…”

“I see, it’s that old Meredith mayor person!”

At that, Terry finally understood what Jom was talking about.

If their investigation was too slow to the point that old Meredith was killed and replaced by a swampman when they finally uncovered the truth, they wouldn’t be personally informing old Meredith even if they managed to sneak into his residence.

That way, the whole quest was stuck and basically a failure.

“Then what should we do? We don’t even know where to start investigating.” Terry was now a little unsettled at the idea of a failed quest, and the need to restart the whole quest chain.

Although they were motivated to do the quest chain to change Pikes’ bloodline, the objectives were definitely complex and it was time consuming It was like a video game-if there was a huge chance for anyone to rush towards the pinnacle on a single stroke, many wouldn’t tire from playing no matter how troublesome the stage would be.

On the other hand, if your account was suddenly corrupted in the servers when you’re just a step away from becoming the best, and your only compensation was some gold to have you start all over again, most people wouldn’t have the fortitude to do so. All they would do was curse the poor management and not touch the game for a long time afterward.

As the saying goes: fighting spirits would always be roused at the first drumroll, waning by the second and depleted by the third.

“It is true that Crookes is smaller than Lancaster, but it’s a city built upon mountains. Just two of us searching for clues is like finding a needle in a haystack…” Jom muttered, scratching his head. “I didn’t want to bother others, but it looks like we have to ask other Players for help in the forums.”

Terry was not optimistic about that. “Would they come here, crossing thousands of miles? There’s no lifestone to teleport too…”

“It’ll be fine. After all, don’t you think that Crookes is overflowing with quests if we could get such an unusual one as soon as we arrived here?” Jom, on the other hand, did not doubt the Players’ motivation to chart new maps. “No one would be upset with too many quests, and with Edward the Quest Demon taking a break recently, they would surely come. “I hope so. Sluuuurp—” “Hey, don’t hog all the wheat stew! Leave some for me!”

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And just as Jom had predicted, many Players who had gotten sick of idling at Lancaster or being hired guns for the nobles were forming frontline teams, intent on going on a trip to Crookes.

“Where’s Mister Marni?” Edward asked when he reached a particular group that was supposed to be disguising themselves as traveling merchants, only to find that Marni Wilf, leader and investor of the group missing. “Did he die again? But Resurrection Ankhs are available and he looked like he had some recent income, shouldn’t he have revived himself right after he died?”

“Dying.” Ivan, Marni’s escort corrected while giving a shrug. “He slipped into a pool of acid in a quest, and it’s so thick that he couldn’t move at all, let alone climb out. He would actually sink if he moved around too much, and lose HP because of the acid’s corrosion… that said, because he has plus seven immunity and high HP regen, it would take him around half an hour to die… he’s given up on struggling at the moment and gone off to play some Tierra Blocks, and that’s him, the one with six-five-five-three-five points on the rankings.”

“I’m being mean to Marni, but I think we got this because he’s dying so miserably!” Gou Dan exclaimed, stroking his chin stubble with a twinkle in his eye.

The others nodded in strong agreement.

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