After Gilbert left, Jack and Samantha also left the house. Jack let Samantha took the lead. She took him in the route that Gilbert had described to them. On the journey, Jack remained vigilant as he continued to observe his radar along the way.
He was not sure if the Cult's people would still be registered as red, so he just paid attention to all the dots which moved in groups. He tried to avoid them whenever he found such a group.
It took them a long time before they arrived at the business district due to several detours to avoid suspicious groups. It was already midnight by then. Jack decided to take Samantha back to her house first, which was also the bakery shop. The shop was already closed at this time, but Samantha had the key to the shop, so she used it to get inside.
She invited Jack in to stay the night, they had a spare bedroom on the second floor which served as their living space. From Peniel's info, he would need to spend the night at the inn because it was not allowed to camp within the city. And he would need to pay for the inn, hence he gladly took up on Samantha's offer.
They thought that Amy had already fallen asleep at this hour, but when the door bell rang as they opened the door, they heard hasty footsteps coming down from above. Amy soon appeared before them, her hand was holding a broom. This NPC girl was pretty brave, Jack thought, attempting to fight off an intruder using a broom.
When the little girl saw her mother at the door, she burst into tears. She dropped the broom then ran to her mother and hug her. Samantha embraced Amy as she soothed her and told her everything was okay. After she let her child vented her emotion, she then thanked her. She said it was due to her sending such a capable adventurer that she could make it back.
Amy turned to Jack, she grabbed his hands as she passionately expressed her gratitude. Jack tried to tell her it's fine, that he was only completing his duty, as he heard system notification.
"Congratulations! You have completed the quest Finding Amy's Mother, receive rewards of 2 silver coins, 2400 Experience points, and a 30% discount for all purchases at Amy's shop."
When the notification ended, it was soon followed by another notification, informing him that he had reached level 14 of Fighter class. Another one more level and he could become an Advanced class. He was looking forward to it.
The mother and daughter were doing a catch-up after being separated a few days, so he tried to excuse himself. Samantha took him upstairs to the guest room. It was a very small room, only have a single bed and a small desk, but it was clean. Samantha apologized for the lack of facility, but Jack told her he was very happy to be provided with accommodation and was very satisfied with the room. She then left him alone.
Before Jack went to sleep, he took out the Container of Souls. He performed the linking process which was similar to when he linked with Second Soul Remnant. The process took half an hour.
He then took a look again at the technique books.
"So I could learn these skills in these books once I got to the advance class?" He asked Peniel.
Peniel came out of her hiding dimension. She said, "yes for the Life Burning Art skill, but for the Sword of Light skill you will need to make sure to apply for the Warrior class."
"The advanced class has options to choose from?"
"Of course. Do you think there are still only three class variations after you upgrade your class?"
"What advanced classes are there?" Jack asked.
"For Fighter class, once you level up to level 15, you can apply for either Knight class or Warrior class," Peniel answered.
"What's the difference?"
"Knight class is heavy melee class focused more on defense, while Warrior class is leaning more towards offense. You can start wearing heavy armor if you become a knight. If you are a Warrior, the best armor you can wear is still medium armor, but of course, medium armors allow you more mobility compared to the heavy ones."
"So in order for me to be able to learn the Sword of Light from this book, I will need to go for the Warrior path instead of Knight."
"That's correct," Peniel confirmed.
"What's about Magician's advanced classes?
"For Magician, you can branch out to become a Mage or a Healer. Mage is more damage-dealing oriented, while healer, well, as its name implied."
"I see," Jack pondered about the choices. He was closed towards level 15, so he would have to make a decision soon. If he chose Warrior class to learn the Sword of Light skill, then he thought he might go for the Healer advance class for Magician. That way, he could be a damage dealer melee class while having the Healer class to make him more survivable in battles.
"So, what's your thought?" Peniel asked him.
Jack didn't tell her about his thoughts. Instead, he asked back, "Will Warrior class be better than Knight? What about Mage and Healer? Which class is better, you think?"
"Each has their own specialties," she said. "So no one class should be better than the others. It will depend on your playstyle. But then again, you are an anomaly with dual-class. There has never been anyone like you, you have more options to choose and probably certain combinations can give better results, but I cannot really tell you which one is the better decision."
Jack nodded, with the thought still lingering in his mind, he lied down on the bed. He was soon lost in a deep sleep.
The morning after, Jack decided to go to the Adventurers Association to submit his quest. Before he left, Samantha asked her if he already got a permanent living place in the capital. Jack told her that he planned to stay at the inn for the time being.
"I would have none of it, you come and stay at our place. The guest bedroom is always open to you," Samantha said.
"I don't want to intrude," Jack said.
"You are not. I will be unhappy if I don't see you tonight," she said with a stern face.
Jack thought about it for a moment, this is good as well. In this way, he would save his coins from daily cost for inn's fee.
"All right. I am very grateful for your offer," Jack said.
"That's better," she said. "Now if you need anything from this shop, feel free to browse. We will give you special prices."
"We will also sell you special wares that are not available to the public," Amy added from behind the counter.
"Special wares?" Jack was intrigued.
Amy nodded, "for special wares, you can view it from this list."
A holographic list appeared above the counters. There were four items listed on it.
Cooking Recipe: Baked Cake (Apprentice grade) – 5 silver coins
Cooking Recipe: Milk Bread (Apprentice grade) – 5 silver, 50 copper coins
Cooking Recipe: Homemade Cookies (Expert grade) – 1 gold coin
Cooking Recipe: Mother's Stew (Master grade) – 20 gold coins
All of the special wares were cooking recipes. That made sense considering it was a bakery shop. But it was surprising that such a small shop possessed a Master grade recipe, but the price was a whooping 20 gold coins. He didn't know how long was the saving required for him to get that amount. In fact, none of the recipes listed here could be purchased by him, his bag only had a little over 3 silver coins.
He then noticed another option at the bottom of the list. There was an Invest word written down there.
'I can also invest in a shop?' He asked Peniel in his mind.
"If you have built enough affinity with a shop owner, yes, you will be given the option to invest in their shop," Peniel answered. "It is not easy to get the option to invest. You must have pretty much gained their trust when you completed the quest to save the mother. You should try investing once you have the funds. It was one of the good ways to earn coins."
'Maybe I just start investing now then?'
Peniel laughed, "you won't be able to."
'Why not?'
"Click on it then," Peniel replied.
Jack clicked on the Invest option. Another series of lists appeared.
First upgrade: Medium shop – 50 gold coins
Second upgrade: Large shop – 150 gold coins
Third upgrade: Luxury shop – 500 gold coins
Jack was dumbfounded, the prices were even more ridiculous than the Master Grade recipe. No wonder Peniel laughed at him.