'Oh? What about the Fast Slash?'
"A so-so skill. Not much use actually in my opinion. A level-up Power Strike is still better. The Body Double, on the other hand, is very useful. Not an offense or pure defense skill, but it could be very useful when used right. 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 the skill books anymore. It is better to use the adventurer points for other items."
Jack nodded. Afterward, he thanked the lady at the counter and then left the Adventurers Association. He spent the remaining day doing the quest. The quest was suggested for three people of level 10. He figured that since he had two classes and both were higher than level 10, he should be able to solo it. He did manage to complete it, but not as smooth as he had imagined it to be.
During the escort, he and the merchant were ambushed by four thugs in the slum. Under normal circumstances, it would be a piece of cake for him to take care of those four thugs. But he had to keep the merchant safe as well, and he couldn't be in four places at the same time. So he had to go back and forth when dealing with the thugs that came from four directions in order to keep the merchant safe.
He finally managed to kill all four thugs, the merchant received quite some damages though. He lost more than half of his HP bar during the endeavor. Jack was berated the entire way due to that until they reached their destination, then the mission was completed. He still received the same amount of experience and adventurer points as indicated when he took on the quest, but the monetary reward was halved due to unsatisfactory 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 skill point for his basic class's skills. That sounded like a lot of work.
Peniel who sensed his thought, told him, "Higher grade enemies will give you more souls. Those four thugs are only low-level common humans, it is understandable to only get the lowest soul point from them."
With that explanation, Jack felt better. He should be able to collect soul faster once he got stronger and challenged higher grade or higher-level opponents.
He then went and picked another quest the next day. This time it was a simple delivery quest. It provided him with 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 dot on it. The map covered the size of around four kilometers square, while the slum district was around six-time that size, so it made sense if he couldn't see Bowler and Flame even though they were in the slum as well. He 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 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 keeping on looking for trouble with him and his friends.
"Ask him to send you his coordinates, he should be able to see the option under the map window," Peniel informed.
We can do that? Jack thought and looked at his Map interface that was still opened. 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 penalty for assaulting another player inside the city?'
"I don't think your friends were assaulted yet. If they have, won't it be too late already 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 will explain once you arrive, didn't he?"
'You are right. All right, let's head there then.'
He then started walking with hastened pace. The place Bowler described was further away, it was near the outer city wall before Jack saw green dots at the edge of his Map. Once he found the dots, it was much easier. He immediately headed in the direction indicated by the Map.
As Jack came near, he saw many people were standing around a building. That must be the bar called Thug's Nest. From his radar he saw those people as blue dots, meaning they are Outworlders like him, not the native NPC. He spotted two people he recognized, Boulder and Flowing Fox. So, she really came back to life after dying in the Tutorial period.
Jack used his God-eye monocle to scan her, she was level 1. 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 said as she was still a distance away.
He then looked over at 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 a nearby alleyway. When he got near, he heard a low whistle.
He looked in that direction and saw Bowler waved for him to come over. He was hiding behind a house while he peeked at the group around the bar. When Jack came near, Bowler pulled him to the back to avoid the Weary Wolf people from noticing them.
"Flame was inside?" Jack asked him.
Bowler nodded with an anxious expression.
"What happened exactly?" Jack asked him again.
"We were going on a quest together," Bowler answered. "After we completed our objective, we came to that bar which we saw during our quest. It sold 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. When I came out, that's when the Gang appeared. They tried to block me but I was already in an open area, so I ran from them. They didn't dare to throw an attack on me so they let me go, but they know Flame is still inside so they targeted her instead."
"So what are they doing exactly?" Jack asked as he peeked out to the gang, "they just stand there all this time?"
"They are waiting for Flame to lose her patience," Bowler replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I made some friends in the White Scarfs who I still have some contacts with. He told me that they had researched about this penalty. Apparently, if you attack someone, you will be marked with a criminal imprint. If such a person bumped 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, you are only considered as self-defense. Hence, are not subject to the penalty." Bowler said.
Jack remembered Peniel had mentioned this as well. He had started to get the picture.
"So they were just standing there to keep Flame from leaving the bar, with Fox throwing insults in the middle, and just wait until she got fed up and decided to attack them. That's when they will take action?"
Bowler nodded, "that is my guess. And from the look of it, that seemed most likely to be the case. I've been sending messages to Flame asking her to stay cool, but from her last reply, she seemed to be closed to snapping point."
Jack pondered about the situation. If it was like this, there was nothing he could do as well. He could not go and attack them to allow Flame to break free, they will just get what they want as well in the end. He would get a criminal imprint and got ganged up by them. Even if he could defeat them all, he would lose his freedom from going around the city, as he would be captured when he met a guard.
"So it was as I had guessed," he suddenly heard Peniel's voice.