Chapter 8 Gathering Information
As Jack’s vomit flew through the air, everyone’s eyes widened, except for Jezelle’s. She was too focused on filling up her mug to notice what was coming her way. By the ti she realized Jack had thrown up, it was already all over her arms and hair.
"I’m so sorry Jezelle!" yelled Jack as he got up to try and help her.
She put her hand up to stop him and took a few deep breaths. Jack’s nervousness grew further as he saw her slowly look up and et his gaze with indifferent eyes.
To him, he wasn’t afraid of people getting mad, he was afraid of those who could hide their anger and sche against him. This was why he hated forming parties and only did so when necessary for quests in "A Hero’s Tale." Jezelle blinked and sighed, "You only made it halfway? You disappoint ."
Those calm words jabbed into Jack’s chest, catching him completely off guard. He was expecting sothing far worse and he began waiting for the mont she blew her top. Jack pointed at Zariff behind him and said, "I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself after this old fart forced it out of ."
Jezelle peeked at the laughing man behind Jack and shook her head. Seeing the situation with an open mind and keeping a level head allowed her to understand what happened.
It was obvious to her that Jack was going to lose soon anyway, and she could easily end it like usual and charge him for everything. But she found Jack to be interesting and desired to get on his good side in hopes to better understand him. Seeing that an easy scapegoat was banging his hand on Jack’s back, she took advantage of the unexpected developnt.
"So that’s what happened. Well, you did barf, so you lose. But since it was due to interference, I’m afraid that big lug will have to pay up instead," stated Jezelle. Everyone was startled to see her so calm, cool, and collected while wearing Jack’s vomit. Maura, Rydel, and the other adventurers burst into laughter as Zariff got a rude awakening from his drunken stupor.
"Huh!? Jezelle, what are you talking about? You know he was going to—" Zariff tried to defend himself but was cut short.
"Everyone! Bring your mugs and fill them up! This round is on Chief Zariff," Jezelle shouted at the top of her lungs, making sure that everyone in the pub had reason to cheer and giving Zariff all the credit.
Zariff understood Jezelle’s character and knew that it was too late for him to complain. If he tried anything else, he would only find himself in a deeper hole. Embracing the mont, he resud his laughter, "For every person that can best in strength, I’ll offer another round! Lose and you owe a drink!"
The restaurant was filled with cheers of happy custors and grunts from everyone trying to arm wrestle Zariff. By the end of the night, Zariff had gotten over half of the people present to owe him a drink and pay off part of his debt without a single loss.
In a corner of the restaurant, Jack sat down and let his body slowly recuperate. After almost half an hour of hearing everyone’s cheers, he was feeling better. Just then, a few plates of food made their way to his table and were placed in front of him. He knew that he hadn’t ordered a thing and could only look up to see Jezelle placing it down in front of him before sitting across from him. "I already told you I can’t pay."
"I know. It’s on the house," said Jezelle with a flirtatious smile. "Consider it a gift for giving a chance to stick it to that old lug over there."
"I thought you two were friends?" asked Jack. "Let guess, he beat you, didn’t he?"
"Are you always so straightforward with won?" she chuckled. "Yeah, after losing a couple of tis, he finally got the best of one day. All of his drinks and food are free, so he’s always coming over and eating out of house and ho. But if he’s treating others, he still has to pay . If anything, it’s nice to even the score a little."
"Sounds like that old fart for sure," said Jack. "So, I’m just a ans of vengeance, is that right?"
"A little, but I find you interesting. You’re different than everyone else I’ve t. I’ve never heard of soone with a hero class and a different set of subclasses."
"How do you know about that?" questioned Jack, giving off a sense of caution. "You’re an oracle, right? And you’re at least lv. 25 but not quite lv. 30 if my guess is correct"
Hearing Jack’s response, Jezelle was surprised and didn’t hide her curiosity any longer. "You’re right, I’m a lv. 27 oracle. You know your stuff for a lv. 1. Why is that?"
"Let’s just say that I’m not from around here."
She sighed and a soft laugh escaped her mouth, "So the king was trying to summon a hero after all. But why are you here and as a mber of the Adventurers Association?"
"That idiot king and I don’t really get along. I’m very particular about how I do things. When he wouldn’t trust and tried to force to do what I hate most, I walked out of the castle without giving him a second thought," explained Jack.
"Sounds like Leodoro alright," said Jezelle. "He can be a jerk at tis, but he’s not too bad as long as you’re not on his bad side."
"Looks like it’s too late for then," Jack smiled and shook his head to try and clear his mind. "Besides, I’m a free spirit. An adventurer’s life is more fitting for ."
"Hmm, a summoned hero becoming an adventurer. What an interesting developnt," said Jezelle. "Either way, you’re always welco here at the pub. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ll give you 50% off since I like you."
Shocked by Jezelle’s comntary and her generosity, Jack said, "Then you can expect to see whenever I can find the ti, thank you." Jezelle prepared to stand up and leave but Jack stopped her and continued, "So tell , what the situation here? And I don’t an just this kingdom, I an the world in general."
She smiled and answered, "Chaos continues to grow no matter what we do. I don’t know too much about what’s happening outside the borders, but I know that we aren’t the worst off on the continent."
Jack squinted his eyes at her remark and pondered sothing for a mont before saying, "How big is this continent exactly?"
"There are thirty-two countries that make up the continent. The Reinolt Kingdom is by far one of the strongest and most powerful of the bunch, that’s why the king could afford to summon you here," said Jezelle.
"What do you an ’afford?’"
"Exactly what it sounds like. To summon a hero, it takes a trendous amount of mana from powerful mages, many rare treasures, and so perishable treasures that you can’t get back, even if you fail. With the success rates being lower than 20%, who knows how many tis they had to perform the ritual," she explained it simply.
Jack began to laugh heartily and spoke up, "That what he gets! He deserves at least that much."
"Seems like it’s mutual hate after all. Anyways, all thirty-two countries make up the only continent in our world known as Kartonia. There are so islands and places far off the coast, but they’re insignificant compared to the continent," said Jezelle.
Jack was surprised to hear that there were so many countries. In "A Hero’s Tale" there were only a handful of large countries that made up the continent, and none of them were nad the Reinolt Kingdom. He asked, "What do you know about the chaos? Or should I say the Chaos Syndicate?"
"Not much to be honest. All I know is that the Chaos Syndicate uses chaos as a source of their power, just like Skaryn the god of the underworld in ancient tis. I have no clue how they do it, especially since Skaryn has been sealed away for who knows how long," stated Jezelle.
"Sealed away? Who was strong enough to seal Skaryn? Isn’t he the second strongest of all the gods?" questioned Jack as the gears in his mind began to turn.
"Who other than the strongest of all the gods? As the god of the heavens, Halmut fought with Skaryn centuries ago. Their battle lasted over a month without any clear winner, but in the end, Halmut found a way to seal him away into another dinsion of vast nothingness. According to legend, chaos was nearly nonexistent after that."
Jezelle continued, "But during these past few decades, chaos has been growing nonstop and no one knows why. All we know is that the Chaos Syndicate, as the only organization that grows stronger with chaos, is most likely the source."
"Wow..." said Jack, mulling it over. "Seems like this Chaos Syndicate will be more troubleso than I thought."
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