The Achievement Junkie

Back at the association building, the small bar was lively as the misses offered everyone a round of drinks, despite the displeasure of her husband.

At one end of the bar sat Zariff, Maynard, Rydel, and the old man. It seemed like they were all mooching off the chief personal wine supply and enjoying themselves.

"Again, thanks Tomas. Without you, we may have lost that brat today. Here's to you!" Zariff raised his mug, leading the entire bar in toasting to the old sailor.

"Zariff, forget about it. Old pals are meant for these things. I didn't think an old man like me would be needed, but I guess the Royal Court's grudge against you is worse than I thought," said Tomas. "With the dock destroyed and my son practically guaranteed a court-martial, I won't be able to stay at the dock house anymore."

"Hows about you stay here? You and your boy are more than welcome," offered Zariff. "We could always use some experienced hands like yours. And I heard your son's not half bad. He's already lv. 26, right?"

Tomas nodded and sighed, "Aye, that's right. Also, I'll take you up on your offer. Might as well go all the way; where do I sign up?"

"Seriously?" asked all three of Tomas' drinking buddies.

"Aye. I don't want to affiliate with the court anymore. For years I've seen them change their ways. Why else would I turn down a cushy commander's position and rot away in ships and the dock house?" reasoned Tomas with a smile filled with regret.

"That's great! With you, any naval missions and assignments will be a cinch!" Zariff shot to his feet, still sober enough to keep from wasting time with rambles and tangent conversations. "Let's get you signed up, and then we'll have another round on me, for everyone!"

"Yeah!" everyone yelled, happy to see the chief in such a good mood and get another powerful lv. 34 adventurer.

Back in the infirmary was a small group of people around a bed.

"Really, Slivia, I'll be fine. I just need some rest," said Jack as he laid on the bed.

"Magic really won't help? I could at least try."

"You've been trying for the past half-hour, you know it won't work, sadly," sighed Jack. "In a day or two, I'll be back to perfect health. Besides, I leveled up again! Now, I'm lv. 20. Who would've thought that all of those cetuses were at least lv. 32. I made away like a bandit with EXP!"

"That's enough! Even if you gain EXP, it doesn't mean anything if you die." Slivia's tone was harsh, yet comforting. She had been extremely worried about Jack and it made it worse that her new, peak-tier staff had no ability to heal Jack. "Promise me, you won't die."

"Slivia, I…" Jack stared into her eyes and couldn't find it in him to disappoint her. He wanted to tell her that growth comes from risk, but he couldn't form the words in his mouth. Eventually, he nodded. "Slivia, I promise I won't die."

"No matter what?"

"Yes, no matter what," answered Jack, staring into Slivia's beautiful blue eyes.

At Slivia's side was Maura. She busied herself by preparing Jack's things, as well as some food and water on the side table. It was easy for her to overhear the couple.

Deep down she was envious of Slivia. It seemed easy for her to express her feelings and Maura longed to feel so comfortable with someone, like Slivia was with Jack.

Maura had considered Jack as a possible love interest in the future. She didn't have many people to choose from and Jack had always seemed different, confident yet quirky. No other boy she had met was able to get her father's approval like Jack was, so that played a major part as well. However, just as she started to entertain the thought of her trying to pursue Jack, Slivia appeared and whisked Jack away in no time flat.

The young, twenty-year-old girl was very happy to have a sister-like figure in her life thanks to Slivia, but she was also jealous of Slivia's relationship with Jack for multiple reasons. But Maura would never admit that to Slivia; she was too kind-hearted.

"Here, that should do it. I'll you two love birds alone." Not giving Slivia or Jack a chance to stop her, Maura hurried out the door.

Not sure what he should do or say next, Jack stammered, "Slivia, I… Thank you, for everything."

"What do you mean? You don't have to thank me, this is the least I could do. If I didn't do this, I couldn't call myself your girlfriend," replied Slivia, not hiding her blushing face.

"Sliv…" Jack was touched and at a loss for words.

"Jack…" Slivia caressed Jack's face gently with her hand and leaned in slowly. Soon both of their lips met and they shared a moment that seemed to freeze in time.

That soft kiss ended with both of their faces bright red. Slivia looked back to Jack and said, "I'll let you rest. I'll come to check on you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Good night."

"Night."

After Slivia's exit, Bowzer popped his head up from under the covers. 'Jack, you sleep now?'

'Not yet, I need to check a few things. Give me a few minutes.'

Jack's day had been a rollercoaster of emotions. He had gone to court, went on his first date with Slivia and they officially became a couple, he had the chance to speak face-to-face with Daruun and learn a lot of surprising information and had nearly lost his life to a surprise battle with cetuses. In all that, he never had an opportunity to sit down and go through his latest update of the Achievement System.

Rushing past the main menu and entering the achievement list, Jack's eyes went wide and his heart began to pound.

The achievement list had grown exponentially! It was like it had been in "A Hero's Tale," filled with different achievements of all kinds. Some seemed ridiculous to accomplish in real life and others seemed story-driven like they were feeding the main plot. All of his old achievements were still there and there was now a set of tabs for his achievement list to help him filter them.

One tab was for everything, another was titled "Generated," and there was also an "Event" tab. There were even tabs for "In Progress,""Completed," and "Claimed." Also, there was a plus button that would let him create his own tabs and filters.

Jack thought to himself, 'This must be thanks to my pledge with Daruun. It seems like the system before was only generating its own achievements. Now that I know Daruun created the Achievement System, I can understand why all these general achievements exist.'

Jack skimmed through his updated system, curious to see what else his pledge to Daruun may have changed or caused. Soon he found himself in the "Events" tab and was surprised to find two achievements listed and not one. There was still the [Infestation] achievement but there was now also an achievement labeled [Internal Conflict] below it. He opened it, curious to see what it entailed.

[Internal Conflict: In Progress]

[Discover the cause of the internal conflict within Reinolt City. Reward: varies on means of completion. Event reward: 40 skill points.]

Intrigued to learn more about it, Jack exited the [Internal Conflict] achievement and sighed. However, something else caught his attention. He glanced back over the [Infestation] achievement and swallowed some saliva.

[Infestation: In Progress]

According to his system, the infestation wasn't over. This was startling for him as he began to run all kinds of scenarios in his head.

Now that he knew what kind of beast he was dealing with, it made his guessing easier. But, it left him with more uneasiness since he knew how powerful cetuses could be.

If the infestation was anything like the in-game events, infestations always happened in waves until you eventually clear the minions and face a high-level boss. Though he wanted to be wrong, Jack was assuming that the same logic applied in his current situation.

The scariest thing was that they had only cleared the first wave and faced fourteen cetuses over lv. 30. He didn't want to imagine what the next wave would be like, or the boss wave.

Back in the bar, everyone was celebrating their newest member's entry into the association. While everyone was toasting and drinking their fill, a knock was heard at the door.

"What is it now? Did they come for those bloody corpses?!" yelled Zariff. The chief took his time standing up while he finished his mug of high-quality brundy. When the knocking resumed Zariff yelled, "I'm coming! By Halmut's beard, shut up and wait!"

The drunken Zariff waltzed over to the door with the grace of a toddler still learning how to walk. Only he knew how many mugs he had finished so far. Finally, he undid the latch and opened the door a crack. "What is it? Oh… I didn't expect to see you."

"May I come in?"

"Ha, I guess. I'm in a good mood so I'll be nice." Zariff opened the door and let the man in, who stood almost the same height as the branch chief and appeared just as brawny beneath his soaked black cloak.