The Achievement Junkie

Jack hurriedly opened his hero menu and went into his achievement list. There were six new achievements and one newly completed achievement. To Jack's surprise, he selected and read the newly completed achievement.

[Get Zariff's recognition: completed]

[Gain Zariff's respect and recognition as an adventurer or hero. Reward: varies on what he recognizes you as. Would you like to claim the reward?]

He instantly claimed it and received another notification, catching him completely off guard.

[Get Zariff's recognition: claimed]

[Zariff respects and recognizes you as a brother in arms, not as an adventurer or hero. Special reward: 30 skill points, access to "Hero's Inventory," access to "Hero's Map," and new achievement available.]

It took Jack a moment to gather his thoughts and calm his heart after reading this. From his perspective, just getting thirty skill points was well above his expectations, not to mention the other stuff. Before he could imagine how to spend thirty skill points, he exited the achievement and received two notifications about "Hero's Inventory" and "Hero's Map." Curiously he selected "Hero's Inventory" first.

To his astonishment the system began to act on its own, bringing Jack back to the main menu. Jack saw that the button labeled "Inventory" changed colors from gray to green, or from inaccessible to accessible.

The inventory was directly opened and showed a list of everything Jack had on his person. There was even a section devoted to what he had equipped, letting him see each item's description and making it easy to quickly switch equipment when needed. Just below the equipment section, there were sets of numbers displayed that read: 0 B, 24 S, 11 G, 0 P. This was all the money that Jack had with him, making it even easier for Jack to recognize this as the same inventory screen from "A Hero's Tale."

Jack finally let his mind start thinking and exploring different theories. He tried to mess around with the new inventory function but was again startled by his findings.

Like in the game, he could select an item on the screen and be able to access it immediately, as if it had teleported from his pockets or bag into his hands. The same could be said for putting things away, but there was no actual storage like in the game. When he put something away, it would only reappear whenever it had come from.

He tried taking an item from his bag and placing it on the floor around you. That was when the system had lost connection with the item and it no longer became accessible through the inventory.

With his discovery, Jack had mixed feelings. He liked having immediate access to his stuff but was depressed that he had no ability to store something. The only solution would be to get a special bag that could hold a vast quantity of items using magic, but he would either have to reach lv. 30 himself to make one or buy one for who knows how much gold.

Hoping it would make him feel better, Jack opened his notifications and selected the one about "Hero's Map." Again, the system took him back to the main menu and unlocked the "Map" button before opening it. Jack was expecting to see an updated version of the beautifully detailed map he loved to explore so much. What he saw was a decent outline of the continent with thirty-two countries labeled crudely. It was the same map that Jezelle had given him.

"What the…" thought Jack. It wasn't too hard for him to figure out the issue. He tried to zoom in on the Reinolt Kingdom, but nothing changed; the same went for Trodar. The map would only carry information from other maps that Jack must acquire. It was easy for the system to accumulate and filter all the information into its comprehensive map, but it could only be as accurate as the information it was given.

Both new system functions would be very helpful, but Jack was sad it wasn't as broken as in all the video games he loved. Clinging to their usefulness, he disregarded them not meeting his high expectations and moved on to see the new achievement he unlocked. At first glance, the air in Jack's throat felt solid and impossible to breathe in.

[Save Zariff's life: in progress]

[Find a means to save Zariff's life. Reward: varies on how quickly and efficiently you can complete the task.]

Jack was frozen stiff for a few minutes as he tried to mentally digest what he had just read. Multiple times, he would close and open the achievement. At first, it was to verify it was a legitimate achievement and not his imagination; he kept doing it to see if it would update and offer any more information on how Zariff would die. With no results to his madness, Jack slowly laid his back on the worn-out mattress under him.

With everything happening so strangely, it took Jack some time to reach a conclusion. The Achievement System was not a godlike system that was equivalent to video game programs, but it was far more adaptive. Not only did it analyze and evaluate Jack's circumstances, but it could also determine the needs, wants, and fates of those he interacted with. It gave no deep information, but the system understood that Zariff's life was being threatened in some way or form. How? That was Jack's job to figure out.

"What's gotten to you kid?" A voice from the doorway broke the silence. The lanky and long-haired hunter continued, "You've been awfully quiet, but your face keeps changing. Something wrong?"

Jack hesitated to ask, but he steeled himself and said, "Is there something wrong with the chief? He's not dying, is he?"

"Why do you ask?" Rydel's tone became more serious.

Startled to see Rydel's sudden change, Jack asked, "Wait, seriously!? He's dying?"

Rydel shook his head and spat into the hallway out of disgust. "That's something you don't need to know, kid. It's not like you can do anything about it."

"At least tell how! If not, as your roommate I'll be even more obnoxious than Jezelle," said Jack, hoping he was able to guess a weak point of Rydel's. It was a direct hit and caused Rydel's face to twitch upon the thought. "Tell me, why is the chief's life in danger?"

"Fine but keep it to yourself. Not even Maura knows this," answered Rydel. "The last major bounty that the chief hunted down was a hard job to chase after one of the top five bounties in the country. The chief didn't want to go after the man, but the king came begging and offered three times the usual amount. Tempted by such a large amount of coin, the chief took the job."

"How long ago was this?" asked Jack.

"He accepted the job six months ago and it took him three months to track him down and finally capture the man. The chief came back in one piece and turned in the corpse for the massive reward. With the money, the entire branch celebrated on the chief's tab," said Rydel.

"That's according to everyone else, right?"

"You guessed it. The chief looked and still looks completely fine. Medics and clerics have all run diagnostics on him, but nothing ever came back negative. But the chief is certain that something is wrong, so much that he reached out to me and asked for my help to gather intel that might help. I haven't found anything so far, so my big question is how you figured out the chief's problem," stated Rydel as he flipped the conversation around.

"You already know about my weird subclass. It's thanks to one of my abilities that I learned about the risk to that old fart's life. But that's all the info I got; it didn't specify or give me any leads. I only knew that you and he were close, and I wondered if you might know." Jack shrugged his shoulders and quickly answered. "I wonder, why was he so certain he had a problem if all the medics and clerics gave him a clean bill of health?"

"Cause the man he hunted down was known as 'Yellow Jacket.' He was a lv. 34 shaman who was on the verge of becoming a necromancer. The man committed mass murders and genocides across the country as a catalyst to get him closer to necromancy. His two specialties were curses and poisons. By using the two jointly, killing an entire village in a night was very more than possible. More than a week before he would release his poison through the air, water, or other means, Yellow Jacket would stealthily lay curse marks across the town. These curses were nearly undetectable and would prevent you from being healed by any person or item under lv. 30. Once that was active, poisoning towns were a cinch," explained Rydel.

Jack's expression grew ugly and tense, but Rydel kept going. "In order to reach Yellow Jacket, the chief did something only he would be ignorant enough to do."