The Achievement Junkie

"And I'm sure they'd love to meet Jack, too. What do you think Maura?"

"Mom, that's enough! Why are you always teasing Jack? Besides, we're not like that… not yet…" Maura shouted, trying her best to overcome her embarrassment and stop her mom's taunting. As she finished speaking, Maura's voice softened and trailed off, making it hard for others to hear the last thing she said.

Laughing, Marisha replied, "Fine, I'll leave him alone for now, but he already knows that I want you and him to get together, we've even talked about it on multiple occasions. Isn't that right, Jack?"

Maura immediately looked at Jack, but he was turned away to hide his own embarrassment. When Jack stayed silent and never responded to her mother, Maura felt a strange mix of emotions. She wanted her mom to stop pressing the issue, but a small part of her was happy that her mom was trying to help her. Also, considering Jack's silence, it made her feel like he wasn't fully against the idea, and that gave her even more hope for the future.

Keeping his thoughts to himself, Jack wasn't willing to talk with Marisha in front of Maura. The woman always had a way of turning a conversation in her favor. Jack was a nice guy and hated hurting the feelings of the people close to him. So, Jack was afraid that Marisha would force him to say something misleading or possibly get him to admit that he had started to care more about Maura, even though he was trying to close his heart.

"Leave the brat alone," groaned Zariff. Witnessing this, Zariff came to realize something.

Though Jack might be interested in his daughter, it was evident that he wasn't too active in pursuing her. Rather, it was mainly his daughter pursuing him, and even more so it was his wife pushing them together from behind the scenes.

"Jack, you and I will go to headquarters while those two go and check on Marisha's parents. Alright?"

"You've got it," answered Jack, taking the get out of jail free card that Zariff was offering him.

The rest of the journey was smooth, other than the occasional awkward comment from Marisha to spark conversation.

Jack made sure to stick to Zariff more as a means to escape the brunt of Marisha's advances and some of the awkwardness between him and Maura. Usually, Jack would be able to handle that much, but Marisha would always find a way to try and get Jack to admit that he and Maura should be together.

He felt that the journey was extra long because of it, but deep down he was happy. They really did start to feel like family to him by the time their two and a half weeks of travel were over.

"There it is, what do you think, Jack?" Marisha pointed out into the distance toward a magnificent city.

The city was built in the center of a valley inside a mountain range. There was still plenty of room to fit a megacity in the valley, like Federal City, but it was a natural defense that no one could ignore.

Traveling by normal road was fine and easy like always, but if some force tried to invade or attack, then they only had two directions to come from. They might try to climb down the mountains and enter the city, but that would make them easy targets. Some countries might have imagined trying to conquer the magnificent Federal City, but none had dared since before the Holy War back when Jack was playing the game as Jack_J.

Seeing it with his own eyes and not through a computer screen, Jack was in awe and mumbled to himself, "It hasn't changed a bit…"

Being one of the megacities in Ancient Kartonia, Jack was very familiar with the city's layout and even remembered where most everything was. Though many things would have changed after hundreds of years, the largest and most magnificent buildings remained standing. There were even a few that would qualify as skyscrapers back in his homeworld.

"It's amazing, isn't it! It's been so long!" Maura was happy to finally come back to the place she had always called home. There, she was raised and that's where her family could be found too.

"Remember, you two will go and say hi to your parents. I'll take Jack to the association headquarters, so don't worry about him," stated Zariff as he eyed his wife. He was insistent to let Jack handle his stuff on his own without Maura or his wife interfering.

"Fine, I'll let the boy go for now," joked Marisha. "But he'll have to come back for dinner, and I'll make sure to arrange his stay at the inn. Don't waste time and miss dinner, got it?"

"Got it, dear," replied Zariff as his horse neared Jack's. "Hey, brat, we should hurry and get this over with. We've both got our own things to do, so we should start as soon as possible. That way we may avoid getting held up by some of the old men who run the association."

"Just be careful about with man you call old!" A shout came from the front of the party.

Everyone laughed when they realized the Advisor Wain had heard Zariff's comment. Zariff just chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, Jack."

The soon to be released branch chief took off, speeding toward the front of the party, signaling for Jack to do the same.

Following Zariff, Jack joined the small group upfront. Together with Zariff, Branch Chief Liam, and Advisor Wain, Jack hurried into the city and left the group of adventurers behind with a wagon and a carriage that was now empty.

Before long, that advanced group bolted through the outer gates of the city. Instead of lining up for the entrance inspection, they rode right through. Without the wagon or the carriage, they were able to avoid inspection thanks to Wain's rank.

Jack was surprised but happy. Apparently, the Adventurers Association had a lot more influence inside a megacity like Federal City than it did in Reinolt.

"Just keep up and don't get distracted. You can explore the city tomorrow," yelled Zariff, making sure Jack could hear him.

Only nodding in response, Jack followed Zariff's advice, apart from the occasional glance to something that caught his eye.

While in the city, the group had to slow down for fear of pedestrians. All in all, it took them almost an hour to reach the Adventurers Association headquarters in the city's central region, even on horseback.

Now that he was there in real life, Jack felt like the city was far larger and harder to navigate. It still felt familiar and he understood where he was, but it was taking him a lot longer than he had expected.

When they finally dismounted, Jack noticed that one of the newer and smaller skyscrapers was being used as the association's headquarters.

"Follow me, both of you." Advisor Wain nodded to Jack and Zariff, leading the way for them both.

"Good luck!" yelled Branch Chief Liam who went a different direction.

Zariff only waved back to him and they separated. Jack and Zariff both stayed close to Wain to make sure they wouldn't get lost in the crowded main floor. As Advisor Wain neared a wall, he waved a badge over a stone embedded there.

Suddenly, the wall opened up and revealed a hovering metal plate.

"Hop on." That was all Wain said as he did the same. When both Jack and Zariff joined him on the hovering plate, the wall closed shut. Wain waved the same badge in front of a similar embedded stone on this side of the wall. At the same time, he stated, "Floor six."

As if in response to Wain's order, the hover plate started to rise. It wasn't going too fast, but it wasn't too slow either.

Jack chuckled to himself. Though there were hover plates in Ancient Kartonia, there weren't any quite like this. It was easy for Jack to see this as a magical elevator, and he found out from Wain that it was also called an elevator. In fact, the Adventurer's Association was the first to use hover plates in such a controlled way.

That made Jack even more curious about the Adventurers Association, or more specifically the founder of the Adventurers Association. It should be someone extremely powerful, maybe even as powerful as some ancient heroes.

"This way." The moment the hover plate stopped moving, the wall opened up and let them onto the sixth floor and Wain started moving again.

The sixth floor was much less crowded than the main floor. There were also fewer rooms, but they were much larger. Eventually, the three of them arrived outside of a sturdy wooden door with the number 3 etched into the woodwork.

Advisor Wain knocked gently and said, "I've brought them both."

"Oh, you're early. Come in and take a seat. We're finishing up another matter, but you can wait a few minutes and we'll get right to it."

A calm voice was heard from the other side of the door before it opened on its own.

As Jack looked around the room, a bright red notification appeared in his system.