The Achievement Junkie

"If you want to join my crazy antics, I may stop you depending on what it entails," stated Jack.

Jack just wanted to experiment with his achievements to see if he could find a way to earn more unique rewards. The more unique rewards he could get, the more skill points he could acquire, and the more skills and spells he could finally get for himself.

"Whatever it is, I'll join you!" shouted Eliza. "I'm your wife, after all, so if anyone should join you it's me."

"H-hey, don't forget about me!" Maura chimed in, startling Jack.

In the back of Jack's mind, he cried, 'Not you too, Maura… Who's going to help me now…'

"We'll all help him!" shouted Keela, not wanting to be outdone.

"Yes, all of us," stated Daliea, adding herself to the mix.

"Sounds like fun to me. Ya can count me in!" laughed Maynard, curious to see what might happen.

"I guess I'll join your strange antics, too," added Rydel.

Before Lina could join in, Jack put his finger to her mouth. "You're still too young to try some of the things I'll do. But if you're able, I'll let you try too, okay?"

"Okay!"

Jack felt a mix of emotions. Part of him didn't like how willing the girls were to join him, suspecting that they were up to something.

But deep down, Jack was glad. If his whole party joined in, he wondered if his chances of gaining a unique reward would go up. It was worth a shot.

At the moment, Jack had forty skill points, but that was nowhere near enough. He gained a new achievement, [Friend of Aazoon] and gained thirty skill points, however, Jack was determined to milk the system for all the skill points he could. With the party's help, Jack thought he'd at least have a better chance.

"For now, get some rest because we leave early in the morning," said Jack. "We need to hurry through the tundra and reach Kori. We don't want to miss him."

With that settled, everyone dispersed to their own rooms.

Eliza and Keela offered to stay behind and help Jack unwind, but he turned them away. He wanted to speak with Bowzer alone.

'Bowzer, did you hear what we were talking about?'

'Uh-huh, Me heard everything.'

'Than, do you know Kori, the Fox God?' asked Jack.

He had spent a lot of time thinking about why Sterfen was so insistent about speaking with Kori. In the end, the only reason Jack could think of was Bowzer. Why else would Sterfen insist that they visit him immediately when no one could pledge to him.

'Kori… Me don't know Kori,' replied Bowzer, shaking his head. 'There's Fox God?'

Jack sighed. 'Yes, Kori is the Fox God. But, according to Sterfen, Kori is also one of the rebel gods, no longer listening to the main god he's under.'

'Weird… But why visit Kori?' asked Bowzer.

'I'm not sure. I thought it was because of you.'

'Me?'

With a nod, Jack explained, 'If the Fox God wouldn't be interested in you, then why would he be interested in anyone else in the party? My guess is that Sterfen thinks Kori wants to meet you.'

'Meet me, but why?'

'I have no clue.' Following his last line of thought, Jack asked, 'You never did tell me what happened before we met. Mind telling me now, since no one will interrupt us this time?'

Hesitating, Bowzer took his time to think before he nodded. 'Story not long but hard to say.'

Jack suddenly had an idea. 'Bowzer, wait just a moment.'

Using his forty skill points, Jack upgraded his companion telepathy to lv. 3. He thought that Bowzer would speak better after evolving, but since that didn't change anything, Jack wanted to test his telepathy skill.

'How's that?' asked Jack.

'That's much better! I don't feel much strain talking to you now!' replied Bowzer, startling Jack with the sudden change in speech. 'Now I can really tell you what happened!'

'My mother was on the run and she was protecting me. We ran for a long time and eventually reached Reinolt. My mother was always fighting, using her flame body nonstop,' explained the fox. 'One day, she was injured a lot, but she finally killed the beasts that were chasing us. After running all day when she was weak, we hid in a tree.'

Bowzer continued, 'That's when I met you. The reason you could kill her was that her flame body was heavily injured, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to kill her. She told me that she wouldn't last much longer and hoped that I would be alright…'

With some sorrow in his gaze, Jack asked, 'Do you know why you were being chased?'

'Nope, my mother never told me that.'

'Do you remember what was chasing you?' More than anything, Jack wanted to know what had the capability to chase a matured Hell-flame Fox across Kartonia. It had to be something terrifying.

'Dragons.'

Jack's mouth opened, but not a sound was made. His mind wasn't ready for that kind of mental bomb. 'Y-you're saying that dragons were chasing you and your mother? And your mother was able to kill them?'

'Yeah, she killed four dragons during the trip. She let me eat them too.'

Laughing, Jack tried to make sense of this. 'So, to recap, you and your mother were chased for a long time by dragons, which your mother defeated by was near death after doing so. And in her fragile state on death's bed, I killed your mother and took you away?'

'Yup!' Bowzer nodded.

'Are you sure you don't know why the dragons were chasing you?'

'Nope, I have no clue.'

'Do you remember what kind of dragons they were?' asked Jack.

'There were two dragons with lightning and two dragons with fire. The ones with lightning were the first to die, but the dragons with fire were the ones who gravely injured my mother.'

'By any chance, did those dragons with lightning have four wings instead of two?'

'Yeah! That's right!'

Jack's heart sank to the pit of his stomach. 'And the dragons with fire, they didn't also be able to spit magma, did they?'

"They did! How did you know?'

With Jack's heart trying to sink further into his intestines, he felt like he wanted to cry. He held up his hand to Bowzer and looked away, wanting a moment to think to himself.

'Storm Dragons?! They were chased by Storm Dragons?! And Magma Dragons too?! What on in Halmut's beard happened for ancient dragons to appear and chase a Hell-flame Fox?!'

'Bowzer,' Jack looked back at the fox, 'I'll be honest. I have no clue how to connect the dots or why you were chased by dragons. Maybe meeting with Kori will help explain why.'

'Okay, then I'm excited to meet this Kori, the Fox God. I wonder what he's like?'

'For now, let's just get some rest. Tomorrow, we'll head out.'

Bowzer nodded. 'But remember, since I can't ride on your shoulders, I want you to ride on mine.'

'But the snow--'

'The blizzard around the mountains didn't' affect me, so how could the tundra?' reasoned Bowzer.

'Fair enough, but we'll take turns riding your back,' stated Jack. 'Alright, sleep well, okay?'

'You too! Goodnight!'

Bowzer slept easy, but Jack struggled to fall asleep. After learning that his fox companion had been chased by four ancient dragons, he wondered what might happen in the future.

Morning came slowly for Jack, who still had bags under his eyes.

"Good morning!"

Earlier than the usual wake up call, the door opened to reveal Eliza and Keela entering the room, still in their pajamas.

Eliza saw Jack struggling to get out of bed and smiled. "What's wrong, dear? You didn't sleep well? Let me help you."

"That's okay, I'll--"

Faster than lightning, Eliza was sitting behind him and started rubbing his shoulders. As her hands danced over his back, the tension and worry Jack had all night started to gradually fade.

He said nothing, but Jack's satisfied sighs were enough for Eliza to understand that he didn't want her to stop.

"You know, if this helps, I can give you a massage whenever you need it. I am your wife, after all," Eliza giggled, trying to seduce him a little.

"Well… I… This does feel nice…"

Unable to disagree with all the relief he was feeling, Jack couldn't stop Eliza from pushing the conversation further.

"Then how about we do this every morning? I can guarantee that I'm the most capable of your wives in terms of massages. Plus, I think you need the relief as often as you can."

"Not… every morning…"

"Fine, but for now just relax and let my hands do the talking," said Eliza, proud to finally make a kink in Jack's emotional armor. "Keela, can you go get Jack his breakfast? To save time, I think it's best you if you feed him during the massage."

"I don't think…"

"Sure, I'll be right back!" Keela took off for the kitchen without any hesitation.

Knowing that he was caught in the girl's trap, Jack gave up that morning. He was far too stressed and such care was the perfect medicine.

Besides, he knew it was too late to go back from the moment he realized that Eliza was an expert masseuse. There's no way he wanted to give up the best stress reliever he'd found during his entire time in Kartonia.