The Achievement Junkie

With nothing left to do but wait, Jack fiddled with his system.

At first, he was inspecting the language feature and moved it out of the settings tab and on to the main menu. After that, he reopened his achievement list and was reminded of the achievement he had yet to claim.

[Unreasonable force of nature: complete]

[Be the cause of the extinction of a species, eliminating it permanently from history. Unique reward: 125 skill points.]

Part of Jack was ecstatic to find himself with one hundred and twenty-five free skill points, but another part of him felt some regret and guilt. He didn't know that jakals were no longer alive outside of the dungeon and part of him wished to keep a few jakals alive to relocate them or experiment with them and their cultural development.

But it was too late for any of that. All Jack could do was accept his reward and accept that he had not only saved a species from extinction but had effectively exterminated one as well.

Jack took the hundred and twenty-five skill points, now leaving him with one hundred and thirty-four skill points. Now he had to make a decision, to spend it or to save it. He could spend it on some smaller skills that he had been ignoring for a long time or he could try to save up for something more expensive.

The temptation of the powerful spells was tempting, but Jack decided to spend them on something that could help both himself and the party in Prachten.

First, Jack upgraded his companion bloodline skill to lv. 3 for forty skill points, leaving him with ninety-four points to spend. Those were mostly spent on the companion telepathy skill, making it lv. 4 and leaving Jack with fourteen skill points.

Doing this, Jack hoped that the party would be able to better communicate with their beast companions and that his own flame body would get stronger.

'Jack, did you do something again?'

'What do you mean, Bowzer?' Jack turned to see Bowzer walking back into the room.

'Wait, Bowzer just talked?!'

'Yeah, I've always been able to talk with Jack.' Bowzer tilted his head, not surprised in the least.

While Argyle was blown away by Bowzer suddenly speaking telepathically, Jack realized what had happened. 'Bowzer, do it again.'

'Do what again?'

'Jack, has Bowzer always been able to speak?'

Laughing, Jack looked at his startled father-in-law. 'Argyle, calm down. He's been speaking with me from the beginning, but now he can speak with others I guess.'

'Really?! Everyone else can hear me now?!' Excitement filled Bowzer's adolescent voice. 'Eliza! Can you hear me?!'

'What is it now?' Eliza shouted back. 'Who did Jack make a pact with this time? He should at least warn us--'

'Eliza, it's me! Bowzer!'

'Bowzer?!'

'Bowzer, that's enough!' shouted Jack. 'Let them sleep. You can talk to them when we finish the dungeon, okay?'

'Okay… But I can talk to everyone now!'

'Shhh!'

'Oh, right.' The fox chuckled as he grew quiet, but he couldn't hide the smile on his face or the excitement in his steps.

'Sorry, Eliza. I upgrade my companion telepathy skill and now he can speak to you guys. Also, now you should be able to better understand your beast companions,' explained Jack.

'Oh… Just make sure he doesn't wake us up again.' Eliza yawned and ended the conversation, too tired to get excited.

'So Bowzer can talk now,' sighed Argyle. 'Listen up, Bowzer. You've can't just shout at people. At least be courteous to others, or I'll have to remind you personally.'

'Okay, it won't happen again.' Bowzer nodded.

'Good, now it's my turn to rest. Wake me up if you need me or if Tralon gets up.' Stretching his arms and back, Jack stood up and left to find a bed of his own.

Jack slept for a few hours but nothing had changed. Tralon was still unconscious, but his complexion seemed healthier and livelier. Lucky for them, the other councilmen didn't bother attacking them or trying anything. It proved that Tralon had guessed correctly, that the councilmen wanted to let Jack, Tralon, and Argyle act as their guinea pigs in the dungeon.

But it also showed that the councilmen were on guard, something Jack would keep in mind as they pushed forward.

A full twenty-four hours had almost passed before Tralon started to move again. 'Oh…'

'Tralon, how are you feeling?'

'Better… I'm feeling much better, Argyle.' Tralon found Jack and smiled. 'I think I'm well enough to keep going now.'

'Don't push yourself too hard, Tralon,' Jack replied. 'We'll keep going, but if you need to rest than say so, alright?'

With a sigh, Tralon nodded. 'I will. Thank you, Jack.'

'Then it's time to move out! Where to, Jack?' Argyle laughed, happy to continue the adventure.

'From here it should be northwest. But let's keep a calm, steady pace now that we've got an audience watching us.'

'Oh, so they've come,' laughed Tralon. 'Then I'll be extra careful to keep their attention on me and not you, Jack.'

'Good, then let's go!'

Jack mounted Bowzer and assumed the back position of their triangle formation, letting Tralon and Argyle guard the front on both sides. Thirty minutes of walking later, the party vanished in a pulse of purple energy.

Not too far away, four men waited for information to come from their beast scout.

"So, they've finally moved on… They took their time, didn't they?" Vixus commented as he commanded his last lizard to return.

"Maybe they were recovering after wiping out the two floors," added Bikkem.

Quallace nodded. "Right, then it was smart of us to let them handle the floors for us. Let's wait here a while and give them time to clear the next floor."

"Isn't now also a good time to contact Kaldor?"

"I'll do that now, no need to remind me, Vixus." After rolling his eyes at Vixus, Quallace pulled out his contact crystal with haste. "Kaldor, how far out are you?"

"I should be arriving within the hour. It's to the north of the city, right?" asked Kaldor.

"To the northwest. You'll see a clearing and some giant, black doors that you can't miss," explained Quallace. "Once you're there, stand in front of the doors for thirty seconds for them to open, and don't worry about closing it."

"Alright, I'll be calling you soon!"

Kaldor hung up, not wanting to waste time talking. He was busy imagining all of the treasure he was about to receive, dwarfing everything that Hurmot and Argyle had won at the yearly auction.

Picturing mountains of gold and platinum… Imagining the piles of ancient weapons and equipment… Visualizing all of the priceless treasures that had been sealed away within his grasp… Kaldor enjoyed his daydreams for the rest of the ride as his Giant Condor carried him to the northern region of Trodar.

By the time the condor descended, Kaldor was antsier than ever.

Raids weren't an uncommon occurrence for Kaldor, but he had never gained exclusive access to a newly opened dungeon that had been sealed for a millennia. That was a dream come true for him.

Now standing in front of the black doors, Kaldor was feeling anxious, so anxious that he struggled to stand still in front of the ancient doors.

But after thirty long seconds, Kaldor's smile got wider.

He stored the condor and strode forward to enter the opening doors. Once there was enough room to fit the large man he stepped in, or at least he tried to.

For some reason, Kaldor was unable to enter the doorway. Even with the doors open and unlocked, Kaldor still felt an invisible force blocking him from entering the dungeon he was so eager to raid.

A minute passed as Kaldor struggled against the invisible force. Another minute passed. Soon five minutes passed and Kaldor remained unable to go any further. Rage and fury were painted on his face as he retrieved his contact crystal.