The Achievement Junkie

Before saying anything else, Jack patted Lina on the head as he stepped up to his wives. He threw his arms around them let loose a long sigh of relief. "I'm back…"

All three of his wives hugged him as well. Eliza embraced him eagerly. Maura happily rested her head on Jack's shoulder. Daliea hid her blushing face against Jack's back. They were glad to see that Jack managed to get through such a perilous place without too much trouble.

"I informed everyone of your return the moment you showed up in Churstin," mentioned Eedaj. "They were just as shocked as we were to learn of your ascension, though I didn't mention your fight with Halmut. I thought--"

"You what?!"

SLAP!

Jack nervously chuckled, rubbing his cheek as he turned to face Eliza. "I can--"

"What were you thinking?!" shouted Eliza, instantly fuming mad. "You may be a god now but that doesn't mean you can fight Halmut! Why are you so stupid sometimes?!"

Eliza continued shouting as Jack calmly looked her in the eyes. "What would happen if you got killed?! What would happen to us?! What about our child?!"

Wrapping his arms around Eliza, Jack whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't think about that. But I'm okay now, and I--"

"Don't do that again!"

Sighing, Jack replied, "I won't forget to put my family first. I'm sorry."

"Okay…" Maura added, hugging Jack's arm lightly as Daliea grabbed the other arm in silence.

"I-I'm sorry…" Eliza's shoulders shrunk as she stammered, "I… Lately, I haven't been able to control my--"

"Don't worry about it." Jack pulled Eliza in so that he could hug all three of his wives again. "I take it the baby is doing fine?"

Relieved to be forgiven, Eliza sighed, "Yeah…"

"Now that you've made up, how about you explain your fight with Halmut?" asked Sterfen.

Jack nodded and looked around the room. Noticing that only Dragas and Guuro were missing among the gods, Jack felt comfortable explaining everything. "First, let me congratulate Kori and Lorwynn for their ascension as well."

"Nah, don't mention it," stated Lorwynn. "Compared to you, we don't deserve such praise."

"But I did it through the EXP everyone else gave me. I didn't--"

"EXP is EXP. You're the fastest to ever ascend, by a landslide. Results are what count and you got to the result in a way better than I could've ever imagined," reasoned Lorwynn.

"Thank you. Wait, where's--"

"JACK!"

A yell came from behind the door. But instead of opening the door, it burst into black flames as a man darted forward to tackle Jack to the ground. Everyone laughed as the man began to lick Jack's face, leaving the hero baffled and fighting to push the stranger off of him.

"Jack, what's wrong?" asked the man.

Getting past the shock of having a fully-grown man lick his face, Jack recognized that familiar voice. It was deeper than Jack remembered but there was no mistaking it. "Bowzer?!"

"YEAH!" Bowzer yelled in glee, lathering Jack's face in another coat of saliva.

"Okay, okay, that's enough, Bowzer!" Jack finally managed to get up. "How can you… Did you--"

"I ascended too!" Proudly chowing his chest, Bowzer smiled.

"I guess that makes sense…" Shrugging, Jack scratched his head in thought. "Then Phoro should be on the cusp of ascension. What about Karronteel?"

"What about me?"

Jack and the gods that attended the conference were all in shock. Not only had they just learned of Bowzer's ascension, but they now saw a human man walk through the door, answering to the name Karronteel.

Moranti was the only that didn't act surprised, though he was overjoyed and hurried to embrace Karronteel upon seeing him. "Finally… I'm not the only one!"

"It's all thanks to you!" Karronteel stated, graciously hugging Moranti. "Your skills and spells are how I beat that Flood Dragon. But how did we--"

"That should be thanks to the death of three gods," Sterfen chimed in. "Apart from Jack, you all know that Sybin was killed and that Jin killed himself. A bulk of EXP came from that, but the final push was probably from Naparn's death and something Jack did."

"You killed Naparn? But I wanted to--"

"Sorry, Bowzer. I know you wanted to avenge your father's lost arm but I didn't have the patience to wait that long," explained Sterfen. "I think we're all curious about what happened inside Earthen Keep, though. Let's give Jack a chance to explain his trip and his recent scuffle with Halmut."

"Right! Now we can all go!" howled a half-fox, half-human man, getting Jack's attention as he walked through the door. "Now you can help me, right? Right?!"

"And me too!" shouted Jin, pushing aside the tall fox-man.

Recognizing the voice, Jack glanced at Jin with a nod before looking back at the fox-man, asking, "Hadurt?"

"Yes?" Hadurt responded with a sly smile.

"You… What did you--"

Kori spoke up, "I gave him some of my blood and he decided to permanently demonize, same as Pestro. Only Hadurt's new form is much better thanks to him using Hell-flame Fox blood as the catalyst."

"Then you'll be a monster… That's great!" Jack shouted, smiling wide along with Hadurt.

"Jack? What happened in the keep?" Sterfen asked, lifting an eyebrow with a chuckle. "You can catch up with them during the feast the guild is preparing."

"Right…" Jack sighed, regathering his thoughts and placing his excitement to the side.

Jack took his time to give succinct explanations of all the major events that happened during his time in Earthen Keep. He touched on the two new venoms and poisons he had collected, getting Sterfen to perk his ears. Once Jack got to his experience about the ninety-ninth floor, he paused and motioned for his new assistant to step forward. "This is Duorda, the most powerful boss monster in Earthen Keep."

Speaking for himself, Duorda bowed to the cautious and curious looks. "It took plenty of effort, but Jack finally seduced me. I'm excited to--"

"I did nothing of the sort!" shouted Jack, stopping Duorda while everyone else burst out in laughter.