The Achievement Junkie

After Bowzer left, Jack was left alone to dwell in his thoughts. He sighed and resumed to check his achievement list.

[Reach Lv. 10: completed]

[Reach lv. 10. Reward: 10 skill points.]

[Complete First Mission: completed]

[Complete first mission on time. Reward: 10 skill points.]

[Beat Leodoro II to lv. 10: complete]

[Reach lv. 10 before Leodoro II. Reward: 10 skill points.]

[Find Byron Balt: completed]

[Find, heal, and rescue Byron Balt from the goblin dungeon. Reward: 20 skill points.]

[Find any survivors: completed]

[Some survivors found, and the Balt Guild was passed the responsibility to relocate them from the goblin dungeon. Reward: 5 skill points.]

[Find Slivia: completed]

[Find and rescue Slivia from the goblin dungeon. Reward: 10 skill points.]

[Destroy the goblin city: completed]

[The goblin city received major damage from fires and battles. Reward: 10 skill points.]

Excited to have so many achievements be cleared at once, Jack eagerly claimed all of his hard-earned skill points. With seventy-five skill points at his disposal, he immediately went to his skill tree.

Jack stared at his many skills, most still at lv. 0. He had plenty of skill points, but he also had to keep in mind that each level doubled in cost. The thought of him spending forty skill points on just his bloodline skill was hard to accept.

Thinking carefully, Jack chose to spend fifteen skill points on to upgrade his physical resistance to lv. 2, in hope that he'd have better defense the next time he used the bloodline skill.

Left with sixty-three skill points to spend and plenty of hesitation, Jack decided to save them for later. He had enough to level up three skills to lv. 3 or at least one companion skill to lv. 3, but he had no clue what he would need most against this incoming infestation that no one knew about. Keeping those skill points as a resource later to be used was the best plan he could think of at the moment.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door and it swung open. Jack was startled to see Maura carrying a tray of steaming-hot food towards him. "Is that for me?"

"What do you think?" answered Maura with her typical sass, placing the tray on Jack's bedside table. "I'll set it down here."

"That won't do," replied Jack. "I can't even raise my arms without feeling incredible pain."

"Then what do you suppose I do, feed you myself?" Maura said it as a joke, but when she looked back to Jack, he was giving her his best puppy dog eyes. With a grunt, she pulled out a chair and sat down beside him. "I'm only doing this because Sliv is gone, you got that?"

"Thanks, Maura." Jack smiled gently at the stubborn girl. He couldn't shake the feeling that she was colder than her usual sassy self. "Is something wron—"

Before jack could finish his question, Maura had already stuffed the first spoonful of what tasted like cinnamon-flavored oatmeal. "Don't speak, it'll take longer for you to eat."

Unable reply, Jack hurried to scarf down the oats but was quickly met with a second spoonful before he could say a word. One look at Maura told him that something was off, that something was different between them, but he couldn't figure out why. He wanted to ask, but he wasn't given a chance with Maura's generous mouth-shovels of oatmeal being forced down his throat.

After a few minutes, the oats were finished and Jack took in a few breaths to regain his composure. Glad to have that over with, he said, "Now that I'm done eating, Is something—"

Again, another vessel was shoved against his lips, this time it was a small bottle of wine.

Maura stated, "Dad said that wine will help numb the pain, so he made sure to share some from his personal stash. If you don't drink it all, he'll be mad."

Agreeing with her, Jack tried to nod while guzzling the wine down, gulp after gulp. In no time, Jack finished the bottle and sighed loudly. "Wow, that was some good wine. Thank that old fart for me."

With a nod, Maura picked up the tray and hurried to the door in silence.

"Wait, aren't you going to keep me company? Or at least chat for a couple of minutes?" shouted Jack.

"My dad will be here shortly to pass you the earnings from your mission and fill you in about your court trial. Until then, get some rest." Maura shut the door behind her, not addressing Jack's questions in the slightest and leaving him alone.

She rushed down the hall with her head down and accidentally bumped into someone. "Excuse me, I need to—"

"What do you need, sweetie?"

Hearing her father's familiar voice startled her and she looked up to reply, "Nothing, sorry Dad. I'll take these back to the kitchen."

"What's gotten into you? You've been acting weird ever since the others got back. Are you getting along well with Sliv?" asked Zariff, showing an unusual amount of care on his face.

"Of course, she's like an older sister I've never had."

Maura was an only child and had always wanted another sibling, especially a sister. In all her life, she had never had any close friends, since they moved around based on Zariff's assignments from the association and he was extremely protective over his only daughter.

"Good, that's how it should be. She doesn't have any other family, so I want to give her a place to call home. I tried to find her at the same inn I left her at a few years ago, but she was gone and no one could tell me where she went," explained Zariff. "Now that she's appeared again, the least we can do is welcome her as family."

"What does Mom think?" asked Maura.

"You know your mother, she's more than happy to have another girl in the family," laughed Zariff. "It was a miracle that she was able to have you, considering her condition. She had always wanted a big family, but she wasn't blessed with that ability. Adding one more to the family might not make it big, but she's more excited than anyone to have another daughter she can call her own."

"Right, I should hurry and get back to work." Maura smiled and tried to step past Zariff, but he held out an arm to block her.

"Is something wrong, sweetie?"

"No, nothing's wrong," replied Maura, looking away.

A slight smile crept up on Zariff's face. "Are you sure? You can always talk to me and mom if you're having boy troubles."

"What do you know!?" shouted Maura, ducking under her father's massive arms to escape.

Zariff chuckled and walked towards the same door Maura just exited. He knocked lightly, imitating his daughter's typical knock, and opened the door slowly.

"You came back. Is something wrong—" Jack's voice cut off the moment he saw Zariff's head poke out from behind the door.

Recognizing something, Zariff shook his head and walked into the room. "How you doing, brat? Can you move yet?"

"Not yet, it's only been a few hours," replied Jack.

"I guess we'll have to postpone the trial then," stated Zariff. "The Royal Court has been hounding me to bring you and that lazy hunter to trial. Things appear to be better for our case, but you still need to show your face before the trial can close."

"Well, give me a few days and we'll see how I am then." Jack could feel his body healing itself. It was incredibly slow, but he could feel it after he spent the early morning hours trying to sense his injuries while he waited for everyone to wake up.

"That's good; I'll do that then," replied Zariff. "Now, on to the important business. I've got your reward money and a couple of other things."

"How much did I make?"

"Well, considering you're still new and this was your first mission, the commission is lower, and I'll have to take a portion out for your medical supplies. In the end, you've earned about thirty gold," answered Zariff.

"Thirty gold!? I fought a troll captain and I only earned thirty gold?" questioned Jack.

"Did you kill the troll captain?"

Jack froze and didn't dare to answer the question, not wanting to bite Zariff's bait.

Zariff chuckled and continued, "Be lucky that you're the owner of that fox, otherwise, you might not be getting half this much. Earnings for missions are set in stone when the mission is formed and funded, in this case, it was based on the association creating it and not a third party. The reward is then divided based on contributions within the mission. Out of the entire party, you technically contributed the least, only second to Sliv."

"But I—"

"That's how it works, so take it or leave it," stated Zariff, stern as ever.

"But I don't need any medical supplies, it won't even affect me if I did use it. Why am I paying for that?" asked Jack.

"Well, you should've told us that before we wasted various potions and paid for a medic to check you out," replied Zariff.

"I was unconscious!"

"That doesn't change the fact that we used it," argued Zariff.

Knowing that he was bound to lose the argument, Jack accepted his defeat and grunted, "Fine, just put it in my hand."

Once Zariff placed the bag of coins on top of Jack's hand it vanished. Jack quickly and begrudgingly stored it away.