"Morning kid, what's wrong?" asked Rydel as Jack ran back into camp at top speed.
Jack was breathing heavily and held up a finger, wanting a second or two to catch his breath. "Nothing, just a little caught off guard by something I found."
"Oh, did you catch Slivia bathing?" asked Rydel nonchalantly.
"N-no, I was just concerned that something happened, so I went looking for her," stammered Jack. His usual smooth self was gone, leaving a young, hesitant version of him in its place.
Rydel laughed, "So what if you saw her? Man up and admit it, for all you know she may be okay with it."
Jack shook his head and turned his focus to relighting the fire. After that, he dismissed himself to catch some breakfast so they could get an early start to the day.
Amused by Jack's nervousness, Rydel stopped pestering him for the time being and started taking down his tent.
Slivia returned soon and was glad that Jack wasn't at the campsite, wanting to avoid any more awkwardness. By the time she and Rydel packed up the two tents, Jack was back with another unihorn deer.
Bowser was up and ready for his first meal of the day, devouring his half before anyone else could even get their meat cooking over the fire. The young fox blinked as he felt Jack's suppressed nerves thanks to their mutual bond. 'Jack, what wrong?'
Startled by the young voice Jack answered 'Nothing, just had a weird morning. I'll be back to normal after breakfast.'
Not giving it too much thought, Bowser finished his portion as the rest pulled their meat off the flame and started to eat. Bowser, being smart and mischievous, trotted over to Slivia and accepted her loving pets.
She scratched his belly and behind his ears, eventually, she even shared her food with him.
Jack understood Bowser's intentions and couldn't help but laugh, settling some of his nerves.
He ate his food as he pondered a few things. First, he wasn't too surprised when a new achievement appeared about seducing Slivia, but he had yet to decide how he wanted to treat it. Second, Jack focused on piecing together some sort of plan for the azure mine. With all the smaller goblin settlements abandoned, they were going to have to change their tactics.
Originally, Jack and Rydel both had a mutual understanding that Jack would be the bait to lure out the goblins from each settlement, giving Rydel plenty of targets for his volleys of arrows.
Thanks to Rydel's superior level, this bait and hunt strategy was perfect for grinding EXP, so long as the bait had complete trust in the hunter.
That wasn't a problem for Jack; if anything he was pumped about being the bait. No matter how unorthodox, if it could accelerate his leveling, he didn't care about the tactics.
Now that there was only a single city deep within the mine, the only small targets were likely just outposts, but attacking those would be the same as knocking on the front door of the goblin city and announcing their arrival.
They had to come up with a new plan that could wipe out the city; Jack was determined to do at least that and cash in extra EXP from his achievement.
Plus, if the system made it such a priority, then it would be best if he could accomplish it. If not, he struggled to even guess what might happen in the future.
"Got any bright ideas kid?" Rydel's voice broke the silence. "We'll reach the mine's entrance this afternoon and enter it tomorrow morning after you're fully healed, so I hope you're ready."
"Don't worry captain, I've got a few new ideas," replied Jack.
"What are you guys going to do?" asked Slivia, curious what she had unknowingly signed up for.
Jack blinked a couple of times after turning to Slivia, still a bit shaken from their morning encounter. "We'll need to sneak past all the outposts first. With Rydel's eagle eye that shouldn't be too difficult, but that leaves us with the biggest problem. That goblin city shouldn't be too big yet, right?"
"I'd guess it was three times bigger than Baltwood, but nowhere near the size of the capital," answered Slivia.
"Okay, then I think I know what would be best." Jack nodded sternly and became more serious. "What did that old fart say about all this?"
"This is now an official mission from the association. The chief said he was too busy to come personally on such short notice, but he pulled a few strings and convinced a good friend of mine to help us out. He'll be at the mine by sunrise tomorrow, so make sure we have a big meal waiting for him. A few of his students might tag along too, but his strongest student is only lv. 21 so don't force them into anything too crazy." Rydel was slightly more energetic when he mentioned his friend.
"What level and class is he?"
"His name's Maynard and he's a lv. 33 samurai, specializing in dual-wielding and absolute slaughter. He's terrible at stealth and he struggles thinking on his feet, but with simple instructions against an army of low leveled enemies he's the best in the branch, second only to the chief," said Rydel, making sure to praise his friend while letting Jack understand how he would be best used.
"That's perfect!" Jack smiled, feeling more confident with his wild plan. "They'll be the main force and the diversion. How confident are you with infiltrating the city and ousting the goblin king?"
"What makes you think there's a goblin king?" asked Rydel.
"If the Royal Court is supporting the goblins from behind the scenes, then they must've confronted one of the strongest goblins and given him the ability to kill his rivals and become the goblin king. That's the only way that so many major changes could've happened so quickly." Jack's guess was based on the different goblin events that were always appearing in "A Hero's Tale," all of which ended with facing the tribe's goblin king. But now that they weren't playing a game and could make plans outside a game's protocol, why not take the king out immediately?
"Hmm, okay I'll do it. But know that I'm not 100% confident. If there's a goblin king involved, then he's probably not much weaker than me and that's if there's not someone from the Royal Court there to interfere." Rydel shrugged and spoke honestly.
"That's fine, you're still the best option for that part of the plan. As for Slivia, you'll join the main force as the cleric and rake in plenty of EXP. How's that sound?" Jack looked back at her, gently meeting her gaze.
"I can do that." Slivia nodded and clenched her fists with determination.
"Great! With the goblin armies facing a meat grinder and the goblin king being assassinated, it will only be a matter of time till they fall into chaos and let us walk all over them," reasoned Jack.
"What about you kid? What are you going to do?" Rydel understood that as long as they were all registered in one party, everyone will get a small cut of EXP from every monster slain. That would give Jack a chance to level up at a ridiculous pace which would make any adventurer green with envy. He hoped that Jack would do something and not just chill by the wayside.
"Don't worry about that," Jack chuckled. "Once the goblin city is on the brink of collapse, I'll be there to kick them while they're down and keep them from getting back up."
Curious to see what Jack planned, Rydel smiled. "Sounds good to me, just don't bite off more than you can chew. You'll be alone and won't have anyone to save your sorry self."
"Trust me, if you think your friend will generate the most EXP, just wait till I make my move," said Jack confidently.
"Well, if that's it then we'll wait for Mardayn and his crew to finalize everything," replied Rydel with a smirk, holding onto a small belief that Jack could put off something so crazy since Jack was once an ancient hero.
"Wait, what are you going to do Jack? You're only lv. 4, it's impossible to do something that crazy," stated Slivia with concern in her eyes.
"Just trust me I can, if I wanted to destroy the goblin city alone, I could find a way to do it. With everyone else's help, the least I can do is that much," joked Jack.
He thought about jokingly asking if she was worried about him, but the thought alone made him hesitate due to his fear of rejection and he kept it to himself.
Jack quickly gathered his thoughts and continued, "Just look at it this way, I'm desperate to level up as fast as I can. The fastest ways to do this legitimately always carry the biggest risk, but the payout is more than worth it. After this mission, you'll be more than able to join the Adventurer Association and I'll be able to fast track my way to the top of the branch."
Slivia wanted to disagree and keep Jack from doing something so dangerous, but she could feel his persistence. She frowned slightly and said, "Fine, but promise me you won't die. If you die, I'll never forgive you."
Jack laughed, "Of course I won't die. What do you think this is, some game with infinite lives?"