Jacko gulped as he returned to the Town, seeing many corpses of mages and other adventurers. The town was partly in ruins, then he saw some of the adventurers helping Petal lift something up. He immediately ran to her and saw that they were carrying the injured Vines. He saw that his body seemed intact, but his veins are baring there. "Jacko!? You're alive!" Petal said when she saw Jacko, letting go of Vines' body and letting the adventurers just lift him there, since her strength contributed nothing anyway. "Nurse Petal, what happened!?" Jacko immediately asked. "What happened to Vines?"
Nurse Petal holds his shoulders. "He's going to be fine." She assured, then catches a smell on Jacko. "You smell of burning shit, did you kill the Flame Elemental or something?" Petal covered her nose as she sarcastically asked. "Yeah...it killed everyone else tho." Jacko said. "Wait what." Petal said. "Everyone died..." Jacko repeated. Petal is not even surprised anymore. "Let's go check on Vines." She said, turning back to the Nurse Hut.
The adventurers waited and watched the Nurse attach multiple pads on the body of Vines, they never knew that Vines was that brave of a fighter, suspicions even rose that he might have been a powerful fighter back in the day. Even Jacko was shocked, he was worried because it reminded him of what Broff looked like when he spoke his last breath. "Is he going to be ok?" Jacko asked after the Nurse finished stabilizing Vines. "He'll be fine, if you ask me, I say he's been through worse. He just got unlucky this time, maybe being older did have something to do with it." Nurse told. Jacko was getting curious and worried, he didn't even care to know what happened. He just wanted to do something about it. The door suddenly opened, the pink haired receptionist entered alongside an injured Boey. "Oh damn it all, looks like we're back in business." The Nurse groaned. "I'm not just here to bring him in, ugh...The Guildmaster is dead, along with that guy's brother." She then tosses a rolled up paper to the Nurse. She then reads through the paper. It looked like a contract that the late Gallant signed. "The guild will be officialized once Trax becomes the Guildmaster? What kind of bullshit is this? And he's dead too...goddammit." She then crumples the paper and tosses it away, hitting Jacko on the head, which he doesn't mind. "The Magekeeps probably took advantage of the dude and that's why they attacked. I don't know, just speaking from speculation. Where should I put him?" Miya shared, then returned to the focus of putting Boey down. "Just over there." Petal told as she helped lift the blonde man on another bed. Jacko was thinking to himself. He had heard Vines talk about Magekeeps before. They were mages that kept their way of making magic their own.
Humans naturally don't possess magic powers at all, they mostly rely on magic items dropped by monsters and found across the world. There were other creatures that also possess magics, but they usually hid from the humans. Vines once said that a friend of his wanted to make the world his, that's why they were no longer friends. They beat him up so badly that the guy had to use the magic infused in his body to barely survive and age rapidly. Jacko then looked up at the Nurse.
"What if they try attacking again?" Jacko asked. Miya turned Jacko. "Good question..." She groaned. "Magekeeps people are delusional, they love avenging their fellow mages, oh they're gonna be so pissed when they realize an Elder Mage was killed here...Haha, shit." She laughed, a bit worried as well. "Can't we just ask help from Greyhold?" Jacko continued. "That's going to be too far, and it's way risky having our few strong fighters to go there just to ask for help. The journey there takes a month by foot, a few days shorter if you get to catch a ride." Then she realized something. "Unless, nooo..." Miya groaned. "I want to go there." Jacko said. "Even if you could go there, they're not gonna help a small town like ours...hell, you might even be captured by Magekeeps because of your slime stuff." Miya told. The Nurse then comes by. "What's happening?" She asked. "The kid wants to go to Greyhold to ask for help. I heard Vines wanted that to happen anyway. Hah." Miya said with a mocking tone. Nurse Petal then looked at Jacko. She then groaned as she went into another room. "I'm being serious, Miss...I want to prove that I am a man...to Mr. Vines..." He then looked at the resting body of Vines. Miya looked at him and scoffed. "It's not for me to decide, I'm just advising at least. It's not like you killed anything serious. And you smell like...wait a minute, that's an enchanted robe!?" She then immediately pulled Jacko's shoulder sleeve and smelled it and looked at him. "Oh god." She looked at him with dread and disgust, with a hint of amazement. "Well, I was the one who took down the Flame Elemental...but I couldn't save-" Miya immediately interrupted. "I hate prodigies." She groaned. The Nurse then returned with a belt with a small bag with it. "Jacko." She said sternly. Jacko looked up, recognizing the tone of seriousness in her voice. "Wear this." She tosses it to Jacko and he immediately wore it. "Thanks..but." Petal gave her the look again and Jacko stopped talking. "When Vines and I were adventurers, we got some good shit from back then. Made some good allies. Hell, Greyhold knew our name cuz we were the first ones to return from the Dragon Dungeons." She reminisced. "Now we got tired, now I'm giving you this belt I found. It's small but it can store a lot of stuff there. Take inventory before you leave." She told. "Wait, I can actually go?" Jacko asked. "Jacko, me and Vines know what you could do. It's great, but you're fucking dangerous you know that?" Petal said. "You're the first person I know that can use magic without enhancements and shit, you could even summon monsters. And you haven't learned anything new for the past 8 years. And after doing quests for just a week, you could already take down a Flame Elemental." She continued. "Jacko, your only weakness is you're a good kid." She then holds his shoulder. "You just need to know when to be good, and when to go crazy with whatever it is you do." Jacko listened to her words, was she even the same psycho nurse he knew. "Ok..." Jacko was amazed that she didn't cuss that much this time. "Get some rest today, you're leaving tomorrow." She then said as she returned to tend to her patients. Miya then looked at Jacko. "Geez, didn't know she actually cared for you." Miya pointed out. "To be honest, I thought she secretly wants to rip my heart out in my sleep..." Jacko admitted. "Eh." Miya reacted.
Jacko returned to the tavern, seeing the roof is ripped off, but the rest of the tavern itself is fine. "Jacko." Roses called from behind him. "Roses, Vines is-" Roses immediately interrupted Jacko. "I know about Vines, if Petal says she'll be fine, she'll be fine. That man would be dead if it weren't for her." Roses admitted. "Well, someone's gotta get everyone drinks after the shit that happened today." He says as they both entered.
The atmosphere in the tavern was a bit somber tonight, many adventurers were killed during the battle. There were only talks of the days with the fallen fighters. Jacko sat on the table where he once sat with Broff's team. He looked at the empty seats and looked down at the mug of whiskey he ordered. He missed the stories the men told, even though he wasn't he listening to them that much, even tho it hadn't been a week. It just felt like something was missing. He wondered what would happen if Vines actually died. Would he feel like this as well? He then takes a little sip of the whiskey and immediately spat it out. "Why does everyone love drinking this..?" He asked himself, immediately standing up and then walking across the half empty tavern. Roses chuckled as he saw Jacko give up on the drink.
He sat in his room then he removed his robes, then he noticed the Slime Heart within him throbbing, it looked like it took a toll on being used a lot during the battle against the Flame Elemental. He recalled the feeling throughout the battle, it felt exhilarating, even though slime was burning away from his Slime Heart. Jacko then tried summoning slimes, this time, as many as he can. He was shocked to see that he had summon 5 Water Slimes in front of him. This was a revelation to him. Throughout the years he could only summon one at a time. He then recalled what happened with the Elder Slime. His eyes widened as he just realized now that he may have absorbed the Elder Slime itself. Now it got him thinking...if he absorbed more slimes, this mass would get bigger and make him stronger. The idea of being a slime mass disgusted him. He shook the idea out of his head and then began taking inventory from the small bag around the belt.
First of all, the map of their current continent. The Heridon Continent. He finds the marked location of the Honey Town, at one side there was the Slime Grove, beyond the Slime Grove is Phish Town. Beyond Phish Town was the rest of the sea. He then finally sees how far Greyhold was. It was a large chunk of the map, surrounded by Greyhold Mountains, where there were huge mines for ores. There is then a large steel wall surrounding the City and the Mines. The reason for such defenses was because their mines were close to the Dragon Mountains. It was larger than the city itself, it was also where the infamous Dragon Dungeons is located. Jacko was amazed by the information, then he returned to focusing on his route. Right on the side to where the rest of the located around Honey Town, was Shammy Forest. It's a small and short forest directly leading into the large barren land known as the Badbands. It was basically the Badlands, with a b. It was called the Badbands because of the abundance of bandits in the area. He was to be beware of the bandit's hideouts through out the land. After that, there is a plains with some forestry sprinkled there. This was Mages Plains, it is where the Magekeeps Towers are located. Best to stay away from that. Beyond that, there is now an established road to the Greyhold City, where there was also a small town owned by Greyhold known as Bronze Town. Though they are in the middle of a forest known as the Lemealow (Lee-Me-Alow) Forest. And beyond the rest of the road and the Bronze Town, is the Whelp Plains, where young dragons roam, preying on other monsters that live there, possibly weak adventurers. They mostly stay away from the Greyhold Wall near them, knowing that they will be killed if they ever do decide to get close.
Now that Jacko has studied the route, he then pulled out a book from the bag. It was labeled "PP's Dairy". Jacko flipped through the pages and saw written pages...and immediately closed it after seeing a nude picture of The Nurse. "Oh no...I don't think I should have this-" Jacko thought, but it must have been given to him for a reason.
Not THAT reason.
Anyway, he pulled out another book known as "Adventurer's Guide by Lokan Pail." It was written in 1980. The year today is 2013. Jacko flipped through the pages as well, seeing scribbles from Petal on some pages. And was relieved that there were no surprise nudes.
There were also some pens and some cash, but Jacko already had a great amount of money and places them in the bag. He ought to ask Roses to prepare some food to bring as well.
Jacko couldn't wait for tomorrow, for it will be the day his adventure will truly begin.