The Achievement Junkie

Chapter 203 Planning the Next Move

"No, you’re not betrothed to Jack, not unless you want to be."

"I refuse," stated Jack. "Erina is a lovely girl, but I already have two wives and two other female companions. Plus, she’s still young and will find her own love someday."

"I understand and I agree with you," Willim chuckled. "Now, I wish I could travel with you too!"

"Sadly, we can’t. I’ve got too many things to do and most of those things are top secret. Just ask your father how secretive things are, I’m sure he’ll agree with me."

"Willim, he’s right. Maybe in the future, but for now, just focus on getting stronger. If you don’t give your all when leveling, you’ll get left behind and won’t be able to help Jack if the need ever arises," stated the king as he turned back to Jack. "Young hero, I owe you a lot. If you ever need my help, consider the Aazoon Kingdom as an ally."

"Thank you, King Wilheim." Jack bowed, happy that things went as smoothly as planned. "I’ll remember that in the future. For now, I need to leave with my friends. We’ll be passing through Maltor to reach Stladen."

"Sounds like a plan, I wish you the best!" chuckled the king. "But be careful in Maltor, the people and the nobility are very prideful. They’ve been our rivals for quite some time."

"I’ll remember that, thanks!"

"At least take this, as a gift to remember us by."

Jack received a ring from the king and bowed to them. After a couple more minutes of chatting, the small party was escorted through the palace by Willim and Erina. Once back outside, they said their goodbyes and parted with smiles.

It was now evening after everything the king had them do.

With their task over, the small party returned to the inn, letting Lina eat anything she wanted from the food stands along the way.

When they got back, they found Rydel and Maynard sitting at the bar. To make room, they relocated to a table with Jack, Maura, and Lina.

"So, how’d things go at the palace?" asked Rydel.

"They went really well. The king had my reveal the hidden identities of the syndicate members in the palace, and he wiped them all out. We now have a new ally for the future," explained Jack. "However, after dinner, me and Maura are going to have a long chat with Lina about her identity and her powers, since she’s not allowed to show anyone without permission."

"Oopsie..." Lina put her head down, avoiding eye contact.

Maura giggled, "It’s okay, this time you’re lucky it was the king. If it was anyone else, things would’ve been harder to explain, right Jack?"

"Right, so no more transforming without our permission. We’ll talk more after dinner, so for now just order as much as you want."

"Yay! Thanks, Big Brother!"

By the time the food was ordered and brought to the table, the remaining three girls returned with big smiles on their faces.

"Ya all seem happy," said Maynard. "What did ya find?"

"We only found one peak-tier spell for Maura, but we found some good high-tier spells for Maura, Eliza, and I," stated Keela with a proud smile.

"Good, then we’ll discuss paying you back after dinner in the room."

Not wanting to discuss so much money in public, Jack’s party enjoyed their meal first. After they and Lina had their fill, they all gathered back in Jack’s room.

Now in the privacy of their room, Daliea cast silence to let them feel at ease.

Bowzer was let out of Jack’s ring since he was now too big to be carried, a fact that Bowzer didn’t like. The fox laid across his bed and started devouring the meat Jack gave him.

"Before anything, let me check something."

By now, they were used to Jack randomly closing his eyes and tuning out the world. They all guessed it had something to do with Daruun, since it was how Jack found Sterfen and Lunara.

After they found Lunara by accident, Jack made a point to look at all gods at once. He didn’t want to accidentally overlook a god and get his party in trouble.

He had spent some time in Sterfen’s and Lunara’s home memorizing the location of all the gods that they would have to visit, making things a bit easier. However, he was glad that he double-checked his map.

One of the god’s location had changed.

Originally, Jack had planned to go to Stladen because that was where the nearest god on their list was, Kori, the Fox God. Also, going that direction would lead them toward Trodar and some of the other gods anyway.

But now, the location of Kori’s shrine had changed. Kori was now in Fulken, which is the country between Stladen and Maltor.

Jack started thinking about what this meant. He didn’t know how a shrine could move, nor did he understand why Kori would now be even closer.

"We’ll keep our course for Maltor and we’ll readjust our course after that if we need to," stated Jack, bringing his attention back to the party.

"What do you mean readjust? Did something change?" asked Rydel.

"I’ll give you a few details about our current plans," explained Jack. "For now, our main goal is to get you all pledged to your chosen god. Whilst doing that, we need to keep leveling up and preparing to enter Trodar."

"Which gods are we visiting first?" asked Eliza, hoping she wouldn’t have to wait too long to pledge to her god.

"I’ll tell you where they are, but don’t mention any of this to anyone, got it?" Jack continued as they all nodded, "Dragas is in Limneer, so that will be the last one we visit, being the furthest from us."

Keela frowned, not too happy about being last.

She was now starting to feel like she was always getting overlooked by Jack. Since Daliea was closer to him on a personal level and the other two girls were his wives, this was the mindset she was starting to get, making her a bit more desperate in her future attempts to get Jack.

"Jin is in Prachten, so he’ll be the second last god we visit. It’s actually very convenient because I wanted to investigate both Prachten and Limneer already since they had broken off from Trodar and are currently warring together against Trodar," mentioned Jack.

"So those trips will also be about reconnaissance," stated Rydel. "We’ll make sure to remember that."

"Good," Jack continued. "The most complicated part of the trip will be our visit to Korten. At first, I thought we could go there after Trodar, but that’s changed. We must find a way to gain entry into Korten before then."

"Gain entry... into Korten?" Eliza laughed. "You do realize that not even the king of Stladen, the only country with a trade agreement with the elves, is allowed to cross the nation’s borders."

"I know. It was always hard for humans to enter, and it’s only gotten harder after the Holy War. But we have to enter Korten, no matter what. Inside Korten is where we’ll find both Eedaj for Daliea and Lyrun for you, Eliza."

Stunned by Jack’s statement, the party realized how serious Jack was, especially Eliza and Daliea.

"I may be able to get us in, but it might be a stretch. But for now, let’s focus on the next god we’ll be visiting," stated Jack. "Kori was in Stladen, so we had planned to go through Maltor and Fulken to get there, but that’s changed."

"Why has it changed?" asked Maura.

"You said Kori ’was’ in Stladen. Does that mean he’s no longer there?" Rydel caught what Jack was leading up to.

"You’re right, Kori’s shrine is no longer in Stladen. It has moved to Fulken now," Jack said as he shook his head in disbelief.

Everyone went wide-eyed, confused as to how that was possible.

"The shrine moved... but how?" Maynard asked, wondering if the know-it-all Jack had an answer.

"I have no clue, but I’ll be keeping tabs on Kori’s shrine as we travel," replied Jack. "Hopefully, the shrine won’t move further away. If it does, then we’ll have to give up on meeting Kori till later."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Keela raised her hand. "Jack, what are we doing after we enter Trodar?"

"That’s not something you should worry about. I’ll explain that after we finally enter Trodar. For now, don’t bother thinking about it," answered Jack.

Since no one else had any more questions, Jack added, "I also wanted to give you guys a heads up. Now that you know who I really am, I’ll probably start doing some unusual things like I did in the past. I just wanted to warn you."

"Really?! Can we help?" Eliza asked with a bright smile.

The moment they realized that Jack was the same Jack J., the Legend of Trodar, each of the girls viewed Jack differently. They were all certain that no one else would be better to marry than Jack, even if he had multiple wives.

Each of the women, including his wives, made it their goal to get Jack to fall in love with them. And if they got to make history alongside such a legendary figure along the way, then it would be even better.