Chapter 317 Quest Update

Terry and Jom sat beside the hearth as well and waited for the old man to finish reading the letter.

Whether it was because of the city’s sea level or the climate in the region, Crookes was still freezing even though Lancaster was getting warmer lately.

It was fortunate that the cottage was very warm and entering it was revitalizing, just like soaking in a hot spring. ‘After this quest is done, I’m going back to the Unnamed Village and jumping into the hot spring.’ Jom thought for some reason, giving him a little motivation.

Beside him, Terry was fidgeting around restlessly on his chair which did not look sturdy in the first place, and was now creaking beneath his weight as if it would fall apart at any given moment.

Jom glared at him, but his warning went unheeded-Terry wasn’t even looking at him.

And not a moment too soon, Terry finally couldn’t stop himself from asking the old man, “Do you have anything to eat, sir? I’m starving!”

The old man’s eyesight appeared to be poor and was squinting to read each word beside the light of the hearth. He looked up at Terry’s interruption, threw him a look before turning back to his letter again.

But just as Terry presumed that the old man wasn’t offering any food, he spoke quietly from behind the letter.

“There’s some seasoned sausage in the bucket over at that corner. You could bake it at the hearth—the clippers are just beside it. Or do you need me to teach you?”

“Thanks!” Terry cheerfully ran off to get the sausage, while Jom didn’t move at all.

Weird. Why hasn’t the quest on the System page update itself?

Maybe he has to try something to move it along?

With that in mind, Jom frowned at the old man and asked, “What’s the letter about?”

“An old-timer’s crazy talk.” The old man said as he slid Jom a glance. “Don’t you the contents? You sent it here after all.”

Jom shrugged. “We’re just normal couriers.”

“Do you know about Tierra?” The old man suddenly asked. “Of course. It was a fallen kingdom.” Jom, unaware of why the old man would ask that, chose to answer as normally and ambiguously as he could There’s no way he was going to say ‘Tierra’s Princess is my bro’… In fact, with her dozens halo, buff skills, and ferocious battle style which earned her love from everyone whenever she joins a group, many Players now called Princess Leah bro.

Still, she personally disliked that title, and anyone saying that in front of her would be given an almighty beating with her legendary-tier brass knuckles. One should mention that the princess’s brass knuckles had a hidden attribute that inflicts 20% extra pain to its victims, although many Players would still tirelessly provoke her to earn that beating…

Indeed, the Players’ madness stat was getting richer.

“And this letter is from a loser of that fallen kingdom, howling at other dogs to have them rally so that they would start barking vengefully for that long-dead kingdom.”

The old man threw the letter into the hearth then, watching it as the fires consumed it as it vanished.

While it sounded vague, Jom got the general idea.

Lancaster’s mayor Corinth Atherton had saved his family by defecting to the Valla Empire, surviving by the skin of his teeth.

Even so, Corinth could still be considered a former minister of the fallen nation Tierra, and calling him a loser wasn’t an issue.

And with Aojo’s recent manifestation at the consulate in Lancaster which directly killed the new emperor’s envoy, a fight against Valla’s army might prove unavoidable.

Even so, the success of the Twin City Cup, as well as the Players’ display of power at the tourney and against Aojo afforded Corinth some confidence to resist the imperial military.

Be that as it may, although the Players had several leaders who were good at command, they were not actually trained specifically for the task. While it was true that they were effective at certain ambush tactics, they still lacked the genuine experience of assuming military command. It was therefore understandable for Corinth to seek out old comrades of his Tierra days, inviting them to Lancaster to help.

But unlike Corinth who was treated fairly because of his willful defection, his old comrades—including the old man now facing Jom-were mostly likely on the Valla Empire’s wanted list and was forced to leave their homes while leaving in anonymity, and as such were losers as well.

And from how the old man reacted, it was clear he wouldn’t help Corinth. That was the hunch Jom had thanks to the information he had.

Could the next quest involve persuading the old man on Corinth’s behalf so that he came to Lancaster?

He turned towards the System page but found that the quest still had not been updated.

That was when Terry came to the hearth with the sausages.

Jom thought that he was here to baked his sausages, only for Terry to suddenly draw his sword and swing it at the old man when he reached them!

The old man must have been military tooeven though he looked advanced in years, his movement was nimble enough for him to roll off his reclining chair, roll on the floor to evade Terry’s swing.

“Wait, Terry! What are you doing?!”

Jom was about to stop him, but Terry kept a cold glare at the old man even as he replied. “Jom. Don’t you remember when we were asking directions that this old man had a granddaughter and a dog too?”

Jom did a double take—that had indeed happened, although he didn’t pay it much heed.

“What are you saying? Maybe the old man was afraid that we’re not friendly and had them hidden away?”

“See for yourself.”

Terry didn’t protest further and merely threw a sausage at Jom.As mentioned before, the Players had some extent of appraisal ability, which was why Jom could see information about the sausage even as he caught it.

(Human-canine sausage (seasoned with habanero wheat)]

Jom stared at the sausage in disbelief, and turned to the old man standing in a corner.

The yellow marker that hovered over the old man’s that labeled him ‘neutral senior citizen’ promptly turned to blood-red letters that read ‘swampman’.

“Well, I can’t do anything since I’m found out. My seasoned dishes are dwindling anyway.” The ‘old man’ smiled then, revealing untidy teeth full of yellowed tartar. “Blame yourself for nosing around, and curse the injustice of your fortunes…”

But before it could finish, Terry, who had taken the Berserker role in the Swordmaster-class had cut it in two with Grateful Dead.

Jom also unleashed his skill right after Terry, summoning a monster resembling a chunk of meat. It gaped what appeared to be its jaw and swallowed the swampman, who was squirming seemingly to try something, before devouring itself as well and vanished into thin air.

“Ah, the quest did update,” Jom said, having turned on his System page to check out the new quest. “But I’m not pleased at all.”