"Kill him for me..."
"Silence, you do not have a high status in the sect. This incident might even cost you..."
"I want him to die!" the young master yells before he's knocked out, the fat man sighs and carries him on his back.
He takes one final look at Jack before leaving, Jack doesn't look back walking towards his seat again, the black hooded men leave quietly causing the crowd to stir.
"We'll be back." the fat man says and disappears along with the young lord.
Jack sits back down and sips a drink, "Well the life of a player is exciting..." with a slow exhale.
Amber refills his drink, "It is indeed, your village never has a quiet moment."
Jack and Amber quietly eat as the group of people break into their own individual conversations, mostly praising Jack for his actions then. Some of them feel relieved about the actions while the browned haired girl looks towards Jack with eyes filled with infatuation.
He has noticed her eyes at times but he doesn’t know anything about her, no one has explain who these people are or what their names are, he only knows that they have a non-simple status within the city.
They finish up the meal shortly after, the auction will start soon and Jack needs to still check in at the marketplace so he does his part to hurry them up.
The people in the group slowly finish their meals as they relax in their chairs and have their own conversations, Jack cannot tell what they’re about yet he doesn’t mind as it feels lively to be part of the crowd.
The consequences of todays actions will be unknown but it has been handled and no one from the city has been notified so far allowing him to relax. Amber has many things to explain about the group but as his eyes meet hers, he cannot bring himself to ask.
The lead server comes in and tidies up serving a delectable dessert, something like chocolate that everyone seems to be melting for.
"It's too bad I can't let you guys try the stuff from my world." Jack says as they tidy up, each person feels satiated with a content smile on their face.
"I hope you can let us try it at one point. We are glad you stood up to the Shadow Sect people, they've been trying to push around our families but we've held strong for the most part..." the brown-haired girl speaks as the others nod along with her words yet remain quiet.
"We'll see how it goes. I’m not afraid of them and did you see how strong they were? I could handle them already, so how about we visit the marketplace?"
"Sure we can visit it shortly” the brown-haired girl speaks as the others mutter between themselves.
"We can visit it?"
"Sure our parents aren't expecting us until it starts."
"It starts in 1 hour... is that enough time?"
"Push it, didn't you see how he handled that shadow sect? He was stronger than most of our guards so he can just beat them up."
...
The group whispers loudly to themselves, Jack turns to Amber trying to ignore them as they sing his praise.
"Well can we drag them around? You seem to be the leader and I don't really wanna be stuck waiting for the discussions."
"You're the only leader of me, Lord." Amber latches onto Jack's arm as he sighs.
"Alright let's go..." Jack stands up with Amber attached to him, she sticks to him even if he is trying to shake her off at times.
The group follows after like a colourful entourage, the lead server smiles at this successful service as the people waiting to come in speak about the group leaving.
A lot of the people are talking about the lead person with the woman attached to him, but the followers of all the lesser young masters of their respective houses and their colourful appearance draw attention as they walk out. The residents and players talk amongst themselves as Jack exits the building keeping an eye out for the Shadow sect people.
He cannot spot anything but there's far too many people to keep track of. The auction place is across the main road with the large stall plaza before it.
They have a bit of time to check it out so Jack sets out; the road is busy with hundreds of carriages and mounts crossing all the time, so they cross as a big group.
"Young Lord!"
As soon as they cross they hear a yell, they turn to see some people wearing the matching clothing to the various people following.
"Well, I guess we have to part? Shall we meet again?" the brown-haired girl looks at Jack.
"Maybe?" Jack speaks.
"Sure, you just need to come to our city. It'll be ready soon. right?" Amber says nonchalantly.
"Sure" Jack reaffirms Amber but his eyes go into the surroundings as many people reacted when Amber said that. Their eyes closely look at his appearance yet as they look at the other people, many of them turn around.
"Thank you." the brown-haired girl bows towards Jack and Amber and leaves with the rest.
"Thanks for the time, you're a cool player."
"Can't believe I met such a player that is so easy going."
"Didn't even try to extort our status or anything."
...
The entourage leaves saying their goodbyes but also talking about themselves, Jack waves at them leaving him alone with Amber finally.
"So, who were they?"
"People from my old life... you promised me two things."
"Uhh..." Jack wants to speak more about this situation but he cannot speak with her right now and looking at her makes it even harder.
"Uhh?" Amber speaks.
"I gotta find some presents for Jessica, Mai and Lunamarie."
"What about Leah?"
"True... I gotta find something for her."
"What about the other girl?"
"What?"
Amber steps away and starts pulling him, "Never mind, you're a popular guy. Let's go find them some presents."
….
Back at the village, the day has been dark and murky as Jessica and Lunamarie are making pills together, slowly getting to know one another as they spent the day together.
"We should have gone with Jack" Jessica speaks while playing with the little phoenix.
"Why?" Lunamarie concentrates as the lids float around her. The runic character on her skin glows and flickers as she stands there relaxed. The other alchemists are resting exhausted while she's standing there with a large smile on her face.
"Well, we could tell him about what's going on here. He just got back and now he's gone again..." Jessica mutters.
"We can't spend all our time with him" Lunamarie speaks and then abruptly stops her words.
"You think about that?"
Jessica looks at Lunamarie in the eyes, the bunny girl has bright silver eyes as the qi flows through her body, Jessica looks at her with cold eyes that flicker with a flame. A quiet battle happens without being declared or lasting more than a moment, but neither could declare a winner.
"He's going to attract lots of talent and I think I'll be a talent around this dinky town," Lunamarie smiles and speaks bluntly.
"Ahh... This would all be a lot simpler if he just spoke to us.... Well, let's hope things work out because great men need lots of helpers and it's better to find people that can be trusted" Jessica holds the phoenix chick close to her chest, it makes a cute cooing noise and goes to sleep.
Jessica places the chick back into her bosom, "What do you think about the incident that Mai experienced last night?"
"I hope it's nothing serious, but if we had more of a supply of those demon-suppressing herbs we'd be much better off."
"Well, we haven't seen her all morning. She seems fairly annoyed at what's going on but I can't speak to her... Sleipner seems to settle her down but it's not good to travel right now and she’s gone..."
"Let's hope she comes back soon then"
Lunamarie concentrates to finish off the herbs, the runic characters on her body travel about but they're not very energetic as they move about. Jessica concentrates on her cultivation and pushes towards the next bottleneck, she just needs to wait for her cultivation to unlock and that time is soon.
A loud thudding noise draws their attention, they all look towards it and can spot one of the dwarves in power armour.
"Ma'ams"
"Glomor?" Jessica asks, her cold eyes analysing the tin can before her.
"Aye."
"What?"
"Ma'am, we have set up the initial subspace scanner and... we cannot detect anything."
"What?" Jessica and Lunamarie ask in unison.
"Well it's kind of complicated but we cannot contact anything beyond this small space where we are now. This is a bad thing but this has allowed us to detect a signal that's incredibly weak... on this planetoid. We'll raise the issue with Lord but we thought they we'd come up and see how you're going and can see the fog outside. I understand the infestation has continued?"
"Uhh..." Lunamarie utters.
"Yes. This infestation has been allowed to fester by an inattentive planet attendant... His ideas are idiotic but small scale so we can only deal with them."
"Aye ma'am. We were discussing if we should help you guys prepare a level 2 defense?"
"Please do" Jessica speaks calmly.
"Ok we'll shortly erect some of the defenses, the interior area seems mostly clean. When is Lord due to be back?"
"Not too long but why does it matter, you dwarves are stuck here just like us with these heaven's barriers in place. No one can get through them until they're cleared and you've decided to hold up in your little holes."
Jessica looks at Glomor, his tall stature in the power armor yet revealed head is afraid to meet Jessica's gaze. Lunamarie looks over now and then trying not to make eye contact with Jessica in this mood.
"Ma'am, we'll get to work."
"Please do."
Glomor bows and leaves the room in a heavy stomp, Jessica sits down on a random chair and closes her eyes.
"Do you know what will happen tonight?"
"No..."
"Oh" Lunamarie's ears droop upon this quick response.
"Nothing good will come, we need to prepare and that's what we're doing now. You're doing your best, let's just hope that the one that we've placed all our hopes on will pull through."
"Ok..." Lunamarie trails off her words, Jessica is confusing her right now but she has a job to do which is important.
Lunamarie focuses on making pills as the rest of the village is alive with progress, the black fog surrounding the village did not disappear overnight so the sun is barely able to appear through the coverage yet it can still cast a creepy glow over everything. Mai is walking around the green landscape, the green glow on her body is causing the plants around her to grow as she walks around. The nameless weeds and bushes grow to huge heights.
"I feel something around here?"
Mai stops at a random spot on the landscape. It doesn't seem any different yet when she reaches forward and touches a certain spot it shivers in the air.
