Second World

"So, what did you learn?" Peniel asked after the maid Joselyn was escorted out of the study room.

"Well, I learned that even NPCs can have various kinds of rich personalities," Jack answered absently.

"What's an NPC?" Peniel was bewildered.

"Never mind," Jack said, he was looking at the notes he had written down, trying to make sense out of all the talks just now.

He heard the door was opened. Who was it? Had he not interviewed everyone already? He turned and saw Duke Alfredo walking in with Captain Salem.

"Did you learn anything useful?" The duke asked.

"I'm still trying to piece all the information together. I might need to do some more roaming around the mansion and probably outside the estate. That should not be a problem, right?"

"As mentioned before, as long as you don't force open any locked door, you are welcomed to explore."

"The maid Joselyn, who is it that she is most friendly with?"

The duke gave some thought to the question, after a while he said, "most of the occupants here mostly mind their own selves. I guess Joselyn is most friendly with the other maid, Luciana. I saw her also spent some time chatting with the cook Tomas when she was free. But then again, Tomas is friendly to everyone, so I don't think there is anything special about that."

"Did she exhibit any strange behavior prior to the day of the theft?"

"I'm not sure, I don't really pay attention to her. You might need to ask about it from the head maid or Luciana, they were the ones most often to be in contact with her."

"I'll do that then while I explore this place further. I suppose they are not assembling out there anymore?"

"No, I've dismissed them once their interviews were done," Captain Salem replied.

"That's okay. I will talk to them when I see them."

Jack went out afterward. He started to walk around the mansion first. It was separated into three sections of West wing, North wing, and East wing, with the courtyard where Jack first met the duke as the center point between the three wings. It was so huge that Jack still managed to get lost after walking around for some time. He made some sketches on his paper in order to understand the basic layout of the mansion.

When he walked through the West wing, he saw a door marked as a medicine room. This must be the place where Luciana said he had seen head maid Jimena when she was sneaking. He tried the door of the medicine room, it was locked. He continued walking and realized that this place was actually close to the place where the footstep tracks from the bushes had disappeared. Was there any connection?

He went back to where the tracks were, and retraced the steps. While he was doing that, he saw the windows of the hallway. He peeked through the window and realized it was indeed difficult to see the barrier formation. Somehow the colorful light was not seen through the window glass. He had to move his face closer to the glass and focused his vision to see a slight disturbance in the sky outside. When he opened the window, the full display of the barrier formation was clearly visible.

He went outside through the side door with the tracks, and walked back to the bushes under the tower. Couldn't find anything more, he started to walk around the outdoor field. He went into the small woods, walked around the edges of the artificial lake, and traveled to the edge of the estate to see the barrier formation up close. The time kept on passing by that the sun started to set in the West already.

"So, did you find anything?" Peniel asked.

"I'm f**king clueless, is what it is," he cursed. "Damn it! There is no monster here. Am I just to waste my time searching for clues for this quest? And if I can't solve it after three days, won't that mean I've totally wasted these three days? Other outworlders might have increased one or two levels within this time frame."

"Complaining isn't gonna help," Peniel said. "If you are not confident, just request to drop this quest, then pick up another one."

"There won't be any penalty?" Jack asked.

"Penalty for failing or canceling quests will only start after you reach the gold hall of the Adventurers Association. For this one quest here, there will not be a penalty," Peniel answered. "However, the duke might be disappointed with you if you drop the quest midway."

"Would that be bad?"

"Dude, he is a duke. You are practically living in the kingdom where he holds some political power. Unless you planning to move to another country, I think it will be a bad idea to cross the duke. On the other hand, if you managed to impress him, you might get an unforeseen advantage."

Jack thought about Peniel's words. "But that is on the condition that I succeed with this quest, right?"

"Even if not, it is still better if he sees you put your heart into it, rather than outright dropping the quest."

"Argh! How come this quest is so complicated!"

"You are the one that decided to take on a mystery quest again."

Jack took a deep breath, then he said, "never mind about levels then, let's just focus on solving this case first. Let's go back, it's getting dark soon. We will continue again tomorrow."

While he walked back, he took out his staff and started to draw a mana rune using his mind.

"What are you doing?" Peniel asked.

"Practicing," he answered as he completed the rune and the Barrier spell was cast on him.

The estate was so large that it took him more than five minutes to get back to the mansion, hence the cooldown of his Barrier spell was off before he arrived in the mansion. He re-cast the spell again, he tried to draw the rune faster this time, but it dissipated mid-way.

"Oh, it can fail?" Jack asked.

"Of course, you need to keep concentrating. If your mind wandered off or you draw the lines wrongly, then the spell will fail," Peniel explained.

"So I can just attack mages in the middle of their casting in order to stop them from casting spells."

"That is true, but some skillful mage can train their minds with stable concentration which can resist their spells from failing even if they were disrupted. If you want to become a powerful mage, you will need to train your mind for that as well."

"Ah, being a mage is so troublesome. Luckily my main class is a physical one."

"Don't hold your breath yet. Many physical classes regretted their choice after experiencing the powerful spells of Elite magic users. You will not find your results disappointing if you diligently practice your mage skills."

"All right then, I will just take your words for it," Jack formed the rune for the Barrier spell again. Good thing was that failing the spell didn't consider it as being cast, so there was no cooldown, he could immediately start casting again.

He arrived in the mansion and was invited to a dinner with the Duke and Duchess. The good thing about this quest even if he failed, was that he had experienced a dinner amongst royalties. Something that he had not and would not have experienced in the real life. The food was extravagant and the wine was exquisite. The courses kept coming, he started to had a feeling he was at a feast instead. He was already full even while there was still plenty of food on the table.

He bid the two royals good night after the dinner. He was led by Butler Winston to his guest bedroom to retire for the night. In his bedroom, he took out the remaining technique book he had in his inventory. Since he had become a Mage, he could learn this skill already. Without further ado, he proceeded with it.

Body Double (Active skill)

Create a copy of self, cannot attack, cannot be attacked.

Can switch place with original body, copy will be destroyed once switching is activated.

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 1 hour

Mana: 50.

It was a skill that created a doppelganger? But could not attack? So it was a skill just for distracting foes? Jack was wondering what's so useful about this skill that Peniel had strongly recommended him to learn it.

He then continued to practice forming the Barrier spell rune while re-examining the notes he had jotted down.

"You can cast the spell while thinking about the clues?" Peniel asked when she saw him.

"Yes. I have always been good at multi-tasking," Jack said. "That's one of the reasons I'm so good at solving puzzles. I can analyze things from different angles at the same time."

"That was impressive," Peniel commented. "That will be a good asset when you get more powerful spells with complicated runes."

😉