Chapter 318: We Got This (2/2)

At that, Terry finally understood what Jom was talking about.

If their investigation was too slow to the point that old Meredith was killed and replaced by a swampman when they finally uncovered the truth, they wouldn’t be personally informing old Meredith even if they managed to sneak into his residence.

That way, the whole quest was stuck and basically a failure.

“Then what should we do? We don’t even know where to start investigating.” Terry was now a little unsettled at the idea of a failed quest, and the need to restart the whole quest chain.

Although they were motivated to do the quest chain to change Pikes’ bloodline, the objectives were definitely complex and it was time consuming It was like a video game-if there was a huge chance for anyone to rush towards the pinnacle on a single stroke, many wouldn’t tire from playing no matter how troublesome the stage would be.

On the other hand, if your account was suddenly corrupted in the servers when you’re just a step away from becoming the best, and your only compensation was some gold to have you start all over again, most people wouldn’t have the fortitude to do so. All they would do was curse the poor management and not touch the game for a long time afterward.

As the saying goes: fighting spirits would always be roused at the first drumroll, waning by the second and depleted by the third.

“It is true that Crookes is smaller than Lancaster, but it’s a city built upon mountains. Just two of us searching for clues is like finding a needle in a haystack…” Jom muttered, scratching his head. “I didn’t want to bother others, but it looks like we have to ask other Players for help in the forums.”

Terry was not optimistic about that. “Would they come here, crossing thousands of miles? There’s no lifestone to teleport too…”

“It’ll be fine. After all, don’t you think that Crookes is overflowing with quests if we could get such an unusual one as soon as we arrived here?” Jom, on the other hand, did not doubt the Players’ motivation to chart new maps. “No one would be upset with too many quests, and with Edward the Quest Demon taking a break recently, they would surely come. “I hope so. Sluuuurp—” “Hey, don’t hog all the wheat stew! Leave some for me!”

*

*

And just as Jom had predicted, many Players who had gotten sick of idling at Lancaster or being hired guns for the nobles were forming frontline teams, intent on going on a trip to Crookes.

“Where’s Mister Marni?” Edward asked when he reached a particular group that was supposed to be disguising themselves as traveling merchants, only to find that Marni Wilf, leader and investor of the group missing. “Did he die again? But Resurrection Ankhs are available and he looked like he had some recent income, shouldn’t he have revived himself right after he died?”

“Dying.” Ivan, Marni’s escort corrected while giving a shrug. “He slipped into a pool of acid in a quest, and it’s so thick that he couldn’t move at all, let alone climb out. He would actually sink if he moved around too much, and lose HP because of the acid’s corrosion… that said, because he has plus seven immunity and high HP regen, it would take him around half an hour to die… he’s given up on struggling at the moment and gone off to play some Tierra Blocks, and that’s him, the one with six-five-five-three-five points on the rankings.”

“I’m being mean to Marni, but I think we got this because he’s dying so miserably!” Gou Dan exclaimed, stroking his chin stubble with a twinkle in his eye.

The others nodded in strong agreement.