300 Jack Remembers the Fourth Floor (1/2)

While Argyle ran through the outlying areas to make sure the jakals were extinct, he continued his mental conversation with the others. Argyle laughed, 'So, what level are you after all that, Jack?'

'I'd imagine it went well for him because I leveled up as well,' Tralon added.

'What?! Then what happened to Jack?'

Jack sighed, struggling to contain himself. 'Everyone is going to be so mad at me the next time I see them…'

'Just tell us already!' Argyle shouted.

'We're lv. 47…'

'Woooow… Your party is going to be pissed when they see you,' Argyle burst into laughter. 'I'm lv. 71 and I'm pissed at you for that kind of cheating, so I only imagine how bad they'll want to beat you after this.'

'Lv. 47? That means you already qualify for the upcoming election.'

'Wait, Jack's running for the council?'

'Yes, Argyle. He'll be joining me on the council and will soon supersede me as the guild leader,' explained Tralon. 'To do what he wants, then he'll need to be a council member. Things would be too tricky if he wasn't.'

'I get that but won't he be tied down to the city as a council member?' Argyle asked.

'Actually, no he wouldn't. Remember, the council was created by heroes so it was also created so that heroes and adventurers could hold the position while maintaining the freedom to travel. To make sure things stayed that way, I obtained a congress crystal for the council back in the day.'

'What's a congress crystal?'

'Right, you wouldn't know,' Tralon replied. 'A congress crystal is like a contact crystal but it can call multiple crystals at once and an entire group of people can converse through it instead of one.'

'Oh… So it basically lets the council hold meetings while some members are away. What's the range?' Jack asked.

'The entire content, but the congress crystal is so large we had to make it into the new council table,' answered Tralon.

'I didn't know you had a congress crystal. I would've made you an offer if I did,' Argyle joked.

'Either way, being a council member doesn't mean you're bound to the city. You can retain your position from anywhere on the continent so long as you've been elected,' explained Tralon. 'You might like it too, Argyle. Have you ever thought about running?'

'That would never…' Argyle paused, thinking a bit more before responding, 'We'll talk about that later when we discuss business, okay?'

Surprised to not get rejected, Tralon looked to Jack and nodded. 'Very well, I'll keep that in mind for later.'

Once Argyle returned from his crusading, he dumped the corpses from his storage and let JAck store them away in his infinite pocket dimension.

'So, where to next?' the swordsman asked with a smile.

'Right,' Tralon chuckled, stroking his beard.

The party of four trekked to the circle and calmly activated it, releasing a familiar pulse of spacial energy that took them to a new floor.

With feet back on the ground, Jack smiled as he recognized the floor's layout and it's artificial lighting. 'Welcome to the fourth floor.' But as his memories flooded back to him, the smile faded.

'What's waiting to be killed here?' asked Argyle.

'On this floor, I'd rather we not kill anything if we can avoid it.'

Argyle was perplexed, as was Tralon who inquired further, 'And why's that, remind me?'

A chuckle escaped Jack's mouth as he scratched his head in anger and nervousness. 'To be honest, I completely forgot about the storehouse for the longest time. And when you gave me the ring back at the wedding, I put it away as an afterthought that I'd come back to once I was lv. 50 or lv. 60…'

'And…' Tralon prodded.