Second World Chapter 266
Advertisement
With nothing better to do, Jack returned to the business district. He didn't feel like spending the hard-earned merit points to rent commander Quintus' training ground.
He went to Ellie's restaurant to check on them. Also, the day before was the day when he could pull out the weekly profit of the restaurant. The place was still bustling like the last time he visited, if not more. Jack went inside the kitchen and was greeted by a very busy scene. Ellie and Bill were fully focused on their cookings.
Jack stood at the side didn't want to break their concentration. After a while, Ellie finally saw him. She asked an NPC cook to take over before she went to him.
"Hiya, boss!" She called out with ardor.
Jack nodded as he was still admiring the NPCs which were still busying about.
"It's a kitchen, man. There's nothing much to see," Ellie remarked.
Jack chuckled. "I can see business is doing good," he said.
"Very good, very good. Words of mouth travel fast. Not to mention we are the first outworlders to own a business place, many of our kin came here to support us. We might need to expand soon. Otherwise, this place won't hold with its current popularity."
Jack made a cringe face and said, "I'm not sure if I can gather 150 gold coins that fast." That was the amount needed for the second upgrade of a shop.
Ellie agreed, "that's true. That was indeed a lot of coins, but the profit last week should help. Have you taken them?"
Jack shook his head.
"You can use the interface at the cashier to cash them out. It was quite an amount, even after the expenditures and the 20% tax," Ellie informed him.
"All right, I will do that," Jack said. "Before that, I want to inform you about a friend of mine."
"What friend?"
Jack then told him about Dylan Fairdeal, about how he had made a request for him to search for the Rosemary ingredients. And that if he found any, he would bring it to the restaurant for her.
Ellie nodded, "okay, I will keep an eye out for him."
She returned to the stove where she was cooking before, there were still many orders to be prepared. Jack left them to their work and went to the cashier. There was a lady NPC staff manning the device. She recognized Jack as her employer and was about to move aside to give him access to the device, but Jack waved for her to stay.
Advertisement
Jack stood beside the device facing her, he could still activate it from the side. If the restaurant customers look in his direction, all they saw was another customer making payment or having a chat with the beautiful NPC. They could not see the holographic interface that floated above the cashier.
Wow, Jack made a comment in his mind as he saw the number indicated under the tab of the owner share. It said there that the profit of last week which he could withdraw was 26 gold coins.
This was after deducting expenditures and tax? It almost doubled from what he got from Amy's Bakery. But then again, he was only an investor in Amy's Bakery while here, he was the owner. So it made sense that he received more. Also, the scale of customers here was also bigger.
He clicked on the withdraw button and took all last week's profit into his storage bag. His stash of gold coins almost went back to the amount before he attended the auction.
Now that his matter here was done, he exited the place. He looked at the time, it was not much longer before it went dark. If he went out to farm for experience, he would have to spend the night in the wilderness.
After thinking for a while, he asked Peniel, 'Peniel, how is runecrafting work?' He had seen the category under the support jobs in the auxiliary skills section. He didn't pay it much attention before, but he was reminded again when duke Alfredo mentioned that the fragment pieces needed Scroll-making and Runecrafting jobs in order to be able to make them complete again.
He had heard the explanation of Scroll-making from Peniel, he had no intention of trying that job out, as he already did blacksmithing and cooking. Trying too many things would just convolute his focus. While runecraft was under the support jobs together with lockpicking, detect and disarm traps, and inspect. He had done lockpicking and inspect, these two support skills had been helpful on his journey.
The detect and disarm traps he had no doubt was essential as well. He had not met any trap but he was pretty sure his God-eye monocle could help in the detecting department, the disarming though, was another story. So if looking at the other three skills under the support section, the fourth one, runecrafting, should serve a helpful purpose as well. Hence, his interest.
Advertisement
"Oh, you are finally interested in it? All right, I will enlighten you," Peniel said in his mind. "In the meantime, ask one of the natives for the direction to a runecraft shop."
Jack proceeded to ask, and then walked in the direction told by the native.
"Runecraft is a support skill that can be used as support for many activities depending on the runestone you possessed. The one you can get from the shop is the most basic ones. In fact, there are only three basic runestones available, and all of them were mainly as support for the other auxiliary jobs."
'What kind of support?'
"The three basic ones that you can buy from the shop are the Runestone of Probability, the Runestone of Enhancement, and the Runestone of Duration."
'What did they do?'
"Runestone of Probability increased the success rate when you do blacksmithing, alchemist, scroll-making, lockpicking, and disarm traps. Runestone of Enhancement has the chance to increase the quality of items produced by artisan jobs. Runestone of Duration affects the products made by alchemists, cooking, and scroll-making, but only on products that give effect with duration. It will increase the length of the duration of these products."
'So it really is only for support? Not really very useful to me then, as I have no intention to focus on the artisan jobs. Except for that Runestone of Probability, it can help when I do lockpicking of a treasure chest, and also so that I don't waste too many materials when I upgrade my equipment.'
"You underestimate runecraft too much," Peniel said. "There are also runestones that can support your battle prowess, but they are very rare to be found. You can only depend on luck if you are to get them."
'Oh, I have a high luck stat if you haven't noticed,' Jack said.
Peniel pretended to not hear him, she continued, "there are also runestones for multiple occasions. What you can do now was practicing using those three basic runestones. So when you get the other rare runestones that are suitable for your use, your runecraft skill will not be too low."
The shop that was informed by the NPC Jack had asked, was not too far from Ellie's Restaurant, so he had arrived before long. The shop was rather small. If the entire shop only sold three types of runestones, he could imagine that it didn't need a big shop for that.
He entered the shop and saw a clerk behind a counter. There was also another glass display on the side that displayed gemstones.
'Oh, I remember. You said that gemstones can also be used for runecrafting. I have some in my bag, so can I use them with the runestones then?' He asked Peniel.
"We will talk about the gemstones later, just ignore them for now," Peniel replied.
He did not think too much of it since Peniel said so, he went to the clerk. The counter in front of the clerk had a glass display. Inside was multiple oval-shaped stones. There were a lot of stones, but they were divided into three sections, and the stones in each section were identical. He presumed those were the three types of runestones that Peniel had informed him on their way here.
"How much for these runestones?" Jack asked.
"Each one costs 1 gold coin," the clerk answered flatly. There was no smile or any emotion. Jack figured the fellow didn't get many customers here. Probably when many players learned about runecrafting then this shop would be busier.
1 gold coin was quite expensive for average players, but not for Jack. He took out 3 gold coins and gave them to the clerk.
"I want each one of them," Jack said.
The clerk received his coins and took one stone from each section. A total of three stones were placed in front of Jack. They looked ordinary. Jack took them and inspected one of them.
Runestone of Enhancement (uncommon runestone)
Empty. Required will to activate.
"Huh? Will?" Jack blurted after seeing the description.
Advertisement
- In Serial16 Chapters
The Mantle
Perrin, a former SF operator, turned programmers life goes to crap. Shortly after finding out he's married to a goddess and a cat, he is forced to go into a portal to save himself from a biblical battle going down in his RV park. He must learn to survive in a game world that is set on taking him out. A mysterious past unfolds as he searches for the exit. A finished and much more improved version of this story will hopefully be published soon. Since it started here, I decided to rerelease the chapters I wrote.
8 96 - In Serial10 Chapters
Elemental Online
The year 2176: The entire world economy collapsed technology got too advanced nearly every job that humans could do got replaced by some form of technology. It didn’t take long for everything to go to shit. On the same day, the first ever full dive VRMMORPG got released. It was called Elemental Online.The year 2183 It didn’t take long for the company behind Elemental Online to work itself into the world economy and when I mean work itself into the world economy, I mean it became the world economy. The game was so popular that there was a worldwide law passed that any money made in the game could be used in the real world in any country is even got it’s only definition E-currency. This idea was so popular that 91% of the world's population took up Elemental Online as a career.The year 2184 Meet Jun a 28-year-old who had no interest in gaming besides doing it as a hobby but when things happen that make him drop out of university he needs money a lot of it and fast so he turns to the only place he can Elemental Online.But not everything is what is looks like in this virtual world.
8 103 - In Serial16 Chapters
Phantom Storm
"Have you heard, the entire Bonanno crew was brutally murdered!" Exclaimed a youth in his early teens. "What? you're lying, again!" Another similarly aged child responded with crisp denial in his tone. After all, the crew was infamous for their ruthlessness. An eery silence passed between them. Soon enough, the teens' curiosity trumped his ego, and he found himself inquiring in a meek voice. "So...Who did it?" "I heard my father talking about it while he was drunk. Guess what he said?..." The child responded, he was a natural-born storyteller. Listening intently, the other teen urged him on. "It was done by a single person. When the police arrived, the bodies were charred black, likely the work of an electro mage. Most had an arrow or two lodged in their body, and a few were even chopped into neat little slices by a sharp blade." He paused, inhaling sharply. "All the victims had shocked expressions on their faces. As if the enemy was invisible or something. That's why they call that person the Phantom Storm!" concluded the adolescent with an excited glint in his eyes. 2 CHAPTERS PER WEEK (Canada time) [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] -------------------------------------------- Follow Itsuki as he is reincarnated in an unfamiliar world, left to discover where he belongs in such a place. Witness his exploits. Watch him build his kingdom, receive a rare class, and overcome trial upon trial. This story is about a man trying to redeem his past errors, constantly striving for better, overcoming immense pain and loss. Our character will improve, learn, become better than yesterday, and strive for more power. All the while working his way up the food chain in this brutal and unforgiving new world. *Disclaimer:* - The protagonist starts weak and a little naive, but I guarantee he will become quite capable over time. There will be no sudden power gains. The protagonist will have to work hard for what he gets. - This story is not about a loner, he'll have a few companions, and they will not be useless. - Some romance will be explored but not take away from the story. The main character will not be dense. Absolutely no harem will happen, but there might be a few love interests, no more than 3. - I will try my best to not follow cliches and stay as original as possible. - This story is my first ever, whether online or in real life. Thus, I might have grammatical errors here and there. The story might have a few plot holes and other such minute mistakes, as well. But I guarantee to try my best. Please give me feedback so that I can deliver a better story and learn to write better.
8 63 - In Serial8 Chapters
The Impact and The Invocation
When the remnants of a war that both sides lost are discovered in a small village, one young woman with the blood of a magus will trigger the return of the demons that hunted humanity in its distant past.
8 174 - In Serial60 Chapters
Rimward Bound
Every citizen of the sky-cities of His Majesty's Star-Empire knows that a ship, both sky- and star-, is more then just a few bits of metal. It is the grand sum of it's hull and the crew that sail it. 'Hulls of battle-steel and men to match!' That's what the Navy's recruitment poster's claim at least. Every sailor knows that there is one more component that the city-bound folk ignore at their own peril: the soul of the ship. That it takes both man and hull to make a true ship, and that neither alone serve well or for long. In 8225 Lord Jeffrye Saltonstall the Fourth, Political Lord of the Surveyor's Corps, demands semi-automated ships to 'reduce the loss of life among our brave crews', manages to convince the other politicians and bureaucrats to fund them, and gets the Office of Ship Construction to sign off on the ships as structurally sound. Dockyard workers shake their heads at the ships, muttering that they are cursed from birth, even as construction drags on. In 8230 the Explorer, first of her class, is launched. She sets out in 8233 to great fanfare on a trip expected to last six months. Neither she nor her twelve-person crew is ever heard from again. By 8235, the remaining seven Explorers are are commissioned. Lord Saltonstall managed to find crews for six of them but at the cost of mass resignations. The Night Horse, last of the Explorer class, sat in reserve as her sister-ships served well enough despite ill luck and misfortune. The Office of Ship Construction quietly issues notice that no more semi-automated ships are to be built and that all active Semi-automated ships are to be quietly retired and broken up for scrap over the next ten years. The Night Horse, sitting in reserve, is missed due to bureaucratic oversight. In 8250 Lord Ayland Wynstryngham the Eighth assumes the office of Political Lord of the Surveyor's Corps. His first act is to issue notice that no ship is to be without crew nor sit in dock or reserve for longer then required for maintenance and upkeep. The Night Horse, all but forgotten, is quietly brought back into active service. Recruiting a crew for her proves another matter entirely. What poor or desperate fool would willingly sign on to crew, much less command, a cursed ship and spend months or years in deep space? Well, you would, of course. Where else is a kid from the gutters going to find that kind of freedom in the service of His Majesty? A [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] 2021. Warnings: Second person is used in this work. Semi-Polished draft: Posted chapters are subject to revision as needed as things progress. Mild Profanity on occasion.
8 57 - In Serial24 Chapters
Corruption {Percabeth Fanfiction}
The life of a princess isn't all it's made out to be. Princess Annabeth Chase of Olympus doesn't enjoy much of her time inside the castle, but knows life outside of it isn't much better. With the wild Insurgents terrorizing her kingdom, her father keeps her inside, away from the ruckus. She has no idea what life is really like for her people until she is dragged into it by a strange man who kidnapped her out of her own back garden.This started as a simple one-shot but I got a bit carried away. With that in mind, please ignore all the plot holes and the weirdly sized chapters :)Image on the cover by @blurry_feather on Instagram
8 60

