Date 22 Mar 2321
Time 17:15
Location Sky Blossom City, South Zone, Helen Homemade Bread
“Yes, we need to find Ronnie but we both are not enough. Sky Blossom is a big city, a high schooler and a pregnant college girl cannot cover the whole city, we will need help. Let’s post a mission at the Guild association hall that way we can save time and cover more ground.” Repeatedly assuring and calming down Jackie, together we got into a cab and headed towards the Guild association mall.
“Why don’t you call the police chief, your mother’s friend! she can help… and I should inform the manager about my leave of absence.” Sitting in the cab Jackie said to me but the latter part she mumbled to herself.
“Don’t worry 89th-precinct is near the Guild association hall, after posting the mission I will pay a direct visit to her and explain the situation. And don’t worry about your job, it’s an emergency they will understand.”
“No! The bakery manager is a good person, she trusted me when no one else would, I don’t want her to get into trouble because of me and it’s my responsibility to inform her.
Here, I know this is not much but this is all I have please use it as the award for the search and rescue mission.” Removing her spirit gold earrings Jackie handed them to me and transferred $1000 to my grimoire.
Similar to earth, Gold is considered valuable in this world but here the gold is not mixed with copper and Silver but spirit ingredients depending upon what the gold is going to be used for, hence the term spirit gold. As for the gold used for common jewellery, it is usually mixed with fine black steel shavings.
Jackie’s spirit ingredients could fetch anywhere around $800-$1000 adding the $1000 she transferred to my grimoire the mission reward was added up to $1800 to $2000. Which was not a lot but enough to gain the attention of some noob adventurers. This amount was nothing for the current me but I still took the jewellery and money quietly to comfort Jackie as returning the jewellery and money would only make her restless.
“Don’t worry Jackie, Ronnie is my family too, I will do my best to find him. I have saved some money over the years to buy a good skill card I will add that money for the reward.” Hearing my words Jackie’s frowned brows eased a little, she knew the money she gave was not enough for any reliable adventures to take up the city-wide search and rescue mission but still she would try everything rather than be helpless.
Seeing that Jackie was finally at little ease I texted the warehouse no.234 address to the cab driver. Guild association hall and association mall are adjacent to each other so Jackie would not notice I have changed the cab destination, I hope.
I am sure that the Zhang mercenaries are behind Ronnie going missing as I had the first-hand experience of what Zhang mercenaries were capable of and I had gathered a lot of intel on them before visiting Ben Li at their main office in the east zone, enough to know that they do all their dirty work in the main office underground floor.
Since I knew who kidnapped Ronnie and where he was being held I did not bother to post a mission on the guild association hall or get help from chief Denise.
No adventurer would be willing to take up the mission related to Zhang mercenaries, not to mention posting a mission will spook the Zhang mercenaries into erasing all the evidence related to the mission putting Ronnie’s life in jeopardy.
Right now I was planning on the assumption that they would not harm or kill Ronnie since they want to recruit him.
As for Chief Denis, she will ask for evidence and follow the proper procedure, losing precious time. And may even stop me from rescuing Ronnie on my own.
Yes, I planned on rescuing Ronnie myself because if you want something to be done right you better do it yourself.
Since I did not have much time and knew that Jackie would not trust the life of the father of her unborn baby to a high schooler I decided to trick her and leave her with Susan in the warehouse for her safety and to avoid any unnecessary troubles. And then go rescue Ronnie myself.
…
Date 22 Mar 2321
Time 18:10
Location Sky Blossom City, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse no. 234.
Getting off in front of Warehouse no. 234 Jackie asked, “Wyatt… where are we? this is not the Guild association hall!”
Seeing the cab leave and that the street was empty *sigh*… With a sigh, I knocked Jackie unconscious gently and carried her into the warehouse.
Susan and Corey were enjoying their tea break, they grew curious noticing me carrying an unconscious lady into the warehouses. To avoid being misunderstood I explained the situation before they asked.
“Don’t worry this is my unborn nephew or niece’s mother, my cousin is kidnapped so I knocked her out to avoid her panicking. She is 5-6 month in pregnancy, you guys take care of her while I sort things out.” I placed Jackie in my new bedroom which Susan had mall management build in the warehouse recently.
Susan and Corey’s expression became serious hearing my explanation, they wanted to speak but I interrupted them.
Looking at Corey I said, “I can handle this myself so don’t contact your family.” And turning to Susan I continued, “no going to authorities and guild association is not an option, but you can help me by showing me the catalogue of all good poison-based ingredients and skill cards. Now nod if you understand what I just said!”
Hearing me Susan and Corey nodded in unison reluctantly and Susan passed me a card saying, “Here this is a mental skill card which I came across today, I bought it using the $20 million you gave me earlier. Though its initial bid was $12 million since it is a rare card even for mental skill cards, I directly bid everything I had to avoid competition.”
Taking the card from Susan I checked the card info,
[Card Name: Parallel Thinking
Card Type: Skill card (active)
Card Rank: C-rank, Uncommon Grade
Card Rate: 21 Stars
Card Durability: [80/100]
Card Effect: Once active the user can temporally split his mental straight into two and perform two different tasks simultaneously. Additional effect: Mental Strength recovery x1.5
Restriction: The user’s mental strength is consumed twice as fast.]
‘Parallel Thinking is a passive skill card and worth near $16 million but the card apprentice who created this failure of a card dumped it for $20 million.’
I called it a failure not just because it is an active card instead of being a passive card but because of its thrash stats and restrictions. Its card durability barely meets the normal conditions, not to mention a 21-star rating for a $20 million card and a restriction of two times the mental strength consumption.
Parallel Thinking is mostly used by card creationists but its restriction makes it not suitable for card creationists use. Clearly, the card creationist who made it was a prodigal rookie to waste such rare ingredients.
But this card will do for now and I will figure a way to recreate or enhance it in future. In a way, this card was suitable for me who manufactured the same cards in bulk, it would reduce the time consumption.
With it, I can create two similar cards in the time required to create a single card. If it was a perfect card then there is no way it would show up in a guild association mall, even if it showed up Susan would not be able to acquire it. All in all, it was a required purchase.
“I know the card stats are not satisfying for $20 million but it can save you some time during card creation.” Seeing me frown as I looked at the card info, Susan explained her reason for buying the card.
I shook my head and said, “Thank you Susan, I needed this card, it’s a good purchase. I am only mad at the prodigal card creationists who wasted such rare ingredients to create such a trash card.”
Susan nodded in understanding and said, “I have sent you the catalogue for poison-based ingredients and skill cards”
The last time I visited Zhang Mercenary main office, I noticed that it was heavily guarded by card apprentices of card student and scholar rank, especially the basement it seemed to be a hangout spot for all the Zhang Mercenary goons.
Though this world was less civilized than earth and mostly leaned towards the jungle rule, it was still a crime to kill a person here. So the best way to save Ronnie from Zhang mercenary den without causing an incident would be by using sleeping or paralyzing poison.
Since everyone there is of card student or scholar realm an uncommon grade D-rank or C-rank poison should be enough to handle them all and successfully rescue Ronnie. I think I should also buy enough antidotes in case of a mishap.
As I browsed through the catalogue for suitable poison-based ingredients or skill cards, one skill card, in particular, had piked my curiosity.
[Card Name: Poison Gland
Card Type: Skill card (passive)
Card Rank: D-rank, Uncommon Grade
Card Rate: 13 Stars
Card Durability: [88/100]
Card Effect: The user’s salivary gland is mutated into a poison gland. Additional effect – Poison spit, Poison Immunity.
Restriction: the poison immunity only works for the poison produced by the poison gland.
Cost: $3.12million]
I was curious about this card not because it was a strong card but because I had never seen a skill card temporarily mutate the card apprentice organs or glands before, I thought only the origin cards did that. I guess it is not surprising since there are skill cards that temporarily allow card apprentices to grow wings, it seems I have a lot to learn about card creation yet.