Coming out of the space-time chamber, Jack handed the level-down pill to Jeanny. Jeanny was both excited and morose at the same time. This level-down pill provided another avenue for strengthening their members, but this also meant another item had been added to the list of items to be copied. At this rate, no number of mana cores would be sufficient.
"Aren't you going to donate some mana cores?" Jeanny asked.
"Sorry, I also have an urgent need for these cores," Jack said apologetically. "Speaking of which, have you copied that item I requested?"
"Yes, here. I swear, there was never an end to your need," Jeanny said and handed him a Pill of Growth.
Jack wanted to give this pill to Laurent. The high priest had agreed to become Jack's royal agent, but even though Laurent's level was high, he was only a special elite. So, Jack wanted to help him increase his grade.
After storing the pill, Jack smiled wrily at Jeanny and said, "You might want to scold me, but I have another item needed copying."
"Another?!" Jeanny uttered. her tone was close to screaming, causing Jack to wince.
In his hand was the Portal-closing Stone. He had heard from Wilted that a demonic portal existed in all seven main countries. If he wanted to shut all these portals, he needed seven of these stones. Although Wilted said that the demonic cult's existence was seemingly no more, the portals existed and the underworld empire was real. If some unfortunate accident happened and one of the portals failed, the force from the underworld might pour out and cause chaos.
Peniel, upon seeing Jack's request, said, "Um, I know I said the Book of Creation can copy everything except for artifact, but there is one more item classification that it cannot copy."
"Oh? And what is that," Jack asked.
"Quest items," Peniel answered.
Jeanny had used Inspect on the stone in Jack's hand. Upon hearing Peniel's words, she heaved a relieved breath. "Well, it's unfortunate that I can't help you with this stone," she said.
"You don't need to sound so gleeful," Jack said to her.
Jack said goodbye to Jeanny. But before he left the headquarters, he visited the guild hall. Tip and Captain Whitebeard were there.
Jack greeted the little mouse before handing the Hang Glider recipe to Tip, who accepted it happily.
"How is the dragon turtle doing?" Jack asked.
"His name is Gumeru," Tip answered.
"Who named him?" Jack asked. The name reminded him of the famous Kaiju movies he used to watch when he was a kid.
"Who else, the girl band, of course," Tip answered. "If you come earlier this morning, you would have been able to see them in action. They were as if having two children now."
"So, has the newest child grown up?"
"Of course not, it's not even one month yet. But considering we've just installed a mana site, Gumeru's improvement should significantly escalate."
"Mana site? Do you mean the fire mana site John gained when he captured the dragon turtle?" Jack asked. He had read the report, so he knew what transpired during the mission.
"No. That fire mana site is more suitable for Penny," Tip said.
As Tip spoke, he operated the command platform and summoned the image of Sky Garden Peak, where Penny resided. Above the entrance to the cave beside the waterfall, Jack saw a glowing red orb. This orb constantly released fire energy. Penny was seen resting in the cave near the entrance, enjoying the fire energy washing over her, as if she was sunbathing.
"She had an affinity to the fire element," Tip said, summoning her info. She is level 65 now. "Any elemental mana site is beneficial to a monster's growth. But by using a mana site corresponding to the monster's affinity, the growth rate will be faster. In Penny's case, this fire mana site combined with the girls' care, her rate of improvement should not be lower than expert players."
"That's good," Jack said. "But you mentioned before that Gumeru also had a mana site installed?"
"That's right. Gumeru's affinity is the ice element. Ever since you gave John the position of royal advisor, he had used his privilege to utilize the kingdom's information network. It so happened that he found rumors of several places that might have an ice mana site. We have formed a few squads of players armed with a mana orb to each of these places. One of them yielded a result."
Tip now switched the image to a holographic image showing a cave filled with water. It was the Undersea Cave, the structure they had built to house an aquatic-type guild guardian. At the center of this cave was a large blue glowing orb, which constantly released ice energy. An unnaturally large turtle shell decked with dorsal ridges lay beside this glowing orb.
"Jet and his team procured this ice mana site on a snowy mountain in the Republic of Palgrost," Tip informed. "The ice mana site they found contained even more concentrated mana compared to the fire mana site John found, hence this ice orb you see is bigger than the one on Penny's lair. With this ice mana site, Gumeru's development would be even faster than Penny's. I reckon in less than one week, Gumeru should reach adulthood."
"He has better be," Jack said. "Gumeru has a lot of levels to catch up."
"Well, I see you have everything under control. Good job! This place will depend on you now that John rarely comes here," Jack said and gave Tip a pat on the back.
When Jack was about to leave, Bowler and The Man rushed in.
"Hey! I hear you brought two little nightmares here," Bowler said.
"Nightmares?! There are nightmares here?" Captain Whitebeard uttered after hearing it.
"Yeah. They settled inside the time chamber. Don't go…," Jack wanted to say don't go disturb the nightmares unnecessarily, but the two clowns had rushed away once they heard the location.
"Wait for me!" Captain Whitebeard also rushed out following them.
Jack didn't chase after them. He had many matters to attend to. He had no choice but to send his warning via messages. He told the two if they made their guests uncomfortable, he was going to whip their asses.
From Heavenly Citadel, Jack teleported to Themonium. He visited Diana and informed him about his purpose. Diana was visibly ecstatic. If the demonic portal under the city was closed, she could divert lots of manpower elsewhere.
