Before Liguritudum's army won and headed North, Jeanny's investigative teams had arrived in Hydrurond and teleported to the cities described in Jack's information. They immediately started their investigation.
All the while, Jack was in the underworld going from one place to another farming draconic essences.
As the investigative teams conducted their investigations, a couple of new murders occurred. The killings didn't stop even after World Maker carried out their invasion. It seemed that World Maker wanted to keep the cities unstable to force the kingdom to worry about two things at the same time.
But due to these new murders, the investigative teams had a fresh crime scene to analyze. They had to do it covertly though without support from the local government.
With their expertise, they quickly located clues and similarities with past cases that allowed them to profile future potential victims. They passed this info to the teams in the other cities where no new murder had happened yet. But considering the time frame, most probably one of them would happen soon.
With the data, they identified the most likely officer in each of the cities. The most likely place for a murder to happen next was in a city called Lefkauselis. The last murder took place eight days ago. The officer whom the investigative team in that city considered the most likely target was a native named Zoikod.
Zoikod was the vice governor of the city and a capable one at his job. Some even considered him a more vital figure in the office than the governor himself. Taking him out would cause chaos in the city hall, setting back the development of the city.
With bait, it would be easier to catch the fish. Jack decided to monitor the vice governor himself so he could take action once the murderers showed up. He thanked the investigative team and informed them of his intention. They sent Jack the information on Zoikod's daily routines.
At that time, nine days had passed since Jack first set foot at Messephyria. Fortunately, there was no incident with the underworld empire. Peniel made sure Jack avoided going anywhere near the main cities where the king of hell resided.
Since Jack had to constantly move around, he again didn't get many essences. He collected 2,000 draconic essences by the time he wanted to go back to the upworld.
From this gain, his Gold Dragon Bloodline increased to level 8. The bloodline now gave him a passive boost of 48% to his HP, Stamina, MP, and attributes except for the luck stat.
He hadn't gotten the Gold Dragon Wings he craved, though. He needed to reach bloodline level 9 for that. He still needed another three thousand draconic essences to reach that level.
Six days before that, Jack's human age reached the seventeenth month. His Limitless Potential upgraded to rank 11. This passive skill now provided him with HP +3000, Stamina/MP +300, and all attributes except for luck +11.
During the two farming sessions, the current one and the one when he got into the incident with Saakir, he gained 1,000 mana cores, two level-down pills, and six gemstones. The gemstones were one super rare amethyst, one rare sapphire, two super rare emeralds, one rare diamond, and one unique diamond.
Jack used the rare sapphire on his Runestone of Duration. The runestone gained 200 elemental energies. He used the two super rare emeralds on Runestone of Marching, giving it 1,600 elemental energies. He then fed the super rare amethyst, rare diamond, and unique diamond, which totaled 3,500 elemental energies to the Runestone of Probability.
None of the runestones received enough elemental energy to upgrade. It was a pity, but the rate by which he farmed gemstones was still faster in the underworld compared to the upworld.
He didn't receive much exp from farming the draconic monsters. The exp points he received were only enough to level him up one time. His Time Sage was now level 71.
He didn't use the level-down pill this time. He decided to no longer use the level-down pills on his Brave Swordsmaster and Time Sage, at least not until they reached a level when the classes gave him their last standard skills. He might use them for Beast Monarch class based on situations.
Jack returned to the upworld around Messephyria. He checked his whereabouts on the map and immediately headed to the capital. Fortunately, it was still in the afternoon so he was not worried about the curfew. He used the zone portal inside the capital to teleport to Lefkauselis.
He soon appeared in that city's zone portal. He was again using his orc disguise.
He made contact with the investigator team. Coincidentally, the investigator team said that they had detected a few suspicious individuals who were tailing Zoikod. Aside from being experts in investigations, the players on the team were also experts in covert surveillance. That's how they managed to identify the suspicious individuals.
Jack asked them to continue tailing these individuals in secret and updating him in real time. He took to the sky with Pandora. After spotting Zoikod from the team's info, Jack told the team to leave the rest to him. He tailed Zoikod from the sky. His Dragon Eye allowed him to see the ground from high up there.
Zoikod was on the street with several soldiers escorting him. He was on his regular trip where he walked the streets and interacted with the city's inhabitants. That was how he understood what the people of the city needed. He did this daily before heading home ahead of the time of the curfew.
After observing for several hours, Jack agreed that the suspicious individuals mentioned by the investigative team were indeed tailing Zoikod. Jack suspected they would be attacking soon, but not until the soldiers left Zoikod's side.
When the sun was about to set, Zoikod headed home, which was a large mansion surrounded by spacious courtyards.
From the sky, Jack saw Zoikod enter his courtyard but the soldiers stayed outside. The suspicious individuals who were tailing him gathered outside one of the walls of the courtyard. Jack then saw one of them cast a spell. They disappeared from that spot and appeared inside the courtyard.
"Mass Teleportation," Jack uttered.
This group, numbered six people, immediately rushed to Zoikod who was still unaware of the intruders and was walking toward his mansion.
Jack then saw a little draconian girl come out of the mansion and run toward Zoikod.
The six rushing players clearly saw the girl but they didn't slow. One of these players was even in the process of casting a spell while running.
Jack couldn't just stay idle. He had Pandora take a dive and the two hurtled to the ground like a falling meteor.
