Jack turned to Lindsey. "Who is your old man?"
"I will try to persuade him to help," Lindsey said without really answering Jack's question.
"Let's go, we should complete the mission," Bailey spoke out. She walked forward to the depth where the ice mana site was located. Alonzo, Lindsey, and Teddy hurriedly moved along.
"You are coming along?" Jack asked Bailey as he followed behind. "Will the mission still be considered as complete with you around?"
"The mission is to clear the cave and deactivate the ice mana site to restore this mining cave. Whether I come along or not does not matter. It is just a good opportunity to train the cadets. That's of course, before we found out about the existence of that Special Elite boss."
They arrived back at the depth of the cave. There was no more rope to let them go down, further reinforcing Jack's story. Teddy took out a roll of rope from his bag. He secured one of its ends to the ground with a steel hook, then everyone used it to climb down. Except for Bailey who simply jumped down. Jack didn't lose to her, he also jumped down. It was not too high, his stat was high enough to not suffer any damage from that height. Still, his legs hurt a bit from the jump. Bailey rolled her eyes at him.
After the Ice Troll Sentinel was vanquished, no monsters could be seen anymore around the ice mana site. Alonzo went up to the ice mana site and took out a large indigo-colored orb. Bailey and the other cadets stood around him in a protective formation. Jack thought the gesture was unnecessary, he could see on his radar that there was nothing alive in the vicinity except for them. But then again, there was the case with Swamp Croc which had hidden itself from his radar, so it was not wrong to be careful.
Jack went nearer to Alonzo since he was curious. The indigo orb started throbbing. He could hear the sound like heartbeats from the orb, yet it was not a sound that was heard in his ears, it was more like he heard the sound directly in his mind. The ice mana site started to release icy fumes, which slowly flowed into the orb. The absorbed fume formed a small cyan-colored core at the center of the orb, which slowly enlarged as more fume was absorbed.
The process lasted a very long time. Jack who was interested in the process soon lost interest. With nothing better to do, he walked around the place. Nothing caught his attention. There were some mining spots, but they were covered by a layer of ice. Interesting though, the ice seemed to be melting, as the ground below the wall started to become wet. Jack assumed it should be the effect of the icy energy within the ice mana site got absorbed by Alonzo's orb.
With nothing better to do, he went to one corner and started practicing his spells' rune formation. That was what he usually did when he got nothing better to do. Barrier, Mana Detonation, Body Double. He cast one spell after another, apart from getting more accustomed to the process in forming the spell formations, he also received proficiencies from each casting. His Barrier was already halfway to the first star. He also activated Heightened State to increase mana regeneration and reduce cooldown time. He cast basic spells when all his advanced spells were on cooldown. He drank basic energy potion when his MP almost depleted. He got lots of those potions from the robbing incident, so he didn't feel it was a squander to use them. Bailey glanced at him, giving him a weird look before ignoring him altogether.
While Jack was spending his time practicing his spells, he also took a look at his skill page. He had received a new skill after becoming a level 20 Warrior.
Adrenaline Rush (Active skill), level 1/20
200% attack speed, additional 25% damage to all physical damage.
duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Stamina: 40
It was a support skill that increased his overall offense. If he combined it with the Life Burning Art, his damage output would rise to another level. He also checked on his Container of Souls, surprisingly there were already 2971 souls collected in it. He didn't know how many souls he got from the Ice Troll Sentinel but it should contribute a large portion of the souls he had at the moment. He used 2000 of the souls to increase his Power Strike another two levels to level 9.
He also had 8 free skill points for both his Warrior and Mage classes. After pondering for a bit, he used 4 of each to upgrade the Adrenaline Rush to level 3, Sword of Light to level 9, Barrier to level 3, and Mana Detonation to level 3. He kept the remaining 4 free skill points of each class for later.
He then spent all of his free attribute points again on Dexterity, bringing his Dexterity to 90. Keeping all three of the main stats of Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence at a high standard.
It took Alonzo almost an hour to finish absorbing the energy from the ice mana site, longer than his previous prediction. By the time it was done, the indigo orb had completely changed color to bright cyan. There were even some traces of leaking icy energy from the orb.
"The ice energy is much denser than we originally expected," he heard Alonzo said. "Luckily I didn't bring lower grade mana orb." He put the filled orb back into his bag.
The previously radiant ice mana site had now turned into a cold-looking common stone. The temperature in the cave had also returned to normal. The ice covering the walls had now disappeared, leaving puddles of water on the ground.
Several chunks of ice crystal were underneath the ground where the powered-down ice mana site was. Jack's God-eye monocle gave yellow marking on the crystals which indicated them as rare items. He was just about to go forward to pick it up but the cadets beat him to it and took all of them.
That's right, if it was not monster's loots, these NPCs would still express interest. He looked around and then asked Bailey, "can I mine those mining spots?"
"No, they are properties of the kingdom. You will need a permit to mine them," she answered.
That sucks, Jack said in his mind. Good thing he had gotten a nice harvest from the Ice Troll Sentinel.
"Let's leave, you have all completed your mission. We will report back to Commander Quintus," Bailey said.
Jack followed them out of the cave. They went back directly to the tower where he first met Commander Quintus. The said commander was still behind his desk. Gruff on the other hand, was not around anymore. Bailey and Alonzo went and sat in front of the commander and made their report about the mission. Teddy and Lindsey stood at the side, Jack stood with them since there was no instruction for him.
Quintus made a short glance at Jack when he heard about Jack's act in saving Lindsey and allowing the other cadets to flee first, then his forehead creased when it reached the part where Jack cut Walter's arm apart. He was silent for a long time after the report was done. He massaged his temple for a bit before saying, "everyone's dismissed, except for mister Storm Wind."
Everyone walked out afterward. Lindsey gave Jack an encouraging gesture when he passed him by. Jack was a bit puzzled by the gesture.
I guess I am in trouble? He thought.
"Sit," Commander Quintus said to Jack after everyone was gone.
Jack took the chair opposite the commander.
They were staring at each other for the longest time. Jack was not sure if he was supposed to be the one to say something first. After couldn't stand the silence for too long, Jack spoke first, "not to try to make excuses, I don't think I've done anything wrong. If someone tried to kill me, I'll…"
"Let me stop you right there," Quintus interrupt Jack's words. "The problem is not about right or wrong. I would have done the same if I am in your place, maybe in an even more extreme way. The problem is having the power to deal with the consequences. As you should have aware, Walter was the son of a magistrate. That means his family has a certain political power. Whether it's right or wrong, crossing such an individual will have its consequence. I can help you on the lawful side, but you will still need an equally powerful backing if you are to weather from Walter's family's hidden retaliation."
Jack's eyes lighted up, "you will help me?"
"Did you only pick up the good parts and forget about the one I mentioned about retaliation?" Quintus replied with annoyance. "It's the least I can do since I owe you one."
"Huh? Why do you owe me?"
"For saving my daughter."
"Daughter?"
"Lindsey is my daughter."
