Chapter 316: Major Trouble at Crookes

Terry and Jom were walking the streets of Crookes and reveling in its novelties.

Unlike the atmosphere of a trade city like Lancaster, huge chimneys from which dark smoke was billowing and rising into the air were everywhere in Crookes. There were many circular metallic feedstock tubes around the city as well, which left the environment resembling a city of heavy industry.

There was even a faint scent of coal in the air.

Its tail straightening, old Pikes sniffled, seemingly displeased with the air quality of the city.

After the pet function had been added to the System, Pikes was classified as Jom’s pet and could be revived through game coins and EXP even if it was killed in battle.

Still, pets were not popular with the Players at the moment.

After all, since Xi Wei had been hard-pressed at the beginning, the Players, pet, mounts, followers, and familiars were all lumped together.

The Players therefore had a limit to the creatures they could take in, let alone classes like Holy Lancers who required a mount.

And since pets like Pikes that were weak in battle and couldn’t devote itself to the God of Games, the dog couldn’t level up with the usual method and couldn’t be recruited by most Players.

With that sort of position, were the frogmen of the Warty Tidal Flats not better as tools that could get underwater to lure monsters? Are the Rabbit Heads—the Long Ears of the Western Continent not better since they could now change class and learn Backstab? If push comes to shove, even the various mounts that the Junglewalkers could tame was fine… Though they were perfectly aware of that, Jom, Terry and Pikes had long since bonded together in their travels, with Pikes escaping its trauma of losing its owner to favor its two young masters. As for the two youngsters, abandoning the dog would only be cruel, just as it could easily die if not recruited as pet, which was why they did so.

But neither Jom nor Terry find it a waste. In fact, they were planning to strengthen Pikes.

There were more than a few ways to strengthen a pet, the simplest of which was blessing them with the bloodline of magical creatures. The System also provides a chain of such quests (limited to beasts that the Player had slain before), although the difficulty was auto-assigned and cost a lot of game coins.

However, both Terry and Jom did not find it difficult, and were actually thrilled to take up the quest—they had been a bit lost about what quest they should take up next following the end of the Twin City Up, and any quest spared them the need to think.

“This is the quest destination, right?” Jom mumbled even as he turned on his System Page to check the quest information.

Thanks to the crude quest markers on their minimap and continuous asking of directions, the two finally reached a rundown cottage on a narrow alley where their quest was marked.

Still, Terry looked rather tired, and was clutching his stomach with a scowl. “I hope we get fed. My stomach is flat, and I don’t see any taverns on the way here…”

“We can’t eat even if there’s a tavern. We’ve used up all the Rions we exchanged with Mister Marni, and we only have game coins left.” Jom replied, before knocking firmly on the door. “Is there anyone in here?”

He knocked for quite some time before the door opened, albeit by a narrow slit.

The speckled face of an old man looked out warily. “Who are you people?”

“We are messengers from Lancaster, bearing a letter from Corinth Atherton.” Jom answered, drawing out a well-kept sheepskin paper which bright-red seal was still intact.

The old man looked between them with lingering suspicion, and then at the personal seal on the letter before opening the door.

However, just as both Terry and Jom was about to enter, the old man stopped them.

“Wait. Both of you pluck out one hair.”

“Pluck… hair? Is that some weird custom around here?”

Jom was puzzled.

“Custom… humph!” The old man sneered. “There’s no such weird custom in Crookes. I’m checking whether you are swampmen!”

“Swampmen? Those sticky, big humanoid monsters?” Terry asked, perplexed.

“Those are swampbeasts. Swampmen are morphing monsters that could imitated a person’s memories and appearance, right?”

Jom, on the other hand, knew more since he would occasionally browse through beast compendiums on the forums out of boredom.

“Even memories?” Terry paled in shock.

“Don’t worry, our memories are protected by our gods. Those monsters won’t keep our memories even if they imitated our appearance.

After all, the Players know too much-the other gods would be able to tell that Xi Wei was not normal if anyone could see their memories, and would string him up to be dissected into pieces. That was why any Player’s memories being read by a foreign power would alert Xi Wei himself, after which he would inflict divine retribution.

In fact, that mechanism also keeps the Player immune against mind control aside from preventing their memories from being read. Jom naturally wasn’t aware of the reasons behind it all and merely continued his story. “It was also said that if any part of the swampmen’s body is detached, the loss of lifeforce would revert them to mud. That’s probably why plucking out a strand of hair would prove that we are fine.”And with that reason made known, neither youths protested any further, each plucking out a hair to prove themselves for the old man.

Knowing now that they are alright, the old man only let them in then.

“Since you’ve mentioned it, does this city have a problem with swampmen?” Jom asked in curiosity. “Has wild magical beasts blended in? Didn’t the churches here take action?”

“I don’t know the specifics, but swampmen has definitely blended in. We have found several water sources that they’ve poisoned, and corpses whose identity they had taken.”

The old man quickly closed the door after both youths entered and only looked relief after he closed its many locks. “The city watch has lost all reputation after going days without finding a clue. And it’s not like churches are dependable anyway, so everyone could only protect themselves by being cautious…”

Jom made a solemn face, while discreetly judged if this would be the next quest.

“Give me the letter.”

The old man then sat grandly beside the hearth and accepted the letter from Jom. “Let me see what the old chap has to say to an old cripple like me.”