Chapter 127 - Jarko Town

Once, they cleared the elite mode, they immediately went to the hell mode. The dungeon offered them a good area to practice their physical skills which they had already realized would be vital in this game. Seeing Shadow make evasions with the smallest of moments, it was clear to them that to be successful, it was very important to predict and avoid attacks in vita-nova.

So, they continued to the hell mode as they wanted to practice. Sultan and Shadow were more than glad to attempt the hell mode as the greater the number of dark faction monsters they kill, the faster they could upgrade their equipment. Apart from that, Shadow also wanted to make sure that they explored the entire dungeon. He knew that two additional paths would pop up in hell mode in the dungeon and there would be at least one more treasure chest.

About four hours later, they managed to finish the hell mode of the dungeon. Without first clear of the hell mode, the rewards weren't great or exciting, but the treasure chests provided armaments provided decent ones.

"That was time consuming," said Bitter Beast as soon as they came out of the dungeon. Without the need for first clear, they practiced physical combat with the dark goblins and the usage of spells in manual mode. For the team, it was quite tiring as Shadow didn't show the best of his capabilities but let the rest take charge of the situation.

"Yes, but the exercise was quite useful. I want to try out the colosseum now. The PvP is bound to be a lot different from the previous games as it depends on our own imagination. We need to work on this if we have any intentions for competitions," said Sultan.

"Yes, that is a given. We need to learn to fight. The colosseum would provide a good training ground for us," added Merlin. "Mob had already led 3 trips for the mass quest already. I want to try on those quest being provided by the guards in blackrock town. It is the best way to level up at this point."

By the end of the hell mode, they have all come quite close to reaching level 13. As they had missed one first clear Merlin wanted to level up and try for the next one. Balthazar knew that it wouldn't be that easy to get a first clear of elite mode of the next dungeon - Bungar's keep. It was a hold of dwarves in a vast mountain like area and considering its large size, it is much harder to explore or get a first clear in it. So, Balthazar wanted to focus on the quest he had received from the church. He had kept it on the side, but now it felt like a good time to explore.

"Why don't you five try it out. I got a quest in a nearby town. I want to complete it first," said Shadow.

"When did you get a quest? You were with us most of the day," asked Grenadier surprised.

"I got it yesterday, you guys didn't meet me at that time. It is a higher leveled quest, but I think I can get through it," said Shadow. Balthazar knew that doing quests before the level suggested would give better grade and rewards, especially quest that he received from organizations like the temple of the twelve. So, he wanted to attempt the quest. It was a new one and the Celestial Warriors managing to get first clear of hell mode was still on his mind. This achievement made him realize that even with his knowledge, he couldn't be stronger than all others and needed to put much more effort than he was currently.

"But this is not like the mass quest. Those bandits apparently don't even drop crossbows. I heard from Mob that these quests have special rewards along with point similar to the quingol heads. The stations at the Blackrock town is even providing town guard crossbows that are better than the ones we got from the bandits," said Bitter Beast.

He had found the bandit crossbows to be quite useful and wanted better ones. By the end of the third trip, Mob had managed to kill enough to exchange for a town guard crossbow whose attributes he had been showing off to Bitter Beast via chat and this made Bitter Beast want to take a few missions as Mob told that would also allow one to get these equipment.

"It is a temple quest. Their rewards are better than others. You know how I profited from the quest that opened up the Cave of Wargs. I want to try it out and see," said Shadow.

"Shit! How did I forget temple quests? I also need to go visit it once. Make a not of this. After the night falls, we will visit both the colosseum to train and the temple," said Merlin. He had already known of the temple quest that he got previously but forgot all about it.

"Fine. See you later," said Grenadier as they made their way to the Blackrock Town.

Shadow also channelled his hearthstone to get to the White Heart City and checked the teleportation point. All towns and villages from which at least one person came to the city and registered would have a path and link in the teleportation hall. Apart from that, one could visit most of the non-beginner towns if they had relevant quests. Unless the quest involved finding a hidden or secret town, the quests would provide the direction to the town. He would just need to pay the amount to teleport to that town.

At the teleportation hall, he checked the board and found that the Jarko Town was indeed available to teleport to. He noticed that it was not a basic town. This would reduce the area that he had to search and would simplify his quest. He quickly selected it and teleported to the Jarko Town.

As he got out of the teleportation point of the Jarko Town, he noticed that the town was in a flat area with a forest covering about 70% of its circ.u.mference and the area in front of the gate had a simple path leading to the city with a small stream flowing right beside it.

The stream flowed through the town and there was a small dam on the town wall which regulated the flow and right inside the wall, behind the dam there was a water wheel. There were a few wooden bridges to cross the stream inside the town and one right outside the gate.

He immediately went to a shop nearby and asked for a map. The quest definitely was a search quest which implied the need to move around the town and probably in areas around the town. So, a map of the town was the most essential for the quest. The thing which was odd was that there were no players visible to him. The only things that he could see were NPCs. He initially though that it was very weird but then realized that the most interesting places around the region were currently the White Heart City and Blackrock Town.

Even if the town was a few kilometers to the west of the city. It would take some time for the other players to reach it. Most of them are having trouble to adapt to the game and currently a lot of players are cursing that very small amount of resources are being dropped from killing monsters as they didn't know the trick to it.

So, the Blackrock town became the best place for guilds to focus on right now and very little force is being used to explore the areas surrounding it. Without someone finding the town, it would have quite sparse population of players.

But Balthazar knew that he wasn't the first one to reach the town. He initially thought that due to the quest, he was able to teleport to the town, but now he could see that it wasn't so as he didn't get any notification for discovering a new tow which would be given to the first person to enter a new town.

"As expected, not all guilds would focus on the city or blackrock town. With the competitors that they have, a few second-rate guilds that have members spawned nearby would try to explore and find new towns and areas to get reputation points," thought Balthazar.

With the map, he managed to find the way to the temple. He didn't remember any Jarko Town from his memories in previous life, but it wasn't surprising. Quite a few guilds occupied few towns and when a player gets enough reputation to be a towns Baron, he could change its name. The same was with forts and other constructions. When, he joined the game in his previous life, a lot of low-level town and areas had their names changed by guilds and sometimes even the events of the game resulted in name changes.

The stream that flowed through the town dividing it into two parts. A quarter of the town was on one side of the stream while the rest on the other. The temple was in the smaller part and most of the remaining land was made of farms and a market area. Most of the residences, adventurers association, colosseum, the baron ruling over the town and other associations were in the bigger part.

This division made it quite easier to travel through the town according to ones needs. He crossed the stream and went to the temple which was about the same size as that in Blackrock Town. It was the largest structure in this part and was a black towering structure at the centre of the market.

A number of shops and were built around it and it looked like market hall, if not for the statues of the twelve lords in the temple. He couldn't see any NPC or players around the temple. If any players were exploring the town, they didn't come here. As he came to the gates of the temple, he was blocked by a pair of town guards which were NPCs at level 15.

"The temple is currently closed by order of the baron. Visitors aren't allowed inside," said one of the guards looking at him.

Balthazar was surprised for a second. He had never faced a scenario where temple would be closed. It was one of the few places that would be open for 24 hours in the game. If it was closed, it was definitely for his quest or was prelude to a quest.

"Respected Sir. Could you please tell me why the temple is currently closed?" asked Shadow. In such situations, it was best to ask question to gather information about the quest. The responses by the NPCs and their behavior would give a lot of clues on how to further proceed in the quest.

The guard looked at him like he was looking at a stupid person. "Are you questioning us?" he asked. "Get out of my sight before I skewer you," said the guard pointing his spear at Shadow's head.

The guard's reaction made it clear that the scenario was something that couldn't be told to every civilian of the town. He put on the badge that he received for his iron grade membership of the temple.

"I am a member of the temple here on official business. I need to talk to deacon Faroon. Please, let me inside," said Shadow showing him the badge.

"Pardon us, sir. We didn't know that you were a member of the temple. Give me a minute to inform my superiors," said the guard who had previously threatened to impale him. The NPC quickly ran up the stairs of the temple and a few seconds later walked down with his captain. The captain was a blond-haired NPC with a large spear in her hand.

"What business do you have with deacon Faroon," asked Captain Sandy as she looked at him like he was a criminal. Balthazar was a bit surprised by the behavior of the NPC wondering whether she is a part of the enemies but decided to say the truth as he was sure that he could escape from a few level 15 NPCs.

"I was asked to check up on deacon Faroon by the great priest of the White Heart City. He felt that something might have happened to deacon Faroon," said Shadow.

"What do you mean by that? How would you know if anything happened to deacon Faroon?" she continued in the same tone.

"I don't know. I was requested by the great priest Luciophel to check upon him. Don't know if he is sick, needs help or if he is a danger to someone. I was sent to provide any sort of help that would be required to the temple," said Shadow trying to indicate to them that he is on behalf of the temple and would be investigate the deacon's situation without any prejudices.

Though it was clear that they didn't want to allow him inside, the NPCs had a few rules that they wouldn't usually go against. So, the captain relented as she signalled to the guards to move aside. "Let me lead you inside," she said walking up the stairs.