Jake was back in the outside zone of The Condemned Dungeon.
It wasn't like he left the dungeon because it was difficult there. On the contrary, Jake's team's current mission was so abundant in resources that he greatly liked it.
He was mainly mining and filling Ender's darkness nest with many ores and minerals. Many of those resources would be used to improve Jake's artisan class. His eyes were on gems.
That said, he couldn't mine a lot and risk losing his loot again.
Despite Ender's nest capacity's limit still being unknown to him, Jake decided to leave the dungeon with his inventory stuffed to the brim with his mining loot.
It had been a few days since his team had decided to find a hidden path leading to the dungeon boss' cave on the third floor. Jake had mined so much in those three days that his miner's proficiency skyrocketed.
Ender's nests were also full of various ores: so many rolled inside his world that Jake needed a few trips back and forth to store them.
Of course, those trips weren't anything dangerous.
The Warmonger's Capital—Last Night—was close to The Condemned Dungeon. Nowadays, this dungeon was a hot topic in the gaming community, so no one wanted to kill each other around so many lurking high-level players.
It'd also be lame to die to a high-level assassin on his whim.
Jake, however, kept his precautions high.
He used a different, a little longer road to avoid any high-level players and even hid in the invisible mantle. He was sure a skilled, high-level player could notice him, but even Sin Blackberry told him to venture out inside the invisible zone to mitigate the risks of losing loot.
After all, Jake was the irregular.
Those who called him by such a nickname could try their luck at paying back what he and his team had done to them.
Although Jake's adventure in the dungeon arose with many difficulties, he loved the challenges because they made things much more interesting.
Anything difficult would also improve him as a person and an archer.
It was cool.
Finally, Jake entered Viktor's workplace.
It was his third visit on the same day.
It had been only a few days since Jake left, so Viktor hadn't gone through any character development.
He was still the same woodman and carpenter who lived between the woods in his wooden house. His expression often twisted into that pissed countenance that Jake was now so used to.
That said, Viktor was quite generous nowadays.
On Jake's third return to the workplace, Viktor called him out first.
He said, "I've prepared a few more quivers with four-bladed arrows for you. One has a unique set of arrows with a much stiffer arrow spine to bring out more of your wolf's power. Just in case, you should practice with them before you use them in a real battle."
For a man who was forced to teach Jake, Viktor was going out of his way to support his dungeon endeavor.
At first, Jake thought it was because of Aaron's influence.
But that couldn't be it.
It also couldn't be their friendship, as Jake could see it was nowhere near Richard's friendship level.
Even though they became good friends, Viktor spent way too much time and resources on Jake.
Jake suspected something must have changed in Viktor's life for him to be so supportive.
Jake accepted the gift and asked, "Is everything fine on your end?"
Viktor stared at him, "Yeah?"
"That didn't sound convincing," Jake replied. He curved his lips into a natural smile and added, "I'm a player. But before that, I'm an archer who wants to become a pioneer. I'm up for any quest that will improve me and my archery. I even learned a lot from a miner's quest, you know? We're also friends, so you don't have to play a paper chase with me.
If something troubling you, I'll help as much as possible."
It might have sounded like Jake only wanted to help Viktor because his troubles could help his archery. From a gamer's point of view, it was like him asking for a quest in a nice way.
That said, Jake knew that Viktor's problems would improve his archery because the man himself had passed him an excellent bow and splendid arrows.
"The Vice-leader! We back from our shakedown! Hehe! Nothing spotted!"
"Those dudes are in clear! Haha!"
"Any more suspicious players? Heh."
The vice leader sneered. He knew those guys had secretly caused trouble and enjoyed their time, but he turned a blind eye to it as he believed those guildless players deserved even more pain.
His guild worked to the bone to even have a sentence of diplomacy with the established guild—The Heavy Spree! They had paid a lot, too.
Although those guildless players and their businesses didn't last long and were under threat day and night, the vice-leader and other smaller guilds didn't like them at all.
"I might find something for you," the vice-leader sneered.
That was when someone's voice interjected their talk(the vice-leader and the troublesome group weren't in the same party, so they couldn't talk in voice chat).
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The voice said, "Just don't run to your daddies once someone snaps at you and beats your sorry asses... like we did."
The vice-leader and his guild members shifted their eyes to the side.
A man with black hair and green eyes stood, sneering at them.
"The irregular!"
"Shut up and go mine, you loser!"
"You wish you could be in our shoes!"
Jake tilted his head, "Me? In your shoes? Nah, I buy shoes myself. I don't need a daddy's hand."
"What daddy you are talking about, you bastard?!"
Jake smirked, "Your daddy."
The players clenched their hands. This annoying irregular didn't make any sense, but he could somehow pull their nerves with his words.
"You're so incompetent that you can't buy your own shoes and even forgot your daddy's name! I can't believe it!" Jake laughed.
A few players behind him laughed together with him.
Those were players who disliked smaller guilds acting like some big shots.
The vice-leader chimed in and said in a loud, deep voice, "Are you entering the dungeon or not?"
Jake smirked, "I'll enter when I want. It does not belong to you. I mean, who are you, really? Your whole guild knows about me, yet I don't even know about you? Wait, are you the forgotten daddy? Haha!
You have such grown kids! Take better care of them, kay? Children are parents' treasures, after all! Good luck! You can do it, Daddy boy!"
Veins popped on the man's temple.
He wasn't as young as Jake or his guild members beside him.
In fact, he was old enough to be a grown kid's daddy.
Jake smirked and turned around.
He entered the dungeon.
He went against those players for a simple reason—the mainstream. Because of the alliance of The Golden Lotus, The Heavy Spree, and The Lions, no one could talk back to the smaller guilds.
Jake could since he had caused a lot of trouble to them.
It was in his blood to do things others didn't want or couldn't.
It was also somewhat related to the archery since he had defeated that guild, meaning he could easily talk back to them. He increased his fame this way, which should help him in the future.
Jake didn't want others to talk back to archers!
He didn't want to be like those guys from the training grounds.