Chapter 1834 1834. Missing People
They traveled straight in the direction of Chris' coordinates. Thanks to Pandora's fear aura, most monsters moved away from their path. Hence, they could travel in peace.
Jack was itching to stop whenever he saw new monsters, but John forbade him. Even if his steed could easily catch up to them, leaving would mean letting go of Pandora's fear aura. The rest would then get slowed by monsters who happened to be in their way.
The day was not over when they entered the Dorwin region. They continued until almost midnight before they found a clearing and used that spot to build their tents.
They only had free time during the six-hour rest John allocated. John didn't demand everyone to sleep. Everyone was an adult already.
During the first night, everyone took this lightly. Jet and Freddie coached Wilted's gang on mana manipulation. Jack, Grace, Jeanny, Arthur, and Spring Crown had friendly spar to hone their martial arts. Leavemealone, Four Winds, and Red Death trained alone.
John warned everyone not to stay up too late. He then went into his tent to rest.
After sparring for an hour, Jack and the others rested and chatted. Jack mentioned that he felt like he was back in the old time when he was on an adventure with a party.
"We ARE on an adventure," Grace said with a laugh.
"Yeah, but I wish it has been under a better situation, where the world is not at stake," Jeanny said.
"No need to stress yourself on something you can't change, Jeanny," Arthur said. "Focus on what you can do. For now, hone yourself and go to this place where we hope to find an answer."
"Spoken like a true wise man," Spring Crown said.
"Are you implying I'm not?" Arthur asked.
"Please don't misunderstand me, Master Arthur. Of course, you are," Spring Crown said.
"I heard you self-learn your martial arts. I find that rather hard to believe. Is that true?" Arthur asked.
"Rather than self-learn. It's more like stealing. You have to be careful when you display your sword art around him, Master Arthur. He will steal it if you are not careful," Jack said.
"If he can do that, that means he is very talented. I rarely receive a disciple because I don't have the patience to explain my teaching." Arthur turned to Spring Crown, "If you can learn my sword arts simply by watching. I don't mind showing it to you."
"In that case, I won't hesitate in stealing, I mean, learning your sword arts!" Spring Crown exclaimed.
"Man, you do have no shame," Jack said to Spring Crown.
As they were chatting, Red Death approached them. "Jack, accompany me in training, will you?" She asked.
"Oh?" Jack was rather surprised by the request.
"Wong taught me a few new moves. I want to test it to see if it has shortened the gap between us."
Grace stood up. "He is too strong for you. If you need a sparring partner. I will be happy to."
Red Death didn't even look at Grace. She said, "You don't qualify to."
"What did you say?!" Grace asked.
"Uh… A quarrel. Nice," Spring Crown remarked.
"You are a pig," David, who was sitting by Jeanny, said to Spring Crown.
Jack stood up and mediated before things went out of hand. "Look, how about this. You two come at me."
"What?" Red Death and Grace both asked.
"Like Grace said. I'm too strong. I have three classes, after all. Even if you two wore legendary equipment, I do too. It won't be fair. If the two of you work together, maybe it will balance our power gap."
Jack didn't give the two the chance to object. He walked to an open space and took out two uncommon-grade swords. "Come at me! No skills. Just standard attacks."
Grace and Red Death glanced at each other before brandishing their weapons. They then rushed at Jack. One came to his left. The other came to his right. Jack dealt with each using one sword.
"His sword's heart had greatly improved," Arthur said. "I never expected someone to catch up to me in such a short time. His martial talent is truly outstanding."
"Yeah. That one I can't copy. It's not a movement art, after all," Spring Crown said.
"It's not. It's more like a meditation technique. Do you wish to learn?"
"I'm never good with meditation. Can't stay still, you know. I think I'll pass on this one."
"Those two work together rather well for rivals," David was commenting on Grace and Red Death.
"I at first thought something was going on between Haon and Red Death," Jeanny said. "The two spar quite often when we were in Master's captivity. I guess it was just the need to train at the time. Those two rarely speak again after they are free."
"Maybe we should try matchmaking them? I mean, Jack is for sure close to Grace already, right? This will help him from getting distracted."
While they were chatting, they were yelled at by Spring Crown, "Hey, if you two lovebirds want to show a display of affection, can you please do it somewhere more private?"
"What display of affection? It's just a hug, Goddamnit," David protested.
"Well, it still bothers people who have no couple. Have some empathy, will you?" Spring Crown returned.
"I thought you said you have someone? Where is she?" Jeanny asked.
"Oh, she… She was someone I used to play games with in the past. She went by the alias Swaying Drizzle. She was a very good ranged attacker. She would have been a good archer or gunner if she was here."
"I'm so sorry. How long ago has she passed away?" David asked.
"What…? Hell, no! She is still alive! What makes you say that?" Spring Crown asked.
"No? What the hell, man? Why the heck did you phrase it like that? You made it sound like she is not in this world anymore."
"She is not. That's the thing, man. I've been searching for her all this time but never find a mention of her. I even used that Missing Outworlders Coordination Center, but they never found information about her."
"Maybe she changed her alias?" Jeanny suggested.
"No. I don't believe she did," Spring Crown said with certainty.
"Hm… Come to think of it. I did hear some people claiming some of the people they knew were still missing after all this time."
"That is not wrong," Scarface joined them after overhearing their conversation. "We Death Associates have a rather large member base spanning through multiple countries. We have found many of our members. But to be honest, a large portion is still missing even now. Even after we can travel to every settlement in this world."
"Do you think there is more to this than meets the eye?" Jeanny asked.
Spring Crown shrugged. "We are probably going to meet the creator, aren't we? Perhaps we can ask about this while we are at it."