Second World

Bowler opened his Map system to check The Man's position. The guy was not in the inn. In fact, he was far away on the other side of the town. Bowler immediately sent him a message, "bro, where the f**k are you?"

He received The Man's prompt reply, "sorry, bro. We are out to do other things. Did boss Storm Wind ask for another help with his quest? Tell him we are sorry we cannot provide him assistance for today."

'You unreliable bast*rd! Why did you not call me as well before you go?' Bowler wanted to scream out.

Jack did not seem to be bothered by The Man's absence. He said, "well, since he was not here. Let's just go ourselves."

"How about we invite Fierce Flame?" Bowler suggested.

"No need," Jack said. "I think my hunch should be correct. I believe those afflicted dine at the same mess hall. We should only need to check several past patients to confirm. No need for a large group to check all the past patients."

"Well, since you don't need a large group, maybe I… let's go! We are burning daylight!" Bowler changed his words mid-sentence when Jack glared at him.

The two of them went out of the inn without calling for others. When they passed the lobby, it was empty. Everyone could still be sleeping or they were out to do some other things.

"Where will we find those past patients?" Bowler asked.

"We go to the infirmary first. There should be some patients that have just been cured by themselves last night or this morning. They should still be in the infirmary for checkings before they were released. If there is none, we go to the town hall. I will ask the officer there to assemble again the soldiers who I interviewed yesterday."

On the way, he noticed Bowler making several intense stares at the NPCs they passed by.

"What the hell are you doing? Trying to practice eye jutsu?" Jack asked.

"I am practicing my Inspect skill," Bowler answered.

"Oh? What is the grade of your inspect skill now?"

"I just got to Basic Expert. What's yours?"

"Uh, Intermediate Apprentice," Jack answered sheepishly.

"Are you kidding me? Most others are at least Advanced Apprentice already. This auxiliary skill was the easiest to be trained. I saw you were very diligent in practicing your battle skills. Did you never practice your Inspect skill?"

"Uh, I only used it when I think I need to…"

"You are hopeless, bro… Well, apart from fighting I mean. Try to practice it more often. You get more info on your target if your Inspect grade is higher."

"So you just use it on everybody you passed by?"

"Yeah," Bowler nodded.

"Even that limping grandma over there?" Jack asked as he pointed to an NPC.

"Even her," Bowler affirmed.

"Fine, fine! Let's practice together," Jack said.

Hence, the two used their Inspect skill as they walked to the infirmary. The NPCs that passed them by were rather alarmed as they saw these two Outworlders walked by and kept on giving everyone an intense glare.

Before long, they reached the infirmary.

"Boy, that was exhausting!" Jack exclaimed. He was glad they finally reached their destination. All those inspecting had made this short walk felt much longer.

Inside the infirmary, there were indeed several soldiers who had just been cured, saving him the trip to the town hall. The healers were checking these cured patients to make sure that they were truly fine before they let them returned to their stations.

Jack looked for the friendly healer woman before he started asking questions at those soldiers. Instead, his eyes were met with the grumpy male healer.

"What are you doing here again?" The grumpy male healer asked with an unfriendly tone.

Jack was about to retort with an off-hand remark, but due to all those Inspect practicing from before, he spontaneously used his Inspect on this grumpy healer. The skill's result showed the fellow was called Albert and was a level 50 Chief Healer and Special Elite Human. Jack's retort was choked before it went out of his mouth.

The retort was quickly modified. "Esteemed Sir, you are indeed praiseworthy as a healer. These soldiers here are lucky to have you taking care of them. I believe they are all extremely grateful to you. I am but a lowly outworlder, but I hope what little I know can be of aid. I have acquired a clue that might or might not point us to the source of this disease, but I need to talk with those patients who had just been cured. Might your kindness permit me to talk with these soldiers?"

Albert was rather taken aback. He looked at Jack's face again, making sure he did not recognize the wrong person. No, this was indeed that rude Outworlder from yesterday.

"I… Well… Okay… If it can help to solve this disease problem," Albert said, a bit lost for words at the start.

"Thank you, esteemed Sir. You are the true hero to these soldiers. Your healings are what had kept them alive," Jack added a couple more praises as he went to the soldiers.

Albert scratched his head as he watched Jack's back.

"Where is all that bravado you displayed when facing the Crown Prince? Didn't see you cower like this when you found out the prince was a level 55 Rare Elite," Peniel mocked.

"Those princes are different. They are accompanied by people who are clearly my enemies, that already showed our alignments were antagonistic to each other from the start. Even if I suck up to them, they will still be hostile to me, so might as well be honest. This Healer here, I have no enmity with him aside from a few mouth debates. There is no reason to antagonize him further."

Jack came to the cured patients, who had been placed at one section together for a final check-up. There were four of them. He asked for their names as he took out the paper with the time period notes. After acquiring their names, he and Bowler looked for their names on the paper. Two of them were afflicted in the morning around 8-9 AM, one was at 2.14 PM, the last one was at 8.03 PM.

Jack asked about where they had their meals an hour before that time. As expected, although all of them contracted the disease at different times, they were all eating at the same mess hall around an hour before. It was at the mess hall D. The five mess halls were denoted with alphabets, from A to E. Jack asked them the direction to mess hall D.

After gaining the information, Jack thanked them and was about to leave, before he found Albert was behind him.

"You think it was because of the food?" He asked.

"I'm not so sure, that's why I want to go there and check it," Jack answered.

"That's why I said you are useless. If it was the food, we would have found it long ago. Less let you non-healer poking around as if you know something."

Jack was peeved. He had shown the guy respect, did he have to be this difficult?

But before Jack said anything, Albert added, "if you go to that mess hall, look for someone called Sloan. He is the main cook there. Said Albert send you, he should assist you willingly."

Jack's opinion of this healer which had plummeted had now rose back up again. "Thank you! That will be a great help. I know you are always a kind saint who is ready to…"

"Cut the crap, just get out of here, you non-healer useless bum."

Jack's opinion of him went back down a notch again.

"But I am a healer," Bowler protested.

Albert studied Bowler for a moment. "Good choice of profession, but still too green. You two boys better go home and drink milk instead of playing with grown-up issues."

Bowler was about to say something, but Jack pulled him out of the building.

Jack and Bowler went in the direction of mess hall D, all the while practicing their Inspect skill vigorously. Their actions drew the attention of a pair of guards who stopped them and asked why they threw such hostile glares to the locals. The two of them apologized and let the guards checked their identities before they were let go. They toned down their Inspect to make it looked less conspicuous.

The mess hall had the same simplistic architecture as the rest of the town. The two of them came inside the building and went through a couple of plain boxy rooms before they came out to a very large boxy hall. Several rows of long tables filled up the room. It was the typical layout of a military mess hall.

It was after breakfast time and before noon, so the place was rather empty. There were only a few soldiers doing clean-up duty. One of these soldiers saw the two looking around and came to them.

"Are you lost, boys? School is at the other block," he asked with ridicule.

"You ever saw a boy wearing armor?" Jack asked.

"You ever saw a boy wearing healer robe and carrying magic staff," Bowler was not about to be left behind.

"You two have sharp tongues," the soldier commented. "So what are you doing here? Don't bring your parents here complaining if I kick the two of you out."

"We are looking for a cook named Sloan," Jack said.

"He is not in today. What's your business with him?"

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