Second World

Jack first went around town shopping and picking up his shares from Amy's Bakery and Ellie's Restaurant. He collected 200 gold coins out of the three-week shares from the two establishments. He did that under his Unrivaled Arcaner disguise. It was too much of a hassle if he walked around town as a king.

Afterward, Jack used the city's zone portal to teleport to Heavenly Citadel. He passed the Resurrection Chapel Blueprints to Tip, who was very excited to receive the legendary-grade blueprints. He promised to get this chapel up and running in no time.

Jack also gave Jeanny the gold seed, Wind Jet technique book, and Divine Might Potion to be copied.

He then used the guild's teleportation chamber to teleport to Eridrus, one of the main cities in the Hydrurond Dominion.

He maintained his mage disguise in this city. He had offended this country's emissary not long ago. He doubted he will be treated with hospitality if the authority knew that he was in this country.

Jack didn't dwell long inside the city. He went out and summoned Pandora after getting a certain distance away from the city.

He changed back to his real self as he mounted Pandora. He let the steed know where he wanted to go. Pandora then took to the sky. She left a fiery trail as she cut through the sky.

With Pandora's current speed. He arrived at his destination in less than two days, which was a large mountain he had visited in the past.

The mountain was none other than Mount Draygetos. Unlike before, Jack flew directly to its summit.

He circled the summit until he saw the familiar hut with a small lake and waterfall. He had Pandora land right next to this hut.

Jack knocked on the door to the hut while shouting, "Darmos…! Hello, mighty Darmos! Are you home?"

No sound from inside. Jack didn't sense anything from inside. There was also no dot on his radar. But if Darmos was whom Jack suspected to be, he could make himself not appear on the radar.

So, Jack knocked again. This time, he called, "Mighty Broidrireg, excuse my rudeness. Are you inside?"

Still no answer.

Jack stopped knocking. He was considering going to the cave where he met Broidrireg when the cloud above rumbled. He looked up just in time to see the white clouds parted. Out of those clouds appeared an enormous dragon head with majestic antlers and two long whiskers.

The enormous dragon descended, revealing his long serpentine body covered with dazzling blue scales. His two large wings were folded as the dragon took a nosedive.

Jack watched as the huge dragon came down at high speed right above him. He turned into a panic when the dragon didn't slow down. He tried to move away but the dragon's descent created a strong pressure on the air around the ground and this pressure made Jack feel his body to be extremely heavy. He couldn't move away.

The blue dragon abruptly stopped just a few meters above Jack, causing an air explosion that forced Jack to fall flat onto the ground.

While laying flat on the ground, Jack looked at the dragon's big face directly above him. The dragon was flashing his sharp teeth menacingly.

But after further observation, he realized that the expression on the dragon was not a snarl. It was a grin.

The grin then turned into a laugh. "Hehehe, I got you."

"Damn it! I forgot how you love pranks," Jack said as he got up. He glanced at the hut while doing so, amazed at how it withstood the air explosion caused by Broidrireg.

"Why do you come back here? What do you want?" Broidrireg asked.

"I said I hope we can meet again, didn't I? Here I am. Don't say that you are not happy to see me," Jack replied.

"I don't," Broidrireg replied curtly.

"Tsk, still like to mask your feeling. So, I reckon you don't want to taste my cooking?" Jack said as he showed his cooking tools and some luxurious ingredients.

He had bought those ingredients and recipes during his shopping in Thereath. He had also gotten a new cooking tool from Ellie, something that she bought from the House of Culinary faction at Jack's behest. It was a rare-grade expert cooking tool, which provided extra benefits to the cooked food.

"Hm… Maybe tasting the food is okay," Broidrireg said.

"Can you please turn to Darmos? It is very suffocating talking to you in your mighty form," Jack said.

Broidrireg continued staring at Jack for a few seconds before his body turned into a twister of blue wind and water. The twister converged onto the ground before turning into the small grumpy draconian that Jack was familiar with.

With this, it was confirmed Darmos was Broidrireg's disguise.

"Hehe, I know he is you," Jack said.

"Don't act so smart. I let you see the clues intentionally," Darmos said.

"Like hell you did!" Jack returned.

Jack was setting up his cooking tools and preparing the ingredients. Darmos just sat on a chair by his hut and watched.

"Aren't you going to help?" Jack asked.

"Nope," Darmos replied. He took out a cigar and started smoking.

"Where the heck do you get that thing?"

Darmos replied by blowing a perfect O-shaped smoke.

Jack let the draconian enjoy his cigar in peace as he started cooking. Not long after, four dishes were served. Jack knew Darmos eat a lot so he prepared more food than one person could typically eat. All four dishes also contained varied food.

Darmos almost couldn't contain his drool after smelling the aroma of the food. All the food also looked pleasant visually. These four dishes were suggested by Ellie and Jack also had some short practice preparing them under Ellie's supervision. He went through all these troubles so he could impress Darmos.

Jack didn't join the meal. All four dishes were for Darmos. Jack left him to eat in peace as he trained mana manipulation by the side of the lake.

Although Darmos was eating ravenously, he was still aware of Jack's training. He was rather astonished to learn that Jack could do mana manipulation to such a stage already. The last time Jack was here, he only barely touched the realm where he showed the mana concealment technique.

After finishing the meals, Jack came to Darmos and asked, "How were the meals, do you like them?"

"Cut the crap. I know you want something. Spill the beans. I don't like a roundabout way."

"Hehe," Jack smiled awkwardly. "Do you mind being my country's guardian?"