Vines returned to Jacko's door early in the morning. He still felt bitter about what he told Jacko yesterday, then he knocked at the door. "Jacko, we're going to eat." He says with a heavy sigh. There was no response...Vines stared at the door. "No." He said to himself as he began to take his keys and quickly unlocks the door, opening to a completely empty room...and broken furniture. "JACKO!?" He suddenly yelled, assuming the worst to have happened. He then looked at the broken window. "God fucking DAMN IT!" He yelled as he slammed the door to his room and quickly walked to the main hall of his tavern. "Roses, you're boss for the day, Jacko's fucking gone." He said, as he grabbed his gloves. "Wait, What!?" Roses exclaimed, seeing the man leave the tavern.
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Earlier that morning, a man with a dark green cloak places a quest at Boey's desk.
Find The Frost Orb
Reward: 10000 Gold
I swear I dropped it somewhere in the Slime Caves, I was fighting a bunch of Giant Slimes and I was destroying them easily, got back, and then suddenly it's just gone. Find it and I'll pay you THIS much. I'm not even kidding. I need this quest done TODAY, the name's Jason Brinks, I'm currently staying at the Vines Tavern at a VIP room.
"You're taking a fairly easy quest for an intimidating fit." Boey said to the man with the dark green cloak. The man didn't respond. "Honestly I'd take it too, the reward is good, think you can handle it for real.... Jacko?" Boey said as he smiled. Jacko immediately removed the hood of his cloak. "Aww come on, don't tell Mr. Vines." Jacko groaned. Boey laughed. "He didn't even tell us anything 'cept the fact you got your ass handed to ya by slimes, how ironic." Boey laughed. "I can do this, I just got unlucky last time. I'm sure!" Jacko told. "Then come back in one piece." He says, as he then confirms the quest by stamping it with a check mark.
"Thank you!" Jacko says, as he then returns to the Slime Grove to look for the Slime Cave.
Vines immediately busted through the Guild doors an hour after he left, startling everyone with the powerful this of his door opening. He immediately rushed to the Quest Confirmation table. Boey raised his arms as if he was being robbed. "Slime Cave!" He yelled, knowing what he was about to ask. "What- Hmm." Boey's hunch was right, Vines nods in satisfaction and stomps out of the guild. "How the hell is he not even an adventurer!?" Boey didn't know Vines' looked so strong, for he was always seen as that guy running the tavern. Who was he?
Jacko sat by a tree in Slime Grove, then he holds his hands out, having a true intention on who to summon this time. A small pink blob appears before him, reforming into the shape of the Fairy Slime he summoned earlier. "Hi! Hi!" The Fairy Slime greeted. "Hi Finn!" Jacko greeted back, with the name he gave. Finn looked around and zooms around the trees. "What do you see?" Jacko asked, then the slime flies in front of his face, smiling. That smile means that he can't answer the question. Well, that's what Jacko assumes. "Right, how many Giant Slimes do you see? Like, the super big slimes." Jacko asked, with 'great' detail. Finn tapped its chin, trying to recall, then it puts up it's hand, forming the number 7 through its hand. "Right, can you deal with all of them?" Jacko asked. Finn shook it's head, it's little beams can deal damage, but not enough. "Can you take me to which Giant Slime is closer to something that looks like a cave?" Jacko asked, causing Finn to nod and then fly to a certain direction. Jacko cautiously follows, making sure they don't make too much noise.
Jacko then hid behind a tree as he saw the mouth of the cave, with three Giant Slimes moving about. Finn floats up to his face, awaiting an order with a blank idle smile. Jacko then takes a deep breath, he did some experiments the night before, so he practices to summon a second slime. The familiar Fire Slime appears before them, then he picks up the Fire Slime and looks to Finn. "Can you use your fairy power to lift up this guy?" Jacko asked. Finn then proceeds to cast a small magical rope to tie the Fire Slime and then practices lifting it, it was light and the Fire Slime felt comfortable. Jacko looks at the Fire Slime. "I'm sorry, but this is the only way." Jacko said, as he then tells Finn. "Finn, drop Fire Slime in the middle of the Giant Slime group please." He shed a tear as he sent the command, covering his ears as he watches Finn bring the Fiery Slime above the Giant Slime group. Jacko then salutes the Fire Slime. Finn then cut the magical rope and let the Fire Slime fall, causing it to fall in the middle of the Giant Slimes, exploding and incinerating everything within range. Finn immediately flew from the large explosion, while the tree where Jacko hid was slightly singed by the explosion. He then witnesses the destruction of the Giant Slimes. Finn sat on his shoulder, smiling. "That was.... awesome." He said, knowing what it cost.
He then passed through the burnt slime gels around the area, soon entering the cave. This was his first time in the cave...he saw sticky green slimes all around the ragged stone walls, it was getting darker too. Finn then noticed the darkness and then casts a large pink orb above his head to provide a big pink light, illuminating a decent radius around him. He then sees small green slimes coming out before him. "Finn, you can take these guys on right?" Jacko says. Finn nodded as it then starts shooting pink magical lasers at the slimes, disintegrating them slowly with each small beam. "Great job!" Jacko says, then suddenly a Giant Slime appears, seeing it's siblings defeated. Jacko then backs up a bit. Finn then starts shooting it's beams at the Giant Slime, while Jacko summons a Fire Slime, making the slime shoot out embers to melt the distracted Giant Slime. Jacko was feeling great, the fact that he can summon two slimes at once now is satisfying.
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Jacko soon gets deeper into the cave, then he noticed a change within the cave. He expected the cave to be more slimy, but as he goes deeper...he feels cold. The slimes have disappeared, replaced by ice. Jacko's goal was to find a Frost Orb...but what exactly does a Frost Orb do?
Vines was looking for the cave, until he heard a loud explosion in the distance. He immediately ran through a Giant Slime blocking his way and runs to a terrifying sight, charred ground with the smell of melting slime. "What kind of monster did this...what quest did that little shit take!?" He yelled. He just hoped that Jacko wasn't getting himself into more trouble, he then ran into the cave.
Jacko kept walking through the cave, the more he progressed, the more the slime cave turned more into of an Ice cave...Finn suddenly began tugging on Jacko's robe to move behind an ice rock. Jacko then does hide, as he saw a terrifying monster, an Ice Golem, walking past by them. Jacko is starting to freak out...he thought this was a Slime Cave!
Jacko looked down at his Fire Slime. "Think you can take care of that guy for me?" Jacko asks, the Fire Slime nods it's empty head and then jumps out of their hiding spot.
The Ice Golem spots the Fire Slime and immediately roars at it in anger, its body is made of pure ice. It then transforms it's frozen hand to represent a blade to quickly slash through the Fire Slime. The slime jumps out of the way and hops on top of the Ice blade to melt, it then starts spewing out embers at its body, melting it bit by bit, making it stagger as it's form gets distorted. Suddenly, small pink laser beams pierces throughout it's body and breaks apart it's form into lifeless blocks of ice. Jacko comes out of hiding, opening his palm to have Finn hi-five it. He then noticed something from the ice golem's remains, its a light blue sphere that started to show cold air around it. "That must be the frost orb!" He exclaimed, as he then attempts to obtain it. The Frost Orb suddenly flies up, the ice around the cave are then suddenly floating towards the orb and breaking apart the cold ground beneath Jacko. Jacko immediately ran while picking up his fire slime and Finn following him. He ran through to the part where there no longer ice, bumping into a large fleshy-
"Jacko!? What are you doing here!?" Vines then picks up Jacko by his robe, once again realizing how short he was even when he was older, but enough of that. "Mr. Vines! I'm so close to completing the quest!" Jacko pleaded. "You ran without permission." Vines paused for a bit, until he noticed the air around them grow colder, he then sees a large ice golem, with the Frost Orb as it's eye. Jacko spun his robe around, twisting it and sees the Frost Giant. "What the hell is that!?" Vines then dropped Jacko as he readies his fighting gloves. Jacko stood up and Finn prepared it's pink glowing hands. "It's the Quest Item sir!" Jacko exclaimed, he then ran towards the Frost Giant. "Goddammit Jacko!? You can't best that thing in battle!" Vines ran after him.
Jacko immediately had a plan, he threw down the Fire Slime at the ground and jumped on it, causing him to be launched at the Frost Giant's arm. Finn then uses it's magical rope to throw the Fire Slime at the incoming Frost Fist that was about to hit Jacko, exploding the entire first, causing the Giant to road in pain. Jacko then summons a Water Slime in his hands and then squeezes it, causing it to shoot out water at the Frost Giant's Orb. The Giant's face formed a mask to block the Orb. Jacko got annoyed, as he then unsummoned the Water Slime into his chest...by swallowing it as how he usually does it. He kept running up on the arm, then he saw the orb behind the mask glowing and shooting a Frost Beam directly at Jacko. Jacko hopped a bit in anticipation, having Finn's tiny platform appear beneath his feet and then launches him further to the Giant's Face, he landed right a top it's head. Jacko then saw Finn flying towards him, shooting it's beams right at its eye while dodging the Frost Beam. The little beams caused the mask to be broken bit by bit, then Jacko grabbed the Frost Orb from the Giant's face and held it up. "I GOT IT!" He celebrated.
The Frost Giant's body then began to collapse, along with Jacko on it. He screamed in fear as he too fell at the ground...Until he was caught by Vines, who jumped and grabs him by his chest, landing them safely back into the slime ground. Jacko was panting excitedly, the Frost Orb tightly covered by his hand. "I did it...I did it..." Jacko said, hoping Vine heard him. Vines was watching the entire battle. He didn't care about the abilities he used throughout the fight, he saw Jacko's focus and determination throughout. Even through failure, he still had hope and kept trying again. Vines sighed and let's go of Jacko, pulling him up from the ground and crossing his arms. "You did better than I expected kid, I thought I would no longer be surprised." Vines told. Jacko grinned as Vines said this, while Finn sat on his head. "Yeah! Does that mean I'm not grounded anymore?" Jacko asked. Vines scoffed. "You still act like a kid, now finish whatever quest you accepted." Vines said. "He's actually at the your Tavern, sir-." A growling from Jacko's stomach interrupted him. "Good, meet with him first and I'll give you your food." Vines chuckled as he says.
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"JAAAAAASOOOOOON!" An angry old man's voice yelled through the the magic orb at Jason's hand. "Teacher, you have..nothing to worry about! Someone accepted the quest!" The black haired mage with blue robes reassured. "You're potentially sending that adventurer to their death! And if they don't, they'll report our monster crafting project and we'll be executed!" The old man responded. "Sir...I...Fine! I'll go find it myself! I won't fail you!" Jason responded. "I heard that too many times...if I don't find it til sundown, I'll have you next in the experiments!" The old mage then cut his magic connection through the orb. "Sir!? SIR!?" Jason gasped, dropping the orb and flopping to his bed. "Oh god...I'm gonna die..." He turned up from his bed, accepting his fate. Soon, he heard knocking from his door. Sighing, he stood up and opened the door. "Look, I'm not in the mood right...now." He then sees a man with lime hair and green robes Infront of him, holding out the Frost Orb. "You're Jason Brinks right?" The man asked. Jason stammered. "How...how did you get that?" He finally said. Jacko tilted his head. "I killed a big ice dude, it's weird how it always surrounded this thingy here...I get paid right?" Jacko just handed it to Jason, while looking at him waiting his payment. Jason was starting to get worried, this guy could have already reported the monster, he then grabs his pouch. "Look, I could pay you more just to stay quiet about it." Jason told. "Hmm? More than 10 thousand gold? Sounds good to me!" Jacko said with a smile, impatiently. But to Jason, this was a threat...was he asking for something better?
"Ok, what if I give you 12 thousand gold and an artifact?" Jason says, hoping to convince him not to tell on him. Jacko blinked. "What kind of artifact?" He asked, definitely curious now. Jason returned to his bag and takes out an orb-like object, it looked like the Frost Orb, but it seemed to be distorted and broken. "This is a fai- I mean, an artifact that does something. All I know is that it's usele- I mean, valuable!" Jason stammered. Jacko tapped his chin, he's only interested in the money, but he'll take the rocky orb. "Sure, give it." He says, just wanting to get some food already. Jason handed him the money pouch and gave Jacko the Broken Stone Orb on his other hand, then closed the door and locked it. He looked at the Stone Orb, he felt something from it, something alive... He decided to ignore that for now and place it in his pocket pouch, wondering what Vines made for him.