Jack gave his blessing for Jeanny to form the party. After everyone was included into Jeanny's party, Jack said to them,

"come on, I will take you people to meet the Duke.

"

The bunch of ragtag followed Jack towards the center of the army formation. Their disorder march and jabberings, especially from Men of Solidarity lots, made them seem completely in contrast with the orderly army around them.

There was a row of elite guards around the center of the army, they were amongst the ones that had marched with him from the Duke's estate. These elite guards were average level 50 elite humans. Jack assumed them to be the elite force in charge of the duke's and the prince's safety.

These elite guards parted way when they saw Jack approached. They still maintained an alert stance though. Jack surmised most of them were still mistrustful of outworlders.

The Duke saw them came and bid them with a warm welcome, Prince Alonzo was there beside him. Jack introduced the duke and the prince to his friends. Then he introduced his friends to the two nobles, since there were too many names to introduce, he simply said,

"this is Storm Wind's gang. They are very honored to join this expedition.

"

The others threw Jack a glare. Who the heck do you call Storm Wind's gang?

John came out shamelessly and made himself known,

"this lowly one is called Saint John. It was a pleasure to be in the presence of the exalted prince of this kingdom and Your Grace, the Duke. I have heard a lot of great things about you and I hope I can provide more services to the two of you in the future.

"

Bowler was not to be beaten by John, he immediately came out and also tried to curry favors from the two nobles.

Jack had the urge to kick these two shameless people, but then he thought about the power struggle between the princes. He secretly snickered at them. They would not be so enthusiastic if they found out what they got dragged into by associating with the third prince.

The Duke did not dwell long on the introductions. He called Captain Salem over and told them that they would be with his unit, which as agreed would be under Jack's command. Captain Salem would stay with him to be his liaison. The Duke advised the others to stay within Captain Salem's company and not to wander around.

Commander Quintus came by and added sternly that if they strolled around and disrupted the army's orderly march, a punishment would be administered. The warning brought this ragtag group to attention.

The Duke then called out for the ones that not yet had a mount and distributed to them a whistle for each. They happily received those whistles and blew on them. Steeds materialized all over. However, their steeds were not as impressive as Jack's. Jack presumed that they were all only of the common grade.

The Duke informed them again that these mounts were only loans, they would have to return them once the expedition was over. A penalty would be applied if they failed to honor it. Another thing that the Duke informed was that their steeds could die, so they were warned to unsummon those steeds when they engaged in a battle. If the loaned steeds died, they would have to pay the full price of those steeds.

The Duke then sent them off to where Captain Salem was. Jack looked at the three-hundred soldiers in the Captain's company. They had an average level of 30, each of them wore an expression that displayed their disciplined nature.

Captain Salem organized them into attention and introduced Jack to them. He let them know that Jack would be their acting commanding officer in this expedition. Everything he said would be as if he was the one that gave them. The soldiers showcased their disciplines by giving Jack an official salute.

"At ease,

" Jack said, slightly uneasy to be suddenly in command of such a force.

At this time, he noticed a nearby lone blue dot on his radar. Blue? All the ones who had joined Jeanny's party had all changed color to green dots, even the ones not on his Friend list. Why was there still a blue one? He looked over and found that he did not recognize this player. How did an unknown player end up in the army? He remembered the army chased away those players that approached without permission.

"Who is that?

" Jack asked Captain Salem.

The Captain looked over and seemed to remember something.

"He is another outworlder who will join this expedition,

" the captain said.

"He was a member of a league faction called Cartographer Society. He was on a quest entrusted by that faction to join our expedition. He was just tagging along to chart the details for his map along our route.

"

There was even such a map-making faction in this world? There were really too many factions out there. Just as Peniel said, it was not possible to experience everything of this game-world, one needed to make a selection and focused on it.

Since it was a fellow player, Jack decided to head over and greet him. He inspected the man on his way.

Sunset Walking (Healer, level: 20)

HP: 350

/350

An advanced class, not bad. Jack thought. To take on a quest to be sent so far away from the city all by himself, the guy had to have enough confidence for that.

That player healer was astonished himself when he found out the one coming towards him was not an NPC, but a player. He had seen this person in the distance hanging around the leaders of the army. He thought at first the man was an NPC as well.

"How do you do? I am Storm Wind,

" Jack introduced himself. He was wearing Cloak of Shadow, so he knew the other side won't be able to inspect him.

"I am Sunset Walking,

" the healer replied. Despite his consternation, he still kept a calm outer appearance.

"I heard from the captain that you are from the Cartographer Society, tasked to follow this expedition. There are several other players there as well, they are all my friends. Since we will all be in this expedition, care to join us?

"

Sunset Walking seemed to ponder for a bit on Jack's offer. Jack could see that he was an independent player, unaffiliated to any player's guild. Such a wary attitude when someone invited you was normal for an independent player, so Jack let him took his time to think.

He probably sensed Jack's sincerity, so he accepted the offer. Jack took him to where the others were gathering. The others were similarly surprised when they found out there was another player in this expedition.

After a round of chat, they found out that Sunset Walking was a rather easy-going person. He said that he was an avid traveler in the real world. Hence, he had joined the Cartographer Society, which often time handed out quests that allowed them to travel with NPCs to other towns.

So it was similar to the Trade Association which Dylan was part of, Jack thought.

John was especially friendly to the new guy, which Jack found to be especially uncharacteristic of him. After making another observation, he found out the reason. Out of all the players he had brought along, there was only one healer, which happened to be Bowler, someone that John was not getting along with. Well, as a matter of fact, the annoying fellow did not get along with anybody.

So, this guy was befriending the new healer in the group as a precaution. After all, in any RPG game, when one was in a pinch, one would want a healer by their side to keep one safe.

As Jack and the others were chatting and getting used to their place in the army, they saw the soldiers started to reshuffle their formation.

"We will be departing,

" Captain Salem informed Jack. Then he started yelling commands to his company and arranged them into a formation in conjunction with the other units within the army. Their position was roughly at the center front of the formation.

Everyone summoned their steeds. Jack and the others followed suit and mounted theirs. When the front part of the army started moving, they also had their steeds walked forward.

Jack looked back at the capital, which was getting smaller as they put distance. It might be some time before he saw that city again.