Chapter 1643 — 1643: The treasure hunt

"Alright boys, here's the deal," Jack said in a whisper as he gathered his crew together in one of the newly enchanted rooms of the Jolly Rancher. "We have an official permit to mine special ores, but as a condition of the permit, we have to submit 40% of all the ore we gather to the taxation office."

"Ah, I get it," said Longbeard, running his hands through his beard. "We're going to commit tax fraud. Very white collar of us."

"No, nothing like that," said Jack, rolling his eyes. "Listen to me guys. It's very important that within the Artica realm you don't break any laws. The Artica race is very particular about that, and they always have Dao Lords watching. We can't keep secrets from them."

The crew's faces suddenly went pale, and they looked towards the Goldilocks, who was staring at his own reflection in a sheet of gold.

Jack cleared his throat, ignoring the very obvious signs of their misdemeanors, and focused on the task ahead.

"Listen to me. Submitting 40% of our harvest was an option I opted for myself because that way, the licence I got allows me to mine anywhere, excluding cities, inhabited areas and private property. Basically, the licence will glow, letting me know wherever I can mine. The important thing is, we have an edge against everyone else.

"Everybody is going to want to get their hands on the ore, but not everyone will have a legitimate way to get it - at least not in the beginning. That's our advantage. We're going to make use of the rules and laws of this place. So this is what we're going to do. Ollie, you're on look out. What you have to do is…"

Jack quickly explained the plan to everyone. It was relatively simple, so he didn't expect any of them to have any problems understanding their roles. At first some of them were a little upset at the lack of tax fraud, but as soon as they heard Jack's plan, they quickly got on board.

They were simple beings, and had simple tastes. They liked to rip off people - was that so much to ask?

Jack shook his head dismissively and focused on flying the ship, chasing the magenta light. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like the existence of this ore seemed too good to be true.

But if that were the case, why hadn't anyone stopped him? Why hadn't they taken the opportunity to prevent him from getting a licence for that ore? The only thing he could think of was that no one else realized how valuable the ore was. That seemed almost impossible.

The second possibility was that they thought it was not as valuable as Jack seemed to think it was. That was likely the correct guess.

Whatever. Lex had an entire realm at his beck and call, and Jack had a cool ass ship that could now probably travel the Void. Treasures and resources weren't something he was seriously lacking in any version of himself. So if there was an ore that even he found interesting, then Jack wasn't going to care what others thought of it.

The ship, for which Jack had already procured the appropriate licences, flew silently over the land, drawing attention from all who saw it. None had approached Jack so far, but news of Jack, the Dao equivalent of Uber Black, had already spread through the entire level. Everyone recognized his ship, and many had actually begun to follow him from a distance. Everyone was wondering what he was doing, and some were planning out how they would treat him. After all, the unusualness of his situation was evident to all. Fairies didn't typically attract so much limelight, so the fact that this one had made him special.

In that case, reporting him to the enemies of the Humanoid Alliance might be more valuable than befriending him.

Jack didn't care. He simply focused on finding the ore. Despite the light covering the entire level, the actual quantity of the ore was not so abundant. Jack was actually using Lex's experience with treasure hunting, and his knowledge of Glyphs, to mimic a dragon's ability to sense treasure using his own fairy dust.

The effectiveness of the ability was, naturally, significantly weakened. But there was no other solution at the moment.

In fact, Jack wasn't the only one searching for the ore. Regardless of what the Dao Lords thought of it, an ore that could cause a phenomenon across an entire level was no doubt valuable to mortals. As such, numerous groups, organizations and individuals had set out for the treasure hunt, but actually finding the ore was easier said than done.

Of course, not many of them had the foresight to get a permit for mining either. It was a race to see who could find the ore first, and who could gather most of it. Naturally, the citizens of the Artica realm itself had the greatest advantage, but they left the area designated for foreigners alone.

Jack, of course, was not content to leave things as they were. Besides using his own means to find treasure, he also made use of his secret weapon - even if its actual effectiveness was yet to be tested.

The Crystal Alligator had an unusual fondness for treasures, and had on more than one occasion fought with Tiny-Sparkles over the allocation of their loot. Jack couldn't really be bothered to reign him in, especially when he had much more troublesome crew members to oversee.

Now, though, it was a pretty good opportunity to see if he really could ferret out treasure. So, the alligator was taken to the crows nest, which had been magically and mystically enhanced.

Then the waiting game began. As the ship flew over the land, the hours started to roll by, and the anticipation only grew. Impatience began to grow within the crew, and Jack, who was being affected by the stench of his own karma, wasn't in the best of moods either.

Then it happened. It wasn't Jack nor the alligator who sensed something. Instead, it was Bob.