Second World-Novel

Seeing this, Jack concluded he had to be selective. He could only choose one elite skill for now. He ignored all the basic and advanced skills and only looked at the elite skills.

There were also elite skills that were restrictive to other classes such as Weapon Master, Berserker, and Mage Knight. He also ignored them. He only checked the skill for Blade Dancer and the one that could be used by all four classes branched out from Warrior. There were three such skills; Flash Slash, Drilling Thrust, and Wings of Devastation

Flash Slash was similar to his Flash Step skill. It teleported him a short distance. The difference was at the end of the teleport, he unleashed a slash with enhanced damage. This skill cost 950 glory points.

Drilling Thrust was similar to Jeanny's Penetrating Stab, but it added a drilling animation to the stabbing energy. It dealt decent damage and ignored the opponent's defense. It also reduced the opponent's defense for subsequent hits. This would have been the perfect skill to deal with the Hard-shelled Drakeling in Jagara Region. It cost 1,200 glory points.

Both Flash Slash and Drilling Thrust could be learned by any classes that branched out of Warrior class. The last elite skill, Wings of Devastation, was an exclusive class for Blade Dancer. It was executed by slashing both swords outwards, arms expanding upon the end of the move as if spreading one's wings. It created a V-shaped wave of energy resembling wings. This energy wave swiped forward a long distance. Everything engulfed by this wave received devastating damage. This skill was the most expensive at 1,600 glory points. Jack's current points were not enough for this skill.

"Any suggestion?" Jack asked Peniel.

"They are pretty straightforward, up to you," Peniel replied.

"Well, with my current available points, I only have two choices. Ok, let's take the Drilling Thrust. That should help me if I meet an opponent with high armor value," Jack said.

He proceeded with the transaction. 1,200 glory points disappeared from his badge. He received the technique book and learned the skill without delay. He opened his skill page after.

*

Drilling Thrust, level 1/20 (Active skill, melee, requires melee weapon)

Deals 200% physical damage to a single target, ignores defense.

Reduces target's defense by 30% for a duration.

Duration: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 1 minute

Stamina: 60

*

"Not bad," Jack said.

Satisfied with his gain, he took a look again at the exchange list. One item had caught his attention, but because he prioritized studying available skills, he didn't look at it yet. Now he was clicking at the item to see its description.

*

Exp Pill (common grade)

Grant 50,000 exp points

Cost: 100 glory points

*

"This pill… It can help me solve my leveling problem," Jack uttered.

"You need a lot of glory points though. Do you want to spend your points for this pill?" Peniel asked.

After consideration, Jack said, "Nah, the exp provided is too little. I only have 335 glory points left. Three of those pills is not even 5% of my current exp bar to level up. I better save the points for better skills. By the way, I see that this pill is common grade, does it mean there is a higher rarity grade of the pill?"

"Yes. The higher the rarity, the more exp points provided. The rare grade one provides one million exp points," Peniel answered.

"Now that will be rather useful for my current level. You don't happen to know where I can get that pill easily, do you?"

"The higher rank of this faction should have them, but of course, the glory points needed are also more expensive. These pills can drop from loots, but very rare though, and not every monster has the chance to drop it. I have no information which monster has the better drop rate."

"I see. Never mind then," Jack said. "Let's head over to the Order of Magi now."

*

In the hut that was the entrance to the order, Jack of course saw Janus on his desk.

"Sup, yo!" Jack uttered once entering.

"What?" Janus asked with a confused expression.

"Uh… You really need to hang out more, man. I meant, what's up?" Jack clarified.

"Then you should have used proper language," Janus reprimanded. "What can I do for you today? Mister Storm Wind? You forgot to change. You do know that I can't let you in with that appearance, don't you?"

"Oh, right," Jack said and activate his Orb of Disguise. He changed into his Mage persona.

'Well, this disguise has been found out but I guess it still has its use,' Jack thought. To Janus, he said, "I would like to take on the challenges."

He walked directly to the back of the room while talking, not waiting for Janus' answer. Same as the last time. the rectangular void appeared once he was nearby.

"See you on the other side," Jack said and walked inside.

He came out at the huge plaza with the obelisks. He looked around and as expected, another Janus came and greet him.

"Come to continue the challenge?" This Janus asked.

"Yes, I'm going to rank up to novice today," Jack declared. He then asked Janus with a hopeful feeling, "Any chance for me to loan challenge points? I need 370 points to rank up to Apprentice."

"Haha, you want to challenge stage 50 at your current level?" Janus asked.

"How about we make a bet? You loan me the points I need, if I managed to clear that stage today, I don't need to pay you back. If I fail, I will pay double the amount."

"As interesting as your offer, I'm afraid I must decline. I am not allowed to gamble," Janus said.

"You specifically? Or, all of you?" Jack tried to make sure.

"All of us," Janus said.

"What about a loan? Is it possible?" Jack didn't give up.

"I'm sorry," Janus shook his head. "That complementary ten points I gave before will be the only gift. No more gift and no loan."

Jack shrugged, "Okay then. At least I tried." He then walked over to the obelisk with number 24 floating above and activated the challenge.

Since the difficulty of the stages here was similar to the League of Champions, he had no problem on all stages below stage 50. He used up 627 of his challenge points and cleared stage 42. He was at Novice rank already by then. He had only 2 points left afterward. His knowledge points, on the other hand, were 903 points.

He asked Janus for the exchange list.

Same as the League of Champions, new items were added after he became Novice rank. Only basic and advanced spells though, no elite spells were available yet for this rank. He saw the fire, ice, and lightning enchantment in the list of spells. He heard in the previous guild battle, both Trinity and Selena used these spells. There were also fire, ice, and lightning resist spells. All of those were only learnable by elementalists though.

Seeing no elite spells, he planned to just save his current knowledge points for the elite spells when he increased to the next rank.

"Get that Float spell," Peniel said.

"Float?" Jack was not paying attention to the spells, he only checked their grades. Now that Peniel mentioned it, he looked at the spell.

"Oh, this must be the spell Master used to float when he fought me?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Peniel replied.

"No flying spell?"

"You will need another spell in addition to this Float spell for flying. Just grab this one first."

'Need another spell? Why do I need two spells for flying?' Jack thought within, but he decided to not ask further since Peniel was ignoring his thought anyway. He paid the required six hundred knowledge points for the Float spell. It was one of the more expensive advanced spells on the list.

Jack received the technique book and learned the spell. The spell required three runes to cast. It only allowed him to float up and down vertically. The maximum height he could travel with this spell was twenty meters. The duration of this spell in its first level was thirty seconds.

He didn't see much use of this spell aside from avoiding melee contact or getting to a high elevation. Considering that he preferred melee combat, there was no point for him to use this spell to flee. So to him, this spell was only useful for traveling. Nevertheless, if having this skill allowed him the chance to fly, he gladly accepted it. After all, who didn't dream to fly?

Jack said goodbye to Janus and left.

There was one more place he wanted to visit before he called it a day. He went to Commander Quintus' tower. Arriving there, he asked the staff for the merit exchange list. Now that he was an Earl, there should also be more services he could use his merit points on.

The staff in charge displayed the list. There was a new section for Earl rank. Like before, there was a page for individual service and another for guild service.

*

Individual list:

-? ? ? ? Superior Training Ground = 50 merit / 3 hours

-? ? ? ? Use silver mining cave = 50 merit / 3 hours

-? ? ? ? Use training cave (level 30-40) = 100 merit / 5 hours

-? ? ? ? Use training cave (level 40-50) = 200 merit / 5 hours

*

Guild list:

-? ? ? ? Imperial Guards - Hire a squad of thirty level 50 Imperial Knights to be stationed inside Guild Headquarters for one week. The squad cannot be controlled. Will act only if headquarters is breached. Only one squad can be hired at a time = 2500 merit

-? ? ? ? Imperial Knight Insignia (Limit: 1) - Convert trained Knight unit to Imperial Knight unit = 5000 merit

-? ? ? ? Training Boost (cooldown: 1 week) - Boost training speed of headquarters' soldiers in the next 3 days = 1000 merit

-? ? ? ? Building Boost (cooldown 1 week) - Boost building speed of headquarters' structures in the next 3 days = 1500 merit

*

The training cave looked tempting, but their guild had one as well. Also, Jack had promised Jeanny that he would help with the Ice Throne Legacy Dungeon.

After some consideration, Jack forked out 6000 merit points to exchange for the Imperial Knight Insignia and the Training Boost. They had lost a decent amount of trained units in the last battle. As John had pointed out, recruiting new soldiers for replacement should not be a problem, but training them to the appropriate level was. This training boost should help ease the effort.

Finished with the exchanges, he activated Guild Return Scroll and teleported directly to Heavenly Citadel.