Second World

Jack spent twelve days farming the draconic essences. He collected 5000 draconic essences, allowing his bloodline which was level 5 when he started farming to shoot up to level 7.

Starting from level 6, he needed 3000 draconic essences to level up instead of 2,000. Peniel even told him that once he hit level 8, he would require 5,000 draconic essences to get to level 9. For the last stretch to become level 10, he needed a whooping 12,000 draconic essences.

Jack asked why a sudden steep increase for the last level. It was more than double the needed essences from the previous level. Peniel answered that was because the last skill he received after max-leveling this legendary bloodline was a special one. The trouble of collecting the draconic essences would be worth it.

Jack made a quick calculation. He still needed almost 20,000 draconic essences to get to that max level. He couldn't stay another forty-eight days here. He got lots of stuff to take care of.

At bloodline level 7, the increase he received for his attributes, HP, stamina, and mana was 44%. He also acquired a new skill.

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Gold Dragon Breath

Fires a cone of flame that deals 500% light damage each second.

Reduces targets' defense by 30% for 1 minute. Inflict major damage to equipment's durability.

50% chance to inflict Blind and Fatigue.

Duration: 6 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes

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It was not as powerful as his Supreme Dragon's Soul Breath, but this Gold Dragon Breath had a wider AOE and lasted longer. It also had a shorter cooldown, allowing him to use it more often. A more important aspect was its ability to deal major damage to equipment. If his opponents were not careful, they could lose their equipment. If the equipment's durability fell to zero, it was destroyed. It could no longer be repaired.

Jack's level also increased, but only one level to his Brave Swordsmaster. It was now level 68. Although he spent a lot of days grinding monsters, they didn't provide much exp. A large portion of the monsters he farmed was the Amphipterelets. They were all much lower level than him and thus provided a pitiful amount of exp.

The ones that gave decent exp were the Amphipteres, but these monsters didn't come in bulk. Thus, despite his fast pace of killing them, the exp he reaped was less than if he did normal exp farming.

He didn't fuss about the lack of exp. His purpose here was to farm draconic essences. The exp was just a bonus.

He didn't call any of his royal agents due to this low exp gain. He sent Alfredo, Jonathan, and Laurent to do quests together. With the three covering each other, they could handle a higher-level quest and thus gain more exp points. Lindsey, Amy, and Howard resumed joining Jeanny's power-leveling teams.

As for Therras who fought with Jack. It increased by two levels to level 65. Therras fared better not just because it didn't have to feed three classes like Jack, but also because Jack continued feeding it high-grade food that added exp points.

Jack had 12 free attribute points from his current and previous level-ups. He spent them all in his Endurance stat since it seemed to be the one lacking the most now.

Since most of the Amphipterelets were low-level, they didn't drop good loots. The mana cores were decent though. He collected 2,000 mana cores in the span of those ten days. He still had a long way to go before he could use the mana cores to summon an archdemon.

Some of the rare elite Amphipteres dropped a few good things. He got two level-down pills. Since Jeanny already had a spare, he could use these two pills. But he didn't, he planned to use them later after reaching level 71. He would get another skill after reaching level 70. Using the pill now would just delay him getting new skills.

Peniel informed him not to use the pill on level 70 as well. If he got a new skill at level 70 and then used the pill to return to level 69, the new skill was still there on his skill list, but he couldn't use it until he returned to level 70.

He also got two uncommon rubies and one rare emerald. Peniel said the odds of gemstones dropping in the underworld were slightly increased compared to the upworld. So, this was a good place to grind if he was looking for gemstones.

He fed the rubies to his Runestone of Enhancement, and the emerald to his Runestone of Marching.

On the first few days when he started farming, he received reports from Jeanny about the five ongoing affairs. This time, he didn't get perfect results for all. He got perfect results from two affairs, which granted him 190,000 merit points and 10 ruling powers.

For the remaining three affairs, although he didn't get perfect scores, he still gave decent verdicts. This was reflected in the total of 220,000 merit points he received from the three affairs.

His sovereign level increased to level 7, earning another 10 ruling powers.

In the last few days before he left, several new affairs popped up. As before, he sent their details to Jeanny and let her investigative teams do the work.

Jack wondered if Master who was now also a sovereign performed as well as he did. Considering Wilted mentioned that the monarch system was not supposed to be in the system, Master shouldn't know about this system.

He hoped that was the case. If it was so, then he who had Peniel to guide him had a better advantage.

Jack wanted to continue farming, but since he was a king, he had an obligation. Tomorrow was one month since he first used the Monarch system. He would be able to use the Call to Arms and Mass Drill again, and he had to return to his throne to do that.

There was also the monthly meeting to discuss issues that he was sure Thaergood had compiled for him. There were probably also some nobles who wanted to meet him. He didn't like this portion of the king's life, but he supposed he had to accept both the good and the bad.

He didn't hear anything about the emergency John mentioned, that's probably a good thing. But he did hear from John concerning news regarding the enemy's movement. A few days ago, Liguritudum's massive army was said to have crossed the border into the Aurebor Dynasty.

Jack asked if the two planned to join their armies before attacking another country. Considering the two were allies before, such cooperation was not out of the question.

John answered it didn't seem like so. The Aurebor dynasty had mobilized their troops in an agitated manner and issued a war summon quest to face an invasion. These troops were now on their way to meet the Liguritudum's force.