Second World

Jack beat the stage one by one while Gruff waited outside. Jack was surprised that the old warrior didn't use his old trick and invited others for a bet. Without realizing it, Jack had come out of stage 69 and was standing before stage 70. He failed when challenging this stage in Order of Magi, but he had a feeling he could conquer the stage here.

Before he entered, he looked back at Gruff and asked, "You aren't going to invite your friends to bet whether I can pass this stage?"

"I did. Doesn't work anymore. They know you will most likely pass since I propose the bet, even if they have difficulty believing it."

"Oh…," Was Jack's only remark. He returned his attention to the stage wall and interacted with it. He disappeared soon.

Inside the stage, although the type of monster was different. The grade and quantity were the same as in the Order of Magi. Five level 55 rare elites, twenty level 57 special elites, and five level 60 elites. He felt some difficulties but they were still manageable. After some struggle, he completed the stage and came back out.

'Damn! The kid is now truly the same rank as me in this faction,' Gruff thought. He couldn't believe he had helped Jack enter this faction not that long ago. He would look for Dormu after this and brag about it.

Jack looked at the next stage, thought for a bit, and said, "I can still go on."

He went over and disappeared into the wall with stage 71. Gruff just looked in silence.

After some time, Jack reappeared again. Like before, he turned to the next stage and appeared to be contemplating. After a few seconds, Jack walked over and disappeared into stage 72.

"Damn," Gruff uttered.

Inside stage 72 were six level 56 rare elites, twenty level 59 special elites, and four level 64 elites. If Jack could access his magic class spells as well, this fight would be easier. One lucky thing was, he could summon his spirit weapon here. Spirit weapon was considered a skill from the Warrior branch, so it was allowed here despite it was not a skill from his original class.

The spirit weapon had been what allowed him to fare much better than when he was challenging the stages in the Order of Magi. Having one helper to take off the edge and drew the attention of multiple enemies did make the fight easier compared to when he fought completely alone.

Still, the battle was extremely taxing. There were times when he thought he would have failed. But with perseverance, he finally completed the stage. He felt completely exhausted when he came out of the stage.

Gruff was looking at stage 73, wondering if this lunatic would try it as well.

Jack didn't do so. He almost failed stage 72, trying stage 73 would just be wasting time. Gruff was slightly disappointed when Jack didn't proceed.

"I'm impressed, kid. So, are you done?" Gruff asked.

"Not yet. We are allowed five times to do the same stage in a day, aren't we?" Jack asked back.

"Yeah. You want to repeat stage 72?"

"No, the fight in that stage is too difficult. If I fail, I will have wasted my time. I will repeat stage 71."

"Well, in that case. I will leave you here. Don't forget what I said before!"

"Don't worry, I will look for Guss. Thanks again for the challenge points."

Gruff nodded and left.

Jack went and challenged stage 71 again. He did it another four times, using the allowable challenge limit. He still had plenty of challenge points after coming out. He thought about doing stage 70 another four times as well but decided against it. He figured it was rather late already. He was tired.

He checked his League of Champions Badge. He was now an Angusticlavian, the same rank as Gruff.

'Ah… he has left. Should have made fun of him about this when he was still around,' Jack thought.

In his badge, he still had 1,312 challenge points and the exchangeable glory points were 3,372. Jack went over to the exchange station and looked at the exchangeable list.

He got a list from two new ranks that could be exchanged, Primus and Angusticlavian. Multiple skills were shown there. The items from the Angusticlavian list were mostly 4,000 points and above, outside of his current available glory points, so he just skimmed through them. There were some summoning crystals usable in a war for summoning a level 70 rare elite. The Twilight Champion Insignia that Gruff had given him. There was also a companion token for a level 60 special elite melee warrior.

Jack also saw the rare-grade exp pill that gave one million exp points. This pill cost 1,500 glory points. An affordable cost for him but he didn't exchange them. Jeanny had copied a few of these pills from the one he had gotten from Ice Throne Legacy Dungeon. Seeing this pill reminded him that Jeanny mentioned she had left a few for him in the headquarters. He needed to ask Tip when he got back to Heavenly Citadel.

He then looked at the Primus list. There was also an exp pill here, but the uncommon grade. Some summoning crystals were also available here, they summoned level 60 special elite. Jack didn't take them, though. He didn't think this would make any special impact on the war. It would just waste his glory points. Furthermore, Jeanny said that their guild and the allied guilds had secured a few summoning crystals that can be used during the war. Nothing as impressive as the Water Serpent Summoning Crystal that Jack got last time, but enough to go by.

So, Jack focused on his personal development. He ignored the weapons and materials on the list and looked only at the battle skills. But as he was browsing the skills, another item attracted his attention.

"Hey, a weapon orb!" Jack uttered.

*

Orb of Eurus (Rare-grade Weapon orb)

Increase weapon base damage by 10%.

Four wind energies constantly swirled around the weapon. Whenever the weapon made a contact, the wind energies will lash out and deal 50% wind damage.

*

It was two grades lower than the Orb of Raijin, but it was still the only other weapon orb he had encountered until now. He decided to just get the orb. Peniel didn't argue otherwise. The orb cost 2,500 glory points.

After getting the orb, he immediately installed it into the socket of Storm Breaker which he had etched beforehand. His sword's damage now increased to 627. Jack saw the green wind energies that were now swirling his Storm Breaker. These wind energies will react upon contact, meaning that even if opponents blocked or parried his attack, they would still be assaulted by these wind energies.

He didn't have many glory points left, so he decided to exit the place. When he came out, it was indeed past midnight already. He again teleported back to Heavenly Citadel to have a rest. He decided to spend another few days in the headquarters before chasing after the marching army. There was still something he needed to work on.

*

The next morning, he first dove into the Ice Throne Legacy dungeon and the Ancient Battleground Legacy dungeon.

In terms of exp, the Ice throne legacy dungeon provided a better income compared to the Ancient Battleground. Additionally, the Ice Throne Legacy dungeon also dropped souls while the Ancient Battleground didn't. The main draw from the Ancient Battleground was the mana cores earning, the rewards from its exchangeable list, and its extremely dense mana environment.

Jeanny had left a few core members to harvest the mana cores from the Ancient Battleground. This legacy dungeon had a longer cooldown compared to the Ice Throne Legacy dungeon. The easy mode of the Ancient Battleground was twelve hours. The medium mode was two days and the Hard mode was five days. The hard mode was too difficult for them so they didn't attempt it. Peniel estimated that for the hard mode, they needed a full group with an average level of 75 and fully decked out in super rare grade equipment to even have a chance of scoring decent scores.

Jack joined the group that did the medium mode of the two dungeons. He didn't waste his time with the Easy mode. From the Ancient Battleground, he kept the portion of the mana cores he received, while the other members' portions would be donated to the guild. He needed mana cores to summon his Ice Fiend Demon.

The exchangeable list from the medium mode Ancient Battleground was not as luxurious compared to when Jack did the ancient battleground in Council of Virtus. The best equipment exchangeable was only super rare grade. He guessed they would need to do the Hard mode to exchange for the unique grade equipment.

Since the scores couldn't be saved, Jack just exchanged them for a random super rare grade equipment.

For the rest of the day, he spent them inside the Time Chamber.