Second World

His estimation was a bit off, only on the morning of the next day, on the eight-day after he arrived at this shrubland, that his Warrior class reached level 29. He was only a single level less from gaining access to the Elite class.

During the entire week he was grinding in this place, he also continuously summoned Runestone of Luck when he killed enemies. Although there was no boss here, he still summoned it. His purpose was to increase the proficiency of his runecrafting skill.

But because of this, he also found out that, unlike the other lifestyle runestones, this Runestone of Luck had a hidden cooldown time. He could not just keep on summoning every time he wanted. If the luck increase took effect when an enemy was killed, he would not be able to summon it again for some time. After several tests, he found out that the cooldown time was one hour.

So he used that Runestone of Luck every one hour. It didn't really make any difference when used again normal monsters. Most of the time even if he used the runestone, the monsters still did not drop anything at all. However, due to his persistent usage, his runecraft skill had upgraded to Advanced Apprentice. Now the maximum added luck stat was more when he was fully concentrating.

He didn't get many items as the monsters he was hunting were basic ones with majority elite ones. There were several special elites as well, but these normal wilderness monsters also didn't give out much. Most items if dropped were simply common or uncommon equipment.

The collected coins were rather decent. He had gotten 27 gold coins and 41 mana cores. There were also heaps of trophy loots which he could exchange for coins once he went back to the Hunters Association.

Many of his combat skill proficiencies had also increased. All this time, during the final phase of the expedition, the fight at the Bandit Outpost, till now. Several of his skills had already been upgraded due to continual usage.

Flame Strike, Parry, Swing, and Magic Shield had upgraded to the third star. Natural Body Recovery, Charge, Sword of Light, Barrier, and Life Burning Art had upgraded to the second star. While Adrenaline Rush and Shredding Fang had upgraded to the first star.

One star of Adrenaline Rush increased its effect duration by twelve seconds. Adrenaline Rush duration was only one minute. If all ten stars were activated, the skill would gain additional two minutes, making the total duration three minutes.

One star of Shredding Fang increased its effective range by one meter. If all ten stars were fully filled, this skill's original six-meter range would become sixteen meters.

Yet, Jack's greatest earning, as usual, was still the souls. From the end of the expedition until now, he had collected 89,846 souls. Almost half of them was from the single day when they raided the Bandit Outpost to claim their Guild Headquarter. Whether it was outlaws or soldiers, all those in Jack's vicinity had their souls went into the container.

He also reconfirmed another thing from these. Despite many who died during that outpost battle and the amount of hunting he had done this week, the souls were still not half of what he got from the Grim Sand Drake and the Grandmother Spider. Peniel had mentioned most of the soul he got that time came from the drake. Souls from Draconic monster truly was something else.

He used the 80,000 souls to level up his Shredding Fangs by 8 levels. He noticed that every five levels had added the number of fangs by one.

Shredding Fang, level: 11/20 (Active skill, range, required melee weapon), star: 1

Creates 5 giant energy fangs that traveled in five directions in a fan shape. Each fang deals 330% physical damage, 25% chance to cause Bleed.

Range: 7 meters

Cooldown: 2 minutes

Stamina consumed: 60

When he tested this leveled-up Shredding Fang on the Mouseant swarm, he also realized that the fan shape area that the fangs traveled had also increased. Probably, with more fangs, the affected fan shape area would also be wider.

Jack continued to grind at the place, fully intent on increasing his class level to 30 before he returned to the capital.

He had some worry because today was the day the protection status ended for their Guild Headquarter. He had no doubt that most guilds in Themisphere had learned about their headquarter by now. They had recruited a lot of members, almost fill up their full member quota in these two weeks. Jeanny had started to impose higher qualifications in accepting a member once their number reached 700.

With such a number of members, the existence of their headquarter was not possible to be kept secret for long. Not to mention some of the recruited members might even be the other guild's spies.

He sent a message to John, "You guys doing all right? No problem, right? Do you need me to go back to the headquarter?"

He soon received a reply, "Do you think this is a guild where it all depends on one single person? Do you think if you are not around, then we will be in trouble? With me here, there is no need for you! We are doing swelling well here."

'A*shole! I should have messaged Jeanny instead,' Jack thought. But reading John's confidence message, he decided to leave the guild matters in their capable hands. His central role was to be the guild's battle prowess, so it was imperative that he increased his level as fast as possible to be able to provide sufficient contribution when his strength was needed.

After resting for a while for a lunch at noon, he was just about to return to monster grinding when he noticed some blue dots approaching.

'Players?!' He thought in surprise.

There were five of those dots. They were going straight to where he was. Seeing the blue dots' movements, Jack stayed at his place. The five started to spread out once they were near. That kind of maneuver immediately informed Jack that these newcomers didn't have a friendly intention.

'Are these people from that World Maker guild?' Jack thought. Apart from that organization, he couldn't think of any other that could roam the wilderness as free as him and was also hostile to him.

Jack stood there with his back facing them as he waited. The five started to come at a much slower pace as they got nearer. This place was full of shrubberies, so it was not difficult to find something to hide behind. Jack found it strange. If they were from that World Maker group, they should know that he had the God-eye monocle. What's the point of sneaking like that?

While he was still pondering, the five suddenly picked up in speed once they were very close. They had lunged at him from five different directions.

Jack moved the moment they took action. He lunged as well to one of the five, while a spell formation started forming on his magic staff. Four who came to where he stood only caught empty space, while the fifth' eyes showed surprise when he found Jack appeared before him.

Jack himself was surprised as well, the guy he was lunging at was wearing a facemask. Not the cheap one like the one Blackjack wore before, but one that could prevent Jack from getting information despite his God-eye monocle.

Though surprised, the guy that came into contact with Jack was not a newbie. He shifted aside before thrusting out with Swift Stab. Jack could see from the guy's movement that he was a martial art expert. But his stab only hit an afterimage left by Jack's Flash Step.

Jack reappeared near his original position before he unleashed Ice Ring which spell formation had just been completed. Ring of Ice hit all five of his assailants. Freezing two while slowing the other three.

Jack didn't wait and dished out severe punishments on one of the two that were frozen. The other three tried to come to assist but their slowed movements could not catch up with Jack's high damage. Jack also activated Adrenaline Rush to increase his attacking speed, claiming the first victim of the five.

The guy with whom Jack first clashed, threw something to the ground as Jack was about to attack the others. Jack didn't take any risk and jumped back. A blast of smoke covered the area where the thing was thrown.

'Are these guys idiots?' Jack thought as he saw on his radar the four were taking formation to encircle him again. Didn't they realize already from the last clash that he could determine their position?

But then he also thought of something, how come they could determine his position? He didn't see any God-eye monocle from this team.. The cloud of smoke hindered everyone's view, so they should be affected as well, but the way they moved showed that they knew exactly where he was. Also, when they first came at him, they also didn't search around, they knew exactly where he was!