Second World

Jack spent the remaining of his day inside the Order of Magi's building.

Their building in this smaller city was actually better than the hut in the capital. It was a proper building with staff doing chores. Jack came in with his mage disguise, so he was right at home there.

He asked for Janus after showing his membership badge. He was shown to a door on the second floor.

When Jack entered this door, it was the familiar beige space with nothing inside except a desk and Janus sitting behind it.

"Mister Storm Wind!" Janus called out cheerfully. "Ah, I'm sorry. It should be Your Majesty Storm Wind from now on."

"I prefer you just call me Mister," Jack said. "By the way, I just recently learned of your activity next door."

"As it should be. You are the king now. It will be bad if you don't know what is happening inside your own kingdom."

"I have a feeling there are still one or two things hidden from me. Any of them involving your faction?"

"No, Your Majesty. Our secret deal with the kingdom is just the demonic portal next door."

"Hm, I will take your word for it," Jack said. "Anyway, I want to continue my challenge."

"You know the drill. You have the Honorary Magi title so you can challenge as many of the unconquered stages as you can," Janus said. He then added, "good luck!"

"Thanks," Jack said and went to the back of the room where a portal appeared.

He went to the challenge obelisk with the number 70 on it. The last time he tried this was when he was level 56 and still sporting super rare equipment. Now, he was level 64 with full unique-grade gears except for his Cloak of Shadow which was still a super rare grade cloak.

He supposed his odds should have increased.

He went into stage 70 and saw the same enemies as the last time when he failed this stage. He was facing five level 55 rare elites, twenty level 57 special elites, and five level 60 elites.

Since his mage disguise was wearing the regal outfit of the light cloth version, he had access to the regal outfit's full set skill, Judgement of Past Kings. And also, since all cooldown was reset after the challenge stage, he had no reservations about using this skill just for a test.

When he unleashed the skill, the void within the challenge stage brightened a little. The image of the eleventh king of Themisphere, Thenodeep, appeared above him. He was holding the royal staff. Spell formation was formed rapidly and a great flood was summoned. The spell washed over every monster inside this stage, delivering high damage.

As he faded, another figure replaced him. It was the tenth king, Thewolden, who was holding the royal sword. His figure then abruptly disappeared. Multiple clones of him appeared around the monsters that were still reeling from the great flood.

Each clone slashed at the monsters. It was similar to the Hundred Shadow Strikes, except this one did appear to have a hundred of the clones.

After Thewolden finished his skill, he similarly faded, replaced by another figure. The same thing went on. Each king appeared in turns, from the youngest to the oldest. Each king unleashed their most powerful attack. Some magical, some physical, some elemental.

When Thebalder appeared, the thirty monsters were already reduced to only the five rare elites. Even they were dying. Thebalder struck his sword into the ground and it flared. The ground in a large area shook and pillars of light burst out of the ground. These pillars of light intensified until they all became one large blinding pillar, consuming everything.

When the light subsided, the five rare elites were no more.

Since the enemies were gone, the skill automatically ended and Jack was sent out from the stage.

"Holy...," Jack uttered. "That skill wiped them out even when it is not fully completed yet."

"I already told you it is very powerful, didn't I?" Peniel said.

"You did. Damn! Imagining Themos using this on us made me shiver. Thank goodness he turned into a vampire."

"If he didn't. You won't have to fight him in the first place," Peniel argued.

"Whatever. Let's see how far we can clear the stages," Jack said and went to stage 71. His Order of Magi's rank was promoted to Renowned after coming out of stage 70.

In stage 71, the enemies were similarly wiped out before the Judgement of Past Kings was completed.

Only after reaching stage 73, Jack could see the completion of the skill. The last attack was of course carried out by Theridan, the first king of Themisphere.

His figure came with a grand entrance accompanied by his pet, Terraxx, in the sovereign mode. Terraxx stood tall as his two strange wing-like things flapped behind its large body. It then opened its mouth and yellow mana accumulated.

Jack knew that move. It was similar to his Therras' Earth Core Bomb, only larger.

When the bomb was shot, it created an explosion with a larger radius than Therras'. The damage was also much higher. Jack could sense the mana within the explosion swirling, amplifying the damage. This made him wonder, was Theridan a native with mana manipulation ability?

Jack's advance stopped at stage 78. He tried stage 79 but failed. In this stage was one level 61 mythical opponent, nine level 65 rare elites, and twenty level 70 special elites.

He estimated that with his current power, he should be able to deal with a mythical grade of the same level, even if barely. But this stage locked him out of his Blade Dancer and Beastmaster skills. So, he failed to defeat the mythical opponent of this stage.

Janus congratulated and complimented him for advancing another rank again in such a short time.

Jack thanked him and repeated stage 78 another nine times before going to the exchange station to browse what was available for the Renowned rank.

A bunch of items and spells were available for exchange in this rank, but three spells interested him. They were Lightning Mine, Interrupt, and Fly

Both Lightning Mine and Interrupt were spells needed for him to fuse with his available spells and evolve them into a stronger version. While Fly was a better version of Soar. The spell Fly didn't have a height limit and provide faster flying speed than Soar.

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough knowledge points. He only had 1,804 knowledge points in his Order of Magi Badge. The lightning mine cost 3,700 knowledge points, Interrupt cost 3,500 knowledge points, and Fly cost 4,000 knowledge points. He couldn't even afford one of them.

"Guess I have to come here daily and do the challenges if I want to get those spells," Jack said dejectedly.

Seeing his somber expression, Janus said to him, "Don't worry too much about the knowledge points. If you manage to climb to the next rank, Exalted. You will get bonus knowledge points for passing that rank. Furthermore, starting from that rank, you will receive a boost to the acquired knowledge points every time you clear a stage."

"Really?" Jack asked.

"Yes. Exalted rank can be considered our high-profile members. Such members are often busy with their matters. They can't be bothered with the routines of doing these stages often, so the system gives them this bonus."

"Great. This makes me eager to beat stage 80 as fast as possible."

"I will be rooting for you," Janus said with a smile.