Second World

"What will you do now?" Jeanny asked Jack.

"I'm going to stay in the capital for a few days, finishing some matters. Like giving our guild a new hero," Jack answered and showed her the legendary-grade infernal hero token.

"Legendary hero token!" Jeanny exclaimed.

"Legendary?" John also took an interest after hearing it.

"If only you brought this a few days earlier," Jeanny sighed.

"Why does it matter if I'm a few days earlier?" Jack asked.

Jeanny gave her an irritated glance. "You didn't check your guild page often, did you? We already appointed our third guild hero."

"Already?" Jack opened his guild page.

"You should know one of the ways our members can contribute is by clearing bandit outposts or gang hideouts, right? Jeanny said. "We regularly captured the bosses alive, which we delivered to the kingdom for bounty coins."

"And Jeanny challenged one of the captured bosses who was a level 62 rare elite two days ago," John added.

"Only level 62?" Jack said with disappointment.

"What do you expect? I'm only level 63," Jeanny uttered. "Don't lump me in with a freak like you who can challenge a mythical being ten levels higher!"

Jack glanced to make sure Arther was out of earshot before he whispered to Jeanny and John. "It is because of the unique-grade potion I drank before the fight."

Hearing that, John said, "I can assure you. Even if we drink the same potion, we still can't do the crazy shit you do."

Jack finally found the guild hero description on the guild page. The third hero's name was Breun. The data showed that he was level 67. No doubt Jeanny used mana cores to increase his level by five.

"Can we kick him out to give space for another candidate?" Jack asked Peniel.

"You can."

Jeanny made a sad face hearing that.

"His level is the lowest amongst our guild heroes," Jack explained after seeing her expression. "Uruk is level 70, Nilrem is level 68. Not to mention, Nilrem is a mythical grade. If I use the hero token, we will get a hero that follows my level."

Thinking about this, Jack regretted he had used the level-down pill. He should have used it after using the hero token.

He didn't dwell on the thought. He continued, "After using mana cores, we can even increase the new hero's level to 75. Aren't you thrilled imagining our guild having a level 75 eternal-grade hero?"

"What is the probability of getting an eternal-grade hero from a legendary-grade hero token?" John asked Peniel.

"Five percent," Peniel answered.

"Then why is he so certain we get one?" John asked again.

Peniel shrugged. "That's what I keep telling him," she said.

"You of little faith. Trust in the God of Luck!" Jack announced while slapping his chest.

"I am conflicted. I want an eternal grade hero for our guild but I also kinda hope we don't get it so I can laugh at his face," John said.

Jeanny sighed. "Okay. Let's kick Breun out," she said weakly. Breun was the hero he had subjugated. It was sad that her effort to defeat him had been pointless.

"If you feel it's a waste to kick him out, you can spend mana cores to turn him into a hero crystal," Peniel said to Jeanny.

"Hero crystal? What does it do?" The three of them asked.

"A hero crystal is so you can store the excess hero for future use when your guild levels up further and have more slots," Peniel explained.

"Like people frozen in cryogenic tanks in science fiction stories?" Jack asked. Peniel had no idea what Jack meant.

"What's the point?" John asked. "By the time the guild levels up, we can capture a higher-level boss. That hero crystal serves no purpose except for a sentimental one!"

"Can the crystal only be used by the original guild?" Jeanny asked. "If another guild uses the hero crystal we made, can they get that hero?"

"Well... I suppose you can. I'm not aware of a restriction," Peniel answered.

"Do you mean..." John gave Jeanny a meaningful look.

"Yeah. Let's sell that hero to another guild," Jeanny said. "I bet there are not many players who can defeat a rare elite boss in single combat yet. At least we get something rather than just kicking Breun out."

"How many mana cores are needed to cryo-freeze Breun?" Jack asked.

"What cryo-freeze? Stop using weird terms!" Peniel scolded. "To turn a guild hero into a hero crystal costs twenty mana cores for each of the hero's levels."

"1,300 mana cores," John said. He looked at Jeanny. "You think you can make a profit from that?"

"I think I can. We will only accept payment in mana cores. I will put 3,000 mana cores as our base offer. I will start contacting the leaders of our allied guilds and invite them to our headquarters to check Breun out. I will then create an auction for them," Jeanny said. She turned to Jack and added, "Give me two days before using your hero token. If nobody is interested, then we just kick Breun out rather than waste our mana cores."

"Okay," Jack nodded. "I will go do other stuff first then. Contact me if you need anything."

Jack went and thanked Broidrireg for his help. All the rebels showed obedience so there was no need for the dragon to remain. Broidrireg harrumphed and said Jack owed him a good meal before flying away into the clouds. Jack noticed the one-week cooldown on his king badge for summoning the country guardian had begun counting.

Jack then went and talked with Armstrong and Isabelle before leaving everything to them and teleported back to Thereath's palace.

Back in the palace, Jack sat on the throne and used the monarch system to check the officer overview. All three portraits of the Lord Marshall positions were filled now.

As Peniel mentioned, natives received benefits when being assigned to the formal posts within this Monarch system. The benefits received by Lord Marshall were +30% to their attributes, +10% to their damage and defense, and the troops within a 100-meter radius received +10% to their attributes.

This meant the current Arther was slightly stronger than the one he had faced.

Jack checked Arther's data.  He was shocked to find Arther's loyalty was at 91 points. Only the ones he was close to had loyalty points above 90. That was even after a few times using the Mass Pay functions.

Emris' current loyalty was at 84, while Meryl's was at 81. This meant that among the three lord marshalls, Arther was now the most loyal to him. He found it funny how life sometimes turned out.