Second World

Spark was more than enough to contend against a mythical opponent on its own. With its eight blades, it gave the opponents a run for their money when they engaged it in melee.

When they kept a distance, Spark's three pairs of wing-blades detached from its back. These six long blades then split into eighteen shorter blades. These blades flew around as if drones. They struck the enemies with incredible speed. All the while, Spark continued to fight using its two main arm-blades and occasionally, its leg-blades.

The spirit weapon no longer had a distinctive melee and ranged mode. It could perform both at the same time.

Spark also had a very high intelligence. It was able to study its opponent's fighting pattern and adjust accordingly. Jack didn't have to trouble himself by giving it instructions. Quite the opposite, Spark informed Jack about the enemies' weaknesses it had uncovered.

Best of all, Spark had no duration. It could stay the whole fight. With the two working together, and Jack using Lightning God Incarnation, they conquered stage 90.

Triumphantly coming out of that stage, Jack expected to hear a notification. No notification was heard. He remained a Praefectrus. The glory points he received were also only double the normal gain, not triple. He remembered then he was no longer able to ascend the ranks of this league faction. He felt a sense of pity but forgot about it soon. He went and entered stage 91.

Jack continued until he was stuck at the same stage as in the Order of Magi, which was stage 95.

He reentered stage 93 nineteen more times to reap the glory points. He chose one stage higher to repeat than the one at the Order of Magi because he was able to beat the stages here faster.

After those long fights, his badge had 12,812 glory points in it. A far cry from his Order of Magi badge, but he guessed that was the advantage when one was able to advance in ranks.

He remembered that the exchangeable items on this rank started from around 12,000 glory points, so he went and checked the list. The exchangeable items were mostly 12,000 to 16,000 glory points. The most expensive were the companion tokens he had checked before which cost 20,000 glory points.

He looked at the list of items he could afford which catered to blade dancer class. There was one technique book that fulfilled these requirements. He paid 12,000 glory points for it.

The technique book contained a skill called Teleport Slash. It was similar to Flash Slash but covered a longer distance. Jack called Jeanny. She was at Heavenly Citadel at the time so Jack went over and had her copy the book. Afterward, Jack learned the skill.

*

Teleport Slash, level: 1/20 (Active skill)

Instantly moves to a target with a maximum distance of 20 meters and deals 500% physical damage.

20% chance of causing Bleed.

Creates an afterimage in the original position.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Stamina: 100.

*

It was late at night by then. In two days, they would have a meeting with allied countries on how to deal with Liguritudum. These countries' leaders, however, would be arriving one day prior, which was tomorrow. Preparation had been made in the palace to prepare for tomorrow. There would be festivity and feast.

Jack didn't think that celebrating before they won was appropriate, but such was the custom. He couldn't just treat these country leaders as common guests.

Thaergood and Grace were in charge of the events tomorrow. They had been hard at work these past few days. Jack and John chose to stay out of their ways, which was also what thaergood and Grace thought was best. The two would just mess things up went it came to hospitality.

Jack was required to be present tomorrow, though. He was the king. He had no say in this. Otherwise, those visiting leaders would consider it as Jack gave them no face. Thus, in the next two days, he won't have the chance to do his things.

*

The next day, the first to come was the delegations from Verremor. Four Winds and his guild members arrived early in the morning. He informed Jack that Grand Chief Kabaka would arrive before noon. Since natives required high expenses to operate the zone portal, there would only be a handful that followed the grand chief.

Jack asked Four Winds about the result of the election tourney, which decided the replacements for the two tribes banished from Verremor's council of ten.

Four Winds informed Jack that one of the winners was the Giantkiller Tribe. Mkulme Giantkiller now sat at one of the council seats. Jack didn't think that was strange. If it was not for him and Four Winds, the Giantkiller tribe would have been the winner of the last election tourney.

The second winner was a player guild, the Liberty Fighters, who was also one of the three guilds who joined the previous election tourney. The other guild, Warsong Rising, had been banned from Verremor because they were found out to have a hand in the country faction quest that attempted to throw the current sovereign.

Four Winds informed Jack that Mkulme and Vivian, the leader of Liberty Fighters, were among the dignitaries who would be accompanying Grand Chief Kabaka later.

As Jack entertained Four Winds while waiting, it was Palgrost's delegations who arrived first. Thelgrun came through the zone portal and was escorted to the palace. Thelgrun was accompanied by his admiral, Helga Flameforge, and his adjutant, Broban Deepminer. Followed behind them were Viking and Genesis from the Licth Squad.

Despite the Licth Squad's initial failure to protect the Num Maldur Pass, the guild had shown its dedication and valor during the capital defense. Thelgrun had welcomed the guild back into his fold. The Licth Squad was also the number one guild in Palgrost now, replacing the State of Galhana which had been banned from Palgrost.

When Jack saw Thelgrun, he rose from his throne and came over to welcome the dwarf. Thelgrun was cheerful seeing Jack's gesture. The two approached one another and then hugged like long-lost friends.

After the hug, Jack said to Thelgrun with a beaming smile, "So, what gift do you bring me, mister president? Let me warn you. If I'm not satisfied with your gift, don't expect to leave this place in one piece."