Second World

Jack checked the technique book next. It contained a skill called Wind Dash. It was a skill learnable by any class that branched from the Ranger class. The technique book itself was classified as a unique grade.

Since he no longer had any consideration of keeping anything for Jeanny to copy, he learned the skill.

*

Wind Dash, level: 1/20 (Active skill, movement)

Creates a burst of explosive wind, dealing 100% wind damage to a 3-meter radius area and applying knockback, then moves in a direction with 1000% movement speed.

At the end of the dash, creates an intense wind barrier for 10 seconds. The barrier reduces all damage by 50% and causes all single-target attacks a 25% chance to miss.

Range: 20 meters

Cooldown: 1 minute

Stamina: 100

*

"Oh? This is similar to my shooting dash," Jack remarked. "My shooting dash improves my offense when the skill ends. This one improves my defense. Does it also give me any extra dash when I level it up?"

"It does," Peniel answered. "It is indeed similar to shooting dash. It gives you an additional dash every ten levels. But aside from giving you a defensive buff at the end of the skill, there is another distinctive difference."

"Oh? What's that?" Jack asked.

"You can only do shooting dash on the ground. This skill doesn't have that limitation."

"Really?" Jack asked. He jumped up and then used this skill in the air.

A strong burst of wind erupted from his body. The force from the blow staggered John and the others who were nearby, causing them to stop walking.

"The f*ck is he doing now?" John cursed.

Jack shot in the air with extreme speed. He was happy about this skill. He had used shooting dash less and less because he mostly fought in the air nowadays. This skill would increase his maneuverability in the air. It also had a short cooldown so he could use it often.

After finishing the dash, powerful swirling winds circled his body. This was the wind barrier that protected him for ten seconds.

"If you level up the skill, the wind barrier will last longer," Peniel explained. "At max level, the barrier lasted thirty seconds."

"Cool. What about its star upgrades?" Jack asked.

"Every star increases the damage reduction of the barrier by 3%. Additionally, if you upgrade all ten stars, the barrier will also nullify all wind damage."

Too bad Jack had used up all the free skill points and souls. There was a time when he ran out of skills to level up. Now, he was back to not having enough free skill points and souls to level up his skills again.

"Are you done playing?" John asked as he approached. Jack's wind dash had brought him ahead of the others.

"I have two more items to check," Jack said and pulled out the third item, an evolve seed.

"Anything for me?" John asked.

"You shouldn't have let Jeanny get kidnapped. Otherwise, she could copy these items for you," Jack said.

"Screw you. You also won't make a difference even if you are present when it happened," John returned.

"Play nice, boys," Grace mediated, taking over Jeanny's job.

Jack was just teasing John. He handed over to John Eurdrasill's loot that was meant to be given to the guild. He then resumed checking the evolve seed. The seed was a legendary grade.

"Survival Seed?" Jack read the description.

"This is another seed with many limitations. It mostly only works on buff skills or healing skills," Peniel explained.

"Buff skills?"

Jack had quite a collection of buff skills. He turned to his earliest one. He now only used this skill when all other buff skills were in cooldown. This was because this skill depleted his HP upon activation and only gave an increase in attributes. The skill was the Life Burning Art.

"Will it work with a skill that had no levels?" Jack asked.

Peniel shrugged. "You can give it a try," Peniel replied.

Jack went and worked on the interface. The skill was compatible. The interface asked Jack if he wanted to proceed. Jack clicked accept. He received a notification that the Life Burning Art had changed into Life Elevating Art.

*

Life Elevating Art (Active skill), star: 7

Fully replenishes HP and stamina/mana upon activating the skill.

Increases attributes by 170%.

Stamina/mana regeneration +100%.

The cooldown timer of other skills goes twice as fast.

Worn equipment's durability reduces at a 20% normal speed.

While the skill is active, heals 200 HP each second. If HP falls below 70%, heals 500 HP each second. If HP falls below 50%, heals 1200 HP each second. If HP falls below 30%, heals 3000 HP each second. Healing will not revert to a lower state even if HP is recovered to full.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 6 hours

*

The legendary seed had completely transformed this skill. It no longer consumed Jack's HP upon activation. Instead, it replenished it. The attribute increase was still the same but it added a whole bunch of other buffs.

The cooldown timer being accelerated was great but Jack thought the best buff of this skill was its healing ability. It might not mean much for only 200 HP heals every second. But when he fell to critical, he got 3000 HP each second. This heals meant he would get back to full HP in less than half a minute, providing he didn't suffer any more damage during the time.

From the description, the healing of 3000 HP each second remained even if his HP was brought back to a higher threshold. This meant his HP only needed to lower to 30% once. After that, he would get 3000 HP heals every second for the duration of the skill.

Unless someone hit him with an attack with a potential of one-hit-kill, he would be very unlikely to be killed when this skill was active.

He also gave this skill a go. The visual effect of the skill was the same as when he used the Life Burning Art. John no longer asked him what he was doing when his body alighted with red light.

Jack stabbed his arm to deal damage to himself and watched the healing from the skill take effect. John only shook his head from the display.

After finishing playing psycho with himself, Jack turned to the last item.