Second World

Jack asked Peniel, "Once I delivered Charlene, I believe my quest Thesylvania's missing children will be completed. I will get three million exp. This is the same amount needed last time for Lightning God Blessing. I remembered you mentioned at that time it was roughly the same amount as I level up ten times when I am level 28, right?"

"Why do you ask?" Peniel returned his inquiry.

"If all that three million exp goes into my level 24 Archer, I reckon it will shoot up past level 30?"

Peniel made a rough calculation. "I suppose it might," she said.

"Well, what proportion do you think I should set to let the class increase only to level 30?"

"Hm…" She appeared to calculate again. "Probably 80%?" She said after.

The fairy did not sound too convincing, so Jack decided to set it to 70% instead. The other 30% he gave to his Blade Dancer class. Even if his Archer only level up to 29, he could spend a bit more time in exp farming to change class to Beastmaster before he left to farm Draconic essences.

He planned to postpone his chain faction quest first while increasing his battle power. He believed this quest would regularly pit him against beings such as Aubelard. He was not strong enough to continue the quest.

Once Jack came out from the count's family crypt and into the graveyard, he brought Charlene directly to her house. When he arrived, Mirian was seen sitting by the front door's steps with a blank and sad look. Charlene called out when she saw her mom. Mirian looked over with wide eyes. Her eyes turn teary as she cried and ran over to hug the little girl.

Ted, who heard her wife's cry, ran out. He wore a disbelief expression when he saw his girl in his wife's embrace. He ran over as well and hug the two of them.

Jack couldn't help but smile widely from seeing the family's reunion. It took them a while to realize Jack's presence there. They showered him with praises and gratitude. Jack kept on telling them that it was not his own effort. The Count's son and the two soldiers, Jonathan and Harker, also helped in saving the girl.

Jack heard the notification that his quest had been completed, he received 80 gold coins and exp. With the 70% exp portion, his Archer jumped to level 30. Jack was amazed, Peniel's calculation was not bad. He glanced at the fairy with pride.

Peniel detected Jack's glance and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Jack said with a smile and patted her little head.

"Hey! What is that for?" She complained.

The remaining 30% exp that was sent to his Blade Dancer class pushed that class to level up one time to level 37.

Jack opened his status window to study the progress on the exp bar. When he looked at it, he was given a jump. The Ranger's exp bar was at 98% of level 30. If he followed Peniel's suggestion to use 80% instead of 70%, he would be a level 31 Archer already. He grumbled within as he glanced at the fairy.

Peniel saw Jack's glance again. "What now?"

"Nothing," Jack said, not as gentle as previous.

Jack hurriedly set all his exp to 50:50 for Blade Dancer and Archmage again, leaving Archer class at 0%. This would ensure his Archer won't level up until he became a Beastmaster.

Mirian and Ted invited Jack to stay a night at their house. Jack saw that Charlene kept on asking Peniel to play with her, the fairy seemed to be fond of the little girl as well, so Jack agreed to their offer.

In the night, Jack reviewed his gains. His stats had all increased greatly after his third class reached a sufficiently high level. They were even more augmented with the 10% increase from his bloodline's, but he knew he was still much lacking compared to Master. Probably the only attributes he had the advantage over Master were his Dexterity and Reflex, because all the classes Master chose were slow ones.

He had a whopping 33 free attribute points, 3 free Blade Dancer skill points, and 45 free Archer skill points. He had not used any of the free skill points since he started ranger class. He was saving it for Beastmaster elite skills.

The only Ranger or Archer's skills below elite grade that Jack wanted to upgrade were only Silent Step and Tame Pet skills. He left those basic and advanced skills to be upgraded using souls from the Container of Souls, so he left the 45 Archer skill points alone.

For the 33 free attribute points, he decided to throw them all into the Intelligence stat. His two physical classes gave a decent boost to both Strength and Dexterity stats, leaving his Intelligence stat lacking. He didn't want this stat to lag too far behind the others. Even though there was no way for him to catch up to Master in the magic department, his Archmage class was still very useful against any other opponents.

Jack had received a bountiful of souls from today's fallen natives. One rare elite, two special elites, and one elite, all high levels. His Container of Souls currently contained 231,000 souls. It was enough for him to level-up two elite skills. But as he previously planned, he used 209,000 souls to max his Silent Step and Tame Pet skill to level 20.

He could not yet use the Tame Pet skill on the Therras Beast Egg, since the beast was classified as medium-sized. He needed to wait till he became a Beastmaster first.

Jack then took out the Vampiric Seed. He gazed at it for a while. The seed was completely black and there was greyish fog enveloping it. He had thought rather long about what to use it on. Peniel had informed Jack that as the name suggested, this Vampiric Seed most likely provided ability with HP-draining effect.

Jack decided such an ability should be most suitable for a skill that dealt high damage but with low cooldown. If he could drain HP from enemies often, the skill would become a supplement to healing potions and Peniel's heals, increasing his survivability. The most ideal one should be Power Strike, but he already used fire seed on that skill, so he chose what he thought was the next ideal choice.

He activated the seed and used it on Cross Slash. As with previous seeds, the skill the seed was used on transformed into a similar yet different skill. It was now called Devouring Cross. Jack proceeded to use his 3 free Blade Dancer skill points to level the skill up.

Devouring Cross, level 13/20 (Active skill, melee, requires dual-wield swords)

Slash at the area in front with two swords, dealing 540% darkness damage to all within the area. Recovers HP equal to 20% damage dealt.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Stamina: 60

Not only did it add a life-stealing ability, but the seed also increased the damage dealt and changed its type to darkness.

Finished with the skills and attributes, he took out the Spatha of Light. He had to go back to a main city before he could imprint the weapon, but he could level it up first using his rare blacksmith tool.

He spent a decent number of ores to level the sword up. After level 45, each level up required 5 iron ores, 3 steel ores, 2 copper ores, and 1 silver ore. He only had a limited number of silver ores. His Blacksmith level of Intermediate Expert had reduced the failure rate, hence he still managed to bring the sword's level up to level 47.

Its damage was now 360 points, 5 points more than his Storm Breaker which was still at level 44. He was tempted to just feed this sword to Storm Breaker, but wasting a super rare sword for just a three-level increase felt like a waste. So he kept his original plan to imprint this Spatha of Light to become his off-hand weapon.

The next morning, Jack learned that the entire town had learned about the deceased children. There was much mourning. Cries of the parents filled the small town. Some, however, felt relief instead to have finally had a confirmation of their child's fate.

Arlcard and Jonathan went along with Jack's suggestion. Aubelard's body was shown to the townsfolk as the perpetrator, while Count Dante was regarded as one of the heroes who joined Jack, Arlcard, Jonathan, and Harker in defeating this foreigner vampire.

The town would be erecting a monument to commemorate these heroes. Especially the fallen one. Jack hoped Arlcard won't vandalize the monument for having Count Dante's name on it.

Jack was invited to the tavern to celebrate the end of this tragedy. Jonathan was there but Arlcard was not.

Before noon, Jack said goodbye to everyone. It was time for him to leave this town. Charlene came over and asked him to come back again in the future because she wanted to play with Peniel again. Jack said he would do so if he had some time to spare.

Jack told Jonathan that he would try his best to get Commander Quintus to arrange Jonathan's transfer back to the capital. Surprisingly, Jonathan said there was no need anymore. He had decided to stay in this town and protect it properly this time. To honor Harker and the children that had passed away.

Jack respected his decision and said that he hoped they meet again. Jonathan replied with the same response.

On his way out of the town, Jack saw someone was waiting at the edge of town. When Jack got closer, Jack recognized the person to be Arlcard.. The vampire was without disguise and he was wearing a noble coat.