Second World

The Hero Altar was built on a balcony on the rooftop. It was open-air and the altar had a giant statue of an armored man that looked a lot like the imitation of God of Hope.

Following Peniel's instruction, Jack went to the base of this statue. An interface opened up. There were several options there. One of them was to issue a challenge to an inmate.

"Seeing that there are multiple options, does it mean that there is more than one way to recruit a hero?" Jack asked.

"Yes. You can also offer your companion to be a guild hero. But normally no one does that unless they get a better companion offer. If you have a Hero Token, you can also use it on this altar. It will summon a random hero, the grade will correspond to the rarity of the token."

Jack clicked on the challenge option. An energy wave radiated out and Jack was surprised to find himself in an isolated dimension. It was a space similar to when he did his Blade Dancer trial.

Not long after, a light pillar shot down from the sky. When the light dissipated, Uruk stood where that light hit the ground. He looked around with equal bewilderment as Jack. When his eyes landed on Jack, he uttered with a scowl, "You!"

"I am not yet level 45 but I am ready to teach you a lesson," Jack said. He cast Magic Weapon and two swords were ready in his hands.

Uruk's large club was in his hand when he came out of the light pillar. He swung it around intimidatingly as he uttered a roar. Jack saw crimson tattoos manifest on his skin.

"Going into high gear right from the start? I will accompany you!" Jack uttered and activated Gold Scale Armor.

The two ran to one another. Uruk jumped as he lifted his club high. He brought the heavy club down right on top of Jack's head. The club went past Jack's body. Uruk was flabbergasted, before feeling a strong and burning hit on his back.

Jack had used Flash Step. His three-star Flash Step left a rather convincing afterimage, making Uruk unaware that Jack had shifted to another place. He then used Flame Strike.

Uruk almost tumbled over because of Flame Strike's strong knockback, but he forcefully planted his one feet to resist the force. He then swung back his club that was glowing.

Jack was surprised by the brute tenacity this barbarian exhibited. He narrowly erected Magic Shield when the club arrived. An explosive shockwave resulted from the impact. The strong force tossed his body into the air. Jack's Gold Scale Armor was immune to knockback, but apparently, getting knocked into the air is not.

Before Jack fell back to the ground. Uruk made another swing and created a raging whirlwind. Jack's body was sucked by this whirlwind and was tossed up again.

'Shit! Is this guy juggling me?' He thought while his body spun around helplessly inside the tornado. He felt dizzy from all the spinning. If his Gold Scale Armor was not active, he was pretty sure he would have been afflicted by a dizzy effect.

When the tornado dissipated, Jack tried shooting range attacks from the air. But aiming without a footing proved to be difficult. Most of his shots missed.

Uruk was waiting on the ground where Jack was falling. When Jack arrived, Uruk swung his club like a baseball batter. Jack's body was smacked far away like a home run hit.

Jack received massive damage from the hit. He also receive another damage when he slammed to the ground. His 6025 HP was down more than one quarter. Without Gold Scale Armor, he would have lost more than half his HP. Any regular one-class player would have been killed outright.

'Damn! The dude uses all his skills from the get-go,' Jack thought. He had seen all these skills when they raided Uruk's Bandit Outpost. Jack surmised those were all the skills this barbarian possessed, no sense for him to hold back during the raid.

Knowing this, Jack ran forward again. The two rammed against each other. Jack lost the brute force contest, but his Gold Scale Armor allowed him to stay in balance. Using his martial footwork, he stepped to the side just as Uruk's club came smashing again, slashing at Uruk's side in the process.

Jack continued dancing around the barbarian, slashing using his sword art while Uruk tried to smash him unsuccessfully. Blade Orbs continued to accumulate on Jack's hands with every successful slash. When all twenty blade orbs appeared, Jack unleashed his forty-eight burst slashes. With his current attributes, he no longer felt extreme fatigue after unleashing this martial art, but he still could not do it too often.

Uruk received tremendous damage from the combo multiplier. Yet, he didn't back down. When Jack unleashed his burst attack, his footwork stopped for an instant. Uruk struck back at that time, causing damage to Jack as well.

Uruk made another swing and Jack used Flash Step again, appearing beside Uruk. Jack then used Devouring Cross. The X-shaped energy that followed the attack was now black in color. The darkness devoured Uruk's HP while replenishing Jack's at the same time.

Although Jack appeared to be at an advantage due to his martial prowess, Uruk still managed to hit him from time to time. One hit of Uruk took out a large chunk of Jack's life. Peniel had to use Heal and Group Fast Heal on two separate occasions when Jack's HP fell below half. From this, Jack could see that it was still too risky fighting a rare elite enemy by himself.

Uruk had a massive 440,000 HP. It would take a long time for Jack to wear him down if he fought conventionally. If he made a mistake, Uruk might deal consecutive fatal blows that took his life before he realized his blunder. Hence, Jack decided to stop testing his limit.

He cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains to stop Uruk's movement, but it only took Uruk a second to break half of the twelve chains. Before Uruk broke free, Jack hurriedly activated Life Burning Art, Adrenaline Rush, Overlimit, and Lightning God Barrage. The combination damage resulted in whooping damage of over 110,000.

This damage, however, was also due to Uruk's berserk mode being still active. The berserk mode reduced Uruk's defense. With the damage that Uruk had suffered prior, the barbarian's HP was now close to half.

Uruk was paralyzed from the lightning ball assaults. Jack didn't let the chance go. He used Penta Slash on the immobilized Uruk. The final fifth slash he combined with Slash of Determination, scoring a critical hit. With Overlimit still active, it took out a total of 24,000 HP. Uruk also suffered Bleeding effect after the assault ended.

Jack then summoned Therras. Although Therras was ten levels below Uruk, his boosted HP gave him a high survivability rate. Not to mention all of Therras' five skills outclassed Uruk's. With the rare elite pet holding down Uruk, Jack had easier time landing attacks on the barbarian.

With the cooperation between the pet and its master, Uruk finally succumbed. When Uruk's HP fell to zero. He didn't fall down as normal. He knelt instead. Suddenly, Uruk's HP zoomed back to full. Jack was astounded. Was this some sort of a last-ditch effort of the barbarian?

Uruk stood back up. Jack readied himself to attack again.

"Stop!" Peniel said. "It's over."

Jack looked again and saw Uruk's gaze no longer carried the previous hostility.

The space around them broke apart. Jack found himself back on the balcony, next to the Hero Altar's statue. Uruk was there with him. The barbarian gave Jack a bow. "Sir, awaiting command!" He exclaimed.

"Success!" Jack celebrated. He then asked Peniel, "Peniel, how do I increase his exp using mana cores?"

"Via the Hero Altar," Peniel replied. "Open the interface again. Now that you have recruited Uruk, his data should appear inside. Aside from using mana core to increase his exp, you can also give him equipment."

Jack activated the hero altar again. It was indeed as Peniel mentioned. A holographic image of Uruk appeared in the interface. Jack selected the option to donate mana core. After two months of grinding, he had 1,920 mana cores inside his bag. Although not every draconic monster drop mana cores, the frequency and quantity were still better compared to normal monsters. Hence the high numbers he possessed.

He originally wanted to give them to Jeanny to use the Book of Creation's copying ability, but he figured strengthening Uruk was more urgent at the moment. The number of mana cores required to level-up Uruk increased with each level. In the end, he spent 1460 mana cores to bring Uruk up to level 50. Uruk's HP increased to 550,000.

Jack checked Uruk's equipment. The barbarian only had two equipment, the large club and leather pants. Not surprising actually, the big guy was mostly naked after all. Those two equipment were also only uncommon grades. This caused Jack to be impressed with Uruk. The barbarian might only have a limited set of skills, but with such poor equipment, he still gave Jack trouble.. Jack wondered if he could still win against Uruk if the barbarian wore proper equipment.