Second World

The dwarf behind Notnewbie was Jet. On his two hands were a set of weapons that was a combination of a fist weapon and a dagger, a katar. Jet made rapid short punches on Notnewbie's back. Damage numbers appeared repeatedly due to the fast stabs.

"Enemy!" Edmond shouted. He immediately used Cover, appearing in between Notnewbie and Jet. Jet's katar hit Edmond's shield with a clang.

When Edmond wanted to retaliate, Jet disappeared from his vision by making a super jump above. In exchange, sixteen arrows came into his vision. It was Sierra's Fan Shot. Elite Marksman level 40 skill. At level 1 it shot ten arrows in a fan-shaped, each arrow dealt 120% damage. Every two levels increase added another arrow, meaning Sierra's Fan Shot was at level 13.

The sixteen arrows hit the five ethereals.

Music suddenly filled the air. At the same time, all five ethereals received notification that they had been afflicted with Slow status. Hideout had come out from his invisibility and was playing lute nearby. As opposed to other Bard's whose music provided buffs to teammates, his music provided status ailments to enemies.

Both Sparkle and Snoop started forming spell formations. An arrow came again and hit Sparkle. The arrow was shot with Power Shot skill. The knockback caused Sparkle to stumble, her casting disrupted.

Another short figure came out of the bushes from a different side from where Jet came out from. Hammer made of light was thrown by this figure, Longstick. The hammer struck Snoop, disrupting his casting as well. The hammer was Holy Hammer skill. Longstick arrived beside Snoop and used Power Strike, knocking the ethereal away from his group.

While playing his music, Hideout used Sonic Darts at Reaper, causing him much difficulty in concentrating and slowing down his casting.

After somersaulting past Edmond, Jet came down at Notnewbie with a dropping axe kick on her head, causing her serious dizziness, before resuming the rapid punches with his katars.

Edmond activated Protection Field, trying to reduce the damage done to his teammates. He then lunged forward to save Notnewbie, but a wall of vines erupted in front of him. He was swiftly entangled by the vines.

Reaper finally completed his spell, Reaver's level 35 spell, Soul Discus. It summoned a discus that flew around the caster, attacking anyone that came into the vicinity, dealing 100% soul damage. The damage was then converted into HP for the Reaver.

Before Reaper could cast another spell, though, a large brown bear appeared in front of him. The bear was Jet's medium-sized pet. The bear slapped Reaper to the ground. The soul discus struck the bear, but the bear simply ignored it as it continued to maul Reaper.

Sparkle, who was rising back up from the Sierra's Power Shot, suddenly found herself face to face with a tall wooden creature. It was a treant summoned by Outdoor.

All four of the ethereal's magic users were occupied in melee by Jet, Longstick, a bear, and a treant. All the while these four also got shot by arrows and sonic darts. The ethereal sentinel, Edmond, could only watch helplessly as he was entangled by the wall of Vines.

<br/>It was a one-sided beat-up. The ethereal team had lost the moment they got ambushed.

Soon, the ten players reappeared outside in the arena.

"Winner, dwarf team!" Pallas announced.

Everyone applauded. They were all impressed by the dwarf team's teamwork and strategy. With the end of that team match, the tournament ended for the day. Everyone started leaving.

Jet and his team passed by Jack and Paytowin as they left. Jet looked at Jack and smiled. He said, "see you in our next match."

Jack simply replied with a nod.

After the dwarf team left, Paytowin said, "he seems confident."

"He is," Jack agreed.

"Although the players in his team are good, especially that old dwarf, I still don't see how they can beat you," Paytowin said.

"Hm…," Jack mumbled while watching Jet's departing back.

*

After the team match ended, Paytowin asked Jack if he wanted to dive into the ancient battleground again. Jack said, "Of course!"

The two then went into the temple of courage. Myson was not there anymore. Paytowin had been given access to activate the ancient battleground device. Jack just gave Paytowin the 10 gold coins before entering.

This third time, however, Jack told Paytowin he wanted to go directly to where the golden knights were. Jack had informed Paytowin about the mana sense technique. Jack had even thought this friend of his, but since Paytowin had no proper foundation, he didn't quite get the technique. He just started learning it like a freshman.

Jack told Paytowin that he could go and kill enemy soldiers for exp. Jack summoned Therras to aid Paytowin. But Jack himself would spend his time observing the lead golden knight since he thought the exp was not that tempting and the reward was shitty anyway.

Since Paytowin couldn't sense anything from those golden knights, he took up Jack's offer. With Brave King and Therras, he went and engaged the black army. As a gift, Jack used his Lightning God Barrage to rake up the kill counts before moving away and slipping into the golden knights' rank.

After following the golden knights for a while, Jack found out that the lead golden knight didn't use any mana manipulation technique in these early hours.

"Shit! So he only uses it when going up against a strong opponent?" Jack lamented.

"As I have said, for natives, mana manipulation was a rare technique. Only Domon can use it non-stop as he did," Peniel explained. "Why didn't you just ask Domon to perform it for you and you observe him?"

"The mana inside this battleground is much denser. It is much easier for me to study the mechanics when I am here," Jack replied.

"Guess you have to just wait until a strong enemy comes by, then."

"I guess so."

So Jack just stayed with the golden knights and tried kill-steal as best as possible while paying attention to the lead golden knight.

It was as Paytowin had said. It was much more difficult to get a kill count among these golden knights. Their base damage was higher. Their skills also gave them very high damage. Although Jack's skill also had high damage, it simply put the playing field on an even ground.

To pass the time, Jack continued to practice the application of mana manipulation on his every attack. He still couldn't do it properly though, but he felt that he gained a bit of understanding with each swing, so he carried on. The dense mana of this ancient battleground environment was something hard to come by, so he had to utilize this chance to the fullest while he was here.

Jack remained with the golden knights while helping them repel the enemies. His kill counts went up very slowly. Paytowin was doing fine, however. Even so, when the three hours passed, he saw that their kill counts were still below seven hundred. It was indeed difficult if he didn't focus on getting kill counts.

Before the three hours passed, the golden knights had started to charge forward, same as yesterday. Jack followed after them. Same as yesterday as well, the mythical-grade black knight came and clashed with the lead golden knight.

Jack immediately focused his attention on them. But after learning his lesson yesterday. He didn't want to get ambushed while he was at it, so he spare a small portion of his thought using his talent to monitor the surroundings.

He also activated Dragon Eye when the two mythical-grade knights used their high-level skills.

Like yesterday, the mana movements around the two came visually in his eyes.  He watched and studied in fascination as the blue mana swam around the two's weapons as they clashed.

When the dragon eye's active effect ran out, the colorful visual aid vanished. He was back to conventional mana sensing, but he had glimpsed a great deal of information from the observation just now.

The giant troll that had smacked him yesterday had again barged into the golden knights' rank. Jack didn't let himself get sucker-punched again. He moved away as another knight came and engaged the troll. He didn't bother fighting any enemies. His priority at this time was studying the two mythical-grade knights' mana movement.

He stayed for as long as he could. The golden knights started thinning as they were overwhelmed by the enemy's massive number. Jack didn't see Paytowin, his friend might have failed to charge through enemy ranks to come here. These golden knights continued to penetrate deeper into the enemy rank even when there was no hope at all.

After experiencing this himself, Jack had to admit that he admired their dedication. He could see the fear in each of the golden knights' faces, but not one of them succumbed to that feeling. They truly brought no shame to the courage that they worshipped so much.

Near the end, another two mythical-grade enemies came. The lead golden knight now had to contend against three opponents equal to himself. Yet, he didn't back down.

Influenced by their zeal, Jack shouted at the top of his lung as he rushed forward to clash with one of these mythical-grade opponents, only to get one shot and be sent back out of the ancient battleground.