Second World

Jack was preparing to leave as he tallied his gains. He first checked his Container of Souls. He had left the container alone and planned to only use the souls when he was about to leave this region. The draconic monsters he killed might not be many, but the souls they provided were above average compared to normal monsters. His container at the moment possessed 682,000 souls.

He could level up his elite skills six times but he decided to max out most of his basic and advanced skills. He maxed out Swift Stab, Roll, Throw Weapon, Adrenaline Rush, Flash Step, Shooting Dash, Barrier, and Magic Bind. After he was done, his container only had 5,000 souls left.

Many of his skills and spells also increased in proficiencies. Flame Strike and Magic Shield, the two of his most used skills, had upgraded to 6 stars. Parry, Swing, Natural Body Recovery, Magic Bullet, Energy Bolts, Heightened State, were now 5 stars. Adrenaline Rush, Sword of Light, Flash Steps, Barrier, Arcane Turbulence, Ice Ring, Life Burning Art, Dragon Eye, were 3 stars. Shooting Dash and Myriad Ensnaring Chains were 2 stars.

Eight skills received their first stars. Devouring Cross at first star now drained 23% of damage into HP instead of 20%. If all ten stars were upgraded, it would convert 50% of damage into HP. Blitz Slash increased its range by another one meter.

Ranger's Roll allowed the ranger to roll to a maximum of three meters distance. Its first star added half a meter to that distance. With all ten stars, Jack would be able to cover eight meters of distance. He imagined himself rolling eight meters away, he thought it will be very unnatural. He would be like a ball rolling and rolling. Jack laughed when he imagined it.

Tame Pet and Call Wolf Pack's every star had the same effect. They both increased the pet or wolves' attributes by 5%. Mana Beam's range got increased by two meters. Magic Weapon received a boost on damage by 4% for each star.

The best one according to Jack was Call Familiar spell. When it received its first star, all of Peniel's spells received a boost. Fash Heal and Group Fast Heal now recovered 55% HP, the group spell even increased its AOE radius by one meter. Healing Field now Healed 320 HP/second. Invulnerability now lasted 3.5 seconds. The length when Second Life spell was in effect was now three and half minutes.

For his non-battle skills, the ones increased were his Cooking and Inspect skills, both were now Basic Expert grade. He also did a lot of equipment repairing during these two months but it was not enough to increase his Blacksmith skill.

He had 45 free attribute points from all the leveling up. He dumped them all into his Endurance.

His Human Age had increased to six months. In the fifth month, he received an active skill that corresponded with his Blade Dancer class, Slash of Determination, rank 1. It dealt 100% damage that ignores all defense, with 100% Bleed chance and 20% added critical chance. With this skill, he fared better against the Hard-shelled Drakeling. But this skill had a two minutes cooldown, which was still too long to make the Hard-shelled drakeling a meaningful farming monster.

In his sixth month, his Limitless Potential passive skill increased to rank 4. It now increased his HP by 800 points, Stamina and MP by 120, and all his attributes except for luck are increased by 4.

He had one new skill for each of his three classes after the level-ups.

Penta Slash, level 1/20  (Active skill, melee, requires dual-wield swords)

Delivers successive five slashes to one target, dealing 100% damage on the first slash, consecutive slashes had an incremental increase of 50% damage each slash.

Cooldown: 3 minutes.

Stamina: 100

Magic Wall, level 1/20  (Active Skill, requires magic weapon)

Create a 10-meter wide wall of light in front of the caster, withstand damage to 300% from caster's maximum HP, reduce all damage by 30%.

Duration: 5 seconds

Cooldown: 5 minutes

Mana: 80

Beast Form: Wolf, level 1/20 (Active skill)

Transform into a beast, gain an additional 100% HP during transformation, recover 5 HP every 10 seconds during beast form.

Duration: 5 minutes.

Cooldown: 6 hours.

Stamina: 120

The Penta Slash was his currently highest damaging single target attack. Even at level 1, if all five slashes hit, the cumulative damage would be 1000%. As for the Magic Wall, he had the experiences already using them via the magic scrolls.

The most exciting new skill for him was the Beast Form. When he transformed, he became a large werewolf that amplifies his damage, defense, and attributes. His weapons disappeared and he fought using claws, but the damage value of his weapons was still calculated into his damage.

Peniel mentioned the Wolf form was the basic version for every beastmaster after receiving the skill. Other forms could be gained by either quests or items. She did mention that she knew of a place where Jack could get a powerful shapeshifting form. However, Peniel said Jack was not strong enough yet. The place was also very far away.

After all the level-ups, he had 12 free Blade Dancer skill points, 15 for Archmage, and 25 for Beastmaster. Jack didn't have many elite skills yet for beastmaster and he felt it a waste to spend the free skill points on advanced skills. So he spent 19 points to max out the Beast Form. Leaving another 6 points for later use. The Beast Form at level 20 lasted 10 minutes long. Every ten levels increased granted the beast an active skill when Jack was in the form.

When Jack was in werewolf form, he could use three beast skills. Savage Claws, Ravenous Bite, and Beast Rage. The first two were offensive skills that amplified damage, while the last increased all his prowess for thirty seconds. The best thing was that he found out he could still use both Blade Dancer's skills and Archmage's spells while in this form.

For the 12 free Blade Dancer skill points, he spent 7 to max out Devouring Cross, this skill now dealt 700% damage. The remaining 5 points he used on Wind Slash. It now shot two wind energies that dealt 350% damage each to all those in their paths.

The 15 free Archmage spell points were spent on Magic Weapon. At level 16, the Magic Weapon now lasted seventeen and a half minutes.

The last upgrade was his bloodline. It was his main purpose in coming to this region, after all. But even after these two months, he only collected around 1,500 Draconic Essences. With the Draconic monster being so tough, there was a limit to how many he could slay within a day. To make matter worse, most of the monsters only dropped one draconic essence. The level 40 rare elite and a few level 45 special elites dropped two essences, but that happened very rarely.

His Gold Dragon Bloodline was now level 2 and it increased his attributes, HP, Stamina, and MP by 12% instead of 10%. He didn't receive more active skills though. Peniel mentioned he would only get one every three levels. So the new skill would appear when his bloodline reached level 4.

It was a pity, he would prefer to continue farming here to gain more draconic essences, but he supposed he needed to go back to see what was going on. John didn't say much in his message but he sounded urgent.

Jack used the Guild Return Scroll and appeared inside Heavenly Citadel's teleportation chamber. As he went towards the Guild Hall where John was waiting for him, he walked past a balcony that overlook the outside. He was amazed by the change. Several new buildings had been erected, even the wall had been adjusted outward to allow more land to hold the additional buildings. Talk about a convenient gaming system.

Down there, he saw several of the new units, Knights, Cavalries, Mages, and Healers patrolling around. He even saw some of the Eagle Rider Hunters flying above. The Blood Counts were nowhere to be seen. They were perhaps hidden and only came out if there were intruders, or if a command was given to them.

Players were also abounding. The last time he checked the guild page, which was a few hours ago, their members were 1,552 members. Several walked past him without recognizing him. Jack couldn't be inspected, and he seldom hang around the headquarters, so it was not strange that new members didn't know him.

Jack admired the changes a while longer before he resumed his walk towards the Guild Hall.

When he arrived at the entrance to the Guild Hall, a player who stood with his friends near the entrance shouted, "Halt!"

"Huh?" Jack was confused.

The player pointed at the entrance, "You must be a newcomer. That door is to the Guild Hall. Only leaders, councilors, and officers rank are allowed entry. Newcomers should learn the rules before wandering around aimlessly."

When Jack was about to reply, one of the player's friends pulled him away. His other friend bowed to Jack and said, "I'm sorry, sir. Please forgive him! That trainee is trying to show off and doesn't recognize you. Please don't be angry with him. We will beat him as punishment, please have mercy and spare his life!"

The guy then walked backward while continuing to bow. His other friends were dragging away the first player who was having an extremely puzzled expression.

"Hey! It's ok. I don't mind!" Jack yelled, but those players continued dragging the first player away. Some even started punching the guy.

Jack scratched his head. He truly needed to talk to John about those nasty rumors about him.. He wondered if the fellow was still spreading them.