Second World

They encountered another two packs of wolves before they reached the foot of Siren Hill. But since they were now more familiar with how the wolves fight, they were not as flustered as the first time anymore. There were also fewer wolves in that subsequent packs. One had only four, the other had five. They collected another nine Wolfʼs Fur from those two packs, and divided three for each of them.

During the journey, after witnessing Fierce Flameʼs fighting style again, Jack asked Peniel in his mind, ʼPeniel, I am familiar with Fighter and Magician classʼ skills, but I never really learn about the ranger classʼ skills. I have my presumption after seeing the way several rangers fought, but I would like to know for sure. Can you describe for me their skills?ʼ

”Heh, took you quite a while to ask,” Peniel replied in disdain. ”All right, let me educate you. The ranger class had a single target offensive skill called Swift Stab that they received when they started the class, much like your Power Strike. It deals only 120% damage at level 1, but stab speed is increased to 200%, it has 5 seconds cooldown. At level 2, Ranger receives Roll skill, it increases the defense by 100% during the roll, it has 10 seconds cooldown. Of course, they can still do their own roll during the cooldown, the difference is itʼs a manual roll, they wonʼt receive the bonus defense.”

”At level 5, they got Throw Weapon skill, it deals 150% damage with a range of 8 meters, and has 30 seconds cooldown. Do not expect the Rangers that performed this skill to be weaponless after the throw. The weapon thrown using this skill will be automatically returned to the Rangerʼs hand. And the last skill a Ranger in basic class will receive at level 10 is Silent Step skill, it reduces footsteps sound when they move. Useless during a fight, but very useful for initiating a fight.”

Jack nodded. Some of the skills were more or less as he had presumed, but knowing the details of those skills was helpful. With this knowledge, it would be more effective for him if he had to fight another ranger again, and he would also be more efficient when cooperating with one.

When they reached the foot of Siren Hill, the sun was about to set. Itʼs probably not more than half an hour until they lost the sunlight. The hill was rather large, they were not sure that the area they arrived in would be the place where they would find the flower, but there were indeed some patches of field with grasses and flowers scattered around the places. Since he didnʼt see any red dots on his radar, Jack recommended they spread out between the fields to save time in searching.

Jack took the middle section while Bowler and Flame went to his left and right, he told them not to wander too far. In this way, he could still notice if some beasts came to ambush them. Jack opened up his Quest window again to see the image of the flower, and then compared it with the flowers he saw around the field. Some look similar, but not the right color. Most of the colors of the flowers in the field were white and red, no blue ones.

After searching without result, they moved to another part of the foothill. When the last ray of sunlight disappeared among the mountain range in the West, they still havenʼt found the flower. The visibility was low, so it would not be effective for them to keep searching.

”Letʼs find a place to spend the night and look again in the morning,” Jack said.

The other two agreed and they climbed a little bit up the hill. They found a flat clearing that allowed good visibility to their surroundings, and decided to set up their camp at that place. The three tents were easily built as they were system-based items. They then collected dry woods and dry leaves and made a bonfire. Jack took out his cooking tools and made dinner for them.

As he had been cooking a lot since back in the Tutorial Period, he heard a sound of notification congratulating him for becoming Intermediate Apprentice Cook. He then took out his blacksmith tool and 3 iron ores that he had bought before in the city, and made three whetstones. Because Jack didnʼt use his blacksmith job often, it still needed many proficiency points before he upgraded to Intermediate Apprentice rank. He gave to Flame and Bowler each one whetstone.

During Jackʼs cooking and blacksmithing, Bowler also took out his Alchemist tools and created some basic healing potions. He gave Jack and Flame each two of the potions.

”I found a shop that sells the ingredients,” Bowler said, ”so itʼs easy for me to concoct the potion now. Thought the ingredients were rather expensive.”

Jack inspected the potion.

Basic Healing potion (Normal consumable)

Recover 200 HP instantly

cooldown: 3 minutes

The potion had a cooldown? That meant he couldnʼt abuse by drinking the potions continuously to keep his HP up. But the instantly recovering effect was quite good, compared to restorative foods like bread and medicine which restore the HP gradually.

Flame was the only one out of them three who didnʼt practice the auxiliary jobs. She thought it was a waste of time, it is better for her to focus on honing her fighting skills and leveling up.

After they finished their meals and cleaned up. They divided the task to keep watch, Bowler will go first, Jack second, and the last would be Flame. As Jack was about to enter his tent, he paused. There were three blue dots heading towards their place.

Jack warned Bowler and Flame and then stood facing the direction where the blue dots would come from. Was it Weary Wolf gang again coming to look for trouble? But they should have been locked up by the guards for two days. Or was it the Death Associates people? They had been keeping quiet for a while now, Jack wondered if they had decided to take action now?

Two of the three blue dots stopped some distance away, a lone blue dot proceeded towards their place. It stopped not far from them. From its position, Jack calculated it to be behind a big boulder around ten meters away. He could roughly see a shadow poking out from the boulder. The person was peeking at them.

It might have surprised the peeper to see that the people he was peeking at were all aware of his existence and were looking directly to where he was at. But the fellow seemed to be able to regain his calm pretty swiftly as he came out from the boulder and greeted them.

”Good evening, gentlemen…” When he noticed Fierce Flame, he immediately added, ”… and lady. Fancy meeting you out here.”

Jack scanned him using his monocle

Saint John (Magician, level 12)

HP: 220/220

Jack was speechless looking at the name. Who the heck was boastful enough to call himself a Saint?

”I am John,” the stranger introduced himself. Jack was not sure if John was his real-world name or he was referring to his alias of Saint John. He continued, ”seeing that you all come all the way here, you lots must be pretty capable players. And I happen to be in need of assistance from capable players. Would you be willing to help me as a favor?”

”Not interested,” Jack answered without hesitation. He was not in the habit of involving himself with a strangerʼs affair. An NPC affair might lead you to quests, but another playerʼs affair most of the time only brought you trouble, this was Jackʼs wisdom after playing VR games for a long period.

”Donʼt be too hasty to reject, please,” John said as if expecting their refusal.

He then brought out something from his bag. It was a tiny flower with six blue petals. Jack and the others had a recollection to have seen the flower somewhere. Wait! Wasnʼt that the flower they came all this way for?

”I assume you are on a quest looking for this flower?” John asked with a grin.

😉