Second World

Jack walked back directly to Amyʼs Bakery after coming out of the magic scroll shop. The sun had already set. Many shops had started to close at this time. When Jack arrived at Amyʼs Bakery, she and her mom had just finished closing up the shop. Jack joined them for dinner before retiring to his room.

The first thing that Jack did after being alone in his room was taking out the two one-handed swords he had gotten from Warpath, one was a level 15 rare sword while the other was an uncommon level 14 sword. Jack then took out his Storm Breaker and proceeded to let it consume the rare sword. Since both were rare grades, his Storm Breaker immediately jumped to the same level as the consumed sword. And with the additional experiences from previously sacrificed swords, the experience on Storm Breaker was actually just a hairbreadth away from level 16.

When he let it consume the uncommon level 14 sword, the experience it granted pushed Storm Breaker past level 16. He also changed one of the weapon skills to the newly acquired ability which increased his Parry skill level.

Storm Breaker, level: 16 (rare one-handed sword, bound weapon)

Physical damage: 74

Attack speed 3

Dexterity +2

Parry skill +2

Cannot be destroyed

Bound to Storm Wind

Overlimit: Release the weaponʼs hidden power that adds additional 150% damage as chaos damage, increase weapon range by 2 feet, and decrease the targetʼs defense by 65%. Duration 85 seconds. Cooldown 8 hours

After finished dealing with his main weapon, he took out his sub-weapon. He had bought twelve common magic staffs. He used the Transformation Box and combined them into three uncommon magic staffs. With the other five uncommon magic staffs he had already possessed, he now had enough to combine them into a rare grade magic staff.

Without further ado, he threw them all into the Transformation Box. Not long after, the Box spewed out a unique-looking staff. All the magic staffs he had gotten before had the appearance of being made from either wood or stone with irregular shapes. The one in his hand now was straight shape from metallic material with an intricate head design. There was a crimson color orb attached to its head. Jack inspected the impressive-looking staff.

Red Dawn Staff, level: 21/40 (rare magic weapon)

Magical damage: 68

Range: 10 meters

Attack speed 1

Energy: 80

Intelligence +3

All spellsʼ range +2 meters

Another good thing about fusing those weapons was, the transformed weapon was following the highest level amongst the consumed weapons. So this new magic staff was already level 21, he did not need to waste time and material to upgrade again.

The energy of the staff had increased after it reached rare grade. It lost the previous ability to replenish its energy but its new ability to increase spellsʼ range was very useful as well. He just needed to take note to stock on magic stone to replenish the staffʼs standard range attack ammo from now on.

After finished upgrading both his weapons, he now proceeded to combine all the spare medium armor equipment he had gotten previously, together with the ones he had just bought at the shop today. After the combinations, he got one uncommon grade medium armor for each chest piece, shoulder piece, belt, and boots. The chest and shoulder pieces were inferior to his currently equipped ones, so he just stored them in his inventory bag, while he equipped the new belt and boots.

Apothecary Fauld, level: 15/25 (uncommon medium armor)

Physical defense: 20

Magical defense: 16

Durability 30

Recovery potion effect +30%

Responsive Leggings, level: 15/25 (uncommon medium armor)

Physical defense: 22

Magical defense: 18

Durability: 40

Reflex +2

After exchanging the two pieces, finally the lowest grade equipped on his body was uncommon. He checked the total defense from all the armors.

Physical Defense: 190

Magical Defense: 166

Quite a decent defense he got here, Jack thought while admiring his stats window. With these weapon and armor upgrades, his battle capability should have increased another grade. If he succeeded in getting his Mage advance class tomorrow, he should be able to tackle the high-level quests from the silver hall of Adventurers Association. He could not deny he was rather looking forwards to it.

There was one last thing to do before he called it a day. He took out the Technique Book: Dragonʼs Eye, which he had gotten from the silver hall Hunters Association today. He interacted with the book and a prompt appeared that asking him if he wished to learn the skill. He accepted it. A notification soon informed him that he had learned the skill. He opened up his skill window to check on it.

Dragonʼs Eye (Special skill)

Passive Effect: Enhances vision to see more details and longer distance by an additional 50%, can see clearly in the dark.

Active Skill: Trigger slowdown vision, all object movements are slowed by 500%, Duration: 10 seconds, Cooldown: 1 hour

The skill was similar to his Life Burning Art which did not have a skill level, meaning it was already at its strongest state. That was good also, Jack thought, so he could just focus his skill points on other skills. But it had ten stars proficiency level same as other skills, though. So the skill can still be improved by continuously using it.

After reading the skillʼs full ability, Jack finally understood why Peniel regarded this skill so highly. The skill possessed both passive ability and active one. Its active skill was especially amazing. The difference between a normal expert with a martial art top expert aside from their body control, was their response time. With an active skill that enabled him to see movements slower than five times its normal speed, it would allow him to have a response time equal to or even better than the top martial art experts. As an attack that took 1 second to reach him would now take 5 seconds in his perspective. He would have more time to respond and devise a counterattack. Even though the active skill only lasted ten short seconds, a lot could be done within these ten seconds.

This was truly a good skill. Now even if he met an opponent at the level of Red Death, he would not necessarily be compelled to brute force his way using his massive stats advantage.

Satisfied with todayʼs harvest, he finally called it a day. He lied on his bed and allowed his fatigue to take over.

The next morning, Jack woke quite late despite sleeping early, the build-up fatigue must have exceeded his expectation. When he went downstairs, Amy and Samantha were already busy working in their shop. Some of the customers in the shop were players like him apart from NPCs. These players were rather surprised when they saw another player came out from inside the private quarter of the shop, they were wondering if it was possible for them to go in as well. One actually tried, before getting scolded by Samantha. Jack just chuckled when he witnessed it.

The appearance of players must have increased the shopʼs revenue, as Jack remembered the shop was not so popular when he first visited the shop. Come to think of it, players would prefer the food in this shop which majority consisted of bread, sandwich, and cake. These foods they could take with them on the road and could easily be consumed on the move. Their effects were also quite good, there were many different effects that could be used in different kinds of situations.

Looking at the booming shop, Jack was reminded of the Invest function. If not wrong, the first investment option required 50 gold coins, which he currently had.

ʼPeniel, you did mention before that investing in a shop is one of the good ways to earn coins, didnʼt you?ʼ He asked in his mind.

”I did say that,” Peniel confirmed.

ʼHow much can I earn if I invest?ʼ

”That will depend on the shopʼs popularity and your status with the shop. If the shop is booming with sales, then you will get more. Basically you start as an investor, which will grant you 10% of the shopʼs profit. When you invest the second time, you will become a partner, and 30% of the profit. The last investment option will make you an owner, which gives you 50% of the profit. You can cash in the profit weekly.”

😉