Second World

For the Ruby which contained fire element, he used it on the spot to upgrade his Runestone of Enhancement.

Runestone of Enhancement (rare runestone)

Approx. 15% chance of increasing the effectiveness of products made from artisan jobs. Elemental energy required for upgrade: 120/1000

Now all the runestone he possessed were rare grades already. He then looked at the tent.

Camouflage Tent (rare item)

Monsters below level 50 will not be able to perceive the tent.

Possesses a shield with 5,000 HP. If HP is depleted, the tent will be destroyed and not usable anymore. HP will regenerate when inside inventory.

ʼFinally, a decent camping tent!ʼ Jack exclaimed in his mind. He did not have to keep on asking Peniel to keep watch anymore. Though the fairy no longer grumbled from the request, he still felt bad about it every time.

There is no alarm system for this tent, but if a monster hit this tentʼs shield, he was pretty sure he would wake up. He was not those heavy sleepers that could sleep through an earthquake.

After storing the tent, he finally checked the most enigmatic items from the chest. All three of them were very tiny, but the aura of two of the three told him that they were the best items amongst the chestʼs contents. He inspected both of them back to back.

Talent Pill (Unique consumable)

Stimulate the creation of Talent

Demon Weed Seedling (Unique consumable, Disaster item)

Summon Demon Weed blight to the surrounding area

”Both are unique grades?!” Jack was astounded. The boost of his luck grade was truly unnatural. He remembered Peniel mentioned that gold treasure chest only had a small probability to produce a unique grade item. Now he got two instead.

However, both were consumable items, so they would disappear after a single use. The description of these two items was not really that explanatory. He could make a guess based on those short descriptions, but he decided to wait for Peniel first before attempting to use them. Otherwise, he would get scolded again like the last time when he immediately used the Lightning God Sphere.

The last item, a gem-like stone, though pretty, didnʼt radiate any aura. It felt like a common item. Jack used his Inspect.

Chris Memory Stone (Common item, cannot be discarded)

Please give this to Mae Ligna

”Whatʼs this?” This is the first time he saw an itemʼs description that asked to be given to someone. Was it a quest item? Mae Ligna, such an unusual name, was she a native? The stone said that it cannot be discarded. Jack was tempted to throw it away and see if it returned, but he decided to not play with it. He just put it into his inventory.

After finished organizing the loots, he stood up and walked to the room with the Nightmare to see how the fairy was doing. It had been hours, he didnʼt realize that analyzing the rune diagram required so much time.

When he almost reached the opening, Peniel flew out.

”Are you done studying the rune diagram?” Jack asked her.

Peniel nodded, but her expression was not happy. ”It is more complicated than I thought. With your ability, it might be difficult to attempt unraveling the diagram.”

”That difficult?”

”Almost as difficult as you casting that five-rune spell formation test from Janus within one second.”

”Uh, that is indeed very difficult.”

”Yeah, if you have mastered the multiple-rune casting method, things might be different. But look at you, you still have trouble casting four runes together. Even when you do three runes, you still wasted so much time. Do you still dare to say that you have that multi-tasking talent? What a joke!”

”There is no need for you to be that condescending,” Jack complained, but then he seemed to realize something. ”Say, that multi-tasking could be a talent, right? What if I have something that can stimulate the creation of a talent?”

Peniel looked at him in disdain. ”Although there is something like that, do you think it is something that is easy to find? You can just dream on!”

”What is that thing called?”

”Why do you ask? I will tell you when you find it. Which is unlikely.”

”Let me guess, is it called Talent Pill?”

Peniel raised her eyebrows in a surprised expression, ”huh? How do you know?”

Jack was grinning from ear to ear when he took out the Talent Pill from his bag, ”cause I have one here!”

Penielʼs eyes were wide, ”where do you get that?”

”Hehe, where do you think?”

It took Peniel a bit to realize, ”oh, that gold treasure chest. How coincidental.”

”So, we should be able to solve our problem with this, right?”

”Not necessarily. This is just the first step. This pill only acts as a catalyst to draw out your hidden talent. There is no certainty that you will succeed.”

”In other words, I might draw out a different set of talent. There is no guarantee that I can draw the multi-tasking talent?”

Peniel rolled her eyes, ”Are you that confident in yourself? Do you think you have many hidden talents? It might be the case that you think you have a talent, but in actuality, you donʼt have any inside you, then you will pull out zero. In other words, this Talent Pill will be wasted.”

”Arenʼt you looking down on me a bit too much? How can I have no talent?” Jack protested.

”Well, only one way to find out. Eat that pill then,” Peniel said.

”Oh? Do I have to literally eat it? Isnʼt there any interface asking me to activate it like other items?”

”There arenʼt. You have to eat this one like when you consume food.”

”Okay then,” Jack was about to put the small pill into his mouth when Peniel added, ”wait! There is a way to increase the probability of you getting a particular talent if you do have it.”

”Really? How?” Jack asked.

”Focus your mind on the talent you are targeting. You can try doing a multi-runes casting as you eat it, that should put your mind frame into the condition. If you truly have that multi-tasking ability, some kind of a talent relating to it should be drawn out.”

Jack contemplated Penielʼs words. He closed his eyes to steady his thoughts. He then took out his magic staff. He started casting a spell. It was a simultaneous three-runes forming, but he didnʼt eat the Talent Pill yet. The spell formation was completed and two identical Jack appeared by his sides.

As he put his mind to control his two copies to perform several random moves, he started casting another spell. It was a simultaneous four runes now. During combat, he had only cast the maximum of simultaneous three runes all this time. For four-runes version, he could still do it but very slow because he needed to concentrate heavily on the spell, so he never used it during combat.

Now he was casting the spell, Myriad Ensnaring Chains, which had four runes. He needed to close his eyes as he was fully concentrating. He was basically doing six things at a time if added his two copies. When the runes were still half-forming slowly, Jack put the Talent Pill into his mouth and swallowed it. He couldnʼt spare another thought for chewing the pill, itʼs a good thing the pill was small enough for direct swallowing.

He didnʼt let go of his focus even after the pill entered his stomach. He continued to focus on casting the spell. Once the spell formation was formed, he placed the spell at a random corner. Three crimson chains appeared and waved around aimlessly.

He heard a notification voice, ”You have unlocked a hidden talent, Hundred Synchronous Thoughts.”

”Success!” Jack exclaimed gleefully.

Peniel who heard the notification voice, clapped her hands with equal happiness. ”Yes! Amazing. That was totally unexpected.”

Jack gave her an irritated look that said, ʼwhat the hell do you mean by totally unexpected?ʼ

”Give it a try!” Peniel said enthusiastically. She didnʼt pay any attention to the look Jack gave her.

Jack was eager to try as well. His spell with the most spell formation was the Myriad Ensnaring Chains. That spell was still in cooldown, so he chose one of the spells with three runes. He cast Arcane Turbulence.

The three runes formed rapidly at the same time. Jack was surprised himself. It was like he could think clearly on multiple topics at the same time. In fact, he was even controlling his two copies to perform complex martial art moves at the moment the spell formation was forming. The three runes were completed in a bit over one second. It was the same time as if he was casting a single rune spell. In other words, his speed of casting three-runes formation was the same as when he cast a one-rune spell.

He threw the spell in a random corner. Getting addicted to the feeling, he tried another spell again. Magic Bind which also needed three runes. This spell was also cast with very fast speed, but since there was no target, the spell just fizzled. He tried to target the spell at Peniel just for a joke but she was unable to be targeted.

”Awesome!” Jack exclaimed. ”Today is the birth of Storm Wind, the worldʼs fastest-casting mage!”

Peniel gave him a smirk. ”I remember there were others who could cast a single rune in less than one second. You are still lacking compared to them if we talk about pure casting speed.”

”You are such a downer,” Jack complained.. He then took out the other unique item that he had acquired, the Demon Weed Seedling. ”Do you know as well what this thing does?”

😉