"Le–Legendary…," Jack muttered.
"He–heart of archdemon…," Peniel also muttered.
"Peniel… Is this heart of archdemon similar to the heart of ice and heart of rock…?" Jack asked.
"Yes…"
"Holy! Then that means…," Jack took off his amulet and then placed the Heart of Archdemon close to the amulet. An interface appeared.
"Yes!" Jack exclaimed.
"Hold!" Peniel called. "Do you truly want to replace your current Ice Demon Fiend with the archdemon?"
"Of course. The archdemon is much more powerful. Why don't I want to replace it?"
"… Never mind. Proceed then."
Jack watched the fairy with narrow eyes. "Are you withholding something from me?"
Peniel shrugged.
"Come on. Stop fooling around," Jack said.
"You do remember when you exchange the rock golem with the ice demon fiend, the summon cost increased, don't you?" Peniel said.
"How many mana cores are needed to summon this archdemon?"
Peniel shrugged again. "It depends on what kind of archdemon you get. Although they had the same name, there are many kinds of archdemons."
"Shouldn't it be the same archdemon warrior as the one who dropped this heart?"
"It's not certain. All loot drop is random. The probability is high for it to be the same as the archdemon who dropped it, but it is not one hundred percent guarantee."
"How many mana cores are needed if it is that same archdemon?"
"10,000 mana cores," Peniel answered.
"Ten– ten thousand…?! That's a lot!" Jack blurted.
"Yes. That's just for a single summon," Peniel added. "So, you have to decide if you want to have a weaker but more accessible summon or the big gun which you can mostly only summon once in a very long interval."
"Hm…," Jack contemplated the choice. He looked at the mana cores inside his bag. He had almost 7,000 mana cores after stocking them up all this time. If he spent two or three weeks inside the ancient battleground legacy dungeon, he should be able to collect enough for 10,000 mana cores.
"The archdemon should be an eternal grade, shouldn't it?" Jack asked.
"The heart is a legendary grade. So, yes," Peniel confirmed.
"Okay," Jack decided to proceed with the change. The ice demon fiend was not that useful anymore compare to his current power level. It just added a helper to run interference. He needed something that could help turn the tide if he met a powerful enemy he couldn't handle. This archdemon could provide that.
He proceeded with the process of installing the Heart of Archdemon into his Amulet of Summoning. The ice demon fiend was gone then, replaced by a different summoning description.
*
Summon Archdemon Lord (Eternal monster)
Cost: 50,000 mana cores
Duration: 1 hour
Cooldown: 6 hours
*
"F*CK!!" Jack cursed loudly. "Why is it five times the number you mentioned?!"
"I said if it is the same archdemon. It obviously is not!" Peniel shouted back. "This is surprising. Archdemon Lord is among the most powerful archdemon."
"What's the use if I can't summon it?" Jack complained. 50,000 mana cores. When would he collect enough to get that number? He couldn't stay for so long and just did the ancient battleground legacy dungeon every day.
"Ah, f*ck it. Let's just treat it as I can't summon using this amulet anymore," Jack said. It's not like he lacked helpers. He had his royal agents to make up for that.
Speaking of royal agents. He had changed the commands he gave to Lindsey, Amy, and Howard. He changed their command to adventure, which gave them free rein. However, he gave them private commands to meet Jeanny who had been preparing three teams following Jack's request.
Lindsey, Amy, and Howard each joined one of these teams. The team took them to high-level areas to power-level them. This should help them level up faster than normal means. The faster they could reach a level where they could help Jack's battle, the better.
As for Jonathan, Jack continued sending him on quests. Jack also started issuing commands for Duke Alfredo to take up quests since he saw that the management in the palace had proceeded smoothly. Duchess Isabelle and Thaergood were exceptional court officials. Together with John, they settled many of the administrative duties.
Since Jack returned to the palace, Thaergood used the chance to arrange for him to meet visiting dignitaries. Jack thought it was just a huge waste of time. He told Thaergood to just arrange it so he only needed to meet these dignitaries monthly, at the same time when he was back for the advisors meeting, and to use the officers and foreign overviews.
Jack also used the monarch system's Foreign Overview to send a message to Verremor, requesting a meeting with the grand chief of the nation.
He spent four days dealing with palace matters.
In between the court duties, he spent his free time using the ancient battleground legacy dungeon and the training caves.
He also went to the Order of Magi daily to collect knowledge points. He repeated stage 78 ten times every day, racking up 3,120 knowledge points in those four days. With his previous saved-up points, he had 4,924 knowledge points.
With those points, he could finally exchange one of the three spells he was interested in. He chose Interrupt which cost 3,500 knowledge points. He was not in a hurry for the other two. Lightning Mine was an offensive spell. He didn't lack offensive options. Fly is useful, but he had Soar and Supreme Dragon form to cover that point, so it was not urgent.
Fusing Interrupt with Dispel would give him the option to disrupt opponents during or after casting. This gave him a wider tactical option. Hence, he chose the spell.
He went to the mage academy to fuse the spells immediately. The two spells disappeared and became Cancel Magic.
He also visited the League of Champions daily. Since he didn't have privileges as he did in the Order of Magi, he could only challenge the same stage five times a day. He still had enough challenge points previously given by Gruff so it was not a problem for him to keep repeating the stages.
He first challenged higher level stages on the first day, he reached stage 79. He was unable to beat stage 80 which would promote him to a higher rank. He racked up 2,033 glory points in those four days. Added to his existing 872 glory points, he had 2,905 glory points.
Most of the Angusticlavian exchange list needed 4,000 glory points, so he didn't exchange anything.
Jack looked for Gruff during those four days. Finally meeting him on the third. He asked for the approval letter needed for building the Colosseum. Gruff pleasantly gave him the letter without asking anything in return. Jack was not sure if this was because he was now a king, but he didn't mind the ease.
Jack gave the letter to John so John could start building the colosseum once the current building process was completed.
One day before Jack left for Verremor, his human age reached 15 months. His Slash of Determination level up to rank 3, which increased the damage inflicted to 200% and the added critical chance to 40%.
That same day, he also used the monarch system for the mass pay function. One week had passed since he last used the function. This time, he chose the 300 gold coin options to pay all the officers. The kingdom coffer was reduced by another 170,100 gold coins, but it was worth it because the officers' loyalties increased again, even if only by a little.
Done with all the matters, Jack teleported to Heavenly Citadel before using the teleportation chamber there to teleport to a city in Verremor which his guild had linked with.
