Hearing Jack's proposition, the others advised otherwise, including Peniel. Most of Jack's buff skills were still on cooldown, including his three largest AOE skills, Lightning God Barrage and Perpetual Lightning Judgement, and Judgement of Past Kings. But Jack assured them that it was okay.
Since the king refused to be persuaded otherwise, they could only go along with the plan.
Jack again triggered one of the hills to burst before retreating a bit.
The others didn't stay too far away this time in case Jack needed help.
When the Volatile Firefly Ants came near, Jack cast Arcane Turbulence, Mana Beam, and Tracing Beams to reduce their number by a bit. He then summoned his Spirit Weapon. He commanded it to use its melee mode.
He then engaged the ants and repeated the process from before. He slapped the ants away after they triggered their suicide explosions, causing them to die with a single hit. Even though he only used two arms now, his success chance was better than before. He almost never made a mistake now.
Jack could even give his spirit weapon some attention. The spirit weapon used the Formless Flowing Sword Style to slash the ants and keep them at bay. It couldn't replicate Jack's feat of triggering the ants' explosions without harming itself. So, the fight between the spirit weapon and the ants was a standard fight.
Jack didn't mind. He simply used the Spirit Weapon as a diversion so not too many ants crowd around him.
After Jack took care of his side, he then went and dealt with the ants that were fighting his spirit weapon.
The others were impressed, they didn't even need to lend a hand. Jack seemed to have gotten the hang of it. So, Jack continued and triggered the next horde. He cast whatever AOE spells he had before engaging the ants in a melee. Even though he didn't reduce the number as many as before, he still didn't seem to be in a difficulty dealing with that many ants.
The others were still tense, though. They were ready to help at a moment's notice. Especially Peniel, she was afraid Jack lost his concentration and slipped, but he never did. Jack's concentration was inhuman. When it came to repetitive monster grinding, he could do it with preposterous single-mindedness.
They continued hill after hill. They didn't bother hunting the Sabretooth Walruses again. The exp points they received from the ants were incomparable to the walruses, and the points continued to flow in.
At night, they rested using Duke Alfredo's tent, which was a unique-grade tent. It was a giant tent that allowed group use. It also had functions that other tents had, camouflage and alarm. The alarm was to alert the occupants inside just in case the monsters were not tricked by the camouflage.
Additionally, the tent had another extremely great feature. If anyone rested for at least six hours inside the tent, they would receive a 10% exp boost for the next three hours after waking.
Jack couldn't stop praising the tent, which prompted the duke to offer it to him. Jack vehemently refused. He had taken the divine crystal and the Horn of Silver Rhino Emperor from the duke. He couldn't accept more gifts even if he honestly coveted the tent.
On second thought, he could simply summon the duke to use the tent anytime he wished.
They continued grinding the Volatile Firefly Ants for the next five days. The exp points flowed into them like crazy.
By the end of the five days, Jonathan's level increased by six times. He was now level 61. Amy and Howard increased by ten times. Both their levels shot up to level 46. Lindsey increased by twelve times due to her Fast Growth talent. She was now level 50.
As for Duke Alfredo, he only leveled up one time to level 72. He was the highest level among them. At his level, even a one-time level-up in five days was already considered extremely fast. Not to mention the monsters they killed were all much lower levels than his.
For Jack, he couldn't use the exp boost advantage from his Hero of Themisphere title because they were in Verremor, but he still had his old Hard-working Achiever title which boosted his exp received by 15%. He had equipped this title when he landed on this island.
His Brave Swordsmaster leveled up one time to level 66. His Time Sage increased by two levels to level 66. His Beast Monarch also leveled up twice to level 65.
Each of his Beast Monarch's level-up increased more attributes compared to his Beastmaster's.
*
HP +180
Stamina +200
Strength +8
Dexterity +15
Intelligence +2
Endurance +7
Reflex +12
Wisdom +18
3 free attribute points
3 free skill points
*
With the previous level-ups, he had 21 free attribute points. He invested them all into Wisdom.
He also had 6 free skill points for Brave Swordsmaster, 9 free skill points for Time Sage, and 6 free skill points for Beast Monarch.
He checked his Container of Souls. The Archdemon and the demons they killed near the portal under Themonium gave a large number of souls, especially the Archdemon. Each of the Volatile Firefly Ants didn't give many souls, but since Jack killed a massive number of them, the souls they provided were still significant.
2,900,000 souls were inside the container.
Jack used Brave Swordsmaster 6 free skill points to level up Drilling Thrust to level 7. Each level-up increased its damage by 10% and reduced defense by a further 2%. It now dealt 260% physical damage and reduced the target's defense by 42%.
This skill also obtained its first star. Each star increased the duration when the target's defense was reduced by 3 seconds, totaling 33 seconds at its first star.
He then used Time Sage's 9 free skill points and 500,000 souls to max out Mana Beam. The spell now dealt 700% magical damage.
For the Beast Monarch's 6 free skill points, he used all of them and 1,300,000 souls to max out the Beast Command skill. Each level-up increased the duration by 30 seconds. At max level, the skill now took control of the enemy's pet for a total of twenty minutes.
For the remaining 1,100,000 souls, he used 400,000 to max-level the Beast Howl skill, and for the remaining 700,000 he level-up the Gigantify Pet to level 8.
Max-level Beast Howl healed all summons' HP by 30% and increased their attributes by 200%.
Each level-up of Gigantify Pet increased its duration by 9 seconds and increased an additional 5% to the pet's attributes, defenses, and resistances.
Aside from Drilling Thrust, his Strength of the Wild and Magic Field also received their first star upgrade.
Each star in Strength of the Wild increased Jack's damage by 0.5% and defense by 10% when the skill was active.
Each star in Magic Field increased the probability of double-cast by 5%.
Jack was very satisfied with the improvements. If possible, he wanted to stay here longer but it was already time to meet Four Winds. He returned all the Royal Agents to where they were summoned from. After that, he transformed into Iamanorc and used Cipher Flight's guild return scroll to teleport to Wind Island.
