Jack didn't use those items right that moment. Instead, he dealt with his free attribute and free skill points first. He had 24 free attribute points, 9 free skill points for Brave Swordsmaster and Time Sage, and 6 free skill points for Beast Monarch.
He also checked his Container of Souls. The container had 6,900,000 souls inside. These were the souls gained not only from the recent battle but also from the maze under Sangrod royal mausoleum and the souls from Emperor Marcus' death.
He spent all 24 free attribute points on his Endurance, increasing this attribute to 2,420 points.
He then spent Brave Swordsmaster's 9 free skill points and 100,000 souls on Ghost Sword. This skill was fully maxed to level 20. The skill now lasted a half minute.
He still had the Field of Swords at level 1 but he decided to leave that skill for now.
For his Time Sage's 9 free skill points, he spent 7 of them to max the Invisibility spell. This spell's duration was now fifty minutes.
He didn't have any other spells that needed leveling up, so he stored the Time Sage's 2 free skill points for later use.
He spent Beast Monarch's 6 free skill points on Beast Tantrum. The skill became level 16 and it lasted 12.5 minutes.
Many of his skills and spells had also gained some star upgrades. Two among them had their first stars, Time Realm and Gigantify Pet. Each star of Time Realm slowed hostiles within its AOE by an additional 2%. For Giganty Pet, one star increased its damage boost by 1% and damage reduction by 2%.
Jack used 6,600,000 souls to further upgrade 22 stars on various skills and spells.
His first choice was Reset. 1,800,000 souls were used to upgrade the spell by six times to a full ten stars. Reset's cooldown was now four hours. When he upgraded Reset's tenth star, he expected to hear a notification. He received a title for being the first player to fully level a skill. Upgrading a skill's star was much harder. It made sense that it should have a reward as well. He didn't believe someone else had maxed a skill's stars faster than him, not even Master.
He was not disappointed. He heard a notification. He was not granted a title, though. It was something better.
"Congratulations, for being the first to fully upgrade your skill to its tenth star. You have gained a talent, Fast Learner."
*
Fast Learner (Talent)
Increase the amount of exp received by 10%.
Increase the amount of skill proficiency received by 50%
*
"I thought you said talent can't be acquired if it is not already present within?" Jack asked Peniel.
"… That's right."
"But I just got this one. Doesn't this imply that someone other than me can also get this talent if he fully upgrades his skills first?"
"… Maybe it's because you do have this talent and this achievement simply pull it out to the surface. Maybe if you don't have it within you, you will get a title instead. I don't know! I said before that I don't know what accomplishment gives reward and what reward you get from that accomplishment, don't I?"
"Okay, okay," Jack said. He wasn't going to fuss about the reason. He was glad enough that he got one.
This talent was similar to his title, Hard-working Achiever, but that title needed to be equipped before he could enjoy its effect. This newly gained talent was passive. Its effect would always benefit him from now on.
The exp boost of Fast Learner talent was slightly less than the Hard-working Achiever, but the skill proficiency gain was much better. With this talent, he practically only needed half the time the other players needed.
Between this talent and his Container of Souls, even if he couldn't match Master in terms of skill quantity, he could excel in skill quality.
He chose Beast Form and Dances of the Brave for the next skills to be star-upgraded.
1,800,000 souls were given to Beast Form. At ten stars, this skill gave Jack an additional 200% HP when he transformed. This meant in Supreme Dragon form, Jack had triple HP. This skill also recovered his HP by 105 points every second.
Dances of the Brave didn't have a star yet. Jack spent 3,000,000 souls to bring it directly to the tenth star. Each star of Dances of the Brave increased its duration by 6 seconds. At ten stars, this skill lasted two minutes.
He had 200,000 souls remaining in his Container of Souls. He left them for later.
After finishing his skill management, he was just about to use the soul seed when John finally showed up. He didn't come alone. He was with Duchess Isabelle and a woman that Jack had never seen before.
When Jack used his Inspect on this woman, he learned that her name was Vanessa Armand. She was a level 85 mythical vampire. Jack had never seen her but he had heard her name. She was one of Sangrod's three Relic Marshalls.
Jack had learned from the guild chat about the reinforcement from Sangrod. By sending one of the relic marshalls here, Jack could tell that Horatio was genuine about their alliance.
This was good. He was originally still unsure about the new vampire emperor. He didn't know Horatio very well, after all. He knew Horatio was a cunning one, but cunning didn't necessarily mean untrustworthy. He had one example here right next to him.
"Hm? Why look at me like that?" John asked when he saw Jack's gaze.
"I was just thinking about how to thank you for your hard work without your head getting any bigger than it already is," Jack answered.
"Then don't. I'm already too smart. If my brain grows any bigger, I'm afraid even I can't handle my smartness."
"If you people are just going to exchange nonsense, let's just head in and see Thelgrun," Jeanny said. "He is waiting for us."
"Before that, let me thank Madam Vanessa here," Jack said as he nodded to Vanessa."I represent Themisphere to thank you for your timely arrival. Your assistance was heaven-sent."
Vanessa chuckled. "From what I saw, your army could have won the day even without our help."
"That is not wrong, good madam Vanessa," John butted in. "However, your arrival was the additional push that caused the enemy to finally decide to retreat. Otherwise, we would have lost more troops than we have to."
"Have they truly retreated?" Jack asked. "I understand they still have the bulk of Liguritudum troops when they retreated."
"I've sent spies to follow them. If they turn back at some point, we will know," Isabelle said.
"Although the Liguritudum army is still sizable, they have lost their entire zombie army," John said. "Furthermore, Master couldn't stay on this battlefield to use his Necronomicon. He will have to get into another battle first before he can get another zombie army. I say we have crippled our opponent fairly satisfactorily."
Jack nodded. He supposed they truly had won this time.
