The same as his last attempt. He was faced with fifty opponents after stepping into the challenge stage. Three of which were level 80 mythical grades.
Jack didn't waste any time. After battering these opponents with Judgement of Past Kings, Perpetual Lightning Judgement, and other strong AOE spells to decimate the special elites and wound the rare elites, he then cast Double Clone.
Each clone took on one mythical opponent. One clone used Gold Scale Armor and the Strength of Hope. Another clone used Lightning God Suit. His real body used Lightning God Incarnation. One of his clones cast Time Realm while the other cast Superior Acceleration, granting all three Jacks impossible speed.
The real Jack cast Time Lock at the mythical opponent he was facing. The Time Lock might only last two seconds, but with Superior Acceleration in effect, that opponent might as well have stopped for twenty-four seconds. Jack battered that opponent with multiple spells when it was helpless.
After the time lock ended, the opponent was already in a disadvantageous position. Jack continued to pound at it without giving it the chance to escape. The remaining rare elites that tried to help ended up killed by Jack. In his lightning form, even standard attacks became deadly ranged assaults.
Jack made full use of Lightning God Incarnation's three-minute duration. When the duration was on the verge of ending, Jack channeled the explosive mana from the divine skill's final attack and sent it all to the half-dying mythical opponent. This final attack finished the opponent off.
With one mythical opponent defeated, Jack turned his attention to the remaining two opponents. He joined his clone who was using the Strength of Hope. With that sanctification on, the mythical opponent already had trouble keeping up. With his intervention, they systematically reduced this opponent's HP to zero.
With only one opponent left, it was a sure win. Jack and his clones bullied this remaining opponent and defeated it before the Strength of Hope and Double Clone ran out of duration.
When he came out from the stage, he was greeted by a notification that congratulated him for becoming a minister. The same as when he was promoted to Exalted, he received knowledge points as a reward for the promotion. The knowledge points he received this time were 20,000, twice the reward from the last time.
For completing stage 90, he received 270 knowledge points. This showed that for a minister, his knowledge points from clearing a stage were now three times the normal gain.
Jack had also done the challenges daily ever since he returned to the capital. Out of those routines and the current gain, he had accumulated 25,912 knowledge points in his badge.
He didn't stop there. He continued and entered stage 91. The grades and number of opponents inside this stage were the same as in stage 90, but their levels were higher. It was more difficult but Jack still managed to beat this stage.
He continued until stage 94 where he spent a few hours but still managed to beat the stage. In stage 95, he had to go up against four level 83 mythicals, sixteen level 86 rare elites, and thirty level 90 special elites.
They were too much for him. He failed to pass this stage.
He went back to repeat stage 92. Beating stage 94 took too much time, he would be here until tomorrow morning if he accumulated knowledge points from that stage. After becoming a minister, he could repeat the same stage twenty times. With the Honorary Magi title, he could repeat it twenty-five times.
From repeating stage 92 and the knowledge points gathered until stage 94, he received another 7,734 knowledge points. He couldn't believe he received so many points in a day's work. Becoming a high ranker truly sped up the point-collection process.
His Order of Magi badge now had 33,646 knowledge points inside it. Feeling rich, he went to the exchange counter.
Since he was now a Minister, a new batch of exchangeable items was opened to him. Now that he thought about it, he felt pity he couldn't increase his rank in the League of Champions. This meant he wouldn't get access to the items in the Laticlavian rank.
He didn't dwell on the matter. Life was always about choices. To get everything life had to offer was just fairy tales. If you wanted to get something, most of the time you had to let go of another thing. This was called transaction, the most common aspect of human interaction.
He was now studying the new list in the Minister rank. Although he wanted to get the spell, Magic Bombs, from the Exalted rank, he wanted to see first if his current points were enough for any item of interest in this new list.
His face showed disappointment after seeing the list.
"Why the long face?" Peniel asked.
"No Greater Dispel on the list," Jack answered. "I thought the spell would be here on this list… Maybe it is on the list under Head Minister? But I can't get to the rank of a head minister, can I?"
"You can't. You already have the top rank in a country faction. You won't get the top rank in other factions unless you relinquish your position as the Themisphere King," Peniel replied. "Plus, you won't find the Greater Dispel even if you become the head minister."
"Oh? How can you be so sure?" Jack asked.
"The Greater Dispel is one of the most powerful spells in this world. Even league factions won't have them. Your only hope of getting it is from a rare quest encounter or kill drops. The rate of either happening is extremely abysmal. You won't have any chance to obtain the spell with normal luck."
"Hoho! That means I'm bound to get it sooner or later," Jack uttered.
Peniel decided to not discuss the matter further.
Since the spell he targeted was not here, his eyes were on the second thing he was most interested in. "Hm… I expect to see this in the exchange list of the League of Champions. This place also offers this?"
The thing he was referring to was a wing tool. He originally thought he had lost the chance to get this item as he expected this item to be offered in the Laticlavian rank in the League of Champions.
"Why? Magic users can also use wing tools," Peniel said.
"But they have access to Fly spell. Melee combatant needs this more," Jack argued.
"That's true, but it doesn't mean magic users don't need this tool. Fly spells allow them to fly, but the speed is not impressive. They were mostly sitting ducks in the air. Plus, those spells had duration and cooldown. Wing tools let them fly faster and without restrictions. Well, there is still a restriction. You will see when you get it. You intend to get this, don't you?"
"I do," Jack said.
This wing tool cost 26,000 knowledge points. The other things on the list were also similarly expensive. One spell Jack was interested in was Black Hole, which cost 24,000 knowledge points. Peniel explained Black Hole was an elite spell for Archmage. It was similar to the Chaos Black Hole used by the Herald but with a variation. It didn't cause chaos damage. This made this version slightly weaker.
There was also a mega spell available for exchange, but it cost a whooping 35,000 knowledge points.
Jack shook his head. Here he thought he was rich with knowledge points.
