In the next few days after the battle of Crestfall Plain, Jack spent his time doing adventure quests and hunting quests, with one Faction Quest. He finally became a Baron after completing that one quest. He received 120 merit points, giving him a total of 520 merit points. Just a little bit over from the 500 points required for Baron.
Becoming a Baron had not yet opened the availability for him to use the Kingdom's facilities yet, so he did not yet have an outlet to use the merit points he had gathered. He was told that he needed to be a Viscount for that. He could spend his points at Commander Quintus' Training Ground, but he figured he would hang on to the points first. Just in case there was a better use for his points after he became a Viscount.
The Baron title, though, still had its perks. All the properties owned by him, had now gained a 5% tax reduction. He only owned one property at the moment, which was Ellie's Restaurant. This tax reduction should increase his income from the restaurant. For Amy's bakery, his status was still an investor, he would need to give them funds to upgrade it another two more times before his status became an owner. Funds which he did not have yet at the moment.
Apart from that, the Baron title also gave him a 10% discount if he purchased a property or constructed a building. The more subtle effect of the title was some kind of acknowledgment from the NPCs inside the capital. They seemed to give him more respect, even the patrolling guards sometimes gave him a small nod when they passed him by.
To become the next rank of Viscount, he would need to have a total of 2000 merit points. He was still a long way to go. The scarcity of the nobility faction quest was another element that contributed to his slow growth.
For the coalition, after the battle of Crestfall Plain, they were acting more subdued, less overbearing. They let go of some of their turfs which pleased the independent players and other guilds greatly. Jack thought that probably because they lacked the manpower. They had lost quite a number of players in the battle after all. Those players would need to level up again at lower level areas, and they would also be needing the higher-level members to power-level them. Which will strain the guilds' resources further. They simply did not have the luxury to act imperiously at the moment.
With the reduction of activity from the coalition, there had also arisen a rumor that the waning of the coalition was due to their loss at the battle of Crestfall Plain, where they lost four hundred members against a monstrous player who possessed both the classes of Warrior and Mage. Some even said the name of this monstrous player as Storm Wind. Many of course treated it as a simple rumor. After all, it sounded so far-fetched. And who was this Storm Wind fellow? No one ever heard of him.
Jack did not care about the rumor, but he still felt dismayed when he heard it. Perhaps he should have used his old alias. Perhaps then people would give him a bit more respect. He still did not understand the tendency where people like to link someone's actual ability with his or her fame. He thought it was just weird. Many strong experts maintained a low profile, you did not need to be famous to be strong.
Another skepticism on the rumor was also due to those independent players thought that it was due to themselves, not this mysterious Storm Wind, who had caused the coalition so much trouble. A mass of independent players had banded after John's speech in the capital. The coalition which had just retreated from Crestfall Plain in battered condition, was ambushed by these independent players and suffered further casualties.
Probably even John himself did not expect his speech to actually cause such an effect. He was simply making the speech to trick the enemy into thinking that he had roused a mob and was coming towards them with such a mob. Little did he know that such a mob was truly formed, and went on to ambush the coalition.
Perhaps it was the coalition's fault themselves. They had acted too arrogant and tyrannical, that they drew the ire of the common folks. John's speech was simply a fuse that caused them to band together and acted out their resentment. Still, if someone was to ask John if he had expected such outcome, he most likely would have confidently said, "It was as I have expected."
Despite no one believed the rumor. It was still hotly gossiped amongst the players who visited the tavern. A title was even given to Jack by the gossiping players. Jack was called the Demon of the Crestfall Plain. When Jack learned about it, he felt amused. From that one battle, he had actually received two titles. System title of Outworlder Slayer, and player bestowed title of Demon of the Crestfall Plain.
Despite getting no exp out of that battle, Jack still reaped large profits of 18 gold and 52 silver coins. With heaps amount of equipment. Some he kept and fused using the transformation Box, which gave him a few more rare equipment. He was still far from having enough to fuse them into Super Rare equipment though.
The rests he sold for coins. In the end, he still felt it was a hassle to fuse all the other equipment and spent the time looking for player buyers. The coins were not enough to replenish the coins he had spent before the battle, but it was not far off either. The gains he got from the adventurer and hunting quests these few days further refill his wealth.
Jack had offered some of the coin profits to his friends. Flame, Bowler, and The Man vehemently refused. They said that they felt bad enough that he had to come to save them, much else took his profits.
This caused Jack to give the incident some thought. He could not continue to come to the rescue every time they were in trouble. But he also could not just leave them to their fate. After all, those coalition people had targeted them to get to him. So he was somehow responsible for the incident as well.
Yet he could not think of a solution to this problem. As long as he was only one person, those guilds would never really consider him as a real threat. Did he need to join a guild? No, he would never allow himself to be tied down. Should he create his own guild? That was even more absurd. He was not the type of leader that could take care of a bunch of people. He liked to go wherever he pleased, he could not bear to stay around and babysit others.
Since he could not find a solution, he simply threw the problem to the back of his mind for the moment.
Even though loots from the players he had killed were bountiful, it was actually their souls which Jack had reaped the largest harvest. After the battle at Crestfall Plain, he checked his Container of Souls and found out that he had gained 8256 souls from that battle alone. Combined with the 2950 souls he gathered from these few days' hunting quests and the original 712 souls within the container. He had collected a total of 11,918 souls. The large number of souls from players must be due to their high level and also their advanced class, just as how high-level and elite monsters gave more souls.
Jack had enough points to increase one level of his advanced skill, but he decided to continue upgrading his basic skills first. He could upgrade his basic skills eleven times.
After a brief thought, he grinned and decided to dump all 10,000 souls to max out his Power Strike skill.
Power Strike, level 20/20 (Active skill, melee, require melee weapon)
Deal 350% physical damage, cause pushing force proportional to Strength stat.
Stamina consumed: 20
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Each level usually increased the percentage damage by 10%, but when it was upgraded to level 20, the increase was 20%, rounding the damage applied to 350%. Perhaps it was the additional perk for max level. The stamina needed, however, was doubled from the original 10 points at level 1. It was still an affordable cost though.
After Jack leveled up his Power Strike skill to the max, he soon heard a notification voice, "congratulations, for being the first to fully leveled up your skill, you have gained the title of Hard-working Achiever."
Another title? Jack was amazed. He had gained another title only a few days from his first. He went ahead and checked the title.
Hard-working Achiever (Title)
Increase the amount of experience received by 15%. Increase the amount of skill proficiency received by 15%
Jack was ecstatic by the title. He knew that as time progressed, he would have more difficulty in staying at the same level as the others due to his two classes. He would need special encounters and circumstances like the incident with the Ice Troll Sentinel in order to stay ahead in levels. But such an encounter was rare, not to mention was also extremely risky. There would not be Lieutenant Bailey to bail him out another time.
This title should lessen the handicap he had in terms of leveling speed. He went ahead and replaced his Outworlder Slayer with this title. The Outworlder Slayer was only effective when he was going against another player. The Hard-working Achiever title was better suited for general use.
