Apart from basic and elite monsters, he even found one special elite Earth Salamander roaming around in this part of the wilderness. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by several other Earth Salamanders. If it was alone, Jack would have taken it on.
The last time he fought with a special elite monster, the Ice Troll Sentinel. It was a whole ten levels higher than him, with the addition that the monster received buff due to the cold environment, while he received debuff from the cold. Now the special elite in front of him was only four levels higher, and it was not considered as a boss, and also without any apparent buff from its environment. He estimated with the improvements on his equipment and the repertoire of skills and spells in his possession, he should be able to deal with this special elite now, seeing as their levels were not too far apart.
But that was considering if he took the monster one on one. If he had to fight a gang with a special elite in it, he was not ready to take the risk to try to find out if he was strong enough already. So he avoided that group of monsters.
Peniel informed him as he traveled to higher-level areas, he would find more of the higher grade monsters in the wilderness. He roamed around the area to see if he could find a lone special elite monster so that he could test the limit of his capability.
The sun had set already at the time. He did not have trouble grinding at night, thanks to his Dragon's Eye skill. Yet, he thought he should not be too careless in this new area. He did not know if a different type of stronger monster might appear at night.
So after making another round, he was about to call it quits and used his Town Return scroll to return to the capital, but a peculiar sight caught his attention. He was not sure what he saw at first, so he concentrated to take a better look. There were several silhouettes in the shape of humans in the distance.
Were there players here? Could someone be so daring to brave this high-level area at this stage? Well, apart from him, of course.
Curious about it, he went in the direction of those silhouettes.
When he was close enough, he could see that they were indeed humans. There were three of them, all men. They wore some kind of leather clothing and appeared like rough lots. He was just about to greet them when he noticed his radar. The dots on his radar at the position where the humans were, were colored red.
Enemies? Jack was surprised.
They were not players. Unknown players would show up as blue on his radar. Black if they were enemy players. This indicated that those humans were NPCs, hostile NPCs.
Were they those NPC adventurers that Peniel had mentioned to him in the past? He did wonder why he saw no such NPC adventurers in the wilderness all this time. Peniel had informed him because the areas that the players roamed around at this stage were too low-level. The natives of this world considered all those below level 15 as novices, while all below level 25 as cadets.
These novices and cadets usually trained inside the safety of the city and only ventured out once they reached level 25. That's why there was no such NPC adventurer in the low-level areas.
Could these three humans be such NPC adventurers? But why were they red on his radar? Did he somehow had done something that offended them?
During his confusion, one of these NPCs noticed him. This NPC said something to his buddies and they all looked at him. They then came at him.
"Careful, they are hostiles!" Peniel warned him.
"Are they natives?" Jack asked, referring to the NPC term for this world.
"They are outlaws," Peniel answered. "Similar to monsters, but in human form. They were no longer part of the civilization. They will attack anyone that came into their territory."
As if trying to prove Peniel's remark, the three men took out their weapons at the same time. All of them used blunt weapons. Two were holding clubs, while the other one used a two-handed hammer. Jack inspected them before they came close.
Minor Bandit (Basic outlaw, Human), level 25
HP: 9,800
Minor Bandit (Elite outlaw, Human), level 25
HP: 18,400
Jack returned their hostility in kind. He wielded his longsword and magic staff.
Jack started casting a spell. Once they came into range, the spell was completed and all three of those outlaws were hit by Ice Ring spell. One of the basic Outlaws was frozen, while the other two had their speed slowed as they continued onward.
Jack used Magic Shield to block the other basic Outlaw's attack and hit the Elite one with a Power Strike. The strike caused the elite Outlaw to stumble back several steps.
With only one basic Outlaw to contend with, Jack slashed at him while continuing to move around utilizing his footwork. The staff on his left hand shot range attacks at the elite Outlaw who had been pushed away. These hostile NPCs were rather dull in their attack patterns, unlike players. So Jack felt they were much easier to deal with after continuously fighting players who came to challenge him these past several few days.
The other basic Outlaw came at him once he was out of his frozen status. Together with the Elite one, they came towards Jack while still being afflicted by Slow status. Jack never stopped shooting range attacks at them as the sword on his right hand never stopped slashing at the first basic Outlaw.
When they had almost reached him, Jack stopped his range attacks and started forming runes again. He used Flash Step as the three of them converged, then he jumped several times back as three runes formed a spell formation on his magic staff.
He cast the completed spell and Arcane Turbulence took place with the three Outlaws at its center.
The three who were just freed from the slow effect of Ice Ring, were afflicted again by slow effect from Disorientation due to Arcane Turbulence spell. Their HP was continually eaten away by the torrents of energy from the spell. Jack aided the reduction of their HP by resuming to send range attacks. The first basic Outlaw perished first before the Arcane Turbulence spell ended.
With Jack's current ability, it was not difficult to deal with basic and elite creatures at level 25. He had been killing a lot of Earth Salamanders before, these Outlaws were not much stronger.
The second basic Outlaw soon succumbed as well. After he found himself alone, the remaining elite Outlaw used some sort of special ability. Black-colored tattoos manifested on his exposed skin which was not covered by his leather clothing. His speed and strength soon skyrocketed.
The sudden change in speed caught Jack unaware, but he still managed to parry the large hammer strike. He was thrown backward though. The elite Outlaw's hammer shone with a solid blue light. He swung the hammer even when Jack was far away. A blue hammer replica spun out from that swing and headed to Jack. Jack used his sword to slash at that replica. It broke apart after they touched, but Jack could feel as if he had hit a solid object.
The elite Outlaw swung his hammer again several times. Multiple blue hammer replicas rained at Jack. Apparently, hostile NPCs packed more attack variations compared to monsters.
Despite that, Jack did not find the battle too difficult. The hammer throws came at an arc and were not particularly fast. He weaved through them easily while sending his own range attacks. Once he was in a melee range, his damage output increased.
The elite Outlaw soon fell as well, his bodies disintegrated. Jack looked at the other two who he had defeated prior, their bodies were no more, only leaving behind loots.
"These outlaws are not like natives? Their bodies disappear after dying," Jack asked Peniel.
"Outlaws are no longer considered natives, as they are no longer abiding by the divine rules of the Gods and Goddesses. They are the same as monsters, so the same rules apply to them," Peniel explained.
There was a piece of paper amongst the dropped coins. Jack picked it up and found it to be a recipe for Basic Rejuvenation Potion. It was a recipe for Alchemist, so he did not use it. He asked Peniel what this potion did.
Her answer was, "it recovered 200 HP and 100 Stamina or MP in an instant, this potion had the same cooldown time as the basic healing potion."
"Does one potion cooldown time affect a different type of potion?" Jack asked.
"No, different potions did not affect each other. If you drink this basic rejuvenation potion, you can immediately drink a basic healing potion as well."
That meant stocking different types of potion would be an advantage, Jack thought.
He stored the recipe. He did not do alchemy and had no plan to dabble in it, so he would need to either give this recipe to someone or sell it. The only alchemist he knew was Bowler, he wondered what grade that guy was in alchemy now. The recipe said that it required at least an Advanced Apprentice grade to be able to concoct the potion.
He picked up the remaining loots and looked in the direction where the three had come from. Curious about it, he postponed the activation of his Town Return Scroll and walked in that direction.
