Jack was taken aback by the yell. The heck? He thought.
"Hehe, you seemed to have gotten their loyalty," Captain Salem who stood beside him said to him.
Jack looked again at the faces of the soldiers. Though they had always carried out his commands all this time, it was all because of their self-control and military disciplines. Now he could feel their zeals. Although they had failed to kill the Grim Sand Drake for its loots, perhaps its assault still brought a benefit to him.
"Alright, let us proceed forward!" Jack gave his command.
"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldiers replied.
'By the way, are all spells with seven runes are that massive and powerful? Only casting that one spell can already almost score us a victory against that terrifying drake,' Jack asked Peniel in his mind once they resumed their journey.
"No, that spell the duke cast was not a normal spell. It was categorized as Mega Spell," Peniel answered.
'Mega spell? What's the difference?'
"You can identify such spells from the size and complexity of its runes. Even for one of Duke's caliber, he still needs several minutes to cast the spell. This shows how special the spell is."
That was true, Jack thought. The duke could simultaneously cast two five-runes spells with ease, but when it came to that mega spell, he took his time.
"Mega spells only appeared for spells with five-runes spell formation or above," Peniel continued her explanation. "But these mega spells are really rare. Even the factions had very few of such spells to offer. You need to be very high in ranking and possessed tons of points in order to get them. Otherwise, you could only hope to get them from the wilderness, but the chance of finding them is minuscule."
'Never mind, I don't think I have much use of such spells if they took that long to cast.'
"There are three ways to increase the casting speed of mega spells. The first is the old-fashioned way, you train until you get used to it, but the speed you can improve is limited. The second is casting a mega spell that is way below your ability. Like for example casting a five-runes mega spell when you are already adept at casting a nine-runes normal spell. The third, the most favorite one and also the most efficient for mega spells, is cooperative casting."
'Cooperative? You mean as in multiple mages casting the same spell?'
"Technically, that is correct. Although the implementation is more complex than simply casting the same spell. They have to stand in formation and one caster needs to handle at least one rune. The same rune cannot be formed by different casters. Also, their speed of forming the runes cannot be too far different from one another. Still though, this third method is easier said than done. It is the most difficult to achieve amongst the three."
'How so?'
"Because can you imagine the fortune of finding the same mega spell technique book multiple times to allow multiple people to learn it?"
'Oh…'
"Exactly. Don't worry about it. It is still beyond your capability. You have not even mastered forming that measly five-runes trial spell from Janus, thinking about mega spell is ludicrous."
'Thank you for your optimism,' Jack said sarcastically.
The rhythm of the expedition was back again to the usual eventless yet not boring journey. The experience points accumulation continued as the vanguard troops served their function, with much better efficiency since the soldiers were more enthusiastic this time.
They vanquished another two of the monsters from Jack's list, Vanishing Lemur and Eight-legged Mare.
The Vanishing Lemur was as its name suggested, it could turn invisible. But unlike the invisible giant slug from before, these lemurs were noisy as hell, which kind of defeat their own special ability. One could determine their position from their sounds. Once they were hit, their invisibility coat would cease to work. They needed to break off from combat before they could turn invisible again.
Although their voices betrayed their positions, there were a great number of them. When a mass of these Lemurs turned invisible with their noises coming from every direction, it would still be a very intimidating experience. It's a good thing the soldiers were not easily affected. The ones with shields formed a solid line of wall in the direction of the noises, while the mages and archers bombarded the area in front. Once the Lemurs turned visible again, the melee units swooped in and finished them off.
The Eight-legged Mares were more troublesome. Their extra legs were not just for show. They possessed the fastest speed Jack had seen on normal monsters, almost as fast as the Ice Troll Sentinel Jack had fought. Their pattern of attack involved running around their opponents until they saw an opportunity, then they blitz in and struck using their four front legs. They could also occasionally discharged small electrical range attacks. These attacks caused little damage but they paralyzed their targets, which made them vulnerable for their blitz attacks.
The vanguard troops were at a disadvantage at first fighting these monsters, but then John instructed his left-wing vanguard troop to gather into a circular pattern with the shield units at the outer layer, forming a turtle-shell formation. This would leave the troops with no weak spot that the mares could exploit.
When the mares lost their patience and decided to still come with their blitz attacks, Mages who hide in safety from the back of the shield units would use Magic Bind to hold them in place. Magic Bind was an advanced spell, so most of the Mage soldiers possessed them as well. Once the mares' mobility was taken away, they were easy to be disposed of.
Jack and Jeanny soon copied his method in dealing with the mares.
Although the journey could be said as smooth, Jack was having a worried expression the entire time. The reason was due to the large dark red dot on his radar. It was that Grim Sand Drake, it was stalking them.
At first, Jack thought that it was because they were still within its territory. But two days had passed already, they were already some distance away from where they fought the drake. Yet it still doggedly stayed with them. It did not attack though, it kept itself at a safe distance. Jack could not help but thought that the monster might have borne a grudge against them.
'Another monster with an emotion,' Jack thought. Only emotion would drive this kind of behavior. Normal monsters would have left them alone after getting beaten back.
Jack had reported this to the Duke. The Duke told him to just let it be unless it decided to attack. Even if they chased after it, it could easily escape again like last time. They could not waste their time dealing with it. The Duke believe it would eventually lose interest in them after some time.
The Duke estimated by tomorrow they should be arriving at the border town of Thesewal to resupply. He believed by then, the drake would have stopped following them. High-grade monsters such as the drake usually avoided cities and towns.
Jack did not carry the same optimism, but since his power was limited, he could just follow along.
On that night, when everybody had gone into their tents for rest, Jack stayed up outside as he did his regular spell-formation training. He could now better concentrate on forming three runes at the same time, though the speed was still slow.
"It was almost midnight. Why are you staying up so late?" Peniel asked him.
'Can't sleep,' Jack answered.
"You are still worried about the drake?" Peniel asked him when he sensed his uneasiness.
'Well, that and another thing.'
"Another thing? What other thing?"
'… This chain quest of mine.'
"What about it?"
'Remember when I first received the quest, we both thought we are going to need a lot of time to deal with this quest? Something like two years? But hey, the fragments had been merged and we are heading to a destination that might be the end of the quest. It's only just a bit more than one month since then. I'm only a few levels stronger than then. How do I expect to complete this friggin SSS quest?'
"Hm… That's true. Your prospect is bleak."
'As usual, thank you for your vote of confidence,' Jack replied forlornly.
"Come on, it's not like you have to do this quest by yourself. Just stay with the Duke and don't do anything reckless, and you should be okay. You don't have to force yourself to complete it. Maybe you will have another chance after you become stronger," Peniel tried to reassure him.
'Perhaps. Or perhaps this quest only provide this single chance of completion. Miss completing it during this expedition might mean failing it.'
"Now who is being pessimistic?"
'Sigh, you are right. If there is nothing I can do about it, I shouldn't worry about it too much. I will just do my best,' Jack said after collecting his thoughts.
"Now that's more like it," Peniel said. "Furthermore…"
'Hm? What's on your mind."
"To tell you the truth, I think there is something unusual about your chain quest."
