'Cool,' He had Flash Step, but that skill was mostly for dodging purposes. He still lacked a movement skill that gave him a burst of speed to reach a ranged opponent quickly. The Charge skill was an offensive skill, its increase in movement speed was only average at best.
He proceeded to learn the spell without delay.
Shooting Dash, level: 1/20 (Active skill, movement)
Dash in a direction with 500% movement speed. The next attack after the dash is increased by 200%.
Range: 5 meters
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Stamina consumed: 30
'What additional effect does this skill give after I level it up to 10 and 20?' Jack asked Peniel.
"It allows you to make another dash once the first is done. At max level, it adds another one, so you can make three dashes successively."
'If I can make a continuous three dashes, then I can cover 15 meters in an instant!' Jack thought with amazement.
"Not 15 meters. At max level, you can do 10 meters for each dash. That meant you can cover 30 meters if you aim all three dashes in the same direction," Peniel explained.
Hearing that, Jack hurried opened his Container of Souls. Starting from when they left Thesewal, he had collected quite a number of souls from the roaming monsters. Then during the war when the shock troops attacked the supply carts, the soldiers had also killed some orc soldiers. Too bad he was not in the main army, the casualties over there would have yielded an astronomical amount of souls. After that, they had killed most of the orcs when saving Prince Alonzo. The souls from Wangombe should have been bountiful, even though probably not as impressive as the ones given by the Grim Sand Drake.
There were 106,298 souls inside.
'Damn, this expedition is truly beneficial. I collected this many souls in just a few days,' Jack commented.
"You met many stronger monsters as you go further away from the city, naturally they gave better souls. The natives also give more souls, especially higher-ranked ones. That Wangombe alone probably contributed half the number you have there."
He went ahead and used 90,000 souls to directly elevated the newly acquired Shooting Dash skill to level 10.
Shooting Dash, level: 10/20 (Active skill, movement)
Dash in a direction with 500% movement speed. The next attack after the dash is increased by 200%.
Range: 7.25 meters
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Stamina consumed: 40
After killing Wangombe, in addition to the accumulation of exp points since they left Thesewal, Jack had also increased to level 27 Warrior and level 26 Mage. Most of the exp points came from killing Wangombe, and since the other players in his party were not nearby, he had gotten all the exp. He was catching up with the others' levels again.
He had a saving of 12 free attribute points after these two level-ups. He decided to invest them all into his lowest stat, Reflex, bringing its base point to 129 points. Added with his equipment boosts, he had 145 Reflex.
He had neglected his offensive skills for a while, so he decided to use 10,000 souls together with the 7 Warrior's free skill points to upgrade his Sword of Light to level 17, bringing its damage output to 520%. This skill remained his highest damage single-target skill.
For his 6 Mage's free skill points, he spent them on his Magic Bind skill.
Magic Bind, level 7/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)
Bind a target with a magical leash, power of leash depends on skill level and caster's intelligence stat
Range: 30 meters
Duration: 30 seconds (can be reduced based on target stat's strength)
Mana consumed: 40
Cooldown: 2 minutes
While Jack was organizing his skills and spells, they had been going in the same direction. Prince Alonzo asked, "where are we going? At this rate, we won't be able to reassemble with the main army."
"The enemy has prepared blockage, we won't be able to break through with just our numbers. We are convening with the other shock troop teams," Jack said as he opened his map.
He had also been receiving updates in his party chat messages. The other teams had been forced to flee from the left-wing army. They had been chased around for some time until they were forced into a small rocky mountain range nearby. It was the only mountain range in this desert region. Jack could see that mountain range on his map now, the name Barren Rocks was shown on it.
Jeanny and the others had run into this Barren Rocks and found out that it only had one entrance. The deeper part inside was invested with Giant Scorpions and they even saw several Flame Tigers. They could not deal with these monsters while being harassed by the orc army, so they stayed near the entrance, and formed a barricade. The orc army could not abuse their numbers at the entrance as the path was too narrow.
Jeanny arranged for the human soldiers to take turns dealing with the orcs that tried to force their way in, while sending several scouts inside to look for a different exit. However, the news from the scouts was not encouraging. The only things they found inside were more monsters and an entrance to a dungeon. Under normal circumstances, finding the location of a dungeon would be great news, but not at this time.
The orcs that chased them here laid siege outside the entrance as they went on to send in soldiers to exhaust the humans inside.
Jack followed his map interface. He could see the green dots indicating his party member inside the Barren Rock. He observed the situation once he arrived nearby. There were several small rock hills in this location, so it was not difficult to find a hiding place for a small group. It didn't look good. There were lots of orcs outside the entrance.
"How many of you make it inside there?" He sent Jeanny a message.
"We number only around three hundred. We lost quite a lot of people in the assault," Jeanny answered. "Also, from the player side, we have lost Bitter Rain, Wondrouslife, Swellgoing, Pointy Tip, and four of The Man's underlings."
Only sixteen of us left out of the twenty-five who started out in this expedition, Jack thought. He had no love for that Swellgoing fellow, good riddance if he might add, but it was still a pity for the others. He had expected some to not make it, but to lose that many even before they arrived at the destination was rather disheartening. Luckily they had all worn Amulet of Rebirth. So they should only lose one level as they were resurrected in the capital.
Considering Jeanny's information that there were three hundred humans inside, the orcs outside looked roughly at nine hundred to one thousand. The orcs were around three times the number of humans. The humans on the inside would be worn out if they continued this battle of attritions.
Jack thought for a bit as he observed the situation. He then sent out a message to Jeanny, "you have to break out of there."
"Say what? It took us a while to escape here," Jeanny replied. "Going out again will just put us back to getting chased. And even if we want to, we won't be able to break through all those orcs. We are trapped here now."
"Don't worry about getting chased. I have a way to stop their advance for a while."
"There are still lots of their scouts out there in the desert. They are looking for the prince, right? We will bump into one of them sooner or later. It will be difficult to get back to the main army without being discovered."
"Getting back to the main army might be difficult, but escaping notice from the scouts should be no problem."
"How so?"
"You forget already that I can find out about others' positions from a distance?"
"Oh, that's right. But it is still unlikely for us here to break through outside with them laying siege already."
"I can create some distraction from out here for a short duration, but you will have to rely on your own strength to punch your way through."
After a brief pause, Jeanny finally replied, "all right. Give me some time to talk to the others."
"I will make my preparation also, you let me know when you are ready."
After finished with the chat messages, Jeanny looked at the others. The players were still fine since they knew they will resurrect again even if they died here. Furthermore, with the Amulet of Rebirth, they would only lose one level, a small sacrifice. The natives, on the other hand, didn't appear too thrilled with their current situation. After all, they would die for real if they were killed. Many of them were wearing grim and depressed expressions.
She even heard some soldiers bickering. It had been going on for a while. It was just a whisper at first, but now the quarrel had become heated that either side did not bother if the others heard them.
"I said already from the start! There is nothing good from listening to the outworlders' plans. Look where it gets us!"
