"Oh? What's good for me to fight a monster that I have already defeated before?" Jack asked.
"If it is a common monster, of course, there is no point. But what if it is a rare monster that is difficult to find? And you happen to need a specific material that is only dropped by that exact rare monster? It will be a hassle to go around searching for that monster. But by using the monster chamber function in this guild, you can fight that monster unlimited times providing that you are willing to pay. Hence, getting said rare materials will not be as difficult as gaining it via the normal means."
"I see, that was indeed good."
"Yes, go out there and record as many monsters as possible. And try to get all the rest of those monster books too."
"You said it like it is an easy task. I might need a long time to collect sufficient challenge points," Jack uttered.
"The next time you see Gruff, ask him to give you another quest that awarded more challenge points," Penile suggested.
"The next time I see him, I'm gonna give him a punch in the face first before anything," Jack remarked.
Since he was done with that place, he left and decided to rest. Amy's bakery was not available for that night, so he went and rent a room in the inn. It was his first time sleeping in an inn. He thought it was not too shabby, not as good as his room in Amy's Bakery but acceptable. Of course, there was a more expensive one available that provided a more spacious and luxurious room, but he saw no point in wasting the coins just for one night's sleep even if he had plenty of coins.
The next morning before he went out again, he went to upgrade his equipment. He would be stuck in his current level for quite some time due to the Lightning God Blessing, so he decided to get into his top shape.
As usual, he rented the blacksmith workshop with the rare tools. Before that, he purchased a large number of Iron ores and Steel ores. The inflation also affected these ores but not as much, Iron ores now cost 40 copper while steel ore increased to 3 silver. Hence he purchased them in bulk. There were more stocks available now in the shops, probably because lots of players who did mining decided to sell their overstock ores to these shops.
He worked in the blacksmith workshop and planned to upgrade all his equipment to level 38, since that was the maximum level he could equip in his current level of 28.
As he continued to work, the probability dipped further down, causing him more failures with each upgrade. At level 34, if he did not use any buff from the workshop's rare tool or his Runestone of Probability, his success rate to upgrade the equipment was 0%, which meant no chance in hell he could upgrade any further.
He was thankful now that his Runestone of Probability had increased to a rare grade. The workshop rare tool added a 30% success rate, while his rare grade Runestone of Probability added another 25% on average. Adding a total of 55%, he still failed one every two times with that kind of probability. And as the level increased more, the probability was lower.
When he was at level 37 trying to upgrade to level 38, he only had an average of 35% success chance even with the two buffs. The material consumption also increased greatly as the equipment level increased. At level 35 above, he would need 4 iron ores, 2 steel ores, and 1 copper ore for one attempt. Combined with the multiple failures, his material consumption was significant.
He ran out of the material halfway through his work and had to go out searching around the capital to buy more ores. His 21 copper ores in his storage bag were also insufficient. Luckily he already had the Transformation Prism which could fuse the ores into better grades, as copper ores were not available to buy. He bought Iron ores and Steel ores in bulk and then used the Transformation Prism to fuse several Copper ores.
Two good things happened though during the process. His Blacksmith grade and Runecraft grade increased, they were now Advanced Apprentice and Intermediate Apprentice respectively. The increase in his Blacksmith grade naturally increased his success chance, while the increase in his runecrafting allowed better efficiency when he used his willpower on the runestone. Normally even after concentrating all his will into the runestone, the maximum added was roughly only 5%, with his runecrafting in Intermediate Apprentice, it now provided an extra 8 to 9% when he concentrated fully.
There were two of his armors however that had a maximum of level 35, so he couldn't upgrade them any further. These two were the earliest rare armors he had acquired, Blood Guard Scale Armor and Shadow Bear Tasset. He would need to look for a replacement for these armors later. The rest and his magic staff were upgraded to level 38. He couldn't upgrade his Storm Breaker as he did not have a spare rare sword for consumption.
He had consumed 374 iron ores, 138 steel ores, and 39 copper ores just for the upgrading process. If he added the amount he had used for creating the extra 18 copper ores, the number of spent iron ores and steel ores was even greater.
He was a bit pessimistic about the future blacksmithing process for higher-level equipment, the number of ores he needed would be astronomical. Luckily, he got a steady income of coins and also the Transformation Prism for support. At least his situation would be much better compared to the other players.
He reequipped all the upgraded armors. Both his physical and magical defense had increased by around 50% after the upgrade. He would be able to tank more damages. He then admired his magic staff.
Rapid Dazing Staff, level: 38/55 (super rare magic weapon)
Magical damage: 267
Range: 15 meters
Attack speed 1
Energy: 150
Intelligence +12
Standard attack has an 8% chance to cause Confused status effect for 10 seconds (effect does not stack)
Rapid Attack: Each standard attack shot out three projectiles (this ability can be turned on or off)
This staff now had damage even surpassing his Storm Breaker. But considering this staff was a super rare grade, it did make sense. Its other abilities had also undergone increases after passing the level 30 threshold.
He had spent almost the entire morning working for that upgrades. It was almost noon when he came out of the workshop. He had roughly check out the things he needed to know in the last two days. But he still decided to go back out just to make sure that everything was as he had recorded. If something veered from what he had observed, tomorrow's operation might be a failure.
He again spent the entire afternoon roaming around the area not far from the Bandit Outpost and only came back once the sun was set. After these three days of roaming, he had also completed all ten of his hunting quests. He submitted the completed quests and received some coins, exp, and 194 hunter points.
He sent a message to John and Jeanny, informing them that he was good to go for raiding the Bandit Outpost tomorrow. He informed them if they wanted to join, they could meet him at the city gate at noon.
After sending the message, he just left one more thing to do in the capital. He went to the dilapidated hut he had visited before. He looked at the hut with amazement.
'Still as run down as the last time I was here. Such a pretentious bunch to use this kind of façade,' he thought.
He was about to open the door to the hut before he remembered something. He transformed into Unrivalled Arcaner then went inside. The same spacious, empty, and clean space was displayed inside. Janus was still there sitting behind his desk.
Jack walked over to him, with Peniel flying beside.
Janus lifted his head and acknowledged him, "ah, mister Storm Wind, good to see you again. I see that your fairy friend is no longer in hiding as well. It's good to meet you face to face, miss," he nodded at Peniel, who gave a symbolic curtsey in the air.
Janus turned back to Jack, "so, I imagine you have trained sufficiently to pass the test I gave you?"
"That I have. Prepared to be impressed, mister!" Jack declared, still personifying that bombastic character of his disguise. He pointed his magic staff high.
Runic line starting to form rapidly. He had practiced till he could form Janus' five-runes spell formation in around four seconds. Using multiple rune formations in two steps, three runes simultaneously in a bit over two seconds, and the remaining two runes simultaneously in almost two seconds. Considering he needed almost fifteen minutes to form this spell formation when he first received it, this had been a large improvement. But such a speed was still far from the requirement to pass Janus' test.
To rectify this, before he started casting, Jack used his Dragon's Eye active ability. It slowed down his surrounding by 500%, or in other words, his thought process was increased to five times the normal speed. The spell formation which under normal circumstances needed four seconds, now formed five times faster. The five runes were completed before one second.
Jack looked at Janus with pride after he successfully did it. Janus returned his stare with a solemn expression.
"That was cheating," Janus said.
