Jack stored the entire sack into his bag and asked, "did you get super-rare equipment as well?"
"Yes, I got these boots that can be used by Rogue and Archer. It helped boost my movement speed greatly. By the way, aren't you going to check the content of that sack?"
"Why? Did you lie to me?" Jack asked back.
"No," Life Runner replied.
"Then why do I need to check?"
"Uh… Don't you want to make sure?"
"To end up with that kind of mindset, you must have been subjected to many deceits. I'm sorry for you, but don't worry, I believe you."
"I… That's not… Never mind."
Jack chuckled, "I'm in a hurry now, I will look them over at night when I rest."
"So, what shall we do now?"
"I will continue my journey. As for you, what you need to do next is go back to Larabat and establish the teleportation link with our guild headquarter. Then you go make a list of the items that you can buy in Larabat's shops. Take that list and go to our guild headquarter. Give the list to the other leaders, Jeanny or John. Just send them a message before you teleported over, I have told them to spend the time to receive you when you do. They will introduce you to the others after that."
"All right. If I have other friends that are interested to join as well, can I introduce them?"
"Sure, but they will have to do guild tasks like other normal members though."
Life Runner nodded. "It's great to finally talk to a human again," he said.
"It's… odd to talk to a friendly orc, but we will get used to it," Jack said. "Okay, got to go now. See you later, I hope you find it comfortable to be in our guild."
"I hope so too," Life Runner replied.
After parting with Life Runner, Jack continued his journey to the West. Peniel returned to guiding him in passing through areas with monsters below level 35. Unless it was the monster from his hunting list, Jack only stopped to kill one of each new monster he encountered.
One kill was already enough for that monster data to enter his Monster Books, even if he did not have the book for a particular monster type yet. Once he accumulated enough points and exchanged them for the books later, the data would automatically enter the new book.
On the night after he parted with Life Runner, he did look over the items inside the shack. He didn't bother to inspect the uncommon equipment, he just piled them together with the other equipment he had amassed all this time. Once the pile was too large, he would then spare the time to fuse them using his Transformation Prism.
The uncommon materials were Silver Ore and Basilisk Scale. Apart from ore that was needed for upgrading weapon level, he didn't really put much thought into the other materials. He still had other such materials in his bag. He planned to store them in the guild warehouse once they build a blacksmith workshop and recruit some players who were more focused on developing Blacksmith skills. These materials would be needed when the guild found or bought new recipes.
With a guild, he no longer had to worry about developing the artisan skills, such jobs could be shared. This had and always was the strength of a community. No one person had the ability to excel in every single field, no matter how genius that person was. Such a feat was only a daydream. A corporation was formed precisely to gather multiple talents to work together in achieving a single objective. A guild was no different.
What interested him the most from the hideout's rewards were the rare gemstone and the super-rare equipment. The rare gemstone was sapphire. It was of water element which was compatible with his Runestone of Duration.
He summoned the runestone at once and without hesitation feed the rare sapphire to it. It received 200 elemental energy and immediately upgraded to rare grade.
Runestone of Duration (rare runestone)
Increase the duration of products created from artisan jobs which have duration, by approx. 30% more.
Elemental energy required for upgrade: 100/1000
He then looked at the super-rare equipment. It was a shoulder guard medium armor.
Reflective Thorn Pauldrons, level 30/60 (super rare medium armor)
Physcial Defense: 82
Magical Defense: 70
Durability: 50
Endurance +10
If received damage, next attack is increased by 20% (cannot stack)
Has a 15% chance to reduce 30% of the damage received and return it to the attacker
He was hoping for a chest or pants piece since his current Blood Guard Scale Armor and Shadow Bear Tasset had already reached the limit of their levels at 35 and couldn't be leveled up more. But beggars couldn't be choosers. He was glad enough that it was not an armor piece which he already had super-rare grades, such as his shoes and headpiece.
Although this shoulder armor piece had slightly lower defenses due to it being eight levels lower than the current rare spaulders he was wearing, the ability of a chance to reduce and reflect damage was very good, it also gave him a boost when counterattacking. Hence, he replaced his shoulder piece on the spot. He would upgrade its level later once he had access to the blacksmith workshop with the rare tools.
Jack met another Bandit Outpost again in his journey. It was populated by level 30 monsters which were right around his level, but it was of a small-sized outpost. He might give it a try if it was tiny-sized, but a small-sized outpost had too many outlaws inside.
He looked around the landscape and could not find a terrain he could utilize like the last time he raided the Lizardman Encampment. He also no longer had a tool that could summon reinforcement like the Themisphere Beacon Stone. So he gave up on the outpost. He marked its location on his map in case later he wanted to come back.
His journey took another three days after his encounter with Life Runner before he arrived at his destination. It was shrubland named Busculla Plateau. At this time he still had a bit over 1,000,000 exp points required for his Lightning God Blessing inherent skill.
"So, what am I doing here?" Jack asked once they were at the edge of the shrubland.
"You will be grinding for exp, of course," Peniel answered.
"What monster?"
"The last two ones in your hunting list, Mouseant and Swordfin Ferret. In this area, they were around level 35."
"What makes them so special? What's different from grinding in other places?"
"Because these two monsters provide a high amount of exp but have low HP and defense. Moreover, they only have melee attacks, no fancy skill. You should be able to kill them quickly to amass the exp."
"There should be a catch. Not possible I was given free lunch like that," Jack said suspiciously.
"There is. Since they were weak in HP and defense, their damage was impressive. They could kill a normal level 30 outworlder warrior in just three bites. But since you are not normal, you should survive."
"I see. Ok, let's give it a try. I don't see any monsters around though. So, I just walked around till one of them appears?"
"See that mound over there. That should be one of the Mouseant's nests. Approach it and they should come out."
"All right," Jack walked over as he unsheathed both his longsword and magic staff.
When he was near enough, the mound started to shake. He saw the sand and rocks on the mound falling down as a large hole was slowly formed on top of the mound. The shaking was rather worrying. The monster's name was Mouseant, they should be small, right?
"Oh, forgot to mention another thing," Peniel said as she flew above. "The other reason that they give an excellent amount of exp, is that they always come in a swarm. So you can kill them in mass."
"Swarm?" Jack wondered, then he saw the entire mound collapsed and heaps of grotesque-looking creatures poured out. Their body and head looked like rats but instead of hairy skin, they were covered with exoskeleton, and they crept on six appendages. They were indeed small, but their numbers caused Jack's hair to raise, there seemed to be no end to the Mouseant that poured out from the hole. He was reminded again of the time when he was raiding the Giant Ant nest in the past.
Alarmed, Jack retreated a few steps as the swarm came over.
Since the swarm was already so closely packed with each other, he didn't let go of the chance. He unleashed his strongest attack from the get-go, Lightning God Barrage!
Explosion after explosion of lightning energy carpeted the entire swarm. By the time the crackle of electricity ended, the entire terrain in front of him was devoid of monsters as his exp bar increased.
"They did give lots of exp!" Jack exclaimed, but his celebration was cut short as he realized the rumblings that followed the swarm never ended. Another pouring of swarm came out from the same hole and headed at Jack without any concern to the fact that their comrades had just been decimated.
"There are still more?!" Jack uttered with apprehension.
"There are lots more," Peniel commented from above.
