When Peniel was about to ask again, Jack gave him the sign to be silent. He then crept out slowly towards the sitting man.
Peniel was puzzled. Did Jack plan to ambush that man? From the way he snuck over with stealth, it looked like that was indeed his intention. However, he didn't take out any of his weapons.
Jack continued to creep slowly while paying attention to the motionless man. When he was around five meters from the man, he grinned. With his current Dexterity, he could land a sneak attack in an instant from that range even without using any skill.
He lunged. His two hands were put forward, ready to grab the sitting man. Before he knew it though, he was losing gravity. When he was back to his sense again, he was looking at the sky.. He realized then that he was lying on his back on the ground.
"Afei?" Jack heard a deep voice. He looked up and saw a man with a hardened face framed by a hipster beard, the face looked ancient yet had very few wrinkles. His brows were thick and white, the same color as his hair and beard, portraying his late age. The muscles on his body, on the other hand, show no sign of old age. His body was even more fit than a standard bodybuilder.
"Unbelievable, I still cannot sneak on you," Jack said as he got up.
"What are you doing here? And what's with all that getup?" The old man asked.
"I should be the one that is asking you. What are you doing out here all by yourself? Half-naked some more. Don't you have any armor?" Jack said as he inspected the man.
Domon Fei (Warrior, level: 19)
HP: 480
'He was using his real name for alias, but what's this with still being at level 19? So low! How did he survive out here?' Jack thought after seeing the data.
"Young man, is that how you talk to your gramps? It seemed that you have become more unruly ever since you went off and live by yourself," Domon uttered.
"Gramps? He is your grandfather?" Peniel said with surprise as she flew closer.
Domon looked at the fairy, he then said, "lovely meeting you, miss. Are you a friend to this no-good-grandson of mine?"
Peniel, who heard him, brightened up and said to Jack, "see! A real gentleman does not call me a pet!" She then turned back to Domon and said, "it's a pleasure meeting you as well, good sir. I help your no-good-grandson here to know more about this world. He is clueless if not for me."
Ignoring the fairy, Jack said to his grandfather, "Are you not surprised seeing her?"
"Why should I? I've seen many strange things after arriving in this world. She is not that strange compared to the others."
For a non-gamer and conservative man like his grandfather, Jack must say that his grandpa's bearing towards this game world was pretty cool.
"So, again, what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?" Jack repeated his question.
"What do you mean what I'm doing here? I live here," Domon replied.
"Li–live… here?" Jack had trouble following. "What do you mean you live here? This is the wilderness, don't you get attacked? Or do you have some kind of a high-grade tent?"
On the way up here, Jack had seen some of the monsters around here were not too high-leveled, considering this place's vicinity to a city, they were around level 21 and 22. Still, without a tent with good functions, how can one sleep properly amongst all the possibilities of a monster ambush?
"What tent? Why should I use a tent? Didn't you see a hut there? I'm living in that hut," Domon said.
Jack looked at the wooden hut, it looked crudely constructed. "How did you come across this hut? Is it from some kind of a quest that grants you a safe accommodation in the wilderness?"
"Young man, I only understand half of what you are saying. Don't treat me like your friends who you spent time in whatever modern gizmos you like to play with. As for this hut. It was here because I built it."
"Bu–Built…? How did you build it?"
"What do you mean how I built it? With wood and saw and hammer and nails, of course. You never saw a carpenter builds something?"
"I… uh… okay, never mind about the hut then. What about ambush from monsters? I doubt they leave you alone just because you lock your hut's door, do they?"
"Those things that attack whenever you come near? They did attack at night from time to time, but I beat them back. You think these things are a match to your gramps?"
"I can hardly imagine anything that is a match to you, but still, you will be vulnerable in your sleep."
"Have you ever managed to sneak attack me even when I'm asleep?" Domon asked.
"Um… never," Jack said.
"So why ask a stupid question?"
"Wait! You can detect an ambush? Do you have a tool?" Peniel barged in after hearing their conversation.
"What tool?" Domon asked back.
"My gramps here have some kind of a sixth sense. He can detect all kinds of attack, even when sleeping," Jack said.
"It's not a sixth sense. It's the perception of chi. I trained you as well, you just never really put your heart into it."
"Just now, when he tried to attack you from behind. Did you sense him as well?" Peniel asked.
"I sensed him from a mile away, I just didn't expect him to be my no-good-grandson."
"Can you please stop already with that no-good adjective?" Jack complained.
"Can I ask for a demonstration?" Peniel asked.
"A demonstration? Of what?" Domon asked back.
Instead of answering, Peniel flew a distance away and called Jack over. Jack came with puzzlement. "Can you please turn around, sir?" Peniel said to Domon.
"Oh? Do you want to try to sneak attack me again? Heh, have at thee!" Domon turned around and put both his hands on his waist.
"It won't work, you know," Jack said to Peniel.
"Use your magic range attack," Peniel said.
"Oh, right!" Jack said with realization. He always thought his grandfather's ability to detect someone's attacks was actually more to that his gramps had very inhuman senses, like his hearing or smell, so that he could hear someone's footsteps or felt the air vibration no matter how small. But a pure magic attack had no such thing. He grinned and pointed his magic staff on his grandfather's back.
He didn't use spells, afraid of killing his gramps due to his high damage and the absence of armors on his grandfather. He also turned off his Rapid Dazing Staff's burst attack. A small ball of energy was shot at a high speed towards Domon's back.
When it almost hit, Jack was full of anticipation to have finally been able to sneak hit his grandfather, only to see Domon swiveled around on one leg. The magic ball passed by just a few inches from Domon's body.
"That's demonstration enough?" Domon asked.
Both Jack and Peniel had their mouth gaping. Both were surprised for different reasons. For Jack, his thought was, 'damn! That ability is way better than this radar of mine!' As for Peniel, she exclaimed, "you can sense mana?!"
"Mana?" Domon raised his eyebrows. "I have no idea what this mana you are referring to, miss. What I sensed is the chi. It's the energy around us and inside us."
"That's mana," Peniel said.
"That's chi," Domon insisted.
"Okay, mana, chi, whatever, it's just a term. Grandpa, teach me that ability!" Jack declared.
"I already tried teaching you. You just never paid attention. You spent too much time on those useless games."
'Those useless games had been the ones that helped me survives here,' Jack grumbled inwardly. "I never thought that chi-sensing thing is real. I thought It was only mumbo-jumbo you made up to enthrall your students."
"Wait, wait! First of all, how can you sense mana? Or chi, whatever you call it. You are still an advanced class," Peniel said.
"What class?" Domon was at a loss.
Jack understood the fairy's meaning, "Yeah, you kept on saying that I have to be an elite class to have this mana-sensing stuff. Why is it so? Why can't we sense this mana when we are not yet an elite class?"
"Because only by becoming an elite class that one had the body more in tune with mana, hence will be able to sense it. That's common sense."
"That's your common sense, doesn't mean it has to apply to us outworlders, right? Okay, that's not important. Let's train! By the way, speaking about class. How do you become a Warrior class? Considering your illiteracy to the game system."
"What warrior class?"
As expected, his grandfather was still at a loss about this world despite living several months here already. Jack then spent almost an hour trying to explain all the basics of this game world. Luckily, his grandfather was not as thick as Bill. Though his grandfather was not accustomed to gaming concepts, he still grasped the basic underlying of it.
