Second World

”How should I know? I already said before that monocle of yours is a new thing to me. How do I know how it works? However, this Swamp Croc does have a camouflaging ability that could deceive a hunterʼs sense. So maybe it works the same way to your radar.”

ʼBut my radar can still track creatures in hiding. Like that Land Behemoth from before, I can know that it is a monster despite it was pretending to be a hill.ʼ

”It was not pretending, it was simply sleeping. You lot were the ones that mistook it for a hill. And I said ability, not simply hiding. This Swamp Croc had an inherent ability to trick sensing ability. I think it was more or less like the invisibility effect of your Cloak of Shadow. I bet if someone else uses that cloak of yours to become invisible, he or she will not be detected by your radar as well. Thatʼs why you can escape Winstonʼs detection, do you think such a high-level being has no ability to sense your presence?”

Jack thought about her explanation. If thatʼs true, he should not allow himself to become too reliable to his radar. There might be other monsters out there that could trick his radar as well. He would be in big trouble if he assumed himself safe because the radar was empty while there were such monsters around.

After they managed to kill one hundred Swamp Boas to complete the quest, they came back out of the swamp. During this trip, Bowler had increased to level 16, while Fierce Flame reached level 17. The Man stayed at the same level of 17. Jack himself managed to increase his Warrior level to 18 after the end of the trip.

Jack checked his status. He had 12 free attributes points, 6 free Warrior skill points, and 4 free Mage skill points that were still unused. He thought about them and decided to use his 12 free attribute points. He divided them equally into the three main attributes, Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence, 4 points each.

While for his free Warrior skill points, he decided to spend 2 points to increase his advanced skills, Sword of Light to level 7 and Charge to level 5. He kept the remaining points for later use. He also checked his Container of Souls and found that it had 2132 souls inside. He used 2000 souls to upgrade his much-used basic skill Power Strike to level 5.

They then went and divided the trophy loots that had been collected in these hunting trips in four ways equally. The other three offered for Jack to get a bigger share, but again Jack insisted on equal distribution.

He ended up with fewer trophy loots compared to when he was with the Death Associates team since he only needed to turn over 40% share. But he preferred to quest with this team. It was better to receive less and share with his friends, rather than receive more but contribute to the enemy.

After they sorted out the shares. They activated the Town Return scroll to return to Thereath capital. Each scroll could only carry only one person, so each of them activated one scroll. A soft white glow enveloped their bodies and they found themselves instantly teleported inside the capital.

There was a huge central square in between the three districts of the capital. In the middle of this square was a large open structure for which they had no idea what it was used for. There were always four level 60 guards standing guard around this structure, they have no idea what they were guarding against. Now that they appeared at the center of this structure, they realized this place was a teleportation portal.

”That was efficient! I will buy more of this Town Return scroll!” Bowler exclaimed.

”Are you planning to go far away? What are you buying it for if you will only journey along the outskirt of the city mostly?” Flame asked.

”Well, you never know. It might come in handy. If we have this scroll when we were chased around by the Warriors of Solidarity, we can easily escape them,” Bowler countered back.

”You are right. But you need to know, this Town Return scroll canʼt be activated if you are in combat,” Jack told him.

”Oh, well, it can still be used as long as we can run far enough to break combat, so Iʼm still going to buy it,” Bowler insisted. ”By the way, I expect we to be teleported to the place where dead players resurrect. Turn out it was a different place.”

”Where does dead player resurrect?” Jack asked.

”Over there,” The Man pointed. Not far from where they stood was a large circular platform slightly elevated from the ground. There were another four guards stood over there.

”Well, you must have known because a lot of your subordinates had visited there,” Bowler teased.

”How about I send you there then?” The Man threatened.

”Okay, letʼs us submit our request. Afterward, do you all want to repeat the quests again?” Jack asked.

”Maybe tomorrow?” Bowler said as he looked at the sky. It was going to get dark soon.

”Whatʼs the problem? We can always camp outside,” Fierce Flame said.

”I canʼt tonight. Need to settle the boys. Tomorrow morning Iʼm free though,” The Man said.

Jack nodded, ”okay, letʼs do it again tomorrow morning. I can only do one run tomorrow, I will have other matters to attend to in the afternoon.”

They went together to the Hunters Associations and turned in their quests and trophy loots. They received a bit of experience but lots of coins, Jack alone got 82 hunter points with 1 gold and 49 silver coins from the run. If they didnʼt split the trophy loots four-way, the total would be more than the incomes from the route Jack had given Death Associates & White Scarfs. Of course, they would need to subtract the earnings with the cost of Town Return Scroll.

Bowler and the others were thrilled by the number of coins they received. Jack bet they would faint if he told them he had 41 gold coins in his bag.

”Letʼs do this again tonight!” Flame said with excitement.

”This…,” The Man was also tempted after seeing the number of coins he received. ”Alright,” he then said and sent a message to his subordinates telling them he would be unavailable tonight.

Bowler was not so dazzled by coins but since everyone was going, he tagged along as well.

They went and did the same route again. They camped outside in the night. Flame seemed to have gotten used to spending the night in the wilderness. She even had the uncommon grade tent, which would send out an alert if monsters were approaching.

In the morning, they repeated the same quests again. After a total of two runs, Jack had gathered a total of 164 hunter points, 2139 souls, and 3 gold, 12 silver coins from those runs. He used 2000 souls to strengthen the Power Strike skill again, bringing it to level 7. The skill would now deliver 210% damage, but the stamina required to execute had increased.

After finishing the third run, Jack bid them farewell. They seemed incline to take the hunting quests again by themselves. Jack thought it should not be a problem, they had gotten used to the monsters in the quest. As long as they were careful, there should not be a problem. The Man himself had become level 18 Warrior after their last run. Too bad Jackʼs Mage class had not yet leveled up, but it was close. He just needed a little bit more experience.

After separated from them, Jack looked for a secluded alley and changed into Unrivalled Arcaner. He sent a message to Scarface via the guild channel, who then had Bigarm gathered a team to go on a hunting quest trip with him.

He had informed Scarface before that he might not be available until the day of the meeting, but he decided to aid them another time before the meeting. Otherwise, they might get suspicious if he was missing and only appeared again during the time of the meeting.

Jack got the same member to his team except for Warpath. The guy was indeed an expert, he had managed to gain the attention of other prominent members of the guild and was recruited to join their team.

Jack was given another low-level member as a substitute. As expected of Bigarm, the guy was as narrow-minded as he could be. Jack did not mind, he was just doing this for show.

😉