“To change into the disguise, just link your consciousness with the orb and activate it. You can also do it with the bag in your inventory,” Peniel said to him.
Jack was about to try it before Peniel interjected, “wait! Put back your original equipment first.”
“Why?”
“Just do it! You will see.”
Jack followed her instruction and reequipped all his previous equipment, and stored the mage version ones inside his inventory. Afterward, he did it as Peniel had mentioned. He sent a wisp of his consciousness into the Orb of Disguise inside his inventory bag. An image of the disguise he had created previously surfaced in his mind. A prompt asking him if he wanted to activate the disguise. He accepted.
He felt like a strong gale suddenly swept past him. When he looked down, he had transformed into the copy he had created before. He was wearing the robes and equipment which he had fashioned in the holographic image. He touched his face, he could feel the beard and the roughness of an older face.
He was astounded by the transformation, the change had happened in an instant.
“Take a look at your equipment window,” Peniel said.
He opened it. “Hey, I automatically equipped the equipment I have worn when I made the disguise!”
“Yes, and when you change back to your real self, your will automatically wear back your original equipment as well. As long as you didn’t drop or sell that equipment, it will be done automatically. You don’t need to reequip everything manually.”
“That was convenient. It would be a hassle if I have to equip and reequip every time I change into disguise.”
He checked his status window. His overall stats were roughly still the same, it’s just that his current mage equipment didn’t provide as much stat boost as his original equipment. And his defense was almost only half from when he was wearing Warrior class armors. Couldn’t help it he guessed, since most of his mage equipment were only common grade and were still mostly level 15.
He was thinking if he should go to the blacksmith workshop and upgrade them to level 21 like his medium armor, but decided against it. He didn’t want to invest too much time and coins just for a disguise. Perhaps when he had collected at least uncommon grade for all the cloth armor set, then he would upgrade them.
Since he had no further use for the Magic Furnace, he left the room. On his way out, the old mage was back to sitting and reading his book.
Jack went over to bid him farewell, there was no response from him, so Jack didn’t disturb him further. He walked out from the Mage Academy. He took a short glance back at the academy. How come it was so lonesome inside? Did no magician reach level 15 and come to apply for a test? He didn’t think too much about it, he walked away from the place.
From the academies’ street, Jack headed back to the center of the business district before making his way to the slum district. On the night before, Jack had checked via messages with Bowler and Silverwing regarding Death Associates members’ center of activity. When Jack asked about it, both of them had thought that he was going to look for a fight. They kept on advising him to stay away from the guild. He had to waste many copper coins for repeated messages to explain to them that he was not going to look for trouble, that he just wanted to check on things.
Finally, they relented and gave him the information. Death Associates members mostly operated out of the western edge of the business district, where it was adjacent to the Slum district.
Before Jack arrived at the place, he looked for a secluded alley and went inside. After making sure no one was in sight, he activated the Orb of Disguise and transformed into Unrivaled Arcaner. After making sure that the transformation had proceeded without a hitch, he came out of the alley and continued on his way.
He used his God-Eye monocle to Inspect the players around. He expected Death Associates to have gathered enough gold coins to establish their guild formally in this world. As expected, he soon found some players with Death Associates guild name attached to them. Several of them were harassing other players who passed nearby where they hang out. Some had even straight out bullied another player physically, while his friends watched out for patrolling guards.
Jack had heard about the depravity of Death Associates, now he had seen that the rumors were indeed true. He thought back to the first time he met Fierce Flame, she was also being harassed by this very guild. The difference was he could not play the hero role this time.
During his inspection process, he heard a voice notification that his Inspect skill had increased to Intermediate Apprentice. He was surprised. At first, he thought that because he kept on inspecting using the God-Eye monocle, it had been the tool’s function, not his own Inspect skill. That’s why even though he had used it for a long time, his Inspect skill had still not yet increased compared to others who he heard to have achieved a higher grade of this skill. But probably it was simply because he had not used it as much as those others who had increased their Inspect level.
He continued to use his Inspect skill to find a place where more of the Death Associates members were hanging around. But instead of finding more members, he found someone who he was familiar with from the guild. Inside a small park which seemed to be the guild’s temporary base of activity, was Bigarm. He was already level 16 but was still a Fighter. Considering his average skill, it was reasonable.
Meeting an upper echelon of the guild was a better outcome he was hoping for. Although he would prefer that it was Scarface or Red Death that was here, they should have more power in making a decision on the group. He purposefully went into the small park despite knowing that all the players inside were Death Associates members.
Some Death Associates people who saw him soon came forward to block him. “What the hell do you think you are doing here?” One of them said.
“Yeah, you have no idea whose turf this place is?” Another chimed in.
“Turf? Are you hooligan?” Jack replied with an expression that was not less arrogant than the one they were showing.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed, boy?” The one blocking him took out his dagger and played with it in front of Jack’s face.
“Boy? When I started playing VR games, you are still sucking on your mom’s tits!”
“You…!” The man was speechless. They were clearly a large group here, but this guy waltzed in here brazenly and speaking with a loud voice as if purposefully looking for a fight. Was he really not afraid to get killed by them? Even though this was a safe zone, it was not impossible to kill people. They just need to face the penalty of dealing with the city guards.
“What’s going on here?” Finally, a man who seemed to have enough authority among the group came to them after hearing the commotion.
Jack was actually speaking in a loud voice intentionally in order to attract the attention of the people in charge. As he expected, Bigarm came.
“Big bro, it’s this guy. He came here looking for trouble,” the one that was blocking Jack’s way said to Bigarm.
“Is it so?” Bigarm said to jack with a hostile glare. Lots of the other members of Death Associates had also gathered and stood around Jack.
Jack did not show any sign of fear, “huh! I thought Death Associates is an impressive guild, I guess rumor will always be just a rumor. Nothing but a street gang who bully people with numbers.”
Some of the members encircling Jack were immediately riled up after hearing his words.
“Who does he think he is? Let’s just dice him!”
“Yeah, I’m gonna burn this mothaf**ka!”
“Burn your ass, do you think this is the other game? Do you think you have a fireball spell?”
Many were speaking at the same time, which made it difficult to hear what was spoken. But none of them taking any action, because Bigarm had not given the words. Despite them acting like a hooligan, they possessed a certain amount of discipline.
Bigarm lifted his hand, which caused everyone to quiet down. He maintained his stare at Jack, he was actually rather impressed by Jack’s calm disposition despite being surrounded. Anyone else would have felt intimidated by the situation. He said, “is your intention for coming here only to look for a fight?”
Jack did not shy away from the stare. He looked right back at Bigarm’s eyes and said, “I am looking for a guild that is worthy enough for my skill. I’ve heard that Death Associates is one of the best guilds out there. Yet after witnessing it, I’m not sure if I’m interested to join anymore.”
