“What are you two talking about?” Earmouth who walked behind them butted in. “It was clear that he only had the advantage due to his dual-class. He was not any better than an average player without it. Take for example the duel just now. If it was me, I would have used Barrier first before casting Arcane Turbulence. That way, even if I hit my own self with that spell, I will not lose any HP.”
Red Death gave him a short disparaging glance before uttering, “imbecile.” Then she walked away.
Earmouth felt wronged by the treatment. He said, “w– what is the matter with her? I know she had just lost the duel, but does she have to put that Storm Wind guy so high on a pedestal? Does she feel better if she imagines the one who defeated her is someone special?”
“It is you who don’t understand,” Scarface reprimanded him.
“What do you mean?” Earmouth still did not understand why these two leaders gave Jack so high of an opinion.
“If we take an example by doing what you have described just now, she would have last a bit longer in the fight.”
“I don’t understand,” Earmouth said.
Scarface sighed. “If Storm Wind had cast Barrier first. Red Death would have been aware of his intention the moment she saw the spell formation of Arcane Turbulence. Then she would have used all her might to put in more distance. The reason why she had decided to stay close to Storm Wind, was the fact that she never thought for a second that Storm Wind would cast the offensive spell on himself. After all, when have you ever seen magic class players throw offensive spells onto themselves? Unless of course if the game system does not allow friendly fire, which is not the case in this world.”
“Because of this, in her opinion, the safest place will be at Storm Wind’s side. Even if he cast the spell close to him with the attention of hitting her, she will be at the periphery of the area of effect, thus allowing an easy escape from the blast area. And it was due to this kind of thinking, that she had been tricked into getting hit by the spell.”
“That… that should just have been a coincidence, I don’t think he had planned all that through,” Earmouth was still unwilling to accept Jack’s superiority.
“Oh, in fact, that is precisely why Red Death and I considered him to be much more of a menace now,” Scarface said.
“Why?” Earmouth was getting more confused by that statement.
“Not considering their martial expertise, there are two types of experts in gaming, or you can say, two types of experts as a combatant,” Scarface explained. “One is my type, who use careful planning. We use our smartness to plan out our victory. We can think of linking a series of combos and positionings to exhaust our foes to oblivion. However, all of us brainy type have one weakness though. When our careful plans are somehow disrupted, we will have that brief moment of vulnerability that our foes can exploit. The other type, on the other hand, does not have such weakness.”
“Are you saying Storm Wind is one such type?” Earmouth asked.
“After witnessing his battle several times, I am sure of it,” Scarface nodded.
“What type of expert is him then?” Earmouth asked, but his tone still carried disagreement with Scarface’s explanation.
“Us brainy type process information through our brains and then plot out an appropriate response based on our analysis. But during a heated and fast pace combat situation, it is impossible to analyze everything, unless we have the ability to slow everything down and thought things through at our own pace. Otherwise, we would most likely commit mistakes half of the time. The other expert type, did not rely on this brainy process. Instead, they relied on instinct.”
“Instinct?”
“Precisely. This kind of expert, even though they will more likely to make mistakes compared to us brainy type. They can quickly rectify their mistakes with appropriate actions as if they had planned it beforehand. And their responses are also faster, since they do not have the tendency to think things through most of the time. They might appear sloppy and unsophisticated at first, but they performed best during critical situations. They practically shine under pressure. They are the kind that is the most troublesome to deal with, as they have no fixed combat pattern. They are like water which shaped themselves according to situations. This kind of expert is rare though. It needs tremendous experience and a long period of time to develop this kind of instinct, so I don’t believe he became one overnight. I suspect he was a veteran expert in past games who is now using a different alias.”
“Really? Who can he be?”
“I don’t know. Most probably he was one of those unaffiliated independent experts which we have little knowledge of. But one thing is for sure, this kind of instinct type expert, the more skills or spells they possessed, the more deadly they become. Because his instinct will allow him to pick the most suitable skill or spell for a particular situation without having to go through the clutter of overthinking his every move. And The fact that he has two classes, means that he can acquire twice as many skills compared to regular players. That’s why Red Death and I are worried about our prospect of going against him in the future, as he will only become even stronger than he already is.”
Jack, who was the subject of their discussion, was oblivious of their talks. His friends had invited him to the tavern to celebrate, but he turned them down. He had the feeling of getting left behind after seeing Red Death’s level 21. He had to work harder! He did not want to waste his time on a meaningless celebration.
In fact, he did not think there was anything to celebrate. It was just another challenge. Though Red Death was significantly better than his other challengers, he did not exactly feel threatened during the entire ordeal.
Red Death had managed to take out half of his HP because she had managed to take the initiative and put him in a passive state. Jack realized he might be a bit too overconfident to end up that way. Still, he had not completely gone all out as well. After all, he had not used his Life Burning Art nor his weapon’s Overlimit. Heck, he had not even used a single Power Strike during the fight even when he had the chance to, simply because he was not trying to slay her.
Thus, Jack spent his remaining day doing hunting quests and monster grinding for experience. He continued to rack up on his hunter points, experiences, and souls. With the aid from his Hard-working Achiever title, the rate by which his experience bar filled up had increased. Soon his Warrior class reached level 21, catching up to Red Death.
His total HP broke over three digits and was now at 1010 points.
He completed all his hunting quests but he continued to travel further as he looked for stronger monsters. His God-eye monocle let him know when there were entities that were too strong for him, as it was marked with a darker red on his radar. He saw again another Land Behemoth during his travel, one which was slightly bigger than the one he last saw. Despite the bigger size, it was still considered as a young version according to Peniel.
He also saw another of the stronger monster, a flying one. It looked like a wyvern in golden color. The creature was flying high in the air. He doubted that it would see him on the ground, but he still dropped down to the ground and stayed still until it flew past.
He arrived in an area filled with monsters which were averagely at level 25 when the sun was low on the horizon. He decided to continue his monster grinding at that place for a bit more.
The majority of the monsters that populated that part were Earth Salamanders, a creature that resembled an overgrown lizard. Its body was covered by thick hard scales of yellow color. It could spit out acid breath from its body. The damage from this acid breath was not high, but it ate on equipment’s durability fiercely.
Once Jack found out about the peculiarity of this attack, he gave maximum effort in dodging each of these acid breaths. The Earth Salamander itself was not too dangerous. It had high defense and HP, but it was slow and its attack pattern was limited due to its short limbs and toothless mouth. Apart from the acid breath and its tail swipe, it did not present much of a threat.
One particular thing he noted about this area, was there were more presences of elite monsters, something that was pretty rare in the lower level area. He was happy though with the existence of those elite Earth Salamander, he could acquire better loots, more exp, and more souls from them.
He also gained several mana cores from the monsters’ drops, the ones that Peniel said would drop from monsters starting from level 25 and above. He collected 12 of these mana cores from multiple monsters, bringing the number of mana cores he possessed to 22. He still had no idea what these mana cores were for, so he just chucked them all into his inventory.
