The two sparred for hours. Sharpening their technique as they went. Being more of an expert in mana manipulation, Jack gave Jeanny pointers, helping her in learning the ability.
John came in at one point. Jack gave him his leveled-up equipment then. As usual, the dude didn’t deign to thank him. Jack had gotten used to it. He returned to train with Jeanny after giving the equipment.
When the two were confused about why John came in here, John surprisingly started to cast spells.
‘He is also training?’ The two thought.
John mostly cast basic spells with fast cooldowns. When Jack saw John’s spells, he was rather surprised. The mana bullet that John shot flew at an angle. The energy bolts he cast also seemed to dance around, even when there was no viable target.
“Mana manipulation on spell?!” Jack uttered. He knew because he had also done this kind of practice regularly. But from the way John’s spell behaved, John’s degree of control on the mana manipulation was seemingly better than his.
“Really?” Jeanny looked at John after Jack’s words. She also knew that mana manipulation on skills and spells was more difficult compared to what she was training at the moment.
John was aware of the two’s stares. He acted as if he was not, but his face wore a very smug smile.
“Damn it! Don’t be so cocky. You are only at the level of manipulating the spells’ movements, I also can do that!” Jack said. He equipped his magic staff and cast his ice bullet seemingly aiming at John, but it veered off before it hit its target. “Try empowering your spell with mana if you want to show off.”
“Hmph. With this time chamber filled with dense mana, that will not be long,” John replied. “Hehe. Don’t lump me in with you, common people. Soon, even your grandpa will have to bow to me in terms of mana manipulation. Hahaha…”
“Why will I bow to you?” Domon had just come in with Leavemealone and Jet. John’s laughing expression was frozen when the voice was heard.
“It’s just a joke, master Domon. Please don’t take it seriously,” John said with a bow. Jack and Jeanny were giggling seeing his obedience.
“Ho… The mana here is indeed dense. This is a good environment to train,” Jet remarked.
“Yeah. I am curious after hearing about the upgrade made to this time chamber. This is good indeed,” Domon agreed.
Leavemealone had already gone to a corner and started training silently.
“All right!” Domon clapped his hands. “Since you are all here, let me give you all special training. Jet, be my assistant in this.”
‘Uh-oh,’ Jack thought. Cold sweat rolled down his forehead. He knew when his grandfather was excited like this, his training could sometimes go overboard.
In the end, Domon trained them all for hours. Jeanny tried reminding him that they had another battle coming tomorrow morning so they would need rest. Domon said they could just sleep inside this time chamber. Most members were still taking a rest after the war ended, so most didn’t use this Time Chamber to train yet.
They ended up following the suggestion and spending the entire night inside the time chamber. Spending an equal of five days inside before they came out. From those special training, each of their mana manipulation abilities had improved.
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“That mana-gathering stone sure was a great find,” Jeanny commented.
“You have to thank Paytowin for that,” Jack said. “So, we are heading out now?”
“Yes,” John said. “Everyone should be gathering outside already. Let’s go get us some bounty rewards!”
—————
In a forested landscape in Aurebor Dynasty, a large group of players was advancing stealthily.
“Are all the terrain in this country a forest like this?” Yellow Death asked. He preferred a flat plain. His gunner class was more at an advantage if he could see the enemies from far away. With trees all over, the enemies might be too close already by the time he saw them.
“Do we have to move our headquarters?” Scarface asked.
“We have talked about this situation,” White Death replied. “We have been deemed enemies by Themisphere. We can’t continue to stay there.”
“I don’t understand why that happens. Is it true that we try to sabotage the war? One-fifth of our members had already quit when they heard some of our members got apprehended when they entered the cities.”
“I’ve told everyone to avoid going into Themisphere cities. It’s their own fault for not listening.”
“Many of our remaining members had investments in Themisphere. If we moved to Aurebor, I’m afraid that even more might quit. Many still don’t know the purpose of our current attack. They thought we are doing this to get the guild hostage token.”
“If they want to quit later, let them. But let them fight for us first to get our new headquarters,” White Death said. He then stopped abruptly, turned to face Scarface, and asked, “Are you among those who wish to quit?”
“I… No…,” Scarface answered.
“Good. Now stop talking. We should be close to their headquarters already,” White Death said. He looked around. “That place should be a good place to summon our guild army commanding platform.”
While they went over and set up formation around the place to summon their guild army, a female druid came to White Death. The druid was one of the seven deaths, Green Death.
“Boss, I have received a report from our spy who is inside Thereath that Themisphere kingdom had issued a quest to hunt us down. Bounty rewards are given to any player who successfully kills our members and any guild that successfully defeats our guild headquarters.”
After some of their members were apprehended inside the cities, they had some members purposefully quit so they could enter the cities unhindered and feed them information.
“Well, they do say that this will happen…,” White Death muttered.
“They, who?” Scarface asked.
“Us!” A group of people came out from the bushes and approached.
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“Stop!” Bigarm hurriedly came forward with a few people to block these newcomers.
“Let them pass!” White Death ordered.
Bigarm looked back at White Death before reluctantly letting the group through. This group had about a hundred players and they were a mix of different races, but they were all from the same guild, World Maker.
The leader was an ethereal and a level 58 gunner. They were surprised by his high level. Even for Themisphere players who survived Verremor’s invasion without dying, level 58 was considered high. But the most unsettling thing about this ethereal was his mouthless grin. His getup which resembled a cowboy costume made him even more unique compared to the others in the group.
White Death didn’t know this cowboy, but he recognized the human player by his side.
“Mister Gridhacker,” White Death greeted. “May I know this fine gentleman?”
White Death had always communicated with World Maker via Gridhacker. Now that someone with a higher rank than Gridhacker appeared in front of him, he was not going to forego the chance of making a good impression.
“I dislike formalities, and I despise pretense even more,” The cowboy said. “Don’t you bring that old-world shit courtesy in front of me. You can find out my name well enough with your Inspect skill.”
White Death had indeed used his Inspect. He had known the cowboy’s name was Ronald Dreary. He was just as Ronald had said, being courteous.
“The hell?! Who are you to speak to our leader that way? You better apologize now before we beat you up!” Bigarm exclaimed.
“Bigarm, cool it! This is our ally,” White Death uttered. He then said to Ronald, “I’m sorry. Please don’t mind him. He is on edge because of the coming battle.”
Ronald didn’t respond to White Death, he instead glanced sideways and said, “You are going to beat me up if I don’t apologize?”
“Huh?” Bigarm was befuddled. Ronald’s words seemed to be for him, but Ronald didn’t exactly look at him. Ronald only turned halfway.
“Sir Ronald, please…,” White Death tried to defuse the situation but Gridhacker put up a hand telling him to stop.
“I said, are you going to beat me up if I don’t apologize?” Ronald asked again.
Bigarm was seemingly at a loss now. From White Death’s gesture, it seemed that they couldn’t afford to offend these people.
“I… I am just joking… There is no need to take it seriously,” Bigarm said.
“I like good jokes, but I detest bad ones. You just gave me a bad one. I’m going to kill you now.”
“Wha…,” Bigarm was still processing Ronald’s words when multiple gunshot sounds were heard. He then felt his forehead getting whacked several times. Before he realized what had happened, his vision had turned dark.
Everyone from Death Associates pulled their weapons from that sudden development, but White Death put up his hands signaling everyone to stay put.
They were all confounded by what had happened. What exactly happened? They knew from the exchange that it was Ronald who killed Bigarm. But what had he done? He was standing still all the time and Bigarm who was behind him suddenly had his HP depleted.
But after better observing, they found out that one of Ronald’s hands was at his other arm’s armpit, and that hand was holding a revolver. Without anyone noticing, that hand had somehow pulled a gun and shot Bigarm who was behind.
There were six rapid gunshot sounds, meaning Ronald had used max-level Rapid Shot skill. But what alarmed those who saw the scene was that all the shots had accurately hit Bigarm’s forehead and produced critical damage without Ronald truly looking at his target.
