“Hm? Is there something you know that I don’t, boss?”
“Come, let’s find someplace better to talk.” There was a small tavern not far from the academies, Jack brought the three to the place and treated them with some drinks. A few copper coins for the drinks was nothing for Jack now anyway.
“Do you know something about the trial, boss?” The Man asked while taking a sip of his mead.
“Yes, first of all, I am already a Warrior,” Jack told them truthfully.
The Man almost spat his drink out after hearing it. His eyes were wide with disbelief, but then he laughed loudly, and said to his two subordinates, “what did I tell you! My boss is something else, ain’t he! Har har!”
“Okay, okay. Settle down, will you?” Jack said. “Since I consider you as a friend. I must tell you that the trial is not easy.”
“Don’t worry, boss. I might not look like it, but I’m not simple either.”
“I know. I will tell you everything about the trial. You can decide about it for yourself.”
Jack then described his experience on the test. Its objective, its difficulty, and the strategy he had used to pass it. He warned him about the puppets at the last section which had ranged capability in their attacks.
He also explained that he had managed to pass due to his high attributes, but he described the reason for those high attributes to come from the amazing gears he wore instead of his dual-class. He did not leave out the penalty for failing the Warrior test as well, which was losing one level, which then explained why those that said to have taken the test had dropped back to level 14.
After hearing the explanation, The Man was deep in thought. “It does sound rather difficult,” he mumbled.
Seeing The Man’s reaction, Jack figured the guy was not just a simple brute after all.
“Do you still want to try?” He asked.
After being silent for a while, he said. “You mentioned that with good gears we stood a better chance, right? I will be frank to you. The guys under me have borrowed me their best gears for this test, the lowest gear on me is uncommon. And I’m also lucky enough to have gotten rare boots that increased my movement speed. As long as I can get to the statue, I will pass, am I correct?”
“That’s right, it’s pointless to fight to the death with those puppets,” Jack confirmed.
“In that case, I want to give it a try,” The Man said with a serious expression.
Jack nodded, he admired the guy’s directness and bravery. He decided to help The Man further. He took out the Chief Axe, the rare weapon he had no use of. He was originally still unsure whether to disassemble this axe for materials or just sell it for coins. Now that a friend of his was in need, he might as well put the axe to good use.
“This…” The Man was astonished, he could see the axe was unusual from its appearance.
“Take it, this axe has an ability that is actually useful for the test,” Jack said as he handed the axe to The Man.
When The Man held the axe in his hand, he exclaimed, “ra– rare weapon? I cannot accept this!”
“Take it,” Jack said. “I have no use for two-handed weapon. You on the contrary, I have seen using heavy-weapon, so you should be able to handle this weapon well. Its knock-back ability is especially useful if you are challenging the Warrior trial, as it can allow you to shake off the puppets’ blockage with a simple normal attack. If you still have free attributes, it’s better if you put them all into Dexterity. As long as you are fast enough to avoid the puppets and arrive at the statue, then you will have passed.”
The Man was touched by Jack’s concern, “let me tell you again. Whatever other people say, you will always be my boss. Don’t hesitate if you ever need any of our help!”
Jack just shook his head and laughed it off.
“Big bro, isn’t you also have that sword from yesterday’s quest?” One of The Man’s subordinates whispered to him.
The Man’s expression changed when he heard it. He slapped his forehead. “Right, how did I forget it!”
He immediately took out something from his bag. It was a green long sword. He gave the sword to Jack with a grin and said, “now I feel better about receiving your axe, let’s consider it as a trade then.”
Jack received the sword and inspected it.
Jade longsword, level 15/35 (Rare one-handed sword)
Physical damage: 64
Attack speed: 2
Durability: 50
Dexterity +3
10% chance to cause Bleed status effect on each attack
“A rare sword?” Jack exclaimed.
“Yes, I got it from a quest. Same as you, I have no need of a one-handed weapon as I prefer using two-handed one. So I just kept it in my inventory. I thought at first I’m going to use it as a motivation prize for the next person in my guild who can become a Warrior. But now I’m glad it can serve a better use.”
“In that case, I won’t hesitate,” Jack said, and offer him a toast. “I wish you good luck in the trial.”
“Don’t worry, with this axe, I’m passing it for sure!” The Man replied passionately.
After a few more rounds, Jack bid them farewell. He looked for a deserted corner and took out the Jade Longsword to be sacrificed to his Storm Breaker, but Peniel came out from her hidden dimension and stopped him.
“I was hoping you can realize it by yourself, but your skull is too thick for it,” Peniel said to him.
“What do you mean?” Jack asked in confusion.
Peniel gave a long sigh, she then said slowly, “you know that your Storm Breaker will inherit the same level as the sacrificed weapon if it is of the same rarity, right?”
Jack nodded, “so?”
“And you cannot upgrade your Storm Breaker’s level with the usual Blacksmithing way, correct?”
Jack felt like there was a hint somewhere, after a while, he finally realized it. “So you mean I should upgrade the levels of this rare sword first before I fed it to my Storm Breaker, that way I could increase its level easier instead of looking for more swords to be fed!”
“You just think of it now, genius?” Peniel mocked sarcastically.
Jack ignored her. He immediately dashed back to the Blacksmith Workshop. He did wish that Peniel to have mentioned this to him last night, that way he could have used that method in the workshop this morning. Now he had to waste another entry charge into the workshop. Before he went into the workshop, he bought a batch of 30 Iron Ores first since he only had 10 pieces left in his bag.
He first used 7 Iron Ores to upgrade the Jade Longsword to level 21, starting from there, there was a chance of failure. He decided to continue upgrading since he had enough Iron Ores to waste. He immediately failed on his first try, wasting his 2 iron ores. He was wondering if his 13 points of luck were actually working or not? He then used another 2 iron ores to retry, it succeeded this time, bringing the Jade Longsword to level 22. He continued until level 25, wasting another 10 iron ores due to two fails.
When he proceeded to upgrade to level 26, he was asked to put in 2 iron ores and 1 steel ore, instead of just 2 iron ores. It seemed that the higher the level, the more high-level ores would be required for upgrading. He looked at the probability, 75% success rate. After contemplating for a while, he decided to go for it. Fortunately, this time his luck stat did not disappoint, he successfully increased the sword level to 26.
But as he tried to upgrade again to level 27, he received a notification, “You can only use equipment that is ten levels higher than your own level, do you confirm to upgrade?”
“There is such rule?” Jack blurted out in surprise.
“There is,” Peniel answered that rhetorical question. “You can always upgrade it now first and fed it to your Storm Breaker later when your level increased.”
If he possessed two rare swords, that method would be viable. But if he did that now, his Storm Breaker would then stay at level 16. His first priority was increasing his battle power at the presence. He wished again that Peniel have informed him yesterday, so he did not waste the rare sword he had gotten from Warpath. But since everything had happened, he did not dwell much on it.
