Fortunately, despite the gravity of the situation, Jack did not stop channeling his spell. He forced himself to concentrate on forming the rune. The rune was completed right before the claws struck his body. A light sphere came out and formed an impenetrable wall around him. The light claws slammed onto the barrier, which shook heavily upon the impact.
Despite the tremendous force suffered from the blow, the Barrier remained intact, which shocked Scarface greatly. This spell of his could annihilate a normal level 15 Magician or Ranger in one hit. Even if a Mage used a Barrier, a level 1 Barrier could only survive damage equivalent to 50% of the Mage’s total HP. Even if he upgraded his Barrier until it could survive damage equal to 100% of his HP, which should be impossible at his level, the Barrier should still be destroyed after that one hit. The only reasonable explanation was that his HP was more than half of other regular Magicians or Mages, which was equally impossible.
With the Barrier remained in effect, Jack could ignore all his opponent’s attacks while charging at full speed. Fully intending to utilize that, Jack dashed towards Scarface.
Scarface who was still daze due to his shock, snapped back when he saw Jack approaching.
“Halt!” He said as he put a hand in front as a sign of stopping.
“Hm?” Jack stopped his charge. They were in the middle of a duel and were being watched by a host of Death Associates members. Scarface would not use such shameless distraction to allow him some reprieve time, right?
“You passed,” Scarface said as he stored his vine staff.
“Huh?” Jack was baffled, his heart was still beating rapidly due to the intensity of the battle. He never expected the battle to end abruptly. But after a thought, he remembered that they were only battling for a test, not a life or death struggle. He put away his magic staff and shield. “So am I worthy enough?”
“You certainly are,” Scarface answered. “May I know your name?”
“Unrivalled Arcaner,” Jack replied.
The spectators who were originally impressed by his prowess had their faces turned dark and disgusted after hearing his name.
“That was one arrogant name,” Scarface commented. “But one has the right to be arrogant as long as one has the ability to support it. You are very much welcomed to our guild if you are interested.”
“I do. However, I would like to make some things clear first. I don’t like getting tied down. I don’t mind helping with the guild’s quests or requests from time to time. But I won’t accept being forced on it. In fact, most of the time I will be doing my own things.”
Those Death Associates members around had their faces even darker after Jack’s last sentence.
Scarface was silent for a while, before saying, “all right, but you should be aware that you won’t receive any compensation or benefit from the guild if you do not provide enough contributions.”
“That’s fair, and also fine. I will find my own fortune.”
Bigarm who had been quiet by the side could stand no more. “you a**hole! Then what the heck do you try to join a guild for?”
“Well, to be honest. I was just trying to borrow the big name of your guild. Despite my excellent skills, there is still a limit to being alone. One time I might offend a large party, at such time, I am hoping to use your guild’s name as a shield.”
Bigarm was at a loss for words hearing that. He wanted to scold this arrogant Mage as loud as possible but the words were stuck at his throat.
“Hahaha,” Scarface laughter surprised everyone. “You certainly are an interesting character. All right, I don’t mind you use our guild name for that. But I must warn you, if your actions bring excessive trouble to the guild, I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus.”
“That’s fair,” Jack nodded. “In return, as I mentioned before, you can send me works to do, as long as I am free at that time.”
“Deal,” Scarface said as he sent Jack a guild invite.
Jack was about to click accept when he sort of realized something, he quickly asked Peniel, ‘if my disguise becomes a guild member, when I change back to my real self will my name be tagged with the same guild member as well?’
“No, only Unrivalled Arcaner will be the guild member. Your Storm Wind alias will maintain unaffiliated,” Peniel replied.
‘That is good to know,’ he accepted the guild invitation.
He soon heard a notification informing him that he was now a member of Death Associates. There was a new page in his status window where he could access the information about the guild.
Guild: Death Associates, level 1
Members: 326/500
Rank: Underling
Contribution point: 0
Underling, such a degrading term, but he would have to put up with it for now. After all, he just joined, it would be unfair for the others if he was given a higher rank simply because he was stronger.
His objective was to be invited to join that meeting said to involve prominent guilds. Silverwing said the meeting would be five days from now, meaning he had four days to give enough impression to be invited into the meeting, hopefully. Or if that failed, at least found out about the location of the meeting, so he could sneak to the place at the time of the meeting.
‘What was that skill he used when we fought?’ Jack asked Peniel.
“That spell is called Entrapping Mana Claws,” Peniel answered. “It can deal large damage and you will also be unable to move for 3 seconds if the spell hits you. You are lucky you managed to block it in time with Barrier.”
“By the way, someone as skilled as you wouldn’t be a newbie,” Scarface had come next to him while he was deep in thought. “But I have never heard of the name Unrivalled Arcaner before. Care to tell me your past name in the gaming community?”
Jack chuckled, “I don’t like to be anchored down by past achievements. Every new game is a new journey for me. I will prefer to be like a blank sheet of paper ready to have my new feats and accomplishments written and recorded down as a new individual.”
Bigarm had the urge to throw up listening to that statement, but Scarface just laughed at it. He just considered the man as an eccentric but skilled player.
“You know, I happen to know another person who is similar to you,” Scarface said.
“Oh? Really?”
Scarface nodded, “like you, his stats completely defied the logical structure of this world’s system as we have observed from most players. In other words, his stats were too high compared to other normal players, just like you.”
Jack tried hard to remain calm, could he had overdone it? Had he instead revealed the connection between his real self with his current disguise? He could not afford to look nervous. Still, he was having a hard time preventing cold sweat from rolling down his forehead.
“I bet there was something you two had found that allowed you such an advantage,” Scarface added. “Do you mind sharing the secret?”
Jack was relieved in his heart, yet he maintained the indifference on his face, and said haughtily, “as I’ve said, it’s my secret. But I can tell you this, it depends on fortune, not something that can be looked for, so it is pointless even if I tell you.”
“I see,” Scarface appeared disappointed, but he did not push the issue further.
“Come, I will introduce you to some of our key members,” he added. “And if you are free for tomorrow, we are having those of us who had reached the advanced classes to do some hunting quests.”
“Oh?” Jack raised his eyebrows.
“They were quests that could be received from Hunters Associations. It provided a much better avenue for collecting coins. We will pair one advanced class player possessing the hunting quests into a team with several basic class players as support. That way, we could complete the quests more efficiently.”
“I was not surprised by the quest, I was surprised by the fact that you know about the hunting quests,” Jack said, and showed his hunting badge. “I was also already a member of the Hunters Association. I already had a few ongoing hunting quests.”
Scarface was taken aback by Jack’s hunting badge, but not because of Jack possessing one. Instead, it was because of the color of Jack’s badge. It was silver in color! That meant this fellow had completed enough quests that allowed him to increase his rank in the Hunters Association by one rank. This shouldn’t be possible if the guy was only level 15, as he could only become an advanced class after reaching level 15, while only an advanced class could join the Hunters Association.
“You level is certainly not level 15,” Scarface said with a frown. “I don’t appreciate being lied to by my own members.”
