Jack didn’t immediately resume his travel, it was past midnight already. He took out his Camouflage Tent to rest. The down climbing and the fall had given him a rather stressful experience, he decided he should just rest and continue the next day.
In the morning, he was ready to move again. Peniel informed him that the monsters around this part were mostly level 30 to 35, which was too low for him. There was no benefit for him to grind exp here. Additionally, he had a destination, so he won’t be spending time grinding. But he would still hunt a couple of these monsters simply to input their data into his monster books’ collection.
Before he did that, he had one other thing to do. He took out the universal technique book. Now that he didn’t need to copy the book, he could use it.
“What skill or spell are you going to learn?” Peniel asked him. “Please remember you can only learn one time from this book. Even if you get a second universal technique book, you won’t be able to use it anymore. You also can’t change the skill you have learned.”
“I’ve thought about it,” Jack said as he activated the book. An interface activated, asking him to choose from a selection of classes outside of the ones he already possessed. “I’m going for the Weapon Master’s Spirit Weapon skill.”
“Spirit weapon?” Peniel asked. “Why? I can think of a dozen other more useful skills or spells, like the Summoner’s Elemental Spirit, Assassin’s Combat Clone, or Mage Knight’s Spectral Projection. Or if you are just looking for summons, the summoner’s Giant Lizard or Dirt Golems also provided better summons with a longer duration.”
Jack clicked on the Weapon Master’s class while saying, “You know, people might think that my multi-class is my main advantage. Well, they are not wrong, but there are three things I consider to have contributed no less to all my accomplishments till now.”
“Which are?”
“You,” Jack said as he turned to her. “The Blessing of Goddess that provided enormous luck, which I’m sure had helped me greatly even if I’m not aware. Then it’s this,” Jack said while holding his Storm Breaker.
“The three gifts that were awarded after we saved Goddess Serenity. Even Wilted was rather awestruck with you three. Well, two, I never told her about the Goddess’ Blessings. Anyway, I also agree that you three were unusual. Look at you, once I form a pact and made you my familiar, you are a mythical grade. Not to mention all your spells are truly heaven-defying. None of the other Archmages’ familiars I have seen hold a candle to you.”
“You don’t say,” Peniel said while assuming a proud pose.
“So, I’m curious as to what kind of Spirit Weapon my Storm Breaker will produce,” Jack continued. “You mentioned before higher grade weapons produce better spirit weapons, didn’t you?”
“Yes, most weapons only produced a copy of themselves that stays near their owner and automatically attacks enemies who come into range, but some specialized weapons can produce a completely different incarnation of look. Some can even leave their owner’s side and attack like a summon creature does. Well, now that I explain it, yes, I’m also curious as to what kind of spirit weapon Storm Breaker will produce. It is a specialized weapon for sure.”
<br/>”See? Now we are in agreement. So, I’m going for it!” Jack said.
“Why didn’t you tell Haon about this? He has an Overlimit weapon as well, right?” Peniel asked.
“I tried telling him. That asshole turn me down before I have the chance!” Jack replied. He then clicked the Spirit Weapon skill.
He received notification that he had learned the Spirit Weapon skill and the book in his hand turned to dust.
“Let’s find out, shall we?” Jack said and activated the newly learned skill.
An image of Storm Breaker appeared beside him. Jack and Peniel looked at it. After some while, Jack finally said, “Wella?| What a letdown.”
He sighed. What’s done was done, he thought. He was just about to cancel the skill when suddenly the Storm Breaker image broke apart, just like how it did in its Overlimit state, except the core bright energy that held the broken parts was much larger. Not only that, there was a vertical slit of blackness within that bright core energy, making it look very much like the pupil of nocturnal predators such as cats or snakes.
While he was marveling at this so-called pupil, it turned to him. Jack was so startled that he almost fell down on his butt. Then another thing startled him. A rough voice was heard in his head, “I don’t sense any hostiles. Where are the enemies?”
It took Jack a while before he realized this rough voice was coming from Storm Breaker’s spirit weapon.
“Youa?| You can talka?|?” Jack asked.
Instead of answering, the same voice repeated its question, “Where is the enemy?”
“Uha?|,” Jack looked at his radar. “There is none nearby,” he said.
“Then why do you call me out?” The voice asked. It sounded emotionless but Jack somehow felt a peeve feeling from it.
“Uma?| sorry?” Jack said.
“Deactivate me please.”
“Oha?| okay,” Jack said and canceled the skill. The Storm Breaker’s image vanished.
He stood there for a while before turning to Peniel. “Do you hear that as well?” He asked.
“I did,” she nodded.
“Then why didn’t you say something?” Jack asked.
“I’m as surprised as you!” Peniel defended.
Jack looked down at his hand which was still holding the Storm Breaker. Great, another talking companion, he thought.
He brought his Storm Breaker close to his mouth and said, “Hello, hello? Can you hear me?”
No response.
“Hello. If you are there, say something please. Otherwise, I will just treat you like a piece of metal.”
Still no response.
“Are you sure? Don’t you want me to treat you with more respect or something like that?”
“Stop it! You are acting weird,” Peniel finally uttered.
“I just want to make sure,” Jack said. “What if it got offended if I continued to use it just to hack and slash at things? Probably it wants more than that.”
“Whatever, let’s leave. Our destination is a few days away from here if you used Pandora at full speed,” Peniel said.
Jack tried talking to his sword one more time, which earned Peniel’s glare. He sheathed his weapon after.
Peniel mentioned there were two new monsters there. Jack roamed around until he found them. A boar-like monster with two extremely large tusks and a pyro lynx. He remembered the latter one as he had summoned this monster to aid him during the battle of Crestfall plain.
He swiftly dispatched one each before summoning Pandora and headed down the remaining of the mountain.
There was a town down there. It was a small town, however. To register in this town, he would need to be a kingdom faction member in Hydrudond, just like the regulation in Themisphere. In other words, he couldn’t register a teleportation link here.
Since it was so, he just left the town as soon as he arrived. He saw from his radar there were some players as well inside that small town. He didn’t have time to socialize. He continued his journey. Peniel mentioned they should be passing two main cities on their way. Jack made a stop in these two cities, named Delphoia and Eridrus, just to establish teleportation links.
He informed Jeanny afterward. Hydrudond was not a country that prohibit the human race, so their guild members were free to enter and recruit new members or do other activities.
He didn’t linger long. He continued his journey at once. He only stopped to rest or if he stumbled upon a new monster.
During the night before resting, he made it a habit to practice mana manipulation. After the experience during the fall, Jack didn’t only practice using this technique in his sword attacks, but also on his spells. He knew that it was still a long way for him to incorporate mana manipulation into real combat, but this practice did improve his control considerably.
Just like in the fall, he cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains before focusing on controlling the mana that formed the spell. He could only influence the chain’s movement by a little, and that also required deep concentration. No way this was applicable in real combat.
He also tried to do it with basic spells, like Energy Bolts. When he fired the spell. The bolts would simply fly straight if there was no target. But with mana manipulation, he could influence and made their trajectories shift by a bit.
This was all small and repetitive training, but he believed with enough practice, he should be getting better. He was looking forward to when he could manipulate his spells at ease in battle. That would be something. If he could do that, even against his grandfather and his inhuman-level of eight diagram illusory steps, he believed his Myriad Ensnaring Chains should be able to catch Domon by then.
