Second World

"Wait! Is it gonna–" Jack was familiar with that starting move. And as his bad feeling grew, the Lizardman Chief proved his suspicion to be true. It kicked off from the ground and flew towards him like an unstoppable juggernaut. It was using its Leap attack – but that was supposed to still be in cooldown!     

In alarm, Jack realized it was too late for him to dodge. Based on his experience, the last time he blocked this skill during the Chief's berserk state, even if he used his Magic Shield to block, the enemy move might still kill him     

In this critical moment, Jack suddenly realized one of his moves had just come off cooldown. He decided just to throw the dice.     

Sword of Light!     

The crescent light shot out and bit at the Lizardman Chief in mid-flight. The light went continued past after the monster's body was sliced clean in two.     

Critical damage!     

Jack was stunned as the two body parts fell in front of him.     

He stood there and stared at the corpse of the Lizardman Chief at his feet. He was still in a daze when he heard the voice notification congratulating him for defeating the Lizardman Chief.     

Before he could celebrate, he heard another notification, "Congratulations! You have reached level 15 for Magician class."     

Jack finally relaxed, and air explosively rushed from his lungs.  He hadn't realized that he had been holding his breath ever since he used the final Sword of Light. Jack's knees lost their strength and buckled, and he fell on his butt. He sat there among the ruins of the encampment and looked up at the full moon. He reckoned it was close to midnight.     

Level 15 for Magician! He could try his advanced class trial for Mage now, putting both his classes at the advanced stage. But that would have to wait until he got back to the Capital after tomorrow morning's dungeon business with White Scarfs was over.     

"That was close!" Peniel commented as she flew to his side.     

"Yeah!" Jack nodded. "I thought I was a goner in that last second. I didn't know it could use its leaping attack again so soon."     

"That must have been its near-death ability; some monsters possess that kind of thing. That last roar must have reset the skill's cooldown again… Aren't you going to pick those up?" Peniel referred to the loot on the ground; the Lizardman Chief's corpse had disappeared and dropped some items.     

"Give me a minute to rest, will you?" Jack said.     

"I was wrong, by the way," Peniel said.     

"About what?"     

"About a group of thirty level 12 or 13 adventurers being needed to raid this Settlement. If it was only the Lizardmen you decimated in that ravine there, that would have been right. But adding in these three elite bosses? Those thirty adventurers would get mown down. You would need at least fifty of those low-level guys or thirty at level 15 who have changed to their advanced class."     

"I am only one; doesn't that mean I'm awesome?" Jack said with a wide grin.     

Peniel rolled her eyes at him, "You are abnormal! Your dual-class attributes completely outclass any adventurer in the same class. And you also have lots of equipment and skills that average players don't have, so you're at a huge advantage."     

Jack nodded but then said, "But they're still not enough. Look at how close it was just now. I have to become even stronger!"     

"You won't get stronger just sitting there!" she scoffed.     

"Okay, okay!" Jack said as he rose.     

He looked at the loot, frowned, and picked it all up.     

Chief Axe, level 15/35 (Rare two-handed axe)     

Physical damage: 74     

Attack speed: 1     

Durability: 50     

Dexterity +3     

Apply knock-back force to every attack     

"Crap! Rare weapon, but why did it have to be an axe? What do I need an axe for?" Jack uttered with disappointment. "I can't sacrifice this for my Storm Breaker, can I?"     

Peniel shook her tiny head and affirmed it: "You can only sacrifice one-handed swords."     

Jack looked at the axe in his hands. It made sense that the axe dropped; the boss was using it in the fight after all.     

'I will probably just dismantle it,' he thought. But he felt it was a pity to dismantle a rare weapon. He just stored it for now and would decide about it later.     

He checked the other loot; eight silver and 63 copper coins, a Scale, and a Lizard's Gland described as an uncommon ingredient. He stored them all and then walked to where he had defeated the Lizardman Archer and Lizardman Shaman.     

From their loot, he collected 11 silver and 21 copper coins, another scale, and an uncommon staff. Together with his currently equipped staff, he now had three uncommon staffs. He needed another five and he could combine them using the Transformation Box to obtain a rare staff.     

After collecting the drops outside, he was ready to enter the main hut to check the settlement treasury. But before that, he took a look at the Container of Souls in his storage bag. He had been hunting non-stop since he departed from the Capital, and he had killed many monsters to complete his hunting quests. When he checked the collected souls, he was astonished to find that there were already 1003 souls inside. He had enough to upgrade a basic skill one level.     

He immediately used 1000 souls to upgrade his Magician skill Heightened State to level 2. The skill had helped him in the battle just now, allowing him to use battle skills continuously. He expected he would keep relying on this skill in the future.     

While he was upgrading his skill, he also noticed a change in his Power Strike skill. One of the dim stars in the skill description now glowed bright yellow. The change indicated his proficiency with this skill had increased after multiple usages. He checked the skill's description and saw that this skill's knockback force's efficiency had increased.     

"Are you going to enter or not?" Peniel said with impatience as she flew around the door of the main hut.     

"Coming," Jack said as he walked over.     

He pushed open the wooden door, which was quite heavy, and walked inside. The interior was dimly lit by several candles hanging on the wall. It was a simple circular room with no furniture except for something like an altar at the center of the room.     

He approached that thing. "What's this?" He asked Peniel.     

"It's the Settlement Core," she answered. "You need to break the Core to complete the raid of this Settlement. You will get the reward afterward."     

"Break it? How do I do it? Do I just attack it?"     

"Yes," Peniel nodded.     

"That's simple," Jack said with relief. He thought he might have needed to do some complicated steps again to complete this raid. It was late already, and Jack was exhausted after the battle. He would like to take a rest soon, until morning if possible. Tomorrow, he would still have a long day as he had agreed to join Silverwing and the others clearing the dungeon.     

He took out his Storm Breaker and, without further ado, started hacking at the Settlement Core.     

The Core was unexpectedly resilient. Even with his high damage attacks, he could only reduce it to half after continuously attacking for a full minute.     

"Does it have to be this hard to destroy a Core?" He complained.     

"If it was that easy to break, wouldn't you think people would just try to sneak in and destroy it in secret?" Peniel countered. "Furthermore, once the Core is attacked, an alarm will sound out in the head of every monster from the Settlement. So unless you have killed all the monsters first or have a solid team to protect you, it shouldn't be possible to destroy the Settlement Core."     

'That made sense,' Jack thought.     

When the health bar of the core was almost empty, Jack sent Power Strike with a flourish.     

"Finishing move!" He yelled as the Power Strike connected.     

Peniel smirked at his childish display. "Was that really necessary?" She said.     

"Hey, I'm still a young man if you haven't noticed," Jack countered. "I'm entitled to this kind of stress-relief once in a while. I've just finished a stressful battle, if you remember."     

The Core broke apart as they were arguing; bright golden light poured out of it.