2 days ago.
Caesar sat next to Naaman in Rein City’s public park , watching as Wailing Hounds destroyed everything they could get their hands on . They had killed most of the remaining population in the city and now all they were doing was finding an avenue to vent out their pent up energy .
A man who had been hiding under the wreckage of an overturned vehicle made a mad dash for one of the nearby street shops , thinking that the coast was clear. He did make it , but was followed swiftly by a pack of three of the hounds.
“ So you let Jack Kamphar live ?” Naaman asked the cowboy as the cornered man screamed for his life in the shops. The hounds made short work of him.
“ He was absent proper power. I merely gave moment for great disparity to be remedied ,” Caesar answered as two of his prisms kept revolving around them , making sure that none of the Wailing Hounds got too close.
One prism broke formation and approached a group of hounds that were planning an ambush from behind. It unleashed a spray of bullets , managing to put two hounds down on the spot before the rest escaped.
“I fear you just squandered the only chance you could ever have gotten to beat the Arc ,” Naaman pitied him.
“ You dare place insult upon name ?” Caesar felt greatly disrespected. He could not believe that Naaman was even entertaining the thought of Jack matching him in power. It was preposterous.
Breathing out slowly , Naaman stood up and walked out of the protective range of the floating prisms. The Wailing hounds saw this but none dared approach him. They knew their place , something that he had thought Caesar did too.
“ Then tomorrow morning , make sure you end it ,” he said walking off into the ruins of the city.
Watching him insult his abilities to such a degree , Caesar took out his wrath on the only opponents around that he could beat , all the Wailing Hounds in sight.
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Now
Jack started making use of the rewards that he’d gotten from killing the Nameless Death. He mostly focused on Rejuvenation , a skill he feared he’d need a lot if the fight was going to be in the middle of the sea.
Rejuvenation went up another two levels before finally reaching the maximum level for Stage One.
To ascend to stage two , he required four Wailing Hound bones and two Dread Ghost chains , rewards he’d already gotten from past battles. They were stored by the System and so could automatically add themselves to the points when he wanted to use them.
After using them to ascend to Stage two , he used the last remaining 200 points to again level up Rejuvenation , bringing it to Stage 2 ,level 2.
At this level , he had 12 rejuvenation bars that offered him a level of comfort going into the next battle. Ascending to stage two also increased the rate of passive rejuvenation bars replenishment.
There were also two available summoning tickets which he disintegrated , hoping his luck would grant him a broken five star talent like Singularity. Though artefacts were also handy to have , Jack had already developed a preferential dislike for them.
Excalibur was an incredible weapon in that it would never break to any damage received , but other than that it was a plain ordinary sword. He had thought of levelling it up , but the only thing that would accomplish was making him a better swordsman.
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If he was constantly facing human opponents with close range weapons , then that would have been alright. But now he was constantly finding himself against monsters many times his size with both close range and long range offensive capabilities. That coupled with the insane durability some of them had like the Nameless for example , made having a sword practically useless in fights.
The Bag of Domicile was useful , but its purposes ended in storing goods. If his life were threatened , then it too became useless.
A talent is what he needed , one that could perhaps grant him power over some elements like fire or water like the mages on earth had.
[
System information
New Talents ;
1)Overclock - Convert rejuvenation bar into damage bonus for a talent of your choosing.
2)Crit Rate - Greatly increase damage dealt by other talents when one has sustained enough damage to almost kill them.
Installing new Talents…
Talents installed.
]
Both of these were four star talents and thanks to the already acquired Bandwidth talent , they were installed almost immediately.
They were however two edged swords when one thought keenly about their practical use. Overclock could boost up his Talents at the cost of his healing potential while Crit rate doped up his abilities with the condition that his health was just next to fatal death.
“ I wonder if this is how the enforcers live like with their Systems ,” Jack said, marvelling at how easily he was ranking up his power and combat capacity.
“ Maybe a few , but most of them take decades to reach where you are Bossman. To some , this is also the highest level of power they can ever reach with their Systems ,” Aiko gloated , feeling proud to be Jack’s assistant.
“ The Arc huh ,” Jack turned around as Allan and Nathaniel approached them.
“ Yup , that’s its name Bossman ,” Aiko was still on the storm in the sea.
A peal of thunder cracked the sky and a heavy downpour of rain started.
“ The storm has started sucking in the wind , and with it the ship ,” Allan started as Seafang and his crew got to work bringing down the sails.
“ You will have to fight with us enforcer , as compensation for stealing our hunt ,” Nathaniel still harboured hatred for Jack , the amount doubling when it came to Aiko.
Jack didn’t really have an option. If the Electromadon decided to come out of the storm and attack the ship , the only way to survive would be to find a way to kill it.
“What will I be fighting ?” Jack guessed they didn’t really know about the Electromadon and only had the notions of monsters lurking in the storm from the local folklore.
“Though they may be stories spread amongst the commoners , the fact that no one has ever gone into the dead zone and survived is enough cause for me to worry. A simple storm wouldn’t do that , there is definitely something inside that’s killing them ,” Alan turned to the raging storm that seemed to have grown larger and more violent.
The captain soon joined them , wearing a smug look on his face.
“We’ve put down the sails and regained control of me ship. That storm had me going there , but nothing a seasoned captain such as me self can’t find a work around ,” the man proudly bragged. True to his words , the ship’s course that had started drifting towards the storm came back to normal . Even the coast they were headed to appeared on the far horizon.
“ Then add more coal to the engines , move this ship as fast as possible , lest that storm tries dragging us in again,” Allan cautioned.
“ Look at ya , what happened to that hunter pride all ya Beast Lord hunters have? A little storm was enough to give ya panties a wedgie ?” Seafang laughed mockingly.
Nathaniel wanted to defend Allan by lashing out at Seafang , but Aiko cut him off quickly.
Having been the only person really paying attention to the storm , she had also been the first to see a round ball of blinding light descend from the sky within the heart storm , trailed by a long streak of lighting.
“ Bossman , Aiko is seeing it ,” she started tagging at Jack’s shirt nervously.
Her reaction brought everyone’s eyes to the direction she had been looking at , and they all beheld what had always remained a legend in the world of Praiyas.