Second World

Jack spent some time dueling the lone Stinging Eel. He could have finished it fast using magic as he did with the first two, but instead, he insisted on melee. Fighting melee against the water denizens was extremely difficult. Jack could see now that melee players were seriously handicapped for battling underwater.

He did not give up though. He was not a good swimmer, but he still knew the basics. Even though the underwater breathing mechanism in this game world was unrealistic, the movement was real enough. Most of the time when he wanted to change position, it was done using kicks. His high strength and dexterity stats allowed him stronger kicks to move faster, but they were difficult to control. He couldn't stop or change direction anytime he wanted to.

While fighting, he found it was easier to just stay still and only slashed when the opponent came at him. Of course, since he was still getting used to it, he missed most of the time and ended up getting bit by the eel. But after many tries, he started to get the hang of it.

He disliked staying at a spot when fighting, it made him feel passive. He tried several times propelling himself forward with a strong kick and slashed, but attacking using this method had scored him zero hits. Probably this could be done when fighting a larger and slower opponent, but against this small and agile eel, it was impractical.

He continued practicing until the eel's HP was critical, then he intentionally missed to not kill it, simply because he still wanted to continue practicing.

Then he saw another red dot coming from behind.

'Uh, perhaps I have played too long,' Jack said. He waited for the eel to come again and deliver the killing slash.

The eel's damage was too small. Even without Peniel's boost on his passive recovery, Jack's HP bar still recovered to full during his underwater practice. Jack turned back as a large shadow was enclosing.

It was fast, Jack thought. He kicked to the side to get away from the shadow's trajectory, but the shadow changed direction to follow him. Visibility was poor underwater, but his Dragon Eye gave him better clarity than it should be.

The red dot soon came into view. It was a very large fish. The ugliest fish that Jack had ever seen. It opened its mouth and rows of sharp teeth filled its mouth. This mouth was coming at Jack, fast. Jack made an inspect as he crossed both his swords in front of him for a parry.

Giant Sawteeth Coelacanth (Elite monster, Aquatic), level 35

HP: 37,000

The beast slammed onto him. Its teeth clanged with Jack's two swords. Jack was helpless as he was dragged by the fish's momentum. The fish tried to clamp its mouth but Jack's swords prevented it. It shook its head around fiercely until Jack was thrown to the side. It then swam away before turning around for another charge.

Jack decided to not play around this time. He used his magic staff and cast Magic Weapon, before firing a Mana Beam.<br/><script>ChapterMid();</script>

The fish was agile enough to dodge the beam, but Jack easily swung the beam following the fish's movement and hit it. Jack then fired Mana Bullet and Energy Bolts before continuing with standard range attacks.

The fish tried to dodge a few times before it lost patience and decided to just tank through those range attacks, coming at Jack.

Jack tested a spell that usually only appeared on the ground, Myriad Ensnaring Chains. What happened when there was no ground? Instead of a circle on the ground, the spell now created a sphere floating in the middle of the water. The twelve chains shot out from this sphere, binding the fish.

Jack then tested another spell with similar requirements, Arcane Turbulence. It also created a sphere from the center of where Jack aimed at. The torrents of energies rampaged around this sphere, causing damage to the fish while it was still immobile by the chains.

Done with his experimentation, Jack decided to just finish the fish. He sent Wind Slash and Sword of Light at the bound fish, as well as non-stop shooting standard range attacks.

By the time the fish was free, its HP was low already.

When it still insisted on coming at Jack with its sharp teeth, Jack wait for it to approach and executed Devouring Cross, finishing it. The fish disintegrated, leaving some coins and mana cores floating on the water.

Jack picked them up and decided to no longer dilly-dally underwater. What if a stronger monster appeared? His movement was not that fast to allow him a quick escape. It was better to not take further risks.

He swam to the riverside before resurfacing. He looked around and saw no players around, so he got out from the water.

Peniel only reappeared after Jack was on land.

Jack checked himself on the map. He was amazed to find that he had actually swum rather far from Death Associates' headquarters. Now that he was no longer in danger, he had time to check his messages.

There had been several messages sent by Jeanny after his communication was blocked. Mostly asking him what had happened? Why couldn't he receive her messages? Her last message told him to hold out, they were rushing as fast as they could.

Jack sent her a message, "Abort! Mission abort!"

"Abort? What happened to you? Why couldn't we contact you? Are you all right?" Jeanny sent a reply.

"I'm fine now. They have discovered my cover. They used an artifact that prevented me from sending messages as well as skills, spells, and tools. We have a tussle and I, fortunately, managed to escape. However, our strategy cannot be used anymore. And from what I see, if we insisted on the attack, we might suffer high casualties. I opted to abort our assault."

Jack waited for a while before he received her next reply.

"I've been talking with John. He agreed to abort the attack. Since you were already fighting with them just now, high chance they expected us to come, so no point in a surprise attack anymore. We will retreat."

"Okay, I will return to Thereath. I might be spending some days there. What will you people do? Do you plan to try hitting the other guilds in the coalition?" Jack asked.

John chimed in on the chat, "I was against retaliating since the start. Doing so will just deplete our resources. Not to mention, if we fail, it will eliminate the image of us being unbeatable. This one with Death Associates could have been an easy win if our original plan works. With the others, we will sacrifice more manpower, which might open us to another attack. We should hold out on the offensive and focus on recovering our lost units and building more structures."

Jeanny added, "I agree. On another note, that Ice Throne Legacy Dungeon is already up and running. We have cleared the Easy difficulty multiple times, but the Medium difficulty still eludes us. Can you come and give us a hand? The loots from the Easy difficulty are rather good, so we think the Medium will be better."

"I need to catch up with some things in Thereath first. I will come help once I am free."

"All right. Another thing, since you are going to Thereath. Commander Quintus has been asking for you several times now. I told him you were still busy. You better go see him once you have the time."

"Okay, I will do that tomorrow."

After finishing the chat, Jack looked in the direction of Death Hall and muttered to himself, "You let me go, so I let your guild go as well."

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Peniel asked.

"No one. I was just mumbling," Jack replied. He then used the Town Return Scroll.

In Thereath, he went to Ellie's Restaurant and Amy's bakery. It's already nighttime, he planned to take his investment profits before resting in Amy's Bakery.

He had not yet taken his profits the last time he came to Ellie's Restaurant because of the thing with Wicked Witches and then John's betrayal. He intended to take them now. He only had 57 gold coins inside his purse.

Despite the Jagara region providing him strong draconic monsters to slay for two months. They didn't drop many coins. In this way, he could see that players would still need to focus on using Hunters Association if they purely wanted to focus on collecting coins, or go for trade quests as Dylan did. He heard from Jeanny that the kid was rather rich now. He contributed his gold coins regularly to the guild, though, so Jack could rest easy now knowing he didn't make the wrong choice inviting the kid into the guild.

While for investing in native shops or opening their own, not many players did yet.

Players needed to build enough reps with the native owners before they were allowed to invest. Jack had been fortunate with saving Amy's mom's quest to gain the two natives' trust in just one quest. Others needed to build trust through multiple endeavors.

While for opening player's own shop. They had the difficulty of collecting enough coins to buy the land. Even then, they needed coordination with other players to provide the merchandise. Guilds and other organizations had started to go this route, but they were a bit late. The prime areas had been swept up to be used for building Guild Bases. Plots of lands became scarce so prices had skyrocketed. Many had no choice and end up buying lands in the slum district, but business there wasn't exactly accommodating.

From this, Jack could see how fortunate he had been for getting a free plot of land so early and started building his restaurant before others. He was also grateful to have gotten two talented chefs and also Dylan who provided sourcing on the materials.

He figured he was probably the only player who did not need to do anything and still had coins rolling to him through his two investments. Except, of course, Wilted Tree and Master, those two had a deep understanding of this game world's mechanics. He bet they had some secret ways of procuring coins easily.

But despite having an advantage in coins, he didn't let this make him complacent. The coins were just assistance for him to get stronger. It's good that he could get enough of them without needing to spend too much effort, meaning he could focus his effort elsewhere for getting stronger.