He spent the following days roaming around the neighborhood, clearing it of monsters and scavenging resources. His strength was now sufficient to prevail even when he met a large number of monsters in a group as they were mostly low-level. But after a while, the cleared areas' monsters were replaced by their stronger level versions.
On the eighth day, he had regularly encountered level 4 Zombies and level 6 Skeleton Thugs. In the case of zombies, they now tended to move in groups of five or six. It made them more difficult to deal with, but, at the same time, it also provided better experience points.
By the tenth day, the monsters he regularly encountered, and beat, were level 6 zombies commonly accompanied by level 7 Skeleton Thugs. The higher-level monsters also had a better drop rate in terms of coins, but the equipment drop rate was still the same shitty rate.
Jack kept following his routine of constant grinding day after day without much thought. It got boring at times, even though the fight was real and the danger of death was there. But since he had been fighting the same type of monsters, he practically memorized all their moves.
He wondered why there were only these two undead-type monsters roaming around. Not that he wished to encounter another Elite Skeleton Captain again. Even though, with his improving stats, he should be able to make short work of an equivalent level 6 Skeleton Captain.
On the fifteenth day, he had reached level 9 for his Fighter class and level 8 for Magician. He had also collected 53 copper coins giving him a total of 70 coins. His scavenging had netted him several cooking ingredients and 3 iron ores. He used one of the ores and some coins to increase his Blade of Haste to level 7 and restored its durability at the same time.
Jack didn't plan to upgrade his armor anymore. Its durability was still high since the Zombies and Skeleton Thugs rarely managed to graze him now despite their increased level. He had also gotten two equipment drops from his grinding; a Leather Vest, a light armor chest piece, and Leather Pants. He equipped the Leather Pants and stored the Vest.
He had also earned a new skill when his Magician reached level 5.
*
Energy Bolts, level 1/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)
Create 3 homing magic bolts that deals 80% magic damage for each bolt
Range: 15 meters
Mana consumed: 20
Cooldown: 60 seconds
*
This skill allowed him to hit three different enemies at the same time, or blast one enemy three times. Overall, it was stronger than Mana Bullet, but also consumed more MP and had a longer cooldown. This multi-strike ability improved his grinding speed greatly, so he decided to level up this skill by two levels.
*
Energy Bolts, level 3/20 (Active skill, range, require magic weapon)
Create 3 homing magic bolts that deal 88% magic damage for each bolt
Range: 15 meters
Mana consumed: 20
Cooldown: 60 seconds
*
After another day filled with continuous battles, Jack went back to Rick's Workshop and started to seriously think about what he should do next. He couldn't spend his entire life killing monsters like this. It was time again to start to find out what was really going on with this world.
He lay on his bed and thought about all that had happened. He sifted through his memories and thought about possible clues to the changes in the world. This had all started on the day he was going to the Beta test opening for the Second World game. Everything went downhill from there.
At first, he thought the Trigitech Branch Corporation building was the place where it all started. But not all people there were affected, only him and the guy who got killed by Zombies. Everyone else had disappeared. Jack wondered if they were dead or maybe they just hadn't been taken into the game. Other people, like Bill, were in the other parts of the city when they got pulled into the game. So Jack couldn't be certain the Second World beta test venue was the epicenter of the change.
But then again, the game rules that governed this world now were very much the same as the ones he read about in the Second World beta guide. There were, of course, some similarities with other VR RPG games, but the classes and skill specs lined up perfectly with the Second World beta guide. If someone said that there was no connection between what had happened to the city and the Second World game, no one, including Jack, would have believed it.
There was also another thing that caught his attention after he thought back. It was something that Bill had said. He said he had heard a loud ringing when it all started, which Jack had heard as well, but he didn't know anything about a bright flash.
Maybe this was because Bill was far away from the epicenter and only the sound had reached him while the bright flash was confined to the Trigitech area. Since Jack saw the bright flash, it was possible that something happened there to cause all this.
After thinking for some time, Jack made a decision. Once he reached level 10, he would go back to the Trigitech Branch Corporation building in the central district. If there were any clues to what had happened, they should be there.
With that resolution, Jack was determined to increase his monster grinding pace.
*
It took him another two days and he finally reached level 10 for his Fighter class. He received another new skill from this level up.
*
Natural Body Recovery, level 1 (Passive skill)
Recover 5 HP every 10 seconds when out of combat
*
A recovery passive skill! Jack was elated. This skill would help him save on his consumables. As long as he rested between fights, he would not need to eat healing consumables to recover.
He went back to Rick's workshop to prepare. He had found another two iron ores that day. He decided to use three out of the four he had on hand to upgrade his sword. When the sword reached level 8, the success rate for the next level-up was reduced to 95%, and at level 9 it was 90%. Luckily, Jack's luck held and his two tries were both successes. His Blade of Haste was now a level 10, with damage rating of 50.
He also took some time to distribute his free attribute points and free skill points. He used 10 out of his 14 available free attribute points and added them all to Dexterity. This particular stat had been lagging behind as neither Fighter nor Magician classes focused on Dexterity. Since both his classes had good Strength and Intelligence stats, there was no need to increase them. Jack thought it a better idea to reduce his weakness, which was his speed.
For his free skill points, he decided to add two levels to Power Strike, two to Parry, and one to Swing, which brought them up to level 3, 5, and 2 respectively. Then for his Magical spells, he added one point to Magic Shield and two to Energy Bolts, bringing them up to level 3 and 5.
When the Energy Bolts crossed level 4, an additional magic bolt was added to every cast, allowing him to shoot four magic bolts at four different targets.
He reserved 3 free skill points of each class for future use.
Afterward, he went to bed early. When he got up the next morning, he cooked two dishes of Egg Fried Rice. He ate one, and then put the other one in a small container for food. He didn't know if this game-effect food would rot without refrigeration or if it would stay fresh in has bag. He would find that out when he reached the Trigitech Branch Corporation building.
He checked the workshop one last time to make sure he hadn't left anything behind. He might not be coming back to this place again. Jack thought it was too bad that he couldn't bring the workbench with him. He had tried, but it wouldn't go into his storage bag. At least he had the mobile anvil and the apprentice hammer. Despite their reduced success rate, he could use them to perform simply repairs.
With everything set, he set out to the place where it all started. He planned to take a different route from the one he had taken on the way out of the city just in case he might find some other Players along the way: preferably someone a bit less like Ogre and Mouse, and a bit more like Bill, and, hopefully, someone who would stay alive longer.
'It couldn't be that I am cursed to be alone in this forsaken world, right?' Jack could only hope.