His sword was directly upgraded to level 12, the same level as the one it consumed. Satisfied with the weapon upgrade, Jack stored it and proceeded to learn the recipe. He had 1 iron ore left in his bag, so he just needed to find another 1 iron ore and 1 steel ore to be able to craft the armor. Judging by the material required, and its uncommon rating, it should be much better armor than the normal Leather armor he currently wore.
"Don't forget this," he heard Peniel's voice and looked over. She was some distance away floating above a round object.
Jack approached her and found out that the round object was the Round Shield that the Lizardman threw away when it activated its defensive buff. He picked the shield up.
*
Guard's Round Shield, level 12/20 (Uncommon small shield)
Physical Defense: 14
Magical Defense: 8
Endurance +2
Damage under threshold is nullified when block successfully, Damage above threshold is reduced by 30%
Durability: 37/40
*
"I don't use a shield," Jack said.
Peniel looked at him with contempt. "You don't wear cloth armor, but that doesn't prevent you from hoarding the cloth and dress into your bag."
Jack was astonished, "Maximum inspect skill could even see the things inside other people's inventory?"
"Don't be ridiculous," the Fairy retorted. "Of course it can't. I know because we have been soul-linked by the Goddess. Not only can I see the things in your bag, I can also see all your stats… Speaking of which, you really have a lot of weird unknown things for a beginner. Your second class, that God-Eye thing, and an Immortal soul. Not to mention now you've also got that special weapon, a Blessing from Goddess, and me of course! I can see you have a very bright future ahead."
"I see, so we are linked. Does that mean you will always have to follow me around?"
"Yes, are you having a problem with that?" Peniel gave him a stare.
"No, no, of course not!" Jack hurriedly said. "I'm fortunate to have you as a companion."
"That's right you are. Now make sure to listen to me."
"Yes, ma'am." He did indeed feel grateful. After all, the Fairy had saved him at a crucial time by reminding him of a skill that he had forgotten which helped him achieve victory. He was also lonely after spending so many days by himself. It was a comfort to have someone to talk to, even if it was a tiny fantasy creature.
"Don't worry, the shield will still be useful even if you don't plan to equip it," Peniel said about the shield. "You can dismantle it for materials or sell it off for coins."
"Oh? I can sell it? Does that mean there is a shop that can buy my stuff? Where is it?" Jack was intrigued.
"You will find it soon."
"I didn't ask when, I asked where."
"And I said you will find it soon." Peniel gave him another stare.
'Lady Goddess, couldn't you have sent me a more pleasant guide?' Jack complained in his mind.
"You mentioned dismantling, how do I do that?" He asked, changing the topic.
"Once your blacksmith skill upgrades to Intermediate Apprentice, you will gain the ability to do it," Peniel answered.
"How many levels is Intermediate Apprentice from Basic Apprentice?"
"One," She said and peered into his stats for a while before continuing. "You have been doing quite a bit of blacksmithing all this time. You are already halfway to Intermediate Apprentice."
Jack stored the shield. He then left the room, and looked at the empty hallway with its rows of empty offices.
"Do you have a suggestion about where I should go now?" He asked the Fairy.
"Go kill some monsters, get stronger. Brush up on your blacksmithing and cooking skills if you have to." She answered.
He had the urge to tell her that he asked for a where, not a what.
"Where should I go to find a better place to get stronger?" He rephrased his questions with pretty much the same meaning.
"You can grind for monsters around here," Peniel said. "The monsters around this place are pretty much the strongest you can find at this stage. Just do what you want here while waiting."
Jack raised his eyebrows.
"Waiting? Waiting for what?"
"You will know soon." Again with the enigmatic answer.
Jack gave up on prying for further information. He loitered around looking to see if he could find any other things of interest inside the building. Finding none, he decided to call it a day.
The sun had set a long while ago. He looked at his radar and found the inside of the building was still devoid of monsters. He figured it should be safe to spend the night here.
"Can you keep watch while I rest?" He asked Peniel.
"You must be a rather thick-skinned blockhead, asking a lady like me to keep watch," she immediately protested. "Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or do you think Fairies don't need to sleep?"
"Well, to be frank, I really have no idea what Fairies need or don't need," he replied in his defense.
"Humph! See you in the morning," she said with indignation, and vanished into her isolated dimension.
"See you," Jack said to the empty air.
"It was nice to have someone to talk to after all this while," he added.
He collected a sheet and cushions he found around the building and arranged them on the floor of the room where he met the Goddess. He figured, since the Lizardman couldn't barge into this room, it made sense that other monsters would not be able to either. Although the radar showed the building to be empty, it was always prudent to be vigilant. He laid down on his makeshift bed and let his fatigued body drag him into sleep.
*
Jack spent the ensuing days following Peniel's counsel. He mostly did monster grinding around the Trigitech building. In his spare time, he repaired his armor and cooked to increase his proficiencies. He had already lost count of the number of Goblins, Skeleton Thugs and Zombies that he had killed. The monsters also seemed to have increased their levels. The strongest one he found was level 12 while the weakest one was now level 8. The monsters' difficulty scaled up as time went on.
Without realizing it, he had reached level 13 for his Fighter class and level 12 for his Magician class. Peniel commented that, for a person who had to split his experience points between two classes, his advancement was pretty fast. It seemed that his increased stats from having dual-classes let him kill monsters quite rapidly. Hence, he could accumulate more experience points.
He had received a new skill when he passed level 10 in his Magician class.
*
Heightened State, level 1/20 (Active skill)
Increase mana regeneration by 50%
decrease skill cooldown by 20%
Duration: 3 minutes
Cooldown: 10 minutes
*
He also found out that the 10 point increase to his Luck did affect the drop rate. He found more items and coins when he killed the normal monsters. He got a total of 120 copper coins from monster drops. He found out that when the copper coins in his bag reached 100, they would change into 1 silver coin. Which was great, otherwise he would have stacks and stacks of copper coins in his storage bag. With the previous savings, he had now accumulated 4 silver coins and 26 copper coins.
Monsters had also dropped two swords, four armor pieces, one recipe, and two iron ores. The armor and weapons were all common equipment.
Both swords were level 10. He fed them to his Storm Breaker. They filled up its experience bar to 82%. If he could find another level 10 sword, he should be able to increase his weapon to level 13.
The armor pieces he got were: one piece of level 5 leather armor, one set of level 5 leather pads, one pair of level 5 leather shoes, and one pair of level 10 leather boots. He replaced all of his lower-level armor with the higher-level ones, and stored the obsolete equipment in his bag.