Chapter 20

Mystic Forest, a mysterious forest veiled in blinding white mist. Located in the farthern southeast of Silestal Town and northwest of the Garastia Capital, this mysterious forest was rumoured to be the forest that held deep secrets yet to be revealed. Garasti Public Library, one of the largest libraries in the entire Phantasy Realm world. Rumors said that this library's history was longer than the founding of the capital. Among other well-known libraries with deep histories, Garasti Public Library had the longest history. Setting that aside, these libraries contain all of the ancient journals, scriptures, reasearch and findings, logs and even statements and happenings from the beginning up to the current time. Holy Writ of the World, the Forbidden Book of Bursthwag, the Great War of Holy Strancia, the Gods and their Creation; these are some of the famous books that were said to be more than a thousand century. The entries for these books were not considered new to everyone who visited these libraries almost everyday. In short, these large libraries pretty much have all the knowledge there is in the world. However, even these libraries still doesn't know the mystery behind the Mystic Forest.

According to some, this forest is a sanctuary for the lost soul who bore deep grudges to the world. That is why the forest is veiled in blinding white mist that most people called as the 'ghost of the lost'. Once entered, a single individual was rumoured to be lost until he met his tragic end inside that forest. No one dared to enter the rumored forest for fear of not coming back until the mysterious appearance of the immortal adventurers. There might be some people who was curious and ended up entering the forest however, after that; no one knows what really happened to them as they never really came back, not even a strand of their hair.

For the guild master to go to such rumored scary place never really crossed their mind. Everyone close to the guild master had no idea what gave him the idea to bravely come to the forest alone. Though according to the letter, he mentioned these 'ancient glyphs' he said he found; still that wasn't enough of an explanation for the timid, easily-get-scared guildmaster to come to that scary forest.

Currently at the entrance of the Mystic Forest, Denver was busy stretching out his limbs and muscles while Jaycee was busy navigating the mini map of the forest. Everyone was busy doing their own thing that they didn't even bother uttering a word to each other. That situation was somehow normal for Jaycee but for the other guy, it was an unbearable suffocating atmosphere he can't dare to prolong.

In that insanely awkward silence, Denver asked while still doing his stretching routine, "By the way Jaycee, what level are you currently in?"

"I'm level 23 and why bother asking?"

"I'm just curious, you see. I mean, for a ranked player, isn't it a priority to level up and master high-tier spells?"

Still navigating the map, Jaycee replied nonchalantly, "I don't think so. In the end, isn't technique and knowledge prior to battles and spell application matters the most?"

"Is that so?"

Jaycee sighed heavily and answered, "Based from what I observed, this game sure is kinda tricky."

"Tricky? Care to explain?"

"Don't you find it strange?"

"What is?" Denver literally had the looks of a person who doesn't know a single thing.

On the other hand, Jaycee had the spell section of his screen opened. He had this serious look on his face as he started explaining.

"Well, if you think of it from a normal player's standpoint, leveling up and allocating your skill points with the rationale of unlocking high-tiered spells will probably be the best option, right?"

As if persuaded, Denver nodded his head and replied, "Well, isn't that a given? I mean, if you want to deal much damage, then isn't it better to have high-tiered spells?"

"Before we played the game, I took the time to read the guide and basic rules, you see."

Denver immediately had this baffled expression while maintaining his gaze at him and whispered, "Seriously? You read that super duper long useless thing?"

Moving on, Jaycee didn't hear Denver's rumbling and just continued as he said, "Everytime you level up, you gain skill points and this varies depending on what your current level is. You'll get 5 skill points until you reached level 50, and then get 2 skill points for consecutive level up after that. If you multiply 50 by 5 then you'll get 250 skill points by the time you reached level 50. Spells can be categorized into 4; basic, intermediate, high, and god-tier spells. These are the spells you'll commonly see in your spell section and is included in your class tree, setting aside those special spells and inheritable spells you can get from reaching a certain condition."

Denver just blankly nodded to every word Jaycee had been saying.

'Weird. What's with this suddenly math lecture?'

However, Jaycee instantly noticed this 'I don't know what you're talking about' look in him so he momentarily stopped speaking.

"Hey, do you even understand what I am saying?"

Caught open-handedly, still, Denver kept his only remaining pride with a nod and a serious tone in his voice as he said, "Continue."

"Why did I even expect something from you?" Jaycee gave him a hopeless sigh and continued, "Setting aside, if you want to unlock high-tiered spells, you need to level up a certain spell to a certain level in order to unlock that specific spell, right?"

"That, I know that," Denver was quite confident this time as he replied.

"If you look at it from a standard viewpoint, these 'skill points' only exists for that purpose, however; if you would think outside the box, there's something quite strange about this leveling system."

"I quite don't understand what you're saying this time but still I'm all ears. Go on, continue."

Jaycee sighed one more time before he continued, "I checked all of the unlockable spells I have and there's really something strange about it."

"Care to explain?"

"I can unlock mostly of my spells including the god-tier spells by leveling all of my spells three-fourths of the maximum level a certain spell can reach. Isn't it strange, why would they bother putting a max level cap on a spell such as the low-tiered spells that players won't even bother maxing out?"

Denver pondered for a while before voicing out his opinion, "I wonder about that. Logically speaking since this is a game, isn't that mostly random? I mean, why would the devs bother wasting their time on such matters?"

"I did basic calculations and to be frank, the numbers aren't random. I can level up mostly my low-tiered spells to its maximum if I use all of the 250 points I'll be receiving after I hit level 50. And for that, I am a hundred percent sure that there's a justification for all of these doubts."

The atmosphere that time was as if they were in a heated debate. Especially Jaycee, once he set his eyes on something, he will see to it that the answer he will be getting was either the correct one or the correct one. In short, Jaycee never had his suspicions wrong. Denver already knew this detestable trait of his friend. However at that time, Denver had no choice but to believe the words of his 'genius' friend. He pondered for a minute and after that, a certain thought made him clap his hand in an instant.

"So you're basically saying that there's a possibility to evolve these low-tiered spells into a much stronger one?"

Jaycee had a grin on his face as he replied, "So you're finally using your head. How commendable for a muscle-brain like you."

"Thinking about it, you have quite a point there. For a normal player, the best way to get strong is to get a high damage inflicting spells or overpowered buffing spells and for that to obtain is to quickly get the 'god-tier' spells for their own class. Right, the word 'god-tier' really seems to throw people off in believing that it is the strongest spell however, these spells has very long duration for their cooldowns. They might deal the utmost damage however; you can basically use it 1 to 2 times during monster fights."

"Very well said. In addition, these god-tier spells exhausts too much mana. Matter worse, most of the god-tier spells have wide area of effect so there are chances that you can harm your teammates after casting. It is also hard for the caster if the battle took place in a very narrow location such as caves and dungeons."

Denver nodded in agreement and said, "Right, if they can't use these spells then they will be forced to use their other spells however as they lack in level, they won't do any damage and ended up exhausting their mana as the battle prolonged."

'My goodness … This genius sure is taking everything seriously to a point where it's giving me the chills.'

"Well, spells are just a minor part of obtaining perfect victory and still teamwork and proper strategic application still matters the most. However, you already know what kind of person I am, right?"

Jaycee gave a sincere smile as he looked at Denver.

"It should be a given that everything must be within calculations ...," he momentarily paused and after a short moment he continued, "It sure sucks to have such mindset but still ... that's how I live up until now ..."

"That's right, I can't dare to hate it even if I wanted to ..."