Chapter 28

Feel like i'm losing track of time and missions so will from now on post the cooldown for mission and how many mission needed for next level up at the end of the chapters

FORGOt tO PROOF READ DONT READ

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A couple of days after our new members joined, I found myself standing in a field, ready to test out my new skill against one of Lily's skeletons. She was happy to summon it at my request and sat nearby, watching with rapt attention as I prepared to use my new ability.

"You can send your skeleton to attack now." Nodding at my words, Lily immediately ordered her skeleton to charge me, its bones rattling against the armor as it rapidly closed the distance.

"HAH!" Swinging my axe, I hit nothing but air due to the distance still between me and the skeleton. The skeleton, showing a surprising amount of intelligence, attempted to take advantage of my opening to strike. But instead of its sword tearing into my flesh as expected, the skeleton was sent flying, its shield shattering as if something heavy had struck it.

"WOW!" Lily was amazed as she went to inspect her skeleton, which, although still intact, had its arm shattered and broken in multiple places.

"What did you do?" Lily turned to me, observing the smile that spread across my face at the effects of my new skill.

"My new skill is called [Delayed Strike]. It basically lets me put an attack into stasis and activate it later." Hearing my explanation, Lily looked a bit surprised before sighing as she spoke.

"Why do you get all the cool skills?" Her question was only met with a grin as I waved my hand toward the 50-strong skeleton horde standing off to the side.

"Good point," I said, and she sent a few more skeletons my way. But once again, they were taken down by the delayed strikes I had placed earlier.

"How many of these things can you place?" Lily shouted, looking at the shattered remains of what was once 10 of her skeletons.

"Well, the skill is a bit janky, but I can place one delayed strike of 50% power per level. Any more than the maximum becomes a serious drain on my mana." Nodding at my explanation, Lily continued sending skeletons at me until she ran out, ending the training session as she went off to do her own business.

'Better go check on Samuel.' Left alone, I decided to visit our resident blacksmith. I found him not too far outside the forest, hammering away at a piece of iron that looked to be slowly forming into a blade.

"How's the progress?" I asked, waiting for a response. Samuel replied only after hammering the molten metal a few more times and dunking it into some water to cool. He then grabbed a rag to wipe away his sweat before answering me.

"Pretty good, honestly. It's been about two hours since I started, and I'm already out of materials." His words shocked me as I turned toward a nearby box containing almost a dozen blades, ranging from simple daggers to a sword with two prongs at the end.

"Didn't you say it would take at least a day or two to get through the materials?" My question got a nod from the old man, who spoke, sounding a bit unsure of his own words.

"I was surprised myself, but this skill seems to do wonders. It made everything four times easier. It only took this long because I had to wait for the metal to heat up." His words surprised me as I quickly approached the chest and inspected the weapons. Each of them had one affix, as they were common rank, but finding nothing unique among the bunch, I quickly sold them, netting a profit of 11k gold, half of which I converted into cash that I handed to Samuel to buy more materials and, if needed, more equipment.

"Thanks, boy. This should last me to the end of the week." His words gave me pause as I walked away, imagining what amounted to 55,000 gold being gone so quickly. But remembering the profit I had just made, I didn't care, as my investment would see a tenfold return. With a slight skip in my step, I quickly left Samuel to his own devices and went to check on the newbies' training.

"Stop closing your eyes!" Arriving at the training ground, I was met by the sight of Noah sparring with Melinda as everyone else sat around observing the match. The only reason it was still going was that Noah was using this as a chance to teach her.

"You're swinging a blade toward my head—what did you expect?!" Screaming this, Melinda leapt forward, rapier in hand, and attacked Noah's neck. But Noah weaved out of the way, dodging the attack with a slight movement of his head before hitting her in the face with the pommel of his blade, causing her to stumble back, groaning in pain as she held her face.

"FUCK!" she cursed as Miguel approached and quickly healed the large bruise that was forming on her face.

"Be careful with stabs—they can be incredibly lethal, but if you miss, you could end up too close to your enemy," Noah said calmly, unflinching at the angry look Melinda shot at him. She eventually calmed down after being healed and took a seat with everyone else.

"Oh hey, Duke! What's up?" Suddenly noticing me, Noah greeted me, though not wanting to stop the training, he had Olivia take over as he walked over, ignoring the explosions behind him as Olivia began helping the Buckle twins with their aim and mana utilization.

"Hey, Noah. How's the training going?" I greeted the berserker, watching as he smiled before quickly explaining how the newbies' training had been progressing.

"Honestly, everyone's showing stable growth. Jerome is learning accuracy from Olivia, the Buckles are working on mana management with Lily and me, and Richard and I have been taking turns dueling with Melinda and Owen. I asked Richie if he wanted to join, but he said no and has been spending more time training with Reinhardt." Listening to Noah's explanation, I felt joy at the growth of my guild members. Seeing that I wasn't needed here, I soon left, opting to search for Richie, who, according to Noah, should be training with Reinhardt.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Approaching the area where Reinhardt and Richie were training, I was met by Reinhardt's boisterous laughter as he fought with Richie. Although Richie seemed exhausted, he was recovering as a blue light covered him, boosting his recovery as he fought against Reinhardt.

"Help!" Noticing me standing off to the side, Richie screamed for help, but he had no time to breathe as he adjusted his grip on his warhammer and attempted to strike. The Death Knight didn't bother dodging and instead rammed his helmeted head into Richie's face.

"Come on, Richie! Didn't you want to train?" Reinhardt shouted the last part as he attempted to bring his sword down on the stunned Richie. However, the attack failed as Richie used the handle of his weapon to block it.

"Time out, time out!" Halting the fight, Richie rubbed his nose, the bleeding slowing as the aura around his body dimmed a bit. The two stood there as one recovered and the other came to greet me.

"What brings you here, Duke?" Hearing Reinhardt's question, I didn't need to think much before asking how Richie's training was going.

"He's doing fine. His skill is actually 50% of the way toward his weapon mastery." Hearing this, I was quite surprised, as even Noah, who was the closest to being a journeyman, was only a little above 40%—and that's saying a lot, considering Noah trained more than anyone else.

"Good job, Richie. Keep it up! Also, what skill is causing that blue aura?" Hearing my question, Richie spoke, his voice exhausted but clearly on edge as he glanced over at Reinhardt as if expecting him to suddenly strike.

"After reaching level 10, I gained a skill called [Mantle Of The Saddened]. It absorbs energy from my opponents and feeds it back into me to heal and restore my mana. It also has the effect of applying one's negative emotions, but due to Reinhardt's undead nature, it doesn't work on him." The details of Richie's skill honestly surprised me, so I asked a few follow-up questions, which he answered happily, seemingly glad to catch his breath before getting back to training.

"Anyway, good luck," I said as I walked away, Richie's voice echoing behind me as he waved goodbye. I headed back to my cabin, where I relaxed until, at some point, I got a message from Jessica. Opening it up, I found something that surprised me.

'Is that Lion?!?!' The message contained an image of a pink lion standing outside of Fish Pizza, much to my surprise. I sat up immediately and gave Jessica a call.

"Hello?" Hearing her nonchalant voice, I wasted no time asking questions in quick succession.

"How long has it been since this image? Have they gone back to the temple yet? How closely are you following them?" My series of questions seemed to annoy Jessica a bit as she yelled at me to slow down before speaking.

"The lion just walked away, and Steven came out to find him missing. What do you need me to do?" Hearing this, I sighed as a memory floated to the surface of my mind—specifically, the memory of a particular item, though I couldn't recall its exact name.

"I need you to quickly rush to the temple and find anything that looks like a pillow with a gem on it. Take it as quickly as possible." Giving her the instructions, I wasted no time hanging up, leaving no room for her to ask questions as I immediately began to teleport in the direction of Beach City.

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Gotta steal everything we can guys! also this is one of the few episodes I could remember clearly and Im basing mc knowledge off my knowledge so he knows about the dessert glass and its ability to construct a massive building in seconds and even defend itself so good things if he grabs it

2 days left till mission reset and 1/5 mission 4 till next level up