Chapter 45. Level 13

Hearing this, the teenager scolded, "You prick! Who do you think you are? Do you think you are one of those famous expert players? I haven't even heard of your name before in the gaming world. You dare to talk like you are some sort of a big shot?"

Jack was steadfast. He kept his silence after making his offer and just stared at Silverwing, waiting for his response.

Silverwing was deep in thought. His face was still wearing a slight smile, while his hand was caressing his chin.

After a while, he finally said, "you are a straightforward and a courageous man, Mr. Storm Wind. Even if we couldn't recruit you, befriending you could be considered as a win as well. My gut tells me that making your acquaintance is worth having offended Death Associates for. All right, I will take your deal. But I hope it will not be limited to just one favor. Of course, we will compensate you when we need your help, and we will not force you if the timing is inconvenient for you."

His aide, Bluedaze, who was sitting by his side, lifted her eyebrows. Honeycomb and Dashrunner, who were standing, wore strained expressions but they didn't interfere since their leader had spoken. Only the old man, Sinreaper, wore an indifferent face.

Jack was also surprised by Silverwing's generosity. He was basically saying that White Scarfs had saved them out of goodwill and that Jack had no obligation to compensate them for it. His impression of this leader of the city's largest guild had improved significantly.

"You are too kind, sir," he said.

"Please, drink the wine. It will be a waste otherwise," Silverwing said.

Jack saluted him with the wine. However, before he drank, he didn't forget to scan it first with his God-eye monocle. Seeing it was only a normal wine without any game effect, he let the wine enter his mouth. They chatted a bit more about some casual topics. The sky was darkening as night arrived, but it was still rather bright outside from the light beam in the sky.

"I'm sorry but we have to retire now," Jack said.

"Certainly, I will have someone bring you to your room," Silverwing said. "There are plenty of bedrooms in this city hall, and you don't have to worry about safety, we have people patrolling the building constantly."

"I can't thank you enough."

"If I may ask, what is your plan tomorrow? It's still two days until the time limit."

"If there are no complications, we would like to leave the safe zone and hunt some monsters for experience."

"Oh? I would advise against that. What if Death Associates or Weary Wolf come looking for you outside the safe zone?"

"Don't worry, we'll be careful. They caught us off guard today. As long as we notice their approach, we can easily avoid them."

"It's still a high risk. If you insist on going, I'll ask some of our members to accompany you."

"We're grateful for your goodwill, but, no, thank you. We can't owe you more favors, and also, having more people will reduce the experience we receive."

Silverwing seemed reluctant, "I don't feel good about this… But if you insist, then I won't force the issue. Please, at least hunt in the area southwest of here. That is where most of our members are leveling up. If you encounter a problem, you can call for help. I'll notify our members about this."

"That's too kind of you."

After exchanging some pleasantries, Jack and his friends followed the serving girl out. Once the door to the office closed, Dashrunner immediately expressed his disapproval.

"Why are we lowering our heads like that to him? He is just an arrogant nobody who doesn't know how big the world is!"

"I agree, it is completely unacceptable," Honeycomb added.

Silverwing just closed his eyes, still faintly smiling. He didn't interrupt his subordinates' tirades and just let them vent their displeasure.

Bluedaze didn't vent like her comrades, she looked at Silverwing and asked him seriously, "I seldom question your decisions, but I can't see the benefit of your actions this time either. It would be understandable if he was a famous expert, or the guild we offended was just a small fry, but neither is the case. The report said that he had defeated two opponents of level 10 and 9 within seconds. That might be impressive, but those two opponents were simple newbies. Several of our stronger members could also achieve the same result in a similar situation. It is unnecessary to become enemies of Death Associates just for a random nobody."

"That might be true," Silverwing opened his eyes, they were clear and sparkling with hidden amusement, "then let me ask you a question, Blue. What's the highest level of our strongest member?"

Bluedaze was confused by the irrelevant question, "you mean Grimclaw? He just got to level 12 yesterday."

Silverwing nodded, "and how did he get to such a high level?"

"Because of his martial skill of course. Also, we have many members who helped him round up monsters and weakened them before letting him deal the killing blows. It's a standard procedure to strengthen our main core members as we have practiced in every VR RPG game."

"That's right," Silverwing agreed. "And what if I told you that the random nobody is level 13? And not just beginning level 13, he is halfway to level 14 already."

"What? Impossible!" Bluedaze blurted out. Dashrunner and Honeycomb who were still grumbling also stopped after hearing this.

"It's true," the old man, Sinreaper, added. He took off his glasses and gave them to Bluedaze, who promptly received notification of equipment stats sharing. Bluedaze was astonished; the glasses were an equipment piece.

*

Hermit Glasses (rare equipment)

Passive ability: Increase vision range

Passive ability: Increase Inspect skill by one grade

*

Bluedaze was stunned. Rare equipment, the best equipment that she had was of uncommon grade. She had heard that Grimclaw found a rare weapon recently, but this was her first time coming into contact with a rare item.

Sinreaper continued, "As you know from our experimentation, Inspect skill can only inspect a player at the same level or lower. However, that is only true for Basic Apprentice Inspect. Above Basic Apprentice is Intermediate Apprentice, then Advanced Apprentice Inspect. When you reach these levels you can inspect players one level higher. The next grade is Basic Expert Inspect where you gain additional information from the skill and can see how far along the experience bar the player has progressed. Then, after that, is the Intermediate Expert grade, which is the level I have reached with the help of those glasses.

My inherent Inspect skill is Intermediate Apprentice, the glasses increase my skill a full grade to Intermediate Expert. At this grade, I can inspect players who are two levels higher than mine."

"And you are level 11 currently," Bluedaze said.

Sinreaper nodded, "Yes, hence, I was able to inspect his level 13 skill. If he was any higher, even with my Intermediate Expert Inspect, I would not have been able to identify his level."

"But… how could this be?" Bluedaze was unwilling to accept it.

"Do you understand now?" Silverwing said. "Grimclaw managed to blitz his level only with the support of our many members. But what about Storm Wind? His support was only two average players, and I have a suspicion that he had just recently met even those two. If I'm right, it means that he managed to level up all by himself. It makes some sense though, if he was alone, then all the experience points would go to him alone. That explains how he could get to such a high level, but think about it: how many people could survive out there by themselves? If he is not a real expert, do you think that's possible?"

Bluedaze was deep in thought.  She had trouble believing someone who was not well known could achieve such a result. Could he be one of those hidden experts who liked to change their names every time they changed VR games?

"The data from the Inspect skill is indisputable," Silverwing added. "Even if you doubt that, please trust my intuition. You guys have followed me for a long time, so I ask you to trust me on this."