Second World

The hard difficulty of the Ancient Battleground Legacy dungeon was also similar to the medium and easy difficulty, except the enemies had higher levels, and there were more high-grade enemies.

The trick of doing this level was the same as the lower difficulties, which was following the golden knights through the secret path. Except with Jack's prowess now, it took him only a short time to gain the minimum required one hundred kills, even with the increased difficulty. In fact, he did it with just a single assault.

He flew into the incoming enemy all by himself. He then cast Orb of Storm before casting Perpetual Lightning Judgement. The Runestone of Spellcasting was beside him, shining brightly.

He had trained a lot on using mana manipulation to empower the power of this spell in the Space-time Chamber. This time, he finally used it in a real battle… a real virtual battle, to be precise.

Perpetual Lightning Judgement built its power depending on the lightning mana around the caster. With Jack's level of mana manipulation, he tapped the mana from the environment. This included the bottomless well inside him, the Lightning God Blessing.

He then enhanced the mana coursing through his spell formation. The resulting lightning was so bright and dense that it covered even him.

Jack brought some guild members into this legacy dungeon with him. All they saw when Jack cast the spell was a raging lightning sphere in the distance. All of a sudden, an explosion erupted from that lightning sphere. The loud sound it produced made them feel as if their eardrums were bursting. Then, lightning just covered everything.

The lightning snakes were so thick that they might as well be lightning dragons. Their number was countless. The black soldiers of the basic and elite grades burst into dust upon contact. The special elite still survived. But because there were so many lightning snakes, they got hit multiple times, and they died as well. Only the rare elites survived.

As the spell ended, a wide patch of land was filled with the black soldier's bodies.

The guild members, who watched from afar from the defending soldier's line, could only gape in disbelief. They wondered how one player could get so strong. How could the gap be so large?

Even after fulfilling the one thousand kills, Jack didn't relax. He continued to kill large numbers of soldiers one after another while waiting for three hours to pass before he was given scores. As he advised the others in the past, if they could kill more enemy soldiers and help the defenders last longer, they would have more time to reap the scores later.

He also put the spell, Lightning Pursuit, to the test. At max level, he could mark five areas. He spread them around him. At the same time, he used Time Realm. Every three seconds, a huge lightning bolt came down from the sky, striking an enemy within the marked area at random.

Because of the Time Realm effect, the enemies couldn't escape its edge barrier. It also made their movement sluggish. Jack used mana manipulation to empower the Time Realm. The slow effect became almost doubled due to that. The black soldiers had a difficult time moving out of the marked area and continued getting blasted by lightning strikes for half a minute.

All the time, Jack's Runestone of Spellcasting continued to boost his spell's damage power.

After that one casting, he received a notification that his Lightning Pursuit had upgraded to its first star. He might have only gotten the spell not long ago, but he had used Lightning Strike plenty of times. The proficiencies carried over.

Each star of the spell increased the mark's radius by one meter and added another lightning strike every three seconds. His marked areas were now eleven meters in radius, and two enemies were struck every three seconds inside those marked areas. If there was only one enemy in those areas, the two lightning bolts would strike the same enemy, doubling the damage.

He continued using one AOE skill after another, including the Lightning God Barrage and Judgement of Past Kings. When he exhausted all his big spells, he used Beast Form and cast Double Clone. Two copies appeared beside him. The copies were not in beast form, though. Although all copies could use the same skills and spells, non-AOE buff only affected the one who used it.

One clone used Strength of the Wild and the other used Life Burning Art. The three then dashed off in different directions.

He then used Iron Mammoth Stampede before calling out Therras, his spirit weapon, and the ten golden wolves to follow after the mammoths and pick off the ones who had been wounded by the stampede.

As he slayed one enemy after another, he didn't forget to use the Nine Yin Phantom Sword at every opportunity he got. Every half an hour, a black light shot from an unpredictable angle near Jack, slicing everything on its way.

The damage it caused doesn't lose to a high-level battle skill. Basic and elite grades were a goner if hit by the black light. Special elites were near death. The power of the black light didn't diminish even after going through several enemies. The one that was hit the last suffered the same damage as the one that was hit first.

Jack also noticed the damage was the same between the ones who wore heavy armor and light armor, which indicated that the Nine Yin Phantom Sword ignored defensive properties.

As he continued to use the ancient art, he found that he improved better by using it in real combat. He still felt mana numb upon executing it, but he felt he shortened the time he recovered from the condition with every execution.

He also tested the Field of Swords and Ghost Sword.

When he used the Field of Swords, hundreds of huge blades pierced out of the ground around him. There were so many blades that one standing enemy could be hit by two or three blades. The larger the enemy, the more blades it received.

The damage from each blade wasn't much, but its sheer number made this skill undodgeable, except if the enemies could fly upward. Aside from causing the Bleed effect, the blade strikes also caused a slight stun, opening them up for Jack's follow-up attacks.

Jack let one of his clones use the Ghost Sword. The skill turned the two swords in his hand into semi-transparent swords. These swords just went through the enemies as if they were air, but they dealt damage every time they passed an enemy.

Their damage was generally higher because they now dealt soul damage and ignored all defensive properties. Jack could also use his other sword skills while the Ghost Sword was active. Flame Strike, Penta Slash, Devouring Cross, and other melee skills all ignored defenses and hit the enemies in full. They couldn't be blocked.

With Jack wreaking havoc on the front side, the pressure on the defensive line was greatly lessened. Thus, the defenders could divert their attention to the back when the enemies rushed in from the rear.

Even after three hours passed and the golden knights started moving toward the secret path, the defenders' number was still strong. They should be able to last for quite some time in this condition.

Jack unsummoned Therras, then used his Gold Dragon Wing and left the battlefield. He flew toward where the golden knights were. Those golden knights and his guild members were just about to enter the secret path.

It's the second part of the dungeon and it's time to reap the scores.