Levels truly worked in peculiar ways, and the correlation between levels and actual combat prowess was often muddy and difficult to pin down. For example, a low-tier genius D-grade could sometimes beat even pinnacle D-grades who focused primarily on crafting if they also happened to counter their skillset well, and if the individual they fought was just overall weak for their level.Jake was a great example of this, having a class focused on fighting more powerful foes and a profession offering him many benefits in combat too. For him to fight an enemy tens of levels above himself was just to be expected. He was the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, after all, and a Progenitor. He had titles making his stats far exceed what one of this level usually would have, a class and profession offering even more stats further amplified by this, powerful skills, and so on.This did mean that level itself was truly a poor indicator of actual power, yet it was the best people often had if someone didn’

Jake stood defensively in front of Carmen as the Monarch looked at him. The others would be arriving, but it would still take a bit. Carmen had closed her eyes, and Jake felt like her energy had become calmer, making him think she had passed out."You have no need for concern," the Monarch said casually. “I possess no desire to slay her— or you, for that matter; I merely need to win and make you leave.”"Yeah… don’t fault me for not trusting you," Jake answered, totally fine with talking for now. "Also… you said earlier you sealed off the entrances to this realm. Does that mean no vampires escaped Yalsten?"The Monarch gladly answered, for some reason not in a rush either. Maybe he genuinely wanted Jake to know the answer. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the gaping hole in his stomach with wriggling flesh trying to heal. "Some did make it out beforehand. Quite a lot, actually. Yalsten also was only one of many places where we vampires lived—just one more sealed off than most others, henc

Jacob opened his eyes and exited his brief meditation. He felt the currents of fate, and he knew that the Monarch of Blood was coming towards the plains. Of course, detecting anything was hard with all of the people present in the Treasure Hunt, but he at least could read something that simple.He used a skill to swiftly contact Bertram and his team, telling them to retreat from fighting the Vampiric Blood Elementals while also tossing a quick message to the undead through tokens they had exchanged. The parties out fighting had a rotation of sorts in place for people to retreat and regenerate, and with Sven and the people from Valhal recently rejoining the battle, Bertram and the others had more space.It didn’t take long for Bertram to make it back, joined by the healer of his party. The swordsman, Maria the Archer, and their caster had stayed behind to finish off some more elementals before returning themselves. But that was fine, for Jacob only really needed Bertram."They are retu

The Monarch stumbled back, four arrows in his chest and a newly made deep cut that nearly severed one of his arms. He reacted by pulling the arrows out and tossing his sword to the other hand as he barely managed to block a blow from the Sword Saint.His movements were slower, and he didn’t heal as fast anymore. Every action looked draining, and Jake felt how tired the vampire was. However, that didn’t mean he stopped as he and the Sword Saint kept pushing the Monarch repeatedly, making the wounds accumulate.Everything had been pulled out at this point, and the Monarch was clearly out of tricks. At least it seemed so. Jake and the Sword Saint also weren’t at their full either, far from it, but they had already won several minutes ago. All three of them knew it.An understanding had been reached, and the Monarch got the final fight he had wanted.A final clash sent them flying away from each other, and the Monarch stopped in mid-air. His stance made his exhaustion evident, and anyone

In Jake’s defense, he had a lot of other stuff to deal with rather than upgrading a weapon he didn’t really plan on using anyway. It wasn’t like he’d had all nine weapons before a few hours ago. Besides, the divine-rarity necklace kind of took away all other attention.Now, while he was sitting around and waiting anyway, it was a great time to merge them. With the Sword Saint and Carmen observing, he took out the Count weapons one by one. He had a total of seven, as he had merged three into one already.First, he tried to merge the other six into the upgraded one but got no response.It can’t be.He then merged three of the weapons, creating an epic-rarity version. He repeated this and now had three epic-rarity weapons.For real?Putting together the three epic-rarity weapons, they all reacted by melting into black metal."A bit cliché, isn’t it?" Carmen commented after the three weapons had all turned completely into liquid metal and blended with each other to form something new, its