Chapter 14：Future Direction

The blade drew an arc in the air, and the light blue flash lit up in everyone's line of sight. The light flashed dramatically against the dark landscape.

The Charles' Sword.

In the old days, the Charles' Sword had been a gold-level magical weapon with special effects. Now, it had become a bronze-level magical weapon of little effect, due to the loss of magical powers. However, no matter how much it declined in level, it was still a magical weapon.

It was more than enough to use the Charles' Sword in the current situation. It could easily take care of the skeletons.

Drouin was wearing a set of equipment, but it was only top-quality. The equipment everyone else wore was even worse. They were only elite grades.

Of course, to others, equipment levels were simplified to good or bad. They were not like Sean, who was able to tell the specific levels and related attributes of equipment at a glance. That was thanks to the "Eye of Truth," a special ability that Sean had, coupled with his good understanding of the game "Miracle."

Sean still remembered that equipment could be roughly divided into four types. The four types were casting, magical, legendary, and divine weapons.

For example, equipment made by an ordinary blacksmith was just ordinary equipment. That kind of equipment was the standard kind used by the army. Equipment that was made through a complex procedure was elite grade equipment. Countries that were a bit stronger would use equipment of that level for the army, while only the elite forces of weaker countries could use elite grade equipment. The production process for top-quality equipment was more complicated than the process for elite grade equipment. That type of equipment was the standard equipment used by the elite forces in powerful countries.

Even though there were differences in quality, ordinary, elite, and top-quality equipment all belong to the casting group. Equipment at a higher level than that would be a piece of magical equipment. Those types of equipment were made with special techniques. Only blacksmiths who knew the mysterious skills were able to make such equipment. However, they had to be able to use very special materials to make a piece of magical equipment.

According to the distinction of quality, magical equipment could be divided into the three levels of bronze, silver, and gold. Those groups could be divided further into five stages depending on the strength of its magical abilities: little effect, weak effect, medium effect, strong effect, and special effect. The stronger the magical powers attached to the magical equipment, the stronger the power the magical equipment could display. That meant that is was good to invest a lot into the magical powers that one wanted to attach to a weapon. Unfortunately, it was impossible to mass-produce that kind of equipment. Even if a country had a lot of money, it was still impossible to create pieces of bronze-grade magical equipment.

The production of equipment of silver or gold grades could not be completed with money.

Hence why Sean's magical weapon, even though it was bronze-level and had little effect, was still enough to make Drouin jealous.

Here in the Land of Black Earth, the weapon's effectiveness was comparable to a divine weapon! It was incredibly good for dealing with the Undead Spirits.

The long sword in Sean's hand had several trajectories after it was swung. Even though the movement was just an ordinary swing and kill, Sean had displayed a movement that was filled with a sense of beauty that was like an art treasure. All the skeletons that had surrounded Sean and attacked him were not a match at all. They were all smashed into pieces of bones before they could even get close to Sean.

Creatures like the undead spirits relied on the Fire of Soul to maintain their alternative type of life. Most of the undead spirit creatures had no wisdom to speak of. They were just living in the world by something like instinct. It might have been due to their longing for light and heat, or it could have been for some other reasons. Undead spirit creatures would instinctively attack all living species. Then, it would steal the other's life energy to increase their own life energy.

Even if skeletons were only rank one undead spirit creatures, its bones were comparable to blades and swords. From what could be understood of the Miracle Land, undead spirit creatures were born with a strength that surpassed humans. Therefore, it was difficult for someone at rank one to deal with skeletons that were also rank one. Under normal circumstances, they relied on the suppression of class to forcefully defeat the undead spirits. If they did not want to do that, they could rely on a tacit understanding and incredible coordination to take care of them

As a result, for rank three players like Drouin and Old Pete who were superior in strength, or rank three guards who had good tacit coordination, they would turn a blind eye to the skeletons. Even the Dark Knight had the power to battle. However, Dark Knights also relied on their strength to suppress and smash the skulls of the skeletons. That way, the Fire of Soul inside of the skeletons would be destroyed, so that the undead spirit creatures could be dealt with. It was impossible to kill the skeletons by attacking the joints between the spine and skull, as Sean had done.

Every living species had weaknesses that could be aimed at to easily kill it. It was the same for undead spirits.

The weakness of the skeletons lay in the first joint between the spine and the skull. As long as that part was destroyed, the skeleton's Fire of Soul would be extinguished as well. It was far more efficient than using the technique of breaking open the skeleton's skull.

However, the method was not something that anyone could easily complete. Even though the skeletons were a bit slow in their movements, they were not very rigid. They could protect their vital places extremely well. Under the protection of their characteristic and cautious movements, it could have even been impossible for people like Drouin, who had dealt with undead spirits before, to ensure that the attacks would be accurate every single time.

However…

Drouin could not help but look towards Sean.

Drouin saw that Sean had waved the longsword in his hand, and then gently removed the Podao that the skeleton was holding in its right hand. Sean had only used the one move to break open the skeleton's prudent defensive posture, exposing its weak point and open areas. Sean did not miss the opportunity that was right in front of him. His entire body stepped forward without hesitation, and the longsword in his hand fiercely thrust forward. The tip of the sword easily pierced into the skeleton's joints. With a slight tilt of his wrist, a very subtle "click" could be heard. When Sean withdrew the sword and retreated, the red flame inside the empty eye sockets of the skeleton had been extinguished. No longer held together by magic, the skeleton's entire skull fell off and rolled a couple of times on the ground.

Sean had completed all the movements very smoothly. It was as if he had practiced it countless times, and it had now become a part of his instinct.

The number of bones that were lying on the ground could be pieced together to make around 20 skeletons. Among then, at least 10 skeletons were killed by Sean. That showed that Sean was very good at dealing with the skeletons.

The battle did not last for too long. The 30 or so skeletons that had surrounded and attacked Sean and the others were not able to withstand their attacks, and the group quickly took care of them. However, Drouin and Sean knew that even though the skeletons were not very strong, they would always appear in a group. There were at least a dozen skeletons in each of the groups. Even though the amount of physical strength consumed was not very obvious, if they were to continue to fight many groups of skeletons for a long time, then the amount of strength involved would accumulate to a terrifying amount.

Also, the dark energy in the Land of Black Earth that invaded and attacked everyone at all times had accelerated their consumption of mental and physical strength.

In just half a day, Sean and others had encountered nearly seven waves of attacks from the surrounding skeletons. Halle and Cecilia, who had poor physical strength, had already begun to become a little bit breathless. The number of skeletons that had appeared and the number of times they had appeared was a lot more compared to back when Sean was inside the game. Also, they were only in the outermost area of the Land of Black Earth. Sean knew very well what kind of enemies there were deeper inside. Even though the enemies were also undead spirits, they were not comparable to these skeletons.

Of course, it was not useless to kill so many skeletons. Sean had already moved closer to the tipping point of level 10. Sean saw that he was about to be raised to level 10. As long as he reached that level, not only would he be able to enter a rank two class, he could also get a long-awaited professional reward. However, there was a prerequisite for getting a rank two new profession. That was, he had to find professional points in advance.

Sean's eye paused on several guards and Drouin.

A rank one [Mercenary] had a lot of rank two new professions they could take up. However, even though there was no such thing as the so-called hidden profession inside the game "Miracle," there was something called a special class. Of course, there were many kinds of requirements for taking up a new profession.

If it had only been normal profession, then there would have not been such tedious requirements. As long as the player found the correct path and met the relevant requirements, then the player would be able to take up a new profession. Of course, the higher a new profession was ranked, the more difficult those requirements would be. However, players were different from NPCs. The rules that limited the NPCs did not exist for players. The only limit that the players had was how they could find the relevant profession points for entering the ranks.

However, it was not a problem for Sean. The only thing he had to consider was how he could develop his future professional path.

Should he choose the path of [Warrior] that he already had and continue forward? That was what he had done when he had been playing the game 'Miracle,' so he was familiar with the steps to take to succeed.

Or should he take up a part-time [Knight Apprentice] profession and embark on a new path at the same time as his current profession?

According to the previous situation inside the game, if a player went down one professional path until the end, then it would take shape very quickly. Also, they would be able to display strong combat power at a low rank. However, this type of development would become mediocre after passing rank five. To cope with more and more powerful creatures and enemies later, the player had to readjust their professional development. Sean had suffered a lot from that when he was a player inside the game.

On the other hand, if a player started to consider the development of other aspects when they were at a low ranked class, then the new profession they took up would often become a special class. However, the negative tradeoff was that it would be formed at a very slow speed and its full combat power could only be displayed after reaching rank three or even rank four. On the good side, the combat effectiveness of the new profession would be more overbearing compared to ordinary professions. Furthermore, as long as the player had a good plan, the new profession could continue to develop without any hindrance. There was no need to retrace any of their steps.

Of course, Sean would have such thoughts. It was also because the world he lived in now was not the same world inside the game.

In the game, Sean was a player, so he was not afraid of any failures, as death was nothing more than a loss of equipment and experience. However, now that he was in the real world, everything was completely different. If he were to fail in the real world, then it was very likely that he had to pay the price of death. Therefore, it had made Sean think carefully about what he was going to do.

At present, what made Sean unable to make up his mind was the problem related to the [Knight Apprentice] class. He was able to become a knight apprentice as long as he asked Drouin questions regarding his profession. However, by doing this, he would be tied to Drouin. If Drouin did not give his permission, then Sean would be a [Knight Apprentice] for the rest of his life. He would never be able to become a real [Knight]. That was the reason why Sean was hesitating.

The situation was not a joke. Back in the game, when a player had offended their mentor, that player had remained stuck at the [Apprentice Magician] profession ever since then and was unable to become a real [Magician]. Later, that player had no choice but to delete the account and start again.

Sean did not want to become like that player because in this world, there was no such thing as "delete and restart." It would just be the end.