Desolate World

After admiring his new weapon and equipment, Ace then checked his character panel.

[Ace Nightglow]

Race: Human

Job: Joker

Level 35 Exp: 9%

HP: 3880

MP: 2130

Strength: 151 (+15)

Agility: 919 (+422)

Magic: 730 (+350)

Physical Defense: 806 (+655)

Magic Defense: 521 (+370)

Vitality: 190

HP recovery: 0.95/sec

MP recovery: 1.9/sec

Traits: 

# Ultra sensitive senses: Have strengthened senses. Becoming aware of most details around the user. 

# Cat flexibility: Have a flexible body. Will not die when falling down from a high position.

# Learner: Can learn skills from external sources.

# Mana gatherer: Can get experience by gathering mana from the environment or special objects

Skills:

• Shuffle and draw: shuffle and draw your cards to and from your deck. Can do 1 time per second for each hand draw.

• Cards throw mastery (level 5): Throw cards from each hand with 18 meters effective range. Mana consumption: depends on which card is thrown.

• Leap (level 3): can jump vertically up to 7 meters. Be careful while landing, as it can cause some damage to the user if performed inappropriately. Mana usage: 5, Cooldown: 10 seconds.

• Dice and token mastery: can use a dice and 5 tokens as extra weapons.

• Bats Transformation: turns oneself into 20 small bats. The bats can not have a distance from each other for more than 200 meters. Agility +20%. Can't do any attack or skill when in this form. Each bat had a fixed 30 HP. The skill will be canceled when more than 25% of the bats are killed. Can't be activated when inflicted by a debuff. Mana consumption: 1 per second. Cooldown: 20 minutes.

• Ice Bullet: shoots an ice arrow to a target from a maximum distance of 500 meters. Dealt 300% of magic damage. Mana consumption: 100. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

• Magic Boost: Increases the wearer's magic to 5 times for 5 seconds. Mana consumption: 40. Cooldown: 24 hours.

These two months, he wasn't idle. As the director of Night Guards and the guild master, he must accompany his personnel to train in the wild once in a while. So, his skills' levels somehow increased.

With the help of his equipment, his defenses also could be increased to more than 800 points for physical defense and 500 points for magic defense, which was acceptable for the spell caster at his level. However, his vitality was much lower than other people. It made him somewhat insecure.

He felt the need to buy some accessories to increase his HP, MP, and magic. As he needed to accompany Eric, Erica, and Uriel to kill an undead lord in one month.

As he enjoyed looking at his increased stats, he was suddenly stunned after realizing one thing. He then tried to confirm his realization, if it was true. After getting the same number several times, he couldn't help but smile.

"More than 10,000! Oh, God! It's more than 10,000!" Ace said excitedly.

It was his maximum damage that he could deal with Ice bullet while he was activating magic boost. The exact number was 10,950. Although the damage would be reduced by the magic defense of the target and the armor, Ace was sure it wouldn't exceed 2,000 if he faced a well-equipped warrior at his level.

So, he would deal around 8,000 or so damage, which was enough to kill any guardian, even if he or she was 10 levels above him. He thought only a few people, particularly guardians, could defeat him. That was what he believed.

***

After calming himself, Ace opened the ranking and reputation section in his character panel. It was a new section in his character panel. He unlocked it after he officially became Laketown's resident.

[Ace Nightglow]

Race: Human

Level: 35

Settlement: Laketown (town level 2)

Guild: Nightglow

Status: Elder of Laketown, Director of Night Guards, and Guild Master of Nightglow Guild.

Reputation:

- Laketown: 32,500

Continental fame: 0

World fame: 0

Settlement guardian ranking: 1st

Continental guardian ranking: 497th

World guardian ranking: 345,672nd

At first, he was satisfied with his status, and the reputation he had in Laketown. But, as he knew his continental ranking and then world ranging, he wanted to cry. It was so humiliating.

What was he proud of? 10,000 potential damage that could be launched once a day? Yes, just be proud of that. But reality slapped him hard.

He, of course, could raise his head in Laketown. A new settlement that was just built. His only challengers were only his family members. Sofia at level 34, Geo at level 33, then Sampson and Cloud who shared a similar level which was 31. As for below them were new guardians that were just summoned.

'Wait! They have already come? That was fast!' He thought. He knew that he would be busy in a few minutes. As he expected Sofia or Sampson would call him via the party channel or guild channel that was just available.

However, he was ashamed of what he had thought just a few minutes ago, as he looked at the continental guardian ranking. He was ranked 497th. It meant there were 496 people who had higher levels than him.

No, it was 497, as his rank just went down to 498th. It meant, a guardian had just leveled up to level 36 or won in the percentage of the experience from him, pushing his rank down one number.

Ace even felt dizzy when he looked at his rank in the world guardian ranking. 345,672nd? That was a lot. He never expected there were that many high level guardians in this world.

"Uh…. Luckily, I didn't boast in front of Sampson. If not, he would make it a joke for years. But hundreds of thousands? Seriously?!" Ace said.

He was sure, to reach his current level, he had encountered many lucky events and of course hard work. He couldn't remember how many monster cores that he had consumed. What he knew was, he had to hunt once a few days to replenish his monster cores that were about to be depleted.

And at the moment, he found out that hundreds of thousands of guardians out there had higher levels than him. He really wanted to ask, "How can that be possible?"

***