Desolate World

However, Ace couldn't blame her. Although her guess was wrong, it was the most possible guess the person who knew the best of him could come up with. As he never showed other abilities that could make him teleport or invisible.

"Should I apologize to him?" Sofia then murmured.

'Yes, you have. Or... no. After all, I will 'bully' you tonight,' Ace said in his heart while approaching her. Then he embraced her from behind. 

His figure instantly appeared. His stealth state was already over, at the moment he had completely embraced her. It meant, the system judged that he had attacked her. But, it seemed if he just touched someone, it wouldn't be over. As before he could completely embrace her, his torso that had touched her body first and he didn't immediately appear.

*Gasp*

Sofia was frozen on her feet. It seemed she was really surprised by Ace's move of embracing her from behind.

'As the experiment is over, it should be a fun time, next,' Ace said in his heart.

"How?!" Sofia then asked. 

"We will talk about it later. As I can't wait to 'play' with you now, dear," Ace then whispered to her ear.

"Rascal…," Sofia then said softly. Ace could feel her body temperature was rising at the moment.

*** 

"Sigh… It seems you are the real winner this time," Sampson said as he bit his bread.

"I think your weapon is also good. It can launch a lightning bolt to a bunch of enemies. Isn't that a cheat for a close combat fighter? 

And your chainmail had a very perverted physical defense. What is the concept of 1,000 physical defense? You can just wear it after a grade B tunic and further put on your chest guard, your defense would further increase to more than 2,000. Honestly, I envy your defense very much. What is your actual defense while wearing your full equipment?" Ace asked.

It seemed Sampson got his spirit again. He then said, "Not much. Only 2,700. It is pretty standard for a tanker. I heard Peter's defenses have reached more than 7,000 after he upgraded his armor set. Damn, it's insane."

Ace gritted his teeth. Sampson's words really hit his soft spot. Although it seemed he was unintentional. He was always conscious about his low HP and defense. 

However, he was Ace after all. He couldn't show his irritated expression, right? After all, wearing a poker face was one of his natural abilities.

"Well, he was level 48 elite after all. And as a knight, of course, he has a really good defense. However, your more than 7,000 points of HP was definitely among the best in the ranks of close combat fighters. Not to mention your ring. As your spear is a grade-A weapon, its grade increases to grade-S, right? It also means its other effect of pulling an enemy has increased to 25 meters, right?" Ace then said. 

Sampson nodded. He seemed to be quite happy with Ace's words.

Ace tried to be honest, here. Sampson's power was definitely not low. Even if most of his individual power came from equipment and weapon, no one could deny that he was powerful. There were also his aura traits that could boost the power of his friends around him. The power of B rarity job, warlord was not a joke.

But, what made Ace envy more was Sampson's ring. At first, he thought what his brother bought from the system shop were a spear and the chest guard. But then he knew that it was impossible to buy a weapon from the system shop. 

As he asked Sampson later, he finally knew that what he had bought besides the chest guard was a ring. It didn't have attribute addition, but it had two effects. 

First, upgrading the weapon that Sampson held by one grade. For example, his new spear. Its original grade was A. But, when Sampson wielded it, its grade would increase to S temporarily.

Second, it had a pulling skill. It gave Sampson an ability to pull an enemy to him. The distance of the pulling depended on the grade of the weapon that Sampson wielded. At first, because his spear was only a beginner weapon, he could only pull an enemy 5 meters away from him. But at the moment, because his spear was a grade-A, its pulling range had become 25 meters. It was such a good piece of equipment. 

The reason Ace didn't realize it before was because Sampson had made it invisible. As hat type equipment and accessories could be hidden through the system, if the wearer wanted it.

"What I got also good, dad! Look at these!" Geo said and then showed two items towards Ace.

They were a staff and a hat. The staff had an effect that could give a defense boost to a monster while the hat only increased Geo's physical and magic defense.

"Yes, they were good. You can protect yourself and your pets with them," Ace said while messing his son's hair.

"Dad, you made my hair a mess," Geo complained.

"Hahaha…," Ace only laughed.

As for Cloud, Ace could only know that her staff was new, as for its effect, he didn't dare to ask. As for her other new piece of equipment, he hadn't seen it yet. 

As everyone was here, Ace thought it was a good time to talk about the glory tower. As he wanted to say it, Sofia who was sitting beside Cloud said, "As everyone is here. I want to report on the progress of the recruitment."

As her wife had talked first, Ace decided to listen to her first. So were the others.

"Although you can look at it directly, I will make a summary about it. As we have agreed, the personnel have taken a shift to receive the new guardians that have just been summoned. 

For now, we have recruited 134 new guardians. They are 35 humans, 24 elves, 21 goblins, 17 dwarves, 15 shadows, 10 dragonlings, 7 gnomes, and 5 angels. 

And there is some good news. We got 7 rare professionals. They are a C rarity human runemaster, a C rarity human assassin, a D rarity goblin ninja, a B rarity dwarf engineer, a C rarity shadow shapeshifter, a D rarity gnome scholar, and an S rarity elf gambler of fate."

When Ace heard 'the gambler of fate', he couldn't help but be stunned.

***