Desolate World

Ace could only smile bitterly. After all, he couldn't help that. The situation didn't allow him to hesitate. As Erica's life was at a stake. He thanked God for making his attack critical. After all, shooting from such a distance wasn't guaranteed to be on target. Even if he had practiced for months, he often missed his target when attacking farther than 150 meters. Being a sniper was not easy, after all.

Ace then looked at the lich. The lich's level was no longer 37. It had reached 39. It meant, Geo had leveled up to level 36.

He then said, "Hah! It won't be you anyway who will resurrect him. It will be Geo," Ace said.

Doom shrugged his shoulders and said, "But, it will be me who will prepare everything. Forget it! Who asked me to be a mere goon."

Ace then smirked. He then said, "I never saw a goon who led 13,500 skeletons. We call him commander."

The two light orbs in Doom's eye sockets brightened up. He then nodded and said, "You win. 'Commander' sounds nice. I like it. Leave it to me."

Ace nodded with a slight smile. It was just too easy.

Ace then heard flaps of wings come to him. He didn't have to look to know who were coming. He then looked at two ice dragons, Eric and Erica landing in front of him.

"Director! Thank you for saving my sister. Without your help, she will… she will…," Maybe because he was too emotional. He couldn't finish his trembling words.

Ace then nodded. He smiled and said, "Don't mind it. I have thought of you two as my friends. I could not let you die just like that, right?"

""Director!"" Eric and Erica then looked gratefully at Ace. 

Ace waved his head, "Okay, you don't have to say anything else. Let's look at the loot that we got"

Ace said while starting to walk towards Vesper's body. There was already a floating loot crystal above it. 

The others, including the surviving guardians, also approached Vesper's body. They looked forward to what they would get from the ghoul lord. Although, they knew that it was impossible to get the drops of Vesper as it would be given to Mars. At least that was what Ace had told them at the briefing. So, they could only wait for Ace to open it. As he had promised to let them see it.

Ace looked at the guardians with a smile. As expected, they had leveled up a few times. At the moment, the one who had the lowest level was a human healer with level 15. And the one who got the highest level was Emily with level 21.

"Are you curious, what we got from him?" Ace asked the crowd. 

"Boss, hurry up! We wanted to see it," A healer guardian girl said.

"Yeah. Elder, Open it! Or I will open it myself," Andrea said.

"Okay… Okay… I understand," Ace said in a defeated tone.

Ace walked directly to Vesper's body. He then took the loot crystal that was floating above it.

He then opened it. 

A large number of dirac coins then appeared on the ground. Besides them were a book and a ring.

"Are these all?" Ace couldn't help but say his thoughts aloud.

Adrian was also surprised, but the others couldn't find what's wrong with the loot. Ace then calmed his heart. For the dirac coins, a total of 10,000 dirac was there. Then he took the book. It was a book that could teach someone a barbarian job. 

[Barbarian Training Manual]

Grade: A (magical) (artifact)

Description: A wisdom of Vesper, a master barbarian that successfully became a lord in his life. Even after he was killed and resurrected as a ghoul, his wisdom was still safely kept in his consciousness.

Can teach the barbarian job to at most 10 people every 24 hours. Kuota: 0/10.

Note: need to offer at least a level 10 monster core to learn this job. The level of the person who successfully learns the job will be reset to level 1.

This book actually was a good thing. With this book, his guild could have one more thing that could attract other guardians to join. He was sure the close combat guardian would be happy if he knew that the guild had this book. He then checked the barbarian's stats.

[Barbarian]

Type: melee combat

Exclusive weapon: battle axe

Description: With physique prowess, smash every enemy.

Base state

Level 1 Exp: 0%

HP: 170

MP: 75

Strength: 45

Agility: 20

Magic: 10

Physical Defense: 35

Magic Defense: 15

Vitality: 35

HP recovery: 0.175/sec

MP recovery: 0.05/sec

Requirements: human, shadow, dwarf, elf, beastmen, orc, ogre, zombie, and skeleton.

Stats growth per level

HP: 120

MP: 56

Strength: 14

Agility: 4

Magic: 2

Physical Defense: 7

Magic Defense: 3

Vitality: 10

HP recovery: 0.05/sec

MP recovery: 0.02/sec

Barbarian was a damage dealer with pretty good defense and vitality. This job's weakness was in agility, magic, and magic defense. Ace concluded that this job was very good in a large-scale battle, that everyone must adhere to war formation. As in that situation, agility didn't have much use.

Ace then showed the book's information to everyone. Many guardians gave Ace regretful looks. Maybe because it was a close combat job.

"I will put it in the guild. Everyone that wants to learn this job, must have at least 100 guild points and sign a long-term contract with the guild," Ace announced.

But, no one put an interest in it, as they were support-based guardians. Andrea asked him whether her people could learn the job. Ace said of course. Not only the shadows, but Ace also ensured that all townsmen could learn the job with the recommendation of their respective elders.

Ace then took the ring. It was a white ring with a skull-shaped head. Somehow, he felt ominous energy was leaking from the small rubies on the skull's eye sockets. He felt a bad premonition about it. He then checked it.

[Death's Vault #13] (cursed)

Grade: A

Magic +300

Affects: 

• Inventory space: the wearer could access 1,000 m³ inventory space of this item.

• Death's attention: this ring will tell its location to everyone that equips Death's Vault series. It is guaranteed to drop when the holder of it dies.

Requirements: Lich or Necromancer level 30.

Ace's hand trembled as he looked at its information. He didn't immediately show it to everyone. But he looked at Andrea then Doom.

With a serious expression, he then gave it to the shadow woman without a word. 

Seeing the perplexed Ace, Andrea frowned. As he took the ring and checked its information. Then she showed a surprised expression.

"Elder, is it?" Andrea asked, while looking at Ace.

Ace nodded. He said, "It can tell the undead our location."

"And we can not open it without Doom's help," Andrea said while looking at Doom.

Ace nodded again. He said, "Yes. Fortunately, we have Doom." He then looked around and said, "It's a dangerous item. I will discuss it with several people. Could you give us some time?"

Not only the guardians, other people except Ace, Cloud, Doom, Geo, Andrea, and Peter left the place to give them a space to talk among themselves about the ring.

After everyone else went, Andrea looked at Ace and said, "This ring is too dangerous. We can not bring it to the town."

Ace nodded, but he also said, "It truly is. But It is also an opportunity. Fortunately, we have Doom who is a lich. By wearing it, he can also detect the other rings. With it, we can also know the location of the other ring."

Andrea then said, "We are not ready to face them yet. You know it."

Ace sighed. He knew that the shadow priest was right. At the moment, Laketown didn't have the ability to confront the undead directly yet. By bringing it to the town, it would give the undead the town's location. 

But Ace also knew that by having it, Ace could know the locations of many important figures' locations through it. And for Ace, as the Night Guard's director, it was a piece of valuable equipment. Night Guards' current interest was to weaken the undead by killing as many of their lords as they could. He couldn't just give it up, although he knew that it was dangerous.

However, he knew he couldn't decide it by himself. So he directly gave up thinking about it.

"I think we have to ask Boss about this matter. Let him decide it by himself. But, let Doom equip it, first. I'm sure what we want is inside it," Ace then said.

"Okay. You should consult Boss about it first. I am also curious what the evolution stone looks like. Doom, please take all of the stuff inside it," Andrea then gave the ring to the lich.

Doom received it carefully. Then he wore it on one of his fingers in his right hand. After that, he checked the content of the ring. 

Ace then saw the light orbs in his eye sockets trembling. It made the people around him including Ace curious about what he saw.

"Doom, what have you seen?" Ace asked.

However, Doom didn't answer. He seemed to be preoccupied with the content of the ring. 

It made the others become more curious. Geo even poked the still Doom's body. 

"Doom, tell me what you have seen!" The little guy said.

Doom then said, "Master, give me some time! I have found many things that are so extraordinary. I need more time to check them out."

***