After a hearty meal and well deserved rest, followed by just as hearty a meal the next morning, the party headed out once more as soon as they were ready, their aim to explore the other side where Jack, Kenji and Kaede had ran into the larger group of monsters. If it was as Jack suspected, they would once again encounter substantially stronger packs of goblins and hobgoblins, possibly even something more should they advance far enough to enter the periphery of their enemies territory. And, if there were enough encounters, hopefully they could reach level five for his farmer group, allowing them to then skip out on any other expeditions.

  The relatively large party size, coupled with the fact that only a couple of the party members had Jack's weapons and the fact he himself had not used a self crafted weapon were the reasons why after killing the chaos orc he had not gained a level, though he did have a rather strong feeling he should be close to it. Maybe he would hit said level alongside his farmer squad, though he was not particularly worried. Sure, he would unlock some new abilities as his level rose, but since he did not know the necessary thresholds, he was in no hurry whatsoever.

  His suspicions were confirmed quite soon, only an hour after they had set out in the preplanned direction did they encounter their first quarry and it was notably stronger than whatever groups they had encountered last time out. What faced them was no simple, dozen or so goblin large group with a hob here or there. The group, while similar in numbers, was much more stacked, sporting seven hobs and the remaining spots were filled with goblins, though it was also clear at a glance that the little shits here were in significantly better shape, even sporting a bit of muscle on their frames.

  Of course, they were still inferior to humans when it came to physical feats, but the fact alone that said monsters were in such good condition spoke volumes. This group, and other they will no doubt soon encounter are not hurting for food at the very least, thus there was large enough probability that said monster groups might even use some tactics- rudimentary, but tactics nonetheless.

  Jack took the very front, instantly engaging multiple hobgoblins and keeping them busy, allowing their damage dealers plenty of space to ply their craft, especially so when Kaedes buffs and Emi's debuffs were layered, strengthening their own group and weakening the opposition. According to Jack's suggestion, Kaede and Emi were working in tandem, trying to observe the battlefield and serve as groups shot callers, their position and roles providing the largest vision on the battlefield.

  The duo were quite shy and timid, clearly not feeling overly confident with the additional responsibility and task on their shoulders, but thankfully neither Izumi not anyone else had spoken against Jack's suggestion. In the same manner Izumi was responsible for their parties negotiations and dealing with other groups should the need arise. She had been groomed for a similar role and Jack refused to capitalise on the fact. Izumi's own happiness, if the smile she sported once the news were delivered was any indicator, was just the cherry on top, resulting in even better cohesion and teamwork as they proceeded ahead.

  Jack once again held himself back, serving as another crowd control tank, disrupting and hindering any hobgoblin that was in his vicinity, sometimes launching whatever hard object was near him in another direction, lending a distant helping hand to whomever he had noticed needed it, allowing their party to get by with light bruises at best that were then quickly healed by Kaede. He also noticed that he had to lend such helping hands quite often to his 'farmers to be', their lower levels, resulting in no class, as well as lack of both actual combat experience and the instinct and desire to fight resulting in quite the lackluster performance, though in their defense they were dealing with hobgoblins here, the few goblins that were within the monster pack already slaughtered, both Izumi and Fumiko ensuring that as few monsters as possible burdened their front liners.

  'Yep, will leave the farmers back home once they are eligible for class selection.' Jack once again concluded, seeing how the five middle aged guys were slowing them down, though not to the point they were big time liabilities, though with him present, they could not reach such a level even if they wanted to. After all, should the need arise, Jack was more than capable of taking all the rabble fighting their group within seconds. Still, as lackluster as Alonso and his buddies were in combat, the investment Jack was making would more than pay just pay back for itself. With the proper classes and then second advancements, he could gain easy access to extremely specific, unreasonably niche usage, insanely high quality materials and while useless in ninety nine point nine percent cases, he was the one exception that could utilize said material with a shit eating grin spread across his face.

  One might be wondering, just what would said material be used for? What kind of insanely rare and expensive thing could be made out of it? Honestly, Jack had no fucking idea, having only researched the plant in question because a pretty weaver deity had asked about it during his earlier time in the divine realm. It was not the item itself that held value to him, it was it's grade. With his matter storage, the rare and high quality stuff would be broken down for shitloads of matter for Jack to then get wild on fresh crafting sprees. The stuff he could equip his hard working party with, nay, his hard working guild, for there no doubt must be such establishments out there, would be near endless and each better than the last.

  "We are done big bro!" Kenji brought Jack back from his daydreams, an action that had not impeded his ability to keep five hobs occupied all the same until the remaining of them were dealt with by the rest of Jack's group before they turned their sights and sharp, pointy ends towards the ones he had kept busy.

  "Are you even taking this seriously?" Izumi asked as she cleaned her blade from the monster blood with a quick and precise vertical slash, leaving a trail of said blood in a straight line on the ground.

  "You saw the chaos orc, did you not? What do you think? And besides, not only am I keeping a watchful eye on the battle, assisting where needed, you also need the additional practice. You are welcome by the way."

  "You are correct." Izumi quickly replied, even bowing her head slightly, wondering if this was how most other people around her felt day after day, looking forward at an existence that simply defied their understanding and what fair world should look like.

  "Chiyo, anything nearby, attracted by the sound of our battle?" Jack turned his attention towards their scout, allowing her to take over as he quickly moved around, collecting all that free matter now just laying on the ground.

  "Nothing withing my range as of yet." she replied "Should I start looking for the next group then?"

  Jack looked around, his eyes going over the party and their conditions and realising they were all fine and ready to head out, a few minute breather all they had needed, he gave a positive answer, once again leaving their party in her capable hands, though still keeping his own eyes on their surroundings. If there was one anomaly, who said there could not be another, or ten others for that matter. Better safe than sorry and all that.

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  The coming hours were then spent in a very similar manner as the group tracked monster pack after monster pack, confirming Jack's previous suspicions about the direction of the main enemy horde, coming across proper monster groups, consisting of fewer and fewer goblins, eventually running into a group that consisted of fifteen hobgoblins alone. One might have assumed the fight with said group would be somewhat strained without Jack putting in more effort, though their party had grown stronger as well by that point. Not only had Jack acquired five new farmers, their classes picked as Earth Whisperers one and all, but even the japanese students had gone up a level, growing stronger as a result, either through stat increase, a new skill unlocking, or even both.

  In addition to the kids, and his farmers for that matter, growing stronger through experience and level ups, Jack a;so had acquired quite a lot of matter, thus he had spent a large part of their lunch break working hard to reward his hard working people, thus, not only Emi was now sporting a piece of Virtuoso gear, but even Izumi now donned a new, beautiful katana as it neatly sat on her waist.

  Virtuoso's manic quill(Epic)- Any true artist will never have the time to deal with all those mundane and pointless things, including, but not limited to, taxes, supply chains, workers, their salaries et cetera. Thus, it is only reasonable for them to find someone who would in their stead. Be it writing reports, or sketchy, sweatshop contracts reinforced by magic, said someone will do so in style and with proper tools. Intelligence +3. Moderate increase in mana gathering speed.

  Virtuoso's novice katana(Epic)- The further a Virtuoso grows, creating greater and greater art, so will those willing, nay, begging to follow him will too. Even the honourable and loyal samurais will bring their households over to greet him as their lord. It is only right the Virtuoso honour their vows with weapons of equal value and beauty. Dexterity +3. Moderate increase in sharpness and hardness of the blade as well as slight assistance in cutting trajectories for greater effect. Beautiful.

  Both items, being two handers, had the same hidden bonus of extra thirty percent bonus experience earned, bringing them on the same level as the weapons Kaede and Kenji had at the moment. jack would not play favourites just yet, though he might do so at a later time, the young couple was just that fun to be around after all. jack himself also finally leveled up, earning a new skill as well, and one that was just as unreasonable as all the others he possessed.

  Spark of Inspiration(EX)- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction earns inspiration from crafting, elevating his craft once enough inspiration is gained. While crafting, slowly fills up a gauge(hidden) until it's full and grants Inspiration charges that can be used to elevate the rarity of crafted item, creating a new blueprint of said rarity as well as of lower quality ones. After skill evolution multiple charges can be used simultaneously to improve the rarity further still, giving Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction the ability to create legendary rarity items.

  Impressive to say the least, especially because Jack could not make anything of lower quality than epic. If he so wished, he could create a blueprint of an item of heroic quality one had generated at least one charge, adding yet another possible heroic item with each additional charge generated. It had to be noted that once Jack had made an item once, he could repeat the same process with the same item at any afterwards, the blueprint of said item saved in his 'crafting recipe log'.

  Once the 'hobgoblin only' party was cleaned up, leaving no corpses behind like any other time, emi glanced at Jack, both her and izumi having tested their new items for the first time, and asked something she had wanted to say for a while.

  "What's with those descriptions of your items? Sure thing, they are insanely powerful and awesome, but it feels like some sort of a madman created those descriptions. Who's your personal secretary, creating sketchy sweatshop contracts for unsuspecting bystanders?" she huffed, clearly not as amused by the texts and Jack and the rest of the group.

  "But you are being paid with such magnificent food already? Don't tell me it's not good enough?" Jack exclaimed, adding overexaggerated mannerisms as he did so and sighed "I will just have to shelve the ideas about spices for proper sweets I was considering kaede could try and make with what little grain we had." His words had the expected effect as Emi almost flew to Jack's side as sha appeared behind the man who was sitting right now.

  "Let's not be rash boss!" she quickly spoke as she did her best to try and massage his broad shoulders "You should just focus on that sweet's thing and leave the rest of the mundane things to your secretary. Others will no doubt help out as well if need be."

  "He he he he. I will see what we can do about that." Jack chuckled as he replied, having scored a critical hit against the contractor. If there was one thing he had learned about Emi, it was her love for sweets and all manner of snacks, though sweets did take the top spot with quite the large lead over the runner up. The group did share the smallest of details about their hobbies or likes in evenings in an attempt to develop better mutual understanding and some bonds. The tighter knit the group, the harder they could fight for each other if need be.

  The rest of the party laughed along with Jack, even Emi having joined in, well aware that he would most likely do so regardless. Still, in just a short while both her and the rest of the girls group had learned just how chill and calming to be around he was, allowing them to goof around and lighten the burden they were feeling the longer they were here. Each and every one of them had parents left behind, good lives that were torn apart with them flung here in this new and dangerous world.

  Jack? He was both familiar, since they shared their fate, and foreign, no one of their group, or class for that matter, being familiar with him from before all this.

  "While I am serving you for the time being, I have yet to acknowledge you as my master though. Do keep proving yourself worthy if you want that pledge of this Samurai fledgeling." Izumi chuckled as she joined in, walking over with one of her hands gently holding her new katanas hilt, a small but content smile on her face as he glanced at the black hilt, a simple, but beautiful orchid decorating it. Unlike Kenji's simple, even crude looking weapons, Izumi's seemed to be crafted by a master smith who had put his heart and soul into the weapon. Jack had even joked that men look better with simple or rough looking equipment either way, prompting Kenji to make a poor decision right after as he asked a dumb question that earned him a bit of a beating.

  "So Fumiko's weapons will be like mine?" he had asked, only to receive a few curses and a threat from the girl in question.

  "Tired of living, lower nerd? How about I seduce your sweet Kaede then?" She huffed, then an evil grin spread across her face as she added "Or better yet, I will not only seduce her but offer us both to a real man then, huh? I even have one in mind he he." she snickered as her eyes darted in Jack's direction.

  Sure, Fumiko was a tomboy if you ever saw one, her attitude surely belonging to one, but her form, besides the relatively short and seemingly messy hair, was distinctively that of a girl, with curves in all the right places. Was it any wonder Fumiko was fuming when someone called her a guy? It was just that there had not been any guys worth her time or effort to seem more girl like. And sure, she was just joking around right now, but she also had to admit that Jack was a reliable and solid dude all around.

  "Hey! Down girl!" Jack lightly head chopped Fumiko "I know it's in jest and Kenji was asking for it, but i don't like such talk, so let's not go there. Why don't you ask Kaede to join you and punish the cheeky bugger? She will no doubt help you avenge that injustice, would you Kaede?" Jack asked as he looked towards the nerdy girl, another few pair of eyes also on her at this moment- one belonging to a slightly worried Kenji, the other to Fumiko.

  "Of course. Kenji was a bit bad just now and we can't let such bad habits take root, now can we?" Kaede replied as a predatory grin formed on her face as well.

  "See? What a kind and helpful classmate you have." Jack smiled at Fumiko as he stretched.

  "All right, Another half an hour in the same direction before we call quits for the day and turn back home." Jack spoke, having calculated the necessary time to get back, assuming they would also encounter at least a few more monster packs on their way there. little did he know what they would run into right before they turned back home, gaining some small insight regarding the one question that had been on their minds for quite some time already. The question being- Just what was the main hurdle they were supposed to deal with before leaving the tutorial?

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 10

  Class- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX)

  Stats unassigned: +12

  Attributes:

  Strength- 24 (14+7+3)

  Vitality- 21 (12+7+2)

  Dexterity- 11 (5+6)

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 25 (20+5)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX).

  Spells- temporary spatial storage (shrinking)

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo.

  Gear: amulet +2 vit: weapon- Gundao+3 str.