During that half a day when Jack left Elayne, the girl had increased another two levels. The speed by which she defeated the Volatile Firefly Ants was much slower than Jack, but during the time Jack was away, all the exp from the ants was received solely by her. There was no one else to share the exp points. Hence, her level still increased as rapidly as when Jack power-leveled her.
Elayne was now level 50. She was already eligible to join a war campaign, but Jack wanted her to be stronger before that.
She learned another music, spell, and skill, after becoming level 50.
The new spell was Teleport. With this spell, she had more options in dodging the ants' encirclement.
The new skill was Sound Cannon. When she used this skill, a powerful sonic boom blasted out. This sonic boom was like an invisible beam that destroyed everything in its path. The sonic beam traveled a distance of 180 meters away. Jack believed the original Sound Cannon only traveled 60 meters. It was due to her talent that the range of this skill was tripled.
As for her music, she had an easier time dealing with the Volatile Firefly Ants with this new music. Her new music was called Alluring Symphony. When this music was played, every monster who heard the music had a 5% chance of receiving Charmed status every ten seconds.
As a result, a small portion of the Volatile Firefly Ants turned on their comrades every ten seconds. These ants used their kamikaze detonation, killing their friends and themselves. The rate by which the ants were decimated increased the longer this music was in effect.
Jack continued to watch Elayne from the side as she dealt with the thinning ants. When it was down to just seven ants left, Elayne finally noticed Jack's presence. She had been so fully concentrating on the battle that she wasn't aware Jack was back.
This lapse caused her to let her guard down. She showed a surprised expression after seeing Jack and stumbled in the air when she realized the ants were dangerously close.
Jack acted then. He swung his sword using Wind Slash. Five wind energies swept forward. The wind energies traveled at a curved path. Jack used mana manipulation to further control their flight paths. One wind energy was able to hit up to two targets. All seven ants were sliced by these wind energies.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Elayne came over to Jack and said after the situation was safe.
Jack gave her a stern stare.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. It's just that I want to see how well I do without Your Majesty's protection," Elayne said timidly.
Jack chuckled. He tapped the girl's head. "You seem mild but you are more hot-blooded than you appear. That is okay, but you have to be careful. Recklessness will get you into unnecessary trouble."
"I don't think you have the right to lecture her about that," Peniel remarked.
"You stay out of this," Jack scolded the fairy.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your understanding," Elayne said.
"By the way, what do you do with your sonic darts?" Jack asked. "The last time I saw you used them, your sonic darts were unable to cause those ants to detonate."
"When I fought the ants at close range, I used my mana sense to study their mana flow when they exploded. I instilled my sonic darts with mana and struck them at their body part where I sensed the explosion was triggered. I was trying to trigger their explosion deliberately. It took me several trial and error but I finally managed to get them right."
"Wow, you are truly gifted in mana manipulation," Jack complimented.
"Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty," Elayne said softly. "It all thanks to the tutelage of an old outworlder who accompanied me on the team you sent to help me level up."
"An old outworlder?" Jack asked.
"His name is Domon," Elayne answered.
Jack chuckled. He didn't know if Jeanny intentionally arranged for his grandfather to be a part of Elayne's power-leveling team, but Domon's tutor instinct must have been aroused when he noticed Elayne's gift in mana manipulation.
"Well, since I see that you can take care of yourself, I think we should go find a better grinding spot," Jack said. This place was fine, but as Elayne's level became higher, the exp points generated by these Volatile Firefly Ants became less. These monsters were only level 60, after all.
"But this next place will be dangerous, you have to promise to be careful and listen to my instructions. Is that clear?" Jack asked.
"I obey, Your Majesty," Elayned replied.
Jack nodded. She summoned Pandora. "Let us go to the underworld then," Jack declared.
*
Jack spent the next three days in the underworld with Elayne. Before, he mostly used the place to grind draconic essences, but Peniel did inform him about several spots suitable for exp grinding. He brought Elayne to one of those spots.
This spot was one that he had never visited before, so he did not worry the underworld force traced him to this place.
At this place, they were again fighting insect-type monsters. The insect type was one that usually appeared in large numbers and had the least HP. For Jack who could annihilate monsters en ma.s.se, this type was the most suitable for power-leveling.
The place where they spent those three days was infested by three types of monsters. The most common was the demon ant. This demon ant was bigger than the Giant Ant that Jack fought a long time ago when he was still using basic cla.s.s. These ants' bodies were covered by dark red metallic carapace.
These ants were fast and their bite packed a punch. Every bite had a chance to cause Poison status. They could also shoot acid pellets from their mouth. These demon ants were mostly level 70 to 75 special elites. They provided insufficient exp for Jack but gave an abundance of exp for Elayne.
Unlike the Volatile Firefly Ants, these demon ants didn't explode and kill themselves. Jack and Elayne had to slaughter them the normal way. This wasn't a problem, because the ants didn't have high HP. With Jack's insane damage output, he killed them almost as fast as he killed the Volatile Firefly Ants especially when all his skills were still available.
When those skills were on cooldown, his pace indeed became slower. But these demon ants had higher levels, so the average gain was evened out. The reason Jack brought Elayne to fight higher-level monsters was to hone her battle instinct. After seeing how she fought, Jack didn't think this was too early for her.
Jack also summoned Therras and Spark. Among the four of them, they made short work of the demon ants.