Jack let out a relieved sigh after seeing the Ogre remained still on the ground. He finally could allow his tense nerves to loosen after a long fight.
They soon heard a notification voice, "Congratulations on defeating the Horned Ogre. Receiving 3420 experience points."
The experience granted boosted everyone's experience points. Two out of the remaining five Men of Solidarity leveled up. Bowler had also leveled up to level 12. Jack himself was just a tiny bit away from level 15. He could soon become an advanced class! He felt excitement within his heart.
"Yeah! I am level 12 now!" Bowler proclaimed in joy.
Jack saw something floated out from the Ogre's body, it looked like a semi-transparent blue flame. It floated towards Jack then disappeared inside him. Jack was confused, but then he thought of something. He checked the Container of Souls in his bag, it now had 98 souls. A single Boss monster had granted him a 50 soul points boost. He was thrilled by the gain.
As he was contemplating on the souls he gained, a strong hand clapped on his shoulder, startling him. He turned and saw The Man grinning at him.
"My man, I never saw anyone fight as crazy as you. You inspired us!" He said.
Jack was about to give him a humble reply, but he had spoken first, "come, join us! You are just the right material for the Men of Solidarity!"
Jack was dumbfounded by the offer, before he could say anything, The Man interrupted again, "I will let you be the boss! Our gang only recognized the strong. You are stronger than me, so naturally, you will be the boss!"
"I'm sorry, I'm not interested," Jack finally blurted out quickly before he was interrupted again. But it turned out The Man had left and gone towards where the Ogre fell, it had disintegrated and left several things behind instead. Jack was not sure if The Man had heard his words.
"Come, boss! See what loots you have gotten from this kill," The Man said. He definitely hadn't heard Jack's reply, or chose to ignore it.
Jack approached the loots on the ground, there were three items and several coins. The items were a book, a helmet, and a staff. Jack inspected them with his God-eye monocle.
Steel Helmet, level 10/20 (uncommon medium armor)
Physical Defense: 14
Magical Defense: 10
Durability: 40
Endurance +1
Burning staff, level 10/20 (uncommon magic weapon)
Magical damage: 34
Range: 10 meters
Attack speed: 1
Energy: 60
Add 10% fire damage to Magic attacks
Skill Book (rare consumables)
Grant 1 skill point
2 uncommon and 1 rare! The Boss didn't disappoint. But how should they distribute it? There were three people in his team, Bowler and Fierce Flame, so logically they should get one item each. Flame and Bowler had arrived as well and made the inspection.
"You choose first," they both said to Jack. They both agreed that by contribution, Jack should take priority.
After considering for a moment, Jack decided to take the helmet. Flame and Bowler were surprised, they thought Jack would take the rare item. But in Jack's consideration, it was better for him to complete his armor set, he was just missing a headpiece. Furthermore, he could upgrade his skills later with the Container of Souls. As for the staff, thought he could use it for his Transformation Box, he didn't want to show the others that he wanted a magic staff. They might get suspicious.
Fierce Flame then chose next, as she took more risk when fighting the Ogre compared to Bowler. She obviously had no use for the magic staff, so he picked the skill book. Bowler took the staff, he was the last to choose but he felt that he was the one that got the most valuable loot, as it was suitable to his class. he immediately replaced his equipped weapon with this new one.
They then distributed the coins. There were 4 silvers and 69 coppers. Flame and Bowler gave the large portions to Jack, only taking 1 silver coin each, and handed the rest to him. Jack wanted to divide equally but they just left him after they took the 1 silver coin. Jack had no choice but to accept.
"Good haul, boss?" The Man asked Jack.
"I'm not your boss…" Jack replied.
"Sure thing, boss. Now let us go look for this treasure chest. Where is it?" The Man turned to John.
John pointed to the opposite end from where they entered. He said, "I saw it near the cave wall over there."
The Man nodded then signal for his gang members to follow him. Jack and the others also accompanied him.
Jack said to The Man, "I'm sorry for the men you lost."
Contrary to expectation, The Man laughed heartily, "Hahaha, no worries! It was not like they really died. They just returned to level 1. They would get back to their levels in no time, a real man won't be fussy about things like this! When we meet back with them, you will see, they will be proud instead to have had the chance to fight such a tough boss! Actually, I'll bet they will be damn surprised that we have managed to beat that monster! Haha!"
The Man was surely easy-going despite his rough exterior. Jack had a better impression of him.
When they came near the end of the cave hall, they saw a dark treasure chest near the wall. It was the place where the Ogre had been sleeping. Jack and the others didn't notice it because the Ogre had been sleeping with his back leaning on it, thus covering it from view.
"Treasure chest!" The Men of Solidarity shouted in excitement. They ran towards the chest in high spirit.
"Look at them. A bunch of grown men acting like children. They had really made me lose face," The Man said in disdain.
"Boss! The chest is locked!" One of them said.
"What?!" The Man yelled, then ran towards them in panic.
"Look at him, getting panic over a trivial matter," John said in disdain.
"Why, you know already the chest was locked?" Jack asked.
"Yes," he answered. "I've read something about treasure chests when I visit the library, all of them are locked."
'Is that real, Peniel?' Jack asked the unseen Fairy.
"Yes, what the guy said is correct," Peniel answered. "That's why I asked you to stock up on some lockpicks."
'So I can use a lockpick to open it?'
"You can try, but it was not guaranteed to open. However, this Bronze chest poses the lowest difficulty. So even with your lowest lockpick rank, you should still have a sufficient chance to pick it successfully, unless your luck is truly rotten."
Jack then asked John, "you know how to open it?"
John answered, "I do."
"How?"
"The book in the library said we can use some special treasure chest keys. If we don't have, then we can try our luck with lockpicks."
"You have such keys?"
"No."
"You have lockpicks?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you go to help them open then?"
John looked at Jack with an innocent face. "Why? It's not like I will get the item in the chest," he said.
Jack was speechless with the guy. He ignored him and went towards the Men of Solidarity who were still hunkering around the chest trying to figure things out.
"You really are a despicable fellow, you know that?" Bowler said to John.
"I know," John shrugged. "Can't help it."
When he arrived, he asked The Man, "do you or your men have any lockpick?"
"Lockpick? No, we don't," he answered.
"Okay, move aside. Let me have a try," Jack said as he fished out a lockpick from his bag.
"You will help us open it?" The Man asked with a surprised expression.
"I can't guarantee it will open, but I can try," Jack said.
The Man showed a grateful face. "You are the best, boss!" He said.
"I am not your boss!" Jack said helplessly.
He took a look at the treasure chest. It was quite large. Its height reached his thigh, its depth was almost an arm's length, while its length was longer than that. Its color was dark bronze, with surfaces that had some carvings of mystical runes on them. He squatted down and looked at the keyhole. There was a handle above the hole. He tried to use the handle to push the lid up. Yep, it's locked, he said to himself in his mind.
'How do I use this lockpick?' Jack asked Peniel.
"You use each hand to hold that two steel pins. Then inserted into the keyhole, then try rotating them inside. The pins will automatically look for the correct spot, but it was not always accurate. You have to feel its vibration. When you felt it gets stronger and heard a click, that's when you twist the pins."
'Sound rather complicated,' Jack said as he followed the instruction and put the pins inside.
He did feel the pins moved by themselves after being inserted. He then concentrated to feel its vibration. When he heard the faint click, he twisted the pins.