Cleaners at Full Power

After saying that to motivate himself, he then made his way towards a bunch of wolves as he gripped tightly on his silver wolf fang. Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to enter the radius at which he would attract the aggro of the wolves, John pulled him back before he could enter, leaving Jean with a slightly confused expression on his face.

With his father's hand tightly gripping on his chestplate, he could not help but look back and ask, "Dad, why are you stopping me? When grinding rare materials with a party, isn't there a member in the party that would attract the aggro of the Stray Bit that they want to hunt, accumulate a great number of them behind the one attracting the aggro before bursting them down to death with tons of damage?"

"Normally, that would be the case." John nodded to his son's explanation of how a party worked since that was how it normally operated. But before Jean was about to say why his father barred him from attracting the aggro of the wolves, John then said, "But remember that you have two peak level Cleaners with you, not two Cleaners at around the same level as you. We could even attract the aggro of hundreds of wolves and still come out unscathed."

"Now, at your current level, do you think you can do that?" John continued, to which Jean replied with a slightly disappointed expression, "I just wanted to help though…"

Hearing his son's reply, John had a light smile on his face as he replied, "Leave it to us two for now. Your main stage will be the fight against the Wolf King."

Noticing a determined expression on his father's face, Jean decided that he could not persuade his way to helping out his parents, so he stepped back, allowing John to replace his place as the one that attracted the aggro. Jean made his way towards his mother, who currently had a spellbook hovering in front of her.

Nonetheless, this did not stop her from noticing Jean coming closer to her, saying, "Did your dad tell you to step back?"

"Yeah." Jean nodded. "Is there any reason to it?"

"Tons." Jane had an excited smile on her face as she responded. She then raised her staff before channeling the mana in her body towards the tip of her staff. While doing so, she told her son, "Look at what your dad is going to do."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

At this moment, John had his eyes closed as he felt the wind blowing through his armor, which was quite chilly since it was night. Nonetheless, he brushed off this cold wind like it was nothing, sensing the distance of the wolves in the area relative to where he was. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and grabbed the silver axe on his back with one hand.

Thud!

With a decently loud thud, the blade of the axe fell on the ground due to the weight, even attracting the attention of a few wolves. But after they noticed that the sound came from an area that was outside their territory, the wolves did not mind it and continued on with what they were doing.

Until a loud shout broke that.

"Mass Aggravation!��� John shouted all of a sudden, radiating a red aura that enveloped his body. Not long after, this red aura expanded to a great radius, enveloping almost all of the wolves that could be seen from his field of vision. At the very instant this red aura enveloped the wolves, it seemed that their usual rational and logical personalities had been swapped with that of a senseless and berserk creature, looking at the origin of the red aura as they growled loudly.

While this was happening, Jean, who was outside the area of this red aura, could not help but have his mouth agape as he muttered, "So that's why dad told me to step back? It was because he had a skill that could attract the aggro of a lot of Stray Bits?"

At this point, Jean could not help but wonder as to where he could obtain skills and act like his father. He decided to look at his mother, who was beside him, who was actually looking at him with a smile on her face as she said, "It seems you wanna know where to obtain skills. Did your father��s skill activation make you motivated to get skills?"

"Well, yeah," Jean replied in a straightforward manner before asking, "Could you tell me where to get them, mom?"

"Hmm…" Sensing that a lot of the mana in her body has now made their way towards the tip of the staff she was holding up, Jane decided to answer Jean's question, smiling as she replied, "Sure, why not? You'll get skills eventually, but there are still skills you can get outside the normal method."

"Anyways, skills are split into three types: Class Skills, Status Skills, and General Skills," Jane started to explain as the tip of the staff she was holding took on a faint shade of red. "Class Skills are skills you could obtain from your class once you reach a certain level. At most, you could obtain around 6 skills from your class. The skill you get from the first time you enter the World Net is considered a Class Skill as well."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

At this time, the intensity of the red on the tip of Jane's staff had increased, even forming a whirlpool that seemed to absorb the energy in the surroundings. While listening to his mother's explanation regarding skills, he could not help but notice this, asking, "What's happening to your staff, mom?"

"I'm just charging up a pretty strong spell," Jane replied to his son's question. "Oh, right. Spells aren't considered as skills, but us Mages can only have 5 spells at most alongside our skills, which are all support skills. Not to mention, those spells should be appropriate for any situation that may come our way."

"After Class Skills are Status Skills. These are skills that you can obtain once you reach a certain value for a certain stat. The type of skills you could obtain from your stats can range from active skills, to passive skills, and even ultimate skills. Take for example a Status Skill I have named [Greater Mana Affinity]. I gained that after I had 100 points in the Intelligence stat, reducing the amount of MP I need for a spell, as well as increasing the damage output of the spell."

Just as Jane was about to explain the third type of skill, a boisterous laugh could be heard coming from far away, prompting the two to look at where the sound was coming from, only to find out that it was coming from John. At this moment, around a hundred wolves were already circling around him, wanting to take a bite at his body. Unfortunately for them, due to John being used to situations like these where he had to attract the aggro of a lot of wolves, he had a lot of ways to avoid the multiple attacks of wolves. There were even times where he would go ahead and hit a few wolves with a swing of his axe, reducing the amount of health they had in order for Jane's spell to deal more damage.

Indeed, Jane and John were a duo, with John being the one who attracted aggro, and Jane being the one who dealt all the damage. At this moment, they were doing the same thing in front of their son, allowing their son to see the prowess of his parents.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Right now, the whirlpool on top of Jane's staff had expanded in radius by quite a large size, its shade now becoming crimson due to the amount of energy it had amassed. Nevertheless, Jane knew that it could go even further, taking note of the spell's progress as she looked at her son and continued explaining.

"Last but not least are the General Skills. These are skills you could obtain from the NPCs in the cities. From the name alone, these are skills that can be used by any class. In exchange, the effect they bring is less potent when compared to Class Skills or Status Skills. That does not mean there are no strong General Skills out there though, but you'd have to pay a lot of Bits to obtain them. Other than that, you can only have a maximum of 3 General Skills equipped."

"And that's all," Jane looked at the whirlpool on top of her staff and noticed that a smaller whirlpool had formed over the large whirlpool, taking on a crimson color as well. Noticing this, she thought to herself that she could spare a bit more time to talk with her son, saying, "If you want, we could go and buy a few General Skills after we kill the Wolf King."

"I would love that, mom." In response, Jean had a smile on his face before he proceeded to look at his father. At this moment, a few hundred wolves had already surrounded John, with his body appearing here and unscathed. It seemed that this was just child's play for him, making Jean look at his father in a new light.

Fwoosh!

Not long after, he heard a loud sound resound from over his mother's head, prompting him to look at where it came from. Once he turned his head to look at what made that loud sound, he saw two crimson whirlpools on top of one another, radiating an energy that seemed like it would be able to ignite anything that came across its path. He then looked at the face of his mother, which had a slightly excited expression on it.

"John, my spell's ready! Get out of the way!" Since the spell was now fully formed, Jane started waving the staff she held in circles, adding momentum to the spell she had conjured. She then shouted to obtain John's attention, to which John replied, "Alright! Make sure to get each and every wolf in your spell!"

Whoosh!

At the very moment John had gotten out of the encirclement filled to the brim with wolves, Jane waved her staff forwards, sending the crimson whirlpools flying towards the wolves as she shouted, "Ardent Field!"

Shhhhh!

In an instant, the two crimson whirlpools expanded at a visible rate, enveloping all of the wolves John had aggravated in what seemed to be a field of flames. Not only that, a field of flames also appeared above them, seemingly burning them with fire from top and bottom.

"Awooo! Awooooo!" Thanks to this spell, all of the wolves could not help but howl in pain, turning into a crisp in a matter of seconds. Not long after, these bodies that looked like roasted wolves gradually transformed into ones and zeroes as the spell Jane sent out gradually dissipated as well.

"Tsss…" Jean could not help but suck in a bit of cold air as he looked at the amount of destruction a single spell conjured by his mother could do. He could not help but mutter to himself, "I took around 5 hours to kill over 500 wolves, but they only took like a minute or so for them to do the same thing…"

At this moment, he now realized how strong peak level Cleaners are. Not only that, it gave him more motivation to reach the same level of strength, and possibly even surpass it. Nonetheless, although he now knew how capable peak level Cleaners were, he still did not have any clue as to what level would one be to be considered a peak level Cleaner.

With that question in mind, he looked at his mother, as well as his father, who was getting closer to them, and asked, "Mom, dad, being a peak level Cleaner means you two have reached the maximum level, right?"

"Mhm." John and Jane responded to their son's question simultaneously. Not long after, John then asked, "What about it?"

"What's the maximum level a Cleaner can reach?" Jean questioned them, to which their parents noticed the glint of determination in their son's eyes, making them look at each other with a light smile. Soon after, Jane responded to his son's question, saying, "The maximum level is 100. I'm pretty sure the same goes for the Devourer rank as well."

"Level 100…" Although he was quite confident that he would eventually reach this level, he could not help but wonder as to how long of a time he'd take to reach it, seeing as the amount of experience needed for a single level greatly increased every time. Nonetheless, he knew that by reaching this level of power, their family would be able to amass more Bits, allowing them to live more relaxed lives.

Whoosh!

Just as he was about to ask questions regarding methods on how to obtain experience faster, a holographic screen appeared in front of the three, telling them of the rewards they had received from killing a lot of wolves.

'The party has obtained 11,880 XP. This experience has been equally distributed among the party members.'

'Congratulations! Tenebris has reached Level 9!'

'The party has obtained 6 [Wolf Fur].'

'The party has obtained 3 [Wolf Spine Ring].'

'The party has obtained 1 [Sharpened Wolf Fang].'

'The party has obtained 2 [Magic Infused Wolf Bone].'

'…'

The three of them had obtained a lot of equipment, as well as experience from this single bout since they killed a lot of wolves, but the one who gained the most from this was none other than Jean. He had obtained enough experience to increase his level by one level, obtained more than enough Wolf Fur to finish upgrading all of his equipment to Starter+ grade, as well as obtained the remaining rings he needed to fill his ring slots to the maximum.

Although John and Jane had reached already the maximum level for a long time already, the two of them could not help but be happy that their son had gotten a bit stronger, with John telling his son, who was currently looking at the rewards in a slight daze, "What are you waiting for? You leveled up, you even got enough Wolf Fur to enhance your equipment. Are you going to make us two wait for a long time before we fight against the Wolf King?"

"Ah!" John's words snapped Jean back to reality, prompting him to close the holographic screen in front of him before starting to dash towards the outside of the Azure Forest. "I'll only take a while to allocate stats, so please wait for me."

Whoosh!

And just like that, Jean was gone, leaving the two alone for themselves. They could not help but look at each other with a smile, both of their minds occupied with the prowess Jean has shown before they went ahead and killed all of those wolves.

"It seems we've given birth to a good son," John said to Jane.

Jane lightly chuckled as she said, "He'll surely become someone great in the World Net someday. I'm sure of it."