Second World-Novel

"I guess you are right. You wait here then. I will go and help the others get to this place," Jack said

"Wait! You won't be able to do that. They need to arrive here by themselves," Sunset informed.

"Eh? How do you know that?"

"Trust me, I tried going out before. The layout of the maze changed from when I came the first time. It continued to lead me back here."

"Hm… All right, I will take your words for it," Jack said. He could imagine he saw a relieved glint in Sunset's eyes.

"It's better that we try to solve the endgame here in this hall. Once we solve it, the dungeon will be considered complete, and everyone will return to the temple."

"Really? And again, how do you know that?"

"It's a hunch," Sunset said as he pointed to the floor on the stage. "Look, I have been examining this hall. There is a strange indentation here that is out of place. It almost looks like something is meant to be placed on it."

Jack squatted down in front of the indentation Sunset mentioned. It was the shape of a triangle. It was indeed peculiar, but considering it was so tiny, it was rather splendid for Sunset to have noticed it.

"Anything to be put onto it comes to mind?" Sunset asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Jack answered. He pulled out something from his bag. It was a triangular pyramid, Memory of Elding, the alien entity as Peniel called it, that came as a result of fusing the three Fragments of Map. The shape and size of the base of this pyramid fit the indentation on the floor.

Jack went ahead and placed the pyramid onto the indentation. A click was heard. The pyramid glowed and shot a beam on the wall behind the stage. A similar liquid silvery portal appeared at the same spot where they had gone into this dungeon when they were still at the actual Temple of Divine Squall.

A dungeon within a dungeon? Jack wondered as he stared at the portal.

When the silvery portal appeared, Sunset Walking who had been kneeling beside Jack abruptly stood up and lunged towards it. As he was about to touch the portal, he noticed something coming from his side. He had hoped his abrupt action to catch Jack off-guard, but he was still wary enough to pay attention. Thus, he managed to erect a Magic Shield just before he felt an impact. He was sent skidding sideways away from the portal.

Jack stood there in front of the portal as he watched Sunset with vigilance.

"You… you expected this?" Sunset said.

"I have my suspicion, but I honestly hope I was wrong," Jack replied. He bent down and picked up the Memory of Elding, the silvery portal vanished. Sunset's face turned dark as the portal disappeared.

"You seemed to know from the start what this does," Jack said. "So, what is behind that portal just now?"

Sunset didn't reply. Instead, he asked back, "why are you suspicious of me?"

"Too strong to call it suspicious, let's just say I felt something was wrong with you. Mostly just small stuff, the main one I guess was because you lied about your Detect and Disarm Trap level."

"How do you know I lied? Even though I had more success than that lass in disarming the traps, it's still…"

"From the time gaps between you triggering the Disarm tools," Jack replied, copying Peniel's explanation.

Sunset creased his brows, he did not expect Jack to watch him till that detail.

"Why did you separate from us? From the speed you arrived in this main hall, I assumed you knew the routes already and the answers to the mechanism. The traps also didn't seem to faze you much."

Sunset was silent for a beat before answering, "I was hoping you get killed by the mechanism."

"Oh? But if that happened, won't you lose this thing also?" Jack asked as he lifted the Memory of Elding.

"That will drop when you die," Sunset replied, and before Jack said anything, he added, "even with your Immortal Soul, it will still drop."

Jack lifted his brow, "you know?"

"Of course I do!" Sunset exclaimed, his pitch was close to yelling. "Considering you stole it from me. How do I not know?"

"Stole?" Jack was getting confused.

Sunset Walking waved his hand and his appearance underwent a transformation. His look now appeared older. His name also changed to Sunrise Gazing.

He was using a disguise? Jack thought with surprise.

"Do you recognize me now?" Sunrise shouted.

There was a long silence between them, too long that it turned awkward. Jack scratched his head, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

Sunrise almost fell. He had gone through much trouble to get a one-time-use disguise tool, now that he had revealed his real face, the tool is not usable anymore. If he had known that Jack did not recognize him, he would not have wasted his time to get that tool.

"Do you forget already where you get that God-eye monocle at the side of your face?!" Sunrise screamed.

Realization finally dawned on Jack, "oh! You are that zombie-chow!"

Zombie-chow, such a degrading nickname. Not only did Jack forget about his look, but he had even given him such an ugly title.

"I'm sorry, all that happened so fast," Jack said. "I still cannot make heads or tails of what had happened to the world when you suddenly appeared and then so equally abrupt getting chomped by those zombies. I simply didn't have the time to take a good look at you."

Sunrise's mouth twitched, he did not know how to express his anger more, considering the person responsible had been so honest in expressing his sorry. Before he could say anything more, he saw something that attracted his attention.

Jack saw the change in his gaze as well. Sunrise's eyes which had been so heatedly concentrated on him all this time had suddenly moved to focus on something behind him. His radar didn't show anything other than the two of them within this hall, but his instinct screamed at him to not dismiss this visual cue.

He swiveled rapidly that instant as he put his sword in front of him. A clanging sound of metal against metal was heard. He jumped back urgently after feeling the impact.

In front of him was a young man, clad in black-colored light armor. The countenance on his face showed surprise. "You managed to block my Concealed Ghost Attack skill? Amazing!"

Jack's max-level parry allowed him to mitigate most of that ambush damage. The man in front of him now appeared on his radar after that attack, it was registered as a red dot now.

"Soundeffect?" Sunrise called out.

Jack made a scan and saw that this was indeed the man's name. He was a level 29 Rogue, he was also a part of a guild called World Maker. Quite an arrogant name for a guild, Jack thought. Other than his high level, the fact that another player was roaming around this far-side of the wilderness other than his team was already an astonishing matter.

Soundeffect looked at Sunrise as his name was called. He then expressed a look of disdain as he said, "so, you are that Sunrise Gazing, another useless fool who failed to carry out Master's command. We heard you have been hiding in Thereath, never imagine you to surface here."

"I'm not hiding!" Sunrise yelled. "I am still serving Master! I know the clue of one of the things that Master is searching for is at capital Thereath. I've been following it until here."

"Heh, you think you will get a pardon if you managed to get that thing?" Soundeffect gave him a mocking laugh.

"At least it's a start!" Sunrise said.

Looking at the glum expression when Sunrise uttered the words, Jack thought the guy himself did not believe his own words. Who was this Master? To have them acting so devotedly for him. Jack had been silent this entire time letting them converse, he was hoping to glean a little bit of information from their conversation, since it was unlikely any of them would answer him if he asked directly.

Soundeffect seemed to have lost interest to talk with Sunrise, he turned to Jack and said, "do you want to hand that willingly? Or do I have to pry it off your corpse? You heard the guy, it will drop if you died."

"You are pretty confident," Jack praised, playing with the triangular pyramid in his hand.

"Heh, that should have been my words. Don't think that you are strong already just because you have the attributes from two classes. Strength also comes from equipment, skills, expertise, and tools. Currently, I am wearing all Rare grade equipment at level 30, I also have a lot of non-standard skills. Don't think a backwater player like you can hope to match me."

"Wait, he…"

"Shut up, you failure!" Soundeffect interrupted Sunrise. "We will deal with you when we are done with him!"

'We?' Jack raised an eyebrow.