Second World

Jack looked around the place again. The seabed was sand seabed with various marine sediments, coral reefs, and ocean plants. Multiple small fishes were swimming around him.

He saw a large mound ahead of where he had appeared. There was a big hole in that mount, a cave. He wondered if he should go there? The other directions were pretty much bland. The seabed just went on to infinity, similar to the barren plains of the first portal.

He looked up. He then swam up. First, he would like to look at what's above the water. The water surface was not far.

His head soon came out of the water. He looked around. It was water as far as his eyes could see. No land. The sky was also normal.

As before during an underwater situation, Peniel had fled into her hidden dimension to avoid getting wet. Now that there was dry air, she appeared in the air.

"Do you know what we are supposed to be doing here?" Jack asked.

"Beats me," Peniel answered. "I don't see anything worth mentioning."

"Hm… I guess we have to enter the cave I saw down there," Jack muttered. He could change into the dragon form and flew around to take a look, but he doubted he would find anything worthwhile. He might even lose the way back here if he did that.

"Hey, what's that?" Peniel asked while pointing. At the same time, Jack saw a red dot in the direction Peniel was pointing at.

Jack looked over in that direction. He became tense after seeing what caught Peniel's attention. What he saw was what had often created the terrifying scenes in those horror movies featuring sea, a large fin on the surface of the water. And this fin was heading at him.

Jack immediately dove back into the water to take a better look. He was not disappointed. It was indeed a large great white shark swimming at a fast speed at him.

Jack used Inspect on the shark.

*

Great White (Special Elite monster, Aquatic), level 51

HP: 280.000

*

The shark dove into the depth before coming up with an open mouth full of teeth.

Jack took out his magic staff and erected a Magic Shield before the shark crashed into him. The momentum of the shark's attack threw both Jack and the shark high into the air.

Jack then brandished his Storm Breaker and cast Magic Weapon. "You might be a terror in real life but you are just a special elite here!" Jack uttered and used Penta Slash on the shark while in the air.

When he fell back into the water, the shark was swimming in a circle around him, ready to attack again. Jack waited for it to attack. In his experience during past water combats, it was easier to let the monsters come at him rather than chase after them. Unless he changed into his dragon form, his movement was not as fluid as on land.

Before long, the shark had come again from Jack's back. Jack immediately whirled around and cast Magic Shield again. While the shark bit his shield, he used Flame Strike in an uppercut motion. The knockback force sent the shark to burst through the water surface for the second time and flew even higher in the air.

Jack then cast Magic Wall and placed it on the surface of the water, creating a make-shift raft. The shark fell on the translucent magic wall, to which Jack climbed up. The situation had now been reversed. Jack could move freely while the shark was floundering on top of the magic wall. Without further ado, Jack delivered non-stop attacks on the helpless shark.

The shark's HP was zeroed before the magic wall's duration was over.

When Jack fell back into the water, he saw three new red dots on his radar. He turned in the direction of those red dots and saw three familiar fins in the distance. Was this like the portal before? Would he be getting waves after waves of sharks that were increasingly stronger and more in number?

But if it was so, then there was one major concern. The waves in yesterday's portal were seemingly endless. If it was the same here, then he needed to locate the exit point before the wave became untenable.

After a brief thought, Jack decided to ignore these incoming sharks and swam right into the cave he had seen below.

He looked back just as he was about to enter the cave. The three new great white sharks were close already. All three opened their large mouths ready to bite. Jack cast Tracing Beams, which knocked the three sharks back. He then swam into the cave.

He looked back again after swimming a little into the cave. It would be easier for him to fight inside this cave, the sharks could only attack him from one direction. He waited for those sharks to enter, but they didn't.

Jack swam back to the cave's mouth and peeked out. The three sharks were swimming in a circle around the cave entrance but showed no intention of entering.

Looking at the situation, Jack was now sure he was meant to enter this cave. All those shark attacks were simply to drive one into this cave.

Since it was this way, Jack proceeded to swim deeper into the cave.

He came into a branching pathway soon. He looked at the two options and then checked his radar. In the direction of the two pathways, one had many red dots while the other was empty.

"Hm…," After considering for a bit, he decided to choose the safe passage. Under normal circumstances, he might have chosen the dangerous option since that would give him exp points. But he was in uncharted territory, better to play it safe this time. He was sure that Greed fellow had something prepared for him by the end of this cave, considering that God's 'push beyond the limit' ideal.

Jack continued to swim and encountered branching pathways again and again. Every time it was the same where one pathway had hostiles while the other was empty.

Another difference was that the cave's tunnel was wider the deeper he went. Soon, he came out into a giant vertical tunnel. He looked up and down. Which way should he go?

Jack decided to swim up first. After some swimming, he came to the ceiling of the tunnel. There was nothing there. This meant the correct direction was going down. He then swam back down, just as a red dot appeared on his radar.

This red dot didn't appear from his radar's edge like normal but was immediately positioned close to the center. It was as if this hostile appeared out of thin air, or out of thin water in this case. Jack looked up. He could still see the tunnel's ceiling. There was nothing there. Which meant this red dot was below. He swam down. It was only one dot and it was of normal red color, meaning it was at a level he could still cope with. Nothing to worry about.

As he dove deeper, he could see the hostile swimming up from the deep. This water tunnel was pretty dark, if not for his Dragon Eye, the beast might have been able to sneak close to him before his mana sense picked up the danger. It was another shark. A shark three times the ones he saw outside.

*

Megalodon (Rare Elite monster, Aquatic), level 51

HP: 570.000

*

'Of course, another terror from the deep,' Jack commented in his mind.

Jack had no problem going one on one against a rare elite, but this was underwater, so he decided to be prudent. He started by casting Magic Field, boosting all his magic spells. He then initiated combat by firing his offensive spells, some of which triggered double-cast due to Magic Field's effect.

The Megalodon barreled through the attacks. It seemingly had a higher defense compared to the Great White.

When it was close, Jack used Magic Bind. A ring of light held the shark in place. This advanced spell could only last a moment before Megalodon shattered it with brute strength, but the pause was enough for Jack to complete casting Myriad Venomous Vipers.

The spell triggered another double-cast. Two bubbles appeared near the Megalodon. It tried to swim away. It was fast, but its speed had been halted by the Magic Bind. Now that it had to accelerate again, it wasn't enough to escape the vipers' zone. Thirty green vipers appeared and wrapped the Megalodon's gigantic body.

While it was incapacitated, Jack approached. He cast Phantom Blade before started dishing out punishments.

Being unable to move, the Megalodon could only take the beatings without the ability to fight back. Jack activated Asura and Adrenaline Rush to speed up his attacks. The thirty vipers also continuously bit the Megalodon and infected it with Poison.

By the time the forty seconds duration of Myriad Venomous Vipers ended, the Megalodon's HP was already close to critical. Jack used the burst attack of his Formless Flowing Sword style before the Megalodon went free. With three pairs of arms, the combo multipliers were tremendous.

When the Megalodon started to swim away, Jack sent Wind Slash. The five wind energies cut through the Megalodon and finally claimed its life.

With this obstacle vanquished, Jack swam down again. As he did, another red dot appeared again close to him, which meant it was inside this vertical tunnel as well.

The difference was that the red dot this time was bigger and had a darker red color.

'Oh, shit…,' Jack uttered in his mind.