Second World

"What?" Jack thought he must have heard wrong.

"You do remember where I said her kinds came from, don't you?" Peniel asked.

Pandora didn't wait for the two to finish chatting. She just started running at high speed inside that bedroom.

"WAAA….!!!" Jack screamed when he saw that they were about to crash into the wall.

The room suddenly elongated. It was like he was looking at a picture getting stretched. Pandora continued to run at high speed while the room expanded at a speed not slower than Pandora, so the wall was always out of reach.

Then, the room started to burn in different spots like it was made of paper. It continued to burn until there was nothing left but void. Despite seeing nothing, Jack knew from his mana sense that they were in some kind of a tunnel, and Pandora kept on galloping.

After an indefinite amount of time, Jack saw the end of the tunnel. Not the sighting of a light source, but instead, the sighting of a much darker thing compared to the already dark void around them.

Pandora rammed straight into this wall of the blackest substance by the end of the tunnel without slowing down.

Then, it was not dark anymore. Around him was a scene of black and red. Hard black stony ground with lava rivers, burning bushes, and burning trees were all around. Above him was a red sky, filled with ominous dark clouds and occasional thunder and lightning. But what tipped Jack off that he was no longer in the same dimension as the previous game world was the sickening mana all around him. It made him feel uncomfortable.

"Where do you say this place is again?" Jack asked.

"Welcome to the underworld," Peniel answered.

"The… The underworld…? Do you mean the same underworld where that archdemon we fought inside the dome came out from?"

"The very same."

"Holy…," Jack looked around, expecting to see demons around there.

His radar then informed him several things approaching fast. His mana sense also picked up the danger soon. His Storm Breaker was out and he used Shredding Fangs in the direction where the ambushers came from. Followed by Wind Slash. He just started attacking without thinking too much. He was currently too agitated.

What attacked him were five monsters. Four were dead after his attacks. One survived.

"Huh? Why so weak?" Jack asked after seeing it.

In his anxious state, he was expecting the ones ambushing to be powerful demons. He now had a good look at the one surviving ambusher. It was something that looked like a cross between a large snake and a bat. Jack's Inspect informed him the monster was Amphipterelet, a level 50 elite draconic.

The one surviving Amphipterelet flew away after seeing its brethren killed.

When Jack noticed that he had received 8 draconic essences from the four Amphipterelet he had just killed, he used Sword of Light. The fleeing last Amphiterelet died and he received another 2 draconic essences.

"Not demons?" Jack asked.

"Not every monster in the underworld is a demon," Peniel replied.

"Hey, I just notice. Those Amphiterelets are not afraid of Pandora!" Jack uttered. He was still sitting atop the nightmare.

"Many of the underworld creatures had a high resistance against psychic attack," Peniel explained. "So, Pandora's ability will be somewhat dampened here."

"Hm… I don't mind getting attacked by those weak Amphiterelet, though. I need the draconic essences. Do you know where their lair is in this place?" Jack asked.

Pandora neighed and reared up. Jack would have fallen if there was no magical glue holding his butt to Pandora.

"She said she didn't take you here so you can go and farm monsters," Peniel translated.

"Okay, okay. I apologize. No need to get upset. Take me to where you want to take me then," Jack said to the nightmare.

Pandora then shot off in a direction. Jack opened his map and marked the coordinates where he met the amphipterelets, just in case he had the chance to come back again. He also noticed that his map had a different vibe now. Before, the map of the area he had already traveled to looked vibrant and was dominated by yellow and green colors. The map here was dominated by brown and red colors. This further reinforced that he was in a different world than before.

"This place is suffocating," Jack said. The uncomfortable feeling he had isn't going away.

"It's because of the corrupted mana," Peniel said. "Remember when I explained underworld demons needed corrupted mana to survive? This place was their natural habitat."

Pandora continued galloping. The landscape was mostly barren except for those burning bushes and trees. Stone hills with sharp pointy ends filled the terrain. Pandora had no trouble traversing the terrains. She even ran atop the lava rivers.

Jack saw some monsters. Some were still affected by Pandora's aura. Some were, as Peniel said, resistant and chased after Pandora. Yet, Pandora's speed was too fast for those monsters. She just left them in the dust.

"When she teleported us into this realm, why didn't she just direct it to where she wanted to go?" Jack asked Peniel telepathically.

"It didn't work that way. The crossing between the two realms was unstable. She could only pinpoint a region. Where she appeared in that region was completely random."

After some time, Jack finally saw something on his radar. A cluster of white dots.

"Natives?" Jack said with surprise.

"Underworld is not all just chaotic place filled with demons," Peniel told him.

Some sort of a settlement was soon visible. It wasn't large. It was the size of a village. The houses were tall cone-like structures made of materials that Jack was not aware of.

Some folks were walking around the village. When they got near, Jack saw that they were humanoids with goat legs and goat horns. They were satyrs.

Pandora just barged into the village like nobody's business, which surprised the inhabitants. The commotion caused the entire village to become aware of her coming.

She stopped in the middle of the village. All the satyrs in the village ran to where Pandora was. Jack was worried the satyrs were angry about Pandora's stunt. His radar still showed the satyrs as white dots instead of red, but he still held his weapons at the ready just in case.

Then, all the satyrs around them dropped to their knees in a reverent pose.