Second World

Jack placed the Memory of Elding back into the indentation on the floor, the silvery portal reappeared.

”Another dungeon entrance?” Trinity said in surprise. ”What could be on the other side?”

Jack shrugged at the question.

”Should we wait for the others?” Trinity asked again.

Jack looked at his radar. Most of the green dots were moving in the maze already, but there were still some in static, meaning that they were still dealing with the puzzles in their rooms.

”I will go check it out first,” Jack said. ”You wait here for the others.”

”All right, be careful,” Trinity said.

Jack stepped into the portal. Once he did, the portal vanished. Trinity was stunned. She looked to the floor. The triangular pyramid was still there, but there was some kind of transparent layer covering it.

That was not there before, she thought.

She bent down to pull the pyramid out of its socket. She was thinking that if she took it out and reinserted it, the portal would return. But when her fingers touched the layer covering the pyramid, a jolt of electricity shocked her hand. She pulled her hand back and saw a slight burn on it. She then stared at the wall at which the portal used to be.

Looks like the portal was only meant for a single entrance, she thought.

Jack, who had no idea that the portal had vanished once he entered, looked around the space inside. It was empty. It was just a dark floor and dark space extending to eternity. He looked back and saw that there was no sign of a portal he had come through.

It was a one-way entrance again. He would have to find another way for the exit.

But where? He looked around. This place was completely empty. There was not even a landscape. Every direction appeared the same. Where was he even supposed to go?

Peniel came out of her hiding dimension and floated around. ”This is a separate dimension, similar to my hidden dimension.”

”Do you have any idea which way to go?” Jack asked.

”Which way to go? Itʼs a very limited space,” Peniel answered.

”What limited space? Itʼs the horizon everywhere I see.”

”Try going as far as you can then.”

”Which way?”

”Any way.”

Jack picked a random direction and started walking. Before long, he hit an invisible wall. He used his hand to trace around and felt that the invisible wall went around in a curve.

”Uh, this felt familiar,” he said as he thought back to the Tutorial period. The town where the tutorial period was taking place was similarly encased by such an invisible wall, albeit this one appeared much smaller in the area it circumvent.

”So what? We are stuck in a space with nothing and no exit point?” Jack asked.

”There is always a point in building an enclosed dimension, I donʼt think the creator of this dimension…” Her words were cut short when a spark of lightning appeared not far from where they were.

Lightning seemed to come out of nowhere and then struck the ground. Another lightning bolt appeared and hit the same spot, followed by another. Soon, innumerous lightning cracked and shot to the same spot in a rapid manner. It cascaded until it seemed like thousands of lightning bolts were congregating simultaneously at that spot.

The resulting light was so bright that Jack had to close his eyes, his ears were also ringing from all these lightning strikes. But as abrupt as this phenomenon occurred, it suddenly stilled. Jack opened his eyes and looked at the spot that the lightning had ravaged. There was something there.

Looking closely, he was surprised to find out that it was not something, but someone. A man with purple skin was kneeling. This person looked up and his eyes met with Jackʼs. This personʼs eyes were completely white without any pupils. Jack imagined that he might have seen a few small sparks of electricity snaking out of those eyes.

The man stood up. He appeared to be naked, but there was no genitalia on the underside of his torso. He floated up and spread out his hand, sparks of lightning shot out from his two hands.

”Uh-oh, I donʼt like the look of this,” Jack mumbled as he used his Inspect.

Eldingar (Rare Elite Boss, Elemental), level 27

HP: 94,000

”Looks like you found the dungeon boss,” Peniel commented.

”Odd, why is its level so low? I thought this area should be one with the average around level 40 to 50?” Jack said.

”It didnʼt make sense indeed,” Peniel agreed. All the monsters they had encountered in the vicinity of the temple had been around that level. Didnʼt make sense for the boss to be at a lower level.

”Wait… Can it be that it is to match my level?” Jack asked, noting about his level which was also at 27.

”I donʼt see why it will do that, all this is very fishy,” Peniel responded.

The boss didnʼt let them discuss further. It made the first move since the intruder was staying still. Arc of lightning shot out at Jack. Although Jack was talking with Peniel, his attention never left the boss. Jackʼs Magic Shield already formed when he suspected the boss was about to make its move.

The Lightning hit the shield. Despite the Magic Shield had been max leveled, Jack still felt the aftershock. 312 damage appeared. Jack had a total of 1450 HP, added with the Superior Body Recovery that healed 197.5 HP every 9.5 seconds. This damage should not be a problem.

But considering this damage was after it being partially soaked by Magic Shield, a direct hit would be rather worrisome. So when he saw the hands of the boss lighting up again, Jack started running. The lightning bolt was too fast. He wonʼt be able to dodge it if he only moved after the lightning was shot. He only had a chance if he was constantly moving.

Arcs of lightning lashed out one after another, causing sparks as they hit the ground behind Jack who was running with all his speed.

Jack was morose. He had thought that his improvement was enough now to content with a special elite of the same level. But before he could test out his theory, the system instead threw him a rare elite of the same level.

Eldingar did not just continue to get fooled by Jackʼs running. Its one hand was still shooting lightning that chased after Jack, while its other hand shot at the place in front of Jack, cutting off his escaping route.

Jack was actually expecting this. Once the two lightning arcs closing at him from both sides, he used Flash Step to retrace back, causing Eldingar to lose him for an instant as it was expecting him to continue going forward. During this short window, Jack sent the boss a Sword of Light. The skill hit and produced 1832 damage. Though it was tremendous damage, for the boss who had 94,000 HP, this was nothing.

Eldingar who had shown indifferent expression all this time, lifted one of its eyebrows, and looked at the part where he had been hit. Its face displayed annoyance. It made an abrupt lift of both his hands and countless arcs of lightning coalesced there, forming a huge lightning ball.

”Come on! Do you have to get serious just for that small scratch?” Jack complained. He started casting Barrier. Whatever move the boss was preparing did not look simple.

Eldingar tossed the lightning ball in Jackʼs direction. Jack had already started running again when it made that throwing motion. The ball fell on the ground not far from Jack and a huge electrical explosion surged out.

Jack was shocked by its force. Countless electric snakes spread out from the center of the explosion. His Barrier endured the blast but broke after being assailed continuously by the electric snakes. He was reeling backward as the remainder electric current shocked his body. Damages after damages appeared, but luckily he survived. He quickly drank a healing potion and used a Heal scroll simultaneously.

Seeing his target had survived its attack, Eldingar made a scornful expression and lashed out its hands. Three arcs of lightning bolt shot out from each hand.

Jack did not dare to reserve his energy. He activated Life Burning Art then drank a basic healing potion and used a Regeneration scroll to counteract the skillʼs HP consumption. With the speed and reaction boost, he ran again. He cast Mana Bullet, Energy Bolts, and shot burst attacks using his staff while evading the increased frequency of lightning strikes, sometimes using his sword to parry the lightning bolts. Not as effective as Magic Shield, but better than none.

He could not approach the boss as the lightning strikes were too tightly packed. He only managed to evade so many of the strikes due to the distance. If he closed in, he would be fried to oblivion before he could even land one hit on the boss. But his ranged attacks were not proving too effective. At this rate, he would be electrocuted to death long before he could grind down the Bossʼ HP.

From this, it was apparent that he was still far from being able to contend against a Rare Elite of the same level.

😉