Second World

Jack hastily put up a Magic Shield to block. ʼDamn this double-crossing psychic horse!ʼ he still had the time to curse inside his mind.

But the expected impact did not arrive, even after he heard a loud crashing sound. He looked again and saw the Nightmare was back to standing on her four legs again. Underneath her two front hooves and right in front of Jack, was a cracked floor. This floor soon crumbled. His God-eye monocle beeped and gave a marker that indicated a valuable inside.

ʼSomething is hidden down there?ʼ He thought.

”She said a gift for freeing her,” Peniel said, indicating Pandoraʼs thought.

”Tell her to please warn us first the next time, I almost had a heart attack because of her,” Jack said.

”You tell her yourself, she can understand you,” Peniel replied.

Pandora huffed, showing some kind of acknowledgment.

Jack bent down beside the hole on the floor. There was some kind of oval thing inside. Jack reached down and took it out. It was an egg-shaped thing.

Therras Beast Egg (Unique consumable)

Contain infant Therras Beast

ʼTherras Beast? Isnʼt that the fearsome monster I faced down there? This is its egg?ʼ Jack then turned to Peniel. ”Is this what I think it is?”

”What do you think it is?” Peniel asked back.

”This can be used to acquire a Therras Beast pet?”

”You classes canʼt.”

”Hm… then maybe I should give it to Flame.”

”You are just as I feared. This is a unique item, for goodness sake. You donʼt just give it away! And also, she cannot use it as well unless she chooses the Beast Master class as her elite class. This Therras Beast is classified as a medium-sized monster, normal Archer can only tame a small-sized monster. Keep it first! Donʼt just give it away.”

”But it was pointless for me to keep it if I canʼt use it.”

”There are other uses for it. Just keep it first, I will let you know when an opportunity comes up.”

”Okay,” Jack said as he stored the egg.

”Why are you grinning?” Peniel asked after seeing Jackʼs face.

”I just find it funny. Didnʼt you notice I just got four unique items in a single day? It was like unique grade items were losing their rarity.”

”You are just lucky. Anyway, the two unique items you got are something you canʼt use, while the fourth one is only on lease.”

”Yeah, talking about the one on lease,” Jack looked over to Pandora, who was still standing there silently.

”So… I just jumped over to her back? She wonʼt throw me over, right? And is all that flame safe? Donʼt tell me I will continually receive fire damage as I sat on her?”

Pandora huffed again as she stomped her foot.

”She said you will get burned if you try to sit on her now. She said wait,” Peniel translated.

The flame around the Nightmareʼs body started to roll around unnaturally. A part of it lashed out. That tongue of flame surprised Jack that he retreated one step. The tongue of flame coiled on the ground near Jack and then rolled rapidly, creating a tiny whirlwind of fire. The Nightmare vanished as the small whirlwind stopped, the flame receded as it revealed a small red-colored whistle.

”That is…”

”Yes, that is the proof of bond with her. You can only ride on her safely if you use that whistle,” Peniel explained.

Jack picked the whistle up.

Pandora Whistle (Unique steed)

Summon a Nightmare steed

Duration: 11 months: 23 hours: 59 minutes: 54 seconds

Jack was happy when he read the Unique word in the description, but then was kinda sad when he saw the duration indicator. Still, a limited unique steed was still much better than the other steeds available to him at this stage. Probably in one yearʼs time, he could find one as good as this one for replacement.

Jack blew on the whistle. The ground beside him exploded into a pillar of fire that soared to the ceiling of the room. Inside the pillar of fire was a shadow of a horse that was rearing and a high pitch neighing sound was heard. The horse stomped down and the flame was blown apart, revealing the majestic Pandora once again.

ʼDamn! That was one cool summoning animation,ʼ Jack thought. He couldnʼt wait to see the expression of his friends when he called this Nightmare out in front of them.

Jack approached the steed carefully, there were still tongues of flame roiling around the Nightmare. He was afraid at first to be burned by this flame. But as he approached, he didnʼt feel the heat that should have come with it. The frightening aura that it exuded every time they crossed eyes in the past was also no more.

Feeling that the steed was not rejecting, he jumped on her back. ”Okay, letʼs get out of this valley!” Jack declared.

Pandora reared up again and gave a loud neighing, Jack was surprised by the sudden move that he quickly grabbed at the steedʼs fiery mane to avoid falling over. The fire was as if a physical thing that Jack could grip tightly on. The Nightmare didnʼt seem to give it a mind.

Pandora then shot out of the room and went directly to the big hole on the wall that opened to the outside.

”Wa–wait! There is no footing outside…!” Jack yelled, but the Nightmare seemed to ignore him.

She jumped out of the hole into the foggy air. Jack looked down and saw the ground was very far away. He had the unreal feeling that he was flying when he looked down there and gripped Pandoraʼs fiery mane tighter.

When he thought they were about to fall all the way down there, a fiery platform appeared under the Nightmareʼs hooves. The nightmare stepped on this illusory platform before pushing itself back in the direction of the wall. When his hooves touched the wall, it started to run upwards at a very high speed as if the vertical wall was flat ground. A trail of fire was created along the path the Nightmare was running on.

Jack continued to grab on the steed tightly, afraid that he would fall to his death again if he let go.

As the trio left the cave hall, an illusory image of the wizened old man in Jackʼs dream who called himself Majus appeared. He observed the ruined room where Pandora used to be confined.

”Ah, that rude kid actually take away the power source for the test… How am I supposed to test another candidate if they appear?” Majus mumbled. But then again, there were not many candidates appearing here. He was placed here only to oversee the test, he couldnʼt do anything about the theft.

”The kid even took the Therras Beast egg. If the one below died, I will have no spare to replace it,” Majus sighed. ”Well, nothing I can do about it. Hopefully, that kid returned again to continue the trial, so I can berate him.”

Jack was still hanging tightly on Pandora as she galloped along the vertical cliff wall.

ʼDid I really fall that far?ʼ He wondered as they continued to climb up. The wall seemed unending. He was very eager to get over this thrill he was feeling from riding a flaming horse up a vertical wall. It was like he was on a roller coaster ride that he never asked for.

The fog finally gave way and he could see the blue sky. The end of the cliff wall was in sight. Pandora continued running at high speed, she ended up jumping out from the edge of the wall and floated high in the air. Jack felt the feeling of weightlessness before gravity pulled him back down with the steed. He dropped down from almost twenty meters in the air to the ground, he felt as if his heart was leaping out from his chest. He grabbed Pandora tightly and was actually laying himself flat on her back to prevent him from being thrown off.

Pandora landed with a bang before bouncing off a few times to a stop. She stood there majestically as she glanced back.

”She wants you to know that she was expressing disdain at the moment,” Peniel said. Peniel was clinging to Jack as they rushed up, but she was not that flustered with all the speed. She was used to defying gravity anyway.

Jack climbed down from Pandora to catch his breath and stretched his body to calm his taut nerves. He gave a glance at the Nightmare and tried to see what kind of a face this Nightmare made when she expressed disdain, but couldnʼt see any difference.

Jack gave her a dignified expression and said, ”Well, I admit you are fast but donʼt you look down at me yet! It was because I never experienced running on a vertical surface. Do it several more times and I will get used to it.”

Pandora gave a neigh.

”She asked if you want to do it some more times again then?” Peniel translated.

”Uh, maybe another time…” Jack replied.

😉