Second World

While the two were preparing, Syndrillisʼs body was shivering as she tried to force herself up.

”Wretched creatures!” She bellowed. The room trembled from her voice. ”How dare you hold me here! I will ground you into dust when I am free!”

The five who had been continuously writing runes beside the device, stopped what they were doing when they heard Syndrillisʼ tantrum. They decided to ignore her and return to their task. Syndrillisʼ voice blared again, this time even louder.

”Tell your double-crossing deplorable master to come down here and face me! Is he such a coward that he only left his worthless minions here to tend to me?”

The comment seemed to finally hit a nerve, as one of them turned and said, ”You lowly creation is not our masterʼs equal! You should be glad that Master even deemed you necessary as a stepping stone in his rise to greatness. You should be satisfied with that and be the tool that you are meant to be!”

The four others were now also facing her and throwing similar insults.

”Loathsome critters! How dare you talk to me that way…!!!” Syndrillis roared. Her body trembled in rage as he fought back against the enchantment that hold her down. The chamber shook following her effort.

”I will destroy you! I swear I will destroy you…!!!” Syndrillis continued to bellow.

”It is useless! Fight it as you like, but you will never be free! Just save your strength and let us squeeze out every blood essence from inside you and then we will allow you a peaceful de–”

The man didnʼt finish his sentence because suddenly, crimson-colored chains came from his back. The chains quickly wrapped around his body. His four other friends suffered a similar fate as numerous crimson chains gripped them and pulled them together.

The ground where they were on was now alighted as torrents of energy came out and swirling around them. Delivering damage each turn.

”Hey! Are your tool ready?” Jack shouted after casting Arcane Turbulence spell. He could have finished this a lot faster if he dived in and hacked them with his swords, but he was not sure how Wilted Tree prevented them from rebirthing in the safe zone.

”Who are you?!” One of the men who was being bound by Myriad Ensnaring Chains said. ”How did you enter here?!” His eyes then lay on Wilted Tree. ”Miss Motherboard? Why are you…”

Wilted Tree didnʼt answer, she instead threw something out. A sphere of transparent darkness spread out, covering almost the entire room.

The man obviously recognized the tool. He became agitated. ”Are you betraying us? Why… Did any of you able to send messages?” He asked the others.

”Finish them!” Wilted Tree said to Jack.

”Gladly,” Jack said. Jack waited for the Arcane Turbulenceʼs ten-seconds duration to run out. He then dove into their midst. The five were still held by the chains as the chains lasted twenty-four seconds. Jack then used Whirlwind Slash.

The five were already wounded from the Arcane Turbulence. They were only of advanced classes, so the Whirlwind Slash devoured their remaining lives. They didnʼt wear any Amulet of Rebirth, probably because they thought they were safe inside this fort.

Jack was just about to ask Wilted Tree if they have to wait half an hour for their rebirth when the five returned around him. All of them were level 1 now. Jack looked at the device that was emitting the darkness layer zone. Aside from preventing one from rebirthing in the safe zone, this thing also eliminated the half-hour wait after oneʼs death.

Wilted Tree threw some runic ropes to the ones closest to her. The rope automatically bound the players once they were touched. The further one tried to run, Jack stored his weapon and caught them before throwing them back. These level 1 players were powerless against Jackʼs strength.

Wilted Tree proceeded to tie all of them up before he deactivated the darkness zone device and stored it.

”Do you have another of those things that you are willing to part?” Jack asked.

”No,” she answered.

”Iʼm willing to pay with coins,” Jack did not give up. ”Lots of gold coins.”

”No,” Wilted Tree said again. She placed the device that prevent others from sending messages near the five before approaching the golden dragon.

”Good job, child. Now remove this binding enchantment from me,” Syndrillis commanded.

”No! Donʼt! She will destroy us all!” One of the bound five pleaded.

”Shut up!” Jack sent the guy a kick. He didnʼt feel bad bullying these World Maker people. ”You make any more sound and I will stuff your mouth with the dirtiest cloth I can find in this hellhole!”

The threat shut them up.

Jack then came to Wilted Treeʼs side. She was studying the rune diagrams around Syndrillis.

”Can you remove this enchantment?” Syndrillis asked again with impatience.

Wilted Tree frowned. ”Master has made some modifications to the diagrams. They are not ones I know of. This is bad, I never expect him to be able to modify a diagram…”

”It is not harder than the diagram that bound Pandora,” Peniel said after studying the diagrams. ”There are just more of them in layers. Storm should have no problem solving them.”

”There are also some invisible rune diagrams,” Jack added.

”Invisible?” Wilted Tree was surprised.

”Yeah, they were layered on top of these obvious ones. I figured they are traps. Unless you have mana-sensing, you will more likely trigger those traps if you try to solve this diagram the normal way.”

”Mana sense? Thatʼs the martial art technique you mentioned before?” Wilted Tree asked.

”Yes,” Jack answered.

”I canʼt believe Master took so many precautions. I would have failed if I come here by myself. I thought it was bad luck for you to be captured, but I guess it is Godʼs blessing for you to appear as you did.”

”Hehe, glad to help,” Jack said. ”Now step aside, this will take a moment.”

”You are confident to be able to remove this enchantment?” Wilted Tree asked.

”Piece of cake,” Jack gave him a victory sign.

”This is not a matter of joke. You will receive a backlash if you make a mistake. There is a probability Master will be warned as well as the result.”

”You worry too much,” Jack said. ”Relax! Leave this to me.”

Since she was unable to sense mana and also was not familiar with these rune diagrams, Wilted Tree had no choice but to let Jack try. He moved away to beside the bound players and watched.

When Jack was about to start, she heard Syndrillis speak, ”The girl was right, you shouldnʼt take this lightly. One misstep can cause the defensive mechanism of these diagrams to activate.”

ʼUgh, am I exuding so little confidence to them?ʼ Jack complained in his mind. He tried giving the dragon as serious a face as he could muster. ”Sit tight, you will soon be free,” Jack said confidently.

He then cleared his mind. His mana sensing ability had continuously improved as he kept on practicing every day. He could sense each thread of mana contained within these rune diagrams and how they should be altered to break the enchantment.

As Peniel said, these rune diagrams were less complex compared to the one holding Pandora. However, the sheer number of it meant that Jack would take a long time. He needed to deal with them one by one. Jack figured probably since the Master didnʼt have a rune diagram with enough quality to hold down a dragon, he instead compensated by using quantity.

If it was any other person, continuously doing repetitive work might cause one to slack and make a mistake. But Jack was used to repetitive works. He had no problem with this kind of chore. He applied the same mindset as when monster grinding, his mind continued to focus despite doing the same thing over and over again.

Jackʼs mana was absorbed as he worked on the diagrams, same as when he was freeing Pandora. But since the grade of these diagrams was less, the rate by which his mana was depleted was also less. Using Heightened state easily nullified the mana decrease. He also drank an energy potion after disarming one diagram. Unlike the one with Pandora where the entire diagram was one huge network where he could not stop mid-way, he could take a break for this one after each diagram.

Wilted Tree waited by the side as Jack continued to work. She was worried at first but seeing Jack disarmed the diagrams one by one, she started to relax. The bound players, though, started to worry. They started to shout and make noise just to disrupt Jackʼs concentration.

Jack continued to complete the rune diagram despite their disruption. Wilted Tree beat on them but they continued to shout. After finishing one diagram, Jack stopped and took a rest by walking around the chamber. After a while, he came back while holding several dirty cloths.

He grinned at the five as he approached them.

”Yo… you…”

”Didnʼt I tell you this will happen if you make noises?” Jack said before unceremoniously shoving the cloths into their mouths.

😉