It was complete darkness inside. Jack stored his round shield and took out a torch. He lighted up the torch and the luminance showed that they were in a small round room. There was another opening at the far end wall. They went into it and found themselves inside a narrow passageway. With no other path to take, they proceeded along this passageway.
They walked for quite a long distance along the passageway. Good thing was there was no monster, it would be hard to fight in such a cramped space. They came out into a decent size cavern hall. It was empty inside, with just a number of boulders spreading around the hall. The hall was bright enough from some sort of natural light source that Jack couldn’t identify, so he stored his torch. He looked along the walls but found no other exit apart from the one they had just entered.
“Dead end?” Jeanny said when she also noticed the room was without any other exit.
“It shouldn’t be,” Jack mumbled. “If this world follows game rules, it wouldn’t create a place where we can get to but has no exit. After all, we cannot jump back up to the bridge where we jumped down from. Even if there are no longer any monster there, we still can’t jump that high to get back to that bridge.”
“But I don’t see any other way,” Jeanny said. “Could there be another opening at the alleyway we came from?”
“No, I have paid attention to it, this is the only place we can come to,” Jack replied. “Take a rest first, you had lost quite some HP. Just let your Natural Body Recovery do the healing and save up your potions. I will try to see if there are any hidden passages around.”
Jack then walked again along the cavern wall, while Jeanny took a sit on one of the boulders and let herself rest. Jack checked for any abnormality on the wall, he used his hands also to touch the rocky surface to feel if there was anything out of place. He glanced at Jeanny while moving along the wall.
“What was that skill you use against that Giant Beetle back there?” He asked her. “It was not a standard fighter skill.”
Jeanny looked at him in a daze, she was lost in a thought just now. When the question registered, she answered, “it was a skill called Penetrating Stab, it can ignore defense and add a 10% chance for critical damage.”
“How did you learn it?”
“It’s from a technique book, I got it when I slayed an elite monster.”
“That was lucky of you,” Jack commented. “But you are quite good to be able to kill an elite monster.”
“It was not easy,” she replied. “Plus, I was not alone.”
“Is that why you used a spear? It does compliment that Stab skill of yours better using that type of weapon.”
“Not really. I’ve always prefer using spear. This is my favorite weapon when I was playing past VR RPG games.”
“Then you are rather lucky to get that weapon. I haven’t seen many people using spear in this world, it must be pretty rare to drop.”
“Yes, but I didn’t get it myself. This spear was originally gotten by one of my guild members when they were grinding for experience. When I heard that she had gotten a spear weapon, I immediately find her and proposed to trade. Since she was not used to using a spear, she agreed to it.”
“What grade was the spear?”
“It was uncommon.”
“Cool,” Jack said. He had checked half of the cavern wall, nothing unusual yet.
“I saw the damage you dealt to the monsters, is it your weapon or your stats,” Jeanny asked.
“Both,” Jack answered simply.
“What level are you?”
Jack hesitated.
“What is it? You are not willing to let me know?” She said. “I’ve tried to Inspect you, but I can’t find out any information, even your name is undetected. That is very unusual, how do you do it?”
Jack shrugged, “I wear an equipment that have the ability to prevent others from inspecting.”
“Well, that is certainly more rare than my spear,” Jeanny said. “So are you going to tell me your level or not?”
“You are not going to believe me even if I tell you.”
“Try me.”
“Sixteen.”
“No way!”
“Told you.”
Jeanny observed him for a while, “you are not joking, are you?”
Jack shrugged again.
“No wonder Silverwing is pretty confident about you,” she said. “Queen Magenta and Warpath always said that you were just lucky to get first rank in level during the Tutorial period. If they know your level now, they wouldn’t have had the same thought.”
“They are free to think whatever they want. Their narrow mindedness will be their hindrance.”
Jack turned to Jeanny, then asked seriously, “why are you with them anyway? I saw how that Queen Magenta treated you. She didn’t seem to be a fan of you.”
“I… It was my own fault,” Jeanny replied with a low head.
“No, it’s not,” Jack said sternly. “She was not showing any respect at all to you as a fellow guild mate. Why do you stay in a guild that treat you so?”
“I have no choice.”
Jack frowned, “why do you say that?”
“The guild of Wicked Witches was founded by a workshop company in which my family had a share of. I’ve always been good with games and organizing people, so my family asked me to join the workshop. I admit that many of the leaders in the guild are unsavory, especially that Queen Magenta. But her family have a bigger share on the workshop, so there is really nothing I can do. I just have to endure while continue working there.”
She then continued with a self-mockery laugh, “I also still need the income to continue with my college, I’ve come from a family that require us to earn our own money once we passed age eighteen.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jack said.
“Huh?” Jeanny was confused by Jack’s reaction.
“Are you being serious?” Jack repeated. “Do you even realize what have happened to the world?”
“What do you mean?”
“The world has already turned. We are not living with the same set of rules anymore. Don’t you notice?”
Jeanny expression went blank, “but… but this is just temporary, right? Things will get back to normal, won’t it.”
“Please tell me you don’t really believe that…”
She was silent.
Jack continued, “whatever that made the world to turn into this game world, I don’t think it is temporary. I don’t think if we will ever find out the reason why the world has turned. But if you want to survive in this world, you cannot treat it as a simple game like you do when everything was still normal. In the past, games were just temporary past times when we still have to deal with problems in the real world. Now, this is the real world. We have better get used to it if we are to survive.”
When he saw her staying silent, he sighed and said with soft words, “you can also look at this as a second chance. Whatever rules that tied you before, it is no longer binding now. You need to make your own choice and live your own lives. Don’t let those old rules defined what you are anymore. You can be better, don’t depend on those that look down on you. Find people who you really care for if you want to be in a group, not because you have to.”
Jeanny continued to be silent, but Jack could see that she was pondering on his words. So he didn’t say anything more. He got back to check the wall. But even after he made a full circle, he still did not find anything odd.
Could it really be a dead end?
He looked at the entrance where they came from. Did he need to double back and checked along the passageway as well? But he was pretty confident he did not see anything odd as well along that passageway they had come from.
He was at a loss for what to do next, he asked Peniel in his mind, ‘do you have any idea how to find an exit from here?’
“nope,” she answered simply.
