As they enjoyed the fresh air after escaping the damp and dim valley, Jack was looking around with vigilant.
“What are you being so nervous for?” Peniel asked. “Pandora was just teasing you. She was not eager to go back down to that place as well.”
“No, I’m nervous about another thing,” Jack replied. “I’m not worried when we are at the bottom of the valley, but now that we are out, I’m worried that the assassin will come again. He can track my position, can’t he?”
“That was before you died. Since you have died once, his assassination should be considered completed and the mark should disappear. He had probably gone back to collect his reward. Furthermore, a VIP mark only lasts a short three days, because it required powerful magic to track a target. If one wants to prolong the VIP mark status, one will have to pay more coins.”
“Oh?” After a thought, he then understood that Warren should not be aware of his Immortal Soul. He must consider him like the other Outworlders who would lose everything once they died in the wilderness. Anyway, he did not want to hang around here to find out.
“Where are we?” He asked Peniel.
“We are some distances away from where you fall, but this location actually placed us closer to the city of Themetus that I mentioned before. You will only need six hours of riding if from here. Wait, if riding with Pandora, you should only need two hours.”
“Oh? She is that fast?” Jack said with a surprise.
Pandora who was having a leisure gait enjoying her freedom, looked back upon Jack’s remark. She then gave something that looked much like a scoff.
‘Damn, this steed got a bragging personality,’ Jack said in his mind.
“Which direction is that city?” Jack asked Peniel again, to which she answered by pointing in a direction.
“You want to head there now?” She asked.
“In a moment, I want to check how the others are doing first. It has been a week after all.”
Jack opened his Friend list and sent a message to John, asking him how the guild was doing and if everything was all right.
He received John’s reply soon after, “friend, you just asked me yesterday. Please don’t be like a nagging old mother. We are not small children that need your constant attention.”
Jack looked at the message with a creased brow. He read it again to make sure he didn’t read wrong. Peniel could also see his messages.
“Yesterday…?” He was pretty sure that he had spent one week down there in the valley. Unfortunately, there was no calendar in the status window. One had to manually keep track of the days.
“Can it be…” Peniel looked back at the gorge again.
“You make any sense out of this?” Jack asked her. “Or probably this John was just messing with us. He did like to mess with people.”
With that thought, he sent another message to Bowler and Jeanny, asking them how long ago he had left. Both replied by first asking him if something happened to him? Why did he lose track of time? Before they answered his question, which was only a bit more than two weeks ago.
With that confirmation, he knew that John was not messing with him. No way Jeanny would go along with the prank, and although Bowler could be playful, he would not join hands with John to mess with him.
“One day?” Jack asked. “If what John said is true, then our one week inside that valley was only one day out here. Is that possible?”
“I think that can be the case,” Peniel said. “No wonder the mana flow down there was very slow. That valley although not a separate dimension, can be considered as a different world from up here. No wonder I couldn’t fly back up here.”
“Then how come Pandora can run her way up?”
“She is a Nightmare, they are known to be able to travel through dimension. Her kinds were said to come from Hell, after all.”
“Never mind that. I don’t plan to go back down there anyway. It’s good then if only one day has passed since we fell. Let’s go to that Themetus city, I’m eager to become an elite class already!”
He was thinking at first of using the Town Return scroll to return to Thereath but decided against it. He was close to another major city that should have outworlders according to Peniel, so he wanted to go there and take a look.
Jack called Pandora over to ride her. She had been having a light gait all this time. When she heard Jack’s call, she stopped instead, but she also didn’t come over, she just stood there. Jack was confused at first before realizing what was happening.
‘F*cking arrogant horse!’ He cursed in his mind. He walked to her before climbing onto her back. Though Pandora had agreed to let him ride her, she did not truly accept him as her master, hence she didn’t feel the need to go at his every beck and call.
While Jack was annoyed with his new steed’s attitude, he did not dare to antagonize her as well. He still needed her cooperation, after all, he didn’t have any other steed at the moment. He said gently to her, “mam, do you mind going in that direction?”
Pandora gave a snort, flames shot out of her nostrils. She neighed and reared up before she ran forward.
“Do you have to always do this before you run?!” Jack complained as he grabbed her fiery mane tightly when she reared up.
The speed that she exhibited was so unexpected that Jack would have fallen over if he didn’t have a strong grip. Her speed was very much different from when she was running up the vertical wall. Jack felt like he was riding a bullet train, except that he was not sitting inside the train, he was sitting on top of the train instead.
Having difficulty speaking, Jack mind-talked with Peniel who was clinging on his shoulders, ‘you better tell her which way to go. Otherwise, if she just goes straight, she might bump into a strong monster.’
‘No worries, just let her go straight,’ Peniel replied.
‘What? Didn’t you hear what I just said, what if she…’
‘I heard you. There is no need to worry. No monsters will come near her. In fact, the monsters on her way will give way to her instead.’
‘Really? She is that strong?’
‘It’s not about strong. A steed won’t join any of your fights. The reason why the monsters will give way is because she constantly projects a psychic beacon that instills fears in the monsters when she travels. Unless there is a mythical monster, most will make way for her. Even a rare elite monster has to be around level 70 before it can resist a Nightmare’s fear aura.’
‘That’s awesome! Doesn’t this mean I can travel almost anywhere now?’
‘Now are you aware of how valuable a unique steed is?’
‘Yes, yes. I am completely aware now. Sigh, if only she can be my permanent steed.’
‘It is not impossible, but that will have to depend on you.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘For a start, you have to make her like you first.’
‘Ugh, she didn’t seem like one that is easy to please.’
As they continued at high speed, Jack noticed a lone blue dot on his radar.
‘A lone player in the middle of nowhere? Quite a ballsy one,’ he thought. Out of curiosity, he tried to steer Pandora over.
“Mam, can you go over there?” He shouted under the high wind while tugging Pandora’s mane in the direction where he wanted to go.
Pandora neighed loudly but still changed direction to where Jack steered. Jack could swear he felt an annoyance in that neighing tone. So much for trying to please this steed.
“Want to be a busybody again?” Peniel teased. Jack didn’t reply.
When they were close, Jack saw that the place was a small hill. There were not many monsters, or most had been scared away by Pandora. Jack urged Pandora to stop at the foot of the hill. The blue dot on his radar was on top of this hill. It was staying still, didn’t seem like it was grinding monsters. Maybe it was gathering resources like foraging or mining? Jack climbed down from Pandora and unsummoned her. He decided to approach on foot.
As he went up, he felt the place was rather serene. As he was getting near to the location of the blue dot, he noticed a small wooden hut in that location.
‘A house? What is a structure doing here in the middle of nowhere? Is the one there in some kind of a quest?’ He wondered as he continued to approach. He was walking stealthily to avoid being discovered. He didn’t know who the person in front of, better to take a better look first.
When he was close enough, he finally could see the one indicated on his radar. It was a man, a large man with white hair and a naked upper body full of muscle. His lower body was covered by loose pants. He was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the courtyard in front of the hut. His back was to Jack.
“That’s… no way, can it be such a coincidence?” Jack whispered.
“What is it?” Peniel whispered back.
“I recognize that broad back anywhere.”
