While the others were preparing, Duke Alfredo gave something to Jack. The description of it was an alert beacon, it would let the surrounding expedition soldiers noticed his position and come to his aid.
‘Ain’t this similar to the Themisphere Beacon stone that is still inside my bag?’ Jack thought.
??
Duke Alfredo said, “of course this thing is useless when you are inside. But there had been stories that tell about the exit of Outworld gate to be different from the entry point. So in case you find yourself in another part of the ruin when you come out, use this beacon to let us know your position.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. If possible, he was not planning to use it thought. In that way, he might get another beacon stone that could summon the surrounding native soldiers. He already had a plan of what to use for the first beacon stone, but it had to wait until he was back to the capital.
While everyone else made their own preparation, he also made his. He took out an enhanced whetstone and ate a sweet dumpling. Boosting his base attack by 30%.
Once everyone was ready, the players stood in front of the silvery portal gate. Duke Alfredo and Prince Alonzo stood to the side, bidding them good luck.
Jack looked at his friends. “Ladies first?” He asked.
“Ladies my ass! You are the one with the quest. You go first!” Viral Cora uttered.
Jack shrugged, he was just teasing them. He did plan to enter first. Without further ado, he stepped into the silvery liquid-like surface. The experience he got was roughly the same as the last time he entered a dungeon, although it was longer this time. When he came about. He was in a stony hallway.
‘Huh? Am I just being transported to another room of the temple?’ He thought. The reason he thought that way was because he had passed through the same-looking hallway before when he was walking with the duke to the main hall.
“It’s not the same,” he heard Peniel’s voice. “Look, there were no climbing vines in sight. And the lighting apparatuses were all still intact and working.”
‘You don’t mean…’
“Yeah, I think this is what the temple looked like when it was still in its heyday.”
‘Hm? That’s odd.’
“What is?”
‘My radar… It’s empty.’
At this time, the air next to him trembled, then it rippled as if it was a surface of the water before Jeanny popped up out of thin air.
“Hey,” she said to Jack, then looked around alertly, her spear in her hand.
“We are safe here,” Jack told her. Well, if his radar was correct, then he could say there was no danger here at all. But he remembered several times already when his radar was acting up. From the undetected Swamp Croc to the time where its range was severely limited in the cave with the ice mana site. Probably this time it was a situation where it was completely incapacitated.
Several more ripples appeared in the air, and more players popped out. In a matter of seconds, all sixteen players were standing in that empty hallway. They looked around before realizing that there was no gate for exiting.
“F*ck! Who was the one that said this dungeon might not be like the other dungeons that have an exit at the place we enter? See how we have been jinxed?” Bowler cursed.
“I did,” Jack announced.
“Well, if it’s you, then it’s ok.”
Everyone rolled their eyes at Bowler.
“Which way?” The Man asked. They were in the middle of the hallway, there were two opposite paths stretching out. The dungeons they had gone to or heard from others, always had one direction to go after they entered. Hence, everyone was at a loss here.
After a few moments of silence, Jack said, “this way,” and started walking.
“Oh? Is there something that made you pick this direction?” Bowler asked.
“No. I saw that everyone had no idea. So I just simply pick one,” Jack answered.
Everyone was speechless hearing his reason.
“A wrong decision is still better than no decision. Come on, or do you want to rot here thinking yourself till eternity?” Jack said, then continued his walk.
Jeanny walked after him, John trailed not far behind. The others soon followed.
The hallway was very long. They went for quite a while. ‘Is this really the temple in its past? I don’t remember the hallway in the temple ruin is this long.’ He asked in his mind.
“You can’t really consider this place as the real Temple of Divine Squall,” Peniel replied. “A dungeon is a separate world. It was created using the real world as the model, but it’s not exactly the real world. So there is a possibility this place is even bigger than the real Temple of Divine Squall.”
Jack suddenly stopped in his track. The others who were walking behind bumped on him before they stopped as well.
“Why do we stop?” Jeanny asked. There was nothing in front. The hallway was still going straight ahead without any turns.
Jack was staring down on the floor. The reason he had stopped was because there was a red marker in his God-eye monocle. He thought that his monocle had been incapacitated, turned out it was not the case. But the marker only appeared after he was so close. If he took three more steps, he would have stepped on it.
‘Is that what I think it is?’ Jack asked in his mind.
“Yep, it’s a trap.”
‘Luckily, we were walking, not running. So, what should I do?’
“Remember the Disarm Tool I asked you to purchase? Use it on that trap.”
Jack took out the tool and knelt down in front of the floor that was marked. The red marker enveloped a large area of the floor from wall to wall, so they would be sure to step on it if they wanted to pass. It was also too wide to attempt a jump.
Peniel gave him instructions on how to use the tool. The others observed him in fascination. After Jack did everything as instructed, what looked like a loading bar appeared. But after he looked closer, it was a time bar, and it was decreasing rapidly.
“Listen carefully, you should soon hear some faint click sounds now that you are interacting with the trap. You have to trigger the tool at the same time you heard the clicks. The full sequence consists of several of the clicks, the sequence will repeat until you successfully disarm the trap or the time limit expired. You need to successfully trigger the full sequence before the time limit expired to successfully disarm the trap.”
Damn, so complicated, Jack complained as he tried hard to hear the faint click sound. The others were talking among themselves discussing his weird behavior, some who knew about traps told the others, while a few were asking Jack what he was doing.
“Hey, shut up! I’m trying to concentrate here!” Jack yelled. The others were startled but realized the seriousness in his tone, so they complied. They looked on in silence as Jack was doing something to the empty tile in front.
The time bar expired, he failed.
‘Shit, are all traps so difficult?’ Jack asked Peniel.
“It is difficult because the grade of the trap is too high and your skill grade is too low. From my estimation, I think this one should be of advanced expert grade.”
In that case, then this will be difficult. As his Detect and Disarm Trap skill was still of the Basic Apprentice grade. It’s a good thing that he still received proficiency despite failing, the same as lockpicking.
Jack turned and saw that the others were still staring at him in silence. He explained to them what he had just done, and then asked, “anyone here with high grade Detect and Disarm Trap skill?”
“There is a trap in front?” Weird Trap asked.
“Yes, what is the grade of your Detect and Disarm Trap skill?” Jack replied.
“Basic Apprentice.”
“Crap. Shame on you! You disgrace your name.”
“Bro, you have a storm in your name, I don’t see you using any lightning or wind skill.”
“Wait and see!” Jack said, then asked the others, “anyone?”
“Mine is Advanced Apprentice,” Viral Cora uttered. “Is that high enough?”
“Mine is also advanced apprentice,” Sunset Walking said.
Jack looked at the others’ expressions, then said, “it appears you two are the highest. Do you have any disarm tool?”
“I have twelve, leftovers from when I prepared them for the traps on a quest,” Viral Cora answered.
“I have thirty,” Sunset Walking informed.
“Ok, I have forty-nine. If you guys need more later, you can take mine.” Jack decided to not use this chance to increase his Detect and Disarm Trap skill proficiency. Now is not the time for an experiment. They could not go out to restock the Disarm Tool. If they ran out of the tool, they will need to trigger the trap to pass through. He doubted the penalty of an advanced expert grade trap would be light. Better to give the tool to someone with a higher chance of successfully disarm the trap.
