Second World

'What was this will all about?' Jack asked Peniel in his mind.

"You can consider it as the fuel for the runestones. Now let's go back to your room first. You will need a quiet place to concentrate."

Jack thanked the clerk, who did not give any reply nor expression.

Probably the programming of this particular NPC was broken, Jack thought as he left the shop. He didn't go anywhere more but went straight to Amy's Bakery. Amy greeted him when she saw him entered and asked him where he had been for the last two days. Jack told her they could speak later. She looked a bit busy with customers anyway.

He went to his room and once he was alone, he took out the three runestones he just bought. Peniel came out of her hidden dimension and flew above the runestones. "Take one of them," she said.

Jack picked one up. "And?" He asked.

"Insert your will into it," she asked.

"What the heck, do you think this is one of those manga stories where willpower is something that can be controlled? How do I even insert my will into this piece of stone?" Jack complained.

"What's a manga story?" Peniel asked in puzzlement.

"Never mind. How exactly do I do what you asked me to do?"

"You put your mind into it. Concentrate your thought into the stone and imagine as if you are sinking into it."

"Mm…" Jack mumbled as he held the small stone right in front of his face and concentrated on it. He felt the plain stone trembling a bit, or was it his imagination? He continued to concentrate on it. Something seemed to change with the stone, some red dots appeared to form on the surface of the small stone. The dots connected and formed into a line, which then turned into a strange shape of a rune. That rune flared with red light as Jack's vision suddenly experienced a sense of vertigo. He felt as if he got pulled into the stone.

"What the…," He was shocked as he found himself floating in a seemingly infinite empty space.

"Peniel…!" He yelled as he could not make sense of what just happened. He looked around trying to find a way out, or something that he could use as a reference point. But all around him was just nothingness.

"Don't worry, it is a normal thing to happen when you activate this runestone." He finally heard Peniel's voice. He never thought that her voice was so sweet until this moment. However, what she said next caused him to feel that her voice had changed back to the annoying version, "you will soon experience pain, a lot. Try to endure it with your willpower. You will conquer the runestone once the process is done. Oh, one more thing, do not press the exit button."

"The heck are you sayi…," Jack didn't have the chance to complete his sentence when a crack of lightning whipped at his body. He could feel his body spasming due to the shock.

"Motherf…!!" Another of his sentence was cut short by a second lightning.

The torture continued. The lightning seemed unending. The only thing he found comfort in was, no matter how much the lightning burned or scorched his body, it appeared to be undamaged. There was no burn mark or anything on his body. The pain was real though. He could not even make a coherent thought with all the convulsions. All he could do was endure the torture as Peniel had told him.

He didn't know how long he had endured the torture, it felt endless. All of a sudden, a holographic image appeared in front of him. The hologram only showed one simple image. A rectangular button with one large word written on it, EXIT.

His arm instinctively went to it, but he stopped himself before it touched. Despite his chaotic thought due to the pain, he still remembered Peniel's words. Do not press the exit button.

"Grgghh…," he gritted his teeth as another whip of lightning torched his body. The hologram image of the exit button floated in front of him, tempting him to simply press it and get this over with.

"Annoying piece of crap! You want willpower, I will give you willpower! Come and get me! Come and… urrggghhh… F**king hell! That bloody hurts…!!"

He started to shout and yell incomprehensible curse words, just to distract himself from the pain. The lightning continued to shoot at him one after another. The hologram button maintained its tantalizing position. More than a couple of times Jack almost went and touched it, but he forced himself back every time. In the end, he just resolved to close his eyes so he didn't need to see that aggravating Exit word in front of him.

Everything suddenly turned tranquil. It was so abrupt that Jack had difficulty believing it. His eyes were still closed, expecting the next lightning to strike. But it never came. He opened one of his eyes to peek, and he saw Peniel's face so closed to him.

He gave a loud yelp as he threw himself back. He realized he was back in his room, he was covered by cold sweat.

"That is so rude! How can you get startled by my beautiful face?" Peniel said to him with a pout.

"Lady, I had just experienced the worse torment in my life. Please give me some slack."

He then realized his hand that was holding the piece of runestone, was empty now. "Huh? Where did the runestone go?" He asked with a worried tone.

"Don't panic, it had merged with you after you passed its tribulation. Try to summon it with your mind," Peniel informed him.

Jack tried to think about the runestone, and called for it mentally. It materialized abruptly beside him. It looked different now. The size and shape were still the same, but the rune word that he saw previously had manifested on its surface and seemed to be permanent. There was a thin layer of blue aura around it. He did another Inspect on the floating runestone.

Runestone of Probability (uncommon runestone)

Increase approx. 10% success chance to auxiliary jobs.

Elemental energy required for upgrade: 0/100

The description had changed, Jack thought as he observed the illusory floating runestone beside him.

"It can be upgraded?" Jack asked.

"Yes. Any runestone you get will always be at their lowest grade," Peniel said. "You will need to upgrade them manually in order for them to increase in effectiveness."

"What do I use to upgrade them? Where can I get elemental energy?" Jack asked.

"The gemstone," Peniel answered.

"gemstone? Why does gemstone contain elemental energy?"

"gemstones were created out of the excess elemental energies in nature, which then condensed within the earth into gemstones. Everyone knows that."

"What nonsense is that? That's not what my teacher taught me at school."

"Which school did you go to?"

"The school I went to in my real world."

"Was it that imaginary real world you kept on mentioning during the tutorial period?" Peniel said with a mocking tone.

"I'm not arguing with you," Jack said. "Why does the description say approximately? Does the success rate change in every usage?"

"It does. The success rate will change depending on the strength of your willpower."

"What? We are still not done with that willpower business?"

"The whole runecraft process revolved around the strength of will. The more you will it during the application, the better the result is."

Discussing won't get him anywhere, let's give it a demonstration, Jack thought as he unsummoned the floating runestone and took out his apprentice hammer and apprentice mobile anvil. He then put his level 26 Red Dawn staff onto the mobile anvil. He used the upgrade feature to increase the staff's level. A probability of 30% was seen on the interface.

So low, Jack thought, but the apprentice mobile anvil had a decrease success rate of 10%. Also, the previous few times he had been upgrading his equipment using the blacksmith workshop feature which increased his success rate, so he never actually experienced how low his blacksmith grade was. But couldn't help it, he could not just throw away his focus on leveling for the sake of upgrading his auxiliary jobs like what Ellie and Dylan did. His focus had and always would be his battle prowess.

"Now, let's give this runecraft a test run," He said and resummoned the runestone of probability. It floated again beside him with that eerie blue light. He looked back at the blacksmith interface and found the probability had increased to 36%. It had increased by 6%, but it was still far from the 10% increased success rate indicated in the runestone's description.

"Try to will it to increase," Peniel advised.

Jack concentrated his thought on it. He imagined the success chance displayed on the blacksmith interface to increase. There was no response at first, but then he realized the floating runestone beside him flared with a stronger blue light. Then the number indicating the success chance displayed on the blacksmithing interface started to increase.