Second World-Novel



Jack's other copy was in Euphosine's chamber. But since he was just a copy, he couldn't search around with his hands. He could only use his eyes. From what he could see, nothing in the chamber looked like a key.

The chamber even seemed like it hadn't been used for quite some time.

Jack guessed perhaps for someone who had gained the power of a Goddess, sleep was no longer necessary, and so was a bed-chamber.

There was a cupboard, a dresser with a small chest above it, and a box draped with a cloth. These were things that might hold valuable things, but he couldn't do anything to them as long as he was a copy.

His real self was at his last one hundred lockpicks. He kept on thinking the next lockpicking would succeed and ended up spending several hours lockpicking Talia's chain. Since they entered this nexus world, more than five hours had passed. He was not confident he could open the lock at this rate.

Jack decided to stop the lockpicking and checked the things in Euphosine's chamber.

"I'll be back," he said to Talia.

Talia then sensed the Jack in front of her became hollow. She knew then the Jack in front of her was just an illusion. 

After changing place with his copy, Jack's true body was now in Euphosine's chamber. His vision swept around the items of interest in the room. To his disappointment, none of those items registered as anything special on his God-eye monocle.

But that simply meant the cupboard, dresser, and small chest were nothing special. It didn't mean the items inside them were the same.

He first pulled away the cloth that covered something that looked like a box. It was a box. Unfortunately, it was empty.

He then opened the cupboard. Some clothes were inside. Just as how the room looked, it seemed that these clothes had been untouched for quite some while.

Afterward, he went to the dresser and opened its drawers. They were mostly empty except for a few junk items. No key.

He held the last item, the small chest. When he tried to open it, it was locked.

"Since this chest isn't classified with a grade, it is a normal chest, right?" Jack asked Peniel.

"Yes. It might hold something inside, or it might not. The content will always be the same. It is not a treasure chest or a lockbox which generates random items based on the chest or lockbox's grade."

"Which means there is still a chance the key we are looking for is inside here."

"It might," Peniel replied.

"If I force this chest open with brute force, the items inside might break?"

"Correct," Peniel answered.

Luckily, he still kept one hundred lockpicks. However, he didn't know if the remaining one hundred lockpicks were enough to open this lockbox.

"I hope this lock is not too difficult," Jack prayed.

He started lockpicking with his runestone of probability hovering above him.

After he broke twenty-five lockpicks, Peniel said, "You know, if this small chest turns out to be empty, you would have wasted those lockpicks when you could have used them to try your luck opening Talia's handcuffs."

Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Good job in giving me more things to stress about," Jack said sarcastically.

He heard a successful click then. At the same time, he heard a notification, informing him that his lockpicking skill had increased to Basic Master.

The lid to the chest opened and his monocle immediately marked four items of importance inside the chest. Jack's eyes were drawn to one particular item shaped like a key.

*

Talia Prison Key (Quest item)

Open the lock to Talia's handcuffs.

*I think you should take a look at

"Bingo…!!" Jack exclaimed. He was glad that he hadn't spent all his lockpicks on Talia's chain earlier.

His eyes were then drawn to the other three items. Those items were even more valuable in terms of grades. One of them was silver in color, indicating a unique grade. The other two were purple, indicating legendary grades.

However, Peniel's eyes were more fixed on the unique-grade item. She even flew over to pick the item up.

"This is a great find," She said.

*

Runestone of Spellcasting (unique runestone)

Empty. Required willpower to activate.

*

"Unique-grade Runestone…?" Jack muttered. A runestone could be upgraded to become a higher grade. For this runestone to start at the unique grade, it was indeed special.

"Do you remember Haon's runestone of combat?" Peniel asked.

"Yes. He uses that runestone to boost his attributes during combat… Wait, are you saying that this is also a runestone that can be used in combat?"

Peniel nodded. "Runestones that helped combat situations are extremely rare. Haon's runestone of combat and this runestone of spellcasting are one such runestone. This one will boost your spells if you use it during spellcasting."

"Wow! This is indeed a great find!" Jack exclaimed. "With this, my magic power will not be so behind my physical power."

"You have to fuse with it first to use it," Peniel reminded.

"We will do that later. We need to free Talia first," Jack said.

He then looked at the two remaining items. They were legendary-grade diamonds. These could be said as the best gemstones there were. Not only because they were legendary grades, but also because a diamond was compatible with all elements. They gave double elemental energies to every type of runestone. 

These diamonds would have been perfect to get the newly acquired runestone of spellcasting to be closer to the legendary grade. However, he knew he had one runestone that was even more essential than the runestone of spellcasting. It was his runestone of luck. This was one item that had helped him earn many bounties. If he could get it to the legendary grade, the benefit it could provide would multiply.

Hence, Jack didn't hesitate. He took out his runestone of luck and fed the two legendary diamonds to it.

60,000 elemental energies flowed into the runestone of luck. It now had 68,150 elemental energies out of the 100,000 required to upgrade to the legendary grade. He was more than halfway now.

"Okay, let's get back to Talia," Jack said and changed places with his copy again.

Talia sensed that the Jack in front of her became real again.

"Interesting spell," Talia greeted.

Jack smiled as he fetched the prison key out.

"You found it!" Talia exclaimed excitedly.

"Now, let's get you out of this thing," Jack said.

He inserted the key into the keyhole in Talia's handcuffs. A click was heard and the handcuffs magically disintegrated.

The moment that happened, an earthquake shook the entire place.

"What is this…?" Jack asked.

"Oh, no…," Talia uttered. Her voice was tense. "Euphosine hid another enchantment in my chain. She knows now that I am free. She will be coming soon!"