Second World

Jack saw Master near the stairs to the upper floor. He was holding a magic staff in his hand.

The magic staff lasted only five minutes. Master didn't plan to waste it. He pointed the staff at the barrier surrounding the stairs and cast Cancel Magic.

The barrier broke.

"Took your sweet time to help," Jack said to Master.

"I was conflicted about whether I should just let you die," Master replied. "But I figure we still have one more floor. I'm unsure of the threat above so keeping you around serves my purpose."

'Damn! That's brutally honest,' Jack thought.

"Let's go. My staff can only last a few more minutes and I have only two skill-free stones left," Master started climbing the stairs.

Jack first used another adhesive bandage to recover his shield so that he was back to having three full shields. He then followed Master upstairs.

When they arrived at this topmost floor, they were stupefied to find the entire floor was a large open empty hall. There was no lobby, no corridor maze, no night hunter mounds. It was just a big large space with nothing in it.

"Dude… Did you make a mistake in reading the position of the main node?" Jack asked Master. "Because if this is a mistake, it is not an excusable one. We spent hours and fought like hell to get up here. Not to mention wasted our resources."

"I don't make mistakes…," Master replied. He took one of his two remaining skill-free stones and used it.

A third ominous eye appeared on his forehead.

"It's not invisible…," He muttered. "… I don't understand. It should be here."

"Serves you right for acting like you know it all," Jack scolded. "We have been had. If you are sure the location is correct, then this building probably has a hidden basement. Damn it! Now, we have to go all the way down back to the ground floor."

Master was unwilling to believe it. Were all the securities preventing them from coming up here just distractions? Was the main node instead hidden under a secret basement?

Jack was about to head back down when Master shouted, "Wait!"

"What?" Jack asked annoyingly.

"That protrusion over there," Master pointed. With his demonic true eye, his vision range increased.

Without his dragon eye, Jack couldn't make out far objects. "What about it? Looks like a simple pillar in the wall."

"Do you see any other pillars around this place?" Master asked.

Jack looked around. Master was right. The other parts of the wall were devoid of any pillar or protrusion. Only the one Master pointed near the far corner had this feature. Jack agreed it might be something noteworthy, or it might not. Anyway, he thought it was worth it to go check. They were already up here, after all.

"Let's go see it," Jack said. The two started walking toward it.

When the two reached midway, the building started to shake. They also heard a rumbling sound.

"What the… What is this…? An earthquake?" Jack asked.

Master had no answer.

The shaking stopped. The two stayed at their spots for a few seconds, checking if there were any changes to the hall. It looked the same.

When the two were about to resume walking, the floor in front of them suddenly exploded.

They instinctively jumped back as debris flew all over. A giant monstrosity then filled their views.

The floor in front of them now had a huge hole. From the hole, a mass of a wriggling giant emerged. It was a blob with arms. Upon closer inspection, Jack realized the blob was formed of a heap of night hunters. It was like the mounds he saw on the lower floors, except larger and moving.

The night hunters forming the blob were alive. They flailed their arms around and made weird noises, but they couldn't detach from each other. It was like they were glued together.

This blob was coming for Jack and Master. It lifted one of its arms high and slammed down. Jack and Master jumped to opposite sides as the arm slammed into the floor, cracking it.

"Final boss?" Jack uttered. He was both dismayed and glad at the same time. Dismayed because they had to fight this giant monster with limitations. Glad because if there was a final boss, it meant they didn't come to the wrong place.

Master used his last skill-free stone. Earth pillars came out around the blob and converged on it.

"Earth Prison Wyrm!" Jack recognized the divine skill.

The blob was not fast so the pillars didn't need to go into their wyrm form. The pillars hit the blob and started to encase it.

But as it happened, the glue that held the night hunters seemingly came off. The night hunters separated from the mass while the rest was trapped inside the earth prison.

These night hunters then came together and entangled each other, forming another blob. It was half the size of the original, but still intimidatingly large nonetheless.

"Damn it! Give me one of your skill-free stones!" Master shouted. "I have no more."

Jack didn't ponder long. He threw the stone. At this time, it was better to work together.

"Keep it busy!" Master caught the stone and started moving away from the monster.

"Shit, is he going to let me fight by myself again?" Despite not fully trusting Master, Jack stayed his ground.

When the second blob approached Jack, he used a skill-free stone. Twenty large lightning balls appeared and struck the blob. The lightning explosion covered the monster's entire body. But when the lightning energies dissipated, he found that the HP bar above the blob only reduced by less than five percent.

"This is going to take some time," Jack said dejectedly.

Jack continuously retreated as the blob came for him. His speed was faster so he could afford to kite the monster. He made sure to not retreat in Master's direction. He saw Master start forming a spell formation. It was a mega spell. Master probably didn't want to waste the last minute of his magic staff.

Jack was thinking if he should use the limiter-off stone, but the main node was not in sight yet. If he wasted his most precious resource and found out later that the main node was not here, it would be tragic.

He decided he at least have to try out the other cool thing he found in the stash room.

He took out a capsule case and opened it. The RPG launcher appeared in his hands. He aimed at the incoming blob and opened fire.

Unfortunately, it didn't go as Jack hoped it would go. Jack aimed at what seemed to be the blob's head because he thought that might be its weak point. The blob simply duck when the RPG came. This RPG didn't seem to have tracking ability so it just went past the blob and struck the ceiling.

A huge explosion happened and Jack saw a large hole appeared in the ceiling.