Jack wasn't interested in prolonging his debate with Master, he had a more important thing to do. He had an appointment he couldn't be late to and a quest he needed to take care of.
Yesterday, after visiting Talia and returning to his body, he found that he had automatically received a new quest.
*
Help Talia Escape
Difficulty: SSS
Rewards: 8,000,000 exp, 100 gold coins, 10,000 mana core, additional rewards possible
Resolve the situation in the Council of Charites and release Talia from her imprisonment
*
So, Jack stopped speaking to Master and pretended to sleep.
The others gave Master unfriendly looks. To them, Jack was now a hero. Master who ridiculed their hero was now someone they didn't want to be associated with. Jack might have decided Master be the leader at the start, but from now, they would only listen to Jack.
Jack focused his mana sense and entered the incorporeal state. He worked himself out of this pocket world and quickly made his way to the nexus world.
Talia told him that whomever she was afraid of should be occupied after the match. Yesterday, he spent a few hours finding this nexus world. Now that he could go directly, he should have plenty of time to converse with her.
It took Jack little time to enter the nexus world. He figured he was getting better each time he did it.
This time, he didn't appear inside the dungeon where Talia was at. The place where he ended up after forcing his way in seemed to be random. And since he wasn't familiar with this nexus world, he didn't know where he was at.
He tried interacting with the mana of this space, trying to sense its entire layout, but the space seemed to be resisting his poking. He was unable to gauge exactly how big this nexus world was and where Talia's jail was located.
'Damn it… Am I going to waste time searching around this place?' Jack wondered. That chilling presence he sensed yesterday might have returned by the time he found Talia.
Staying around won't solve anything, though, so Jack started roaming around like a haunting ghost.
He stumbled upon a large hall with an altar at the center, or what remained of an altar. Jack thought the place looked very much like the hall where he last saw Callan when the divine priest was still alive.
Jack approached the broken altar.
"This is an altar that is the center of power of this divine faction," Peniel informed. Jack was now maintaining a constant link between himself and Peniel during his incorporeal state.
"Yes. I saw a similar one in the Council of Virtus' main temple," Jack said. "Paytowin once said that destroying this altar will cause the members of the faction to receive a debuff. You think that's what happened here?"
"I think whatever happens here is more than a simple debuff," Peniel replied.
The broken altar revealed a hole underneath. Jack took a look. It was empty.
"The divine heritage is supposed to be inside this altar, isn't it?" Jack asked.
"If what Wilted said is true," Peniel replied. "If you want to find out what happened here, Talia is still your best option," Peniel said.
"You are right. I won't learn anything just looking around," Jack went and continued his search for the divine priestess.
This nexus world was larger than he thought, but everything seemed to be in a state of ruins. There was also no indication that the ruined parts were fixed as if they were intentionally left untouched. Jack felt as if he was wandering through a tomb.
"I think this nexus world used to be the Council of Charites' base," Jack conjectured. "They moved their original base into this pocket dimension and then brought it to the Sylvan region."
"Like I said, God-level power," Peniel reminded.
Her warning made Jack move faster around the place. They were all empty halls, devoid of people. There was no native, monster, or even animal.
After more than an hour since he entered this nexus world, he finally found the dungeon where Talia was imprisoned.
"You are late," Talia said when Jack arrived.
Jack could only slump with a defeated expression. He was too tired to explain. Using the incorporeal state constantly consumed mana and he burned more mana when he tried to move faster in this state. He felt more tired now than when he fought monsters for a whole day.
"I hope my sister won't return early. I will try to outline what had happened," Talia said. "But before that, I heard you come here searching for me?"
"You and your sisters. I come carrying a warning," Jack said. "Well… Now that warning might sound less menacing because the person I'm here to warn you about is in captivity with me."
When Talia's expression showed that she didn't quite catch what Jack was saying, Jack started from the beginning. About the war in Hydrurond and how the Gods involved themselves in the war. How Hope fell from a fabricated weapon called the Godkiller. A weapon that was fabricated from the essence of a fallen God, the divine heritage.
Talia was fascinated by the tale. She had been in captivity for quite some time. She knew very little of what was going on in the outside world.
"Hope has fallen… You said Courage as well. This means the good Gods camp was now three Gods less," Talia contemplated. "We have the same number as the bad Gods."
The situation was more complicated, but Jack didn't want to dump all this information on her. When they were freed of this constructed dimension and had more free time to talk, then maybe he would fill her in.
"You said the person who is after our Goddess' essence is locked in here with you?" Talia asked.
Jack nodded. "I'm unable to kill him due to the rules in this game your sister forced us to play. Maybe you can talk to Aglea to maybe, you know, strip him of everything he has and put him back to level 1? She can even keep him here for all I care."
"Unfortunately, my sister who you met is just a husk of her former self," Talia said.
"What do you mean?"
"It's because…," She stopped. Her face turned stern. "You need to leave. We will talk again tomorrow."
"Motherf*cker… For real…!?"
"Mister Storm Wind, that is very indecent," Talia chided.
"Oh… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to," Jack said. He was telling the truth. He was cursing in his mind. But because his current incorporeal state let him converse with his mind, he was not aware that he projected the thought to Aglea when he cursed.
Still, he had come here to satisfy his curiosity. He hadn't even learned anything yet and now he had to leave again.
"Ma'am, you have better started telling me what is wrong here the second I show up tomorrow," Jack said. He then left.
Not long after, a beautiful woman entered. "Hello, sister," the woman greeted.
Talia just gave her a disappointed look.
The woman walked around the dungeon as if inspecting the room. "The intruder came again," she said.
Talia was taken aback by the statement. "How… how do you know?!"
"I slightly felt his presence yesterday. I thought it is just my imagination, so I placed a stronger detection enchantment around this place."
"What are you going to do?" Talia asked.
"I'm going to modify the enchantment. He will be in for a surprise if he comes again. Hahaha…"
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