Second World Novel

Jack and the others appeared in the middle of a stone corridor. No sign of the portal that brought them here, but it was not needed. Players could opt to leave this labyrinth any time they wanted as long as they were out of combat, but they couldn’t get a refund of the ten gold coins even if they only spent one second inside.

The stone corridor had multiple intersections. There was no sign to tell them which way they should go. Everything looked random. The corridor was also rather wide. It was no problem if many monsters appeared and they had to fight in this corridor.

As if to prove it, a pair of monsters appeared from the corner at one of the far ends of the corridor. The monsters were, of course, minotaurs.

‘Very original,’ Jack thought. He was tempted to send Wilted a message ridiculing her game designer team.

The minotaurs here were smaller than the ones he had seen before. They also didn’t wear any armor or carry weapons. Jack used his Inspect and saw that these minotaurs were only level 3 and level 4 basic-grade monsters.

“Take care of them, will you?” Jack said to his henchmen. He couldn’t be bothered by these small fries.

He sat cross-legged on the floor while Bowler bravely went alone to face those minotaurs.

“What are you doing?” Jet asked. “Shouldn’t we start looking around for the boss room?”

“Of course, we are, but we ain’t doing it the conventional way,” Jack answered.

“Oh, then how do we do it the unconventional way? By sitting down and praying for the holy father to show us the way?”

“Hehe, you’ve already forgotten about one of my abilities,” Jack said. “I’ve thought about this solution ever since I heard about the ever-changing layout of the labyrinth.”

“Oh! Your corporeal state!” Jet made a realization.

“Bingo. I don’t think the monsters on this floor are going to be a problem, but still, watch my body when I’m gone,” Jack said.

“You got it, boss!” The Man exclaimed.

Aside from the incorporeal state, Jack figured he could also rely on his radar to identify the boss. Even if the red dot representing the boss was the same as the other monsters on this floor, since they were all too weak compared to the current Jack, he could still differentiate the boss by seeing the dots’ movements. The boss should be stationary in its room, unlike the other monsters who roamed around the labyrinth. By knowing in which direction he had to go after locating the position of the boss, he could roughly make his way there even if he didn’t know the maze’s layout.

But, the incorporeal state would be a quicker way. Hence, Jack used this method. He focused his mana sense until his consciousness parted from his body.

During his incorporeal state, his mana sense was more sensitive. He could sense the entire corridor was filled with dense mana. This mana kept the walls of the corridor solid. No matter how strong one’s attack was, it won’t break the wall. This was the labyrinth’s way of preventing anyone from cheating by forcing a way through the maze’s wall.

His consciousness touched the wall. He felt his mana sense blend with the mana in the wall. It was the same sensation as when he was in the Lost Forest. From the mana flowing through this wall, he could perceive the entire maze. He was amazed. This maze was indeed very large. He could also sense some of the players who were roaming on this floor. If one was extremely unlucky, one could spend their entire day on this first floor without finding the boss room.

Even if he had a very high luck stat, he was still grateful that he didn’t have to rely on luck to go through this maze. He quickly located the boss room. After memorizing the path to that room, he returned to his body.

“You know which way to go?” Jet asked when he saw Jack open his eyes.

Jack nodded.

“Never doubted you, boss!” The Man stated.

While standing back up, Jack saw Bowler is still fighting with the minotaurs. “What the heck. Hey! You are not done with those two lame-ass monsters?”

“It’s not every day I can use real monsters to practice my martial arts,” Bowler said as he made a few kicks and punches to the minotaurs. All his hits didn’t produce any damage.

Two energy balls came and killed the minotaurs with single hits. They were standard attacks from Jack’s mana leech staff.

“If you want to practice, go to a grinding zone with level 1 monsters. Stop trying to show off your martial arts, they aren’t that good. Let’s go!” Jack wasn’t courteous with his words as he passed Bowler by.

The Man and Jet laughed at Bowler as they followed behind Jack. Bowler grumbled and followed as well.

Any minotaurs who stood in their way were killed with one slap. They gave very tiny bits of exp since they were very low in level, and they didn’t drop anything. Just as Peniel had mentioned, the drop rates were terrible.

Since Jack knew the exact route, they didn’t take long before arriving at the boss’ room.

Ahead of them was a wide wall that had the carving of a large bull’s head. Peniel told them to touch the carving. An interface then appeared asking if they wanted to face the boss as a team.

They agreed. Light enveloped them and then transported them into the boss’ room.

Inside the room, they saw a giant bull made entirely of gold.

“Go… Gold Bull Boss!” Peniel exclaimed. He then turned to Jack and said, “Your luck is insane.”

“You don’t say,” Jack said. He rushed forward and used Flame Strike, killing the golden bull before it even had the chance to attack. It was only a level 5 basic-grade boss, after all.

The golden bull burst into a torrent of gold coins. When everyone was excited from seeing the coins, they floated up and then vanished in the air.

“Huh? Where did they all go?” Jet asked.

“Wasn’t it mentioned before? The coins from the gold bull are given to the country,” Peniel said.

“You also said that gold bull boss rewarded good mana cores. I don’t see any, just one rubbish uncommon equipment,” Jack said, holding the equipment dropped by the gold bull boss.

“It is a level 5 boss, what do you expect? I also remembered telling you that mana cores only dropped from monsters with level 25 and above. So, it is not strange that you don’t get any from this level 5 boss.”

“Yo! Is this the door to the next floor?” Bowler called. He was standing beside a hole that had appeared on the ground after the boss was slain.

“Looks more like a sinkhole than a door to me,” Jet remarked.

“That is the way to the next floor,” Peniel confirmed.𝐧𝗈𝐕𝑒𝓁𝒩𝖊xt.𝗰𝑶𝗆

“Then what are we waiting for? Come on! Our target is being the first to clear the twelfth floor,” Jack uttered and jumped into the hole.