Second World Novel

He went and started rearranging the painting. John soon joined in. "No, no, no, this should be over here," he said as he made the change.

"You sure?" Jack asked when he saw John make the change.

"Wanna bet?" John asked back.

"Well, if you are certain," Jack did not take him up on the bet. The two of them continued to busy themselves on the jigsaws, some quarrelings once in a while, while the others sat at the back and watched. They had learned to let the two maestros did their work rather than interfere and get scolded. Between the two of them, the jigsaw painting which made no much sense previously started to take shape.

Once they rearranged the last piece into the correct place, the entire painting glowed and a hum could be heard. Abruptly the walls on both their sides shifted, revealing eleven doors, five on the right and six on the left.

"What's this? Another puzzle? Giant Steve asked.

"So, which one should we choose?" Viral Cora asked.

"They all look the same," Bowler said as he went around looking at the details of each door.

"I don't think this is another puzzle," John said. "Notice the number of the doors is the same as our number?"

"You don't mean…"

"Yeah, I think this dungeon has decided to separate us now."

They stared at the doors for the longest time.

"Where do you reckon they will take us?" Bowler asked.

"Well, only one way to find out," Jack said as he walked towards one of the doors.

"Wait, bro! Are you not afraid that there might be a trap?" Bowler said.

"It's more like you are afraid if you will wind up somewhere else alone and could not solve the puzzle by yourself then you will be trapped, am I right?" John asked with a snicker.

Bowler's expression showed that John's guess had been correct. However, thought Bowler was the only one who revealed his worry. The others could not help but felt unsettled. They too had been relying on Jack and John all this time to solve the puzzles in this dungeon.

"Don't worry, Just use the Town Return scroll if you are stuck. But of course, that meant you have left this expedition and probably failed the quest. You all have a Town Return scroll, don't you?" John said.

Several of them informed that they do not have the scroll.

"Why the hell did you people not get one when you leave the capital?" John scolded. "Well, you can always try to get yourself killed by the previous contraptions, that should bring you out of this dungeon and back to the capital as well."

"That's very insensitive of you. Here, the ones don't have can take one," Jack took the scrolls in his possession and offered them.

"Not everyone is as wealthy as you, friend," John said.

After everyone had at least one Town Return scroll, Jack resumed his walk to the door. He opened the door, which revealed only darkness on the other side, and then went inside without hesitation. The door closed by itself once Jack entered the darkness beyond, then disappeared like it was never there.

"As I expected, one door was only meant for one person," John commented.

"I was more amazed by that Storm Wind," Giant Steve said. "Damn! He went inside just like that. Not even a glance back or a parting word."

"You expect a hug and a kiss?" John said and copied Jack's action, albeit with a swagger as he went to the door next to the one Jack used. It also vanished after.

"He must have the confidence that we will meet again on the other side," Jeanny said, referring to Jack. Then to the others, she said, "let's go."

They lined up in front of the doors, each taking one door. They looked at each other.

"See you on the other side."

"See you."

"Be safe."

"Why do you take the one next to me?"

"You got a problem with that?"

"I don't want to be stuck with you wherever we end up."

"Our door is adjacent doesn't mean that we will end up at the same place."

"No guarantee that it won't also."

"Cut the crap! Just go in already!" Jeanny scolded them. She then went into the door in front of her.

The others went in as well. Soon all the doors vanished from sight, leaving behind an empty room.

Jack reappeared in a small room. There was a brazier at the center of the room, but no fire. Around the room were seven torches with different colors of fire. Green, yellow, violet, red, indigo, orange, blue. He then went closer to the cold brazier and saw that the shape was of an eye.

The torch was obviously meant to light up the brazier, Jack thought. After pondering for a while, he took the yellow fire torch and used it to burn the brazier. A yellow color light flared on the brazier. He then took the blue fire torch and burnt the brazier with it. The fire was doused instead.

He didn't appear surprised by the fire going out even though he burnt it with a torch. He took a different torch, red fire this time, and lighted up the brazier. The flame returned. Next, he used the orange torch. The flame remained this time, a soft red and orange flame mixed together.

As expected, he thought in his mind. He then continued with the remaining torches. Yellow went next. Afterward, he used green, then blue, indigo, the last one was violet. The famous rainbow color, or more correctly, the spectrum of visible light. Hence, the eye shape of the brazier.

Once the last violet fire was mixed inside. The flame turned bright white. Jack had to shut his eyes due to the brightness. When he reopened them, the flame was gone. A section of the wall swiveled, revealing a way out of the room.

He was slightly relieved. That was an easy puzzle. If the others arrived in a similar room as well, they should be able to solve it even without him or John. He hoped.

When he came out of the room, he was met with a narrow hallway.

Hallway again? What's wrong with this dungeon?! He complained.

The hallway was short, there was a turn already a few meters ahead whether he chose to go left or right. He looked at his radar, there were many green dots scattered around. Great, they were transferred to the same place, he thought. However, their positions were pretty far away.

He chose one that was the closest and took the turn that seemed to head in that direction. But after he made the turn, he was soon met again by a crossroad. He took the turn, then was met again by another turn.

'F*ck! It was a maze!' Jack exclaimed.

He could see from his radar, that he was the only one that was moving around. Meaning the others were still inside their puzzle rooms. He continued to walk in the direction of the closest green dot. Several times he was forced by the routes away from the direction he wanted, and on several occasions he was met with dead ends, forcing him to go back the way he came.

He saw on his radar some green dots started to move around already. They must have come out of their room as well, but all the ones that came out were the ones that were far away.

After repeated attempts, he finally got very close to the green dot he was targeting. It was still stationary. He was wondering, even if he reached that dot, if that dot had not yet solved the puzzle in the room, then the door would not be revealed. So he would still have to wait outside until the one inside solved the puzzle. However, when he arrived, he saw that the room that person was in had an opened door.

Eh? Why did the one inside not come out?

He entered inside with curiosity. The inside was much larger than he expected. In fact, it was the same layout and size as the temple's main hall where they entered this dungeon from. There was the same large stage at the far side, but in this one, there was no dungeon entrance behind this stage. A man was standing on this stage.

"Sunset?" Jack called out when he recognized the man on the altar. Sunset smiled as Jack approached him.

"I was worried, I thought you guys will not come here," he said.

"Have you been here long?" Jack asked.

He nodded.

"That is quite impressive of you," Jack commented. "Why didn't you go and find anyone? This room is not locked."

"I think everyone is meant to come here. So I just wait here."

Jack looked around. It would be poetic to end their journey at the same place as their starting point. Perhaps the creator meant exactly that.