Second World

Jack had been in this mansion before when he was using his incorporeal state, so it didn't take long before he arrived at the entrance of the dungeon that held Talia. No children statues inside the mansion, all of them had gone outside to deal with Grace and the others.

Jack looked at the door of the dungeon. He was free to enter when he was in the incorporeal state, it was not so now that he was in his physical body.

He tried to open the door. It was locked. He unsheathed his Storm Breaker and struck the door with it.

No damage number appeared.

"This one has a durability that far surpasses your power," Peniel explained.

"I guess we have no choice but to use the thieving way then," Jack took out his lockpicks.

He summoned his runestone of probability as he used the lockpicks. He failed multiple times. Luckily, it had been a custom for him to stock up on lockpicks so he had them ready when needed.

He spent several hours and wasted hundreds of lockpicks until he heard the melodious click. He only burned through one-third of his lockpicks for this door.

"Either my lockpicking is getting too good or I have brought too many lockpicks," Jack said haughtily.

The unlocked door opened and he saw Talia standing and looking in his direction. She had heard the sound of the lockpicking for quite a while and was wondering which thieving fool had blundered into this place.

Now that Jack was here in person and could use his ability, he used his Inspect.

*

Talia (Mythical Elf, Divine Priestess), level: 85

HP: 1,800,000

*

Jack expected as much. She was one of the leaders of a divine faction. She was at Callan's level, which meant Euphosine should be around this level as well.

"Storm…?" Talia couldn't quite believe her eyes. This was the first time she laid eyes on him outside his incorporeal state. "How…?"

"Long story. We can talk when we are out of here. Let's get you out of this first," Jack brandished his Storm Breaker and slashed at the chains that bound Talia.

"Wait…!" Talia warned.

But too late, Jack's sword clashed with the chains and an energy blast exploded from the point of impact. This blast threw Jack into the wall.

Jack crashed heavily into the wall. He lost almost thirty percent of his HP from that blast.

"Ouch… What the hell…," Jack uttered as he got up.

"… You are quite durable," Talia said. "Other outworlders at your level would have died."

"Can't you sense the mana in that chain," Peniel slapped Jack's head.

"This whole place is filled with weird mana. How do you expect me to know which is okay and which is dangerous?" Jack defended himself.

"This chain is enchanted. It will retaliate if it is attacked," Talia explained.

Jack came back to Talia's side. The chain was completely fine from his slash. There was not even a damage number appearing when he hit it. He then saw a keyhole at the part where the chain met Talia's handcuffs.

"Still think you bring too many lockpicks?" Peniel derided.

"Ugh… Well, I believe I should not need more than what I used on the door!" Jack encouraged himself. He took out his lockpicks again.

"Excuse me, miss," Jack said to Talia as he inserted the lockpicks into the keyhole.

He abruptly stopped and asked Talia, "Uh… Using lockpicks shouldn't be considered an attack, right?"

"No. But I'm not sure if you can succeed. This lock is rather high-grade," Talia said. "Maybe you will have more luck if you go to Euphosine's chamber and looked for the key to this chain."

"You don't think she brought the key with her?" Jack asked. Talia responded with a shrug.

Jack thought maybe he should try his luck by searching Euphosine's chamber as well. A native had no inventory system, so there was still a chance Euphosine left the key behind.

Jack cast Body Double. He then asked Talia to tell him the direction to Euphosine's chamber. He had his copy walked back to the hallways following Talia's direction while his real body used the lockpicks to unlock the chain. For his two remaining copies, he sent one to the altar hall where Master should be and the other to the mansion's entrance to check on his friends.

All the while, he had his mind focusing on his runestone of probability to boost the lockpicking's success chance. With his Hundred Synchronous Thoughts back in play, such multi-tasking was effortless.

"I think I have said this before, but you have a strong mind," Talia said.

She had been paying attention to the bright glow emitted by the runestone of probability floating beside Jack. The stronger the willpower injected into the runestone, the brighter it glowed, and the higher the lockpicking's success chance was.

Even so, the lockpicks kept on breaking one after another. Jack didn't let the constant failures bring him down. He kept his mind focused.

Since they had time now, Jack told Talia about what had happened. About the battle royale match, about how they broke the gigantic hidden rune diagram that sustained their restrictions, and how they found their way into this nexus world.

"No wonder she has not been around for the past few days," Talia said about Euphosine. "There were some days when she was completely absent. I guess that was when she was hosting her battle royale match."

"She shouldn't be back for a while," Jack said. "You and I will be long gone when she is back."

"…"

"You don't plan to just leave, do you?" Jack asked after noticing Talia's silence.

"Even if she has become like this, she is still my sister. I can't let her continue harming the innocence. I have to stop her."

"I guess as much…," Jack said. "Don't worry, we may have a way to defeat her."

"How?" Talia asked. Even if she was determined to stop Euphosine, she didn't know how to.

"That outworlder I came here to warn you about, he is doing something about it," Jack answered.

One of Jack's copies was currently in the hall where the altar was. He was watching Master who went around the hall drawing a huge rune diagram using mana paint.