Second World

The red dragon's turbo speed was still on cooldown, so Jack utilized gravity to gain extra acceleration. At the same time, he was fully focused on dodging the crimson dragon's fireballs.

He rolled left and right to dodge the fireballs while continued diving.

"You are crazyyy…!" Peniel screamed as she clung to Jack's shoulder.

As he got closer, it was more difficult to dodge. He was hit by one fireball.

"Peniel!" Jack shouted.

"On it!" Since the crimson dragon's fireballs caused more damage. Peniel used her two heals back-to-back, bringing the red dragon's HP back to full again.

"Rargghh…!" Jack decided to just risk it all. He was too close already. He would be hit even if he dodged, so he just dove straight down without any dodging attempt.

A fireball struck him again.

But since he was diving at very high speed. The window to fire at him was very short. The crimson dragon only managed to land those two successful hits before Jack dove past it.

Jack slipped through the gaps between the chains that held the crimson dragon and flew into the tunnels.

"Yes!" He uttered as he fully pressed the brake. His red dragon skidded to a stop.

The tunnel went very deep, but Jack had no time to explore. He looked back and saw the crimson dragon's back and grinned.

"Hehe, punishment time."

Since the crimson dragon was chained, it couldn't turn around. Jack had his red dragon hovered and fired his fireballs non-stop at the crimson dragon's back. The crimson dragon roared in rage and pain upon those attacks. It tried to turn its neck around but couldn't. All it could do was just struggle to break the chains faster.

Since Jack no longer had to fly around evading the crimson dragon's attacks, his attack pace increased substantially. The crimson dragon's HP went down at a rapid rate.

The chains' breaking rate actually became faster as more chains broke. Probably because there were fewer chains to resist the crimson dragon's force. Jack was sure now that if he only fought normally, the ten chains would all break before he could deplete the crimson dragon's HP. Then, he would have to fight the unrestrained crimson dragon.

Now, however, the crimson dragon was down to 5% of HP when the fourth chain broke. At the same time, his special attack was ready again. He happily pressed the button. The red dragon's fire beam pierced through the back of the crimson dragon.

The crimson dragon suffered the full five seconds of the fire beam, devouring all 5% of its HP.

With a death cry, the crimson dragon turned to dust. The rock fortress around them started to shake and then crumble. The enormous fortress broke apart into smaller pieces and fell to the ground.

Jack noticed something after all the rocks fell. At the place where it used to be the center of the fortress, was a green oval plate.

"It's the exit portal!" Peniel also noticed it.

So, the exit was at the center of the fortress. Jack wondered if he had ignored the chained crimson dragon and just headed into the depth of the tunnel. Would it take him to the exit portal?

But he was glad he had vanquished the chained dragon. It netted him a large number of exp points and 100 draconic essences.

With the other essences he had gathered, the total he gained in this stage was 390 draconic essences.

He checked his bloodline status. The number of required essences had increased. Before, it required 1000 draconic essences to increase a level. After level 4, he needed 2000 draconic essences.

If he was in the outside world. He would need a long time to hunt draconic monsters and gather this number. But with this portal, he could easily gain draconic essences. He only needed to enter this portal another five times to gain another level up for his bloodline.

He decided to shift his focus from the endless wave portal to this one. Draconic essences were harder to get than exp points.

With that determination, he entered the exit portal.

Greed was already waiting outside.

"Interesting," he said. "You are meant to fight the free crimson dragon as the final stage, but I guess whatever is fair as long as you get the result."

Jack looked back at the portal he had just exited. It had turned red. Same as the others. The only one he was allowed to enter repeatedly was the endless wave portal after he asked for it. So, he asked Greed, "Can I enter this portal again?"

Greed looked at him with a meaningful stare. He finally said, "All right, but only once a day."

"What? Why? I can enter that portal freely, right?" Jack pointed at the endless wave portal.

"You think I don't know what you are up to?" Greed said. "I know you have a draconic bloodline. You want to use my portal to hoard the draconic essences, don't you?"

"Um… Is that not okay?"

"Do you think the energy required to power up a portal that generates draconic monsters is small? I don't mind that other portal, you can use them all you want, but not this one. I am already generous to let you use it once a day."

"Okay, okay…," Jack said.

Hence, from then. His routine after the compulsory portal was three times endless wave portals and one dragon flight portal.

*

With this routine that granted Jack more exp points and draconic essences than the outside world, even after two weeks had passed, Jack no longer felt as if he was trapped anymore. Of course, he still worried something bad might happen outside while he couldn't help. But since he couldn't escape anyway, he just focused on getting stronger.

"There are big ships that can fly in the sky?" Greed asked. Jack had just completed a compulsory portal and they were now back inside Greed's hut. Jack was again telling the story of his world.

"We call it airplane," Jack answered. "It can carry many people inside to fly in the air."

"So troublesome. Why didn't they just level up and learn the flying spell?"

"Uh… We can't do magic back where I am from," Jack replied. 'Dude, are you not listening to my tale all this time?'

Jack saw Greed give him a weird stare. Jack was confused by it.

"So, all you people rely on in your world is this so-called teknowledgegy?"

"Um… It's technology."

"Hm… Interesting world. Here, you deserve another reward after your excellent performance for two weeks."

Greed summoned something out of thin air and then tossed it to Jack.

Peniel, who saw what the item was, immediately yelled, "No, don't catch it!"

Jack, whose hands were about to catch the item by reflex, immediately recalled its danger after Peniel's warning. He retracted his hands at the last moment and moved aside as the Eye of Illios flew past him and fell to the ground.

"Oops, I forgot that you are still low-level," Greed said with a chuckle.

Jack could only give Greed an annoyed look. He took out the glass cube Janus had given him and brought it to the Eye of Illios on the ground. As the cube and the artifact got into close proximity, the walls of the cube broke apart. An invisible force grabbed the artifact and brought it into the cube before the cube closed itself up. The Eye of Illios was now safely inside the glass cube. Jack used his Inspect on the artifact.

*

Eye of Illios (Legendary Artifact)

Survey distant places.

Restriction: Level 75 and above

*

"Fancy cube. The people from the Order of Magi gave you that?" Greed asked.

"Yeah, to safely bring this Eye of Illios to them," Jack said

"What do they need that thing for?"

"I don't know," Jack replied. The description of the artifact didn't say much. Did Janus want to use this artifact for long-distance surveillance?

Jack stored the glass cube. All he needed to do to complete the quest now was just bring this cube back to Janus.

Thinking about that, he asked Greed, "Um… Mister Greed. When may I leave?"

"Hm? You are free to leave. You are not a prisoner here."

"Oh…?" Jack's face brightened upon hearing it. "Thank you, mister Greed. Much appreciated. If you can only point me to the exit, I will be most grateful."

"I say you are free to leave. I never say I'm going to show you the way out."

"…"

"Do you mind telling me the way out then…?" Jack asked after Greed remained silent for a while.

"Nope," Greed replied flatly.

Jack sighed. His glad face turned dejected again. This God was just toying with him.

"What's so good about the outside anyway? You can have much more fun here. See how much fun we have been having in these two weeks?"

'Fun for you perhaps,' Jack grumbled in his mind.

Jack again saw Greed's weird stare.