As his hands get closer to one another the rainbow petals around his iris start to spin, they spin faster and faster as he brings his hands closer together before appearing as solid colours surrounding his iris as his palms meet.
Jack expression is cold as he looks towards the centipede that is spraying napalm wildly everywhere not allowing anything to get closer, “Lowly creature trying to use mutating against us?” Jack’s voice shifts into one of many different tones and inflections as though many people are speaking at once.
Jack’s consciousness fades as his hands part revealing a tiny flickering grey line within his palm, it’s no thicker than a hair and no longer than a finger. One can tell from a distance that it contains immense power, this is a flicker of primordial flame, the flame created at the birth of a universe which would be impossible for Jack to summon, in fact it could be said that he didn’t summon it.
Jessica seated on Sleipner hold a hand out to block the immense power flowing from the Flickinger grey line, she wants to ask what is going on and why Jack’s voice suddenly changed but before she can do so, the little grey line within Jack’s hand flies towards the remains of the centipede.
*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM*
A sonic shockwave can be heard across the plains as the flickering grey line is launched at faster than the speed of sound sending dust flying hiding everything. Jessica’s ears burst and her nose starts to bleed but she is only not seriously hurt, Jack and Sleipner are fine but this boom can be heard across the whole plains causing countless people to peer into the sky but see nothing.
Jack is just coldly staring at where the centipede half was located, dust settles after a few moments revealing the scene. The flickering grey line easily pierced through the centipede, leaving a gaping hole where its head and pincers were, revealing part of a monster core as the body slumps over.
In the distance clouds can be seen parting as a visible hole is shown growing and passing through them and still travelling before finally far in the distance a bright rainbow shimmer can be seen before cracking as the tiny grey line contained enough force to pierce the heaven’s barrier surrounding the region.
While this is going on, Jack’s mind has been transported to black emptiness, he can see in the distance that a group of coloured lights are flashing but he finds himself unable to move as though he has been chained to this spot, looking around he finds that his body doesn’t exist as though he exists only as a consciousness.
He tries to fight against the energy binding him but finds that he is unable to do anything, he tries to call upon his qi but he can’t circulate it, he tries to rely on brute strength but without a body that means nothing. Jack starts to panic because he feels entirely powerless and searches his mind for options.
Jack quietly thinks about everything he has experienced; this isn’t the first time he has felt himself trapped by an entity far beyond his abilities.
‘Are you going to let these experiences get the better of you?’
‘Are you going to give up and just let everything fall as it will?’
He remembers the trials that he went through during his childhood through to adult life then the many trials he has experienced since coming to the game world.
His mind settles down when a pulse spreads from his mind into the surrounding area, this is his divine sense that he hasn’t used previously. His divine sense spreads allowing him to feel everything within the region of nothingness but it truly is nothingness.
Jack isn’t able to sense anything within this region; the coloured lights appear close but they are actually far out of reach. His sense spreads further away from where he is tethered, when suddenly a reaction can be felt in the far in the distance, it almost feels familiar but he isn’t able to recall why.
His divine senses travel closer to the reaction before he is able to see what it is, it’s a small clump of dirt floating within this blackness. This small clump of dirt was grown from the small piece of dirt that appeared when Jack acquired his cultivation technique.
The clump of dirt feels familiar to him as his sense investigates every inch of it but is unable to uncover anything special about it, it seems just like a random clump of dirt floating in nothingness but his senses tell him that it’s far more than that, as though it’s part of his body.
Within the game world, Jack’s body has leapt towards the now dead Centipede, he has already dug out its core and collected the money, now he is collecting the remains of the treasure that it was protecting; the grass that was around the tree and the tree the fruit was attached to.
The mound that the centipede was protecting unfortunately got hit by the napalm like substance it was wildly spreading about causing most of the grass to burn up and majority of the little tree, Jack collects the grass and tree and is going to leave but Mai appears before him.
Mai looks at him she can feel a change with Jack but isn’t why, “Big brother, you were so cool how did you do that?” she asks while quietly slipping needles in her hand, she is prepared to knock Jack out or protect herself if needed.
Within the dark emptiness, Jack’s senses looking over the clump of dirt are unable to tell what this is but his vision flashes white as he feels like he is being dragged back towards the energy that was tethering him. A thread of his divine sense is left at the clump of dirt, and finally he appears back on the plains looking at Mai.
Peering down at his hands he can feel the weight of the small tree and little grass, in his mind there is that small thread of divine sense left where he was investigating. He can feel that it exists somewhere in his mind but if he tries to approach it at all, a massive headache quickly forms.
Letting out a sigh, Jack feels like he failed because he wasn’t able to rely on his own powers to defeat the enemy before him. He thinks back to how it felt to be tethered in that black emptiness, not existing as a physical being and trapped as sweat starts to form down his back, ‘perhaps the powers within him aren’t entirely beneficial?’
“Jack…?” Mai asks suspiciously while moving the needles ready to strike, she only saw Jack close his eyes then suddenly return to normal before looking around and sighing.
“I’m OK” Jack says and steps forward before collapsing on the ground, he feels incredibly weak and his veins feel stretched far beyond their usual capacity but he doesn’t feel seriously hurt, just empty as though all his qi reserves have been used up.
Mai rushes over and holds him, she senses his body and can feel that he’s not seriously hurt. She grabs one of the grasses before feeding it to him, it’s a wild fire spirit grass able to restore simple fire qi and help the growth of other fire qi type plants.
Jack quickly consumes it, circulating the qi around his body allowing it to replenish some of his reserves. He struggles before finally standing up, wobbling on his feet but Mai is there to hold him, tussling her hair “Well that was exciting” he laughs trying to not let her feel worried.
Mai doesn’t respond to him and just helps him stand up while Jessica comes over on Sleipner, “WHAT WAS THAT EXPLOSION?” she loudly shouts.
“Something that I probably won’t be able to do again…” Jack says before trailing off hoping she won’t ask anything more.
“WHAT?!” Jessica shouts again as though she doesn’t notice her ears are bleeding. Jack just sighs, placing away the grass and partial tree before mounting Sleipner and leaving the area with everyone. 13 wolves were lost including 2 hellfire wolves, Jack feels slightly disappointed that they lost so many.
The trip back is mostly quiet, Jessica is unable to hear and Mai is quietly feeding newly grown wild fire spirit grass to Jack allowing him to regain a portion of his power and not feel so weak. They are going back to the village instead of the 3rd kobold village site as they’re in no shape to have another big battle.
The village is abuzz with activity, the first group of kobolds have shown up with many people trying to organise where they are going, Hilda and Bane are handling these matters primarily. Jack just waves them off when he returns to the village, he wants to rest letting his ministers handle these matters.
Jessica is forced to go to the physician by Mai to get her ears sorted out while Jack goes to the city heart to check out what information about the event is provided.
‘An Easter special event! As a way to say thank you to all the players beta testers an….’
‘Rewards will be announced at midday Sunday at any system city, teleportation channels will be provided to your regions system cities during this event.’
Upon reading that the teleportation to the system city will be free, Jack makes a couple of plans to purchase many things within the system city so leaving the city heart, he orders someone to send a message and recall Albert.
Jack feels like he needs to sleep for many years but holds it back and handles some matters that he needs to around the village, Drakon has returned to the village and wants to explain what was going on with the kobolds but Jack stops him from explaining saying that he did a good job. Jack tells Drakon what happened at the first kobold village site and what happened at the second site including where to find the remains of the centipede.
Drakon gives Jack a salute and rushes off to handle these matters, Jack goes to find Maurice to see if they have anything to capture rabbits on the plains area to which he just shakes his head but suggests that there might be a civil job available such as trapper. Jack heads off to the researchers and unlocks the trapper job hoping that it's not a waste to use one of the earliest job change stele's on such a basic job, quickly handling those matters and assigning people with the appropriate loyalty to start capturing rabbits, Jack feels like it's time to log off and allow his body to rest in the meantime.
He walks slowly back to the ethereal white tent, taking in the sights of the busy village that has a few hundred people Jack feels slightly overwhelmed by everything going on. He lays down on the bed, it smells like Jessica causing him to nearly instantly fall asleep but he logs off as his vision is transported to the crystal room that he hasn't seen in quite some time.
The crystal room isn't any different than before, the NPC is still there smiling at him with its weird coloured eyes. Jack wouldn't know that his own eyes appeared almost identical to the NPCs not too long ago.
Jack is able to sense something strange close by though, it's that thread of divine sense that he left by that clump of dirt. It feels like it's much closer to him now, as though he has bypassed that block in his brain.
The NPC just maintains eye contact with Jack for a few moments before speaking, "User, do not forget about the special quest regarding the metals" it says before adding, "also we have been given permission to share a special piece of information about the Easter Event currently on-going within the game world".
Jack raises his eyebrow upon hearing this, "What information?".
"During the moonlight there will might be a poor beggar man appear within your village or close by, if you help this man perhaps, he will give you the key to access the Jade Palace" the NPC explains.
"Jade Palace? Is that to do with uhh, moon rabbits?" Jack asks trying to wrack his brain thinking about where he has heard this legend before.
The NPC just smiles at Jack without replying causing him to start thinking seriously about what this could mean, "Thank you, white" he says.
The NPC just nods towards Jack as his vision again returns to his body, it's the unfamiliar sight of a warehouse roof and the all too familiar smell that greets his nose.
Hunger and Thirst instantly wash over his body as he has been many days without food and water yet again, rolling over on the bed he is able to see John laying on the bed near Jack surrounded by a mountain of food, fish & chips, burgers, hotdogs, Mexican food, pizza and many other types of food are piled up.
Jack almost leaps off his bed and digs into the first piece of food within reach, a pizza.
John is seemingly asleep but the game crystal is displayed clearly on his forehead indicating what he is doing, ‘strange considering the food is still warm…’ Jack thinks to himself in his muddled state but finds himself consuming food with gusto.
The warehouse is quiet apart from the sound of the wind outside and the TV quietly on the news but displaying something unimportant. Jack brings up his phone and checks his messages, nothing important just people asking him for money.
He really wants to head out the door to find Tom and ask a few questions but he feels far too exhausted to deal with Bobby, it’s now Saturday evening and Jack wants to head back into the game world to start capturing rabbits but he needs to give time for his body to heal.
Setting his alarm for midnight when the moon will be at its fullest, he plans on going back into the game world and trying to find this beggar the NPC mentioned mysteriously previously and closing his eyes, his mind calms and cultivates the small amounts of qi within his real body, allowing it to be nourished by the heaven and earth energies and becoming stronger, unknowingly taking the first step towards the preparation needed for ‘The Centre World’.
Thanks for the chapter