The Achievement Junkie

"They're still there," Jack chuckled as his eye glowed and were covered white haze.

Tralon smiled proudly. "So, Jack, you've learned God's Eye. What else have you learned from me?"

"Just Pocket Dimension and Revivification so far. I'm not sure what I want to learn next."

"You learned his spells?" Argyle asked.

"Remember that pact I mentioned? It lets you have access to part of my passive abilities, like my sword skill or my mana skills, and in exchange, I gain the chance to learn your skills or spells."

"That's… really strong. Perfect for parties. What else?"

"You'll be connected to myself and everyone who created a pact with me, like a mental network of sorts," answered Jack. "It lets you talk mentally and roughly sense where the others might be."

"Is distance a factor when you're talking to someone?"

"No."

Argyle nodded. "Then let's do it."

"Alright, but we'll have to be quick." After cutting his index finger, Jack quickly yet carefully drew his inheritor pact on Argyle's forehead, who then activated it with his own blood.

'Testing, testing, one, two, three.'

'I can hear you loud and clear!' Excited for it to work, Argyle's previous enthusiasm for entering the dungeon was revived. 'How do I contact others?'

Tralon replied, 'Just imagine their face in your head and call out to them.'

With a nod, Argyle started beaming wider and wider. Jack wasn't sure why, not until he got a message of his own.

'Jack! How is my dad calling me like this?! Did you just make a pact with him? Aren't you supposed to be in Churstin?' Eliza's questions kept coming and coming.

'Eliza, trust me. I did go to Churstin and I already spoke with Choron, Sterfen, and Daruun,' explained Jack. 'I needed your father's help to do something and Tralon is with us too. Once we're done, then I'll finish up a few things and come meet you guys in Sunset Valley.'

'Don't worry, Eliza,' Argyle chimed in. 'I'll only call you when I have a reason. I was just excited to test it out.'

Eliza sighed as she left the conversation, a bit irritated that Jack was with her dad but not her. And the fact that Jack was off somewhere doing who knows what was a bit concerning, but Eliza felt better about that when she took into account that Tralon and her father were there.

'Argyle, swing your sword now and tell us if there's a difference.'

Hearing Tralon's statement, Argyle did just that. He took out his sword and swung it with intent to kill an imaginary target. To his surprise, the attack felt sharper than usual.

'That's my passive sword skill taking effect. I haven't leveled it up that much yet, but you should have plenty of mana now, not to mention your mana regeneration," laughed Jack.

'Hmmm… What the…' Sensing his newly increased mana capacity, Argyle chuckled giddily. 'Oh, I could get used to this.'

'You should because I'm still not done increasing that either. But these small bonuses you now have should help you stand out against an opponent around your level, right?'

'Oh yeah… I can't wait to test this! Where's something to kill?' Argyle scanned his surroundings, eager to put his new abilities to the test.

'Now that we can talk mentally, let's do so for the remainder of our time in the storehouse. We wouldn't want to leak information to our followers, would we?' Tralon took the lead. 'Now we can tell you a bit more about the storehouse and its unique design. Jack?'

'Argyle, there are eleven floors to the dungeon, but we're currently on what you could call floor zero. Up ahead, there's a teleportation platform that will let you officially enter the dungeon,' Jack explained. 'Every day, the teleportation pads are randomized to an extent. Of course, the ring your wearing can go against that and let you teleport to any floor of your choice, including the eleventh floor.'

Taking a good look at the ring, Argyle's eyes widened. 'Then why give it to me?'

'Because without it, you wouldn't be allowed in here nor could we open the vault,' Jack answered as he started walking again. 'This dungeon has a level cap of lv. 69, but that ring can allow anyone of any level to enter. Also, to mix things up, I thought it would be fun to give the vault two requirements to open. One, the person opening it must possess that ring or one of the other three that I made and two, that person must also be at least lv. 70 or higher.'

'You sneaky pestro,' Argyle laughed. 'I like the way you think. So that's how you kept any intruders from walking away with your stuff.'

'Well yeah. Just because a giant vault is placed behind a boss doesn't mean that you'll be able to enter it after you beat the boss.' Jack smiled, remembering all of the hate he got for creating such a dungeon. 'For now, though, we won't use that ring to go straight to the boss. We need to go in order or our guests will get lost and we won't be able to lead them to the tenth floor.'

'What's on the tenth floor?'

'That's where they'll go missing and possibly die if they're really unlucky,' Jack laughed. 'But if they go missing there, they'll eventually turn up somewhere else. And that's where we'll have a bit more fun.'

The party soon reached the teleportation circle which was still in perfect condition despite how much time had passed.

'I'm not sure where we'll go first, but this should be fun.'

'What do you mean by that?' Argyle asked.

'Like I said before, the order of the levels will randomize every day. We'll have to clear levels one through four in whatever order they come in. After that comes level five, then they get jumbled up again from levels six through nine. Then we'll reach level ten just before we face the boss and enter the vault on the eleventh floor,' explained Jack.

'If it changes every day, what happens if we rest in between floors?' Tralon asked, curious about what seemed like a small flaw.

Jack scratched his head. When he was Jack_J, he was just playing a game and it was very possible to beat the dungeon in a day. But before Jack got depressed about the sudden hike in difficulty, Jack remembered the day/night cycle of "A Hero's Tale."

'Scratch that,' Jack corrected himself. 'The levels should reset every nine days, sorry about that.'

'How did you mix up nine days and one day?' Argyle laughed.

'Nevermind that. We should go or we might run into our guests too soon, or worse, they might get a chance to steal our precious EXP. Argyle, would you like to be the first to step into the circle?'

'Sure, why not.'

'Tralon, after you.'

Once both Tralon and Argyle had stepped on the platform, Jack and Bowzer stepped into the circle. 'Tralon, activate the circle, please.'

A small burst of mana left Tralon and entered the carvings of the magic circle, filling it with power. The circle changed color from faded blue to deep purple as it launched a pulse of spacial energy at the people inside of it.

When the pulse collided with the four figures it caused no damage whatsoever. Instead, the four figures vanished without a trace.

Gradually, the deep purple energy surrounding the previously activated circle dissipated, forcing the teleportation circle to become dormant once again.

A similar pulse of spacial energy was released on a different floor but it had the opposite effect. As if that pulse and the one on the entrance floor were connected. four figures emerged from the source of the second pulse.

Jack quickly noticed the surroundings and deduced their new location. 'Level three… Be careful of the--'

"ROAR!!"