The Achievement Junkie

The rest of the crowd had already begun to assume that the fifth and final team of their block wasn't going to be joining them. This belief was unofficially reaffirmed when Jack c.o.c.kily got the attention of the twins, though that discussion supposedly didn't end well for Jack based on his bloodied lip. But everyone was now focused on the puzzle and baffled by a single question. Who was completing the puzzle?

Of the four teams present, the three other than Jack's all activated some sort of eye technique with various energy types seeping from their sockets. But most were still too left unaware of who had begun the puzzle.

New writing appeared on the wall, connecting the separated pieces of the inscription. Other parts of the puzzle were shockingly erased and rewritten, startling even the twins. Such prowess with inscriptions was incredibly rare among two-stars, let alone one-stars. The puzzle was being completed far faster than anyone had been anticipating, forcing some to be on edge as they had little time to plan their attack on the invisible person about to gain a plethora of keys.

From right to left and top to bottom, the puzzling inscription began to light up on its own, marking its completion.

As the last hole of writing was filled in, everyone readied themselves to strike and the few able to see through Rynheart's invisibilty were locked on. Suddenly, the puzzle flashed a bright light and an explosion filled the room. But that didn't stop an of the cosmicians from lunging toward the downpour of cores falling to the ground.

Now, Jack's team acted. Jack cast world of shadows at the entrance, though it was quickly dispersed by the incoming cosmicians. However, most of the charging crowd fell for the ploy.

In the center of that darkness, Moranti had created a large spatial rift that carried people all the back to where Jack's party had entered Glacier Keep. Also, Lunara had erected a wall of ice on the other side to stall any attacks that had been thrown at Rynheart. And surprisingly, there were also living vines entangling the few that had stopped before entering the spatial rift, coming from Woltin Sicabor. His brother was gone, but Woltin was smiling happily to see him missing.

"I guess that went better than planned…" Jack sighed, a little disappointed to see it end like that. "Your vines can paralyze people?"

Shrugging, Woltin replied, "Maybe… Maybe not… Either way, consider the deal complete. Don't expect any more friendliness from now on."

Before Jack could reply, those same vines began to strangle their targets till they turned blue and passed out. Woltin stepped forward and claimed all of their points as they were disqualified from the challenge, vanishing from the chamber.

Jack sighed, scratching his head and Woltin waved goodbye and left first toward the next part of the keep. "Good thing we're not after keys this time… I'm not sure how it would go facing them…"

Seconds later, Rynheart reappeared beside the party when the coast was clear. 'Here, Jack. You might need these.'

'Only a hundred keys?' Jack jokingly complained.

'It should be more than enough for just you,' stated Rynheart, holding to reason. 'We have other goals to achieve, not just claiming unknown treasures.'

Moranti and Lunara were caught off-guard by the statement but Moranti shook that off when he remembered who Rynheart was. Then again, he was curious to know how Jack managed to complete that puzzle when it was a language that had never existed in Kartonia.

'Let's hurry before the stragglers return to seek vengeance,' commented Rynheart. 'The next section is very interesting.'

Moving on the party realized why Rynheart was surprised by what followed. There were three ways to go, a blue spatial rift, a green spatial rift, and a passageway with purple walls at the entrance.

'I think it's obvious where we're going,' Jack laughed. 'If this is the maze, then we should split up. I'll link up with everyone so we can put together our own map and find what we're looking for. Just focus on exploration, not battling or stealing keys. If you need help for some reason, make it known and help will come.'

With no disagreements, the party entered the purple passageway and quickly found themselves at a fork. Jack and Lunara went one way while Moarnti and Rynheart went the other. When the next fork was found, they divided themselves again while rushing through the area at top speed.

Very soon, Jack was the first to encounter a row of constructs more menacing than the last. They weren't mannequins but construct beasts. Metallic wolves howled as they charged Jack with no fear or hesitation. With a dozen lv. 96 constructs being lead by a lv. 97, it would spell doom for most lone one-stars.

Jack immediately entered his hybrid form to try out his newest bloodline from Jinbe while mixing it with Phoro's wings and speed. With one set of wings replacing his arms and a second set of arms growing to become barbed, mantis-like forearms, Jack charged into the wolf constructs.

As he punched into the first wolf construct, Jack was surprised at how sturdy they were. It tanked the blow of his clublike arm and managed to get back up for more.

But Jack had something else going for him. Finally, his level was boosted as Raztol and Jinbe completed their ascension. Jack had been lv. 94 after combining the EXP pools of his two bodies, dropping from lv. 95 to boost the second, newly-ascended body. Now, both of Jack's bodies were lv. 96 and wiping fellow lv. 96s, like the wolf constructs, was an easy task.

Jack added Bowzer's and Karronteel's bloodlines to the mix, curious to see if he could do something. Upon succeeding, Jack couldn't stop laughing.

Though it ate up more energy than the usual black flame body, Jack had successfully blended some spectral flames into the black flame body. It was hard to control but the constructs of the maze were perfect for Jack to be a little reckless and try new things.

With those four bloodlines active and testing a spectral flame body, Jack mowed down the wolf constructs, collected their cores, and continued on.