After some pondering, Jack said, 'I will go scout the tunnel out. You can go back to the surface if you want. I will call you when I'm ready to go again.'
'How are you going to scout it out?' Jet asked, before soon sending another follow-up. 'Oh, right. Your corporeal state.'
Jack nodded.
'Okay, call me when you need me, Jack boy,' Jet said and swam back to shore.
After Jet left, Jack decided to wait for the next energy pillar one more time, to make sure again that the interval truly was just ten minutes when no one entered the sinkhole. He practiced mana manipulation while using skills and spells to kill time. He received notification that his Mana Bullet had increased to 8 stars. He was rather surprised by the notification, he understood that the proficiencies needed for this spell were still quite a lot.
He decided to test it out. He opened his spell list, checked on a spell's required proficiency, and then cast that particular spell.
'Hey! The spell I cast just now is counted as being cast five times,' Jack said to Peniel.
Peniel also paid attention after Jack received the notification. 'I seemed that this village gives additional benefit other than the high mana density.
'This is the real reward for getting past the Lost Forest,' Jack said. 'The reward of staying inside this village for thirty days won't be enticing except for martial artists who understand mana sense and mana manipulation. Hence, it will be weird if this reward is given to a player who cannot sense mana. There is no avenue to level up here, no one will want to stay for three days here, much less thirty days. But after seeing the acquired proficiency, that reward makes more sense. This place was much better than Commander Quintus' training ground.
The energy pillar shot up in the distance, followed by the underwater twister.
'It is exactly ten minutes. No change,' Jack thought. 'All right, first thing first. We can get back to proficiency training later.'
He sent a message informing Grace and Jet of the benefit of practicing skills and spells here. After that, he closed his eyes and sent his consciousness out. This lake was safe. So, he didn't worry about the body he left behind. He floated forward towards where the sinkhole was.
After arriving, he descended into it. He was using his mana sense to see his surroundings during his corporeal state, not his eyes. So, his Dragon Eye ability wasn't in effect. He couldn't see far ahead. Yet, his sensory of the immediate surroundings were enhanced.
'This was where the ring of light appeared before,' Jack thought. There was a ring-shaped indentation, the surface in this indentation was smooth, so it was a deliberate creation. Jet was right, this must be the mark where this tunnel started considering someone as intruding.
He floated down and found the hole in the wall where he and Jet had hidden from the vortex.
He continued to descend and found the second hole which he almost reached before Jet was trapped by the vortex.
'The distance between this second hole and the first hole is almost the same distance between the first hole and the ring indentation,' Jack thought.
So, he went down further. He passed by what he sensed as energy deposits. Those must be the runic metal deposits that they had seen before they got sucked by the vortex. He only gave these deposits brief attention before continuing down.
After descending a certain distance, he found what he had expected, a third hole in the wall.
'I see… I think I understand the mechanic now,' Jack thought.
These holes were put here as a shelter from the water vortex. Once the vortex died down, one could proceed down and hid in the next hole before the vortex hit again. The positionings, however, required about one minute of swimming, which was the interval of when the vortex appeared after they crossed the ring up there. They would have to either swim truly fast or memorize the positionings of the holes beforehand so they knew where to head to without wasting any time.'
It's a good thing then that he could do this scouting. He memorized the positions of these shelter holes. He then went deeper. He felt energy deposits that were even denser than the ones up there before the third holes.
'As expected, the deeper one goes, the better the runic metal deposits are,' Jack thought. Hedite had informed them that the quality of the pet armor would depend on the quality of the runic metal they acquired. this meant the deeper they got the runic metal, the better their pet armor would be. So, Jack continued downward.
The setup was the same, every interval, there was a hole with the bar handles within. The deeper one went, the stronger the energy emitted by the runic metal deposits.
Jack reached the sixth hole and then he couldn't go any further. It's the limit of how far his corporeal state could leave his body.
'That's okay. With what I have seen, it should be safe to assume that this setup is the same down there,' Jack thought. Additionally, the mana he felt from the deposits before the sixth hole was already very dense. He assumed the runic metals contained inside should be at least the super rare grade already.
With this discovery, he returned to his body. While he almost arrived at his body, he was startled to find someone standing right next to him on the lake bed. Peniel who hated to be wet was out in the water beside this person.
He was dazed for a second before re-entering his body. He opened his eyes, turned to this person, and made a greeting gesture. The person smiled and waved her hand. The water around them parted. A bubble of air was created around them. The water hung at the edge of this bubble as if there was a glass wall there.
Now that he was back in his body, he observed his radar. The person beside him was not appearing on his radar, the same as Broidrireg. The last time when he met this person, he didn't pay attention to his radar because everything was too hectic. With this discovery, he surmised that his radar couldn't detect eternal and divine beings.
Now that he could talk again, Jack greeted, "Goddess Serenity! It's a surprise to find you here."
"I should be the one to say that," the Goddess replied. "And please drop the Goddess part, Serenity alone will be fine. When I sensed the mark that I gave you is here in the village of my worshippers, I can't help but come to check."
The mark? Jack thought back to the creator mark that Broidrireg mentioned. Was it the mark that Goddess Serenity had given him?
"I come here to get a pet armor for my medium-size pet," Jack said.
"I know. Peniel had filled me in when you are… out. Was that what you do? It is very peculiar to me. Is that some kind of special ability of an outworlder?"
"Um, you can say that," Jack replied.
"Still, he is the only outworlder who can do that," Peniel informed.
"I think that chick from the Cipher Flight can as well," Jack said. "My gramps said she did what I did when he was watching the final team match."
"Well, you outworlders are indeed fascinating," Serenity remarked. "Now, how is your progress to get the runic metal? Does this special ability of yours give you a breakthrough?"
"I think it does. I think I know how to get them already," Jack said. "But of course, if Lady Serenity is willing to help get the runic metal and save me the trouble. I won't mind." Although Jack had dropped the Goddess part as requested, he didn't feel right to just address this divine being by her name alone.
Serenity chuckled at Jack's words, while Peniel rolled her eyes. "You should know us divine beings are prohibited from interfering with worldly matters. You will have to solve this predicament yourselves."
"Can't blame me for trying," Jack shrugged. "So, is there anything particular thing that you need from me or you just come to say hi? Not that there is anything wrong with you coming just to say hi. I'm glad about it. You should do it more often."
Peniel again rolled her eyes. This guy was getting a bit too comfortable with the Goddess.
"I do have a purpose for meeting you." Serenity said. "Remember the last time we met when I said that Hope's followers and mine will be paying more attention to Fear's cult and the outworlders who are associating with them? After getting the reports, I do think that they warrant a worry. They are especially active in Liguritudum. However, Hope and my other brother and sister still didn't think that we should interfere unless eternal or divine grade beings from Fear's cult were involved."
"You don't think that way?" Jack asked.
"Unfortunately, I'm the only one who thinks that way."
"It is ironic that a Goddess who embodies peace is the one who thinks to act first."
Serenity chuckled at the remark. "It is because I value peace that I can see that if we don't act now, this little war in Liguritudum will spread out to the entire realm."
"So, will you be sending your force to aid the Liguritudum's royal army?" Jack asked.
"I can't. My followers have a creed that makes them passive in terms of conflict. To give them a command to involve themselves in violent acts is to betray their trust. I can't bring myself to do that."
Jack understood the Goddess' words. He had learned of this village's principles after hearing how they dealt with Guila. "So, how do you propose to help with the situation?"
"Although I can't have my followers aid in manpower, I can have them provide support," Serenity said. "Do you have trustable outworlder contacts who are on the side of Liguritudum's rightful ruler?"
"I have," Jack nodded.
"Contact them, please. And give them this whistle. Ask them to come monthly to any entrance of the Lost Forest and blow this whistle. My followers will then come to them and give them a supply of five thousand bottles of Grace of Tranquility potion."
