The Abyss Stares Back

"It's time for Jack to let it rip!"

[Or explode horribly.]

"You suck, Sephiroth."

Using every strength in his body, Jack twisted himself along with his tentacle to drive the momentum potential. At the right velocity, he hurled the preserved explosion in the form of a stone two times the size of his palm towards the pursuing Toxic Trap Slime.

The fiery projectile traveled at the velocity of a muscle car at its full speed. Instead of going straight to the center point of the monster, the ballistic ball of flame collided on the ground right in front of the gelatinous monster.

The first layer of the stone was broken by the impact, allowing the nitroglycerin-like substance stimulated as the vapor of the flame made contact with it.

Nanosecond later, an explosion occurred.

A huge shockwave pushed Jack into the vast chamber. While on the other side, the Toxic Trap Slime was obliterated by both the shockwave and the thermal damage.

Even with the sheer destruction, the tunnel was still intact with just a charred scratch and deep dent. Jack was afraid that it would collapse but thanks to the energy flow emitted by the slime when its body parts were still underneath, he found out that the tunnel was fortified enough with many foundation layering outside of it.

Laying down on the moist terrain, Jack laughed from the danger.

"The tunnel is still intact, that is crazy!"

[Petra Tentacle> Flammable Stone Creation {M2}(+1)]

"Oh, neat!"

[You took the risk, and you almost made my heart stop beating.]

"Pfft, do you even have an organ to begin with?"

[It's an expression, Jack.]

Along with his newly acquired combo and dangerous power, Jack fetched his sword and torch that was blown away from the shockwave and moved on to his exploration. With the fire on the jagged blade extinguished, he could finally strap it back to the vine he kept around his waist.

The torch was lit once again.

Unlike the former tunnel where the ceiling and wall were made with something man made, everything felt like it was naturally formed by nature until Jack stumbled upon a flight of stairs descending deeper into the cave with numerous paper-color stones guiding the path on each side.

As he ventured forward, his eyes were greeted with an ancient gryph and drawing on the side as he went further. With his torch and his blazing tendril, he amplified the illustration by illuminating it further to get a clearer view.

Continuing on his journey Jack saw numerous large humanoids holding a hammer, all chasing away a small army of stick men that were escaping and throwing away all of their weapons.

"At first, I thought I stumbled upon a path leading to a World Vein, and then into an arduously built mining shaft tunnel, and now I feel like there is some ancient primordial thing happening here that doesn't make a lot of sense."

[This is not your world, Jack. There might be some logical disparities with our common sense with this world. One of them being on how those Players could have the privilege of naming an entire flaming huge cat species as Pomu_

[You're lucky that one of those Players who named your species as Mollusian was somewhat sensible, Jack. You could actually be named as Tentacle Master or Wriggly Doodoo for all you know.]

Jack nervously grinned. "Don't language-shame the words within this world. Who knows, maybe Pomu has a deep meaning within their language." Jack stopped on his tracks as he received a revelation. "Wait a second, how come I can understand everything those Players said!? I thought we're in another world and dimension for good sake!?"

[That will be a mystery to solve, Jack. Go find the correlation somewhere in the future when everything is clear. Right now, your job is to find something worthwhile and things that can make you stronger.]

With all senses heightened in case of a threat, Jack started to feel uncomfortable with how deep the stair goes.

"I hope that this staircase won't go on forever like how the tunnel did. If that is the case, that will be funny."

The tunnel stretched forever and it had been an hour since Jack decided to wonder what was on the other side below.

"This is not funny at all!!"

[Now I'm getting more convinced that this is a path to a World Vein, knowing how deep we are underground.]

"And I'm more convinced that we're heading to the underworld or hell for various reasons."

Jack stared at the abyss that slowly unveiled itself upon each step. The abyss stared at the young child that was slowly walking deeper and deeper down its mouth. Jack gulped, and the abyss was gulping him.

Another half hour passed.

In just four steps away, his torch illuminated a flat ground underneath, ending the endless descending journey.

"Finally! The people who built this tunnel are either crazy, a snake, or an alien on drugs!"

[The deeper we're, the more hellish it will be when we're going back.]

"At least now we know the extent of this cave." Jack was on his knees, heaving a sigh of relief before grinning. "I've gone through hell many times. As long as I know the path is still the same, then I won't mind traveling back and forth for a glass of beer."

Jack's journey continued as he was greeted with an otherworldly underground biome. It came to a ruinous ancient facility theme once again, just like the one on the surface. But this time, there were black fleshy objects latching on the nearby terrain and walls.

They were beating, as if they were alive. Jack might have seen something worse but the extremely pungent smell of rotting corpses covered in tar did make want to get the hell out of there.

"Urgh, I think I won the bet on this one." Jack pinched his nose. "This is hell for my nose."

[Weak, I'm fine and dandy here. Don't make an excuse.]

"Hahah, that is funny. If I have the spell to switch bodies with you, I would have done that within this kind of situation."

<>

A patch of the black fleshy material came to life, growing an eye and an open jaw with sharp fangs before leaping at Jack's direction.

Jack immediately brandished his sword. The gooey revenant was split into two pieces, birthing another form of life with every cut of itself.

"This is like a tapeworm but ten times worse!"

He used his tentacle to smear the flaming mucus onto his sword again. Within his sight, there were numerous gooey substances on the ground that could be gaining sentience at any point. Jack dragged his sword through that carpet of black flesh, decimating it until he landed an upper slash on the living Soul Teratoma

The other Soul Teratoma leaped. Jack whacked it with his torch and stabbed the gruesome monstrosity on the ground.

Unbeknownst to Jack, there was more.