Chapter 369 - 369. Running
Viral Cora approached the place where Jack was kneeling before. "There is a trap in front? Strange, usually I can detect one from around five meters away."
"This one should be an advanced expert grade trap, so it is more difficult to detect. Try going nearer," Jack said.
??
"Say, what is the level of your Detect and Disarm Trap skill?" John asked Jack.
"Beginner Apprentice," Jack answered.
"Then how come you can detect it while that lass there who has a higher level skill can't?"
"I also have a Talent. It is called investigator. I can detect clues and stuff from the environment. That might have been the reason," Jack explained. He might not be wrong. He honestly did not know if the trap marker came up due to his talent or his God-eye monocle.
"Found it!" Viral Cora proclaimed. Jack saw that she was only a few inches away. She needed to slowly get so close in order to notice the trap. If she did not already know that there was a trap there, she would have stepped on it before she found out.
"Looking at how close she needs to notice it, that trap might instead be a basic master grade," Peniel said. "Your forty-nine remaining disarm tools might not be enough to disarm all the traps in this dungeon, I don't think there is only one trap here."
'Damn! Why didn't you ask me to buy more?' Jack complained.
"How do I know you will just barge into a place with such high-leveled traps?" Peniel retorted.
Everyone watched on as Viral Cora attempted on disarming the trap.
"So difficult!" She exclaimed, it looked like she had failed as well. "The time bar is so short and there were so many clicks in its sequence. I have no confidence to disarm this."
"Just try your best," Jack said.
"You can do it, Cora," Jeanny encouraged.
"Don't worry, we can just throw Bowler to trigger the trap in case you fail," John added.
"I will throw you first!" Bowler shot back.
The others gave her supporting words as well, she looked back to the trap with determination and went back to work. The second time, failed. Third, failed again. She kept on failing until her tenth disarm tool when she suddenly exclaimed, "yes!" Startling everyone.
"You succeed?" Salty Trade asked.
Viral Cora winked at her with her fingers forming a victory sign. "The proficiencies awarded are so generous. A couple more and my Detect and Disarm Trap skill will increase a level," she said.
"Um, no worry, you will get your chance," Jack said. He had walked ahead when Viral Cora showcased her victory sign. He again detected another trap not far ahead.
After he told everyone, Trinity Dawn asked, "how about we take that other route back there? Maybe it is better the other way?"
"Yeah, it appeared that you really have taken the wrong decision," Weird Trap said.
"I doubt that," Jack responded. "Notice that we haven't met any monsters yet. I think this dungeon is instead full of traps. So even if we go the other direction. I'm pretty sure that we will encounter traps as well."
"Are you sure? Maybe we should still go and take a look."
"Go ahead. We will stay here and work on the traps in the meantime."
"Uh, easy for you to say. Only you have managed to detect the traps... Okay, let's continue this way and disarm the traps."
Viral Cora only got one more Disarm Tool left. Not so much chance for her to succeed in one try. She failed as expected, so Sunset Walking went and took over the job. Surprisingly, Sunset succeeded in just three tries. Everybody congratulated him for that, including Jack.
"How odd," Jack heard Peniel's voice.
'About what?' Jack asked as he continued forward to detect more traps.
"Well, we can't see the time bar nor the clicks which he had to respond to, but I've been paying attention to when he triggered his Disarm Tool. The frequencies by which he triggered it were less crowded than when you or that girl did it. The only reason I can think of is that his skill level is much higher. The higher the level of Detect and Disarm Trap skill is, the longer the available time bar and the fewer the clicks that are needed to be triggered within one sequence. If you are an advanced expert grade disarming a basic apprentice trap, you might only need to trigger only one click to successfully disarm the said trap."
'So, you are saying that he was lying about his skill level?'
"I'm pretty sure he is. I just don't know why," Peniel replied.
'Probably he is just shy. Maybe he is afraid that we will expect too much from him if we know his skill level is so high.'
"Probably. I never understand the way you outworlders think anyway."
Jack found another, and Sunset disarmed it in four tries this time. The next one in just two times, and so on. By the time they finally reached the end of this extremely long and straight hallway, Sunset only spent twenty-four out of the thirty Disarm Tools he claimed he possessed.
The hallway although stopped going straight, it continued on in different directions. They arrived at an intersection that went to left and right.
"Crap, we are still going? How long will this be?" They looked to the left and right, the hallway was again very long that they couldn't see the end on either side.
"So, which way now?"
After a moment of silence, Jack turned to the left and said, "this way."
Instead of asking why he picked that route, they simply followed.
After walking for a while, they strangely did not encounter any more traps. But they noticed that the floor of this hallway was slightly sloping. Wherever they were heading to, it was going downward. They continued for a few minutes until they heard a rumbling sound from behind.
"What's that sound?" They looked back the way they came. The lighting was not so bright, so they had trouble looking too far. But Jack's Dragon's Eye allowed him to see something that was moving in afar, and it was heading their way.
After squinting his eyes to see clearer, he finally realized what it was.
"Shit! Everyone, run!!" He shouted, then started running. Everyone was confused by his reaction. Several that trusted Jack unconditionally like Bowler, Flame, and The Man ran after him even though they were puzzled as well. The others looked behind at the dark abyss in the distance. Not long after, they saw a huge round ball rolling out of the abyss, towards them. The ball was so large that it covered the entire hallway, there was no space to slip by.
"Son of a…!" Giant Steve didn't finish his curse as he turned back and ran as fast as he could.
Everyone was now running. The slowest one was the mage who had the lowest Dexterity, one of which was John. He took out a magic scroll and activated it. All of a sudden, his movement speed increased. He passed through the others.
"F*ck! How selfish can you be? Can't you used the group spell one?" Giant Steve shouted.
"Sorry, friend. The single target one gave more boost," he replied.
"I have a Group Haste scroll!" Jeanny announced and used it. Everyone's speed increased. But the rumbling sound that was getting louder informed them that the ball was getting closer despite their high-speed run.
Giant Steve looked back and saw how close the ball was. The gigantic ball looked even more dreadful from up close. He could see the rough and uneven texture of its surface as it rolled.
"Over here!" He heard someone shouted. He looked back to the front and saw Jack was waving at him from an opening at one side of the wall. Everyone immediately ran towards that opening.
Knight and Mage were the two slowest classes, Giant Steve and Trinity Dawn were at the rear of the group. They made the last leap at the opening as the ball was about to reach them. They looked back after falling to the ground and saw the huge ball passed by the opening. The passing ball caused a tremor which broke the roof of the opening, stones and rocks fell and sealed the opening. Darkness covered everything as they were cut off from the hallway where they were running a moment ago.
There were none of the magic lamps inside here. Everyone cannot see anything in the complete darkness. Suddenly a bright light shone and illuminated the surroundings. Everyone looked at the source of the light and saw a small shining ball above Jack.
"Is that a spell?" Trinity Dawn asked.
"Yeah, it's called Illumination," Jack replied. "You can buy it from a store called Magic Association Shop in the noble district in the capital. Once you people completed this quest and gained the writ to enter that district, you can buy it there. Save you from using a torch."