Jake logged in.
Yesterday, after the battle against the assassin, he logged out around the same spot where the siblings did. He didn't want to separate himself from them, as he had a lot to talk about.
They had also made plans together and even exchanged numbers.
Jake didn't expect to be able to get Sin's number, but he somehow got it after coming back home from his visit to Ingrid. She called him, introduced herself with her real name, Rebecca, and asked for a few details about Jake's predicament in the game world.
She wanted to know the most whether her necklace of the invisible zone hadn't been broken and whether Jake still had enough arrows in his quiver to continue the dungeon expedition.
Once he confirmed her item wasn't destroyed and that he was ready for more floors, she switched to Ender's prowess and hypothesized about it, which was quite an interesting talk for Jake.
Rebecca told him that she believed Ender's range to be at least as wide as one floor and that his influence couldn't go past the dungeon for apparent reasons.
Jake was on the same page here.
He wanted to see whether Ender could tame the entire dungeon's darkness with his nest or at least what kind of range he had in his little form.
"Huh?!" Jake exclaimed, all his prior thoughts vanishing upon coming to the game world. He didn't appear on his two feet but on his back, swimming on something hard and unbalanced.
He looked around, finding out that he was surfing on people's helmets, hands, and even blunt weapons like hammers. It was so uncomfortable and painful that Jake wanted to immediately extricate himself from this predicament.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Jake had caught the sight of Prince and his heavy armor sinking into the crowd. A few players were around his level and they couldn't deal with his weight, meaning that they all had crumbled onto their four.
They were smashed by his heavy armor of darkness!
Sin stood on his stomach, not letting anyone touch her. It was difficult to see whether someone had managed to even scratch her once because she wore her usual indifferent expression.
Her lips were slightly parted. She seemed annoyed.
"Oh, my dark horse!" Prince exclaimed upon noticing Jake's stare. The actor seemed to have been enjoying himself and was in a great mood—like a man sailing on the gentle waves of the ocean.
Jake thought, 'You aren't a singer, but an actor. Don't tell me those guys also get to crowd dive?'
Prince had a lot of experience or perhaps he had no choice but to remain like that until the crowd around him scattered away so as to he could get some room for himself.
Jake didn't know what to do, so he tried swimming toward his teammates. However, a few players hated that someone had appeared above them, making it much more difficult for him.
After a few minutes of the uncomfortable crowd diving and swimming, the party of three oddities had found themselves huddled in the corner of the first floor's cave.
The entrance to the second floor was across them.
Prince crossed his arms and called everyone on their party voice chat.
He casually spoke, "Shall we hear the full story, my dark horse?"
Jake nodded, "Yeah. But is it okay for us to stand out like that?"
Sin faintly smiled, "We're no longer standing out. A plethora of high-level players are studying this cave, hoping to find any clue to the thunders that have awakened Cerberus. Our enemies don't have time to bother about us, either. They have to keep an eye on everyone and ensure no one is causing any mess or is looking suspicious of their new standards.
We have become like one of the common players now."
Yet Jake was so happy for him that Wukong could only smile broadly and take the same baby steps as Jake had done before in the Warmonger Empire.
In fact, Jake's growth hadn't stopped yet! He would take those baby steps for a long time! Even as a high-level player!
Jake asked, "Was it fun?"
Wukong nodded a few times.
At last, Medusa appeared at the scene.
Everyone's eyes had fallen on her. A thick silence surrounded her.
It was the first time the baby snake had felt this way.
She couldn't say anything but only stare at Jake's face.
Jake sighed, "Bad girl."
Medusa hissed in response. She wouldn't take that!
"Coming out on your own won't receive any praise despite me knowing you had done it for me. What if I needed your help for something else or your arrow? What you did deserves 'a bad girl' treatment," Jake explained.
Medusa hissed and hissed. She didn't want to accept that.
Odin and Wukong were looking at her with worried eyes.
Meanwhile, Ender threw at her Pathetique expression—Medusa was the second existence to deserve that!
Odin caught sight of it and howled.
Ender didn't spare him, too.
These two were now in a deadly stare contest.
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Jake ignored them, taking Medusa onto his palm, "You can't rest in your nest on my chest. As a punishment for acting alone, you will wrap around my left wrist and stay still here until I say you're free to act."
Having nothing to argue with, Medusa gave up and crawled to Jake's left hand. She wrapped herself around him and silently hung. It was so unlike her that her presence and palpable feelings ended Odin and Ender's staring contest in a draw.
Jake also felt conflicted but didn't want his summons to act alone.
Giving them so much freeway could hurt him down the line in the process.
At last, he shared what had happened with Prince and Sin.
These two were in a good mood after seeing Jake's bonding.
Jake finished his story smiling, "We're going to explore and mine a lot, right? Also, Ender, I need you to find a player around our level with a staff weapon. Wukong needs it."
Ender nodded and hid in the darkness. He first went through the second floor's entrance and began making his own kingdom of darkness here with his nests.
Jake's smile broadly widened.