Jake returned to the game world the next day. He hadn’t headed straight to the dungeon. Instead, he remained on the spot, summoning his companions. Everyone came out as usual except Medusa. She dropped before Jake in her human form, wearing the same dress. She turned her little head away.
Jake smiled. "I’m sorry, Medusa."
Medusa’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t what she had expected. As much as she hated the current setting, she was smart enough to understand where Jake and Ender were coming from yesterday.
"You’re like a daughter to me," Jake confessed, his voice soft and genuine enough to silence the little princess. "I should have never said that I’d let you go once you grow up. I’ll always be here to support you because you are that important to me. Today’s plan is to wreck chaos in the dungeon again and fight the boss! Let’s have fun, everyone!"
Odin and Wukong loudly cheered.
Ender scoffed with his Pathetique expression.
Medusa covertly glanced at Jake. She nodded.
That motion signaled the return of the team to the dungeon. Jake didn’t dally around and ran as fast as he could, with Medusa keeping up with him. He looked into her status and was shocked to discover that she no longer had a battle cooldown.
Ender gasped, "What?!"
Odin and Wukong panned their stares over to Medusa.
She smirked at them.
It was such a powerful and facilitating feature that everyone wanted to be like Medusa. On that day, the three of the remaining pets went through the same silent evolution that Medusa had done.
In the dungeon, Jake gathered everyone’s attention. The same chaos ensued, with the worms lusting over his blood. He ran over them with his arrows while Medusa silently followed behind him. Ender often stole glances at her, telling her to drop the pointless facade and start working.
It hadn’t worked so far.
At last, the dungeon’s boss’ room stood before them.
Jake was alone, thanks to his deal with Ava Rice.
He stepped in.
What welcomed him was a roar. It blew his hair away and nearly threw Ender off Jake’s shoulder. The powerful roar belonged to the worm with three heads, similar to the famous Cerberus.
[Three-headed Worm Lv. 30 HP: 2151/2151 MP: 2050]
"Do they split when each wants to go their way?" Jake jested. "The same plan."
Although the same plan involved Medusa’s help, Jake and Ender could do it without her help. The crucial juncture of their plan was Jake’s blood, and they fed the boss with it. Jake and Ender could achieve it in a few ways, and it wasn’t like the monster could avoid using his circular rows of teeth. In fact, those were its main weapons.
There were three heads, too, so Jake suspected he had to feed three of them with his wine before killing the boss in one shot.
He crumbled into his Soldier Formless Form.
He stuffed eight arrows; four of them were trickling down with wine, the rest with cheese. If those arrows wouldn’t be enough, Jake would use Ender’s help.
Sensing Jake’s killing intent, the boss lunged at him. It was fast.
Alas, Jake was faster. He drew trajectories in less than a second and released his arrows into them, stuffing his arrows into three heads. The arrows went down the worm’s necks before coalescing in the single stomach.
BANG!
[You have killed the three-headed Worm.]
"You didn’t need me," Ender commented.
"You really killed the boss in a single attack despite having no oaths," a foreign voice commented as well. Explore more stories at novelhall.Côm
Everyone turned toward where it had come from, spotting a man in white clothes. He was dazzling and conspicuous, yet Jake and his pets hadn’t noticed him until now.
It was odd.
"Who are you? I have this dungeon room all to myself," Jake said.
The man shook his head, "I was thrown here by statues to kill you. Let’s fight to our hearts’ content, mate."
"Ah, a poor, controlled player," Jake shook his head. "You know you would have received much more rewards if you worked with me instead of the statues."
"Maybe, maybe not," the man raised his shoulders, "The deal is done, so all I can do is kill you."
He raised his white spear above his head, then spun it, creating gusts of winds that filled the boss’ cave. There were so many torrents of wind that remained for so long that Jake’s short hair tangled. Medusa had tied her hair into a ponytail before anyone could have noticed.
Medusa narrowed her eyes. ’What is this human woman talking about?’
Jake told her not to worry about anything.
"Let’s head to the village! She needs a bath!" Meredith exclaimed.
Jake pulled himself together and nodded.
He caught Meredith’s hand.
Medusa slipped away and snatched the other.
Ender shook his head as he appeared on Jake’s shoulder.
Odin and Wukong were also here, having fun in the snow.
"She’s daddy girl," Meredith said.
Ender tilted his head, "More like a sassy brat."
Jake chuckled. "Looks like we’re in eu server... The Red Dragon sent us here... I wonder if he’s worried about the statues and their pawns..."
"He must have sensed that you needed me," Meredith said with a cool voice and expression.
Once in the village, Meredith bullied Medusa by forcing her to bathe with her and then play with her hair. The latter convinced Medusa about Europe’s strongest newbie, as her hair turned sparky and simply awesome. She also could have sensed that Meredith was genuine and that Jake really loved her.
It was odd, and she disliked it... but with enough time, she would accept her.
It was night then.
Jake’s pets were so exhausted that they went to sleep, leaving the couple alone.
Staring at Meredith, Jake told himself not to repeat the same mistake.
With a new conviction and confidence, he said, "Let’s screw, Merry."
"..." Meredith raised her hand... and drew Jake closer to herself by a collar, kissing him and throwing him onto the bed. "Who will be screwing who?"
She smirked.
-
A month later.
"It’s me, my dark horse!" Prince called.
Jake turned his phone and replied, "Yeah."
"My accountant finally dealt with taxes and everything for the teleportation income. Wanna hear how much left we have to split between us seven?" Prince smirked, sipping on a wine.
Jake nodded, "Stop teasing me."
"Three million! Haha!"
Haha!
Ha!
Ha!
Ha...
Jake’s heart sank. "What the?"
"This business is an art! Our levels have gone up, but if we all stop leveling up and let others catch up, we will be able to wait for Casual Clown’s original team’s return! You need to squeeze out information from Kamil about the portal reward, tho! And then, we strike! We strike while it’s hot! I swear, only zeros in my bank accounts look more beautiful than my Lisa!"
"I heard it, you asshole!" a feminine but strong voice blasted through the wall.
Jake smiled.
He achieved everything he truly wanted. He became a better person, earned so much that he could be a responsible adult, had a beautiful and lovely girlfriend, and his love for archery remained the same, if not stronger! He could focus on everything he loved as much as he wanted.
He replied, "Yeah, Casual Clowns must return. I will call the game master today."
All he had to do was to keep grinding like usual, with twists here and here.