Using every strength of 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 onto the pursuing Toxic Trap Slime.
The fiery projectile travelled at the speed of a muscle car on its full speed. Instead of going straight to the center point of the monster, the ballistic ball of flame collided at 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 onto 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 former shockwave and moved on to his exploration. With the fire on the jagged blade extinguished, he could finally strapped it back to the vine he kept for purposes on 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 descending stair with numerous paper-color stones guiding the path on each side.
As he ventured forward, his eyes were greeted with an ancient scribbling and drawing on the side as he descended. With his torch and his blazing tendril, he amplified the illustration by illuminating it further to get a clearer view.
Ongoing from the top and descending, could be seen 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 World Vein's path, and then I thought that I'm going into an arduously built mining shaft tunnel, and now I feel like there is some ancient primordial 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 Pumo_
[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 instead.]
Jack nervously grinned. "Don't language-shame the words within this world. Who knows, maybe Pumo have a deep meaning within their language." Jack stopped on his track as he got the 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. Now, your job is to find something worthwhile or and things that make yourself stronger.]
With all senses being wary all the time, 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 does. 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're underground.]
"And I'm more convinced that we're heading to an underworld or hell for various reasons."
Jack kept staring at the dark abyss in front of him that was kept at bay due to the illumination. The darkness was there, mocking him, preventing him to see any further.
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, grinning like an idiot. "I've gone through hell many times. As long as I know the path is still the same, then I won't mind travelling 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 nearby terrain and walls.
They were beating, as if they were alive. Jack might have seen something worse but the extremely pungent smell did entice him to get the hell out and back to his camp.
"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."
<<Level 90 Soul Teratoma is coming for you>>
A patch of the black fleshy material came to life, growing an eye jaw with sharp fangs before leaped at Jack's direction.
Jack immediately brandished his sword. The gooey revenants were 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 numerous gooey substances on the ground that could be gaining sentience at any point. Jack then dragged the 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.