Second World

In his panic, he tried to summon other things. Therras, Spirit Weapon, his wolf pack. Nothing appeared. He even tried to call his weapons out but no response. He tried to send his consciousness into his inventory but it was like he had no inventory at all.

'This is like the first trial,' Jack thought. The difference was he still wore his equipment this time. Other than that, it seemed that every other game feature had vanished. He could also sense no mana at all.

"Is this a dream again?" Jack asked. He pinched himself. It hurt.

"No… Can't be a dream," Jack muttered. Last time, he went into the trial after he fell asleep. He didn't remember going to sleep this time. The trial simply started in the middle of his conversation with Majus. If this was a trial at all, to begin with.

He looked up at the sky. The fog that usually covered this valley was no more. He could see the sky clearly. The sun was at its peak. It's noon, all right. Did he spend one complete day inside without realizing it?

He walked around nearby. He didn't dare to go far. Trying to see if there was any clue. He couldn't find any.

He looked at the large expanse of land ahead of him. There was nothing. Not even any tree or mountain. He felt the urge to cross that land. He resisted the urge. He then looked up again at the sun and frowned.

He sat down on the ground leaning on the cliff wall and waited. After what he estimated as three or four hours, he looked up again.

It was true, the sun was still at the same spot. It didn't move at all.

What did this mean? The sun didn't move. Peniel and Majus didn't move… Time had stopped. He was the only one unaffected by this phenomenon.

However, he also didn't think they were still in the normal game world. Otherwise, he would see a valley instead of this large expanse of land. He looked back at the cliff wall. There was no longer a fog that covered its height. The cliff was very tall. Its wall was completely flat, with no handhold for climbing. It would be impossible for him to scale this wall without Pandora.

He returned his attention to the vast expanse before him.

"Ah, screw it!" He uttered and started walking. Staying in one place won't solve anything.

He walked and walked. He didn't know how long since he started walking, but it was a long time. Since the sun remained at the same place, he had no reference to gauge time.

He rested when he was tired. Then he continued walking again. He tried to walk in a straight line, but he was not sure if he did. There was no reference, no landscape. The only notable landscape was the high cliff wall that he had left behind. He used that cliff wall as a reference at first. As long as the cliff was behind him, it meant that he didn't veer off course.

But the cliff was not visible anymore, which meant he had walked a very long distance. He estimated that he might have been walking for days under normal time. He felt hungry and thirsty, but his body seemed to still be able to function properly. This proved that players' game bodies needed no nutritional intake. They were just doing it out of habit.

When he rested and slept, he drew an arrow sign on the ground to make sure he resumed traveling in the same direction again after waking up. He assumed as long as he went in a straight line, he should find something.

He continued, for how long he couldn't tell. He thought it might have been days? He was unsure.

Then one thing caught his attention. A tree!

He ran towards it. It was a dead tree. There was no leave. Just a large trunk with many branches. Even so, it was the one distinct thing in this otherwise empty landscape. Jack scrutinized each of its parts but found nothing special. He even touched every inch of the trees, but nothing happened.

He then sat laying on that tree. Tired and beat up and confused. He stayed there for a long time. At one moment, he looked up at the sky and felt that something was different. The sun's position had changed.

Was it that the time didn't stop, it only slowed?

He decided to stay longer and watched the sun. After hours of waiting, there was no noticeable difference. Perhaps because the time moved so slow that he couldn't perceive the changes with just a few hours of observation? So, he decided to resume his journey rather than wasting time here.

He walked, and walked, and walked.

He had grown a beard. He only realized it when he was unintentionally touching his face.

"How long have I been walking?" He said with worry. The beard felt more than half an inch. There was one time during his college that he let his beard grow. It took more than a month for it to grow this long. Had he been walking for that long?

His mind wandered to his friends, the guild, prince Alonzo, and the other natives. What could have happened in this one month? He couldn't send messages. Did the time outside continue normally? Or was it also slowed? He hoped it was the latter. Otherwise, if he came out of this trial, everyone might be many levels ahead of him already.

He stopped. Why did he use 'if'? He would finish this trial for sure. No way he was trapped in this trial forever. There should be a way out! Even if it meant failing the trial. He should be sent back into the game world again after failing.

Without realizing it, Jack no longer cared about completing this trial. He just wanted to go back out to the game world.

He continued his walk. He saw more dead trees as he proceeded. That first tree he encountered didn't feel that much special now. Additionally, the landscape wasn't entirely flat anymore. Sometimes it went up, sometimes it's down, but still mostly flat.

Jack didn't trim his beard. He had nothing to use for a time reference, so this beard had become that.

He tried not to think too much about it as he walked, until his beard was half a foot long.

"Shit…," he muttered. Had he walked for a year?

He sat down. He had long stopped bothering to draw a line to indicate his direction while resting. It would be okay if he ended up returning to the cliff wall again. Then he at least had something to look at, not just this empty expanse of land.

He no longer worried about the outside world. He didn't care if his guild was attacked. He didn't care whether Prince Alonzo had been crowned king or not. He didn't care if World Maker successfully overthrew the Liguritudum's rightful ruler and was now invading others. All he cared about was getting out of this blasted empty world!

He looked up at the sky again. The sun had moved lower. He just sat there and watched the sun.

'Hey… It is moving,' Jack thought. He couldn't be sure though. If it moved, it did so very slowly.

Jack decided to just lay there on the ground and watched the sky.

After what might be hours of waiting, he was sure the sun was moving. Its position was now around late afternoon.

That's weird, the last time he waited for hours while watching the sun, it didn't move at all.

After some pondering, he thought maybe the time stopped around that cliff wall. As he proceeded further, whatever affecting the time might have become weaker. So, the time was closer to running at a normal speed here.

With that train of thought, he stood back up and continued his walk. Perhaps once he arrived at the spot where time flowed normally, he could get back to the normal game world.

Fueled by hope, he walked faster than he had walked for a long time. Even running at first.

After what he thought were more days of journey… or months? He noticed the sky was getting darker. It was what the sky looked like when it was dusk. The sun was very low on the horizon.

Jack continued. He couldn't afford to stop. There must be something happening once time flowed normally.

So, he walked, and walked, and walked.

The sky finally reached its nighttime. Jack continued to walk, until it was dawn and eventually morning again.

The land also became more irregular. There were low hills all around. The frequency of dead trees also increased. He now saw two or three trees at any one time.

Day came and went. Night came and went.

His beard was now three feet long. He made a calculation. Was it six years already? He thought in consternation. He couldn't be sure. He felt that his beard had stopped growing for quite some while. Does that mean it was even longer than six years then?

He sat down and rested at one of the dead trees at the top of one low hill. He watched the sky. He could easily see the movement of the sun. It was fast. He had felt it to be so for some time. Now that he stopped and paid attention. He was sure now.

The sun had passed moving at a normal speed. It was faster than normal now. In what felt like a couple of hours, the sun had moved from its highest position to the horizon.

Nothing happened when he reached the point where time was flowing normally. Now that he had passed that point, he continued to walk. Because he didn't know what else to do.