Chapter 20: World of the Waterfall
Jack dived into the waterfall, arms outstretched.
He instantly lost his vision and all his senses. The world disappeared. There was only him and endless cold, so piercing and biting it encompassed everything. He couldnt even feel pain, regret, or fear; all he felt was cold.
Jacks body froze. Not metaphorically; it literally froze into an ice statue. His blood barely kept circulating, and his heart and brain slowed down to such a degree that he might as well have been dead.
In his own little world, Jack was alone. Everything had been lost, even his own thoughts were frozen still. He could only stand there, in a blue, empty world.
However, even though his body and part of his mind had frozen, a vestige of his consciousness remained. In that moment, as everything else faded away, Jack experienced absolute clarity. He felt like a God; his mental reserves were limitless, and he had no needs; he could devote everything to any path he desired, and he could travel endless miles in a second.
His mind was unfettered, lost in endless tranquility. He was acting on instinct. A scene appeared before him, the scene of a man punching through a mountain-sized beast. The vision hed only glimpsed before was magnified, analyzed, slowed down, and replayed from multiple angles.
Jack barely had any awareness of himself. He was an empty shell, and that shell was freely flooded with the essence of that fist. He became the fist and the bald man that wielded it. He became the punch that tore through the beast, and he became the beast itself, sensing everything as his body was torn apart.
He felt everything, and there were so many things that didnt make sense, so many things to learn.
That scene had been carved in his soul with all its details, but his mind hadnt been capable of comprehending them. Now, it was; and though he only understood the tiniest part, he felt his world growing and himself on the cusp of a realization so massive it dwarfed every thought hed ever had.
It was the same realization that had come to him with the original vision, the one that had slipped out of his grasp.
However, just as he was on the verge of understanding, something tugged at him. An annoying feeling rose from his legs, slowly spreading to the rest of his body, as if he was losing control. He frowned in annoyance, unwilling to lose focus over something so small, but the feeling persisted.
A voice in his mind whispered that he should leave. That he was in danger.
Danger? he finally wondered. Why?
And the moment he did, the whisper turned into a thundering shout. The vision dispersed as his own voice thundered across the little realm he stood in.
LEAVE!
Jack opened his eyes and fell back. He could barely feel his body. The cold had invaded his every nook and cranny, from the wrinkles of his brain to the marrow of his bones. Only the Systems magichis Constitutionsaved him. He felt terror.
I almost died, he thought. Everything was fast. When he fell back, his body practically teleported to the lakes bottom. His lungs were swiftly losing their oxygen, and the water danced over him like crazy.
No, it wasnt that the world was fast. He was slow; frozen. The only reason his lungs still held was that his bodily functions underperformed so greatly they didnt draw much oxygen.
I will die, he realized. Hed had nightmares like this before. He was slow, much slower than everything. In those dreams, hed try to rise from his bed, only to fall on the floor, unable to coordinate his body at such painfully slow motion. Hed try to speak, to call for help, but he could only make deep, unintelligible sounds.
His current situation was similar, but it was not a dream. He could not control his body. He could barely sense his thoughts. And the more he waited, the greater the pain becameeverywhere.
Jack was drowning in more than one ways. He struggled to stand, but it was impossible. In the end, he turned around on the pond floor and managed to crawl forward, his arms uncoordinated but enough for such a simple task.
The pain kept growing. His head was about to burst. His eyes were frozen. His lungs burned. His focus narrowed on the simple motions of reaching out, dragging himself forward, and repeating.
Jack was sure hed die, but for some reason, he pressed forth. He didnt want to go quietly into the night. He would charge ahead, break through everything with overwhelming power, or die trying.
He was a fist.
Yet, as great as fist magic sounded, he still lacked something, a focus to complete his understanding, fill in the holes, and turn thoughts into realityinto magic. And the thing he missed wasnt something hed discover through thinking. Hed find it through punching.
As it should be.
Jacks eyes shone as he exited his cave with steady steps; the steps of a warrior. His bare feet crunched leaves and snapped sticks. He arrived in the monkey area and stared deep into it.
He saw red eyes gaze back from its depth. They didnt attack, only waited. And then, Jack hesitated.
The truth was, Jack wasnt a murderer. A killer, maybe, but not a cold-blooded one. The goblins had made it easy by trying to kill him first and being disgusting little fuckers. The bears, too, had eased his doubts by being bloodthirsty, aggressive, and sadistic enough to torture the little animals in their territory even without eating them.
But these monkeys had done nothing wrong. If he massacred them, it would be cold-blooded, undeserved genocide.
Jack followed the law of the jungle. He would do it if he had to...maybe. But he didn't want to become that person. If there could be another way, he wanted to at least give it a shot.
When hed invaded the monkey territory, theyd only thrown poop at him and chased him out despite having the strength to kill him. Theyd let him go. Couldnt he do the same?
But it might doom him.
These were Jacks thoughts as he hesitated, debating what to do. The monkeys still stared from their trees. In fact, theyd approached enough that he could make out their brown, beefy forms.
Gymonkey, Level 9
A monkey variant from planet Green. Gymonkeys inhabit all forest biomes and move in packs, defending their territory with flying poop and great muscles. Their unique name comes from their habit of lifting heavy things to increase their strength.
While not particularly aggressive, they are highly territorial.
The one he scanned was of medium beefiness. The pack that approached him had seven monkeys, and they ranged from Levels 5 to 12, from normal monkeys to bodybuilders-turned-primate. He wasnt afraid of them, of course.
They stared at him, and he stared back. What should I do?...
A deep growl came from deeper in the monkey area. Jack supposed it belonged to a gorillathough, with how stupid the name Gymonkeys was, he assumed the gorilla would have an equally silly one.
However, as he observed the monkeys, Jack realized something. They were watching him, and they were magical monkeys. Could they beintelligent?
The moment he had that thought, he sighed. He knew where this would lead, and he felt stupid for even thinking about it. Yet, what choice did he have? Between suicidal, psychotic, and stupid, hed always choose the latter.
Hello, he said, surprised at the sound of his own voice. He hadnt spoken to anyone in days, barring crude battle taunts. Im Jack.
The monkeys looked at each other. One of them exclaimed what sounded like ooh-ah-ah to him, which he obviously couldnt understand. They made sounds at each other, seemingly conversing about something.
Jacks suspicions were further reinforced. These monkeys clearly understood him, or at least understood he was trying to communicate. They had some degree of intelligence. Moreover, they werent hostile.
The biologist inside him was intrigued. The survivalist, annoyedbut fuck that guy.
One of the monkeys finally turned around and motioned for him to follow. Jack, grinning, complied.
He had no idea where this could go, but he really wanted to find out.
