[Please follow the arrow!]
Stark had been walking for around five minutes, and now that the train was gone, his surroundings became eerily quiet, there were no people in view, and no monsters either after all, he was in the middle of nowhere, with no landmark other than that red arrow that pointed toward some random direction he was supposed to follow.
[Stark HP: 7463/9300]
He had received around 1800HP of damage since he jumped out of a train going at 400KM per hour, and there were some bruises on his elbows and knees, small drops of blood pouring out from them, but it felt quite numb to Stark, maybe since he had received injuries that were much worse?
‘Maybe I could use that…’ he thought as he opened his [Spatial Inventory] and pulled out…
Two [Potions of Regeneration]!
Each of them were supposed to give him back 1000HP, and he had never tried it, meaning this was a perfect opportunity to do that.
He opened the two bottles with the green liquid and started gulping them at the same time using both hands.
~SLURP, GULP~
The potion was rather sweet, and it felt great to drink, almost as if his entire body was recovering from that.
And it was.
“+1000! +1000!”
The cuts on his elbows and knees began to slowly disappear as he drank the potions, and by the end of it, they were completely gone.
[Stark HP: 9300/9300]
‘Works really well… and I still have 38 of those,’ Stark smiled, of course they couldn’t save him from a one-shot attack, and using them during fight was pretty much suicide, but outside of that it was fine.
Or so he thought… but he would only realize that later.
[Distance to Rift: 1.1KM]
Stark was currently in deserted plains, no trees in view or even flowers, it almost felt like this part of the world was… desolate.
‘I mean… duh, I jumped out of the train, meaning that I must be in some random place almost no one visits…’
[Distance to Rift: 1KM]
And suddenly… far ahead of him… he could see that cave he had seen in the images from the watch.
[Rift in view, advance cautiously…]
Much like the ruins of the [City Ruins] rift, these monument that held rifts seemed to appear out of nowhere alongside their portals.
Plus it wasn’t even a cave, just the start of one, and the opened portal at the end made it impossible to go further, meaning there wasn’t even anything beyond it.
[Distance to Rift: 400M]
‘…’
[Distance to Rift: 200M]
‘Wait a damn minute…’ Stark remembered something.
[Distance to Rift: 100M]
‘Why would the watch ask me to advance cautiously when there is nothing-‘ he remembered the words he had seen on the watch.
And suddenly…
~BOOM~
A crimson panel appeared in front of him as he heard the explosion ahead.
Crimson meant that it was his own status window, not the watch’s.
[You have left the safe zone!]
And at the same time…
“GREEAAAOORRR~~~” he heard a giant roar, and a lizard-like creature at least 10 meters in size got out of the ground.
[You are currently in a semi-danger zone (meaning only a few amounts of monsters will come out!)]
The lizard was big, with dark green shells and patterns all over its body, it had sharp teeth that already had saliva drooping from them after noticing the human.
‘…’ Stark got ready to fight, the cave wasn’t that far anymore, so as long as he could gain space slowly, he would reach his destination without any issues.
[Name: Sneaky Lizard]
[Level: 40]
[HP: 54000]
[Strength: 1127]
[Stamina: 349]
[Speed: 544]
[Defense: 906]
[Skills: Bite, Scale Armor, Lizard Call, Roar, Sonic Beam, Hide…]
‘…’ it was alone, and its level was so low that it wasn’t even a threat to Stark, even though he was only level 25.
“AURA SMASH,” he sent his two fists toward the lizard, who obviously wasn’t able to avoid thanks to its very low speed.
~BOOM, BOOM~
“-32823! -34761!”
Needless to say it didn’t survive this attack.
[You have slain one “Sneaky Lizard lv40”, gained 36619EXP!]
[Distance to Rift: 60M]
He was getting extremely close to the portal now, and he could already sense the crackling aura in the air that surrounded it, as well as that feeling that wanted him to head inside.
[Distance to Rift: 40M]
But…
~BOOM, BOOM, BOOM~
A succession of explosions could be heard around him and…
“BITE!” a lizard that was using the [Hide] skill to camouflage in the ground suddenly jumped toward Stark.
“Focus…” but the boy calmly stepped to the left as he had seen that attack coming from a kilometer away.
~PUNCH, PUNCH~
“-29837! -28904!”
Two quick punches to the face ended the lizard’s life before it could do anything else.
But by now, he was already surrounded by at least seven of them.
‘Sigh… let’s get this over with…’ he advanced toward the portal, now only 30 meters ahead of him, ready to get rid of those who had the balls to try and attack him.
…
[You have slain one “Sneaky Lizard lv40”, gained 35829EXP!]
[You have slain one “Sneaky Lizard lv40”, gained 34914EXP!]
[You have slain one “Sneaky Lizard lv40”, gained 35976EXP!]
Only three of the lizards attempted to attack Stark, but they were all killed quite easily, resulting in the rest of them to not even approach the boy anymore.
‘It was not worth it’ was what they thought, and so they all left.
‘…’ Stark didn’t mind if his experience points left, after all he had something much more promising in front of him…
[Distance to Rift: 10 meters]
He was now inside of the cave, and before him was the white portal.
All the previous ones were of crimson color, yet this one was white somehow, maybe since it was from a different type?
In the end, it didn’t matter, and so Stark stepped forward, traversing the rift that was supposed to be his hardest one yet.
At the same time, the watch began to shake violently, and a screen appeared.
[You have arrived to your destination, good luck on the mission!]
And…
~BEEEEEPP~
The watch suddenly broke, it didn’t explode, but it had malfunctioned and couldn’t be used anymore.
But it didn’t matter since Stark’s already now fully inside of the portal.
…
~FWISH~
After the nauseating feeling of being transported to another dimension ended, Stark opened his eyes again.
And he was greeted by three white panels.
[Welcome to ‘Sierra’s Death Path’]
[Level 60-75 Nightmare-Level Rift]
[Don’t get hit by the arrows, and have fun!]
