“FUAHHH~” Stark opened his eyes, he was sweating profusely for some reason, and really didn’t like the feeling of his consciousness forcefully being taken from his body.
[Domination Trial: The Lucullus Prison]
[Difficulty: DEATH]
These panels were the first things that greeted him once he opened his eyes, but he already knew that so he shrugged them off.
Stark looked around him.
He was in a closed square space with dark blue walls around him, they looked to be in a good state, meaning that this trial was much more ‘advanced’ and ‘technological’ than the last.
And when he turned his head… he noticed that one of the four walls was actually opened, except for one simple problem: blue laser-like bars were blocking his path.
‘Prison cell…?’ was the conclusion Stark reached, after all the name of the trial was [The Lucullus Prison], so it did make sense.
But of course, he wasn’t alone.
Since all around him, there were nine other cells identical to his, and as guessed, each of them had one participant inside.
Some were still asleep, while others were already up, inspecting their surroundings.
[Wait for the others to wake up before receiving any kind of information about this trial, in the meantime, you can enjoy yourself!]
‘Enjoy myself, my ass…’ Stark sighed as he got up.
The cell right in front of his was occupied by a woman with long white hair and an elegant black dress and black lips, something not fit for battle, she was currently touching the walls of her cell, trying to see if there was any secret.
‘She looks experienced…’ Stark didn’t call out to her, but he just stood there, looking at her.
After a few seconds, she sensed his gaze and turned her head, wanting to scold the person that had been looking at her so intensely.
But when she stared at Stark… she just looked at him with a neutral expression, unbothered.
Stark could already see everything in that calm look on her face.
She was thinking: ‘Oh, that’s him…’
Almost instantly, she averted her gaze and went back to what she was doing.
‘…’ Stark kept his neutral expression, he couldn’t see the cells of the people next to him, so he just waited.
After a few minutes… everyone woke up, they had been in the same black void as Stark, receiving the basic information they needed before being sent to the trial.
And as soon as all of them took note of their surroundings… the panels that would inform them of their task appeared.
[Domination Trial: The Lucullus Prison]
[You all are inmates of this prison, your goal is to escape by reaching the surface!]
[You are currently in sublevel 4, make your way to level 0 and defeat the warden to leave!]
[To aid you, each one of you will receive a map of the floor you are currently in, try to follow it, whether in a team or alone, and reach the stairs to go to the next level!]
[On the way, many elite monsters and bosses will try to stop you, you can choose to fight them or run away, but note that on each level, one of the monsters holds a key that is needed to access the next level]
[Once someone kills that monster and opens the door to the stairs, everyone else will be able to access the sublevel above that one!]
‘…’ This was a lot of information, but it all made sense somehow, basically, they needed to find the monster that had the key, kill it, and then access the next level until reaching level 0.
This didn’t seem that hard, actually quite easily, so why would this trial be of the [Death] difficulty…?
[But let me ask you one question… =)]
Another panel appeared, this one ten times more ominous than the others.
[Will you be the one to risk your life and kill the monsters, or will you stay behind and just leech off the hard work of the others, the choice is yours, as the true end goal is just to survive until escaping the prison]
[Oh, and also, there is no limit to how many survivors there can be, so in comparison to the other trials, if all ten of you manage to reach level 0 and kill the warden, then everyone survives!]
‘Yeah… I knew it…’
This trial was of course about fighting monsters, but also… about betrayal.
Those who did the hard work wouldn’t want the others to profit from them, and that could result in killing the rest…
‘How cruel…’ Stark couldn’t help but smile, almost as if… he enjoyed this?
[You have exactly ten minutes before the door of the sublevel 4 opens, allowing you to access this floor, until then… get to know each other =)]
And so just like that, the blue laser-like bars that had been stopping them from leaving suddenly deactivated, allowing each and every one of them to leave their cells.
“Fucking hell~”
“Stuck with a bunch of losers in a loser trial…”
“Seriously? Death difficulty, this has to be a joke, I heard no one has ever completed one of those…”
He heard the footsteps of people leaving their cells while talking.
The white-haired woman directly in front of him just stayed in the corner though, putting her foot against the wall, not leaving.
‘Quit trying to look cool…’ Stark rolled his eyes as he also left his cell.
People would come looking for him during the ten minutes of free time as he currently was the center of the attention, meaning the most popular one of them all as they had effectively witnessed him fighting less than half an hour ago.
‘…’ Stark left his cell, and found himself in a semi-large hallway, all it contained was the 10 cells that participants were held in, and at the end of it was a giant metal door, a timer was displayed above it.
[9:28… 9:27…]
In the hallway were already six of the other participants, excluding Stark, meaning that only three had decided not to interact with the rest.
It was either they were confident in their abilities to survive, or just didn’t trust any of the others.
To Stark, they were the smartest, and those with the highest chance of survival.
“You have a problem, my guy?”
“I think you don’t realize who you’re talking too…”
But there already seemed to be some kind of beef as two men were currently facing each other, one of them had an enraged expression, under the watchful and interested gazes of the other four.
‘It’s been thirty seconds… literally how…?’ Stark was confused, these people were much more aggressive than his allies back at the first trial.
“HAH~ WELL, WE DON’T NEED YOU ANY MORE IT SEEMS!” one of the men, the one that seemed angry, a buff-looking one with silver ring piercings activated his [Domination] aura, summoning claws that came out of his hands.
“CLAW ANNIHILATION!” he jumped toward the first guy.
But…
“Futile…” the other guy also activated his [Domination] skill, and a silver blade appeared in his hands, “See you in hell…”
“MOON CUT!” he deflected the claws of the first man easily and then…
~SLASH~
“-78531!” he cut the man in half.
‘…’ Stark observed all of this with a neutral reaction, it happened so fast, and it hadn’t even been two minutes since the cells opened.
[One participant has died, 9 remain!]
This trial was already getting bad, maybe there would be no survivors by the end of it if this continued…
‘…’ Stark kept smiling for some reason.
