[You have slain ‘Sublevel 4 Guard lv95’, gained 128371 EXP!]
[You have slain ‘Sublevel 4 Guard lv95’, gained 127025 EXP!]
.
.
[You have slain ‘Sublevel 4 Guard lv95’, gained 129392 EXP!]
And so that meant…
[+638,838 Experience]
But even that wasn’t enough to level him up.
[Experience: 641150/907000]
He was currently level 43, but the amount of experience needed each level was seriously getting out of hand, and it was probably the same for all the others as they also had the [Domination] class.
‘For now, let’s focus on finding the key or the exit, someone might have already opened it…!’
[Nope! Once someone does open the door then it will be announced, although nothing will be said if someone does find the key, making it possible to hide it for as long as you want =)]
[Oh, and I feel pretty bad for you, so here is a… MEGA DEAL!]
‘The fuck…?’
[If you kill one of the participants, then… not only will you get your map back, but you’ll be allowed to spin the reward wheel TWICE, just to make up for the punishment!]
And immediately, the panel disappeared, and no new one appeared.
It almost felt like the thing that was talking REALLY wanted to make them kill each other.
‘Getting my map back and two rewards doesn’t sound so bad though…’ even Stark actually had the thought of killing as it could definitely increase his odds of survival.
But no… he suddenly realized something: it wouldn’t be possible he was the only one that got such a juicy deal, it was possible all the others got such a panel as well…
It was a killing game after all, but who knows.
‘Oh well… doesn’t really matter if I can’t meet anybody,’ Stark shrugged, he quickly put the thought aside as killing wasn’t in his plans for now.
Then he began to walk through the halls of the sublevel 4 again, all of them mostly looked the same except for some different furniture and rooms: there were other cells beside the ones they had been in, as well as some rooms with chairs and tables in them.
He even found a cafeteria at some point, but he didn’t feel the need to visit it.
But after only another ten minutes of walking around…
[A participant has been slain by a player!]
‘…’ Stark looked at the panel for two seconds before closing it, he didn’t care much.
The fact that all the people that had died until now were all killed by other humans said a lot about this trial: not a single monster kill yet, although this was supposed to be the easiest level.
And the fact the murderer was anonymous was even more sadistic as they could definitely get away with it, hiding their reward to use it whenever the situation became bad for them.
Basically… Stark would need to suspect everyone, trying to fight as a team like in the last trial was not an option before, but now it was truly confirmed.
‘…’
Another fifteen minutes passed, fifteen minutes where nothing much happened, everyone else seemed to be exploring and killing monsters, looking for the key.
None of them had known it at the time, but the [Key Location Map] and [Instant Use Key] were much more powerful rewards than they seemed after realizing just how big each level was.
But at this very moment… where Stark really believed there was no way he would find his way…
IT activated.
[Talent: Chosen One, activated!]
‘…?’
And when he turned another corner… he found himself in front of the door of a room, although this one was different from the others as the door looked much more damaged and was made out of wood instead of usual metal or other strong materials.
He was in a dead end, and this room was the only thing at the end of the hallway.
‘Yeahhh okay…’ there was no way this room wasn’t important, especially after [Chosen One] activated, and so he immediately began to head toward it.
Stark kept walking toward the wooden door, sensing an ominous aura coming out of it.
His talent had definitely activated for a reason, but did it really twist reality again to make this door appear in front of him, or was it always there, and it was [Chosen One] that somehow guided him to it…?
In the end it didn’t matter, because if his talent was on the ‘helping’ side this time, then it meant… there was a chance this could be the location of the key, if somebody hadn’t already taken it that is.
‘Here goes nothing…’ he sighed as he reached for the wooden handle of the closed door.
But right as that happened, and he began to pull it down…
~BOOM, SLAM, CRASH~
The wall behind the door exploded, sending debris all over the hall and Stark.
‘WHAT?’ Stark was too close to the door and wall, so the force of the impact sent him flying in the opposite direction, crashing onto the wall in front of the door.
“-3471!” he had activated his [Domination Shield] to take the damage, so he received nothing, but it was still weird.
Was it a trap?
No… his talent wouldn’t do this for no reason.
“KRAAKRR~” beyond the smoke screen that had formed because of the destroyed all, and all the falling debris, Stark heard a familiar noise.
It was the same sound those [Sublevel 4 Guards] were making.
‘More of those… then maybe the talent wanted me to level up, heh~’
But he was wrong.
~THUMP, THUMP~
The steps that thing was making were much more powerful than the other guards, and its aura was more overwhelming too, exuding an invisible force that even Stark was cautious of.
‘…’
~THUMP, THUMP~
And once it got out of the dust screen… Stark was finally able to identify what it was.
‘Holy shit…!’ his eyes widened, this was definitely not a simple guard.
[Sublevel 4 ELITE Guard]
[The most powerful monster of this floor!]
‘I get it now…’ of course, this wasn’t confirmed, but most of the time, doesn’t the strongest monster mean the best drops?
And what better drop was there than… THE KEY TO THE NEXT FLOOR!
The guard, much more powerful, stronger, and even 1.5x times the size of a normal guard, took another step toward Stark, its eyes full of fury as a prisoner had escaped.
‘Alright, if it’s here it means that nobody was able to reach this spot even with their maps, looks like that talent of mine can both be useful and annoying…’ Stark smiled as he positioned himself, the giant ELITE slowly approaching him.
[FIGHT!]
