[Your level has increased to level 61, granting you three skill points and a boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 62, granting you three skill points and a boost in stats]
[Your level has increased to level 63, granting you three skill points and a boost in stats]
[Experience: 2217224/2500000]
[Skill Points: 9 Available!]
The amount of experience needed to level up was truly getting out of hand, true, but the fact he was still able to increase his level by three in such a short amount of time meant that it was still pretty balanced for now.
~WISHHHH~
Stark sighed as he minimized all the panels and looked around.
The first zone was now completely silent, with the destroyed corpse of the [Hollow Skeletons] lying around, some still surrounded by the holy aura.
“Puppets of the apostle…” he mumbled as he read that on one of the panel, specifically the one that told him he would be getting a decreased amount of EXP for these mobs since they were pretty weak, “Well, doesn’t matter, I’m killing it anyway.”
With determination blazing in his eyes, Stark kept going along the stone path that was set for him, nothing bothering him anymore.
And after ten minutes of eerie silence… he arrived in front of the cabin.
“…” Stark was not stupid, if the first time was a trap (although he had been warned), but what about the cabin that was in the actual rift?
This is something he would have said normally, but there was really no other way to access the second zone, so without a single hint of hesitation he swung the door open, although he positioned himself if anything did happen.
The cabin was pretty small when he looked at it from the outside, barely able to hold more than five humans inside.
But once opened…
“Huh?” the interior was giant, leading to a very long wooden hallway.
He could thankfully check it out from the outside, and the interior was completely made out of the same wood and texture, making it feel very… chilly for some reason.
“Oh well,” Stark sighed before stepping inside the cabin.
And then…
~SLAM~
The door closed behind him, with no way for him to open it back, even if he tried to punch it with all his strength or using his skills.
[Second Zone: Nightmare Loop Cabin]
“…” Stark stared in front of him, and he could see the wooden walls of the cabin hallway for what seemed like infinity.
No matter how hard he tried to squint his eyes or use [Focus] to see the end, he just couldn’t.
“How long is that hallway?” he sighed as he began walking, at least he would be able to notice if any monsters tried to ambush him since it was a straight line.
Stark stepped cautiously down the seemingly endless hallway, the wooden floor creaking under his weight.
The first five minutes went normally, with Stark suspecting nothing that bad to be occurring, after all it did take him a while before meeting the [Hollow Skeletons] in the first zone, so why should he worry?
Then ten minutes without any monsters: alright, maybe there is something.
And then twenty minutes: how long is this hallway going to keep going for…?
Thirty minutes: “…”
Forty minutes: “…”
Fifty minutes: “Alright.”
Stark stopped walking and looked around: behind him was the endless hallway, meaning that he had indeed been walking this distance, but in front of him was literally the same scenery as well, so it didn’t help.
What actually frightened Stark the most was the non-presence of monsters, which until now in every rift had ALWAYS been there to stop him.
But in this specific zone… they just didn’t exist?
“Either that hallway is REALLY big, and the challenge isn’t about monsters,” Stark put his hand against his chin, “Or… the name means something.”
[Nightmare Look Cabin] he checked the name again, putting all his attention on the “loop”.
“Loop,” he muttered, glancing over his shoulder, “Hm…”
But there was nothing, just the same wooden walls stretching endlessly behind him.
“AURA SMASH!” he summoned his three fists, then sent them toward one of the walls.
~BOOM, BOOM, BOOM~
But they weren’t even damaged, all it left was a giant crimson mark as the aura remained in its spot.
“Since when is wood this durable?” Stark raised his eyebrows, “Shouldn’t have gone into the cabin without a plan, huh…”
Not knowing what to do, Stark decided there was nothing better than just keep going and figure it out as he went.
And so he started walking again, each step echoing in the silence, and this time paying much more attention than before.
Every single centimeters of the walls he was passing was being inspected by [Focus].
And after exactly fifteen minutes…
“…!” Stark’s eyes widened.
No, he didn’t find the exit or any monster or whatever.
But…
“Alright, I get it now,” he stared at one of the walls, and on it were the traces of the [Aura Smash] attack he used fifteen minutes ago, “That hallway loops for around fifteen minutes by walking…”
There is absolutely NO rift or zone that cannot be completed, meaning that even those that contained puzzles (much like this one) or traps couldn’t be used to instantly kill a classifier, as it wouldn’t be fair.
Which meant that there was a way to get out.
How though was the answer Stark needed to find.
“Between this exact spot and the entire loop is somewhere that leads to the next zone,” he reached his conclusion.
Stark pressed his palm against the wall, tracing the faint markings left by his earlier attack.
“Fifteen minutes…”
He turned and began pacing again, this time going in the opposite direction, his thoughts racing.
As he walked, he scanned for any irregularities, any sign of a shift in the wood grain or an odd texture. He kicked at the floorboards, testing their strength, but they didn’t even budge.
“Maybe it’s not about the walls,” he muttered, “What if it’s… a monster?”
After inspecting literally everything, taking him around an hour, Stark found nothing, and was yet again back at his original spot with the marks of the [Aura Smash] available for him to see.
“Think… Stark Heartsouls… think…” Stark stood up in the middle of the hallway and closed his eyes as he began to imagine the structure of the hallway in front of him, white lines forming in his mind as to draw its shape even though he closed his eyes, “Focus… on any kind of weird aura… anything…”
With his eyes closed, Stark began to look around, the white lines showing the shape of the hallway as though they were still opened: this was a way for him to look past the walls for any aura.
But… there was nothing.
Even after several minutes of focusing everything he had on his vision, he didn’t see anything remotely suspicious.
Or at least… that’s what he believed.
“It’s just… not there,” Stark sighed as he looked down in disappointment.
But at that moment… his eyes widened.
“…!” because exactly right under his feet, in a spot he would normally never notice it in if he didn’t look down… was a dark aura.
“I… got you,” Stark smiled as he kept staring down at the moving aura, this time he would make sure to get out of that shitty loop, though he didn’t open his eyes again, wanting to make sure that it was indeed real.
