295 The Twenty-First Floor Part 1
[ENOUGH! I GET IT! You hate my new skill; stop your stupid and annoying whining. Fuck, just bring a pair of sunglasses with you everywhere. It literally only says if you’re too close or see the flash.] Feeling the urge to slam his head on the ground, Brance wanted nothing more than to shut off the mind link to stop the annoying screeches coming from Cynrik.
[Mehmehmeh, YOU ARE STILL A DICK!] Crossing his arms and pouting, Cynrik closed the Marketplace and stood up. Next, he swapped out his weapons for the new Iron ones and adjusted them on his hip and the small of his back. Once he was ready, Cynrik popped his neck and slowed his breathing.
[Im heading up, good luck.] Taking a fighting stance, Cynrik said in the mind link before talking out loud.
“Move to Floor Twenty-One,”
|Command recognized, moving combatant Ivar Ragnarsson to the semi-final Floor.|
Cynrik’s eyes flicked to his arms as his body shattered into particles, and he was teleported into a completely different room. Looking around, he took in his new surroundings.
Instead of the previous stone torchlit room, this one had a more Dungeon boss feel to it. Floor Twenty-One was a wide-open room made of blackish-blue stone. The open space was broken up every few meters by dozens of large grey one-meter wide beveled pillars that rose from the ground and connected to the ceiling. Each pillar had four wrought Iron pineapple torches fastened to it in the four cardinal directions and bathed the room with green sickly colored flames.
Cynrik’s pupils constricted slightly as his vision automatically adjusted to the significantly brighter room, and he saw a new notification appear in his sight.
|Welcome to Floor Twenty-One. As a challenger who has made it this far with a Perfect Clear Score, the difficulty for this Floor and the final one has increased dramatically.|
|Originally, since the First Obelisk is meant to be a trial for new students who haven’t achieved Second Tier, the challenge on this Floor was supposed to be a unified battle against 10 Peak Tier-1 opponents. However, First Year Student, Challenger Iva…., Primordial Bloodline Holder Æsir Cynrik Jetlensr, has proven to be significantly stronger than all of his opponents. As such, an errata has been put in place.|
|Hensforth, the enemies on this Floor come in waves, with the starting wave only having one randomly generated Creature and the 10th and final Wave having 10, for a total of 56 Peak Tier-1 opponents.|
|The challenger will only be allowed a 30-second break between each Wave, and the Next Wave will immediately begin after the break is finished.|
“Tsss, Fucking hell Yennifer, this is bullying. Doesn’t that mean that the next Floor will have 211 opponents? HOW IS THIS FAIR! It’s not my fault I have a Bloodline. Blame those blasted Deities. OH, and one more thing, if you are going to call me by my real name, at least don’t mark it on any leaderboards or anything. Leave it as my preferred nickname.” Cynrik angrily complained as he scuffed his left foot on the ground, getting a feel for the new softer stone.
The initial shock he received when he noticed the abrupt change of how the Obelisk AI no longer called him Ivar but instead his real name and even mentioned his Bloodline only lasted a split second before he shrugged it off.
It made sense that Yennifer would know this information, considering it was not only linked to the Central System Hub but also drew some of his blood and made a perfect virtual copy of his body.
|Your complaint has been received, and the Obelisk Moderator has issued a response. Would you like the hear it? (Y/N)|
Clicking his tongue Cynrik punched the yes button with a swift jab, triggering a new notification that deepened his frown.
|You’ve had it too easy thus far. Quit your bitching and get ready. The first Wave will start in 30 seconds. If you want the opportunity to earn those Incubators you wasted so much time examining, you better continue your Perfect Clear Marathon.|
|Ps. I wouldn’t be so stupid as to leak privileged information such as your Bloodline and Given name to the public. My primary objective is to guide and teach the new generation, be they regular students or Legacy Charges, it makes no difference to me, and thus I would never give that information out. ~ Yennifer|
Reading the message, Cynrik stiffened before breaking into a wide sadistic grin.
“Well, alright then, Miss Yenni, challenge accepted, let’s do this shit.” Drawing his dagger from behind his back with his right hand and the shortsword across his waist with his left, Cynrik flourished both weapons and watched the counter tick down to zero.
|Wave One is now beginning. Spawning One Creature at Random.|
Cynrik’s eyes floated toward the ceiling in the center of the room, where a storm of particles descended and formed into a lithe red demon creature.
|Wave One Opponent, Peak Tier-1 Begraz Demonoid.|
The thin Begraz had three horns, one in the center and one positioned above each of its temples; all three were thin and appeared to be made of dark brown keratin and tapered into a sharp point. Protruding from its back were a pair of delicate membrane wings, which the Begraz unfurled before screaming in a high-pitched tone.
Suddenly the Creature felt a sharp pain in its neck and noticed something was wrong as its body seemed to float away, along with the tips of its wings, which had all been severed by a shadow before it could search out its target. Its weak mind couldn’t comprehend what happened, and it didn’t even know to feel fear as the Begraz shattered into particles.
Appearing on the opposite side of the particle storm, Cynrik flourished his dagger and rubbed his nose cockily.
|You have successfully Killed a Level 20, Peak Tier-1 Virtual Begraz Demonoid.|
|You have received 5 Obelisk Kill Points.|
|You have received a 1000 Essence, XP Crystal.|
|You have received 3 Merit Points.|
|You have completed Wave One; 30 seconds have been added to the break timer.|
“Next,” Cynrik said with a smirk as he rushed back to the starting point and awaited the next Wave’s start.
—
Sighing to himself, Brance double-checked his new Greatsword and katana. However, he couldn’t use both simultaneously since he didn’t have the [Dual Wield] passive skill like his brother. Brance felt more comfortable with a second sword for the moment, especially since he could not block any incoming attacks with a shield to begin with, as it would defeat the purpose of not getting hit.
Setting both weapons to two different Loadouts, Brance opted to start with his new Tier-1.5 Iron greatsword, and depending on how tough his opponents proved to be, he could always swap to the Loadout he titled, “Battōjutsu.” In doing so, Brance would switch fighting styles to one that relied more heavily on speed vs. power.
Next, he chugged down one-fourth of the Stamina and Mana potions he had bought, topping off both of his resource stats, and gripped the hilt of his Greatsword, which rested over his right shoulder.
“You can move me to Floor Twenty-One, Miss Yennifer.” Brance calmly stated aloud, and just like his brother, half a second later, his body dispersed into particles, and he touched down in a similarly designed room as Cynrik.
Brance only had a second to examine his surroundings before a wave of notifications filled his vision. A quick scan through the multiple messages brought Brance up to speed, making him frown before heaving a sigh.
[Hey, asshole, thanks for the heads up about the increased difficulty.] An annoyed Brance grumbled as he drew his Greatsword out of its sheath and propped it up against his shoulder with the point facing the ceiling.
[Bah, where’s the fun in that. Unlike you, I’m not too fond of surprises, but you’ve always loved them. Think of it as a Lil gift from me to you, Kuekue.] Smiling as he finished off two humanoid slime creatures, clearing Wave 2, Cynrik playfully responded.
Running his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip Brance shook his head in disappointment as he watched the timer hit zero.
|Wave One is now beginning. Spawning One Creature at Random.|
|Wave One Opponent, Peak Tier-1 Lemuis.|
Taking a step back, Brance observed as the stormy cloud of particles shifted into what looked like an oversized ring-tailed lemur. Well, it would have looked like one if it wasn’t blue and gold instead of white, grey, and black. That and it stood a full head taller than Brance.
“Oooh ooh,” The Lemuis hooted before bouncing off the ground and climbing a nearby pillar.
Rolling his eyes, Brance rushed forward, jumped up and kicked off a pillar, using it as a step, and darted from pillar to pillar in chase of the Creature.
—
In a different realm, a curly black-haired beauty had up five individual virtual monitors, each of which had a different member of MyrkLys as the focal point.
With one hand, she organized the random opponents for the Jetlensr Brothers and Selene, the three Legacy Charges. Like the two brothers, Yennifer placed the same challenge on Selene with the Waves of creatures. For Gabby and Benny, she kept with the standard large groups but raised the difficulty slightly for the two Sanfords, so instead of waves, they had to fight ten random raced opponents with high leveled intelligence.
Of all the members of MyrkLys, it was Gabby who had impressed Yennifer the most. As an average human, she showed a high level of combat awareness and rivaled Cynrik in his clearing speed. Most impressive, though, was that she was still in the running for a Perfect Clear, something that only the Headmaster and one other being had completed on their first try without having a special Bloodline.
“Maybe I should increase her final floor to the same as the Legacy Charges.” Yennifer said as she watched Gabby move around like a little rabbit, hopping to and fro while firing off bolts and [Psychic Disks]. Her goal was to corral her opponents into a distinct grouping so she could eliminate them quickly.
Looking away from the girl’s monitor, Yennifer tilted her head and watched Benny struggling to survive against his ten opponents with a cocked eyebrow.
“He, on the other hand, does not do well in group combat. He soars in the singles and double enemy fights, but the second more bodies are added to the equation, he gets slightly flustered and begins making mistakes. His final Floor will be different than the others. Unlike them, who will fight against hordes, young Benjamin requires aid in finding his style to gain some confidence in group battles.”
With that said, Yennifer began drafting a customized scenario for Benny’s Twenty-Second Floor.
-This series is exclusively published on WebNovel if you are reading it anywhere else…You Wrong, Fam. PS Check out the discord, https://discord.gg/dcxKNJEMwg-