Even after YuWon stood up and left, Hargaan stayed there for a while. He drank a few more cups of coffee while waiting for a call.
And soon…
Vwooong—
His player kit that he had on the table rang.
[Apollo: How did it go?]
“Don’t even ask. It’s all gone to shit,” Hargaan answered in a grumbly tone.
He had failed at persuading YuWon. Even though he knew YuWon wasn’t someone who could be persuaded, it was still a shame. In the end, YuWon had made up his mind and would interfere in this fight.
[Apollo: So his final choice was suicide?]
“My friend doesn’t think of it like that.”
[Apollo: He’s more foolish than what I’ve heard.]
“He’s an incredible friend.” Hargaan’s voice contained a bit of pride. He shrugged his shoulders and lifted his cup again. “How is Uncle?”
[Apollo: He seems to be in deliberation. This is quite the situation.]
“Won’t you regret it, brother?”
[Apollo: I will. But that doesn’t mean I can stay still.]
“Well, that’s true.”
[Apollo: For now, just focus on becoming a ranker. You need to grow your strength.]
“Yes, yes. Understood,” Hargaan replied absentmindedly and finished his tea. “Ah, and I’ve told that friend to watch out for Britain right now. I told him not to go anywhere and hide if possible after reaching the 25th Floor.”
[Apollo: And his answer?]
“He said it’s fine.”
[Apollo: This isn’t a situation a single player can handle…]
A tone mixed with worry.
Hargaan hesitated after hearing that, then asked, “Is that what you think as well, brother?”
[Apollo: What do you mean by that?]
“It was the same during Chryses’s situation, and Hypnos and Theseus as well. Who could have guessed they would lose?”
Olympus was wary of YuWon. There was just a ceasefire right now due to the battle of wits between Zeus and Poseidon, but it still stood.
“Although this is really baseless…” He thought of the form of YuWon, whom he had met during the Tutorial, he really couldn’t imagine a situation where YuWon would lose. “It might be no different this time either.”
* * *
And so about a month later…
The 24th Floor’s test had started.
“Woah, luckily we’re all on the same team.”
As soon as the test started, Mamos had slowly snuck up next to YuWon.
As they both had to climb to at least the 25th Floor, it was quite a fortunate situation for both YuWon and Mamos.
There was a vast field of green grass, and in the middle of this stood about ten players including YuWon and Mamos.
“After this test, it’s the 25th Floor.”
“So are we going our own ways after that?”
“Probably.”
“It’s a bit of a shame.”
“You’ll probably change your mind on that pretty soon.”
The next destination was right in front of them. And to get there, they needed to safely pass this test.
[The test for the 24th Floor is starting.]
[Stop the ‘Big Cows.’]
[The number of Big Cows summoned will increase per stage.]
[Whenever a stage ends, you will receive points equal to 10 times the stage number.]
[Whenever a Big Cow is killed, you will receive 5 points.]
[By consuming 10 points, you may summon a Big Cow against a team of your choice.]
[A team cannot leave their designated area.]
[If they leave or declare forfeit, they will fail the test.]
[When only one team is left, that team will pass the test.]
——————
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[Stage 1 will start in 5 minutes.]
“So is it a defense test this time? It’s the first one since the Tutorial.” Mamos smiled as if he was entertained by this.
Defense. Just as its name suggested, it was a test that put importance on defense and surviving as long as possible.
A huge circle was created around YuWon and the nine other players. It was a big circle with about a 100-meter radius. This line was probably the designated area for this test.
[Unspent Points: 10]
The first 10 points were given out simultaneously. This amount was only enough to summon a single monster.
“Isn’t this hella easy?”
“Yeah. Our team has Kim YuWon as well…”
“How long has it been since I’ve been carried like this?”
YuWon’s teammates had mostly stopped being nervous.
A simple test, and with the famous Kim YuWon as one of their teammates, they were thinking that passing the test wouldn’t be hard at all. However…
“Well.” YuWon looked at the herd of white light that could be seen outside the circle. “Is that really the case?”
“What?”
“It’s starting.”
Mamos looked outside the circle after seeing YuWon gesture with his chin.
It was then that messages came flooding in like a tidal wave.
[Summoning ‘Big Cow.’]
[Summoning ‘Big Cow.’]
[Summoning…]
[…]
“Uh…? Wh-What?”
“Just how many…”
“One, two… damn it. I can’t even count them all.”
“Moooooo—!”
A huge cow covered in brown fur approached them. Its eyes were red and bloodshot, and its size was as big as an elephant.
And soon after…
Rumble, rumble—
The angry bulls came charging at them.
These guys held hostility against all things that lived and moved. There were a lot of them, and considering it was Stage 1, there really were too many.
“What just happened?” Mamos had an expression of curiosity rather than panic. He had confidence that just this number would be no problem for him and YuWon.
“Everyone was thinking the same thing.”
Rumble, rumble—
The Big Cows came even clower.
“‘Let’s kill the team that we think will win first.’ Or something like that.”
“Then in reality, it’s our team against the other nine teams.”
“That has ended up being the case.”
YuWon had thought about this. It wasn’t just him who had to pass the test somehow and get to the next floor, but every other player had the same desire.
They had all ended up joining hands against the huge enemy known as Kim YuWon. No matter if this was in the spur of the moment or decided before the test even started, the fact that their goals were the same remained.
“Then, please show us.”
Pshoooo—
Demonic energy seeped out of Mamos’s body.
“Even if a hundred insects gather, they are still insects in the end.”
[Stage 9 will start in 5 minutes.]
Shooooo—
The Big Cows turned into smoke and dissipated. Monsters that were used as ingredients in a test would disappear instantly thanks to the system the moment the test ended.
Flop—
“Fuu, fuah—”
“Huah, I-I’m gonna die…”
“Just how many are going to come in the next round?”
The tired teammates all fell to the ground and sat there.
It was close to about a thousand Big Cows. The base number of Big Cows increased every stage. On top of that, because of enemies using the points acquired from slaying Big Cows, the number of Big Cows getting summoned increased exponentially.
“If this continues… Aren’t we actually doomed?”
“There isn’t a team that’s failed yet, right?”
“Probably. We’re the only ones being attacked…”
In this test, you could only attack your opponents by summoning monsters for them. That was the rule, and the moment one broke it, they would fail this test.
The teammates all looked at YuWon and Mamos, who were standing at the very edge of the boundary.
As they were watching them, the two were strangely still lively.
“I don’t think this will end any time soon.”
A bead of sweat started to drip down Mamos’s forehead. He was starting to pant a little, meaning he was getting a bit tired as well.
Next time, an even bigger number of enemies would charge at them.
“Hold on for a little longer.”
“Until when?”
“’Til Stage 10.”
“This is passable, right?”
“Weren’t you talking about a hundred insects or something just earlier?”
“That was then.”
“I thought you had a bit more demon in you…”
While they were conversing, the five minutes had passed.
Vwong, vwoong—
A swarm of white lights appeared with the circle at the center.
[Summoning ‘Big Cow.’]
[Summoning ‘Big Cow.’]
[Summoning…]
[…]
Just like every other time, a huge number of Big Cows were summoned. Now, they couldn’t even be counted. Just guessing by the size, it was probably close to a thousand big cows this time.
“It’s quite unsightly.”
“Just hold on for a little longer.”
Mamos stopped resting and pulled out his demonic energy again.
“Why are you telling me to hold on?”
“Since we started this, we might as well pass with good grades.”
“Is that really it?”
“Tell me if you think you won’t be able to bear it.”
“It’s getting a bit tiring.”
The “Demon of Lies” Belial wasn’t really ranked highly in terms of combat strength among the other Demon Kings. His abilities shone in areas like lying and confusion, areas outside of battle.
As his bloodline, Mamos was the same.
YuWon noticed that the demonic energy he felt from Mamos was definitely much weaker than when they first started.
“…Really?”
After contemplating for a second, YuWon nodded his head.
Stage 10.
It had been quite a while since the test had started, and they were taking the attacks of the other teams as well. It would be odd if they weren’t tired.
If so…
“Then I’ll do it alone.”
Vwooong—
Fwooosh—
Around YuWon, spheres of purple light started to float up.
One, two, three, four…
Seeing the increasing number of spheres, Mamos’s eyes went wide.
“Are those Mana Blasts?”
“Why?”
“Why do you have so many of them?” After internally counting all the [Mana Blasts] that YuWon had created, Mamos spoke as if he was muttering to himself, “Seventeen of them…”
Seventeen [Mana Blasts.] Additionally, every single one of them contained significant destructive power.
“Just what is your mana stat? No, before that… Is it even possible to control all these Mana Blasts at once…?”
[Mana Blast] was the most basic skill and ability that represented players. Since the consumption of mana was high and the effective conversion to damage was low, it wasn’t used much, but its power was certain.
“Talk later.”
Fwooosh—
Fwoosh—
The [Mana Blasts] floating around YuWon were blazing.
“Clean these things up first.”
The [Mana Blasts] had borrowed the power of [Holy Fire] and spread out in all directions towards the Big Cows that were charging in from a distance.
Bang—!
Fwoosh, boom—!
“Moooooo—!”
The Big Cows were eliminated instantly.
Looking at this scene, Mamos went into shock.
Fwooosh—
Every time a [Mana Blast] landed, an explosive wave of flame propagated in all directions. In the wake of the flames, only black burnt corpses of the Big Cows remained.
The [Mana Blasts] shot out without rest.
Vwooong—
Actually, the number of [Mana Blasts] were starting to increase.
‘Nineteen total with that one.’
YuWon closed his eyes.
As his sight disappeared, his concentration greatly increased. His senses that had split into nineteen started to multiply as they spread out.
Fwooosh—
‘Twenty with that.’
The twentieth [Mana Blast.]
Although a single increase in [Mana Blasts] wouldn’t increase the destructive power that much, the meaning of its existence was huge. The number of Mana Blasts were directly related to the player’s mana-controlling ability.
Using the [Mana Blasts] to eliminate the Big Cows instantly, YuWon felt a new sensation.
[Master of Mana]
A skill that increased sensitivity and control over mana.
He hadn’t felt this skill properly since it had been absorbed into his body so naturally, but [Master of Mana] was giving its support to every skill that YuWon was using.
On top of that…
[Rank: S+]
[Proficiency: 21.49%]
Now, the proficiency had increased quite a bit, and its effects were much greater than before.
Vwoong—
Another [Mana Blast] was created.
Before he returned, the total amount of [Mana Blasts] YuWon could make was 50.
Although he couldn’t make as many now due to his lacking stats compared to that time, a sense of greed was created within him.
‘Just how many can I make?’
Incinerating the constant charge of Big Cows, a smile appeared on YuWon’s face.
____
