Recounting everything he had done and gone through, Luca had come to realise that in a way… he had been a cheat?
Or perhaps an anomaly in a trial that was meant to be a trial of blood and gore.
It was a cliché term in his dictionary, but how else could he describe something as bizarre as the way he fought and fended them off?
Structural knowledge was something he never had. He adapted what he knew from observing plants and weeds.
As a farmer's child and even one himself, he had often come to realise the similarities between plants and people.
In fact, they were so similar that only a few factors actually differentiated them.
Of course, this wasn't just because he studied plant and animal characteristics back in grade school, but because of a clear understanding between the two.
Especially plants.
'Perhaps the trance or… the Abyss… the true owner of the Trance reinforces what we've already learnt as normal humans?'
Now that he thought about it.
Child soldiers who became Egoists were usually better combatants than the average Egoists. So was it for those in leadership skills, or even the entertainment industry?
Their already basic or advanced knowledge somehow faced some form of Evolution?
Of course, he couldn't call it that, but he had begun to see these creatures of the Abyss as a type of structure he needed to decipher to see their secrets. Or what truly claimed his attention…their weakness.
And quite frankly, it worked. Almost perfectly since he had thought that while he would obtain injuries, it wouldn't be impossible to face whatever challenge it threw at him.
But right now, as the Trance began to threaten him with the punishment of death if he didn't leave the Elevator, he was faced with the pain and fear of… failure!
'failure? But… failure is…'
From his childhood, he had accounted failure as the inability to study something and thus, the incapability of truly understanding its function.
Without a proper understanding, of course, failure to plant a crop, or grow it in a certain kind of way was possible.
Luca barely failed in what he did best, and when he did… he took the results as life lessons.
And right now.
His gaze narrowed. His arms gripped his shoulders tightly where the blood had begun to trickle down and his ego flared in waves.
Pulsating with the pressure he emitted softly.
Ego had been a major help and Luca was yet to understand why, but if it had helped him kill that Mild Null Bud– the Bullice Titan, then he feared nothing. At least not the Null Spawns.
Still, I have 2 more floors and if I'm not careful I will die.' A soft sigh escaped his lips as he glanced to the side. Staring at the flaring black screen.
[TRANCER EXIT THE ELEVATOR IMMEDIATELY!]
[FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN PENALTIES!]
[EXIT IMMEDIATELY]
[5…]
[..4…]
It was at the countdown that made Luca to finally jump out of the Elevator. It clicked shut and the screen changed.
[0/10]
What came next were ten Null Spawns that surrounded him in a flash.
Five had their maws open, charging a ball of fire that glowed with such menace the floors began to change shades.
One seemed to control wind, another lightning, two earth and the last water.
[THE FOURTH DUNGEON BEGINS]
They attacked all at once.
Overwhelming Luca in a cascade of bright tapestries. His entire being rang in danger, and for a moment, Luca had indeed given up. But then his eyes widened when something caught his attention.
And as it did, his skull clicked with neurons.
'Their attacks… they're slow.'
If pain tolerance were a skill, Luca would force himself to learn it at that moment.
He had heard and seen people in circumstances like his. Fighters who succumbed to their wounds. Unable to fight in peak condition, but if you were given a chance at all, while waste it under the influence of pain?
What was pain, if not the reward for labour?
What was pain that he would die unable to act when he could?
Ego surged out of him in tides. Luca extended his arm. Revelled in the fact that despite losing quite a quantity of blood, he still breathed. He lived.
His system still worked.
His entire body was enveloped in the surgical large spikes and his arms extended with the Ego blades. Extensions of his will.
He dashed as if the tight space couldn't contain him and pounced on the Null Spawns that dared point their fingers at him. A cascade of golden explosions erupted as the floor brightened from the crimson haze of fire.
Grade 4s weren't known for their physical prowess, but rather, strong Null essences that made them living mages of pure chaotic designs.
In other words, their bodies, while powerful enough to kill humans, couldn't necessarily harm a Trancer.
Not to mention someone already at 40%, with ego as refined as even Integrators.
In a flash of pure destruction, all hell broke loose.
A pure flavour of one-sided destruction occurred.
The dying screeches of Null Spawns erupted in the air. Followed by squelches and golden-black that painted the walls in an erratic hue. Elemental waves and destruction played a drastic tune. Walls collapsed, the ceiling caved in, lightning warped and sang, the earth shook with such vigour.
Black blood formed small pools. Invading the various hospital rooms. Flesh and torn parts splashed onto the tiled walls. Black venom oozed out as it crumbled to the floor.
Time passed in such a manner, until a silence took over. Followed by a loud and pained screech that signalled the last of the Grade 4s.
The dying flames bathed Luca in a macabre image of torn appendages and pooling blood.
A long, giant creature that more than dwarfed him laid crumbled beneath his feet.
The young boy's expression was one of tiredness.
A yawn escaped his lips as he attempted to ease out of the tension in his body.
"One more floor."
He held it back. Refusing to fall prey at this point. He had come too far… and noticing how much time he had spent, he was certain the one hour was almost over.
In that moment, a ping ensued… and the voice of the Trance rang out.
[PROCEED TO THE ELEVATOR]
As instructed, Luca walked in and sighed.
He rolled his shoulders slightly, feeling the excruciating pain that assaulted him everywhere.
He bottled it up. One more trial.
Then he would fully succumb to everything. The pain and even the lethargic feeling that had begun to overwhelm him.
In one word, Luca would describe everything that he felt as hell, but for some reason, he could more than bear with this for just a bit longer.
Soon, the beam shot down and overwhelmed him. Taking him to the next and last floor before pinging and opening up.
Without waiting, he strolled out, and turning around, he came face-to-face with a living nightmare.
If grades 2 to 4 were structural and magical adaptations of Grade 1, then Grade 5 were the whole of it.
These were beasts on their own. Capable of competing with many Mild ranks.
Though still compared to the bottom of the food chain, this one was a cut above the rest.
It had two muscular frigid forelimbs that rested on the floor and hind limbs bent backwards, mounted with the same muscles. Its entire shape was that of a ballooned body builder, but it was clearly more than half the size of the others that dwarfed Luca who was currently five feet.
Its back had a row of extending spines that seemed to pulse as if alive. Long spikes that nearly reached the ceiling.
It led to a tail that whipped the air, a bony muscular tendon of pure destruction.
Luca had every right to believe that a blow from this thing would take his head.
Then unlike the others, this one was black as night. Its fleshy skin was corrupted and pigmented with melanin.
A human trait, nonetheless.
Luca stared for a while before whistling loudly.
[0/1]
'At least it was only one.' He thought as he controlled Ego and produced the same effect as before.
Sharp spikes formed an armour around his body while swords extended from his hands.
The Grade 5 Null Spawn breathed out a puff of cloudy smoke. Its eyes glowed with a shade of red that pulsed with malice.
It had every intention of killing Luca, but so did Luca.
Time ticked slowly as they glared at each other, until suddenly, the air imploded in on itself.
Luca moved as he had never moved before.
He forced every ounce of himself. Every pore. Every fibre. Every organ.
Ego was what had pushed his survival, and for that reason, he would use it until the end!
The Null Spawn was no different. The Grade 5 was far superior and its speed only spoke so.
With a blast from both, every window within the four corners of the Floor shattered like weakened membranes.
The air shook and at the centre of their charge, their collision met. What occurred was a catastrophe of sound and air.
Air blasted through the walls of the floor. It shattered through, just as a sonic wave blasted soon after.
Luca bit hard as blood dribbled down the corner of his lips. His golden gaze flared with life and his lips curled into a mad grin.
'I had my doubts! But we're evenly matched!'
Now Luca was certain that he would scale through alive. But then.
[THE 21ST GOD WATCHES YOU KEENLY]
'Wait?! What?!' Luca had a bad premonition of that sudden message.
[THE 21ST GOD INTERVENES]
From the corner of the room, the opposite walls shattered as two Spawns of the same size and shape as this one he faced emerged from the rubble.
Their maws hung open. Their sickly tongue rolled over the rows of canine teeth and an air rattling roar shook the very building.
Luca stared on in shock, his mouth widened as two more Grade 5s joined in the frey.
'You're kidding me.' He turned to his left and in dismay, he accepted his fate.
[0/3]
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AUTHOR'S NOTE
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