Chapter 132: The Undeads Again!
After walking through the long, dark corridor, Alen entered the massive hall filled with treasures once again for his third attempt.
His resolve for passing through this dangerous floor was firm. He walked straight toward the opposite door without looking at the mountains of gold or anything else.
He came directly in front of the giant door.
He pushed it open, and with a blur of speed, he appeared from the open space of the door into the inside room.
Everything was exactly the same as the last time he first entered it. The circular corridor was once again in a perfect, unbroken state.
Alen immediately made some distance and took his combat stance as the Crimson Dagger materialized in his hand. His eyes sharpened as he turned toward the giant stone knight, waiting for the deadly incoming attack.
"..."
He waited continuously, but heavy silence remained as the stone knight remained entirely unmoved. Alen frowned. He couldn’t comprehend why the knight—who had literally sacrificed its own core to kill him earlier—was now not even moving an inch after seeing him.
"Hey, you f*cking bastard, are you going to move or what?!..."
He waited, but the silence remained, and the knight stood unmoved like a normal statue.
’Why did he attack me back then? And why is he not attacking me now? Something is wrong... Definitely wrong...’
As he thought about it while frowning, something suddenly clicked in his brain as realization set in.
"The treasure? The knight... Yeah, it makes perfect sense. That is the only possibility. This knight was loyal to protecting what it was tasked to guard... Knights are known for their loyalty, so this stone construct was also being loyal to someone and protecting that specific treasure room..."
"And I was the one who had stolen it all. So he was killing me because I was stealing what he was protecting with his life... That is exactly why he was even ready to sacrifice himself by exploding..."
"Sigh... Little Ravena was right, I really should control my greed. I died purely because of my own greediness... It seems my selfishness was going to kill me before I could achieve my path... Sigh..."
He shook his head and started to approach the circular staircase, casting one last cautious gaze at the unmoved stone knight before ascending.
Alen started climbing the stone staircase. He climbed, continued climbing, and kept climbing, but the winding path showed no sign of ending. He looked down and could see that he was at the very top, at least as high as a ten-story building or even more. But he didn’t know why he was finding nothing but more stairs.
"What the f*ck?! How long do I have to keep walking upward? Am I climbing directly to the 100th floor?... If yes, then it is fine, but if not, then I would prefer giving up right now..."
He continued to climb the stairs even though he couldn’t feel his limbs anymore. His muscles ached with every step. He kept walking, and finally, he saw the end of the staircase.
The staircase ended at nothing but empty air, where a single, freestanding door existed.
He didn’t know if it was a sick joke. Only the door was visible. In front of it and behind it existed just empty air; there was no sign of any walls holding it up.
’Sigh... Let’s decide the next step of my fate later, first, Let’s reach the door...’
He walked continuously while gripping the stone railing, having no strength left in his tired legs, until he finally reached the very top of the ladder.
He stopped at the top landing for a minute and took a heavy breath of relief.
"Finally... Let’s enter..."
Alen stood up forcibly. He stumbled back a little bit but managed to balance himself.
He pushed the door open, but surprisingly, he couldn’t see anything inside. There wasn’t even the empty air behind it which he had seen from below.
’Dimensional transfer... So that is what it is...’
He stepped forward and entered inside the door. The hall he entered was pure dark, so pitch-black that he couldn’t see through it. Suddenly, the door behind him closed automatically on its own.
*Thud!*
[Ding! You have entered Floor 2!]
’F*ck! Does that mean I just climbed that endlessly long staircase for nothing but to reach only floor 2?!...’
Suddenly, he felt a shifting movement in the darkness... Several figures could be seen shuffling in the shadows.
He instantly activated his ’Night Vision’ skill so he could now see them clearly.
What was present in front of him were horrific humanoid creatures. They possessed hollow eyes and looked more like broken puppets than humans. Their eyes were dark red, shining menacingly in the dark room.
There were several of them. Hundreds? Maybe thousands? Or even more. Alen couldn’t count them all as his heavy breathing echoed in the otherwise silent room.
Suddenly, every single pair of red eyes turned toward him at once. A freezing chill ran down his spine as he tried to step back. But his back found nothing but a wall. The door had vanished as if it had never been there to begin with.
The creatures stepped forward. Disgusting drool dropped from their mouths as they looked at him hungrily. All of them stepped forward in unison.
Alen clearly remembered a creature similar to this that he had seen in the past.
"Damn, f*cking undeads!..."
The undead stirred from their places and rushed toward him with bizarre, unnatural steps, moving with an insane speed.
"F*ck my shitty luck, not this again!"
Alen cursed. He channeled his raw mana into his legs and burst away from the wall, leaving the confused undead to search the empty space.
Alen directly appeared right beside one of the confused monsters.
[Maximum Concentration: Overload Punch!]
*BOOOM!*
The undead’s head was blown off completely. The loud sound of that blast immediately attracted the attention of the others.
But since Alen had fought undead before, he already knew the best combat tactics.
He instantly vanished from his spot and appeared next to a different undead.
*BOOOM!* *BOOOM!* *BOOOM!*
The continuous blasts in the hall echoed endlessly as he moved in a blur of motion. He kept blowing the undead into shattered pieces, his fists glowing with mana.
Several minutes passed in a violent blur as the continuous blasts could still be heard. Alen kept his momentum. His speed was a blur of motion as he went from one undead, blowing its head off, and immediately moving to another one.
The one-sided battle continued, completely under Alen’s control. It could not even be called a real battle, as he was busy using different martial stances and tricks to actively improve himself.
’Hehe... It seems my combat style has improved quite a bit. I should plan to create my own personal martial art to help me in close-quarters battle...’
Alen side-stepped smoothly as one of the undead rushed toward him. He moved fast, causing the undead to lose its footing, and blew off its head too.
’Sigh... I am losing too much of my mana. At this rate, I won’t last long. My muscles were already incredibly sore after walking up to the top floor; I won’t last long without using mana to constantly strengthen my muscles...’
He looked around. For some reason, the sheer numbers of the undead weren’t decreasing at all. He couldn’t see any hidden passages where new undead might be appearing from.
’What the hell? Am I hallucinating, or is this really not ending... Something is definitely wrong here...’
Alen suddenly condensed a massive amount of mana into his fist and punched forward, blasting a huge group of undead coming toward him.
He backed away this time, deciding for a second not to engage in the fight as he simply dodged their erratic movements.
Suddenly, he noticed something bizarre.
The broken bones of the shattered undead started to rejoin themselves, reforming their skeletal structures. Their decaying skin also started to regenerate as their dark red eyes snapped open once again. The exact same thing happened to the other undead he had just blown apart.
The undead stirred, stood back up, and started rushing toward him all over again.
Alen finally realized why the horde was not ending.
He backed away rapidly this time, not wanting to get engaged with them anymore. It was a losing match for him, as he was draining a large amount of his mana with each attack, only for them to heal.
’Now what should I do? I can’t just fight them continuously forever. I have to leave this place as soon as possible before exhausting all my mana... But it is impossible for me to see the exit pathway....’
Suddenly, he remembered something useful. He backed away from the undead, maintaining a safe distance as he activated his special eye skill.
[True One’s Gaze!]
As Alen used the skill, his vision pierced through the thick darkness and illusions. Near the very end of the hall—where just a second ago there was nothing but a wall—he could clearly see a hidden passage with ladders directing upward.
’Who the hell would even place a hidden, illusionary door on this floor?! F*cking Ascension Realm!’
The swarm of undead was already closing in on his body.
He didn’t dare to engage with those disgusting, regenerating monsters anymore.
[Phantom Step!]
He appeared directly before the hidden door without wasting any time. He stepped forward, walking directly through the wall as if it didn’t even exist. He vanished into the illusion, leaving the undead behind as he started to climb the next set of ladders.