Chapter 97 — Endless Wave of Dark Wolves (Part 2)

Chapter 97 — Endless Wave of Dark Wolves (Part 2)

As I had expected, the increased gravity of the Training Room did not cancel out the physical boost from Berserk. Apparently, the Training Room adjusted only to my normal stats and did not take temporary skill enhancements into account.

In other words, when I activated Berserk, I really did become roughly forty percent stronger and faster even under the effect of increased gravity.

—

In today’s large monster wave, more than two million Dark Wolves had already arrived.

It was fun.

Well, how could something like this not be fun? Gaining this many experience points simply couldn’t help but make me happy.

Unfortunately, the level gap between me and the others kept growing. I had already reached level 193, but Sherial was already level 197. And Rem had gone all the way up to level 211.

Well, fine. At least there was one piece of good news.

Sooner or later, the Dark Wolves would run out. But the Training Room quests weren’t going anywhere. I would still be able to keep gaining huge amounts of experience points. Yes, not as quickly as right now with the Dark Wolves, but still.

Alright, just a little more.

Today I should finish the sixth level of the Training Room quest and receive sixty billion experience points. Of course, right now that no longer felt like such a huge amount. I could earn that much experience in less than ten seconds of fighting Dark Wolves.

But it didn’t matter.

With Berserk, training became much easier. And surprisingly, my greatest enemy disappeared—boredom. Doing the same thing for dozens, sometimes even hundreds of hours in a row was truly difficult.

But when Berserk was active, for some reason I barely felt fatigue or boredom. All my thoughts focused only on overcoming the increased gravity. And the rage caused by the skill—I simply directed it into training.

So there were almost no problems.

Except one.

Once, I apparently overdid it and kept training until I lost consciousness. And when I woke up, my whole body was torn apart by pain.

But several health potions quickly solved that problem.

After that, avoiding a repeat was fairly simple—I just had to drink a health potion every few hours.

[Quest No. 6 completed.]

[Received: +60,000,000,000 experience.]

Finally.

I had just completed the quest and received the reward. Of course, it still wasn’t enough to gain a new level.

Alright, I can’t waste time. I’m ready to start the next quest.

Hm?

Strange… why isn’t a new quest appearing? I’m already ready.

Hey, System… or whoever I’m supposed to talk to here?

[Special Skill [Training Room], (Rank 4), completed.]

[Skill rank increased: [Training Room], (Rank 5).]

"So… what does that even mean?"

Why did this happen?

I had only completed the sixth Training Room quest. As far as I remembered, each rank had thirty quests. In other words, I had to clear thirty stages before the skill advanced to the next rank.

But now… after completing only the sixth quest, the skill suddenly rose to Rank 5.

And come to think of it, even the system message looked a little different. Before, it had included more information.

Wait…

Wasn’t I supposed to be asked to leave the Training Room after a rank-up?

That had happened every time before.

Alright, I think I should leave the Training Room for now.

I immediately headed toward Rem and Sherial’s tent. On the way, I felt a strange vibration—the entire Training Room was trembling slightly.

When I reached the tent, Rem and Sherial were already coming outside.

"What’s happening?" Sherial asked.

"We need to leave the Training Room immediately," I said, extending my hand.

They grabbed my hands at once, and in the next moment I teleported us outside.

We appeared back inside the dungeon, surrounded by golems.

The battle was still continuing, but Rem’s golems were still dealing with the Dark Wolves without much trouble.

"What happened? Can you explain?" Rem asked.

"My Training Room skill advanced to Rank 5," I replied.

"And? Why did we leave the Training Room, then? Is there a reason?" Sherial asked.

"Well… every time my special skill Training Room increased in rank, the System asked me to go outside. This time there was no such message, but I still decided it was better to be safe and leave the Training Room," I replied, a little uncertainly.

"And how long do we have to wait now?" Sherial asked.

"I don’t know… maybe about half an hour. Though maybe ten minutes will be enough," I replied.

"What about our things? The tents and everything else left inside? Nothing will happen to them, right?" Rem asked.

"Well… I think nothing will happen," I answered.

Although, to be honest, I wasn’t sure at all. I just hoped everything would be fine.

Rem and Sherial apparently didn’t want to just stand around and wait. Especially Rem.

She immediately went to fight the Dark Wolves. Well, I understood her. Yes, her golems were destroying most of the Dark Wolves—more than ninety percent. But Rem herself had barely participated in the battle directly. It seemed she simply didn’t want to waste time and decided to warm up a little.

Sherial went with her too.

I also wanted to join them, but for some reason I couldn’t calm down.

Everything that had happened felt too strange.

It had happened too early.

And that worried me.

What if something happened to the Training Room skill? What if I lost it completely? Or what if some unwanted changes occurred?

Because of those thoughts, waiting became unbearable.

I think enough time has passed.

I teleported back into the Training Room.

And the first thing that immediately caught my eye was that it had become much larger.

Yes, I expected its size to increase about twofold. Before, the Training Room had been about eighty by eighty meters, so now it should have been around one hundred sixty by one hundred sixty.

But…

It was much larger.

After a quick check, I roughly estimated its size. The Training Room was now about two hundred forty by two hundred forty meters. And the ceiling was somewhere around seventy to eighty meters high.

At this point, this place could no longer really be called just a training room. It had become far too enormous for that.

Though… how would I know? Maybe training halls this large existed.

Damn, what nonsense am I thinking?

Alright, I need to check our things.

From the outside, Rem and Sherial’s tent was perfectly fine. I hadn’t checked the inside yet, but I hoped everything was normal there too.

The wooden cabin I had built was also still in place.

And everything else seemed unharmed as well.

Fuuuuh…

Looks like everything is fine.

Now the main thing is to check the new quest.

Considering the changes that had happened to the Training Room, the quests should have changed too. And honestly, I really hoped they had.

Because the old quests had already started becoming absurd. With each stage, they required more and more time to complete.

At that pace, just reaching the thirtieth quest would have taken me more than a hundred years.

So it was good that things had changed.

Hopefully in a good way.

As soon as I mentally confirmed that I was ready to begin a new quest, a system screen opened in front of me.

Yes…

Just as I had hoped, the quests really had changed.

[Quest No. 1]

[Choose quest completion mode.]

[Easy Mode: 60 minutes]

[Hard Mode: 1 minute]

Oh, damn it!

Yes, yes, yes! Now this is completely different!

Only sixty minutes to complete the quest. And if I choose Hard Mode—only one minute.

This was even better than I had hoped.

Although… the word “survive” still worried me a little.

But I have nothing to worry about, right?

This is my own skill. It shouldn’t kill me.

And anyway… it would be extremely stupid if I were killed by my own skill.

Alright, I think I should try completing the first quest before going to get Rem and Sherial.

Which mode should I choose? Easy or Hard?

Well… logically, I should choose Easy Mode, since I have no idea what awaits me in this quest.

But…

I want to try Hard Mode.

Yes, it’s insane and maybe stupid, but… I still want to try it.

As soon as I made my decision, a bright light flashed about five meters in front of me. And when the glow disappeared, something resembling a human appeared in its place.

Although no…

More like a mannequin.

Most of all, it reminded me of a mannequin from a shopping mall. Only made of metal, slightly taller than a human, and more muscular.

But honestly, the first word that came to mind when I looked at it was definitely mannequin.

It didn’t look impressive or threatening at all.

Even Rem’s small two-meter golems looked much cooler than this thing.

Though… could I even call it a mannequin?

Well…

Whatever.

I’ll just call it an iron mannequin.

Suddenly, I felt heaviness throughout my entire body.

And here comes the increased gravity again.

I had already hoped it was gone for good.

Well, fine. Doesn’t matter.

Oh, the timer started.

59 seconds.

58 seconds.

The iron mannequin was still just standing there.

The next instant, I felt a monstrous blow to my chest.

And only when my body was already flying through the air did I realize what had happened.

Bang!

I slammed into the wall of the Training Room and collapsed onto the stone floor.

What the hell was that?!

That mannequin hit me?!

What the…

I instantly teleported outside. It was the fastest action I was capable of. Because if I had been even a fraction of a second late, that iron mannequin would have crushed my head with its next strike.

What the…

Why is the ground so soft?

It wasn’t solid at all. It felt more like a swamp.

Did I land in a swamp?

I quickly looked around.

No.

I was still in the dungeon.

There were stone golems around me, and a little farther away, Rem and Sherial were still fighting the Dark Wolves.

Then why does it feel like I’m sinking into the ground?

Oh no…

No, no, no.

A short distance away from me, the iron mannequin appeared.

What the hell?! It can leave the Training Room too?!

The next instant, it was already beside me.

I couldn’t move properly, and my pathetic attempt to defend myself did absolutely nothing.

The iron mannequin’s powerful kick sent me flying again, and this time I clearly felt bones break.

Damn…

I tried to cancel the quest, but nothing happened.

Looks like it’s impossible to cancel the trial. I just need to survive until the time runs out.

Oh, damn it…

The title made it obvious from the start—“survive for one minute.”

Why the hell did I choose Hard Mode?!

I should have chosen Easy.

I crashed to the ground, destroying several golems along the way.

Damn.

The iron mannequin was heading toward me again, calmly destroying golems in its path. Apparently, the golems had also recognized it as an enemy and started attacking.

But that only slowed it down a little.

To hell with everything.

I activated Berserk.

"Come on then… come here! I’ll crush you!"

I tried to get up, but my body immediately began sinking downward under the monstrous gravity.

I had to lie down again.

What the hell?!

Fine. If I can’t stand properly, then I’ll just crawl and crush this bastard’s legs.

The next moment, an explosion thundered.

Looks like it was Sherial.

Her arrow struck the iron mannequin directly.

No.

This is my opponent.

I have to destroy it myself.

I started moving faster.

Well… if it could even be called “faster,” considering I was literally crawling across the ground.

When the aftermath of the explosion cleared, the iron mannequin was still almost intact.

And it continued moving toward me.

"Come on… come here…"

And suddenly, I heard a sharp sound of air being cut.

The next instant, the iron mannequin froze in place.

What the hell happened?

Out of nowhere, Rem appeared beside it.

And at that same moment, the iron mannequin’s head fell to the ground.