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[Challenge Objective: Survive 5 waves of monsters]
[You have 1 day before the first wave starts]
[You can now attack each other]
[Additional Rules: Kill any challenger directly or indirectly, or shatter a corruption crystal to leave the land of challenges]
[Note: shattering a corruption crystal or killing anyone will summon the green moon]
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[Your reward is ready! Click for more details]
"Zorath didn’t return..."
I stared with dead eyes at the screen in front of .
It... ant that the maze was now empty.
The last one to enter was a human called Alden, but there were no signs of Zorath.
More people around fell in silence as the screen appeared, and so even cursed loudly. They all had so hope for finding soone they were waiting for.
Braham used his necklace ability in an instant to clear our minds, then proceeded to give us an encouraging speech.
But for most of us — it didn’t an anything, especially with Cecil clapping for him.
We didn’t know if fighting him was the right decision or not.
He was a dangerous and sick bastard, yes. But he was also strong and could help us to reach the fourth challenge...
Additionally, there was the problem of the new rules.
Killing Cecil may trigger whatever that green moon was, however, leaving him was still as dangerous.
It was a hard decision to make. And if we decided to kill him, so people would want to kill him to leave this place, which makes the decision harder.
"Take the corpses out."
Turning around, I saw master Kai aiming Yamato at Cecil’s neck while Long Wei and Jaxon were standing beside him.
Cecil glanced at the katana, then his lips curled into a smirk. "What if I didn’t? Will you kill ?" He then moved forward, making his neck touch the blade.
All the remaining challengers shifted their gazes toward them, curious about the decision they had made regarding Cecil.
Master Kai stared at him with sharp eyes. Long Wei raised his fist ready to punch Cecil but Jaxon stopped him.
"Listen, you filthy human." Jaxon hissed. "You will now take the corpses out of your storage and let us end them. They aren’t your puppets. Then you will generously go to the other side of this stronghold, and trust — I’m not scared of killing you."
Cecil rested his head on the blade and closed his eyes as if thinking deeply.
A mont later, he clicked his tongue. "Tsk, fair enough. Here..."
He handed them his ring and moved away with his hands up.
"If you tried to do sothing funny, I’ll burn you alive!" Long Wei spat before shifting his gaze toward the ring.
He pulled out the first corpse, it was Seles’.
"Haah... I’ll kill that bastard eventually."
Using his golden flas, he burned her and controlled the flas to avoid her core.
I turned my head imdiately — not wanting to see that scene — and decided to see my rewards instead.
With a light click in the air, another screen materialized.
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[Sythrix’s blood]
Description: A small droplet of Sythrix’s blood. Drinking it can grant a random abyssal related trait depending on the drinker.
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Seeing only one reward, I felt so disappointnt, until I saw the description.
’trait? Is this even possible?’
Imdiately, I summoned the gift, then a black bottle the size of my nail appeared.
There was no point in hesitating. I needed more power, and now, I was holding it in my hands, so I opened the bottle and drank the blue liquid inside in an instant.
I blinked, then I found myself in the sa place I saw when I increased my connection to the abyss.
I blinked again, then I found myself in the stronghold again as if I was just hallucinating.
’This confird it — that place is related to the abyss if not the abyss itself.’
I put that matter in the back of my mind and focused on discovering my new abilities.
I didn’t have anything like the mirror from the last challenge, so I had to use the old way.
First, I checked my body.
There was nothing different. Sa strength. Sa look. Sa height. Sa weight.
Then I checked my core, and there was a change.
There were so pitch black and blackish blue lines surrounding it.
I tried to use my aura, and felt its effect being slightly stronger.
’Good — more physical power is always welcod.’
Then I checked my soul, and just like my aura, it was also stronger with so additional blackish blue lines covering it.
’That’s strange... I wonder what that ans.’
The last thing to test was my affinities.
I didn’t have an instinctive feeling like the soul control and the abyssal storage, so I didn’t have anything else to do except the affinities.
’Let’s see the fire first.’
With a simple thought, my hand got covered in flas.
"WHAT!" I shouted loudly, surprised by the change and getting the attention of all the people around .
Master Kai and Long Wei who just finished burning the last corpse were the first to approach .
Once they saw my hand, their eyes widened too.
"Kid, wasn’t your fire red?!"
"Did you take your rewards already?"
I looked at the fire covering my hand. It was blue unlike before, similar to master Kai’s Celestial fire, but much darker.
But the problem was that it was cold, too cold.
"It turned into cold flas..." I muttered under my breath, but everyone heard clearly.
Well, maybe except Cecil who was barely visible in the distance.
Master Kai suddenly conjured a water bottle out of thin air and put it in my hand.
Almost instantly, the water turned into ice, just then I noticed that I wasn’t feeling the chill of the cold wind as before.
’How didn’t I notice. I got so cold resistance too.’
Master Kai chuckled lightly at the result and asked: "What was your reward exactly? And did only your fire change?"
I told him about my reward quickly and decided to try the other affinities.
I tried the soul first, and as expected, it was not slightly, but much stronger than before, with the aura color becoming a mix of dark blue and pitch black.
I didn’t know if there was another effect like the fire, but I wasn’t going to attack anyone’s soul to test it.
"I’ll test the darkness now."
Imdiately, my aura changed, covering my hand in darkness.
"It’s... darker." Master Kai murmured, focusing on my hand closely. "Braham, attack his hand with any light attack."
"What!"
"Just do it."
Braham sighed as he apologized: "Sorry Yami, bla your master. Can you bring your hand away from your head?"
"Oh sure. And don’t worry, I have so pain resistance."
Braham pointed his finger at my dark hand, then a beam of light flew toward it.
I closed my eyes, ready for the pain... but nothing happened.
When I opened them, I was t with shocked faces.
’Did he miss?’
Braham shot another beam suddenly, but this ti, I saw how it got absorbed into my hand.
"Damn! Let try sothing." Long Wei smirked as a spear made of golden flas materialized in his hand.
"Don’t even dare, dragon shit!"
"Mr. Long, that’s too much!"
I ignored them and focused on my hand instead.
I felt like I understood what I got.
What do I know about the abyss?
Nothing.
But what cos to my mind when I think about it?
A place in the depths that no one can find.
A dark place where no light can reach.
A cold place where no fire can heat.
Filled with corruption and screaming souls.
This is the abyss for .
I got darkness immune to light, a chilling fire that can freeze, and I’m not sure yet of the soul.
Did I get a sort of abyssal property to my affinities? That was possible.
I didn’t think too much about that, because I was now stronger, and that was enough for .
For the next few hours, people were preparing for whatever those waves were while keeping an eye on Cecil.
If he got a strong affinity like that in the first challenge, then I didn’t want to think about his new reward.
At first, everyone took their rewards. Master Kai got a stone that reinforced Yamato, making it sharper and changing its blade color into azure.
Long Wei got a dragon heart if I wasn’t wrong. He was too excited and said that he had never felt better.
For so reason, both Braham and Celestina got the sa reward. An elixir that was supposed to be able to heal anything.
And there was a woman called Lily who got the ability to see 3 seconds into the future.
After getting the rewards, we started to fix the stronghold walls and put so traps.
Long Wei went to explore the place we were in, but he returned imdiately, saying that we were on a floating island surrounded by portals.
This explained where the monster would co from, and how they made sure that we would fight all the waves.
Then I practiced my soul control to get ready for the next fight, but I didn’t dare to enter my abyssal pocket.
I just... couldn’t face them.
Despite what Maxwell did, it was still my fault. He... forgave — but I couldn’t forgive myself.
*Ding!*
Suddenly, we all heard a soft familiar sound, announcing the arrival of our gifts.
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