" Was I influenced by an illusion from my imagination? " Mark mumbled in lightly, narrowing his eyes, before widening it back with anger filled eyes bellowing.
" No, it seems too true to be false! My wife... my kids... " Before he could probably frown about it, Mark found himself to be dragged back to that endless dark abyss again without a speck of light to be spotted.
Despair! Yes despair started to groom in his eyes, his very kids could not see their father a last time, not could he touch them to begin with.
His wife had to ignore his presence like we random ghost, but at the same time mark couldn't share the burden of being a parent along with her.
It was as if the god's were playing tricks on his pitiful self!
He was presented a chance to take a glance at his family for a last time. But, that incident had pushed him more to the point of despair.
Just when he was about to close his eyes in sadness, as if everything seemed to be lost around him.
A high pitched voice rang his ears, that made him both happy for a while, but immediately returned back to being angered, that could kill a person with his single glare.
" Ding! Host had obtained the rights to become an aura lord! "
" Ding! Host hadn't completed the Lord's trail! "
" Ding! Host need to complete a Lord quest to be crowned a Lord! "
Lord Quest
(( Difficulty – A class 1 star ))
Location : Trail Tower — 4th floor
Time alloted : Unlimited
Type. : Slaying
Target : Unknown
Number : 1
Reward : Ability booster, Natal weapon condensing, Abyss bone, Skill - Ten arrows of Ancient bone monarch.
Failure : Eternally entrapped in the fourth floor.
As if the world around him started to take change, covers of black started to disappear in thin air.
The abyss on his surroundings, which made him despair earlier had disappeared all of a sudden, like it was not present before to begin with.
Mark found himself in the centre of a strange room, which was metallic grey in colour with white illumination from the centers, that had not yet reached to the ends.
His figure had returned back to normal with azure colour robes Kaiser presented with. The small figure of six years body that he became familiar with.
The room was pretty much large, but yet not wider than ten meters from his sides.
Both, the distances from his front and back were stretched the largest, twenty meters in distance.
And the maximum height where the ceiling present was around five meters above his head, that tapered to the walls around him till they reduced to the hight of an regular adult.
Different sets of weapons ranging from short hand knifes to long broad blades, from sharp pointing spears to long fat maces and also from untraceable hidden needles to strange kinds of explosives were arrange orderly around his left, each carrying an aura different from others.
Like left, the right part of the room had pills and potions of various grades and of various properties.
Towards his front, there were shelf filled with books. Mostly of battle skills and cultivation technique.
But mark at his current status couldn't enter in, as the restriction plate on its had clearly stated that the slayer had to be a third ordered one at the least or had to attain an aura emperor status before he could barely be made access into that library.
Towards his back, a circular stage was present, that was slightly elevated by few inches from the floor, with a circular wooden mat at the centre which was drawing in mana mysteriously from some where else, and could be used for the thingy of cultivation.
The set was arranged as if it was present specifically to train him well, but mark was confused what does this system mean by the thing of lord quest.
" Since I could level up and beak through cultivation barriers easily, I need to attend some lord quest of her, before reaching aura lord? " Mark was quite displeased after figuring out the meaning of her sentence.
Mark was upgraded, he wanted to test out his strength.
Just when he thought that there was a lack of training dummy for him to practice, a small silhouette popped out all of a sudden, from black vortex.
His height hasn't reached the point of four feet yet, barely at the boundaries of three and four, and around the same hight as his little body.
The figures build was not muscular but refined, long loose and nicely combed black hair that reached down till his waist was present.
His face was covered by a thin mask, with sliver plated started over from the part of upper face, covering the regions of eyes, nose and cheek.
Mark was sure that this person was a living thing just like him, and he went forward to greet him with a " Hi! "
Not bothering to react to marks words, the masked person quickly took a long spear before entering back into the same vortex he came from.
" A strange one indeed. But wait! Why had he been able to enter the fourth floor of trail tower? Don't tell me that he's also a slayer like me! " Mark bellowed out in surprise.
Lord's quest! Wait, if I need to enter the ranks of Aura Lord's, wouldn't that mean I need to attain peak of grand master beforehand?
Wouldn't her words earlier mean that I broke through peak aura grand master by now!
Unlike king class and emperor class there wasn't a thing of half step lord class, so peak aura grand master was the highest realm below Aura Lord.
Being excited mark tried viewing his players card, only to be startled as last, looking at his current status that made his eyes to sparkle and widen out in anxiety.
Demon Slayer System
Player's name : Mark White
Player's race : Human (Incubus - 3 horned)
Player's age : 6
Player's level : 59 ( 68 )locked lv60; ( Exp - 100/100 % ); ( Aura Grand master, peak stage ).
location : Trail tower, fourth floor.
Current quest : Lord quest.
Title : Slayer ( Attributes= +400% , An abrupt raise in attributes for a short duration of 1 minute.
Side effects : Temporary reduction in attributes by half for a period of 1 week )
Players Attributes
Attack : 1570 Agility : 1882
Health : 6085 Defense. : 1070
lntelligence : 59000 Sense : 10165
Mana / Qi : 590000
Skill points : 120
Skills : Fire Blade - lv 6 [(14000/50000 p), 4800 % more damage to target, cool down time - 10minutes, mana consumption -800 / second )].
Fire arrow lv 1 [(0/10p), 100 % more damage to target ].
Way of strength lv 2 [(6200/ 10000), overall attributes raise + 50% , Time limit- 5min per use, limitations - Excess mana drain, Intelligence decrease permanently by hundred ].
Abilities [(Space traversing ), ( Resonance), (Darkness extract)]
Armaments : Azure dragon robes [ health = +2000, defense = +500 ], Dead man blade [ Attack = +2500, hidden (unlocked 1/3 - Asura's cry) ]
Blessing : Blessing of horned incubus ( Makes user temporarily attain a higher realm for couple hours, Can be used once in three days ; Limitations- player had to die before being revived with a higher realm temporarily. )
Professions : 1) Array master ( Grade one - peak)
2) locked ( lv 60)
" Level 68! And it's unlocked! " Mark was extremely exited that he could not control his laughter.
" Haha! This mark would for sure have his revenge! "
" Old timers you dare to set this mark, and kill me by dirty tricks!
Haha... your efforts had not only made me dead but fueled enough to raise my cultivation to level 68. "
" A half step aura emperor... sure lives up to his name! " Had it not been for levi, he would for sure not been able to reach this stage, this fast.
" Wouldn't you be scared to death, once you know my current circumstances?
Not only I mark would be return alive, but also be returning back several times stronger than before, also more refined than earlier with a stronger cultivation. Thanks to your efforts for trying to murder me! "
He chuckled in slowly, but at the same time he mumbled in seriously, narrowing his eyes, stating that " Though I had reached level 68, I mark am still a small fish in the vast dungeon.
Aura King... Half step aura emperor... Aura emperor... and who knows what half step cultivation realm might be present above it.
Only by levelling as before, could I mark have a hope of killing those enemies, that far exceeds the realm of my current imagination! "
Moving to the pill section he picked up a strength pill, along with a hastening potion that improves ones speed.
Mark then went towards the weaponry, and chosen two small blades that seemed compatible to him.
He picked up a thin arm sized blade from the weaponry, that looked more of a half meter maths scale than a regular blade used by a warrior.
Whoosh!
As expected, a black vortex like before had popped out all of a sudden, but this time it engulfed mark.
Mark was teleported to an other location. It was quite a mysterious place, that appears to be an isolated place in some ancient lost world by the scent of air he sensed from the surroundings.
Whoosh!
Mark was unfortunately teleported to the sky, few tens of thousands of meters high in altitude, between a densely packed white cloudy range, that could make a person sick from deprived oxygen around him.
At a high velocity mark started descending down, piercing apart the clouds on his way with increasing speed that made him worry a little.
" What would probably happen to the body of mine had I fallen from this high altitude. " Mark exclaimed out with a worried face.
"Compress the air below my feet and reduce the momentum for time being" An idea sparked his brain from the concepts he learned in his old life.
Boom!
Mark burst out his mana all of a sudden and compresses the air below his feet, in a circular golden ball of finger size.
Mark started to make some explosions below his hands and feet, before gradually descending down to below like tony wearing the red iron suit.
With each explosion of his, his body leaped up few meters in the air, before descending down some couple hundred meters, where he could make a repetition of this cycle to descend again.
A minute later, mark exited the cloudy range, before he could clearly spot the surroundings that made him startle thoroughly.
A big orange evening sun that was half covered by long lustrous range of green mountains, that appeared taller than any other mountain he had spotted till today.
Where ever his sight went he could spot greenery with occasional huge circular runes and giant stone heads, that appears to be remains of some great ancient civilization, that become extinct in the flow of time.
Few thousands meters after he descended down, strong horizontal winds from sides started hitting his body, with a might that could flatly blow apart some random mountain to dust.
" Che! These winds are forcing me to activate the ways of strength! " Mark cursed internally with an aggrieved eyes, thinking about hundred of his intelligence points that would be sacrificed in the process.
" Argh!~~~ " Enduring the strong winds that were hitting hard against his body, mark descended down with closing eyes while crouching his body to that of a ball, without delaying some time in the process and managed to escape out these torturing wind with mortal injuries all over his body.
" Shit! " Without realizing that his impeding velocity had brought him closer to surface, with few hundreds of meters apart from the land.
Mark burst out a large chunk of mana, and made a huge eye catching explosion.
Yet the velocity with which his body was descending, had pierced through the explosion of his, before falling down to the ground with a huge "Boom!" leaving some heavy injuries over his legs, which contacted the surface first.
The whole plane he was lying over had tilted few degrees backwards, before returning back to normal with a prolonged diminishing noises, as if the ship titanic was drowning that exact moment.
Mark hit his head hard, following his legs and his vision was half blurred, present lying on a large piece of flying rock, which was trimmed on its top horizontally, and beautifully tiled with white pieces of flat marble.
But unfortunately by years of passing time, the lustrous white tinge of the marble faded away, and small sprouts of grass was grown from place to place with occasional green algal outgrowths at distances.
Within a minute mark circulated his mana and healed off all superfical and sub surfacial wounds leaving behind some internal injures that were about to be healed shortly.
" What a strange world, where had this system teleported me? " Rubbing the back of his head which was still pain full, mark exclaimed out lightly while sitting, looking at his surroundings which had turned back to normal.
" Strange! How great of an array of this? " Mark asked out bewildered, looking at the array down that started reparing the surface and turned it back to new, as if it had finished renovating it this moment.
Earlier, few broken pieces of the marble tile had pierced into his abdomen, which was pulled out of his body by the mysterious array, which settled back those pieces into its original place, later with closing cracks without leaving a trace behind, that made mark startle a little on profundity of this array!
While mark was trying to guess the grade of the array below him, a shining bright sun appeared on the sky, present within the clouds which started to expand at seconds passed by.
Seems like that shining piece of thing was approaching towards the flat flying rock, which made it appear getting bigger in the clouds.
Roar!
The clouds around the bright sun like thing, started condensing itself into a dense clouds of black, that made occasional roars from time to time, when lightning sparked within.
Whoosh!
Tens of meters wide, a large mass made from mana surfaced out the clouds from inside, with the gaseous black clouds around, being slid to one of its side.
It was extremely pure, with a royal golden tinge it looked terrifying.
Accompanying it was the river like streams of mana, that looked as if some ancient beasts were revolving around the primordial sun.
But at the center of it, Mark was able to see a black silhouette, that looked more or less humanoid.
Just when mark was wondering what creature was producing this overbearing phenomenons, that ball of golden mana reached the surface of flat flying rocky platform, vaporizing every thing in its contact, creating a large creator that spanned across hundreds of meters around it.
The strong winds that gushes towards him with the sand particles had grazed his exteriors and mark had to cover his eyes with one of his hands, stretching apart his legs wide apart to maintain a proper balance.
Just like the wind which blew him from the front. The repairing array from below had mysteriously called back every single speck of the broken mass from crater without exception.
All of a sudden, It creating a huge terrifying back wind of the same magnitude from before. Which caught mark unguarded, as he had not been aware of the arrays potency.
It thrown mark, few tens of meters forward from his original position, making him lie over the repairing creator flatly.
The array was condensing back the marble, making it shining white to appear new, as if the camphor had reverse sublimated and turned to the solid mass from vapours.
" System! Correct me if I am wrong! Had this array been made by an array grand master at his peak? " Mark muttered in internally, while slowly picking up the balance to stand back at the vibrating floating land that was still in tremors from the impact before.
Earlier the floor had almost tilted to 90, just before the array made it forcefully to re attain it's balance.
" Just what kind of creature could cause this damage? " Mark muttered it lightly " Lord class... or king class... no these both cultivation ranks couldn't put up that intimidating show from before.
So it had to be a cultivator at emperor class!! "
" Did an emperor class cultivator descended on this stage this instant? " Mark mumbled in lightly, looking at the figure that had yet to be discerned out clearly, as he was covered in smoke or reverse sublimating gas of the tiles from below.
" Ding! The fellow before host is the target of the lord quest! And the test had been handled fairly for host to clear, so an emperor class expert is not summoned this instant! "
" Ding! Responding to host previous question, the array is not laid by an array grand master, but an expert whose mastery is far above that mastery! "
" Not an emperor class! So he had to be an expert that grasped some insights into emperor cultivation, a cultivation of half step aura emperor, I suggest! " Mark mumbled in with a honest face.
Though he had some fears for him, it was not likely that he would be killed by an expert of that cultivation easily.
With his present strength, though he may not rival him, he could either defeat a half step aura emperor, that learned the insights of emperor class.
" Ding! At the present cultivation of host it's better to train for ten more years before challenging him! " System exclaimed out in a single line, as if mark wasn't even qualified to fight his quest target, right now!
But what's the use of reminding him now, when the fight between them was going to take place.
The tiles on the floor had all been repaired and the figure of his quest target was about to be shown out.
His height hasn't reached the point of four feet yet, barely at the hight of 3'10 or 3'11, and around a little bigger than the hight of mark.
The figures build was slightly muscular and well refined, short spunky black hair that reached down till his chin, and with the sharp glare in his eyes mark was dumbfounded a little.
" Isn't that me!? " Muttered in the mark.
The figure he mark needs to overwhelm and kill was him himself? But carrying a title of doppelganger along with him! Mark was confused looking at the same face of his on the target.
It was like he himself was looking at a mirror before him, with detailed him with the exact and same features he posses!
" What do you mean by Mark White ( Max ), am i mark a creature like that great boa which had a berserk or enraged mode of its own? " Mark bellowed out in anger.
But when he scrolled down to view his other information, he got started, almost scared enough to get his feet tremble looking at it.
Quest target
Target's name : Mark White ( Max )
Target's race : Human ( Incubus - 3 horned ); Doppelganger.
Target's age : 6
Target's level : 59; ( Aura Grand master, peak stage, 3rd refinement )
Title : Slayer ( Attributes= +400% , An abrupt raise in attributes for a short duration of 1 minute.
Side effects : Temporary reduction in attributes by half for a period of 1 week )
Target's Attributes
Attack : 5000 Agility : 5000
Health : 10000 Defense. : 5000
lntelligence : 100000 Sense :10000
Mana / Qi : 1000000
Skill points : 0
Skills : Fire Blade - lv 10 [(1B/1B p), 40000 % more damage to target, cool down time - no limit, mana consumption -2000 / second )].
Fire arrow lv 10 [(1B/1B p), 40000 % more damage to target ].
Way of strength lv 5 [(1M/1M), overall attributes raise + 400% , Time limit- 40 min per use, limitations - Excess mana drain, Intelligence decrease permanently by 1000 ].
Abilities [(Space traversing ), ( Resonance), (Darkness extract)]
Armaments : Azure dragon robes [ health = +2000, defense = +500 ], Dead man blade [ Attack = +2500, hidden (unlocked 1/3 - Asura's cry) ]
Blessing : Blessing of horned incubus ( Makes user temporarily attain a higher realm for couple hours, Can be used once in three days ; Limitations- player had to die before being revived with a higher realm temporarily. )
Unless mark kills this Dopplerganger of his, he wouldn't be able to exit out and be trapped forever within this test for eternity.
" Fuck his attributes and fuck this unfairness, just how in the hell could this poor soul defeat that thing, isn't it equal to putting me mark on death ring, only to be slaughtered at the last. " Mark bellowed out, in fright.
His composure turned ugly when the figure of doppelganger had disappeared from his sight and it may well at any time pounce that blade towards his neck.
Author's content.
Characters added:
1. Silver mask : The mysterious person that popped in the same fourth floor as him
2. Doppelganger : The over powered quest target of Mark.
Lord quest : In simple words mark had to kill his Doppler ganger before he could exit out the test.
An new arc unfolding, lord quest!