Not one cell in his body told Laone that the creep ahead of them was worth his time, not even to tell him that he was not a girl. The rock star bandit still stood around without doing anything as if he was genuinely waiting for his victims to give to react to his jeers, they did not. The atmosphere was a bit awkward so the subordinates started talking amongst themselves, rock star bandit grew weary of the silent whispers so he silenced them with a commanding voice.
This voice of his carried a fit of extreme anger with it, Laone again was starting to sense the whole surroundings as if they were a part of his own body. His eyes returned to the rock star bandit after a short wander.
From around his waist, the rock star bandit yanked out a chain and tied a tiny bit of it around his arm. "If you do not respond to me in the next five seconds, I will tell my boys to move in on you and not only kill you but entertain themselves."
"1..."
Larona dragged Sam and Laone together.
"2..."
She shifted her body away from the bandit and aligned her face with the sky.
"3..."
In response to the girls' sudden movement, the rock star's cronies wave their fingers in the air in a rather creepy kind of way and started to slowly close in the circle.
"4..."
She rearranged her stance and dust flew, spiraling upwards and formed a mini-disaster shattering the ground around her feet. Larona's caff muscles flexed one last time before she took off with Laone and Sam under her arms.
"5! GET THEM, YOU BLOCKHEADS."
The shockwaves from her lift-off temporarily stunned the assailants allowing them a clean getaway. Before Laone could be captivated by Larona's might, dark running figures appeared behind them. Some of the people within the mob were even jumping as high as Larona and Laone's heart started racing.
At approximately one gazillion miles per hour, his heart pumped as his eyes zoomed in on the runners. Throughout the whole hunt, Laone had been trying to hone his new senses and so was now able to at least control them at a mediocre degree. And as if he did not have a lot to deal with right now the damned notifications returned.
[YOU HAVE ENTERED A 4 STAR AREA]
Adding icing on the cake was Larona whom after landing started spinning rapidly, she let Laone go at incredible speeds forward. Laone cursed underneath the weight of the thick air hugging him. His bones shattered under the air pressure and eventually he died on impact with the ground.
[YOU HAVE DIED]
[ X2 LIFE LEFT]
[+5% ENDURANCE]
"CRAZY WOMAN!" Laone reappeared over where he had crash-landed onto the ground, he screamed and his body set off full speed downwards. He crash-landed with an encore and the notifications' bar displayed the following,
[HP: 130/200]
"Wait, wasn't I supposed to be reset with all my HP set on max?"
Tossing aside the fact that his HP was rightfully deducted from him Laone continued on walking, completely ignoring the fact that bit by bit he was recovering. He also failed to notice that he was walking through a dark tunnel without any illumination.
The tunnel he was inside seemed to be a little bit shorter than normal, on the wall there were spearheads sticking out. Laone eyed its interior and was a bit terrified, he still walked on forward depending on his senses. So far he had not picked up any alarming scents unless you wanted to count the various smells of blood and sweat from man and monster alike.
As he came closer and closer to the entrance he heard sounds of sharp objects tearing into flesh, spectators screaming and waling. Sounds of excitement, joy, and happiness intertwined with those of pain, anguish, and anger.
Laone's bravery started fleeing his body leaving behind a fear that shook him from his toes to the highest hair on his head. It is not like he did not want to head back, he could not do such a thing. Behind him was a presence so terrifying he only wanted to focus at the front, it was not a long walk to the end of the tunnel but he took his time because.
[YOU HAVE ENTERED A 6 STAR AREA]
Laone struggled with all his might not to let any of his focus leak behind him, he directed all of it to the front. The presence that had been stalking him had not attacked him so his first thought was that direct comfrontation might be its trigger. It was just speculation but he bet his life on it, onward his eyes had caught a glimpse of what was beyond the tunnel.
Nothing, apart from the noise there was nothing he looked at the stands and there were humanoids looking directly at the center of the ring. Laone's body fell into shivers and he started questioning the reality he was walking through
'Were all those sounds some sort of a vision, am I the one who is going get brutalized in front of the masses?'
The space between his feet grew shorter and shorter before completely disappearing. Sweat dripped off his skin like a flood, there was enough on the floor to splash at a step forward or just to make a man slip. The presence grew stronger and closer forcing Laone to slide forward.
In this midst of this grave fear Laone's focus leaked, even though unable to directly see the presence he was able to confirm that it was a monster. But another thing he noted was that it bore no ill intent towards him and was just following.
This new discovery however did not stop Laone from dashing forward when he felt the monster's hand rise over him.
At a very high speed passed through the entrance but to his surprise, he did not spring out on the empty arena and fell on his knees and slapped the ground with his palms and fingers at separate intervals.
Quickly though, he got up but stumbled back onto is bums he wanted to ensure if the monster was following him. His heartbeat started to slow down as all the sound that was torturing his mind died down little by little. The room he was now in had only the floor and the roof, it was surrounded by clouds.
He looked down and the ground was not that far, accompanying the great outdoors were monsters waiting for him to join the party. Laone let out ten breaths and started his journey downwards, he could not stay levitated any longer because he had points to gain and a time limit to do it all in.
His clothes were still damp with sweat, and around the descending staircase there were other adventurers just standing around without the confidence to continue forward. Laone ignored them and pressed forward, the wind blew and sweat turned cold.
A few inches from the ground Laone jumped off and ran towards the nearest shelter. As he sprinted forward the monsters joined in hot pursuit, as for the cowardly adventures they had nothing but insults for the male omega.
They flooded the battlegrounds and got in cheap kills from the monsters that had turned their backs to chase Laone. It was a mistake proven fatal because the monsters caught within this mix-up were the undead. The undead reached their bony hands from underneath the ground and turned it into a bloody massacre.
Cries of death zoned out as Laone entered through another tunnel, his speed was drastically increased. He came to a roaring halt filling the air with dust, now in a narrow hallway with torches all over Laone was prepared to fight.
All this running around and honing his senses had earned him two more levels and extra stats. (Which is why he was ballsy enough to run through a field of monsters.)
He knocked three torches off the wall consecutively and pull a box of matches from his storage and set the monsters ablaze.
They were not killed instantly but were ended by the final blows delivered by their own weapons in the hands of Laone.
[+0.5% STR]
[+0.5%AGILITY]
[+0.6%END]
[+1%WIS]
[+5 EXP]
[+1 LEVEL]
[+0.5%STR]
[+1%WIS]
[+4 EXP]
[+O.5%AGILITY]
[+0.5 INTELLIGENCE]
[+1 LEVEL]
The monsters were eventually cleared off and at level nine Laone had already completed the assigned task. Oddly enough he was not teleported home and remained in the dungeon, he walked forward under the impression that nothing but death was waiting for him where he had come from.
Laone was on high alert because he was still picking up traces of that huge presence of earlier. But it was still not as strong as the scent he was heading towards. Armed with torches and a half-empty matchbox Laone wandered into the darkness.