(Robin's POV):
"Haaah... That was an exhausting one..." - Rylle
We're currently under the fountain which apparently is a gauntlet of monsters. Judging by the number of monsters that are in the first gauntlet, the only thing I can say is that the gauntlet will get more and more difficult. The only thing we can do about it is to just go around and clear it as we progress through this.
"You've been complaining about the gauntlet for a while now. I can say that it is quite an exhilarating task since we have to survive against hundreds of monsters." - Jay
"Well, it is hundreds after all! That's what makes it fun!" - Rylle
"I don't even know if you're complaining or nah?"
"Complaining? That's just you Robin, I enjoy getting the thrill of life here." - Rylle
"I see... Then, shall we continue on that room?"
"Oiiii, we just had lunch here! We're gonna get appendicitis if you just continue slaying right after eating." - Jay
"Yeah, let us digest the food first." - Grace
Jeez guys, I was kidding...
Ridley seems to be thinking about something in his mind so I called him out if something is bothering him.
"Ridley?"
"Eh? Ah! Sorry, I was trying to remember something here." - Ridley
"I see, nothing's bothering you?"
"Nope, and I just remembered too. Anyways, I have heard about this place before and it was said to contain a powerful item you mentioned."
"You mean the zodiacs?"
"Wait, you do you mean by the zodiacs?! Those are the exclusive items that you mentioned?!" - Jay
Jay seems to have also known about the Zodiac artifacts and was actually impressed with the collection.
"How many have you collected so far?" - Grace
"Pretty sure that he currently has five in his hands. We want to rush getting all thirteen if possible."
"Five?!?!" - Jay
Jay, I know why you get shocked so easily so I get it. Please tone down there might be others that are actually here and listening to us.
I waved my hand to signal Jay to tone down his voice as we could be spied around.
"Anyways, wanna have some bets? How much coins do you guys have?"
"I have about three platinum coins." - Jay
"Two platinum coins here." - Grace
"Hmm, wait let me check a bit. I kinda forgot but I have two platinum and a bunch of gold coins." - Ridley
"Six platinum coins here." - Rylle
Everyone suddenly was aghast with how much Rylle is bringing around. Guys, one platinum is already enough for a safety stay in this world for two years and that's with luxury.
I brought out my bag and just showed that I actually brought all of my money for no apparent reason.
"Wait that's how much you're bringing?!" - Jay
"Yeah, this is about a hundred platinum coins?"
"Rich guy, where'd you get all of that?" - Rylle
"Farming a lot?"
"I see, should we farm sooner too?" - Jay
"Sure, if you want to." - Grace
"Ah! Anyways, all of you bet one platinum. Don't worry about me winning, I'll just return it but, if one of you wins... The one platinum bet will go to them and I will double the current total, how's that sound?"
Everyone nodded and simply started giving off a tense atmosphere.
"Seems like you guys are ready to place your guesses? No duplicates, and first come first served."
Jay immediately raised his hand.
"Jay?"
"I will guess, Capricorn." - Jay
"Are you sure? It might be the one Seymour has right now."
Currently, the Zodiac artifacts that Seymour has right now are Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Ophiuchus. So that's actually a good guess but when Jay heard that question, he gulped down his saliva for some reason.
"Y-yeah, I think it's Capricorn." - Jay
"Robin..." - Ridley
"Oh? Got a guess Ridley?"
"I'll place my bet on Pisces." - Ridley
"Sure?"
"Wait, I think..." - Ridley
I swear, one of them is gonna pick the ones that Seymour had already.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna stay with... Huh? Wait..." - Ridley
Did he forget? Well it can't be helped, the others are just smiling wryly so I guess it has something to do with what he went through. I won't pry further though.
"I'll place my bet on Libra..." - Ridley
"Alright, is that your final guess?"
"Yeah, I'm going with it." - Ridley
Rylle was the next one to raise his hand and didn't even wait.
"Cancer, no doubt about it." - Rylle
Oh no Rylle! He's guaranteed to lose! Well, poor guy... He's not gonna get anything here.
"What about you Grace?"
"I'm going with Aquarius, I'm sure of it." - Grace
"I see, then, I'll pick Aries."
After having some more light talk, we talked about going to the next room of either finishing up one side or taking the other side and progress. In the end, we decided to just simply progress and finish up one side by majority vote. Damnit, I wanted variety.
When we entered the room, it was more spacious than last time and has a more creepy looking place this time.
"This is cryptic as hell, same stations everyone."
Everyone starts going to their corners before Jay opened the chest. Surely we're gonna be surrounded again in three sides but it was more than what I had expected.
"Above!" - Jay
Skeletons with war axes started flooding into the area while normal skeletons with bows start to aim from the ceiling holes.
"Watch out for attacks from the back!"
I simply shouted out to get everyone aware of the skeletons on the ceiling, Jay started shooting down the ranged skeletons. Before I knew it, it was actually getting more and more difficult.
I brought out three extra floating searing blades aside from the two I'm holding. I sent the three swords towards Grace, Ridley, and Rylle to support them while I maintain all these weaponized skeletons.
I don't have issues against slicing through the monsters on my side. However, I keep seeing the others starting to take damage which got me forced to use Illumination pretty early.
"Illumination! Soft light!"
We were simply stuck in the room trying to maintain our center while deflecting attacks from ranged skeletons, defending ourselves from the horde and surviving an endless battle. It was endless until I saw a skeleton that's doing necromancy. You sneaky little shit I'll shut you up now.
"Searing light!"
I fired a laser and eliminated a lot of skeletons along with the undead necromancer. After fighting out in my side, me and Grace supported the other two and took the three searing blades to cut off the archers from the ceiling. I then fired Searing Light once again towards the necromancer on my side and cleared out the remaining skeletons.
"Illumination!"
I healed up the entire team once again as we were basically having troubles with our remaining health. Jay had a pretty decent bar percentage left, while me and Grace are standing at just above half health. Me and Rylle moved to assist them and I simply charged in towards the necromancer. I didn't have enough mana for a third Searing Light so I simply just went in and cleared all the skeletons in front of me while charging in with three Searing Blades.
I slashed down everything within my sight and when I arrived in front of the necromancer, I didn't hesitate to eliminate it immediately with a single blast of light.
"Light Blast!"
With the necromancer down, I ran back quickly to the spot of Jay's group before they cleared out all the skeletons and the door closing in on me.
I managed to return to the central area while having a lot of leeway. After returning, I stood to the front and cleared the rest of the skeletons. Everyone seems to start to feel exhaustion even before killing off the rest of the monsters. After eliminating the last skeleton, everyone simply just sat down to the floor immediately.
"Holy crap, that was a lot..." - Ridley
"Yeah, It increased a total of fifty three except that it looked like forever because of the necromancers."
"Yeah, surely there will be more necromancers on the next room." - Jay
"Oh crap, that will be troublesome." - Rylle
"True, we already suffered so much because of the skeleton archers on the ceiling. What is going to come in the next room?" - Grace
"Dunno, probably crawlers from the floor?" - Ridley
"Most likely, their gear would most likely be upgraded even more."
"Oh man, give us a break. Surely you would be able to handle it just fine with the higher ups?" - Jay
"I guess so. No need to compare, let's just grab the key and get out of this room."
We took the second key and went back to the central area to rest up for the time being.
"I swear, everything is gonna go south here. We can't even back out from this gauntlet." - Grace
"Eh?! What about dinner?!" - Jay
Jay seems to have forgotten to pack dinner because it was completely abrupt. However, I got the food pretty much covered already.
"Well, it's fine guys. I had prepared some nice portions."
"Really?!?!" - Jay
Jay seems to have recovered from his dejectedness of being unable to eat dinner but that will be for later.
"It's only around three in the afternoon so we shouldn't really force ourselves to eat dinner this early alright?"
"Alright!" - Jay
"Want to take a powernap before entering the next room?"
Everyone exhaustingly agreed and immediately went to nap. Jeez, I'll keep watch just in case someone comes here.
After about thirty minutes I started to doze off pretty randomly. I feel a little tired so I might as well...
Another thirty minutes have passed when I woke up. When I checked, everyone was talking about something which I couldn't practically hear.
"Oh, Robin's awake guys." - Jay
Jay was the first one to notice me waking up to the sight of them talking about something.
"What happened?"
"Ah, we were just talking about our experience on school together." - Jay
"I see, shall we head to the next room after I get myself awake?"
"Sure." - Jay
After some time, we went to the third room and we had the extreme survival test.