Wayne looked at the ground, wondering if there were as many of those beasts as there were holes. He thought for a second and came up with an idea. He climbed to the top of the tree and jumped off, smashing into the ground, using his strength to create a small crack.
Wayne quickly returned to the tree to see a few of those beasts crawling out of the holes to see what was going on.
[Toerrential Spikes]
Wayne used his ability to pierce a cluster of them while they were all out inspecting the noise. The few that got hit and didn't die instantly shrieked in pain while the others scattered and crawled back into their holes.
Wayne climbed up the tree again to jump and make the small crack on the ground even bigger. He did this three more times until the last time he punched through the ground, now free falling, he could hear the hissing of the beasts around him. The little light he could see was from the hole he had opened up.
[Black Flame]
He used the flames to slow his fall as he headed to the bottom, scorching the surrounding area before he safely landed on the floor.
He quickly looked around to see his surroundings, he was in a large cylindrical hole, on the walls were these tiny holes, while straight in front of Wayne was a larger hole going down diagonally. Wayne looked down the hole and saw a faint light but nothing that made the bottom visible.
[Death Smoke][Shadow Stealth]
Wayne figured if he would go down the hole, he should see what was going on first. As he slid down the hole, the hissing noises that he had heard before was replaced by a deep bellowing of rhythmic breathing. As the tunnel ended for Wayne, he was in a dark room and now could see where the faint light was coming from.
He turned towards the light, but before he could figure out what the light source was, he saw, laid in front of it was a three-meter snake-like beast that was coiled up sleeping. It looked like the smaller ones that were outside, red with fangs that protruded outside its mouth. Wayne tried to creep slowly as possible towards the creature, but by the time he took his first step, the beast had awoken and sprung up to see where the presence came from.
The beast couldn't see Wayne since he was using his ability, but the beast stared intently at the spot where Wayne was standing. Wayne didn't dare move an inch as he stared back at the beast. The room slowly started gathering in the smoke, which the snake noticed as it looked around as it has never seen this smoke before and then looked back at the spot Wayne was at and hissed loudly while lunging an attack with his mouth ajar.
"Oh shit."
Wayne quickly jumped out of the way, and the beast quickly followed, Wayne deactivated his [Shadow Stealth] since it seemed like it wasn't working. When the beast saw this, it hissed even louder in annoyance at trying to be tricked.
Wayne took a deep breath, prepared to use his fire, but the snake's tail slapped Wayne across his body, slamming him into the wall. The beast didn't let up as the smoke was starting to sting, and it knew that he was the person behind it.
[Shadow Void]
Wayne didn't have time to jump out of the way as he was still trying to recover from the hit. He appeared at the beast's side and tried to take another deep breath but then ended up coughing because his lungs were still trying to recover.
The snake quickly turned around and looked at Wayne in surprise, and quickly went to attack. Wayne ran and dodged the initial attack, he then saw the tail coming for him again, so he grasped on with both hands while taking the impact. This time he didn't fly away into the wall but held on to it's tail.
Wayne prepared himself and tried to attack again.
[Dark Flame]
Wayne burned off the snake's tail while the snake hissed in pain, the spot Wayne burnt was already sensitive from the smoke, but the added heat made the pain unbearable.
The smoke was now going into the snake's opened wound and quickly started decaying his insides. The snake wreathed in pain while slithering in madness for a couple of seconds before it stopped with blood leaking out onto the floor.
Wayne gasped for air with his hands on his knees, after a few moments, he stood up and looked at the snake.
"I need to go hunting for more abilities," Wayne mumbled to himself.
He then turned to look at what the snake was essentially guarding, when he looked, it was a golden liquid slime. Wayne was confused about what it was, but before he could ask any questions, the VR disconnected, and Rocky was in front of him when the helmet came off.
"That looked like a tough one," Rocky said as she helped Wayne out of his chair.
"Yeah," he said as he sighed.
"It's alright, at least you passed it and now have a chance at Level 9," Duggar said as he walked towards Wayne.
"Yeah, I think I'm done for the day," Wayne said as he started stretching.
"Alright, well, get some rest."
"Aren't you going to try Level 8?"
"Sure, why not," Duggar said as he sat down in the chair.
Wayne and Rocky walked to the computer console and watched Duggar go through Level 8 more easily than Wayne.
"Yeah, I definitely need to get stronger," Wayne said inwardly as he watched Duggar on the screen.
After Duggar completed Level 8, Wayne went to the hotel and slept for most of the next day.
The day finally had approached when Duggar was going to meet Daylight, so everyone was gathered in the rec room per usual.
"How do you think it's going to go?" Mystic asked to break the silence, everyone in the room was quiet, waiting for Duggar to return.
"I think the heroes are going to take over the investigation and probably take the credit for finding out about this as well," Akuma said with his back against the wall and eyes closed.
"Really? I'm guessing they've done something like that before?" Wayne asked
"Yeah, once you're here long enough, you'll start to see the bullshit that goes on around here," Nina said with a tired smirk.
"Well, if it turns out to be better than that, ill be beyond shocked," Mystic said as he flopped on the couch.
The room remained quiet, an hour later, Duggar came in with sweat on his forehead and a nervous smile. Everybody focused on Duggar's condition and waited for an answer, but he just stood by the door as if he was frozen.
"So? Spill it, don't keep us in suspense," Mystic said as that was what everyone else was thinking in the room.
Duggar slightly snapped out of it and looked at everyone
"He said that they would like to meet us all."
"Excuse me?"
"What?!"
"Whose they?!"
Everyone was shocked, they couldn't believe what was coming from Duggar's mouth.
"Yeah, he apparently told his peers, and they said they wanted to meet us all."
Everyone now understood Duggar's condition and started getting a cold sweat on their back.
"We're not in trouble or anything, it's just that they want to hear each of our recounts," Duggar explained.
Wayne was more than nervous, "Would my father recognize me?" that was the only thought running through his head when Duggar said the Seventh Circle wanted to meet them.