The Nests usually had two to three floors, according to the books I read on the topic.
Each floor was harder to conquer than the one before, that's why they needed full, well-balanced teams to raid the Nests.
And I was still a bit surprised that I was able to conquer the first floor of the [HIDDEN NEST] all by myself.
But as I passed through the threshold to the next floor, I felt a different kind of pressure.
The corridor ahead of me was completely empty, except for dozens of rusted armors standing in line, with their backs to the walls.
It was like someone had used them for decoration purposes.
There weren't any torches illuminating the place. Instead, regular braziers hanging on the ceiling cast an eerie light upon the armors and the walls.
But I didn't feel any presence ahead of me, and since I had [SHADOW WALK] on, I took that opportunity to test something out.
I took a pair of gauntlets and a breast plate from one of the armors, and it weighted really heavy when I put them on.
'Okay, that should do for a while.' I thought, and started to run, with my quest window open, so I could check on my progress.
[DAILY QUEST: THE STRONGER SELF]
[REQUIREMENTS:
RUNNING WITH WEIGHTS 0/10KM
SIT-UPS 100/50
PUSH-UPS 100/50
SPARRING 0/10MIN]
[REWARD: ???]
[PENALTY: LEVEL DECRESAL]
As I thought, all the exercises I did before were there, one hundred of each.
What kind of reward would I get if I surpassed all goals?
With that thought in mind, I started to run as fast as I could with the weight of the breast plate and the gauntlets I had on.
I didn't follow a fast pace, because I had to conserve as much stamina as possible for the fights ahead.
Even though I couldn't see a single beast on my way to the end of that floor.
'It looks too easy for the second floor of a Nest.'
But then the smell came with the full brunt.
I immediately felt nauseous, and stopped running.
The corridor stopped a few dozens of meters ahead. There was a closed double door, and from inside it I could smell it.
Death.
I didn't need to get in there to know what I would see if I stepped inside.
Corpses.
Countless corpses.
My quest window showed that I ran seven kilometers to get where I was, so it left me with three more kilometers, and the chance to see if a fight with whatever that was inside that room, counted as a spar.
I checked my stats, and saw that I only took four minutes to get there, leaving me twelve more minutes of [SHADOW WALK], so I stepped forward, and opened the door.
It was dark, but I was right.
The smell was even worse on the inside. And the creature that did all that I was witnessing was looking straight at the door.
Straight at me, if I wasn't cloaked with [SHADOW WALK].
It was a vulture-like beast, bigger than me.
Luckily, though, not close to being as big as Tarhuk.
And it was feasting on a...
Human corpse?
It was gruesome to watch.
But what shocked me the most, even more than the smell or the countless bodies all over the floor, what that human corpse.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the one the vulture was feeding on, wasn't the only human corpse in the vast room.
How did they get here?
It was a vast place, and it didn't seem to have walls or a ceiling.
The place was all covered in darkness, despite me being able to see the floor and the dead bodies.
And the beast was just looking at the door, breathing, exhaling something like vapor from the nostrils in its beak.
Somehow, I felt as though it could see me, even though I had [SHADOW WALK].
Was it powerful?
But then I looked over its head, and the name explained everything.
[THE BLIND GUARDIAN: KOTUR'AH - LVL 11]
'You gotta be kidding me...'
So I've been spending mana points until now for nothing?
I unconsciously huffed, and turned [SHADOW WALK] off, frustrated, noticing my mistake right after.
The beast let out a raspy, drawn-out hiss, and opened its wings to take flight.
"NO!"
Shit!
And I watched as the blind guardian of whatever it was, vanished in the darkness, leaving nothing but silence and death below.
I summoned the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] and prepared for anything, because if that thing was as silent and fast as it was big, I would be in trouble if I couldn't think of anything.
But before I could even try to conceive any ideas, I felt what could only be the beast's claws digging into my shoulder.
"ARGH!"
I couldn't think properly because of the pain.
Despite my stats, the bird's claws felt like hot metal against my skin, and the strike lasted no more than a single second, leaving me bleeding, losing HP by the second.
Now that wound was bad, and I had to think quickly, of anything.
I didn't want to die inside that room.
I didn't want to become a part of that disgusting bird's meal.
So I ran, checking my stats window to see how bad I looked.
[STAMINA: 200/245
HP: 150/210
MP: 115/165]
I couldn't hear the damn thing striking, but I could feel the air current right before it rose up again.
'Wait...'
The air current! That's it!
I suddenly stopped, almost tripping over a few carcasses, and quieted all my muscles.
The pain seemed to make everything feel harder to be done, but I focused all I could into that single action.
I'd have to use all my dexterity and agility in the move I was thinking about.
Because I had a split second to accomplish it.
Or die trying.
'All stat points available into [DEXTERITY]!' I ordered the system, in my head.
Suddenly, I felt my muscles sensibly sharper than before, and with the level of perception I had, I tensed my skin and ears, to be able to listen to any changes to the air current around me.
I hoped it would work.
'Please, let it work. Please, please, please!'
I rose my hand, as I felt a slight change to the air in front of me, and summoned [MIDNIGHT BALLAD], that appeared right into my raised hand, and I lowered it with all I had.
I wasn't so strong, but the additional ten points of strength from [MIDNIGHT BALLAD] helped a lot.
And the movement was so swift, I almost felt the air being cut along with the damn bird.
It didn't even have time to squawk, its body cut in half, falling to the ground.
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[CONGRATULATIONS FOR ACHIEVING LVL 15, PLAYER!]
[THE STORE IS NOW OPEN!]
"Okay, but shut up, that was hard..."
But I knew that, if I had at least one more floor ahead, it would become way harder.
But first, I had to take care of that damn wound.