It's wet and cold, the atmosphere is dark and gloomy, there's a faint smell of blood. The moss partially falling from the Brick walls. I take a step forward. "splash" as my foot sinks into something, I look down, my foot covered in blood and guts I look towards the floor as I discover a deceased body where I had just stepped. Its face concealed by the dirty water, I don't want to look at who's body I had just walked into, I take my following step. This time watching the floor making sure I don't walk into someone else. Walking down the dark hall, covered in glyphs and old runic wording, the kind you found in fictional novels. The old, yellowish brick falling from the wall, enveloping a room next door. The room bears a torch lit up on the wall lighting the room with a dim flame offering me a faint light. Finally able to see, I make my way through the wall and grab the torch. Utilizing it to light up my path. Walking past multiple bodies, which all of their heads have been ripped off or covered, almost as if intended to be unable to see. I continue down the hall for about 30 minutes. I continue seeing the same runes over and over again, unable to decipher them. I neglect them, about another 15-minutes go by and again nothing changes except the runes. They keep changing, some words turning into phrases and letters. "Hollow, fear, matter, time" these are words that appear repeatedly without stopping, again the runes turning into words. Different ones this time "pain, tears, ache" continuing to change. I stop and analyze the message, time and time again different runes turning into different words. Each wall is the same message with different words that have been deciphered. Each section of a wall has the same meaning, however the further you go down the hall the more words that have been deciphered. However, each wall deciphers various words. Each wall has about 3 - 5 different words that have been deciphered. Until I approach the end of the hall. At the end of the hall, the initial runic message that had been written is back to its primitive form. I begin taking notes on the final wall, replacing the runes with the words deciphered on the other sections of the wall until it is completely deciphered. I've been working on this for a few hours now, running back and forth not knowing how much time has passed. Trying to decipher the message as fast as possible. "Fear, Pain, help", these three words are the ones that show up most frequently. " Over and over again." After many hours of work, non-stop, I finally finished the deciphering of the message.
"Since the first sunrise, our presence has persisted, enduring unfathomable tribulations daily, locked in a ceaseless battle against nameless gods. They dispatch mythical entities to annihilate us, to erase our existence from time and space, wielding powers beyond comprehension. Until one day, mercy found us, giving strength, and soon hope followed suit. Yet even amidst this newfound power, the familiar whisper of death lingered close, brushing against our ears. Since that day of hope amidst despair, this chosen power, your power, endures across generations. Time halts, replaying its cycle, staining the ground repeatedly with the blood of the chosen. Numerous bodies, identical souls; varied battles, yet the same outcome. If you read these words, you are the chosen. I have but one message: endure, etch your name into history. You may not be the first, but you wield the power to be the last. Below lies a number, a ticking countdown to our final chance, our ultimate life. If these words find you it signifies only one thing... You are the last line of defense... The final bearer of hope. Here is my message. Bearer of the final flame, may luck embrace your journey, for you stand as the last sentinel. Bearing the world's burden upon your shoulders. Embrace the echoes of the past, for within you lies an army, each soul within you a legendary hero, breaking the rules of space and time to fight once more. Help and free our world from this unbearable war, release us... your people from this gruesome war."
Remaining attempts: 1
I am the last one remaining, before me is either the end or the beginning to a new world. Only time will tell which one I will bring to this world.
It's been 12 hours since entering the dungeon and yet I'm untired. I stand in front of the deciphered message for a bit and think about what to do next. I have no idea what this message means, all I know is that if I die, the world ends. If I live, the world continues. I hear a whimpering noise coming from down the hall. I run towards it as fast as I can. Running past more and more bodies, the further I make it the more bodies I find, until the noise stops. I stand still without noticing the hall has changed from a small hollow pathway to a darker, wider, hole. I cannot see a single wall. Nothing but bodies around me, nothing but silence. I've had enough of these bodies. I go towards the closest body and reach down to pick him up as I graze him I fall to the ground, dazed, I pass out. I find myself in a different place, an altered world. Yet it feels so familiar, in front of me is the same body that was in the tunnel. With the exact same clothes he's fighting, he's considerably stronger than I am, Slashing and bashing against monsters I've never seen before. Butchering them endlessly, all by himself, he's defeating monsters with ease. I can sense his strength through the waves caused from the after shock of his attacks. He's getting fatigued, endlessly fighting he gets his head cut off from behind. As his head hits the floor I wake up. And find myself in the tunnel yet again, the body in front of me disappears. Confused, I discover another body, this time, a girl. I touch her, yet again, I fall to the ground in a daze. And wake up in an entirely separate world, this time instead of fighting multiple monsters there's only one of them. Again stronger than me, she fights the monster in front of her with her overwhelming strength sending shockwaves knocking me back. However, despite her strength she gets slain mercilessly and I wake up. Same thing, her body disappears. I disturb another body, and another one, without stopping until all the bodies have disappeared. Every single person I touch is overwhelmingly strong with various abilities. Varying from super strength to extremely keen paranormal abilities, like controlling thunder and many other elements. But the sole thing I can't seem to wrap around my head. Why is it that these people are so strong yet still died? Over and over again. By witnessing these fights, I've grasped many things, like the most convenient way to slay certain monsters. Furthermore, I've in addition gathered that every single person I just watched die, decided on a similar goal. The same as mine, saving the world and timelines from the monsters coming out from the portals. However, even after having fought thousands and thousands of times they have up until now failed without stopping, in different timelines they have fallen. The same soul in various bodies with unique abilities, never repeating themselves, and yet they were incapable of achieving a thing with their overwhelming strength. At that same moment, I received a message composed in blue. "You are above all else, do not fail us, as you are the final chosen one, utilize your unique skill wisely. For not you shall regret it. You are far too weak at the moment, as a reward for your current bravery we have decided to give you an evolved skill. Its current rank shall not change however, do not worry, its potential is much stronger than any previous skill. Matter manipulation... It grants you the power to dominate over everything that contains a mass. You are able to control planets and even atoms, all that can be seen is in your hands. Do not fail." As the voice leaves a wretched hole produced from dark matter is coming towards me, pushing and gathering everything in its path. Making its way in front of me, I stick my hand out as it jerks me in. I pass out from the pressure and wake up in a room, the walls plastered with torches lighting up the room. In the middle of the room, there is a timer, with a message below it.
5 hours and 59 minutes remaining
You have 6 hours, learn and master your new power. If you would like you can use command "Open" doing so will reveal a setting which will allow you to summon monsters of your choice. If you die in this room. You die in the real world, however as a reward for your risk, if you slay the monsters in this room they will give 1.5 times the exp that you would receive in the real world. Your time starts now. Once the 6 hours go by you will be teleported to the real world. Good luck
The first thing I do is construct a quick plan. For the first hour I will learn about my new skill and practice with it. The following 4:50 hours I will slay monsters without stopping to maximize the exp I receive, and finally the last 10 minutes I will prepare to fight the monsters I left behind. I begin by opening my status window and refer to the skill description. As the voice told me I can manipulate and do what I desire with anything that is matter. So pretty much everything in the world. From oxygen to rocks and many other things. This also means I can still heat up and cooldown matter that I control. I am capable of doing whatever I want with matter. My ability to control things is infinite. The first thing I do is take my shirt off and hurl it in the air and use my matter manipulation ability to make it levitate. My shirt then slowly falls down, Of course this is going to take a minute to get good at using. I pick up my shirt and repeat. Over and over again until I can make my shirt levitate for five seconds before dropping it. I successfully do so after only a few minutes. Fortunately I have my adaptation and evolution skill that aids me to learn faster than the average person. Without my unique skill it would have taken considerably longer. The next thing i practice is shredding, what I mean by that is that I will Increase the speed that matter travels at to shred the shirt, in short I am pretending to rip a shirt from far. I am imagining I have one hand on each side of the shirt and use a tearing motion to rend it apart. The sole difference is that my hands aren't touching the shirt. I levitate my shirt once again and place it on the other side of the room, and prepare my attack. I initially do the same thing I did to levitate my shirt at the bottom of my shirt and attempt to cleave it. As one might expect, it doesn't work. However, as I did for my levitation ability, I keep replicating the process over and over until I am capable of achieving my goal. 5 minutes went by, and I successfully ripped the bottom of my shirt, successfully turning it into two pieces. I attempt trimming the smaller piece; I successfully do so as I presently have three parts to my shirt. I now attempt cutting the shirt more than once at a time, as if I was adding two more hands. To attempt and tear it at various places simultaneously, a few tries in and I once again was able to do it because of my ability to adapt and learn. Continuously trying to tear my shirt into little pieces, each time I cut, the next time I try and include another cut until the shirt is shredded into little pieces. For now I decide to stick to these two skills and merely repeat them; I use the walls as my target. Attempting to cut as deep and big as possible. Each time I cut the wall, my following slash is stronger. Over and over again without stopping I keep cutting the wall over and over again, going from minor and shallow cuts to cuts that cover the wall with a single attack. Slashing across the entire wall in an oblique line. Furthermore, each slash goes deeper and deeper. Beginning from a single centimeter going all the way to an inch. And again going deeper and deeper each time, I slash. For my levitation skill I operate the open setting to summon some goblins, so I can practice lifting heavier objects and hurling them to the floor. By doing so I realize I can in addition use my levitation ability to control gravity, making it lighter for me and heavier for the enemy. I also try to learn to make an area half light and the other heavy so I can use it in close combat to make it harder for my opponents to move, due to the increase in gravity. I resume my levitation practice by summoning more and more goblins, making it heavier and being able to levitate more than one thing at a time. Making the skill more useful. Each time I summon a monster, I pick them up and slam them to the floor. And into the ceiling over and over again until they die. My one hour goes by, and I've gotten used to my skills and decide to open my summon setting, I look over a few of the monsters I can summon and notice that I am able to see their stats and rank. By doing so I can decide how strong I want my opponent. For example, trolls are d rank, whereas orcs are C rank. Since my current rank is B rank, I decide to summon trolls since including the fact that my stat rank is E I am pretty weak compared to them. If we aren't involving my SS rank skill that is, Since it's not a combat skill. My overall rank is about D rank. Therefore, trolls are the best opponent to start with. My goal is to be able to dominate the Orcs by the end of the 5 remaining hours. In the first hour after fighting trolls, I am already capable of fighting a dozen of them at the same time. Mastering my new skill matter manipulation, I am capable of destroying them by tearing them to shreds making their bodies disappear. Or if I want, I can concentrate solely on squashing them to the ground. Crushing their bodies. Or if I'd like I can cleave them apart by jerking them apart. With this new power I can control everything, I control what I want, how I want. If my mana increases enough I will be capable of controlling everything and everyone at my will. Nothing can halt my growth... I Am Absolute.
Hour 2
I am capable of summoning a maximum of 299 monsters at a time. Since that is what the limited space allows. Five seconds. That's all I need to melt their bodies away. Likewise, if I want, I am capable of freezing them into place and shattering their frozen bodies like a small icicle falling from a rooftop. My powers are limitless. The only thing restraining me is my mind and body. If I so much as desire it I can tear all their bodies apart. If I wish to cut out the oxygen in the air, I can, if I'd like, I can control the earth to send spikes into their hearts. With my power, I can be anything. Lack of creativity is my only weakness.
Hour 3
I moved on to the Orcs starting off with just one, testing out their strengths. Compared to the slim Trolls, the Orcs are much tougher. Imagining I need 30 mana to tear Trolls apart I would need at least triple that amount for the orcs. Yet again these monsters fall before me as I desire it. 30 minutes have gone by, and I can barely gain a level from killing all 299 orcs. If I consider the 40 minutes, I wasted killing the trolls over and over again. I've thrown away a lot of potential exp. However, I would like to witness the power of my unique skill. How fast do I learn compared to the norm? How fast do I adapt? What's the limit to the skill? Does it only affect my skills and personal talent? Or does it increase my experience? Is it possible to evolve my unique skill past rank SS? Is there a higher rank limited to my ability? Unique to me? Considering my level before I entered the dungeon I was following the same pace as the others while leveling up. So it's unlikely it affects the speed at which I level up. Since I was capable of learning the speed at which I get used to a skill it's clear that it makes it easier and faster to master skills. So it affects my talent, and because I can evolve the rank of my skills, unlike others it's a given that my skill affects my skills. However, if it's like my main skill which evolved, not its rank but the ability itself. Could it be the same for my unique skill? Could it make it easier to level up? That is what I want to know, I need to know whether I can level up even faster than others.
Skill unlocked
Because of your extended thinking, you were capable of increasing your Adaptation/evolution skill to SSS rank.
You have created an unknown meaning in this world. You created a new rank.
Due to your creation
You have been given a title
"Absolute creator"
Absolute creator:
Increase your intellect stat by 5 %.
Use your great intellect to augment your creativity.
Become a better creator.
Adaptation/Evolution
Rank: SSS
Description: You are capable of becoming better with time. Each time you use a skill it is the equivalent of using it 10x. You are capable of both increasing your rank 10x faster then before, and your personal experience and talent with that skill will also increase. In terms of experience you are now capable of leveling up faster. You can receive five times the exp that others receive.
in a deep voice*
Are you confused?
Are you Proud?
This is the power I have granted you!
Is it not great?
You were nothing, and I turned you into a god!
Do not disappoint.
As I am your creator!
Make me proud of the power I've given you!
Create what you like,
Destroy what you hate.
That is the power I have given you!
The clock is ticking, your death is near, Tik Tok.
I see… A title and a newly created rank. I've received the answer I'm looking for. I no longer need to assess my strength. All that remains is to get stronger. I open the summoning setting and look over my potential enemies. Following the Orcs are Titans at B rank, Imperials at A rank, Dragons at S rank, and lastly Demi-Deities at SS rank. However, I'm worried, a thought that I can't get out of my mind. I created a new rank, and in this world balance is needed, if there is life there is death if there is riches there is poverty. It's like a coin; there are two sides to everything. In this case, one is good, and the other is evil. That's how our world works. A lack of balance leads to weak foundation, causing destruction. Therefore, creating a new rank in my world for the greater good may have also created a rank achievable by the monsters. Having lifted the bar limiting our strengths will in the end lead to casualties of the weak. However, for a little while I am the only mortal who is aware of this new rank therefore I have an advantage until the monsters reach SSS rank. I look once again at the summoning list and notice that with their title and rank comes a profile image, From what I can tell from the image the monster guarding the School is an imperial. And the two humanoid monsters are titans. I have two hours remaining and am currently level 33. After killing all the orcs and reaching level 30 the speed at which I level up has significantly reduced. I can only assume there is a very big difference in strength between the C ranks and B ranks. I've reached my goal of dominating the C rank Orcs. My new goal in the next two hours is to beat at least one imperial. I begin the summon, before me appears the familiar shape of the titan. The split second after summoning the monster I take a step back and attempt to rend it to shreds. Exhausting all of my strength, I am incapable of dealing any damage to the monster. In a split second it strikes me head on, I react by launching it across the room and into the wall opposing me. The monster on the ground slowly stands up with blood leaking from its head. Its male like figure pulls out two short swords. And attacks once again, this time moving from side to side, making it difficult to recognize which side it will attack from. Before it attacks it moves so fast I couldn't see him move, almost as if it had teleported behind me. I turn around and block both short swords by imbuing mana into my weapons and slashing them from the side. I then step back and throw a mana slash towards him, which he blocks. Thankfully he wasn't capable of stopping the full blow, slicing his right shoulder and left hip. I follow the attack with a flurry of slashes, using my matter manipulation skill to cut through his firm skin. Simultaneously imbuing my sword with mana and using my matter manipulation skill I Cut, slash, and shred it. Cutting it over and over again without stopping he falls to the ground and dies. Around his body is a pool of blood with splashes of blood on the walls from the violent flurry of attacks. From this I've received a notification, notifying me of 2 level ups. With the end of the battle, the body disappears through the air. Because of my newly upgraded unique skill my exp received has increased a lot. From killing 299 Orcs to level up once, to merely needing to kill a B rank titan and leveling up two times. I hastily establish all of my stats into both mana and intellect summoning a second Titan, this time recognizing its pattern I quickly attack, cutting its head off in a mere second. Naturally, it's much easier to slay monsters in here since I know exactly where they're going to spawn. Furthermore, I get to attack first since I am aware that they will show up. Whereas in the concrete world I wont possess that advantage. Although that doesn't matter for now since the sole thing, I need to focus on is leveling up and getting stronger. Killing the second titan I only level up once, It's much clearer now, everytime I level up it takes two times more experience then the previous to level up. Meaning it gets harder to level up the higher level I get. This time I summon two titans killing the first one in a mere seconde. Whereas the second titan takes more time, however, it doesn't matter since I am now used to fighting it. It feels as though I've fought it numerous times. In less then a minute I successfully tear his body to shreds ripping its limbs of followed by its head. The most effective strategy for killing the titans, for now, is to weaken there joints and slash them as deep as I can with my swords and matter manipulation and then ripping there weakened limbs off. Since there skin is tough and they have an extremely strong physic they are capable of withstanding all of my power if I attempt and rip them apart before hand. From what I can observe they are equally utilizing mana to strengthen their bodies. Just how I strengthen my sword and body with mana to run faster and hit harder. By weakening them, it makes it easier to slay them in one blow. Once again only leveling up once. I keep summoning only two until i've leveled up enough to slay them without needing to weaken them first, it takes about 45 minutes to do so. My strategy to execute them as fast as possible is to summon three of them, killing the first one by catching it off guard and cutting its head off. I then turn around and shred the second one to pieces, I then strike the last on with my swords. Most of the time they manage to block my attack or mitigate most of the damage, however that doesn't matter, since all I'm looking for is enough time to go by so I can shred the last one to pieces. It usually takes about 5 secondes for me to be able to regain enough mana back to be able to execute it in one blow. Each time I beat the summons it takes less and less mana to eliminate them. Meaning I don't need to wait five seconds to be able to kill them in one blow with my matter manipulation. I've tried a few techniques to try and slay them as fast as possible. Melting them is faster to kill them, however, if their mana is high enough they won't melt it will simply make them really warm. It's the same thing for the cold. Naturally if I use matter manipulation to melt a specific place like their hearts, it will be accelerated if they don't react fast enough. However, the sole issue is it still requires a split second to heat up. If they react fast enough, they can concentrate mana onto that spot and block it.
Therefore, it's overall much easier to just shred them since it's instant. About 20 minutes have gone by, and I am capable of killing five of them simultaneously before I need to wait five seconds to kill another 5. If I summon 10 titans, it takes about 10 seconds to execute all of them. I have 55 minutes left, it takes a lot more time then before to level up, I need to kill at least 500 of them to level up. If I summon 10 titans and it takes 10 seconds to kill them it would require almost 10 minutes to level up, then 20 and after 40. I don't have enough time. If I want to beat the imperial when I get out of here I must level up much more than three times. I summon 20 of them, slaying them over and over again each 5 seconds I kill 5 while doing so I kill as much as I possibly can up close with my mana imbued swords and mana slash. Once again using matter manipulation to shred 10 of them, not to kill them but to weaken them. Running past all of them, finishing them off one by one. Moving so fast they can't keep up. All 10, dead in seconds. Five remain, I concentrate all of my mana into mana slash up close so they can't dodge, two of them get their heads cut off whereas the others are fatally injured. Out of breath I make my last move finishing all 3 of them by slashing them across the chest and cutting their heads off. Out of breath I pant and take a second to recover my breath and go once more. Over and over again, doing the same thing without stopping, Until I can beat all 20 of them without needing a break in between and then I summon an extra 10. Over and over again, I do the same thing without end. Adding 10 each time I don't need to snatch my breath in between fights. 30 minutes, I can summon 100, killing them off and not being out of breath. In the last 30 minutes I realized that each time I'm out of breath, I become less out of breath the next time. It must be due to the adaptation/evolution skill. I keep doing so for another 15 minutes before taking a break. I sit down and look at the progress I've made in the past 45 minutes. I've leveled up five times. Although I wanted to do better I did get more than 3 so it's good enough for now. I'm currently level 40; I pick up my swords and stand up, In a fighting stance I summon the imperial. My heart beating out of my chest, unlike the other monsters I experience flashbacks of the monster. Cold heartedly murdering my school bully in front of me I can't get that image out of my head. I don't want to experience the same fate as him. I want better, I need better. Unlike him… I won't die.