[25:00]
[24:59]
I had no words to explain what I was feeling.
These fucking monsters were geometrically progressing and spawning to fuck me up!
Every minute monsters would spawn. If I killed one, double would spawn in the minute after. And those double would keep spawning every minute if I didn't kill any more monsters.
However, assuming I killed another, then four would spawn every minute.
Killing one monster would result in two monsters spawning. Two would result in four, three in six, four in eight, and this would keep doubling the more I killed them. So, avoiding combat seemed like the best strategy.
Plus, I tested it out.
If I killed more, the monsters spawning would become more diverse.
I had stabbed another slime and thrown it at the Ice Bully. This made the spawn count go to four, and the monsters spawned were a Fire Slime, a Land Gremlin, a Grunt Golem, and a Sky Serpent.
The fucking snakes could fly!
It was even more terrifying than the Ice Bully!
Now no matter what I did, I would have a Sky Serpent spawn every minute!
I was an idiot to have killed a Fire Slime!
I kept running from the monsters and tried to avoid combat. The Land Gremlins were not a problem and neither were the Fire Slimes or the Grunt Golems.
Only the Sky Serpents and the Ice Bully were an issue and against whom I needed to be careful.
I knew that if I killed any more monsters, I was doomed, because then, a Frostbear would spawn as the total number of monsters spawning each minute would go up to 6.
I did some math while running.
Assuming I had the ability to kill all monsters that spawned every minute, by minute 10, 1024 monsters would spawn.
By minute 20: 524,488 monsters will be spawned.
And on the last minute…
The total number of monsters will be 230-1 = 229
2 to the power 29 equaled 536,870,912.
I would be up against 536 million monsters at the last minute.
There was no space for even a hundred of them! Let alone such a huge number!
Now the strategy I could opt for would be to either kill as many monsters as I could so that they spawn and immediately fall off the edge of the arena or I just defend myself and not kill them.
The latter was going to be really difficult as the serpents were a pain to deal with.
However, with the former there was no guarantee that I wouldn't be the one to fall off the edge.
What if all the spawnings happened from the center?
Honestly, I was more terrified of the Frostbears than anything. This was what kept me from killing more of these monsters.
The chances of no killing until the last minute were low as there were a lot of Land Gremlins, Grunt Golems, and Fire Slimes spawning. If I tripped on any of them, they would be killed.
So, the Frostbear was unavoidable. It would come. It definitely would.
The Ice Bully was the boss with great strength, and the Frostbear may have less strength than that, but it certainly had a lot more strength than me and was also much faster.
I couldn't believe that I would be more terrified of a normal monster than a boss.
Also, there was no guarantee that the next six spawning won't have another Ice Bully in it.
There were far too many uncertainties, and as minutes passed, I realized just how vulnerable I was.
The misfortune card was truly the biggest curse of my life. I could die at any given moment due to it.
In my past life, I was protected because I didn't move around much. However, by the end, I had gotten so addicted to porn that it was what ended up killing me.
I did not even realize that I was addicted at that time.
There were many ways in which I could die in this world.
Due to me, my family would be implicated as well. The major reason for not accepting the lady as my mother was this.
I had only just met her, but the care she had for me was so much that… I did not want to see such a gentle woman dying due to my misfortune.
If my misfortune was limited to me, it wouldn't have been a problem.
But sadly, it was not.
I was destined to be forever alone, and I do not have it in me to be selfish and get together with that sweet lady and become a part of the family. I would end up killing them all, and I absolutely did not want that.
Sigh…
The monsters that were spawning seemed less worrying when I thought of all this.
After this tutorial was over, I would run far away from the lady and never see her. This way she'll be safe.
Yes. This was the best thing I could do.
Or perhaps…
What if I actually died?
A shiver ran through my spine when I thought about this. What was I even thinking?
I hit a Sky Serpent flying at me with the flat of my sword and ran away from the Ice Bully and the rest of the monster.
I tried to avoid this thought creeping up in my mind, but eventually I couldn't and continued thinking,
What if I died?
If I died, I would probably go to Limbo again.
Like how the goddess lady had approached me, someone else might approach me again or worse yet, kidnap me and enslave me or refine me into the misfortune card.
If I'm refined into a card, I would be tossed from one hand to another for eternity and never get a chance to fight back.
This was honestly so scary that I didn't even want to think about it.
In the end, the conclusion was that dying wasn't an option for me.
I could die very easily due to the misfortune, but I had to protect myself from dying.
The Tower had endless resources. There definitely could be something that would allow me to resurrect or revive from the dead.
Once this tutorial was over, I would immediately go in search of that.
I also needed an endless supply of Essence if I wanted to use any card that I desired.
Essence and resurrection. These would be my two main points of focus when I am out of this trial.
[20:55]
The thoughts I had made passing time a bit easier. However, there were still twenty minutes left.
The arena was starting to fill up and I was running out of space to run. The Ice Bully would catch me up and rip apart if any more monsters were spawned.
Strategy had to be changed.
Monsters won't stop from spawning, and I noticed that they were indeed spawning in the middle of the arena and not randomly anywhere.
I had to take control of the middle while ensuring the Ice Bully was at the edge.
I made up my mind to do this no matter how much I would come to regret it. I anyway did not have much of a choice, and given my streak of bad luck, I would die sooner or later if I didn't do anything.
Thus, I checked the timer and ran to the edge.
[20:37]
I kept running at the edge until it was close to 20:00 and when only ten seconds were left, I kicked as many Grunt Golems as I could and stomped on the Fire Slimes while slashing the Land Gremlins and Sky Serpents that came at me.
I lost count after 15, and now… there should be 34+ monsters spawning.
[20:00]
[19:59]
As I had thought, the Frostbears were indeed there. However, with how cluttered it all was, they fell down and crushed some other monsters.
There was thankfully no Ice Bully, so it was all good.
The Frostbears charged at me at full speed, but everytime they neared me, I would go close to the Ice Bully for cover.
If they hit the Ice Bully, it would fight back and rip them apart.
I killed as many monsters as I could in this minute and kept running. The number was more than twenty this time around.
The number of monsters that would spawn this time were too much. There wasn't enough space and the monsters at the edge were definitely going to be thrown out.
I made a run towards the middle and stayed there, slashing at whatever monsters came at me.
I drank a stamina elixir because I was out of gas, and felt rejuvenated.
Honestly, I think I could go five more minutes with this elixir.
I had two more left, so I had enough to survive this onslaught, I think.
The monsters that spawned this time fell atop the other monsters and a big mess was made.
There were many Frostbears but there were also Fire Slimes. They burnt those bears and the bears actively distanced themselves from these slimes.
The Ice Bully was obstructed by the Grunt Golems, Land Gremlins, and the Frostbears and couldn't reach the center.
And thus, my strategy seemed to have worked as I stayed in the middle and kept slashing like a lunatic.
I did get bitten by the serpents and Land Gremlins. The slimes were also crawling towards me to hurt me, but I persisted and didn't give up.
The minute after, there were so many monsters that I didn't need to do anything.
I just sat down cross-legged and buried myself within a mountain of Land Gremlins.
I would stab Fire Slimes if they came near me, and with that…
I successfully averted the misfortune that came crashing down on me.
[00:03]
[00:02]
[00:01]
[Ding!]
[Secret Quest — The Abyssal Trial complete!]