Chapter 353: Increased difficulty

The biggest issue in the system mission he had chosen to accomplish was the distinct difference between fright and rage.

Fright was the fear of someone, while rage could be compared to hatred.

If Shane were to fight and defeat someone in an overwhelming manner, it is more likely to end up with the opposite side fearing him.

He had to find the right balance between provoking his opponents and overpowering them to a certain extent.

This was easier said than done and Shane could tell that he was not the best at holding back.

Now that two weeks had passed on the fourth floor, Shane had encountered the first group of opponents.

He had been walking around the forest for quite some time all by himself and it was not difficult to tell that he was extremely confident in his own strength.

Shane's aura released dense currents of mana, which everyone around was able to perceive as if he wanted to attract someone's attention.

However, that was not the case because he was trying to attract not one but all dungeon challengers in his proximity and provoke them.

Shane had told Princess Ilya to look for other opponents or do whatever she pleased for the next few days because he didn't want her to be misunderstood as the person provoking everyone.

He alone required all the attention.

Other than that, Umbra and Cosmo were inside the Hidden Paradise playing around and resting.

Being alone was the easiest and Shane would only summon Cosmo if he would find himself in a sticky situation where he would be unable to flee from the clutches of groups that were too strong for him to handle alone.

Having attracted his first opponents, Shane's hands itched to fight them.

The third floor's dangers might have been high, but contrary to his expectations there weren't many difficult fights to overcome.

This was different on the fourth floor where everything would be much more dangerous, which was exactly what Shane had been longing for the past two weeks.

His opponents were not too dangerous based on their looks and released mana currents.

As such, Shane decided to not go all in. 

Nevertheless, he had to show off his strength and provoke them, maybe even sound off-putting.

"Do you guys seriously believe that your puny strength will be enough to handle me? Even chickens would be stronger than y'all, together!!"

While he said everything in a mocking tone that was supposed to enrage his opponents, Shane observed their body language up to a perfect angle.

In the end, he didn't really have to defeat his opponents, and being the reason for their rage was more than enough.

As such, Shane tried to figure out if simple provocations were enough to enrage his opponents, which would change his system mission's progress bar for some time.

After the first few provocations, the progression bar of the system mission seemed to move, and Shane began to understand what exactly the system determined as 'rage'.

Sometimes it was difficult to understand the system properly, which included certain missions.

However, the <Rage> mission seemed to be perfectly fine.

Yet, what Shane noticed during the fight was that everyone's rage dispersed within seconds.

It was not that his provocations were lame or anything like that.

Rather than that, the group's focus averted to fighting and defeating Shane.

Unfortunately, they didn't know that Shane's combat prowess was not to be underestimated.

His physical strength was already enough to make everyone shudder.

Adding the [Mana membrane(Lesser)] skill that protected him and the [Eagle Eye] skill that increased every aspect of his eyes to his observance and evaluation of minute details from everything around him, made him a perfect meat shield.

But that was exactly what Shane was not!

By exerting the [Light step] movement technique his speed increased drastically, and it was only a moment later that he emerged in front of his first set of opponents.

The Sword of Blood, Mydra was already tightly grasped in his hand and Shane released his bloodlust-killing-intent to envelop his body and Mydra with it.

He was just testing a few things, throwing a glance at the holographic screen that was right next to him once in a while.

Because of that, Shane noticed that the progression bar had decreased to 0 once he had shown his high combat prowess that was the opposite of his foes' expectations.

This forced them to focus on the fight in front of them instead of the rage inside them.

They might have been provoked, but that was less important than their survival.

It was evident that they wouldn't die inside the fourth floor, but being beaten into a pulp was no different in their opinion.

Not only would they be humiliated in front of every other prodigy who was still left inside the fluare tower dungeon, but it was unlikely for them to gather 100 value points again.

They had already worked hard and barely reached the fourth floor without dying or sustaining severe injuries.

As such, they required more points as they had yet to accumulate 100. Because of that, it was more astonishing for Shane to see that they hadn't even looked at his value points that were in the four digits.

Owing to his high value points everyone should know that he had received lots of benefits on the previous floors. That was at least the case if he hadn't attacked someone and deprived them of their points yet.

In the end, all signs pointed out that Shane was not weak which was what he found weird. 

Before anything else, Shane liked to take a good look at his opponent's strength first.

If that was not possible, it meant their mana fluctuations were suppressed or they were too strong!

Only when the opposite group saw his value points and witnessed his strength did they realise that someone extremely strong was standing in front of them.

However, instead of backing off, or running away, they used their utmost efforts to turn the fight into a nightmare for Shane.

The opposite team was fortunate that he was not allowed to kill them because Shane would have done so  100%, had the need arisen.

Slashing, thrusting, and cleaving towards his opponents was possible, but nobody received any major injuries and the damage was drastically reduced.

This was great, but the final result was definitely worse than what he had hoped and expected.

It was unsatisfying, and Shane couldn't help but lament about the increased difficulty his mission had.

Once he finished the battle that was much easier than expected, his progression bar was still at 0.

Even after using several provocations it didn't budge and stayed on zero.

"Does that mean I'll have to provoke 100 people before the fight against them begins, or is it enough to barely defeat them...and maybe take their spatial rings?"

Shane was not sure if that was a good decision, but instead of hesitating, he grasped the spatial rings of his opponents before storing them away.

He thought of himself as a thug, and if truth be told, it was not far from that.

However, sometimes one had to do bad things, in order to achieve what one wanted, and it was not like snatching something from defeated opponents was the worst thing Shane had ever done.

There were definitely worse things!

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