Chapter 360: Upgrade

Despite being worried, Shane could not think about the possibility of something being fundamentally wrong with the system.

However, even worse was that it felt like both the situation with the malfunctioned system, and the Great Elven war was destined to happen at the same time.

It didn't look like a pure coincidence or anything like that.

As such, Shane's only explanation was that the Dark Ice elven or even the advanced race supporting them had found a loophole within the system.

But that wouldn't make much sense either if the system was as flawless as it had been for eons.

Because of that, the system flaw must have allowed the Dark Ice Elven to figure out something specific!

In the end, he ran out of plausible explanations, and there might be a few different possibilities he didn't know of.

However, the one he had thought about throughout was the most likely.

Shane felt restless because of this which led him to not waste any further time. 

He simply used the two limitation crystals because nobody could see what he was doing, targeting his mana purification manual with a limit of [88%] in addition to the Invincible Scimitar!

Both items manifested in either of his hands before a distinct white light enveloped them.

Only a moment later, he saw the old, but familiar system notification once again.

He estimated that it was his fear, but Shane was extremely relieved after noticing that the system didn't have any further malfunctions!

[Congratulations! Limitation crystals have been used to increase <Mana purification manual [88%]> to a <Mana purification manual [97%]>]

The first message was great and allowed Shane to feel exhilarated, while the Invincible Scimitar's description didn't change much!

____________

[Invincible Scimitar, Ladra] [Tier-2(Tier-3) -Legendary-]

[Infinite Enhancement] Converts the supplied energy to enhance the object's durability, sharpness, mana circulation, mana output [...]

[Endless accumulation] (Passive) absorbs and accumulates the surrounding energy!

____________

The abilities of Ladra had received the prefixes [Infinite] and [Endless] which were essentially the same.

However, knowing what those prefixes truly meant, Shane couldn't help but wonder how strong his Scimitar had become.

Not only its standard durability, sharpness, and speed of mana circulation would be shockingly high, but with both abilities, Shane was confident to defeat literally everyone as long as he had the opportunity and enough accumulated energy to launch a devastating strike!

Shane was only smiling before he learned the mana purification manual with a mana purity of [97%].

The Invincible Scimitar was simply stored away in his spatial ring, and it was only then that he received the notification about the possibility of him entering the 5th Floor.

He nodded towards Princess Ilya, who had been waiting for him in order to advance to the next floor together.

Only a moment later they had disappeared and found themselves in the middle of a simple classroom.

In the front of the classroom, right next to a holographic blackboard, they could see a highly advanced robot talking to the students who were bent over their exam papers.

Shane was baffled when he saw this because it looked exactly like the classroom he had been in his past life.

Yet, instead of ordinary students, he, and Ilya, who had appeared next to him, could see the dungeon challengers working hard to study.

[Fifth floor <Exam> has been entered. In [9H:45M:23S] the |Exam of Honesty & Knowledge| will start! 51% of all answers have to be correct to pass.]

Reading through the notification, Shane couldn't help but frown.

On one hand, he wanted to laugh, but on the other hand, Shane sensed both a sudden threat and a huge opportunity in front of him.

He was not sure what kind of knowledge was being tested, and if it was about the Primordial Dimensions or certain races. The shallow knowledge the human race had gathered in two centuries would be insignificant in front of that of the others.

Nevertheless, Shane just felt that the 5th Floor was a huge opportunity.

It might not be as life-threatening, let alone dangerous in a physical sense, but correctly utilized knowledge could be transformed into power.

Even though his knowledge might not be the best, Shane was sure that he could answer honestly, though he was not sure what kind of questions would make someone lie.

However, when he saw how frightened the dungeon challengers around him were, Shane noticed that he was missing something.

The dungeon notification didn't say what would happen if they were to fail. As such, they should be simply expelled from the dungeon, nothing else.

It was only when the humanoid robot in front of them spoke to both Shane and Princess Ilya that he could comprehend what was going on.

[Living being 'Human' and 'Elus' sit down and learn! Being too late will be excused one time, being too lazy to study won't! The punishment for being lazy will bring pain, and not listening to my orders will bring forth even more pain!]

Hearing this, Shane frowned before he turned around to look for a free seat.

Ilya had already found one right next to her, leaving Shane alone.

As such, he could only rush to the free seat in the back as he sensed something shooting towards him.

Only a moment later, his entire body froze as tremendously strong electric currents swept through his entire body.

Shane could only curse inwardly, as the taser the robot had shot out of his arm was retracted.

[Warning number 1! 'Human' has five seconds left to find his seat before warning number 2 will be issued!]

Unable to move, Shane had to circulate mana through his body to forcefully overcome the numbing paralyzation that had hit him.

He was not even strong enough to move properly after a few seconds and had to crawl towards the free seat that was still several meters away from him.

Just like that, five seconds had passed and the second, more intense warning was issued.

Shane's body writhed in pain as he began to curse the human robot in his mind.

Yet, instead of saying anything, Shane was just circulating mana through his body, lessening the paralyzation effect while focussing on ensuring movement.

This allowed him to crawl towards the free seat only a second after the robot announced the third warning that would follow five seconds later.

He crawled towards the seat in the back as if his life was depending on it, however, just a moment before he reached the seat, Shane perceived that the third warning was issued.

For a moment, he felt that the electric current that would hit him this time would be far worse. 

However, instead of being hit by the taser or anything similar, Shane's body was lifted and placed on top of the chair that was less than a meter away.

Shane could barely see anything through his eyes that had turned blurry for a moment.

Yet, what he perceived were the outlines of someone familiar, someone he had encountered before.

"Are you Oran?" Shane asked, only to notice that his mouth had turned dry making his words sound like utter gibberish.

A few moments later, the dizziness left him, and he saw the prodigy from the Misyr race, he and Ilya had defeated only a few days before.

He was faintly smiling at Shane before his expression turned serious.

"Next time, I will defeat you! I was not perfectly prepared...I shouldn't have underestimated you, just because of your low mana purity. That was my mistake. It was obvious that someone with 21,000 value points couldn't be easy to defeat!!

Let's fight fair and square next time!!" 

Shane was astonished that Oran had helped him, even more so that the young prodigy didn't hold any grudges against Shane due to his defeat.

Most prodigies were too full of themselves and thought they were the real deal, ignorant to true strength.

Oran was not like this, and Shane just thanked him before he turned his attention to the sheets in front of him.

Those were the papers he could use to study which was his forte!

Thus, the countdown ended after a long learning session before the real exam started.

There was no break in between, and the papers he had studied with began to transform into the exam papers.

Shane felt that he was prepared to ace the exam, but the first question immediately wiped off the smile from his face.

[What is the reason for the administrator to create the system and Primordial dimensions?](Assumption)

__________________

W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx

[If you like the novel, please support the Author with your Golden ticket]

__________________