Clyde went into his room and locked the door. He felt quite tired after coming back.
The task he had to do turned out to be quite hard.
Whereas previously Clyde had never imagined that he would feel tired when all of his Stats had been maxed out.
But apparently, those three Wendigos of various colors were giving him such a hard time. Coupled with killing 1000 Wendigo.
Clyde took off his Dark Night Coat and flopped down on his bed. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments, then sighed.
"Easy Mode? If Easy Mode is like this, what if I chose to do it in Hard Mode at that time?"
Clyde snorted, then chuckled. If he chooses Hard Mode, he doesn't know whether the difficulties he will experience are the same as when he goes through this apocalypse like an ordinary person, or goes through it with even higher difficulties.
Just imagining it made Clyde's tiredness go up several times. So he didn't want to think about it anymore and closed his eyes.
He needed to recover his stamina and Magic Power. After all, the BOSS monsters that Agatha would take out would be at their proper level and strength.
'I do hope so. But Agatha said that it was still quite difficult for her. So, how strong the BOSS monster is still unknown.'
Clyde only hopes that Agatha succeeds in setting this apocalypse - Selection Stage - to return to its initial settings. That way, he could allow the rest of the group members to kill the BOSS and gain Exp.
~~~
The white-haired man behind the table stared at Luccio with a stiff face.
That face full of wrinkles - but still exuding extraordinary charisma - was the face of the leader of all World Masters. A man who has seen much in many worlds, Luther.
"You want to add more security to your current Selection Stage System?" Luther asked with a look of disbelief. "You know that's impossible other than by buying a new System."
"I know there is another way, Chief," Luccio replied.
Luther didn't change his expression and kept looking at Luccio with the same eyes.
"Please lend me the Guardians," Luccio said.
Luther shook his head. "No. I can't do that."
"Chief, like I told you before. Celestials are going in and out and interfering with my Selection Stage process! As a World Master, you should understand how I feel."
"You know how Celestials are. They always underestimate us. That's why we have a Selection Stage System to prevent them from doing that," Luther said calmly.
Luccio slumped back in his seat. "You know I don't have enough funds to buy a good System."
"And whose fault was it?" Luther shot back.
Luccio could only remain silent and gritted his teeth.
"Listen," Luther said. "I know how you feel. But right now there is conflict in the Far East. The Guardians are on guard there for the worst-case scenario."
"But until now nothing happened, right?" Luccio said. "I need them more now, Chief."
Luther sighed. Luccio is a very talented World Master and always shows great results.
But because of the mistake he made at that time, he lost a lot of Tokens to a Demon King and ended up only being able to buy a very bad Selection Stage System.
Luccio is smart. But sometimes his greed traps him in bad situations.
"I can give them to you now. However, if I notice the slightest hint of dangerous movement in the Far East, I will immediately withdraw them," Luther said.
Suddenly a smile appeared on Luccio's face. "Thank you, Chief."
"Is there a reason why you want to protect your Selection Stage so badly from the Celestials?" Luther asked with eyes full of curiosity at Luccio.
Luccio took longer than he thought to answer. Making Luther's curiosity even greater.
"I just want to protect my pride as a World Master, sir," Luccio replied. "Do we as World Masters need another reason to prevent those Celestials from acting as they please?"
Luther did not say anything to reply to his words. He just stared at Luccio with the same eyes.
"Alright, I won't bother you for too long." Luccio stood up from the chair. "I'll take my leave right now. I thank you once again, Chief Luther."
Luccio bowed respectfully to Luther.
"Hm, yeah. You may leave now. But remember, I will immediately call the Guardians over when I see things getting the slightest bit dangerous in the Far East."
"I understand, Chief," Luccio replied.
After seeing Luther nod, Luccio turned and walked towards the exit. Luther was certainly not stupid.
Luccio wouldn't act until he had come this far and asked him to deploy the Guardians if there wasn't something very important on his Selection Stage.
"Did he find a good Player again?" Luther muttered with a confused look on his face.
Then he snorted. "That kid has always been ambitious. I hope he doesn't make the same mistake."
~~~
The BOSS appeared at the time promised by Agatha. Clyde wakes up with the usual loud alarm sounds that herald the appearance of a BOSS.
Clyde felt very heavy leaving the arms of his bed. This felt like the old time when he still felt too lazy to go to school on cold mornings. Or the morning after he stayed up all night playing games.
But not like before when he could choose to just skip classes. Now if he didn't wake up, he would suffer immeasurable losses.
Even though he was sure that he wouldn't die, sleeping while a BOSS monster appeared was just stupid.
So Clyde forced his body to get up. After sleeping for a few hours, Clyde felt that his body had become much better.
He also felt that the Magic Power within him had recovered.
After finishing stretching, Clyde put his Dark Night Coat back on - which was torn at the arm - and took out the Elderglass Sword.
Clyde stared at the sword. "Do I have to upgrade this sword now?"
But Clyde thought again, considering the performance of this sword during the time he fought against three Wendigos of different colors, and killed 1000 Wendigos, he didn't feel the sharpness of this sword diminish one bit.
"Maybe I can do it some other time." Clyde shrugged and put the Elderglass Sword at his waist. After that, he left the room.
Outside, all of his group members were already standing with stiff faces filled with anxiety while staring outside. As soon as he came out of the room, everyone immediately stared at him.
"Are you alright?" Asqa immediately asked with a worried face.
Clyde nodded. "I'm alright. You don't need to worry."
"Where exactly were you?" Sonya asked.
"I'm hunting Wendigos and trying to do something to bring this apocalypse back to its original setting," said Clyde.
After he said that everyone looked at him with confused faces.
"You don't need to know the details. It's up to you if you feel suspicious or whatever.
But I did try to return the apocalypse settings to their original settings so that everything would be easier for you," Clyde explained in an even tone. Doesn't seem to care what they think of him.
"So... are the settings back now?" Mona asked again.
Clyde sighed. "I hope so. Although, actually I'm still not sure."
'Agatha just said that she would try and she also said that it would be quite difficult.'
"Whatever it is, it's no use being here now," Rodney said. "In the end we have to fight and kill that BOSS, right?"
They all agreed with Rodney's words. So they went out feeling anxious.
[ CHAPTER 1: UNBEARABLE HUNGER. ]
[ PROGRESS: A MYSTERIOUS CREATURE HAS APPEARED FROM ANOTHER WORLD. KILL THE CREATURE BEFORE IT DEVOURS EVERYTHING. ]
[ OBJECTIVE: THE MYSTERIOUS CREATURE IS A 'BOSS' BY THE NAME OF 'THE DEVOURER' . KILL THE BOSS TO COMPLETE CHAPTER TWO. ]
A notification appeared before their eyes. Then a black vortex hole appeared in the cloudy afternoon sky.
The already dark sky was now even darker. Apart from that it started raining and the wind was blowing. A storm will come to accompany their fight with the monster.
"That's it..." Reed said through trembling lips.
"You know what it is?" Clyde asked.
"According to the name. It's called The Devourer. A monster that will devour everything if we don't defeat it," Rodney replied.
"How to beat it?" Clyde asked.
"The monster will open its mouth when the time comes. And then, it will expose the most vulnerable part of its body, its heart," Rodney said.
Tentacles emerged from within the black vortex in the sky. Then a strange-looking body appeared.
The monster's body seemed to consist only of black and purplish clumps of tentacles of various sizes that moved rapidly.
There was a large yellow eye above its body. Those eyes also moved like a predator looking for prey.
The size of the monster's body is also quite large. It's so big it could almost swallow a building.
"The monster's mouth is at the bottom of its body," Rodney said. "Unfortunately there is no specific time when it opens its mouth. So, we can only rely on luck."
"GRRRRRHHHH!!!"
The monster let out a deep and terrifying growl. The Growl was so big that it created earthquake-like vibrations that shook buildings.
Once the monsters had fully descended into this world, Clyde walked over ignoring their worried calls.
[ Inspection (Lv. 3) is activated! ]
As soon as Clyde used his Skill, information from the monster appeared immediately.
<<<Monster Information>>>
[ Name: The Devourer. ]
[ Affiliation: Abyss Monsters. ]
[ Level: 40 ]
[ Skill: Devour (Lv.5) ]
[ Stats: Strength (5), Stamina (5), Agility (0), Magic Power (5) ]
[ Weaknesses: - ]
[Affinity: Darkness. ]
[ Rating: A (B-) ]
~~~