Chapter 55 - Stage 1

"This is great, I can finally let loose again," Yuki said as he finished crushing the skull of another human torch.

When Yuki looked at both his arms, he could see that they had turned completely back from the fire that engulfed the monsters. Even touching them would be too much for the average human. Yuki however had built resistance as he continued to level up. Each level brought an increase to his defense stat as well as his other stats.

"Now where was I.." Yuki said as he stood up from his knees. Under him was the monster he had beaten to a bloody pulp. To Yuki it was just a came. It was totally okay to kill the monsters in a video game, people do it all the time. There was no reason for him to be judged for his actions.

Yuki quickly ran to another human torch and put his arm around his neck, putting him in a choke hold. Before the monster could fight back, Yuki pushed the monster to the ground as he brought his knee upward, breaking the monsters back and leaving him immobilized.

[Open inventory]

"The fun never ends. There's an endless stream of these guys. Sorry but there are stronger enemies waiting for me at the next stages," Yuki said as he once again pulled out "Niflheim's holy treasure" as well as a stamina boost potion.

Yuki opened the cap on the potion capsule and drank it all in one go. Once he had done that, he began to focus all of his energy into the sword. The blue transparent sword began to turn cold until it eventually became shrouded in a layer of ice. While the task drained Yuki, he was far from finished.

With both hands grasping on the handle of the sword, Yuki ran once again into the crowd of monsters. Cutting as many as he possibly could at once. Whether it be horizontally, vertically, cutting off the arms or legs, even making uncalculated attacks, as long as the monsters died and disintegrated, that was all that mattered. Yuki was like a demonic lawnmower and the human torches were a group of overgrown grass. No matter how many of them there were, Yuki would cut them down.

On the other side of the battle field. Meurig swiftly punched each human torch in the gut, weakening them before finally placing his palm on their head to disintegrate them. Meurig's method of fighting was a lot more dignified and thought out. There wasn't a moment which got wasted. Even though that was true, it had nearly been 12 hours since they entered the first stage of the dungeon. Each human torch took 1 minute to completely incapacitate. Their defense was the real problem. They could rival someone which attained the level 4. While ideally it would take 10 seconds, if the monsters tried to defend themselves, it would delay the process. Even being an ascended human or monster, it would be insane to be in constant battle for 12 straight hours. They needed to take at least a 5 second break in between. This was no problem as the movement speed of the monsters was extremely slower than Yuki's or Meurig's.

After what seemed like an eternity, the last human torch fell to the ground as Yuki's ice blade struck him through the chest, ending his life. The burned and blooded Yuki stood on the stage, looking at the ceiling, his mind now blank. Breathing heavily as he thought about absolutely nothing. Yuki was completely in the zone.

[100 exp X 500 = 50000 exp]

[25000 exp to Yuki Kaito]

[25000 exp to Meurig]

[Player: Yuki Kaito]

[Level 7: 38500/80000]

[Player: Meurig]

[Level 6: 45000/70000]

Meurig now laid on the ground, completely exhausted, out of breath and only wanted to sleep.

"And this was only the first stage, why did you make this world so difficult?" Meurig asked Yuki, having to take short breaks in between every couple of words.

"I didn't think it would be this exhausting to clear each stage. This is gonna be one annoying journey to get through."

"There are about 20 dungeons in total. With each consisting of 10 stages. There would be 200 stages that we have to clear. Including this stage, we've only gotten through 11 stages. 11 down, only 189 stages left," Yuki said as his voice trailed off when he tried to imagine the unbelievable grind that would come.

Right before Yuki passed out where he was standing, an object fell from the ground.

[Item drop: C-class Orb of fire]

Yuki double tapped on the red orb which was warm to the touch.

[Rank: C]

[Attack: 0]

[Description: Power: An item capable of enchanting a weapon with the flame attribute, while is capable of doing this, its efficiency is lower than higher grade items capable of doing the same. All those who chose the path of evil during their time in the overworld are sentenced to an entire life in the underworld. Those who commit evil deeds are deemed to be either worthy of the pity of Hades, in turn allowed into his domain, or seem as despicable creatures that don't deserve the slightest amount of forgiveness. Even the lord of the underworld sees them as worthless pieces of trash who are merely a waste of space. Those people are left to rot outside the domain. Any attempt to enter will be halted by the guard dog "Cerberus". It is within this area which terrorists and mass murderers serve their sentences.]

As Yuki finished reading the description of the orb, Meurig came up behind him out of curiosity, so he could read it himself.

"It sounds like you would fit right in with them," Meurig said.

"You shouldn't joke about stuff like this," Yuki replied.

"The way you were killing those monsters, my statement wouldn't be a joke," Meurig said.

Yuki shrugged off the comments that Meurig made, it wasn't anything he should be concerned about as the ruler of everything.

[Open inventory]

Yuki returned the sword he had on his hand and pulled out 2 full status recovery potions, handing one of them to Meurig.

"Drink up," Yuki said as he and Meurig open their capsules at the same time. Right as the first drop of the serum made contact with Yuki's stomach, he began to recover. His arms, legs, chest and head all began to return to how they were previously. All the scars and burns Yuki had attained during the battle disappeared. As for Meurig, there were only slight burns on his arms as he was more cautious during the battle, however they were also completely healed.

After they drank their potions, both of them collapsed and fell into deep slumber. While their physical exhaustion may have been healed. The mental fatigue was still too great to deal with without rest.