Chapter 17 Skills That Must Be Tested

Hitori looked around himself. He was inside the old broken-down building again. Ruins of pillars and walls everywhere. There were a number of doors to exit the building.

Just as before, players appeared and disappeared, logged in and logged out. They wore all sorts of clothes and all sorts of avatar accessories.

Then his eyes caught a player's avatar who had a simple black hair hairstyle, he wore purple robes. And Glasses that clung to his nose bridge.

"This is the starting point," he spoke to Hitori.

Hitori checked out Kamiya's avatar, "Hm." Hitori hummed.

"Show me your status screen, Hitori,"

"Sure." they both opened their respective status screens.

[Name: God's Hell

Title: Apocalypse Defender

Level twenty-two

Class: Mage

Duo Partner: Ryu]

Hitori raised his head, Kamiya was still busy studying Hitori's stats screen. Hitori causally moved his head away when his eyes again fell on the broken water fountain.

"Looks like you are new,"

"Yes,"

"Tell me more about the dungeon you encountered today,"

"It is a level fifteen dungeon, I cleared all of the floors but lost to the boss,"

"Level fifteen… How much time did it take you?"

"Well… somewhere around three to four hours?"

"With your level…" Kamiya placed his right hand on his chin, "You conquered nine floors on your first try? You are way better than me…"

A smile appeared on his face as he walked up to Kamiya, "It is not about who is better than who, it is about who is willing to be better than who."

Kamiya looked at Hitori with blank expressions, his glasses almost fell.

"Uh… do you want to move forward?" Hitori cracked a smile and pointed towards the dark exit.

"Y- yeah," Kamiya dabbed his glasses back. They both walked towards the dark exit door.

"By the way, if you have been playing since the game was launched," Kamiya hummed, "Then you must have a few dungeons to your name?"

Kamiya stopped, he pulled his middle finger off his glasses' bridge, "Yes, I do." he replied in a cool voice.

They both entered the leveling field that was covered with unclassified creatures.

"Tch, I always hate this part of the game, too much for an apocalypse," Kamiya dug his hand into the side of his robe and grabbed the thick end of his wand.

"What are you doing?" he did not pull his wand but looked at Hitori, "You do not plan on attacking them, do you?"

"Should we not kill them?"

Kamiya was confused. They have to attack them, right? How are they supposed to survive if they do not defend against the monsters?

"Eh, no," Hitori kept his calm expression as he stepped forward, "Stay close to me," he ordered as he walked into the field.

Kamiya was not sure what Hitori was up to; but he guessed, 'Oh, can it be that he is trying to blow the whole area in one shot?' he thought, 'Does he possess such skill? Where did he obtain such a spell?'

A ring of fire appeared in front of Kamiya, he looked around to see that he and Hitori were surrounded by a ring of fire, that left him disappointed.

"What are you doing?" Kamiya finally asked as he could not suppress his curiosity anymore. It got Kamiya suspicious, he had his wand at the ready if anytime Hitori plans to kill him and take all of his drops.

"The monsters would not come near us this way," Hitori explained, "Stay close," Hitori repeated himself. He walked forward, the ring of fire moved forward with him. Kamiya moved after he saw that has no choice but to keep up with Hitori.

"But why are we not just killing them?"

"Cause if you kill them once, you will have to keep killing them till you die or your time ends," Hitori explained his actions, "the aura of a monster you kill will attract other monsters."

Hitori turned his head, "And believe me, there is no end to them,"

Kamiya was dumbfounded, 'Is that the reason why I was stuck in the leveling area for half of the time?'

His level was ten levels higher than Hitori's. Not because he was the best gamer who defeated several high-level enemies and bosses as soon as he stepped into the game.

He had reached level twenty-two by spending most of his time in the leveling area. And when he used to see an opening, he used to escape out in search of a dungeon.

"I bet you know it too, the more monsters you kill, the more monsters shall be attracted to you, that is the algorithm of this game, and that is the same reason why most of the players never manage to get past the leveling area,"

"The point is to avoid combat with these monsters as much as possible?"

"Hm, you know it." Hitori nodded, "No wonder you are a level twenty-two player," Kamiya's mouth twitched.

'I actually…did not.'

"Uhm… right here," Hitori stopped moving, "Here is the dungeon," Kamiya raised his eyes from the ground.

He had hoped that he would see a deep cave with no light inside it. But his expectations were shattered when he saw nothing but monsters around him and Hitori.

"Where?" Kamiya asked Hitori. Hitori did not reply, he smiled at him instead and took a step forward.

Kamiya remembered Hitori's advice to stay close to him, so he took a step forward with Hitori. Kamiya looked around him till the ground beneath him trembled, he almost lost his balance when the ground started to move all of a sudden.

"W- we are going down?" he had never seen an entrance like this. It must be a hidden dungeon, he thought. But again, it was visible on the map.

With Kamiya and Hitor on the platform, it took them deep inside the ground. Hitori took Kamiya to the second platform which then sent them to the first floor, finally.

[Player Ryu and Player God's Hell have entered a level fifteen fire dungeon]

[You have entered the first floor: 1/10]

'Finally,' Kamiya let out a sigh. He lifted his eyes and saw Hitori summoning his gun.

"Friend," he stopped Hitori, "let me do this," Kamiya did not want Hitori to face all of the monsters again when Kamiya himself could easily take care of them.

Hitori was surprised at first, "Even when you are ten levels higher than me?"

Kamiya did not respond, he looked straight ahead, he received the quest to kill ten fire dogs on the first floor.

"Firedogs… pretty lame." From the dark side, a horde of ten dogs was spawned.

Kamiya jerked his hand with the wand forward, he stepped forward and took his stance. Kamiya slowly lifted his wrist, his wand went up with his wrist.

"Mizu no Mahou," he muttered the spell, "Water splash," as his wand came down with his wrist, a blob of water came out from his wand.

Hitori watched as the splash of water fell on the fire dog's face. Soon another splash touched his face and it was dead.

'So it depends on your level? It must depend on the magic ability of your wand and the spell.' Hitori studied Kamiya as he just shook his wrist up and down. Water came out and killed the firedogs. The end.

"What is on the second floor?" Kamiya asked as he entered the portal.

"Minotaurs. Five of them,"

"Only five… water would not work on them unless I cast a high-level spell,"

"Do not do it, you need to preserve your mana for the final boss fight,"

"Yep, I know, Hitori," the quest flashed in front of Kamiya and Hitori.

Hitori stepped back cause Kamiya wanted to do it alone this time too. He saw Kamiya raising his wand above his head by raising his hand halfway up.

Roar! A bull roaring in a man's voice. They should change the voiceover artist of these monsters.

"Denki no Mahou," Hitori raised his eyebrows in surprise. He saw a ball of yellow energy that was forming on top of Kamiya's wand.

'I never knew you had that spell…' Hitori grinned.

"Electrify." He brought his wand down, and a straight line of electricity appeared from his wand and connected with the minotaur. The shock was so powerful that it went through its heart.

'And it is powerful too.' Hitori enjoyed the rest of the fights as Kamiya ended each one of the minotaurs with his electricity magic.

Hitori took a step forward when two portals appeared in front of them, 'Wait…' Hitori's smile faded, he unfolded his arms and glanced down at the dead minotaurs.

<Soul Liquefication activated>

<Souls of dead minotaurs liquefied>

<Cultivated mana: 2,004/40,000>

'Does not help much.'

"Hitori," he raised his head, "What is on the third floor?"

"Ah, well, ten fire tigers,"

"Oh…" Kamiya lifted his feet, "Wait, what?" he turned, "Tigers, you said?" Hitori nodded, "Tch…"

"Why?"

"I do not want to face them…" he started wimping out, "they are the most intimidating animals alive, after lions,"

"...I know what you mean." Hitori nodded in agreement.