Chapter 394 394. RAPID

Noah broke out of his ball of ice to lay eyes on the carnage all around him. The explosion had been powerful. So much so that he feared he would have died.

Luckily he had been quick enough to create more defenses as his shields continued to be destroyed. He had needed to renew all his defenses; even the ball of ice, exactly sixteen times just to stop the explosion from killing him.

And even at that he still had patches of burnt skin, but his healing kicked in at that point.

Coming out of the ball of ice allowed him to see the river-like wave of green shining particles making their way towards him.

The scene felt scary, but Noah knew only good things waiting on the other side.

The long stream eventually reached his position in the destroyed field. The explosion had created a crater spanning the entire field. One that was about 4m deep at the center and 2m and the edges.

Noah felt the particles rush into his body, and for a while, his figure couldn't be seen in that smoking environment. Until it could.

[You have killed Hollow beast LVL 120]

[You have gained exp]

[You leveled up seven times]

[You have received 7000 stat points]

[Your stats have been increased by 35%]

[You are now level 106]

Noah felt a huge increase in his power at the sight of the panels. He even closed his eyes to once again drown in the experience, he felt like he could take down anything after that victory.

He had, to be honest, his idea had been far more than brilliant. It was so effective that he struggled to believe he had that type of power simply dwelling within him, untouched.

Noah quickly sprinted towards the center of the field, where the green octahedral stone still lay; untouched by the destruction around it.

[Touch it to move on to the next floor]

'Not now,' Noah thought when the prompt appeared. He barely had any essence within his core, so he decided he would relieve his core of the stress of his potions and cultivate using his energy stones.

Noah spent about an hour resting, his core size had increased meaning more essence to fill up, and his body and bones had gotten stronger meaning more essence to improve them.

A relieved sigh escaped Noah's lips after he was done with his resting session. He felt new again as power flowed through his body. He would be considered closer to the peak of the middle stage now that he was at level 106.

Only a bit more than ten levels to go and he would reach the higher stage.

"Here goes nothing," Noah muttered placing both his hand on the green stone.

The stone began to shine upon contact and soon a green light; blinding in intensity filled Noah's vision until he was forced to close his eyes. Only then did the teleportation take place.

Noah felt his surroundings vanish under that power of the light and space seemed to twist and turn until everything stabilized and he could reopen his eyes.

Sunlight fell on his eyes and a bit of shock followed at that event.

Noah had arrived in a place filled with sunlight. At least what represented sunlight. The sky was blue and cloudless. Everything was stale and even looked stale.

The day sky resembled a painting due to how stiff it looked from that distance.

The large green walls of grass that stood before him looked identical to the first floor.

Heck, everything looked identical to the first floor, except for the different period.

[You have arrived on the second floor]

[Defeat 70 hollow beasts straight without taking a hit to reveal the boss]

[Note that taking a hit would require that you begin all over again]

[A counter has been provided]

[Hollow's killed: 0/70]

Prompts containing surprising words filled Noah's eyes, he had thought he would require a journey to the center to like the first floor, but it seemed there were more surprises in that dungeon for him.

Soon Noah focused on the task at hand. It sounded easy, but he couldn't be too sure about that detail. The hollows were slow moving and mostly relied on physical attacks in their normal state.

They were capable of manifesting arms that aided their deadly combos of powerful punches.

Only when energy filled them would they be capable of being hurt, and from what Noah had learned from the giant hollow, he could make them explode by overcharging them.

"Seventy straight, huh," He muttered beginning his search for the hollows in the maze.

They usually lay far from the edges of the maze so he had to walk a bit until he had any hope of finding any.

A strange sensation eventually reached Noah's mind when he neared a particular path, a few thirty minutes after walking through the uncomfortably silent maze.

He could tell what caused that reaction, but what he saw was totally different from what he expected.

"What they heck is that," Noah muttered taking a step back as he laid eyes on a black figure.

It was mostly slim, but also had bulky features. It had a hunched back and it stood at a height of about 2.5m.

It had been a while since Noah had gazed at such a black color, and his brain struggled to process that color.

Noah swore it would be unnoticeable in a dark environment if not for its presence.

The thing looked asleep since it stood and rested its back on the wall.

Noah decided he would be a quiet as possible, and wouldn't move closer to it, but that wasn't how things went.

Suddenly a pair of dark eyeballs allowed their gaze to fall on his figure, and Noah watched the thing straighten its figure before turning to face him.

He didn't know when his dagger reached his right hand, and when his body moved on its own; raising his dagger above his head, after which a force landed on it causing the ground beneath him to tremble and shatter.

Noah felt his eyes widen when the black figure suddenly appeared in front of his eyes; its arm on his dagger's blade. It had tried to attack him, and had been incredibly quick about it.

Noah felt all his gained knowledge about the hollows become useless in front of that rapid figure, and he quickly understood why that floor would be harder than he thought.