Chapter 71. Speak

The sound of me huffing resounded throughout the room, sweat dripped down from my forehead as I kept taking deep breaths. It was so hard, changing weapons in the middle of a fight, knowing when to use what, and why to use it.

Using two weapons at once was hard, but they did not keep changing, it stayed at two. There was some consistency in the style when using one or two weapons but now it was constantly changing.

Maybe I was not just used to the style because I understood the benefits this brought me. If I, the user, himself was not able to use predict the weapon that would come out next, would the opponent even be able to comprehend what hit him?

"I should stop complaining," practice was the only thing that would help, whining was just a waste of time.

[Moving to the next floor in 2 hours and 38 mins]

I was fairly comfortable with my new skills, the blood skills were easy to use and if you looked at it from a certain perspective, I had not lost any of my skills. They were just not visible.

Cleave was an easy and simple skill, the mana empowered my arm and then I swung it downwards for a powerful strike. Mana control was something I learned on my own, and the control that I gained over time was still there.

[Identify] was a pretty neat skill but it was slowly becoming useless, not being able to show information regarding different objects and the things it did show were easy to find out.

I had two and a half hours to rest, after which I would have to fight. 'Ascended,' I was not sure if I would be able to defeat a beast that strong.

The half-step beast was already on par with me, it is true that it was before the class up and all of my skills are now an improved version of their previous versions.

But I still preferred not to fight them. The 'Record' had stopped giving these monsters a grade when they reached this stage, meaning that the power range could go from as weak as the ant queen to the people I met in the trial.

I wanted to stop here and this is when I noticed a problem, there was no return, quit, or end option. The only prompt from the 'Records' was the one asking if I wanted to go to the next floor.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I had to fight, there were no alternatives. I was worried about Arthur, Luke, Lucy, and Chloe. The chances of dying in this tower were low, everything until this stage had occurred to make us stronger.

Allowing us to select a path, safe leveling up in the trial, forming factions, and then giving them tokens to communicate, after the people had reached a certain power level providing them with knowledge.

The 'Records' was trying to make us stronger, it had its reasons for doing this and I had no idea what they were but it wasn't constantly trying to kill us. It was trying to make us stronger through constant struggles.

And it also gave rewards for overcoming those struggles. The chances of death were low, but on the off-chance that something does happen.

I could only hope.

[Moving to the next floor in 1 min]

I used all the remaining time to rest and prepare, if I fight, I fight to win.

The timer reached zero and a force teleported me out of the room to another room, this one being bigger and something about it said that it was made for the last boss fight.

It was a circular room too, the only difference from the previous rooms was the radius and the torches that lightened up the room. They were not needed, the rooms earlier were bright enough to see and do everything.

It just added the aesthetics for the final showdown.

[Kill an Ascended Hobgoblin]

A figure appeared before me. It wasn't fat like the hobgoblin I had previously fought, this one was slim. The skin had a greyish tinge but it was leaning more towards a normal human's color.

The height, the width, the goblin itself looked more 'human' than it should have. It was fit, his body contained great power.

The Hobgoblin was strong, its aura was on a different level. I had some confidence while I was preparing myself for this floor, but not much of it was left at the moment.

The creature's eyes contained intelligence and this was confirmed when it spoke.

"Human," there was an unnatural pause after it said that. "How are you here? You are too weak."

"What?" It dared to say that to my face. I was weaker, yes, but no one liked that being said that their face.

"Did you not understand me? Oh, you do not believe me. I do not intend to belittle you, but the difference between an Ascender and a mortal is too big. You won't be able to kill me."

"I have killed one. An ascended ant queen."

"The natives 'animals' on your planet do not qualify." There was noticeable disdain in its voice when it talked about animals. "They only ascend after going through a mutation.

And if they do, the remainder of their life is doomed."

"How do you know such things? How do you know about my planet." I asked, the Goblin knew too many things for it to be a coincidence.

"I wished we could keep talking like this, peacefully, but I am on a timer you know?" It blinked, disappearing from my vision and my sense. "And it isn't just 'your' planet."

I heard it say right into my ear. I could not even react before I was punched. I felt my spine breaking, the muscles snapping as I was launched off. The crash wasn't soft like it was during the [Flash] skill test.

Air left my lungs and I flopped down on the floor.