Sitting on the roof, as I observe the group of poor guys who thought it was a good idea to challenge Lily's avatar.
Lily decided to go with a mere 4th floor restriction, and it's fun to watch as she tears through men who are probably thrice her weight and twice her size. She takes them on in a style similar to the one she used to fight the Fallen Hero.
Her Avatar is using its [Sacrifice] to boost its movements and it doesn't bother wasting any mana on [Disintegration]. The sheer strength of its body is enough to allow it to go berserk.
The event is fun for us and an interesting learning opportunity for those from other difficulties. For them, there’s a difference between seeing people from Hell doing all these things and then having to face them.
Sure, they got a taste during the 1st event, but they still thought they might stand a chance in a group only to fail regardless.
Each Avatar can be challenged 3 times, and 1st and 2nd challenges are mostly limited to smaller groups, hoping to get a better reward.
No one from Hell difficulty interferes, and the remaining attempts are slowly getting more organized, and bigger groups are being put together, a lot of planning and information sharing is going on. Samuel, being the annoying guy he is, is behind most of it, and he even has a few more guys to help him.
In the end, it seems like the first 2 challenges are to test the Avatar, and they are saving the last ones for their real attempts.
Tess’ Avatar is challenged as well, and the group gets wiped out before they even reach her.
Gareth is attacked by dozens of people and still takes no damage.
Even Min-Jae, the twins, Brainiac, Lootenant, Adam, Maya, and others take easy wins against the smaller groups.
The restrictions are mostly around the fourth floor, Tacita also being fourth. But there is that one annoying guy who’s restricted himself to the 3rd floor as well.
Savant.
His Avatar has five epic items and 20 thousand shards offered as additional rewards, and other than my Avatar, his seems to be the most frequently eyed one.
My Avatar still got challenged only once, and his Avatar not even once. Channeler told me that there are a few dozen people going all over the common area, trying to look for anyone who’s faced me, in an effort to gather information on my abilities.
It's entertaining to watch. They’re taking it much more seriously than I thought they would, and a big part of it probably has something to do with Samuel.
Seeing how effective he is, I guess it makes sense that Gareth’s been keeping him around and to a certain point, Tess as well. He seems like a useful guy.
What's also fun is that the murderer guy from Easy difficulty is also accepting some challenges and entering the arenas to face the Avatars.
After each attempt, they take him away, tie him up, and put the null collar back on his neck. Yet the guy seems to have a decent amount of shards and accepts nearly every challenge, joining with all challengers.
Seeing others having to keep grabbing him because the system is teleporting him away is amusing enough.
I also watch as he generally tries to take advantage of his stealth in an attempt to damage the Avatars with his poison-like attacks.
The guy clearly thinks a lot of himself and sometimes he gets into clashes with other people; in one situation, he even attacks and kills one careless guy from Hard difficulty and multiple people from Normal.
It's like he’s doing it on purpose just to make fun of us. Especially when in the challenge against BenDover's Avatar he just attacks the other challengers immediately, standing there and smiling while they scream in pain from his poisonous attacks.
He gets outside and it's Tess who pacifies him, grabbing him by his neck and pulling him away like a dog while he tries to attack her.
Then, when thirty minutes later another challenge starts, he accepts it again and this time attacks other challengers right away.
While others expected that, some people seem to have a lot of trouble dealing with his poisonous mist, not to mention how quick and hard to catch he is. Even though he's from Easy difficulty, he has to have some degree of skill to have made it to the 11th floor, so there must have been some decent rewards.
Samuel, the killjoy, takes him out with a swing of his giant sword and the murderer appears outside, laughing as Gareth approaches him with a dark expression.
"The system does allow some changes, I can probably make his heart stronger. The system might even consider it beneficial. But it will continue to get stronger and stronger and once he’s out of the tournament, it will explode in a week or two," Lily says with a surprisingly angry tone.
"We can give it a try," Sophie nods.
She, Min-Jae, and Biscuit are sitting on the roof with Lilly and I as we watch the event.
"I could give him a [Geas] that would suppress his survival instincts. Or if the system allows it, I can ensure that he decides to end it on his own. Sophie offers"
Only Min-Jae seems to have any doubts regarding the topic of our conversation. "Is he really that bad?" he asks carefully.
"Imagine the worst you can and then double it. That's what that man is. I saw hints of his memories when we were looking into whether or not he really killed all those men, women, and children. He’s the lowest of the low." Even Sophie, who usually only cares about her sister, seems determined to end him over what she saw.
I, on the other hand, watch a group of 100 people face down Biscuit.
Some of the Easy and Normal difficulties still remember him tearing them apart during the 1st event so they are careful. However, Biscuit has no restriction, and even his grayed-out version looks cute. It even moves like the original, slowly wobbling on its short legs.
Avatar Biscuit doesn't really hesitate much, and it creates two purple orbs which turn bright white, before shooting off towards a group that gets in his way.
Their attempt is good, and it even seems like they might be able to pull it off, but that's when tentacles form around Biscuit, extending to the length of a football field. They whip through the air in a blur of motion, cutting cleanly through a huge patch of trees.
When the tentacles crash into the group’s barriers, they either slice through without resistance, or shatter them with sheer force, and concentrated fire.
Biscuit also uses a mental attack to scream directly into their heads, as it turns out most of the challengers aren’t quite skilled enough to block it out.
The orbs explode, wiping out half of the group. A few mana projectiles snipe the injured members and tentacles finish off the rest.
"Good boy," I say, looking over at Biscuit and handing him a piece of deer jerky.
He tilts his head, slightly confused before he quickly noms the offered treat. The defeated challengers meanwhile group together once they’re outside and start trading notes.
"Nat," Min-Jae says, interrupting my musings, so I return my focus to the conversation they’ve been having.
"Yes?"
"Should we really kill him?" he asks carefully.
Even though he’s well on the way to becoming a bully himself, killing a real human still seems to disturb him deeply. It's not hard to understand why. That’s how normal people should act. It's just some of us who are a bit twisted.
"I don't care," I stretch and yawn.
Even though the guy seems super annoying, it's interesting to watch others struggle to figure out what to do with him. In the past few hours, I also have to wonder if I’m only helping Tess and doing the things she asks of me just because she’s the leader of the group and picks up my slack. Or is it because I’m trying to atone?
Every day I learn a bit more about myself, and I wonder if it's the same for others. Am I just so dumb that I’m forced to slowly discover these things, or is this their normal as well?
Well, it doesn't really matter all that much. I already know what I intend to do. It's useless to hesitate any longer, and it just doesn't fit me. I just need to find the right time.
As for the murderer from Easy difficulty, I haven’t even bothered to remember his name. He’s just a small fry and he’ll be dead soon. There is only one interesting thing that came out of this.
If he reaches the highest floor of the tutorial and clears it, will he get teleported to Earth?
Until now, we’ve been running with the theory that everyone will return at the same time and we’ll probably continue to think that. If he could return after clearing, then there’s probably going to be people from the first round on Earth by the time anyone from the 5th round makes it out.
Oh, or it could be that by the time we got in no one from the first round had even gotten close to clearing the tutorial. If our theory is right then the 1st round started 4 weeks before ours so they wouldn't have had a chance.
"They’re challenging Savant," Lily points out at the same time I notice it. Savant’s Avatar appears on the screen, in the same area as the other Avatars. The same forest and a 15-minute countdown starts during which anyone can join.
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It's the 1st out of three challenges, so not many people from lower difficulties bother to join. Savant being the winner of the 1st event and with his selection of rewards, around 100 people from Hard join in.
"Would be funny if they killed him," Min-Jae notes with a smirk, "just imagine."
I'm glad group 4 seems to have the same distaste for the guy as me. Well, it’s not so much that I dislike him, he just annoys me and I think it would be fun to see him struggle. Otherwise, I would say my relationship with him is neutral.
But I do not think they will be able to challenge him. He cleared the 3rd Floor alone. He dealt with the Last King and his warriors and then put the Saint to final rest. A bunch of people from Hard difficulty won't be enough.
When the challenge starts, it is as I thought. Savant's Avatar uses his domain, even though it’s not as strong as it was in the 1st event it is still capable of quickly killing the weaker challengers with the mana radiation alone.
The domain doesn't use a lot of mana as I don't think he invested that much in that stat. Yet it's still capable of doing so. It’s something I’ll have to look into. There might be something I can use to improve on my own domain.
Savant even manages to extend his domain across a huge area. After all the weaker challengers die off he starts shrinking it and targeting Hard difficulty, they finally locate him, destroying the tree he’s been standing on.
That's when he shows off that weird skill of his. He absorbs fire attacks, mana projectiles, ice cones, water blasts. It doesn't even seem to cause him that much trouble.
Smoothly and with an emotionless expression, the Avatar uses that single skill for defense and offense, turning their own skills against themselves.
He’s meticulous when he does too, finding weaknesses and using the right attacks against people who are either incapable of defending or those who find it draining to do so.
As for close-range combat, even third-floor Savant is quicker than any of them. He uses bursts of mana with perfect timing and amazing efficiency to boost his movements only when he needs to.
He deprives them of their weapons, using them in brutal melee attacks and as throwing weapons. He runs away, repositioning, and using his domain before continuing to absorb their attacks and fight.
And none of this even seems difficult to him; the Avatar is clearly not going all out.
When I turn to the side, I notice Min-Jae's clenched fist. The boy must know it the same as I do. Even on the third floor, Savant would have been able to defeat him if Min-Jae got careless.
It's not just stats or levels. Currently, Min-Jae is higher level than Savant was on the 3rd Floor; his main skills are higher leveled too, along with his passives. Yet, it's clear to see in the way Savant fights. The same as it is for Tess or Tacita; Savant is clearly a cut above the normal Hell difficulty enjoyer.
Well, the duels will be interesting, that is for sure.
Losing to Savant's Avatar, the challengers crash out. Then, an hour later, they challenge my Avatar again.
At this point, plenty of them know that I'm watching the event from our roof with some of the other members of group 4, so some of them glance towards me as they wait to enter.
In the end, the group is bigger than the first one. just over 120 people from Hard difficulty, which is more than half of them, and there are plenty from Normal and Easy difficulty as well.
My Avatar waits for them once the countdown finishes and all of them make it inside. Just like before, my Avatar flies up, counting the number of opponents he has to face. And as before, he fights the same. This version of my Avatar also starts setting the forest on fire.
This time they’ve come prepared, a few groups peel off to fight the fire. Either by trying to put it out, weaken it, or cut off its access to fuel.
It is somewhat effective, severely reducing the number of trees that burst into flame.
If it were me, I would probably destroy the forest just to get rid of everything the Avatar is trying to set fire to. But they don’t have the mana to spare.
A group of sneakier people attacks while two groups attempt to distract the clone and two more try to defend against the flames.
Unsurprisingly, my Avatar sees through the various sneaky bullshit skills. My hatred for invisible enemies and anything with 'phantom' in the name shines through brightly and I start liking the Avatar as he mercilessly murders the wannabe sneaks.
Good job, king! Go and get them!
"Fuck, he tore his head off."
"He killed him with his own leg."
Even some of my fellow members of group 4 seem to be appreciating the show.
As they push him further, my Avatar absorbs the heat from all the flames he can reach, creating a fire orb that floats beside him, and he keeps feeding it more thermal energy as his heart beats strongly.
He only uses that energy as he needs it, to strengthen his form. Blades oscillate, as they cut through armor and barriers alike, and [Armament] absorbs a lot of the incoming damage.
When someone tries to use sleeping gas, a poison attack, or blind my Avatar, he simply creates a helmet without a visor, relying solely on [Perception] to bolster his awareness.
Then, the Avatar detonates the flame orb.
The challengers were expecting him to shoot it at them, having been warned by the more mana-sensitive among them, who surely know the amount amount of energy contained within. They are constantly aware of that and being unable to cancel it they’ve prepared for the Avatar to shoot it at them.
But nope, the Avatar detonates it right next to his own head after charging into the biggest of the surviving groups.
The flames wash over the forest, setting it ablaze, reducing the forest to ash and baking the ground. There is a hint of gold in these flames and no one is capable of stopping them as they devour most of the group.
Then from the center of the explosion, my Avatar steps out. The helmet around his face is destroyed and half of his face is burned terribly, bone showing through.
All the flames die off, pulled towards him, as he ignores the wounds. Then he attacks again.
The rest of the challengers die in a minute.
Just over five thousand shards flood into my account. Of course, that’s only after the system takes its ten percent cut.
Anyway, Avatarthaniel did a good job once again.
"Who do you think would win? 3rd Floor me or Savi guy?" I ask.
"Neither of your Avatars went all out, so it's hard to say," Sophie states while observing the group that, straight out of the lost challenge, starts brainstorming.
"I would win," I say confidently.
"Famous last words," Sophie pokes. "I'm more curious how they will challenge you in the final attempt. Channeler said they plan to go against you with probably over a thousand challengers, even people from Easy are willing to gamble 5 shards to do so. The thought of you losing almost an arcane item's worth of shards is as painful as it's funny."
"It’ll be fine," I say, waving my hand.
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The challenges continue to the point where a lot of people from Hell get challenged twice with the last challenge remaining.
I also realize that within 24 hours, they do not have time to challenge every Avatar three times. Since only one Avatar can be challenged at once, and there is a 15-minute waiting period followed by the time spent facing the Avatar. So they are a bit more selective.
Every Avatar gets challenged at least once, but some of them do not get challenged a second time.
Tacita is a menace, killing the group that challenges her with such efficiency they wind up more scared of her than anyone else, Biscuit included.
Isabella gets called a crazy kid.
Even after challenging her a second time, they don’t even find Tess as she snipes them from afar.
Gareth endures combined attacks from dozens of members of Hard difficulty. His damage output isn't all that high, but just by having a stronger body than them, he slowly takes them down, in the end, he’s not even tired and he hasn’t a single wound on his body.
The twins and Min-Jae do well, winning the first two challenges. The twins use [Sensory Deception], causing their challengers to attack each other and moving at high speeds with their [Haste]. They also launch a number of mental attacks that seem to disrupt most of the casting of their opponents.
Min-Jae uses [Gravity Well] and [Telekinesis] mainly. Small stones turning into bullets, easily killing people or forcing them to waste mana on maintaining their defenses. The projectiles are much heavier than they should be, causing a surprising amount of damage.
But even without the overt use of our skills, there is a clear difference between Hell and other difficulties. People from Hell move their mana quicker, skills are activated faster and are more powerful. Their body strengthening and senses are much better. Even people from Hard difficulty can't compare.
It's interesting and I expected the difference to be smaller, but in the end, maybe people from Hard difficulty just aren't that strong. Or are people from Hell just that much stronger?
Only three out of the 31 people from Hell difficulty managed to lose in the first two challenges and none of them came from group 4.
Overambitious restrictions were probably the cause of the losses in question.
Maya's Avatar, using armor and weapons made of mana, cuts through them. Her technique with weapons shows as she restricted herself to the 4th Floor where she paid some people to give her lessons. She really looks like the knight she named herself for in the Community.
Sophie, with the same 4th Floor restriction, is also scary. Even then, she was capable of getting into the head of The First One and holding him down. So what are some challengers from the tutorial in comparison?
Her Avatar is ice cold as it takes over a group of people from Easy who start stabbing each other. Anyone who gets close to her freezes just for a moment which she uses to stab them somewhere vital. Her [Manipulation] interrupts castings, causing attacks to explode in the middle of their groups.
Those with weaker defenses die just from the pressure of her mental attacks. Then she easily manipulates the mana around her, redirecting the attacks being thrown at her or disrupting them outright. She manipulates stone as well, spikes made of the stuff impaling multiple people. The branches of trees twist and bend around people. It's not the kind of combat she prefers, but she wins nonetheless.
When about five hours remain, my Avatar gets challenged for the third time. The first Avatar out of all.
It's not because of Channeler and the disinformation campaign we did. No, the cause is exactly what we expected: simple greed.
It's like a lottery. You know you’re probably going to lose, but what if...?
I watch as the number of challengers grows until there are five seconds left until the start.
Challenge 3/3 - 5 seconds remaining until the start
Number of challengers:
Easy - 1021
Normal - 755
Hard - 212
Collected entrance fees: 19,015 shards
My Avatar appears in the arena for the last time. The same empty expression as before and grayish in color. With close to two thousand people arrayed against him.
The common area becomes eerily empty, just a few remaining people remain, mostly from the lower difficulties, and us from Hell. For the first time ever since the start of the tournament, it’s grown quiet.
The following slaughter takes barely two minutes.