Rather than Cipriani's intervention being of helped, the fact that the greatsword was already falling down at Augustus' head, it strangely helped Jeemin instead.
Bam!
The heavy slab of iron crushed Augustus' head like a watermelon.
Red juice spurted out from the crushed head and the pink matter scattered on the ground made the scene gruesome.
[Special Task Completed]
[You've received Starter Pack x1]
[Item has been transferred to your inventory]
Jeemin felt something strange because things were happening so smoothly. However, he had no time left to think about it as the Origin on his hand was on the verge of going out of control.
He quickly shoved the greatsword on his golden pouch and activated the skill Rage again.
Without glancing at Cipriani's direction, with his remaining mana, he leapt away and darted towards the gate's direction.
Cipriani's pupils constricted.
"So quick," he clicked his tongue and retracted his aura.
He walked towards Augustus' corpse as he thought to himself.
So the Emperor sent that guy? Well, I couldn't kill Augustus' myself without offending the Prophet. Hmm, it was really the right choice that I've sent Augustus to this hut without alerting him.
He feigned a pained expression and knelt down beside Augustus.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, may your soul rest in peace."
...rot in hell bastard.
Cipriani lifted his head up as if he was looking at something, he shook his head with a rueful expression and made the sign of the cross.
[The Watcher Prophet is sympathizing with you and said that they will handle the perpetrator.]
[The Watcher Emperor doubts your loyalty.]
His lips twitched imperceptibly as he stood up.
He then turned his gaze towards Rock who was walking towards him while holding his bloody chest.
"Still alive?"
"Course I'd be, tch. Damn guy escaped."
"No need to fret about it, someone will handle him."
Cipriani took something out his pocket and threw it at Rock.
"Here, apply it directly on your wound. You'll recover immediately if it isn't that deep."
"What about the power thing?"
He coldly looked at Rock and said, "Don't be greedy."
Cipriani then turned around and muttered, "Open Tutorial Shop...."
*
[Next stage will be open after 2 minutes.]
Rustle.
A figure was running unsteadily in the forest while heading at the hall's direction.
"Haa, huff, I can still make it."
Jeemin glanced at his back and frowned.
Weird, why are they not chasing me?
He slowed down and gasped for air.
Dawn has yet to arrive but the sky was strangely bright. It was because the gigantic gate was giving off radiant light at this moment, making it easier for him to locate it.
However, he also spotted several people standing inside the hall.
He stopped behind a tree and studied them carefully.
After making some calculations, he inhaled and exhaled to calm his nerves down.
I can't even get a breather from these events happening nonstop.
His eyes drooped down for a moment before he slapped his cheek and widened his eyes.
Jeemin crouched slightly to prepare himself.
One, two, three—
He put force on both of his feet like an athlete catapulting himself from the starting line.
Swish.
[Mana Insufficient! Activation Art of Berserker: Rage failed.]
Jeemin greeted his teeth but continued running. He already took into account that he won't be able to properly activate the skill.
However, there was a faint feeling in his heart that he can activate it forcefully.
But the problem was, he didn't want to bet what would happen to him if he lose 100% of his mana.
Would he collapse? Would it cripple his ability to sense and use mana?
So he decided not to push himself anymore because he was starting to feel anxious when he saw his remaining arm was already emaciated.
"Hey!"
"Look, who's that?"
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Lily, isn't that guy familiar?"
Dale asked while drawing his sword.
"Looks like the guy at the mansion," Lily creased her eyebrows as she replied.
"Looks like he's heading towards the gate. Should we stop him?"
"Let him, this is actually good for us. We'll use him to probe the next stage for us, considering Cipriani said it was dangerous. Remember the strength he displayed at the mansion? And the benefits we got from it?"
Dale turned his gaze at her and asked with confusion, "What are you getting at?"
"Look, we easily passed the mansion that was supposedly full of traps, right? If he died at the next stage we'll lose nothing. If we wait for some considerable time and enter, who knows? The so-called 'dangerous' stage could become a walk in the park."
She let out a faint smirk after explaining and tucked some strands of her smooth black hair behind her ear.
"Here's something I find weird. If the mansion was safe and he knew where the exit was, then why was he still there when we arrived?"
Lily shrugged and replied, "Who knows. There might be treasures."
"So we should—"
"Greed can easily take people's lives, destroy their conscience, and make one lose one's way. Remember how those group of ragtag boasted how they will easily get food from just ambushing people?"
Dale nodded as his response.
"Where are they now?"
"..."
*
Jeemin squinted his eyes when he reached the massive bronze gate glowing in bright blue.
His heart was pounding crazily but he resisted the urge to breathe through his mouth. Because he needed to maintain a relax composure to make the people at the hall wary.
Fortunately, they were not making any moves, since he was in no condition to fight against them.
His sword was gone, his arm was closed to being crippled and his mana was running low.
Using the heavy greatsword was just impossible, also.
Even Jeemin's lips had a shade of blue while his complexion was pale white from the amount of blood drained away from his body.
He knew he was moment's away from collapsing.
But I couldn't. Even if I die, so what?
The bright blue light coming from the massive gate shrouded his body, making his complexion harder to see.
So the people at the hall had no idea what shape his body was in.
[Resting Time Left: 0]
[The next stage is available]
[Warning! Please cooperate with each other.]
Jeemin narrowed his eyes since this was the first time the system notice gave a direct warning regarding the next stage.
He slowly turned his gaze at the gate and stretched his hand forward.
The massive gate opened automatically the moment his hand made contact on its surface.
Surprisingly, despite its size, it opened smoothly without making any sound.
There was nothing inside the gate except absolute darkness, even though the gate was shining in blue just a moment ago.
Seeing the scalp-numbing darkness, he couldn't help but hesitate.
However, his hesitation only lasted for a second as he immediately went inside and shouted, "Close!"
[Participant "Liu Jeemin" has closed the door. Further entree is forbidden until the participant is eliminated]
The moment the gate closed, the darkness devoured his entire vision.
He gnashed his teeth when he saw the system notice announced his name.
Only when the system notice disappeared from his vision did he notice the surroundings.
*
It was completely dark around him.
The absolute defeaning silence even made his heavy breathing loud. Even the movement of his teeth making contact with each other echoed on the darkness around him.
When he tried to closely observe his surroundings by narrowing his eyes, the only thing he 'saw' were the various static noises that one can only see when your eyes were closed.
Even looking at his own hand was impossible.
After several seconds has passed, a bright light suddenly engulfed the surroundings, causing him to squint his eyes.
The light spread and instantly replaced the darkness.
After his eyes acclimated from the sudden emergence of light, he was finally able to see the crude Roman Colloseum before him.
The brown eight-story tall elliptical structure, with him on the center, made him widened his eyes in suprise.
It is even more amazing than what I saw from the foggy memories I received on the mansion.
He licked his lips and stared at his palm.
Are those memories from the Origin? Or..... Impossible. How could that even be possible. I'm not going to be conceited enough to even consider that possibility. The possibility that it came from the future.
..
He shook his head vehemently and decided that those memories came from the previous owners of the Origin Mili gave him, rather than thinking of himself as that special.
Why? Because, if he was in the future and was able to go back in time, he'd rather kill his past self, since that was his wish in the first place. And his past self would even thank him while performing dogeza a hundred times.
--
[New task has been issued]
[Defeat the Ape King]
Information: Unavailable
Task: Defeat the Ape King
Difficulty: Tutorial(Cooperation)
Time limit: None
Failure: Death
Rewards: Staff of Ape King x1(last hit), 2000 credits(last hit), random high grade equipment with effects.
--
While Jeemin was reading the task window, his ears suddenly twitched when he noticed the violent gust of wind heading towards him.
He crouched instinctively as the object aimed at his head made a swooshing sound.
His heart sank when he saw a massive hairy ape looking at him with bloodshot eyes.
The Ape was sporting a massive physique and a tall height.
It was to the point that Jeemin was only at its waist-level even if he stood straight.
The Ape King swung its silver staff downwards with its bulging muscles.
Grawwwrr
He immediately rolled sideward to evade the staff but the Ape King suddenly changed its course halfway from hitting the ground, and swung in his direction.
Clang.
Sparks flew from his robe when the silver staff made contact on its surface.
[Armor's durability 25/100]
Bang!
Almost at the same moment, Jeemin flew like a broken kite and his back crashed heavily against a wall as dust flew everywhere.
[Armor's durability 10/100]
Hu, hu, hu, hu, grawwrrr!
The massive Ape King slammed its chest with one of its hand proudly and growled at him.
Afterwards, while its silver staff was resting on its shoulder, the Ape King charged at his direction.
Its every footsteps shook the Colloseum while sweeping up dust.
Ha, ha, ha, hu, hu, hu.
The Ape King's strange voice sounded rather amused at Jeemin's condition as it spun its silver staff around while charging at him.
Unfortunately, Jeemin was seeing stars revolving on his head. He even saw himself in third person for a moment.
When he regained a bit of clarity, he immediately pulled something out of his pouch.
Jin Hyoon, if this works, you just unknowingly save my measly life.
He slightly tilted his head and coughed out mouthful of blood while making sure that no blood hit the item he was holding.
He groggily turned his gaze in front of him.
Cold sweat trickled down from his forehead as the Ape King's reflection enlarged from his eyes.
He took a nervous gulp when he thought back how the special task given to him earlier was different from the foreign memories he had.
Well, if it doesn't work, who knows? I might get transferred to another world again. New people, new identity, and new personality...
The Ape King lifted up its silver staff and changed its thickness.
The silver staff now became as thick as a tree compared to earlier when it looks like a tooth pick in the Ape King's hand.
*
"Ahh this one's gone for good."
Dylan closed his eyes and whistled as he crossed his huge ripped arms.
His white hair was tied in a messy man bun complimented with his white scruffy beard.
Suddenly, Nameless pushed him at his side.
The room shook a bit when Nameless saw he didn't budge.
"How many times I've told you, you're blocking half of the panel!"
When Nameless was about to draw her katana from her ponytailed blue hair, Dylan immediately moved sideways.
He swallowed mouthful of saliva and said, "The heck, you call me a brute but you solve things with your sword!"
"Well, do smashing things apart are elegant to see? Hell, even your body is disgusting. Look at that oily ski—"
Sizzle.
Suddenly, the sweat all over his skin evaporated.
He then made his pectoral muscles bounce up and down while his eyebrows were rising up and down, too.
She glared at him, and as she was about to speak again...
"The Church just sanctioned a decree. They said that whoever accept that guy in their organization would suffer from a severe consequence."
Old Man Zai Zen stroke his long beard and frowned.
"Who told him to take the special task anyways? He's lucky his name didn't get in the Judgement's List," Ling Tian waved his fan and casually said.
"Listed or not, this Old Man believes it's useless. He's dead anyways. What kind of moron would take the Ape King alone. Even at my time..."
"Ughhh not again."
"Aghhkk no, not again."
"Eughhh, I'm going to die.."
The three simultaneously let out a groan as soon as they heard Zai Zen spoke the last phrase.
"What's wrong? You get to learn one or two from this old man. You might even gain enlightenment—"
His voice suddenly came to a halt as soon as he saw what Jeemin did to the Ape King.
"What?!"
The four of them simultaneously asked in suprise with their mouth agape.
Dylan's expression crumpled unpleasantly and said, "No, I'm not gonna take that guy. That's not how you deal with this stage, not at all."
Zai Zen nodded with his dark expression.
"I can forgive him betraying Claire if he's sorry, but doing this. This is just cheating this old man. I got several broken bones from this stage in my time."
Nameless shook her head while Ling Tian asked with a blank expression.
"How do we test the remaining people?"
No one replied. Because this was an unprecedented and unforseen event.
*
Jeemin flinched when he saw the huge silver staff on the Ape King's hand. But he was still able to present his palm forward holding the item Jin Hyoon gave him, even though he was gripped by fear.
The Ape King suddenly stopped its attack and started to eye him from head to toe for a moment as soon as Jeemin presented the item on his hand.
"Hu?"
Swish
It might be his slow reaction due to the built up fear gushing out from his heart, he neither dodged nor flinched as the staff was swung down aimed at his head.
But the moment it was about to hit, Jeemin lost his contact with his already tottering conciousness as he completely gave up from resisting.
Tongk.
His head was lightly hit by the silver staff but the unconcious Jeemin didn't react
.
The Ape King suddenly laughed and took the item on his hand. It brought the item to its nose and sniffed it as it nudge him to hold his silver staff so that it can properly peel the item.
But the silver staff only fell to the ground while its size shrunk.
When the Ape King held the item for several seconds, it suddenly grew in size. It became a huge banana!
The same banana that Jin Hyoon gave Jeemin when he reached the top of the mountain!
The Ape King peeled the enlarged banana happily.
After the Ape King was finished eating, it poked Jeemin several times.
But noticing that he wasn't reacting. The Ape King hesitated for a moment before picking up the silver staff on the ground and putting it on Jeemin's lap.
It then patted Jeemin's head before it ran off and headed towards the gate at the end of the Colloseum.
As soon as it was about to disappear, the Ape King shrunk and vanished after crossing the gate.