Neo and Fate stared blankly at the comical welcome sign. Just by looking at it, even a child could understand it was mocking those who enter the dungeon. With the sign hanging on a simple nail, there was a drawing of a stick figure getting impaled by a long stick with the words ‘this is you if you enter’ written by it. Though it was a warning that was first, the words under it was what really enraged the dungeon delvers.
‘Welcome to Hiroslav’s Research Laboratory, have fun dying you little puppets. Oh, by the way, there is a really good treasure at the end of the Lab, see if you can get there without dying. Have fun!’
“This motherfucker...” Fate whispered angrily.
Neo snickered and looked over at Fate, whose hand was just itching to socialize with that sign.
Fate Avarice Lvl. 291 Gender: None Occupation: Adventurer Class: Divine Swordsmaster
Fate, as a high-level player, was- Error, gender human gender “none” non-existent. Temporarily adding species identification mod.
Fate Avarice Lvl. 291 Species: Spirit Gender: None Occupation: Adventurer Class: Divine Swordsmaster
Fate, as a high-level player, was too strong for this dungeon whose average level was around 200. However, one of the benefits of his occupation was that if he explored a dungeon, he could have information given out as well as a hefty paycheck. This was the main reason he entered the dungeon, the other was to see if Neo really was over level 200, and not just faking it. Such a thing as faking levels could be done, however, it was not very popular and required lots of materials. But faking a level would make it seems as though that person really was that level. Level requirement items would be effected, and one could maneuver around dungeon level restrictions.
“Anyway,” Neo put his hand on Fate’s shoulder and told him. “We should get a move on. Lets go check out this dungeon and have some fun.”
Fate looked at him, a bit surprised. Obviously, he did not think that Neo was a good person, and someone who would laugh at others misfortune and not help them. Fate’s opinion of Neo experienced a small change. Nodding, he and Neo delved into the Lab. Neo secretly turned off the recording device he had used to record the scene of Fate getting angry at the message. After they cleared the dungeon, he would post this on the web page that players used to get the latest news. Though he may get viciously beaten down later, he did not care, as long as he had a good laugh.
…
The first few traps and monsters were like paper and twigs in front of them, easily passed through. However, as they got deeper into the Lab, they were met with more taunting signs. This infuriated Fate, who -at one time- started rampaging and destroyed the traps without getting a look at them for his report. Neo, the entire time, just stood and watched, trying his very hardest and even using the full power of his 100+ WIL attribute to keep a poker face. Because of the use of his WIL attribute, he was just barely able to maintain a straight face.
However, once they got past floor 50, the fundamentals of the dungeon started to change. Normally, there is monsters in the dungeon. But on floor 50, there were no monsters, traps or obvious treasure. It was a normal laboratory. There was nothing suspicious about the research papers that Neo and Fate had found. In fact, it was extremely intriguing information. The papers held theories about The Worlds Gate; such as the production of energy, it’s functions, how it’s functions affected the world around it. Though most of the theories were baseless, as there was no way to actually study the Gate, the ideas presented raised many questions about the Gate.
At the end of the laboratory, were artifacts that Hiroslav had found during his expeditions. Though this was a dungeon, which should have formed naturally and without human interference, the real research lab of Hiroslav had made it into this dungeon’s 50th floor. Neo and Fate tossed around ideas, but could come to no conclusions as to why this lab was in this dungeon. After investigating the artifacts as thoroughly as possible, there was a temporary conclusion that one of the artifacts that Hiroslav had brought to his lab had caused this phenomenon. Giving up on a superfluous conversation, Neo and Fate gathered the artifacts and continued to the 51st floor, deciding to leave the thinking to the thinkers back in the world above.
On the 51st floor, there was a small room and stairs to the next room. On to the left was a door that had a pink plaque with the vague shape of a triangle with a circle on top of it and four lines jutting out of the triangle. On the right was another door, but it had a blue plaque with a thick line down the center with a circle on top of it, along with four lines coming out of the think line in the middle. Neo and Fate looked at each other, nodded and went into the door on the left. When they went inside, they saw a few walls that slightly lifted off the ground and did not touch the ceiling. Between two of these wall was a door that fit with the walls it was connected to. On the other side of the room was a long counter with bowls built into it. Closer to the wall was an arching metal cylinder with a small metal pole on top of it, which connected to a swivel device. Next to these bowls was a small black contraption stuck onto the wall. Near the door was another, bigger black contraption with brown fabric coming out of it’s bottom.
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“So this is a women’s bathroom...” Fate said quietly.
“I’m going to look in the men’s, just to make sure it isn’t the same.” Neo looked at Fate and told him.
“Right. Phase 2… start!”
“Sir!”
Neo then left the women’s bathroom and headed to the men’s. To his great disappointment, the men’s room was exactly the same as the women’s. He returned to Fate dejected, and told him the bad news.
“Sir, it’s exactly the same...” Neo reported dejectedly.
“DAMN!!” Fate flung his fist against the wall, making a rather large dent. “It’s a failure...”
“Sir?”
“The grail is lost, I repeat the grail is lost.”
“Understood, shall we continue.”
The two left the women’s bathroom and headed to the men’s. The answered nature’s call and cleaned up. They then headed to the 52nd floor, upon which, things returned to normal. Traps, monsters and loot once again reappeared. Now that he had calmed down, Fate had started to record the necessary information needed for his report once again. This continued until floor 100, where things once again changed. Floor 100 was the last floor, which meant, the last boss would be here.
The duo waited until they recovered, and then stood in front of the door. Neo unsheathed his sword and activated one of it’s unique features, causing the white and black to swirl around on the sword and the aura of a mythos-class weapon to erupt. Fate, similarly, unsheathed his sword and charged it with magic, causing it to slightly glow with an azure light and give off an aura of mythos-class as well. Together, the opened the large, out-of-place door and entered the boss room. Neo lifted his hand, and a light lit above his palm, causing the door behind him to close. The ball of light rose up and shot off into different places in the large boss room, splitting along the way. The light revealed a large room resembling Greek and Roman architecture. Pillars rose to the unseeable heavens above, filled with cracks and pouring moss from above. At the end of the room sat a simple desk with a swivel chair. Papers were strewn across the desk in no apparent order. Obviously, the owner had no intention of sorting through these -most likely- important papers. On the chair sat a gaunt, middle-aged man with serious dark circles under his eyes. He wore a simple lab coat that held lots of stains. His black hair was a mess and stubble had started to grow on what was once a clean shaven face. As the two entered the room, the gaunt man raised his tired black eyes and stared at the two.
“Can you,” The gaunt man said slowly. “Leave, ya?”
“Huh…?” Neo and Fate both were stunned.
“I asked, can you leave, ya?”
“Uh, no. Why would we?” Fate asked, still dumbfounded.
“Well, I want to research in peace, ya. I’d prefer not to have to kick you guys out, ya.”
“You? Kick us out? In your dreams.” Neo stated arrogantly.
“Look, ya. I don’t want to kick you out, ya. How about this, ya? You can take the first time clear reward, and then leave, ya. I really don’t have time for you people, ya.”
“What’s with that speech quirk?” Fate whispered to himself.
“Well, can you give us any reason why we shouldn’t just kill you and take everything?” Neo asked the gaunt man.
“Ya, ya.” The gaunt man sighed. “You young ones are really hot-blooded, aren’t you, ya? If you really don’t want to give up on killing me, ya...” The gaunt man stared at them coldly, letting out his killing intent. “Then you can give up on leaving, ya.”
“Heh,” Neo flicked his sword in a fancy manner. “Challenging those stronger than me is my favorite hobby, how could I not take this chance? And as for making us leave, you alone are not qualified.”
“Did he just...” Fate wondered in astonishment.
“Haha!” The gaunt man laughed. “Seems I will be delaying my research a bit to educate some youngsters to not mess with their elders!”
The gaunt man left his chair and stood in front of his desk. Brushing his lab coat aside, he pulled something small out of a holster and pointed it at the two, with the aura of mythos-class creating a suppressing pressure as well. A bang rang out as the pistol in the gaunt man’s hand fired. Magic circles appeared, clipping through the barrel at the same time he pulled the trigger. The bullet left the chamber at lightning speed, tearing through the air at speeds far surpassing the speed of Mach 10, the highest speed ever achieved by modern science so far. The two felt an extreme sense of danger and bolted to opposite sides; however, the bullet was too fast, and it shot through Neo’s right chest. A hole the size of a head was made in Neo’s chest, separating part of his arm from his torso. Neo’s eyes widened and his pupils shrunk, too astonished to even think about his injuries. Then the pain set in. Neo let out a wordless screech of pain, and Fate just stood there, in shock.
“You’re next, ya.” The gaunt man said calmly.
“Guh?!” Fate made an exclamation of shock.
The gaunt man pulled the trigger once more, causing magic circles to light up and the bullet to come screaming out the barrel. Having seen this once before, Fate managed to dodge a direct impact, but the aftershocks knocked the wind out of him. When Fate hit the floor, Neo had managed to drink a limb restoring potion, which brought back his missing parts. Now that he had his body back to full health, Neo once again grabbed his sword and charged at the gaunt man, where displays once again appeared.
Hiroslav Lvl. 275 Human (Boss; Immortal; Genius) 150,000 150,000
Neo Apollos the Supreme Fighter Lvl. 223 108,800 110,000
Fate Avarice the Immortal Slayer Lvl. 291 253,381 255,750
Fate was technically stronger than Hiroslav, and including that Hiroslav had no titles, Fate was certain to be stronger; however, Hiroslav had the absolute advantage in terms of weaponry. Although they both had extremely rare mythos-class weapons, Hiroslav’s gun was a superior on in terms of quality. Including the fact that he had a gun -which specialized in long-range to mid-range fighting- and that he had enough space in the boss room meant that he could easily destroy those who attacked him from afar. Furthermore, Hiroslav had created this gun himself, so he was very intimate with the weapon he wielded. Although, if Fate or Neo could get close enough to hit him with either of their swords, then the tables would turn and Hiroslav would be at a disadvantage.
“[Sins: Sloth]!” Neo shouted without reservation.
Gray flames started to lick at his body, covering mainly his lower body, hands, arms, eyes and hair. The gray flame spread to his sword and became white. [Sins: Sloth] gave boosts quite contrary to the name. This boost focused on SPD, AGL, CON, DEF and gave 100% boosts to defensive and evasive abilities and stat boosts. Due to the boost, Neo’s body blurred as it broke past the sound barrier and approached Hiroslav at a speed much greater than before. Hiroslav noticed this and turned his attention to Neo. When he saw the flames that were on Neo’s body, his concentration faltered and the grip on his gun became loose. Waves of shock battered his mind, as various things flashed through his mind.
“[Sins] skill...” Hiroslav uttered stupidly.