Some adventurers still lingered in front of the Monster Rift.

Pia was among them, standing hesitantly before the tall tower.

Most people had happily left after receiving their gold coins, but not these ones. They all wanted to see how long the princess's non-human team could last inside the Monster Rift.

Just then, waves of terrifying pressure came from behind them. They quickly turned around.

More than a dozen different people stood together, emanating powerful pressure. One of them carried a giant axe, built so massively he barely looked human, his face covered in scars amid layers of flesh, appearing extremely fierce.

"That's... 'Wall Breaker' Pal Chu?"

Someone had what appeared to be a rhinoceros horn growing from their head, with a fierce expression and imposing presence.

"And there's 'Mad Rhino' Biss, why would they come at a time like this?"

They were all top experts from the [Beast] Guild, among the most powerful figures in this city of adventurers. The Beast Guild lived up to its name. Just standing there, their wild pressure felt like suppressed beasts, making people's hair stand on end, their legs losing all sensation.

Most of the fourth-tier combat forces in the adventurer city had gathered here. Finally, their gazes turned to the woman at the front of the crowd.

Compared to the burly men behind her, her figure was even smaller than average. A flowing black dress concealed her legs, and she held a fan in her hand. At the corners of her eyes were two elongated black marks, like tear stains.

"Well, everyone's here," her eyes narrowed slightly, gradually emanating a predator-like sense of danger that crawled up the adventurers' spines. But her words remained very polite. "I'm sorry, but we have some business today. Could you let us have this place for another day?"

[Beast] Hela. The former was her title, the latter her name. As her title suggested, she was the strongest in the [Beast] Guild. No one knew her background, or even how long she had lived. In the eyes of most adventurers, she was incredibly powerful, to an unfathomable degree.

This guild leader rarely appeared in public view, let alone on a day like today. After all, today was a working day for independent adventurers.

Could it be... she came because of Viktor?

Those independent adventurers seemed to have silently reached this guess.

Pia stepped forward voluntarily to explain: "Um... Guild Leader Hela."

The petite Hela slowly raised her head, looking at him through narrowed eyes. Just being looked at by her made Pia's whole body tremble slightly.

[Beast] Hela was truly terrifying. Keep in mind, he was a third-tier warrior about to reach fourth tier...

Her eyes bore extremely strange black patterns that extended from the corners toward her temples. The inner black patterns seemed to merge into her white eyeballs. Like a beast entering hunting mode. Extremely ghostly. Under those soul-capturing eyes, one would unconsciously overlook her delicate features.

Pia endured his fear and continued: "I need to inform you in advance, a team has already entered the Monster Rift, they..."

"Hmm... no need to continue." She calmly interrupted Pia, withdrew her gaze, and walked forward with elegant steps.

When she walked, her body had no ups and downs. It even made people wonder if she had human legs under that dress.

Suddenly, she stopped. Because something ahead prevented her from walking further.

"Magic?" She looked up at the purple barrier flowing in mid-air.

The barrier was decorated with purple stardust, flowing slowly with consciousness. Like having awareness, it kept moving with Hela's gaze.

The barrier wasn't particularly solid, just enough to stop those third-tier independent adventurers. But the construction of this barrier was very intricate. Hard to break through.

"Interesting," she mused. "Whoever went inside must be a very powerful mage."

Hela's eyebrows suddenly sank, her pupils becoming vertical. A bone spear broke through the yellow ground, shooting straight up and striking the barrier.

Boom!

Under this powerful strike, the barrier trembled. Before the vibrations stopped, a second bone spear erupted from deep underground. It targeted the same position and attacked again.

One, two, three times.

Crack—

The barrier finally couldn't withstand the powerful pressure and completely shattered. It transformed into falling white fragments, gradually crumbling from the air. The purple stardust floated in the air, slowly dissipating.

Including Pia and the other independent adventurers, they stood dumbfounded looking at the broken barrier. That barrier that had stopped all of them was broken so easily? So this was... the strongest guild's leader, [Beast] Hela?

Hela gently closed her fan, and the bone spears retracted back into the ground. She looked at where the spears had withdrawn, frowning in thought.

Although she hadn't used her full power, it still took several strikes of normal fourth-tier attacks to break through? Thinking of what the Crown Prince had told her, she grew more curious.

Something must have appeared in the Monster Rift to attract such powerful beings. Her strange eyes seemed to show a hint of excitement.

Hela didn't turn around, but glanced back with her peripheral vision.

"Oh, right, right," she said. "Although the barrier is open now, you still need to behave."

Hela narrowed her eyes again, using her fan to cover her delicate nose. The patterns at her eye corners seemed to extend into spikes, and a cold feeling shot out from her gaze.

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"Very dangerous monsters will appear inside. Don't try to sneak in, okay?"

Behind her, those burly adventurers hoisted their giant axes, shouldered their chain hammers, and flexed their muscles as they stepped on the ground. With a snort, they took heavy steps into the Monster Rift.

When they passed the gate guards, the guards didn't even try to stop them, just letting them through.

Hela very politely bowed slightly to the guards, leading her adventurers into the purple void.

Dangerous monsters?

Hearing Hela's final words, the adventurers remaining around the rift trembled involuntarily.

"Should we go back?"

"Yeah..."

It seemed this was no longer something independent adventurers like them could participate in.

Pia didn't want to stay either, though he still wanted to catch a glimpse of that cold knight with silver hair.

But...

The princess's army and the arrival of the [Beast] Guild all spoke to today's special nature.

He planned to quickly return to the city and spread this as gossip.

But just as everyone was preparing to leave, suddenly he stopped in his tracks.

As someone nearly at fourth tier, he was the first to sense the changes in the surroundings.

The gentle breeze gradually ceased.

The previously clear sky suddenly grew dark.

The sun seemed to be blocked by something, its brilliant light gradually fading.

The adventurers also sensed the strangeness.

When the sun disappeared, they couldn't help but look up.

At some point, heavy dark clouds had completely covered the sky.

And they hadn't even noticed.

Normally, such weather would often stir up gusts of gloomy wind.

But now the surroundings were completely silent.

More adventurers began noticing this point.

"What's going on? Why did it get so dark?"

"Hiss, strange, why isn't it cooling down with such dark clouds?"

"Where's the wind? Why did the wind stop?"

They walked while discussing these puzzling changes.

But suddenly.

"ROAR—"

A deep dragon's roar echoed from deep within the dark clouds, spreading across the vast land.

A pressure even more shocking than those top adventurers instantly hung over everyone's heads.

Neither Pia nor the other adventurers could control their trembling bodies.

They struggled to raise their heads and look again at the increasingly black sky.

It was a pitch-black body.

Occupying the entire cloud layer.

As if looking down on the insects below with contempt, it revealed its two eyes.

At this moment...

All the winds seemed to exist solely to support its body.

They suddenly recalled Hela's recent words.

Terrible monsters would appear in the Monster Rift?

What a joke!

No matter what appeared inside the rift, but right now...

That which could be called terrifying.

Was crouching above their heads.

Crouching in the clouds.

...

Beyond the void appeared a strange alternate space.

This place was completely different from the tenth floor of the Monster Rift, with no writhing flesh or surging rifts.

The surroundings were filled entirely with uniform cyan stone slabs, covering the entire space in a layer.

Strange reliefs were carved into the surrounding stone slabs, combining together to appear extremely bizarre.

Viktor stood on the empty stone slabs, looking at the fallen monster corpses beside him.

Various unnameable monsters lay fallen here, sharp bones piercing through flesh to expose internal organs, sprawled messily on the ground.

The hard horns on their heads were broken, scattered in pieces across the floor.

Those monster corpses burned with unceasing flames.

Viktor stood calmly in place, not moving even half a step.

This was the trial challenge of the tenth floor of the Monster Rift.

Within the Monster Abyss, every tenth floor had a hidden challenge.

One only needed to find that hidden "door" to unlock the corresponding challenge.

And each floor's challenge had corresponding requirements.

Additionally, there was no need to worry about whether increasing levels would reduce the difficulty.

The higher the level, the higher the monster levels in the trial.

The difficulty wouldn't change, as the trial would make corresponding adjustments for players.

The tenth floor trial, which was the first trial of the Monster Abyss.

Its requirement was—

Clear all monsters in this place without taking any damage.

A total of five waves of monster hordes.

At this moment, Viktor had endured to the final wave.

In the previous four waves, he had been surrounded by countless monsters but hadn't taken even a scratch.

Not even his windbreaker had been torn.

Composed, calm, elegant.

'Another familiar feeling, as if having challenged this thousands of times before.'

Watching Viktor, such thoughts arose in Vega's mind.

The last time in the Heritage Temple of the Far North, it had similar thoughts.

At this time, Vega slowly raised its head, as if sensing something.

"They came quite quickly."

Viktor didn't respond, but quietly watched as the surrounding walls began to twist.

Behind the stone slabs, one remnant after another appeared, countless different parts linking together endlessly in the air until forming complete bodies.

The monster landed on the floor, moving its assembled body, and howled at Viktor.

Then, in mid-air, thousands upon thousands of miscellaneous limbs continued linking together amid blood.

The monster horde appeared out of thin air this way.

This final wave of the horde had reached unprecedented numbers.

"Is that so."

Viktor's voice softly sounded, and suddenly, his windbreaker seemed filled with magic power, beginning to flutter wildly.

Several fire-red stripes lit up, covering the entire garment.

The stripes not only flowed on the windbreaker, but even climbed onto Viktor's body.

On the back of that windbreaker, a pair of monster-like fire-red eyes lit up.

Almost instantly, the surrounding temperature began rapidly rising along with his changes at an obvious speed.

The ground covered in stone slabs seemed to be covered by streaks of red magic power...

"""