Chapter 50: The Calamity-Level Monsters
As soon as Stark clicked on the golden panel with the legendary skill, he was surrounded by a golden aura that made all of his body tingle slightly.
Even his eyes and pupils were blazing with that same golden aura, a proof that what he was getting was truly a LEGENDARY skill.
Legendary skills are only the 5th type out of the 8 available, but they were still incredible, and nobody that was only level 16 could even dream of having one as it would take either reaching a high level, buying a skill scroll, or getting lucky inside of a rift.
In all cases, most classifiers Stark's age wouldn't get one any time soon.
Soon enough, the panel that explained the skill appeared before him, and Stark could only read in excitement.
…
[Skill: Double Assault]
[Type: Legendary]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Upon activating this skill, all of your stats double in numbers, making you a beast in the battlefield, it only lasts ten seconds, but it should be enough to make both people and monsters fear you, cooldown is 20 minutes.]
…
"Holy…" Stark smiled, this was an incredibly interesting skill, and although it only lasted ten seconds, it was still a fair amount of time in a battle to deal damage and reverse the tides.
Maybe if he had such a skill in hand before, then Orasio wouldn't have died…
'No,' Stark shook his head, 'What had to happen happened, now I need to live.'
[One last question]
A transparent panel appeared, different than the ones with the rewards.
'…?'
[Were these rewards worth the death of the others?]
Stark read the panel a few times before looking at the new skill he had acquired, his now giant HP pool, and the items on the bed.
He grinned, "Yeah, it was pretty damn worth it."
[Interesting =)]
And so it disappeared afterward.
"Spatial Inventory," he called out the name of his extremely convenient skill, and the void appeared beside him, he put every single item on his bed except for the [The Purgatory Shadows] ring as it was useful and he could wear it currently with his level.
He also pulled out the [Crystalheart Band] from it, he had kept it inside his void since the required level was 15, but now that he leveled up, he was able to wear it.
…
[Item:] Crystalheart Band
[Type:] Ring
[Class:] Domination
[Tier:] Epic
[Required Level:] 15
[Quality:] Excellent
[Attributes:] +50 Health, +40 Mind, +10 to all other stats
[Special Perks:] Grants the wearer a shield that absorbs 10% of incoming damage.
[Note:] This ring is a passive so the damage you receive is reduced by 10% the moment you wear it.
…
He wore the two rings on two of his fingers, allowing them to link with him and for their perks to be active.
'That's done for at least,' he jumped on his bed, fighting four (more if you considered that there were two shadows and the conjoined siblings?) bosses in a row was exhausting.
Immediately, he grabbed his phone to check the time.
Bur right as he started it up…
"WARNING, WARNING!"
A red screen appeared on it, and a woman's panicked voice shouted.
"We just have reported the appearance of a calamity-level monster inside of Fellarburg!"
"There have been three other cases in the world these past few hours, if you are in Fellarburg, please refrain from going outside and seek refuge!"
"It has been reported that the amount of casualties is already in the thousands, and experts are actively trying to kill those beasts, as well as find their origins, but it has been years since they have been appearing, yet no one seems to know how."
Stark's eyes immediately widened as he heard the message and saw the pictures of the beasts in question: a giant, humanoid creature with glowing red eyes, horns, and a terrifying scowl, it had giant dark wings, and it used them to fly wherever it wanted at incredible speed, as well as a giant crimson shield.
But there was one single thing that allowed Stark to confirm what he feared: the monster in Fellarburg had a burn mark on its face at the exact same spot of Orasio's.
And that's when he remembered those words.
[It is either you complete the trial or… become one of 'them']
Not completing the trial didn't cause death, instead you turned into one of these calamity-level beasts that caused havoc in the city/country.
Monsters in this world were spread across ten categories: Fodder, Weak, Normal, Strong, Elite, Boss, Calamity, Immortal, Universal, Divine.
And now, all four participants of the trial except for Stark, had turned into one of these things, and their appearances were widely different from one another.
"…" Stark's face was cold as he turned on his television and saw the reports of whatever was going on, the pictures of classifiers fighting the beasts across the screen, all the world watching in terror.
And with that, Stark had realized that time inside the trial moved just like in real life, meaning that he hadn't been gone for more than ten hours that such a disaster occured.
All the others calamity monsters had been taken care of by now, except for Orasio, who relentlessly blocked all the attacks using his shield, he was avoiding conflict and using his wings to fly somewhere nobody knew off.
Nobody… except for Stark, because deep down, he knew that Orasio was coming for him.
~FWISH~
An arrow came hurtling toward the transformed Orasio's head, and he succumbed to the attack.
Lana's father, the Archer King, was the one responsible for getting rid of the monster after being called, and he had done his job.
But before falling to the ground, Orasio used his last bit of willpower to scream something incomprehensible to most.
"CHOOOOSEEEEENNNNN!!!!"
There was fury in his eyes, but soon enough he fell.
It was Stark's code name in the trial, and all he could do was watch with a blank expression as his companion died.
"It seems like all the monsters were taken care of for now, but professionals will be on the look-out for any sign of another attack, stay safe!"
The reporter ended the diffusion, and Stark shut down his TV afterward.
"Only the strongest will survive," Stark quoted while remembering his companion's scream, it was probably the transformation that pushed him to try and find Stark, but it didn't matter.
"Anyways, less than ten hours since the trial started, meaning that ill be able to go to the meeting with Lana about that Hell-Level rift…" Stark made sense of time, he thought that days would have passed after he woke up, but luckily not.
And so Stark lay down on his bed and closed his eyes, he would need to sell some of the items he acquired that he didn't need to make money, and also get ready for whatever awaited him.
During that nap he took, Stark had a nightmare.