NOVEL NEXT B1 | Chapter 16 - Roadblock
Alexia Knight
I can’t help but smile when I finally get out of the maze who knows how many hours later. Surprisingly, the maze wasn’t all that dangerous to me. It was mostly just a pain to make it through.
But now that I’m finally out of there, I begin walking towards the tunnel across from the maze’s exit I just passed through. Although I’m still curious as to why I haven’t seen any of those scythids.
Unless the things were slaughtered by something else? I can definitely see those spiders snacking on them.
I glance at the leaderboards as I walk.
[#1 Alexia Knight – 253 points]
[#2 Lucas Nightshade – 227 points]
[#3 Aurora Frost – 201 points]
[#4 Leif Eriksson – 195 points]
[#5 Leonidas Silver – 187 points]
[#6 Isabella d'Aragon – 185 points]
[#7 Alexander Frost – 174 points]
[#8 Noah Kowalski – 173 points]
[#9 Nathan Briar – 169 points]
[#10 Damien Black – 165 points]
Hmm. Looks like the Hound started closing the gap a little bit.
I wonder what Tutorial block they’re in? Certainly hope it’s not mine.
That guy’s bad news. Even after being reset I can’t see him as being anything but dangerous.
The man is famous for having singlehandedly burned an entire empire to the ground with everyone still inside of it after he went insane one day. Why he went insane is completely unknown to anyone. Just that he was perfectly fine one moment, then the next he snapped and torched the entire empire in a single strike that turned the continent they dominated into a wasteland.
He was never really seen after that though. This is the first I’ve heard of him since.
Once I enter the tunnel, I can tell that everything suddenly got a lot darker. Even if I can still see perfectly fine.
But despite that, I still don’t see any monsters. So I continue walking while wondering just what the Hound might try doing in the new dimension.
A frown crests my face as I hear a strange chittering sound.
I raise my glaive in the direction of the sound before turning the corner and finding a large scythid. One at a much higher level than the ones I had seen earlier.
{Lesser Scythid – Level 27}
Oh, shit.
This thing is eight levels above me.
It’s also just staring at me without moving for some reason. So I tilt my head with a frown in confusion.
Then it sprints forward out of nowhere, raising one of its scythed limbs and slashing it down towards me, not giving me any time to block it as the blade goes straight in and out of my arm where the armor isn’t covering, cutting down into my bone and making me scream out in pain. But I manage to push through it anyways thanks to pain resistance and my own training with Gramps as I quickly and forcefully cut off my own scream and swing my glaive up with my right arm – the uninjured one – cutting into its arm as well.
Its arm turns out to barely be attached though, and is severs without much trouble, making the creature let out a scream to match my own. Then I push through the pain to raise my left arm before sending a few quantum bolts into the thing, blasting open its side and sending it flying onto the ground.
Even after that, the creature still manages to survive. Although it can’t seem to get up or move.
So I reach my glaive forward before cutting off its other arm from a safer distance and then stepping forward to cut off its head, finally killing it.
[Level 27 Lesser Scythid Defeated. User’s earned EXP has been increased due to killing a being whose level is five or more higher than their own.]
[Nine points have been earned for killing a creature eight levels above you.]
{Congratulations! You have leveled up to level 20! Your Species has awarded you +2 VIT, +2 DEX, +2 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN. Your Class has awarded you +1 VIT, +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 MAG, and +2 MEN.}
[*New Active Skill* – Quantum Reversal: Revert time on just the user’s body, reversing a limited amount of damage in an instant along with the effects of the damage. The price of the skill scales with the amount of damage and the skill’s level, and wounds that would be considered fatal by the System are only partially reversible. Skill is automatically slotted due to free open slots.]
My eyes widen at the sudden time reversal skill before I immediately use it, making the wound on my arm suddenly open up wider as I scream even louder than before only for it to close all at once as I drop to my knees, holding my arm.
Fuck that hurt!
It doesn’t just reverse the damage. The skill reverses time itself, so I have to reexperience the pain and any healing that had happened since getting the wound as well. Which would certainly explain why the System gave a time reversal skill at such a low level.
I glance at my status before my mouth drops open in shock.
Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T1)
Level: 20 Class: Quantum Reaper
Soul: 402/1687.5
VIT: 58 DEX: 58 STR: 58 MAG: 77 MEN: 77
Racial Skills Active Skills
Passive Skills General Skills
And I guess that makes the skill balanced. Just reversing a single wound reaching down to the bone cost me about a thousand soul at an estimate.
I honestly could’ve just waited for it to heal on its own. Probably would’ve only taken about three or four hundred soul to do that.
Then again, the price should drop when the skill levels, so it’s not completely useless.
Will be a pain to level though. Literally.
More chittering sounds echo from down the tunnel, following which I see four more of the things rushing around the corner, likely looking to investigate all the screaming.
{Lesser Scythid – Level 27}
{Lesser Scythid – Level 28}
{Lesser Scythid – Level 26}
{Lesser Scythid – Level 27}
Oh, heellll no!
I immediately turn around and begin running while occasionally sending quantum bolts at the running scythids to slow them down, seeing as they’re already faster than me. And the moment I make it back to the maze area, feeling everything grow brighter again, I glance behind me, just to find the scythids disappearing the moment they pass through the barrier between areas.
Wait… what?
Before I can move forward to investigate, the scythids suddenly appear again while walking further into the tunnel, only to turn around and make chittering sounds at me for a few seconds.
Huh.
Wait a second, could this area be off limits to them for some reason? Maybe to keep them from ending up lost in the maze and killing the spiders?
If I had to guess, they’re being teleported to the other side of the maze. And they’ll probably be teleported past the boss room too, which would explain why I never saw any of the scythids back there.
Although these ones are too high in level compared to the first ones I saw.
I frown at the thought as the bugs continue staring at me, once in a while making chittering sounds in anger.
A few seconds of staring later, I raise both of my hands again to send a quantum bolt at them, only for it to vanish when it hits the border between areas.
Yeah, didn’t expect that to work.
The bugs let out a huff – which I didn’t realize they could do – before turning around and quickly beating a retreat through the tunnel.
Hmm. This could be a problem.
How am I going to get through this tunnel? Hunt them one by one?
That seems like the only possible action. Just to hunt them one by one until I reach their level, running back into this area whenever I get overwhelmed.
Guess the time reversal skill does help a lot in regard to speeding up a major wound’s healing process, even if it costs more soul in the end. Means I can get rid of a crippling injury faster. Something that can mean the difference between life and death in a given situation.
Anyways, I look at the tunnel for a moment before walking over to a random rock and lying down.
Nothing to do now but wait for my soul to regenerate. Because monsters don’t tend to respawn naturally in dungeons until the instance of the dungeon is complete.
There might still be a spider left alive though, so I should stay awake.
Which means waiting a couple hours staring at the ceiling.
Fun.