the stages and the stairs

"What a drag," Alex said, standing between a mountain of common and uncommon beasts.

As soon as he started walking toward the mountain, beasts began appearing out of nowhere and attacking him the moment they laid eyes on him.

The thing that bothered Alex was that after almost killing a hundred common beasts and eight uncommon ones, he didn't even get one piece of equipment, skill book, or even beast core.

The moment they died, the beast's body disappeared without a trace, as if it had never been there in the first place.

Fortunately, killing common beasts for him was as easy as breathing and uncommon beast weren't much of a challenge either.

"I think I can pass it easily at this rate," said Alex, who was now could clearly see the tallest mountain in front of him.

The mountain was so tall that Alex couldn't see its tip from where he was standing, and he was standing at least a kilometer away from it.

It was also so black that if he came at night time, he might not be able to find the mountain in the dark of the night.

Suddenly, a system notification appeared in front of him.

DING

"you have reached the black mountain; in order to climb the mountain, you have to pass 31 areas and challenge their bosses."

"do you wish to enter the first area?"

"yes/no."

Alex didn't think too much before choosing yes. He only had about 18 hours left, and if he was right, these bosses weren't going to be easy to defeat.

DING

"all your stats have been reset to 10,"

Alex felt a sudden wave of weakness enveloping his body, and when he checked his stats, all his stats were on 10.

"what the fu**, at this rate, I can't even kill a common beast; what does the system expect me to do with such a weak body?"

Fortunately, the level of his skills stayed the same and didn't reset.

But with his current mana, he couldn't activate his skills for a long period of time.

As Alex was thinking about what to do in this situation, a pack of gray wolves spawned in front of him and looked at him with fierce eyes.

They weren't much different in size from the regular wolves he had seen before but what worried him was the black one who was standing at the far end of the pack looking right into his eyes.

"f** it, the worst that can happen is dying," said Alex and brought out his epic sword and activated his skill "hollow sword."

As soon as he activated the skill, the shape of the sword started changing. A hole began forming in the middle of the sword and started expanding in all four directions until there was a hollow space in the middle of the sword's body.

Alex didn't let the wolves take the initiative as he attacked first without giving the first row of wolves time to react.

He killed the three wolves in the front row without much difficulty and ran toward the next. But the wolves didn't stay still and started moving fast, trying to surround him.

"in your dreams," Alex shouted and killed two more wolves.

They were all level ten common beasts, so killing them wasn't difficult even for the current Alex.

With his epic sword and leveled-up skills, he could even take on a level 10 uncommon beast.

Alex moved like a professional dancer in the middle of the pack of wolves without letting them take formation and killed one after the other as if they were nothing but air.

One had to remember that his skills weren't the only things he had. He also had experience. With his memories from his previous life, he could use his sword and skills in the most sufficient way possible and quickly get rid of his enemies.

It didn't even take ten seconds before Alex killed all the gray wolves. All this time, the black wolf stood in its place and just looked at the massacre in front of it without moving an inch.

But as soon as the last gray wolf died, it took action and attacked Alex with its mouth open wide.

Its speed was much faster than the other ones, and Alex could immediately tell that it was an uncommon beast.

"bring it on," Alex shouted and raised his sword in response.

As if predicting his next move, the wolf moved its body out of the sword's trajectory and went for Alex's right foot.

Unfortunately for the wolf, Alex was too experienced to fall for such petty tricks and stabbed his sword right into the wolf's head and killed it on the spot.

Of course, if it weren't for his epic sword and active skill adding to his overall DPS, he wouldn't be able to one-hit kill a level 10 uncommon beast with his current stats.

The whole battle didn't even take thirty seconds to finish.

When the black wolf's body disappeared, a golden light enveloped Alex, and his stamina and mana stats filled instantly.

He also noticed that all his stats had been improved by 5 points, and he could clearly feel his body getting stronger little by little.

Suddenly, the ground under Alex's feet shook, and a staircase started forming on the mountain.

It was as black as the mountain and extended about a hundred meters upward.

"I guess I don't need to climb the mountain itself, at least," said Alex, satisfied with the appearance of the staircase.

He approached the staircase and stepped on it, but the moment his foot touched the first stair, a wave of exhaustion made him want to sleep right then and there.

"mental attack," Alex exclaimed and took a step back, "it's going to be harder than it seems. With such low stamina, it's not surprising that I got so exhausted with such a weak mental attack."

The more stamina he had, the stronger his body's foundation would be, and in turn, his mentality would improve as well.

He took a deep breath, gathered all his courage, and stepped on the stair again.

This time, he was ready for the mental exhaustion, so it didn't affect him as much as last time, but still, he felt a strong urge to sleep.

"I… have to….. continue," Alex shouted each word, with every step he took.

It took Alex about ten minutes to climb the three hundred or so steps.

In the end, he was so mentally exhausted that he wanted to fain.

When he left the last stair, a silver light enveloped him, and he could feel his exhaustion going away completely without a trace. He could even feel a little bit of improvement in his mental state.

"wow, so much improvement just by climbing some stairs; that's too good to be true," Alex shouted in happiness while looking around, ready to attack any enemy who dared to look at him the wrong way.

As he was searching for beasts, another pack of gray wolves, with a black alpha standing at the far end, appeared a few meters away from him.

This time, the wolf's number and level were higher than last time, and Alex could see some of them were even bigger than normal wolves.

"you guys? Again? Don't you have somewhere else to be?" said Alex, taking out his sword again, "I'm going to finish you without any skills this time."

He could easily finish them off with the help of his skills in less than thirty seconds, just like the last pack, but he would lose such an excellent opportunity to practice.

He planned to use each stage as a practice ground to polish his body and make it adapt to his fighting style little by little.

If, like what he thought, his stats increased by a few points after each stage, his body would change at a faster pace, and Alex could use that to his advantage.

If Alex exhausted his body before the end of each stage, and every time his stats replenish and improve so suddenly, he could etch his fighting style into his body. Literally.

By putting his body into a constant heat and cold state, he would break and rebuild his muscles again and again until they reached their peak form.

Although these changes all happened in the SR, Alex was sure that at that moment, his physical body was also reforming too.

He couldn't wait to wake up to his new body and feel the changes firsthand.

"I won't let this chance go to waste; bring it on."

Alex raised his sword and attacked the first wolf who ran at him, but to his surprise, the wolf didn't die with one hit, and he had to attack it again to kill it.

"I guess my skills are much more powerful than I thought," he thought and went for the next.

Every time the wolves were about to surround him in a circle, Alex would run in a random direction and escape the encirclement.

Fortunately, the alpha didn't attack until all its pack was killed. Otherwise, Alex wasn't sure he could take on an uncommon beast while also killing the others.