6 Chapter 6
After Zephyr falls down, who knows how deep, the area is completely dark. He can feel his falling speed is very fast. This kind of height is more than enough for him to experience death a dozen times.
What kind of place did he fall into? At such a terrifying depth, he guessed that he should have reached the sea level. This kind of sinkhole defies logic as he was still in a beginner village, not on a hidden map.
But no matter what, with Zephyr falling at this height, death is certain. Inside Zephyr's eyes, weak dots of light started to appear. Zephyr was a bit surprised and then became certain.
Zephyr looked downward. If it were another player, their face would be pale because they were about to fall from such a height, but not him. He looked calmly at the source of light.
At the same time, a change started to occur in the surrounding airflow. Zephyr is almost reaching the bottom of the pit. Zephyr wasn't afraid as his pain sensitivity was set to zero.
Zephyr gathered all his concentration. He took a deep breath. He released [Frost Light Slash] to propel himself upward.
BAM!
[You have suffered 1,018 damage.]
The Zephyr smashed heavily onto the extremely hard ground. He felt his entire body was shaking. At that instant, he even felt his internal organs were shaking. His HP was reduced to 2 HP left.
"I almost died."
Zephyr mumbled as he immediately scanned his surroundings. Zephyr who was guaranteed to die, escaped death with a sliver of luck.
The sores on his body are starting to dissipate. Zephyr stood up, looking at his surroundings. This is the bottom of the abyss. It should be impossible for any light to pass through here. But there is a strange hazy white light, allowing Zephyr to clearly see a dozen meters in his surroundings. Zephyr observed for a while before confirming.
Zephyr was surrounded by a wall, the top of which could not be seen. He pressed the wall, and it felt cold due to the lack of sunlight.
Zephyr suddenly fell in thought, 'How am I supposed to go back?' Above is a wall of rock that has a height that cannot be estimated. Under this situation, death is the only way, but Zephyr didn't want to die, not even if it could teleport him back to the Beginner Village.
Zephyr thought maybe there was something he could gain in here, as he thought it was very cliche to find a treasure in this well hidden place. Zephyr's eyebrows tightened. He walked calmly and at a slow pace. Suddenly, his footsteps stopped, turning his body and glancing at a wall. He moved forward towards it.
Zephyr remained motionless, staring at the wall in front of him.He reached his hands out, touching the wall.
The part of the wall that is thin instead of a stone wall. It would be better to say it was a thick pile of dust that had accumulated for a long time. When Zephyr touched it, slightly applying pressure, the wall of dust collapsed.
In front of him, a pitch-black unknown place appeared.
'This is amazing. What is this?' Zephyr felt an intense curiosity instead of fear, as it was an unknown. After the wall collapsed, the wall turned out to be a door.
The door can't be naturally formed. Zephyr was sure that it was made by someone. The so-called wall is not a real wall. The debris that was floating in the air was simply not dust. He affirmed that the debris in his foot was clearly a wooden door.
It was simply rotting because of the long time it existed, and then being covered by a layer of dust after a long time, making it camouflage like the surrounding wall. Because it was already rotten, just a small push was enough to make it crumble.
'To think that there used to be a life that lived here before and, from the look of it, this place seemed to be abandoned.'
Just as he stepped in, a notification appeared in front of him.
[You have discovered the hidden dungeon, 'Forgotten Cave'.]
[You are the first to make this discovery.]
[You have made an achievement that is not easily accomplished. Additional karma will be provided.]
[You have acquired 100 karma.]
[You have acquired 150 additional karma.]
[All experience gained inside the dungeon will be doubled for the next 5 days.]
[The item drop rate inside the dungeon has also doubled for the next 5 days.]
He was glad as he confirmed his previous speculation earlier, but the next notification left Zephyr confused and wary.
[Transcend Yourself] (S-rank Quest)
★Hidden Quest★
Fight against 100 men and emerge victorious. Prove to yourself that you are a strong warrior.
The challenger's skills and items were sealed, and their stats were fixed at 10. The challenger would also be blindfolded.
Quest Reward: Unknown]
Zephyr's eyes narrowed, looking at the quest. He was intrigued by an S-ranked quest of absurd difficulty, but he was also curious about the reward.
It was a cruel quest that imposed harsh limitations on the player while forcing them to simultaneously fight 100 gladiators!
Plus, it was a single blind challenger versus 100 sighted gladiators.
Zephyr didn't chicken out of it as he was curious about how it felt to fight 100 people at once with an intense restriction. He glanced at his remaining HP for a while and accepted the quest.
[Beginning the Fight Against 100 Men.]
[Please select the item that you will use in the Forgotten Cave.]
There was a chest containing a variety of weapons in front of him. A double-edged sword, a spear, a single-edged sword, a dagger, etc.
Zephyr didn't think much as he picked a one-handed steel sword. After picking his weapon, Zephyr took a deep breath and focused himself.
[As per the contract, your items, skills, and sight are sealed away. All stats are set to 10.]
[On 5. 4. 3. 2. 1., the Fight Against 100 Men will begin.]
[Begin!]
His stats were back almost at level 1 and he felt his body becoming heavy. However, he didn't complain like he didn't care at all.
His sight went black as if he was wearing a blindfold.
'Think of it as training.'
Though he couldn't see what was in front of him, he felt calm. Zephyr heightened his senses to the maximum.
Then, his shoulder felt cold. Zephyr slightly pulled his shoulder back and, guided by his intuition, thrust his sword.
[The target has died!]
His stab was a clean hit.
[99 gladiators left.]
Even though he was blinded, Zephyr could still see the system notifications as they were linked to his consciousness itself.
'Gladiators'? It feels like I'm fighting in an arena. ' Zephyr thought as he continued to focus on his senses to his limit.
****
'I've pretty much figured out the layout of this place.'
As he fought against the gladiators, Zephyr approximated the layout of the area, despite being blinded.
The area was about the size of a basketball court, and he was surrounded by walls. There were no obstacles, at least any that were out of the ordinary, and the ground was just hard rocks.
Zephyr sensed a gladiator approaching him. Due to his high intuition, Zephyr was able to simultaneously dodge and counterattack.
[The target has died!]
[51 gladiators left.]
[Stamina remaining: 10%]
Due to his vitality being reduced, Zephyr is starting to feel the fatigue of continuing.
'I should wait for them to come to me.'
The lower one's stamina, the more their abilities drop. When one's stamina reaches 0, they become paralyzed making one unable to move.
Zephyr stayed in place, waiting for the gladiators to attack him. If they didn't attack him, then he'd replenish his stamina. If they did, he'd minimize his movements and counterattack.
He felt cold! Zephyr leaned to the side and counterattacked, thrusting his sword into their neck.
[The target has died.]
[You have defeated 50 gladiators. The remaining gladiators will now attack more cautiously.]
"Hooh."
The gladiators stopped attacking. Zephyr gradually replenished his stamina. However, decreasing their numbers has made the fight much harder than before.
The lower their numbers became, the harder the fight got. When there were 40 gladiators left, 2 of them would attack front and back.
When there were 20 gladiators left, four of them would attack him simultaneously.
Another of Zephyr's swords felled another of the gladiators.
[10 gladiators left. The gladiators are enraged and will come at you quicker and more fiercely than before.]
His HP remained at only 2 points as he didn't let a single attack hit him as it would be game over. Before he knew it, the 1 versus 100 had become the 1 versus 10.
The gladiators attacked from every direction. His entire body felt cold! There was no way he could block their attacks, so he rolled onto the floor. However, his stamina sharply diminished.
But he didn't just sit there and take it. Zephyr swung his bat low as if he were sweeping the ground.
Thud!
His hand felt something. One of the gladiators had fallen onto the ground. Zephyr bent down, assuming a low posture, and swung his sword.
Whack!
[9 gladiators left.]
No time to celebrate.
The gladiators continued their assault. They were stabbing at him while he rolled onto the floor. Zephyr would continue to roll on the floor for some time.
* * *
The Fight Against 100 Men
It felt as if he was walking a thin line and was constantly falling. Despite that, with his intense concentration, Zephyr was able to reach the final level of the quest.
He felt a tingling feeling in his sword hand.
[1 gladiator left.]
"You have my respect," the final gladiator said. "I'd like to fight you fair and square. Restore your HP and stamina to full.I won't attack before then. "
His kindness made Zephyr smirk.
'I can use this...'
He thought of a great idea.
"Thank you for your kindness, oh great gladiator."
A Zephyr plopped onto the ground. Once he started resting, he began to replenish his stamina rather quickly. Zephyr, having replenished both his HP and stamina, stood up.
Zephyr grabbed his weapon. He rushed over.
Clash.
Clang!
Their swords clashed against each other. Then, Zephyr threw something at the gladiators' faces.
The dust on the ground.
"Ugh."
The dust had gone right into the gladiator's eyes. When he heard him groan, Zephyr thought in his mind.
'Just as planned!'
Zephyr then thrust his sword towards the heart.
Stab!
What a nice sound. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It was probably a critical hit, with shards of red light scattered about.
"Y-You..." the gladiator, infuriated, said, having fallen to the ground. He couldn't accept how underhanded Zephyr was, but Zephyr didn't care. He was fighting blindly the whole time in the first place. Why would he care if it was foul?
The Fight Against 100 Men was, in essence, a dogfight. There were no rules to speak of, and there was no such thing as foul play.
All that mattered was winning!
However, the gladiator was too stupid and dumb. To think he would seek an honorable, one-on-one fight in a dogfight. Zephyr had merely taken advantage of his weakness, his stupidity.
[You have defeated the final gladiator.]
[You have conquered the fight against 100 men.]
Finally!
Zephyr had completed the quest, the quest that would surely cause so many players to despair and that had a 0% success rate.
[You have completed the hidden quest 'Transcend Yourself.']
[Damage received: 0]
Grade: SSS
300% completion rate.]
[You have made an achievement that is not easily accomplished. Additional karma will be provided.]
[You have acquired 500 karma.]
[You have acquired 750 additional karma.]
Zephyr waited for a while as the system paused as it seemed to calculate the reward for him because of his high completion rate. After waiting for a while, a notification appeared. It is another quest, a chain quest.
[Trial of the Sword Saint].
The Sword Saint is the strongest Combat Legendary Class. Only the greatest swordsman can hope to wield such power.
Are you qualified to follow in their footsteps?
Overcome the trial of the Sword Saint and prove your worth.
Difficulty: unknown.
Conditions: Transcend Yourself SSS Completion Rate.
Hidden Class Change as a Reward
Failure: Transcend Yourself reward is no longer valid.]
'Hidden class change!'
As hidden classes were so difficult to attain, it was common knowledge that they were much more powerful than normal classes. However, the one in front of Zephyr was stated as the strongest Combat Legendary Class.
