Chapter 189: New Deadly Perk: Private Duels
"…" Stark opened up his map and began following the arrow that pointed toward the green dot, which was the exit.
But right as he was about to turn around the corner… someone called out to him.
"HEY!" it was Yuri, the guy almost the same size as him with the scraggly hair, "Where is the 'THAT' thing?' he asked.
"…?" Stark turned around to see that Yuri had a determined look on his face, "That thing…? Oh!" he immediately understood what he meant, and so he smiled.
For some reason, the [Superior Clone] didn't follow closely behind him, maybe since it knew itself that its presence could result in chaos among the participants?
'Just come,' he ordered the clone, and suddenly…
~FWISH~
It emerged from the other side of the door.
And the moment it did…
~FWISH, VIOUM, KWICH~
Every participant activated their powers, especially Akira who had never seen it before.
The clone's aura was now even more overwhelming than before, the small strands of golden aura from [Exorcist] somehow enhanced it and making it even more powerful.
And… the clone's body was also extremely beautiful, it was glowing, and although it was completely made out of crimson aura, the small specks of holy aura made it as if there were hundreds of stars in it.
"=)" Yet that chilling and cold smile never went out.
~THUMP, THUMP~
All participants were cautious around the clone, it was quite the scary thing even for them.
Meanwhile, the [Superior Clone] just looked around before dashing toward Stark, arriving beside the original in less than a second.
"We'll be leaving, see you at the exit," he spoke as he turned the corner with his clone.
"What the fuck was that thing…?" Akira's pupils were still shaking a bit.
"We don't know, but I think I understand why Kokoro said we need to be wary of him…" Yuri added, he was biting his thumb's nails, "Anyway, I'm out of here," and he disappeared out of the thin air, leaving star particles behind as he also headed toward the exit.
~TAP, TAP~
"See you later," Kokoro taped a button on her tablet, and a blue light emerged from it, taking over her body like some sort of shield, "I hope to see you all alive later."
~FWISH~
She began to float in the air thanks to that blue light then headed toward a direction the others didn't take.
"Just us two now, heh~" Akira smiled as the beautiful white haired woman, who didn't even acknowledge his presence, "Well, we'll meet at the exit again anyway," and so he took yet another hallway.
There were at least seven different halls to take from the entrance, so pretty easy to take different paths as to not meet one another.
"…" the white-haired woman didn't move for another minute, instead looking at the ground, her eyes clearly thinking about something else, "Stark Heartsouls…" she mumbled as she finally got up and took another path as well.
***
Back to Stark, he was walking beside his clone, the two just looking ahead, while the latter obviously kept smiling.
And at the very moment everyone separated… new panels appeared before him.
[5 participants alive!]
[Welcome to the Second Sublevel: The Undead Realm]
Stark looked around, he hadn't really taken his surroundings into account, but the halls were filled with eerie purple mist that seemed to twist and coil around the walls like ghostly tendrils, and the air was heavy with the scent of decay and the sound of distant whispers echoed through the corridors.
There were some torches made out of human bones, and a blue fire coming out of them, giving the small amount of light needed to be able to see, plus the walls and floor were made out of sturdy black stones, a linear granite line in the middle of each of them.
"Just go to the exit…" he mumbled to himself as he continued following the map.
But of course… that wasn't all the panels, there was ONE missing, wasn't there…
And it was…
[New Perk!]
'Oh boy…'
[Introducing the 'Private Duel' perk!]
[It is too difficult to find another participant and kill them safely while avoiding suspicion from the others, so this perk allows you to ask for a duel with another player, and as long as they accept, you will be both put into a giant arena, away from all players and monsters, guaranteeing a fair fight!]
[Use the 'DUEL' panel to request a duel with another player, note that the duel will NOT start until both parties agree!]
[Note: when receiving a duel request, the person who requests the duel will be anonymous!]
And before he could even register what all of this was about…
[You have received a "DUEL REQUEST" from "ANONYMOUS PLAYER"!]
[Do you want to accept the duel request?]
[Y/N]
"…" someone, as soon as they saw that new perk, probably immediately sent invitations to everyone, 'Fuck that shit,' Stark didn't click neither on Y nor N, he just minimized the panel.
Stark had already a pretty giant idea of who it could be: either Yuri, the guy trying to look innocent, or Akira, who didn't hide his intentions to kill for rewards.
"=)" the clone just kept smiling, the smile on its face telling Stark it was the right thing to do, as wasting time on pointless battles wouldn't do him any good.
And so just like that, Stark continued to walk through the purple mist, trying not to bump into walls or anything of the sort since it was pretty hard to see ahead, even with the map as it didn't specifically show exactly where the turn was.
[Watch out!]
But after five minutes of nothing happening, Stark's [Focus] skill warned him, and…
~BIM, BIM, BIM~
All the eyes of the skull torches in the hall he was in lit up with a blue aura, and…
~CRUMBLE, GROWA~
From the ground below emerged dozens of undead monsters, surrounding Stark completely.
'I mean, I can just avoid them all and rush, but it would be annoying as I don't know where the walls are because of the mist, plus… it's just free experience points, isn't it =)?' Stark positioned himself as he began smiling.
"GROAOR!"
"Klklkl…"
"Ooooou…"
He heard many different noises coming from around him, but he couldn't see the monsters clearly.
"Alright, let's just get this over with," he waited for them to approach him first as to not make a fatal mistake.
It wouldn't be long until he would reach the exit of this floor anyway, so might as well take advantage of that and discover which monsters were in the 'Undead Realm', right? As it would be his only ever fight in this sublevel.