Millions of monsters were charging in from all directions. They attacked him like a wave of pure chaos, flooding everything around him, as if they had only one reason to exist, to kill him.
The ground beneath Daniel’s feet was cracked, and the sky of the fourth floor watched this endless slaughter without any change. The massive timer above his head was still lit, its numbers slowly but constantly ticking down, as if completely unaware of all this battle.
Daniel gripped The Heavens’ Honor with both hands, and an aura of lightning and death wrapped around the blade.
He stepped forward and, with a horizontal slash, split dozens of monsters in half. Death energy was pulled out from their shattered bodies and flowed back into him for a brief moment, but that sense of power... it was no longer like before.
He continued killing and slaughtering the monsters, but it truly had no effect. No matter how many he killed, they returned to life again.
He knew that if he did not do something about this situation, everything would only get worse. But what could he do? He had tried every method he knew, yet he still had not found the true purpose of this floor.
The monsters did not hesitate.
One of them, with a body shaped like a tiger, raised its hand and released an invisible wave of the law of eternity. Space twisted. Daniel felt his balance slip for a moment, not because of an impact, but as if his "reaction time" itself had been stolen.
The next blow hit his shoulder directly, breaking through his energy armor, and warm blood flowed down his arm.
He jumped back and exhaled. He activated Mana Healing. The wound closed, but his condition was still terrible. His mana was slowly running out.
On top of that, his injuries were increasing more and more, and he was gradually reaching a point where he would not even have time to heal himself.
"...This is different from the previous ones." His voice was calm. He himself realized that he was no longer shouting, no longer attacking in anger. It felt as if something inside him had frozen.
After thinking for a long time, he understood that anger and rage were useless. No matter how furious he became, rage would not help him conquer this floor.
He attacked again. His fists were wrapped in the law of lightning, and each strike turned a monster into ash. But the moment one group was destroyed, the empty space was filled again. Not instantly, not suddenly, slowly, naturally, inevitably. Like breathing.
Hours passed, or maybe only a few minutes. Daniel was no longer sure. He had completely lost his sense of time. It felt like he had spent an eternity here, and that eternity had no end.
An eternity of torture. He had to fight an uncountable number of monsters, without any ending in sight.
He looked up. The timer was still there. The numbers had decreased, but not nearly enough. Not enough for all this fighting, all this slaughter. He felt that at least hundreds or thousands of hours should have been reduced.
But was his feeling really correct? Or was it just an illusion? Had he lost his sense of time because of all this killing?
A deep frown formed on his face.
"I’m fighting... but it feels like I’m running in place."
At that moment, a wave of monsters attacked together. One from behind, one from the side, several from the front. Daniel activated [ Demonic Twilight Shield ]. The blows landed, energy was absorbed, but the pressure was too great. The shield cracked, and Daniel was thrown backward.
He dropped to one knee. His breathing was heavy. His mana... it was obvious that it was draining faster than before.
He stood up again, but this time, he paused.
The monsters were closing in. He did not attack.
For the first time since entering this floor, Daniel simply stood there and watched. The way they moved, how they advanced without hurry, without urgency, without emotion. None of them were "rushing." None of them were fighting to win.
That was when he realized it. Until now, he had only been fighting them and had not paid attention to this at all. How could he have ignored something like this? Especially in a Pagoda where not only power, but intelligence was also tested.
"They just exist," he murmured quietly. These monsters were only fighting, attacking him without any real intent, without any purpose behind their actions.
A blow hit his side and pushed him back several steps, but his mind did not retreat. Daniel lowered his sword. Not completely, just enough to lose its aggressive stance.
"I’m killing just to make time pass."
His gaze returned to the timer.
"And this floor... is forcing me to wait for an ending."
How could he have ignored something like this? Eternity is the opposite of an ending. Eternity means there is no end. And all this time, he had been waiting for the timer to end.
So how could that make any sense? It didn’t. It was he who had ignored this small but extremely important point.
The monsters attacked again. This time, Daniel only dodged. Minimal movement, minimal energy. Attacks he could have made, he did not. Only when he was forced to, he struck, not to destroy, but to create distance.
And then it happened.
One of the monsters vanished right as it should have reached him. Using the aura of death, Daniel killed it, and to his surprise, the monster did not return. It was truly destroyed.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
He did it again. Several more monsters disappeared, and the numbers on the timer, for the first time, trembled.
"Eternity means not being trapped in before and after... it means I don’t have to think about the end," Daniel said quietly.
Just like before, the moment he understood the purpose of the floor, the mechanism of its trial finally changed. Now he could kill them, and they would not return.
[ Your understanding of the law of eternity has increased by 13% ]
However, there was still one problem. The timer was still running, and with every passing hour, the number of monsters still increased tenfold.
Even if he killed all the monsters, would they not return again after one hour? So did that mean his only choice was to wait until the timer reached zero?
Of course not.
A smirk appeared on his face, and his gaze locked onto the timer. He had figured out what he needed to do.