The Gravity Vault slowly dissolved around him.
The crushing pressure vanished first, followed by the metallic walls. The entire trial chamber seemed to melt away into countless motes of light before Kael found himself standing inside the familiar pink start room once more.
He barely spared it a glance.
The moment the transportation completed, he immediately selected the next floor.
A flash of light swallowed his vision.
When it faded, Kael found himself standing inside a massive stone hallway.
The corridor stretched endlessly ahead, splitting into countless pathways that disappeared into darkness.
A notification screen appeared before him.
After skimming through the information, Kael quickly understood the nature of the challenge.
A maze.
He had to navigate through the labyrinth, solve various obstacles along the way, and eventually locate the exit.
Kael immediately sighed.
"What a boring trial."
He wanted monsters.
He wanted combat.
He wanted something he could punch.
Not this.
What Kael didn’t realize was that his rapidly increasing strength was beginning to affect his mindset.
Every day his power grew at an absurd pace, faster than he could keep up with. And there was no opponent to test his new strength.
Without realizing it, he had started to crave things.
He craved to test himself.
He desires to fight, to challenge stronger opponents.
If left unchecked, it wouldn’t be surprising if he eventually became a complete battle maniac.
Thankfully, he wasn’t there yet.
For now.
With another sigh, Kael stepped into the maze.
Thirty minutes later, he was regretting every life decision that had brought him here.
"This place is complete bullshit."
The maze was far more complicated than he had initially expected.
Every corridor looked identical.
Every intersection led to three more intersections.
Every pathway seemed determined to confuse him.
At one point Kael was almost certain he had passed the same hallway four separate times.
In hindsight, he probably should have marked the walls.
Unfortunately, he only thought about that after spending half an hour wandering around like a lost tourist.
By the time he finally located the exit, he felt like celebrating.
Then he discovered the exit was locked.
Kael stared at the door.
The door stared back.
"..."
"..."
"Of course."
Apparently finding the exit wasn’t enough.
The tower had decided to be annoying.
He now had to solve several riddles and puzzles before the door would open.
And the clues?
Scattered throughout the entire maze.
Kael nearly considered violence as a solution.
Unfortunately, the tower didn’t seem willing to accept that answer.
He wouldn’t exactly call himself stupid.
But genius?
Definitely not.
At best he considered himself moderately intelligent.
Even with his absurd Intelligence stat, puzzles remained puzzles.
Numbers didn’t magically grant wisdom.
Thankfully his Cataloguer title helped tremendously.
The enhanced comprehension and near-photographic memory allowed him to remember many of the clues he had encountered while wandering around.
Without that advantage, he suspected he might have remained trapped inside the maze for several more hours.
Eventually, however, the final puzzle was solved.
The locked door opened.
And Kael escaped before the tower could decide to ask him another riddle.
The moment the trial ended, he immediately proceeded to the next floor.
Then the next.
And the next.
Floor after floor blurred together.
Some required combat.
Others required survival.
A few tested reaction speed.
One involved dodging traps.
Another involved protecting a crystal from waves of monsters.
Kael cleared them all with frightening efficiency.
At this point, his attributes had become absurd compared to the average Awakener.
Combined with his combat experience from the future, most challenges simply couldn’t keep up with him.
Before long, he found himself sitting in the center of the start room once more.
Only this time, things were different.
Floor Nine had been completed.
The next challenge awaiting him was Floor Ten.
The first boss floor.
Kael sat quietly for several moments.
Unlike earlier, he didn’t immediately rush forward.
Instead, he took the opportunity to recover.
Boss floors were never something to take lightly.
Especially not on Hell Difficulty.
With a thought, he opened his status screen.
---
[Name: Kael Voss]
[Title: Cataloguer]
[Class: Void Sovereign]
[Class Perks: Void Absorption, Null Field, Sovereign Claim, Echo Strike]
[Skills: Eye Of Judgment(SSS), Interference(SSS)]
[Level: 47] [99%]
[Health: 33,977]
[Mana: 25,800]
•—Stats—•
[Strength: 1,240]
[Agility: 1,580]
[Endurance: 2,000]
[Intelligence: 1,720]
[Vitality: 1,106]
[Constitution: 1,156]
•—Stat Points: 320—•
•—TC Balance: 59,034,000—•
•—Talent: Infinite Reward Multiplier—•
---
Kael stared at the screen and couldn’t help smiling.
Honestly?
His current status was ridiculous.
A week ago he had been an ordinary human.
Now he was looking at stats that could make veteran hunters cry themselves to sleep.
He felt powerful.
Overwhelmingly powerful.
Yet despite that confidence, he wasn’t careless.
His future self had died on a boss floor.
Floor Fifty.
A memory he had no intention of repeating.
Boss monsters were different.
They weren’t simply stronger enemies.
They were often unique creatures with abilities capable of turning impossible situations into nightmares.
And this was Hell Difficulty.
There was no telling what kind of nonsense the tower had prepared this time.
After resting for several minutes, Kael finally stood.
His knuckles cracked.
A grin appeared on his face.
"Alright."
"Let’s see what you’ve got."
The next moment he selected the floor.
Space distorted.
The start room vanished.
When Kael regained his footing, he found himself standing inside an enormous chamber.
The atmosphere immediately felt wrong.
Heavy.
Oppressive.
The air itself seemed saturated with dread.
Ancient stone walls rose high into darkness while flickering torches cast long shadows that danced across the chamber.
A cold mist curled around the floor.
The center of the room housed a massive platform covered in intricate glowing runes.
The symbols pulsed faintly like the heartbeat of some sleeping monster.
A chilly wind swept through the chamber.
Kael’s hair shifted slightly.
Then a notification appeared.
---
[FLOOR 10 (Boss Chamber) — HELL DIFFICULTY]
[Mission: Survival]
[Objective: Survive the waves of the boss monster.]
[Warning: The boss monster’s strength increases with each wave.]
---