[Hidden Quest: Maxing out a stat!, has been completed!
Reward: 15,000 Gold and one passive skill card.]
"... What the heck?" Amin spoke out loud as he looked at the system screen in front of him.
He had just finished sorting out one hidden quest's rewards and another was already completed?
Smiling a bit, Amin opened his status to see his stats after he had gotten 100% CD reduction.
______________
Name: Amin sethi
Level: 7
Health: 500
Shinsu: 2200
STR: 218
DEF: 29
MAT: 16
MDF: 14
Attack speed: 0.76
Movement speed: 5.8
Crit chance: 6%
Lifesteal: 6%
Cooldown reduction: 100%
Physical attack penetration: 6
Magic attack penetration: 6
(Hidden Stats)
Dexterity: 0%
Gold: 19,694
Skill points: 12
_______________
'I still have 20k gold...' Amin didn't know what to think at that as gold has always been a bit more scarce for him to get and now that he was getting so much of it, he felt a bit unsettled.
Still, he was more then happy to have gotten more gold and he now also knew that there were two major hidden quest that would give him an enormous amount of gold though, completing them repeatedly would be hard.
Suddenly, the door to the room, Amin and the others were in, was opened and from outside, walked in a tall, blonde man who had black marks under his eyes. It was Lero ro, test examiner of the first testing area.
"Hello everyone, I would like your attention for a moment. The bonus test is about to begin and I am here to explain some things to you all."
"My name is Lero ro and I would be the test examiner for the bonus test. Now, first off, The bonus test would be held as a team battle of sorts. I would tell you about the rules a bit later but for now, please know that a team of three people can take the test together. Also, as your team is one regular short for two teams, one team would only consist of two regulars. This smaller team would be given a leverage over a rule as compensation for the unfairness in numbers but if someone still feel as if it is still unfair, they can ask to be removed from this test as this test isn't really necessary to advance the floor and is only a bonus..." Lero ro took a deep breath after explaining that and again looked at us.
"Now, does anyone have any questions? or if you want to skip this bonus test, You should also tell me now..." A blue haired boy raised his hand, he was from the trio that had also passed the first test alongside Amin and Androsi.
"Um... Mister Lero ro, what do you mean by skip the test? weren't all the test necessary to pass in order to advance a floor?" Lero ro seemed to realise something after hearing the boy's words as he spoke while rubbing his forehead.
"Ah... Please, forgive me as it seems that my memory isn't with me today... I forgot to tell you all something really important... Well, this test is called a bonus test for a reason, it is called that because this test is something that you can skip. even if you don't take this test, you would still be allowed to participate in the next test. It is all up to you all whether or not you want to participate in this bonus test. Failing this test will also not result in any disadvantages in the future tests."
"Also, Whichever team wins the bonus test will directly advance to the next floor without having to participate in any other tests, so be mindful of that before making any decisions regarding the test." This sentance stirred the regulars hearts. they were taking these tests in order to climb tower's floors and of course they wouldn't refuse to take a test that had no downside and would still help them climb to a higher floor.
All the regulars present affirmed to take this test. Lero ro nodded upon their quick response before sorting them out on two teams.
Androsi and Amin became the two man team that would also recieve the 'leverage'.
After all of that was done, Lero ro started guiding the regulars to the place where the crown game would begin. Though, While they were moving, Amin decided to check something–
'System, I want to see Lero ro's status!' Amin spoke to the system. Amin wanted to know if the status check can work on Rankers or not and if it can, then he would really like to see the difference between Regulars and rankers.
_________________
Name: Lero ro
Rank: Advance Ranker
Health: 66,000
Shinsu: 22,000
STR: 1880
DEF: 2710
MAT: 3890
MDF: 2670
________________
'What the heck?' Amin's eyebrows twitched upon seeing the status. He already expected the stats to be off the chart but he still felt uncomfortable looking at it.
Though, After he looked at the status for a second more, Amin felt that the stats were... low? Amin had extremely high expectations and felt that a ranker's stats would be extraordinarily high, but this felt a bit low to him... Still, he didn't think much of that and decided to focus on what's in front of him right now.
Lero ro led the group to the place where the test would begin and proceeded to guide them to their 'cell rooms'. These rooms had metal bars that looked like prison cells, hence the name.
After that, he went somewhere for a second and led another group of regulars to this place. After every regular team was in their cell rooms, Lero ro decided to tell them about the test.
"The bonus test that you all are participating in, is called the Crown Game. The rules of this game is as follows–"
"In a word, the Crown Game is about- 'Stealing and maintaining possession of the crown.' All teams that are participating in the game will fight each other and the last team in the possession of the crown will be the winner."
"Now, there are a bit more complicated rules, so bear with me–"
"The crown game is played over five rounds with each round lasting 10 minutes."
"No more then 5 teams can enter a round. Meaning that every round, only five teams can enter and fight for the crown while the other teams would have to watch. Also, if a team got ahold of the Crown and sits on the thrown then that team would win the round and all the other teams would be disqualified from the game."
"Hm... Oh! Also, there is an additional rule to the crown games. Well, it's more like a leverage given to a specific team as they have a disadvantage of only having two members in their team... The leverage is– that, the team that is at disadvantage, can enter any round of the crown game even if the limit of 5 teams have reached."
"In other words, the rule of 'only 5 teams entering a round' wouldn't be for them. they would have leverage around that." As Lero ro explained, some teams started complaining that this was unfair treatment and sh*t. But Lero ro only frowned as he spoke in a colder tone.
"If anyone thinks that this is unfair then they can ask to leave the game anytime. This is a bonus test, and it isn't necessary to take it to advance to the next floor." Lero ro's words stopped any protest as the entire erena fell in silence.
'He is literally a Masked men of squid games...' Amin didn't know why he thought like that but looking at Lero ro made him remember masked men from squid games who held guns at the face of the participants to make sure they follow the rules.
"Alright then let's begin! whoever wants to participate in the first round, press the buzzer near the exit of your rooms. If no one presses the buzzer withing the next five seconds, then this round will be considered as finished and we will move to the next round immediately!"
"I'll be starting the countdown now." Lero ro informed the regulars and started a five seconds countdown.
When the countdown finished, Lero ro again spoke, "Two teams decided to participate in this round..."
Two teams walked out of their rooms.
Anak, Lesso and Hatz were a team that decided to participate in the first round. Anak and Hatz were full of confidence as they walked towards the other team while Lesso was fumbling behind them as he told his two teammates how they should take it a bit more easy and whatnot.
Anak looked at the team that had also pressed the buzzer and told her team that she will deal with them, alone. Her confidence was evident from this statment but her two teammates also weren't against the idea as they knew the strength of Anak.
(A/N: Manhwa art is so stupid. I am so glad that I started tog from anime and not manhwa...) (Look at the paragraph comments)
Amin already knew what was going to happen so he wasn't really interested in looking at the fight but Androsi was extremely focused on Anak. She was watching Anak's every move.
Amin noticing that, couldn't help but ask, "You know her?"
Androsi looked at Amin for a second and decided to humar him so as to not make him depressed again, "... Hm, It's not like we met before but I had heard about her at some point in time and became slightly interested in her situation."
"I see..." Amin nodded at that without much thought. Soon, Lero ro announced the end of the first round as Amin saw Anak laying on the thrown with the crown.
The countdown for the second round started and again two teams decided to participate.
One of the team had Laure, Ho and Serena Rinnen in it. All of them were regulars that Amin recognised from the show but the other team was someone he couldn't remember so He assumed they were just some minor characters.
Laure's team went against Lesso while Hatz started fighting the other team. Though the other team was a bit too weak to hold Hatz in place and got beaten by him in a minute. Hatz then proceeded to help Lesso out as he was having some trouble dealing with the two girls from Laure's team. (Laure was sleeping).
Hatz insulted Laure after seeing how he was sleeping while his team was fighting which made Laure slightly annoyed and he finally decided to wake up and chose violence as he hurled shinsu bangs towards Anak.
Ho and Serena also started attacking Anak. Eventually, Anak got cornered and was hit by a shinsu Bang that Laure threw.
It didn't really deal any damage to Anak but it did make her angry as she decided to go on a rampage and activated her whip.
"Ignite!" That was all that everyone heard, before chaos erupted. Her whip was a weapon from the legendary thirteen month series. Named The Green April and it was an ignition weapon which also can be considered one of the best ignition weapons out there.
As the whip extended and multiplyed. it started a rampage, destroying everything in its paths. After this started, Laure's two teammates decided to give up on the match as they saw no way of winning the fight. Laure was reluctant as he tried to protest but his two teammates just carried him to their own room. This would have directly ended this round but something unexpected happened.
Anak felt the vibrations from her Green April and sensed another thirteen month series weapon nearby. She didn't even hesitate before jumping away from the crown and destroying a particular cell room.
She soon saw the Black March in the grasp of a flimsy looking boy who looked so weak that she felt like just her breath would kill him.
"That weapon," She spoke looking down at the boy as he was kneeling over.
"Hand it over." There was no room for negotiation in her voice. The boy though, didn't even think about her words, even for a second, as he tightened his grip over the weapon in plain refusal.
Before Anak could talk more, her teammates interrupted her as they demanded an explanation from her about why she left the thrown. Anak mostly ignored them and focused back on the boy kneeling.
She again demanded the weapon but this time, she also raised her Green April as if she would strick the boy down if he didn't complay to her. The thing that surprised her slightly though, was that the boy still looked fearless and unwavering as he held the Black March tightly.
He said something like the weapon was given to him by his noona or something which didn't matter to Anak.
"So be it, Die!" Seeing that the boy wasn't complying to her words, she held the Green April above her head and started swinging it down to bash the boy's head but was unable to as it was cought by someone. Looking behind in annoyance, Anak came face to face with an angry looking Lero ro who asked Anak and her team to go back to their cells as they were disqualified.
Anak seeing a ranker, stopped trying to harm Baam as that was meaningless now since Lero ro wouldn't allow it anymore so instead, she asked Lero ro to add another rule to the game.
The rule was, more or less a bet between Anak and Baam, if Baam and his team is able to win this game, then he will be able to have the Black March and the Green April but if he losses then both weapons would come to be Anak's possessions.
The rule was accepted by Lero ro quiet easily as it seemed 'interesting' to him. As her condition was accepted, Anak happily returned to her cell followed by her two not so happy teammates.
Though, while Anak was moving towards her cell, something happened that dampened her mood. Anak was crossing Amin's cell when her eyes fell on Androsi. As soon as Androsi noticed Anak looking at her, she smiled and spoke in a whisper, "Imposter!"
Anak didn't like her words a bit as she was about to start a fight but her team came to her side and stopped her. They took her to their cell as Androsi just smiled watching all that.
"Weren't you interested in her?" Amin asked. Androsi's actions weren't quite friendly and would probably make both Anak and Androsi, enemies of each other in the future. Though, Amin knew that nothing like that happened, Androsi's actions still made him puzzled as why would she even do that?
"Oh, Amin! I am just having some fun~ Besides, Fighting... sometimes leads to friendships. So don't worry too much and just watch." Androsi spoke with the same smirk that she had a while ago. Amin sighed a bit. Even though Androsi was 300+ years old, she still behaved like a 16 years old, and technically, Amin was 22. Maybe because of these differences, Amin wasn't really able to understand Androsi too well. Still, it was her choice so Amin didn't persuade her in changing her ways.
After that small interaction, Amin again focused on what was going on outside of their cage. The third round's countdown was happening.
Soon the countdown ended and the cells of four rooms opened. There was Khun's team.... And three other teams...
Amin focused on Khun's team first as he looked at the three main characters (Not really) of the tower of god. He mostly observed Baam and Khun as he had already met Rak, albeit, only briefly. Both looked exactly like how he had seen in anime. Baam looked innocent and kind while Khun looked calculative and smart...
Then, He looked at the other three teams and only recognised Aleksai, who will be a member of Lesso's team in the future.
Just as he thought that the other participants in this round would only be some minor characters, He noticed a woman with dark blue hair and brown eyes standing alongside two other people whom he ignored unconsciously.
"No way..." Amin couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at the woman that was standing there. she looked a bit sad, but overall, she was definitely the person Amin thought she was.
"Amelia!" Amin half-shouted as he held the bars of the cell room tightlily.
...
Yep, Amelia is alive. Are you disappointed? well, don't be as I have some 'not so good' plans for her. Hehehe (Evil laugh)
Hope you like the chapter!