Parallel – A Virtual Reality. - Chapter 25

The greatest difference between these and the others, besides their appearance, is that they have Mana. Magical attacks start pouring out from these, and the battles become more dynamic, making our blood boil again as it felt kind of refreshing to fight against something different.

After all, we haven’t fought against elemental creatures. Of course, there have been those that could use some magical attacks, but none had the ability to cast magic besides destructive or regenerative ones, excepting Mader

Fighting our way deeper into the dungeon, we feel that time flow of time is getting ‘shorter’. We started becoming careful, as we had already lost track of time before, but something made me feel uneasy about this entire place, so I ask Dey a question that has been on my mind.

“Dei, if we are already on the Elemental Zone, then what is next?”

“Thought you would ask that. If it was just this then the amount of people completing the place would be huge, but these are just the beginner parts” Says Dei as he continues “I can’t really reveal anything about this place, but I can at least tell you that you should always remind yourself why you are here…”

“So, there are more Zones…” Noticing his unwillingness of saying anymore, I just leave that comment and don’t push him for more.

“Yes, there are.” Says the Sword before going silent again. Knowing this information beforehand at least can makes us prepare mentally for what’s to come.

Thus, we continued, the battles are more thrilling as we have to change tactics sometimes. Our enemies this time are ‘stronger’ than before, considering that we went through a few close calls in the neutral zone, now everything has become harder.

A couple weeks go by, fighting relentlessly against stronger and stronger creatures, bȧrėly surviving sometimes when they piled up. Adapting ourselves to different situations, our means of attacks start to diversify as we become more proficient in the use of our skills.

As we advanced further, it was a matter of time that we got to the end of the zone, as the notification appeared along with a few elemental creatures in front of us.

You have entered the Probation Zone!

Cannot escape the area until it’s completed

“Can you differentiate between us?” Asks the creatures.

“Yes, we can” Answers Peko this time with a solemn look. I could feel they were resonating with the creatures, even I had a weird sensation when looking at them.

“Then, please do so” It says before disappearing and became a different creature as they merged together.

“We are one now, can you tell us, what we are?”

“The same” Answers Zenith while moving forward to them as he gets his sword out. Battle stance ready.

I start going forward too.

“And what are you?”.

“We are what we chose to be” I answer back while drawing my two swords out calmly.

“And is what you chose to be, stronger than us?” The being in front of us asks as their powers are going on rampage, increasing tumultuously.

“Of course, we are!” As we say that, we charge forward, fighting spirit soaring through the skies as we clash against the creature.

Elemental Creature Level: 325

Health: 450.000

It starts doing fire breath, and we rapidly disperse as we start attacking back. My attributes increase for some reason as I feel the flow of the elements, this whole floor has been heaven sent to me as I could feel my Elemental Enhancing increasing effortlessly.

Isa deflected many attacks and I started absorbing them with ease.

The electrical attacks came, and I wanted to test them out as I absorb them. Finding new ways to become stronger always come in handy.

‘Elemental Enhancement: Lightning’ Feeling that I had enough to try, I use it. Suddenly, everything feels in slow motion as my body moves like normal. I felt like I wasn’t restrained anymore, my attacks become faster, but my power is lower than before because I couldn’t control the speed. Even then, the speed is enough to cause huge damage on anyone. Once I adapt myself here, I will have a new card in my repertoire.

As the battle went on and on, as the enemy has high resistance to all of our attacks, I start rushing the pace against it and use Elemental Blending. For some reason, I felt that I couldn’t drag on this battle.

‘Elemental Blending, Elemental Enhancement: Fire&Lightning’

My body feels as if it is going to explode because of this. I could feel tremendous power coursing inside my body, my attacks become way stronger, but my stamina starts going down like crazy! I feel that my health points are decreasing slowly, drop by drop as my body screamed,

Everyone noticed what I am doing as I feel that the enemy would become too troublesome later, we just start going all out recklessly like a bunch of rascals. I felt my spirit thriving and my body being released by some restrains. We could synchronize our attacks even in that state as we felt that we could obliterate anything in our path.

Curses, bullets, fists, shield, swords and legs moved at lighting speed, attacking all around the monster without ceasing for a second, be it in front, behind, below or above!

“Then you shall pass” As it disappears, a new floor appears in front of us. Heaviness surround my whole body, and without thinking for a second, I fall to the floor, sprawling my whole body.

“What was that?” Asks Vladi while going near me

“Something new I just learnt… but I don’t think I can withstand it long enough…” I say while on the ground, trying to recover myself from my screaming muscles. My stamina was in the red long ago.

“But, why did you rush?”

“Well, I don’t know, I felt that I enjoyed the fight and wanted to be set loose in it. After all, we should enjoy to the fullest battles like these as they don’t come often. Also, I had a bad feeling that something bad would happen if we dragged it anymore” I say with a tired smile as my strength is slowly coming to me again.

At this, she smiles and helps me to stand again, and says “You have to tell us beforehand, if you just go by yourself then we will worry about you”

“I will” I say while looking at her eyes and then my friends, they seem depleted too, as if they released all the pent-up feelings inside of them.

“If you dragged that battle, you all would have died” Says Dei from nowhere.

“Huh? How come?” Asks Isa

“That being gets stronger as time passes as the elements it uses start growing chaotically”

“Like Light and Dark?” I ask curiously. Whenever I used those two elements together, I felt they revolved in an ever-increasing loop with no control.

“Yes, thus, if you expected it to become weaker, then it would have been your doom”

“A place where we had to contain ourselves and a place where we had to let ourselves loose…” I thought out loud while stroking my chin.

“…” Dei just stays silent at my remark

‘What is waiting for us in that third floor?’ My vision falls on the next floor, contemplating seriously of what’s to come.

“Well, let’s rest and eat, I am hungry from that battle” Says Zenith unfazed as he sits down. While his deadpan expressions said otherwise, his eyes were shouting that he was hungry.

“And what was that, the two of you going forward as if prepared for battle with premeditated answers~” Asks Arksen, laughing at the behavior of them before the battle.

“I don’t really know, it was as if the words flowed by themselves” I just answer as I sit to cook.

“Hmm, well I felt if no one had answered then we would have ‘lost’” Says Isa, a thoughtful expression crosses her face, omitting that she was about to talk too at those moments.

“Yup~” Says Peko, happy about the food finally being brought out.

As we finish eating and resting, we move forward, and a message appears again

Probation Zone completed!

You have finished the Elemental Zone!

‘Seems this zone is over’ I thought while we are going on the staircase

As we got to the next floor, another notification came in.

You have entered the Painless Zone!

You have entered the Probation Zone!

‘Huh? The probation zone came instantly?’ Surprise shows in our face, as we look at each other puzzledly.

Then I see something coming at me at high speed and I bȧrėly block in time. A small cut appeared on me, but I didn’t feel anything. It seems everyone was caught off guard at the sudden attack, as we didn’t feel anything coming!

I try to look at my health bar and I noticed that it isn’t there! it disappeared!

“Boy, be extra careful here” Says Dei with the tip of the day.

“Okay” I say while concentrating where the attack came from and I see a creature coming at us. it seems to be a wind elemental one

Then appears a neutral creature that has daggers and another with a broadsword…

‘They are starting to take our shape?’ I thought crosses my mind, as goosebumps rise on my body as if feeling a cold breeze.

At the attacks of our new enhanced enemies we had to keep a look on our strength if we start to weaken suddenly it is because we are at our limits… or already going over them.

Who could have thought that not feeling pain would be this disadvantageous? Even more when our health bar doesn’t show up!

Sometimes my Elemental Enhancing goes wild and I get pressured by my own power, so I start focusing in control more than output, elemental blending is a no go as the strains are too much, even more now that I can’t notice them. Carefully controlling every shred of power that I infuse into my character, my manipulation becomes better and better, feeling how minute changes creates great differences.

We notice that this zone is bigger than the previous ones. Now that I think about it, the Elemental zone was bigger than the neutral zone… so this means they are just going to increase in length and difficulty? The space has become wider too, as if we are in a different dimension from the Earth realm altogether.

“Arksen and Zenith don’t push it, fall back!” I order sometimes when I see my friends going wild; even I had to be stopped sometimes, as the feelings from the previous floor was still fresh.

The girls were more prudent in this occasion than us, but even so, Isa is to be wary off, as she is a front liner. Any mistake in her control over her stamina or health would bring serious consequences in her defensive capabilities.

Peko started doing AoE curses and helping us using magic against the elemental ones. Vying for control over damage to keep the pace of the battle in our favor.

A couple of weeks has gone pass, exhaustion was clear on us, it has been a few months since we came inside the dungeon. Maybe if we are higher leveled and stronger it wouldn’t be this much, after all, Masters come here to test themselves… and we are Intermediate near Advanced at most.

“Usually the monsters here adapt to the person that comes, but you are weaker than the lowest leveled ones, that’s why they are slowly growing with you” Says Dei, it felt as if he was looking down on us, but all we could do was smile bitterly a he is right.

“So that’s why… and what level does a master come to this place?” I ask to my scabbarded companion

“I don’t know, but the previous time I came here, my wielder was over level 500”

Over level 500… and we are bȧrėly over the half of that!

“So that’s what it means a Dungeon where a Master come to test their skills…”

“Yes, but there is another thing here… well, you will find out soon” Says Dei before returning to its silent state again.

Thus, we continued our journey, even when we logged out or rested, we are always aware at our bodies’ conditions.

Continuing walking forward, it was a matter of time until we reached the last part of this floor. As if waiting for us, a few creatures were standing orderly in front, guarding the place which supposedly was the next floor.

“Are you aware of yourself?” Asks the creature with a slight shape of Arksen

“After this, of course I am!” Answers my friend challengingly.

“But can you feel what your body feels?” Asks another with Vladi’s looks

“Pain is not everything” She answers simply with her guns out, ready to fire them at a moment notice.

“And what is it that you want to feel?” Asks the creature with Isa’s rough shape. A huge shield was besides it… so they imitate our weapons too.

“Whatever I want” She says in her natural tyrant voice.

“Then try to finish this, and you will be given what you want to feel”

Say the creatures while adapting a formation, something like a smirk shows on their face and start attacking us.

Ze creature Level: 330

Health: 400.000

Mana: 100.000

They have the same health and mana as the previous boss, but this time they are 6, the same amount as us, but they don’t have our abilities and are kind of clumsy as they seem yet to be completed.

We picked different opponents, Zenith as he is the heavy hitter started smashing Isa’s copycat away and we started separating ourselves, fighting against them while taking care not to be damaged as much

I start using my Dark Enhancement along with my Dark Coat against Vl’s projectiles and fended against Pe’s sneak attacks… sounds weird when I speak about them like that…

Hard clashes sounded, they were slowly adapting out us, as if their figures became clearer and more sculpted. Similar sounds echoed around the whole surroundings, bȧrėly standing our ground against physical and magical stronger version that ourselves. If it wasn’t that our skills had improved, we would have been doomed!

Fighting blindly and not being able to focus on our bodies anymore, we knew we had to go all out. With careful manipulation, we started exceeding our limits to striker harder and harder, killing our enemies as swiftly as possible!

One of my arms was limp, and my breath was ragged, but we finally managed to defeat most of them. Only Zenith’s and mine was still standing in poor conditions. We were getting ready to keep fighting as they opened their mouth and say,

“Shall the Death Lord and the Elemental Warrior proceed along with their companions” And they disappeared… why do every one of them disappear before defeating them completely? Damned bastards…

At this, we tiredly hit the floor, our bodies feel heavy and our breath is going wild. We couldn’t control it as we felt that our lungs were punctured.

Being the first to recover from such condition, I make a pot and start cooking to revitalize ourselves.

“It would be better to proceed and rest in the staircase, we might get our bars back” I propose as we finish eating.

Everyone nods and we walk to the stairs. Then, another message comes with a sudden feeling of pain that goes through our bodies.

Probation Zone completed!

You have finished the Painless Zone!

“Ugh” A growl came from my mouth as all the stack-up pain came. Our Stamina and Health bar finally show up, though in deplorable conditions.

“Agh, that hurts! And it seems we received more damage and fatigue than we expected!” Says Arksen while slowly moving his body.

“Let’s rest for today” I finish saying while looking at Zenith and Peko in a poor shape along with all of us.

“What do you guys think will happen next?” Asks Vladi.

“I don’t know, but there is a… hollow feeling in the next room” Answers Peko as she looks forward.

“Maybe it would be better to go tomorrow” I say, as the negative effects aren’t going away, and I think they won’t for a while.

“That would be for the best” Says Zenith in a serious voice while gazing the next floor.

Then we say our goodnight and I logged off.

At the next day in Parallel, we reached the next floor and a surprising notification came in.

You have entered the Empty Zone!

You have entered the Probation Zone!

Cannot escape the area until it’s completed

You can now exit the Dungeon of Wishes