Varun let's out a scream of frustration for a few seconds, before going silent and calms down.
He sits up and stared at the system window with a dark scowl.
[The player can't respawn in this quest]
[Quest: Tower of hell
Time limit: none
Reward: class change; 50 stat points; two class based skills; 40,000 gold.
Penalty: death]
Varun's expression darkens at the system window on seeing the quest penalty.
Varun:"so you wanna play unfair.... Very well then.... Let's see how long can you keep forcing me to work according to you."
He stood up and looked at the light that was reaching the sky.
Varun:"the system wants to force me to grow, huh... Very well then... I'll grow just like you want."
He starts to walk towards the ruined city as his short sword, that he got from the atrox Lord in the first instant dungeon.
"But,....I'll grow in a way you can not expect."
His eyes glints coldly with mischief.
Few minutes later, he reaches the main entrance of the city and walks inside, it was silent... Eerily silent.
He kept walking until he was faced with a tomb like built, with a glowing orange crystal floating on it.
He looks at it and raised an eyebrow.
"What the hell is this now?"
[First floor quest: Defeat 5 waves of monster.]
Varun raised an eyebrow and looks at the crystal again, he moves forward and places a hand on the pillar of the crystal.
Varun:"Now... This is what I am used because of playing games.... I just love it when I am in a tire position and have to give everything."
Varun says to himself in a amused way with coldness flickering in his gaze.
The system window pops up once more as the first way gets summoned.
[First wave: elite goblins and caster goblins.]
Varun:"goblins?.... Seriously, aren't they the weake–eh?..... What the hell are these guys?"
As Varun looks at the goblins who get summoned, they were all about 10 feet big green orgs like goblins, with a biggest one being a caster, acquainted by skeleton cloke and a skull mask.
Varun just stared with a look that said both "these aren't goblins, these are f–cking huge!" And "yeah, I am dead today."
[Elite goblin, org hybrid]
Varun looks at the system with a look of "I can already see that."
Varun:"This thing really wants me either dead or become as strong as possible.... Well,... I have no where else to go right now.. I have to do this quest if I want to go back home."
"Let's see then, these guys are big and all,... But why aren't they attacking yet?"
Varun questions as he sees the goblins grunt and screech at him, like they were waiting for him to get away from the crystal.
Varun let's out an amused scoff, smirking behind his mask. He had got an idea from the behavior of these goblins.
Varun just stepped forward by one step and made the goblins lunge at him and just before they could, he stepped back towards the crystal. The goblins lost the balance fell in front of him.
Varun, taking the advantage of the situation, he stabs the goblin's neck who was near him with a large blade.
[+1 kill]
Varun:"now that's a easy way there... Hah!... Keep coming at me."
Varun continued to slash through the goblins and finally cleared the 5 waves of goblin-org hybrids.
Finally the system window popped up and said.
[Floor one cleared.
Quest reward: next floor ticket]
[Ticked to next floor: "can be used on the holy grail"]
Varun looked at the system message for a moment then thought to himself.
Varun:" Holy grail, huh?.... That sounds familiar.... Isn't that something that's usually in churches?.... How am I supposed to find a church here now?"
As he was busy wondering about the way to find a church, the system window pops up again and shows something, that catches varun's eye.
Varun:"Now, now,..... That's something that you should've given me from the start."
The system window showed a real-time map and his position with a red dot, showing all the places around the floor 1.
As he touches the screen, he realized that he could really touch the screen this time. And the map was actually in 3D...as he swiped it up, the map showed the whole tower from the side.
The above 999 floors being locked and blurred, indicating that he needs to clear every floors quest to unlock the map.
The map showed every area's name and showed the ruins and builts with particular icons.
Trees for forest, flowing lines for waterways, Arrow for roadways, triangle for air ports, houses for city ruins and grails for church.
Varun:"so the church is a grail, huh?.... There's only one here."
Varun looks at the light going up to the sky far away from where he was standing and closes the map.
"Let's get going, shall we?.... This is gonna take a long while. Why the hell is the lift this far away from the quest area?"
Varun lunges forward and reaches the large area covered with bright white light. He was breathing slightly heavy because of running all the way here.
"The air is heavy in this tower... It's getting hard to breath through this mask.... And... Why does it feel hotter that it was outside the city?"
[Player's body temperature has reached 70 degree celsius. The player will feel extreme burns once they reach 100 degree celsius]
He looks at the system window with slight worry. Because it was already hard to breath through the air as it was heavy from being hot.
The church was right in front of varun but the heat and air wasn't letting him go inside.
[Player's body temperature has reached 80 degree celsius]
His face was flushed red from the heat and his breathing was ragged.
Varun:"how am I supposed to cool myself here?.... Tch–... This thing didn't even give me details before I came here... What should I do, what should I do?... Uh!?... System shop!.. Yeah, how the hell did I forget that?"
Varun opens the system shop chooses the category for temperature resistants.
He scrolls down for a few seconds, rejecting all the unnecessary potions, armours and long cloaks.
"Urgh!, why do all these have to be temporary solutions or heavy material that reduces speed?.. Or they are just cloaks that are too long and could disbalance me if I took one step on the cloth."
"Oh,... Well.. Now this is something that I was looking for."
On the window, it was a black hoodie that looked normal from the first look, but the system details gave it as a good item.
["Dark hood"
Resistance level: +5
'Adds a invisible shield on the user that reduces temperature'
Extra effects: +4 agility, +4 damage resistance, +4 regenerative effect.]
Varun:"Well, that's just my type there. Purchase!"
The hoodie got in his inventory itself upon the purchase. He pulls the hoodie out of the inventory and puts it on. The temperature of his body reduces gradually and comes back to 37 degree celsius.
"Now it feels better.... Haa.. I really felt my lungs burning there. Whatever, let's just see the next floor."
He enters the area covered in light and sees a big cathedral in the middle. He stares at it in awe, since he had only seen this kind of place in movies, anime and webtoons.
"Daaaaaamn~... It's as big as whatever that I don't know... This really does exists?... Uh, wait... This is a quest created by system, so of course it exists.... But if it's actually same as real ones.... Then damn.. It's big."
He ventures off and enters the cathedral, inside of it was a big Hall with many seats, on the stage was a book stand and behind it was a large statue with a grail in it's hand.
As he steps on the stage the statue pulls the grail towards it's chest and open it's eyes to look at Varun.
Varun looks at it in excitement, having never seen a moving statue before. The statue looks at him and reaches out one hand and says in a emotionless monotonous voice.
Statue:"the one who seeks the path to above land. Show your proof that you have what it takes to go past this land."
Varun blinks a few times, not understanding what the statue means.
Varun:"That... That sounded more like a way to another world than way to the next floor.... Wait.. Is it asking for the ticket?"
He thinks for a few seconds and the sighs. Pulling the ticket out of his inventory and raises towards the hand of the statue.
The statue takes the ticket and examines it, then places it in the grail. A energy swirls around Varun as a magic circle forms under his feets.
He stares at it in surprise and gets teleported to the next floor... Which was complete carbon copy of the floor below.
He moves forward with time to time rests and levels up... Then months later.
[Present time]
Varun stood from the edge he was sitting on and dusts off his butt.
Varun:"And,.. That's how I ended up here... It's been 7 months and I still haven't cleared more that 672 floor yet.. I leveled up quite a lot... But I am still far from 1000th floor."
He looks around and suddenly realizes that he was talking to someone.
"Am I going insane?..... Hello,.. Bro, I am talking to myself now.... F–ck.... I have gone crazy living here."
"Whatever... Let's just get back to hunting.... F–ck!... Who the hell am I telling everything?!, f–ck it!"
He leaped off and landed on the ground near the light that was touching the sky.
The map window pops up and shows that the quest of floor 672 was just in front of the cathedral.
He checks his stats before going in in the area.
[Level: 174
Strength: 620
Stamina: 640
Agility: 645
Intelligence: 590
Precision: 672]
He sighs and thinks to himself.
Varun:"I am getting schizophrenia or something... My mind has gone insane after living alone this long..... I wonder how more long do I have to stay here... Tch–... Whoever said that increasing intelligence makes you calmer clearly lied it... I feel way more anxious living alone."