0p0 Chapter 1055 1055: The Forest Vault - A Disappointed Raider!
Chapter 1055 1055: The Forest Vault - A Disappointed Raider!
The moment Meg walked inside the Vault, before she could even observe her surroundings, a heaviness settled over her senses.
It was like someone had thrown her into the ocean after taking away her ability to swim.
She tried to latch onto her senses, like a drowning man slapping to grab the water itself, but clearly failed.
Slowly, but surely, her knees struck the earth.
Her eyelids had half closed, blurring her vision as well.
And suddenly, Meg realized the nature of the heaviness that had been plaguing her.
Sleep.
It was nothing extraordinary, but rooted in sleepiness.
His Majesty had warned her that each Cursed Vault had its own Curse.
Contestants on his level… Well, mostly those who had the Stats of the 10th Floor or above could overlook those Curses' effects.
But she…
She was only an 8th-floor contestant.
Despite Kai openly warning her, it was only now that Meg realized just how bad these Curses were.
One step.
She hadn't even taken one step inside the Vault, and she was already on her knees.
As if that wasn't enough, the Vault's doors behind her shut with a slam, trapping her within.
Meg took out an Invigoration Potion's vial and downed it.
It was like flicking a drop of water into the ocean.
Groaning, Meg stood up, stumbling left and right.
Through the blurry blackness, she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
It was a vast world of hills, mountains, and plains, all covered in extremely tall trees, their trunks the size of small houses. If there was any sign of a treeless field, then it was the dark mountain range at the horizon, which Meg could clearly tell apart, despite being almost half asleep, adding to the feeling of the Vault's vastness even more.
But its vastness wasn't the eeriest thing about the Forest Vault.
It was the complete lack of sound.
There were no chirps of birds, no cries of prey, and no growls of predators.
If there was a sound, then it only belonged to the wind, as it swooshed between the massive trees, sounding like the low screams of banshees.
Combined with the sleepy gaze, the only word that appeared in Meg's heart for this place was…
Nightmare!
Seeing no choice but to manage the Debuff, Meg finally took another step.
His Majesty could, perhaps, help her against this drowsiness, she knew.
However, if he hadn't helped Red Sun against Zeus or Moraine against Heavenly Father, then he wouldn't act in her case either.
Not that she would ask him, too.
A journey completed riding on others' shoulders was no journey at all.
Most Chaos' Contestants were shameless in accepting a helping hand readily when it came to ascending Floors. If she were still a Fallen Priestess, then she wouldn't have minded the same as well. That's why she had accepted the High Priest's order to kill Contestant Red years ago to begin with.
But, now?
Now she was a White Serpent.
If she didn't complete this quest on her own, if she didn't overcome this hurdle by herself, then that would amount to nothing but admitting that other White Serpents had surpassed her in not only power, but also hierarchy.
And that… would disappoint His Majesty.
No.
NO!
Meg brought out a knife and stabbed her hand.
The pain made her eyes shoot open, her HP Bar losing over a dozen points.
For a moment, the entire scenery cleared itself in her eyes, her Perception running wildly, picking up the littlest details.
Then, like an avalanche, the drowsiness returned.
The torn skin and flesh around the knife that ran through and through her hand had already begun regenerating.
But, because of the sleepiness, Meg couldn't even feel the pain now.
So, intuitively, she twisted the knife, her entire face distorting in pain along with it.
And, like that, already indulged in a deep battle with sleepiness, twisting and turning the knife stabbed into her hand, Meg finally entered the forest, heading straight toward the treeless mountain range.
Because, in the Forest Vault, a field without trees… felt out of place.
…
Darth Kars looked at the false sky of the Forest Vault blankly.
There was no sign of fatigue on his face, nor was there any sign of struggle against a sleep-induced heaviness.
If there was an emotion on his face, then it was disappointment.
Almost two years.
He had been forced to hole himself up in this place for almost two years.
And, when the time came to complete the task he had taken upon himself…
Had defeating the Blind Executioner made Red think that he had become invincible? Had joining the Billion Club made him imagine that he could defeat any 12th Floor Contestant now? Had gaining a Death Mark from the Quasi Cipher Pol made him believe that he could look past the 4th Set entirely?
Or had Red learned who was waiting for him in the Forest Vault for him to send a proxy to test the waters?
But then… why send a puny Contestant to her death?
Darth Kars breathed out in disappointment, letting it become a gust of wind in the Forest Vault.
He hated this place and its quietness.
If there was a good thing about this place, then it was its vastness.
He could assume his full form without constantly needing to act like a normal ten-feet-tall guy.
He could rest on his back and look at the sky leisurely, even if it was a false one.
Still, despite that, he hated the way he, an adventurer and conqueror, was forced to waste even a speck of his Life Halt by the Hyperspace Raiders. Not even a hundred years had passed since he had joined the organization, and they were already asking so much of him…
As if that wasn't enough, this Red was wasting his time even more by sending this woman.
So, the faster he killed this woman, the sooner Red would arrive, ending this solitary confinement, right?
But the moment he thought of getting up and killing the woman, Darth Kars frowned.
He was so… comfortable. Truly. Like the trees in hundreds of miles were pressed against his back, itching the right spot. The hills, pressed under his lower back, felt so squishy. His feet were placed nicely on the mountains, almost levitating over them because of the tall trees.
No.
What's the use of getting up and leaving this position for a mere weakling?
One arm should be enough… Darth Kars thought, finding that quite reasonable.
In the next moment, his eyes glowed red, and his entire right arm, looking like a treeless mountain range, disintegrated…
… becoming hundreds of thousands of mutated creatures, bringing the Forest Vault to life!
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