The Gamer's System

Chapter 97: Venturing to the Unknown

"How are things going on your side?" The man asked over his communication bracelet. 

Just a few moments ago, he defeated General Iron and, not long after this, he has completely wiped out the forces within the general's camp. All of this is due to his summons which now includes some of the general's men and, even Iron himself.

"It's a bit tricky than what we expected master but, things are going well." A female's voice said over the communication bracelet. He could hear a lot of screaming and explosions over the channel and, this gave him a rough idea on how deep within the labyrinth they are.

His companions have a specific target of course. But this same target is so deep within the labyrinth that getting to it takes some time. Not only this, there are various traps and monsters guarding the place and, adding to these are the defense mechanisms that could handle either mana or physical attacks.

And where is this labyrinth exactly? It is within Elysium, one which is built and maintained by none other than Glade himself. Hence the explanation as to why infiltrating it takes a lot of time.

"Okay, I'll be seeing you soon. Be careful. Even if that sneaky bastard is gone, we have no assurance that everything will run smoothly." He continued.

"Understood master. We will do what we can." Said the person being talked to.

With this, they stopped the communication. The man took off the cloak which is made of nothing but Dark Mana. His features are now reveled under the moonlit night sky. His build is so much different from the body he remembers but, that doesn't mean he hates it. In fact, the body comes with a lot of perks. But all of this will be revealed at a later time. 

The man gazed up and thought how weird it is that, the moon's color is different for every continent. He's gone to all of them but, the demon continent seems to be his favorite. 

The glow is a dark purple which almost seems blue. This makes the sky look as if it is eternally slumbering within a dream that cannot be woken up from. And, just the idea of this made him have a dreaded smile on his face. To him, there is nothing beautiful about Mythos and, he wants nothing to do with the world anymore.

"I guess it's time I introduced myself to those kids." He continued, taking every loot on the area and, sending a distress signal to all nearby generals of Glade. This is the specific message he sent using Iron's voice and communication bracelet:

"An S rank danger appeared, send backup immediately!"

Early in the morning, one of the heroes named Curio began his morning routine. Bringing with him his training clothes, the English assassin went out to begin his morning jog. Although he now has skills and increased attributes, Curio feels that it is his obligation to his body to maintain his physical workout habits.

The other heroes are still asleep by this time, not even the sun has yet peeked out from where it hid. The air is cold yet refreshing and, Curio welcomed all this openly. He loves the cold breeze. The faint smell of the morning that is to begin and, what he loves more than these is to jog until the sun greets him good morning. He made a few more stretches but, before he could even begin, he saw another person already moving around.

"I guess demons need lesser sleep than humans." He told himself as he began hoping up and down, feeling every muscle in his body. He wanted to jog with the demon now. After all, it isn't everyday that he'd meet someone who has the same habits as him.

"Sprint." He used a skill in order to catch up with the person whom he believes to be a demon. The man looked at his direction and, Curio could see the seemingly white hair of the person. He even saw this person grin before speeding up.

"Hey wait up! I want to talk to you!" Curio said, increasing his speed even more. As an assassin, all of Curio's attributes are directed to both his speed and his stealth. Training was a bit hard for him because, he didn't only need to run straight. He needed to run through each and every obstacle present while maintaining his maximum speed. Yet, Curio adapted to this training quickly as if he was blessed with understanding on how his muscles worked.

That is why he is confused with what is currently happening before him. With his [Sprint] activated, Curio could move thrice his normal speed without any lag or pause. But, even with this, he still falls behind the person who jogged before him. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't close the gap.

This irritated Curio who has never experienced falling behind a person for so long. The first time this happened was with Quinn and, he will not have his pride and reputation get sullied once more.

"Flash Rush." He said, bolting out of sight. This is Curio's S class skill, one which gives him so much speed that it would seem as if he has vanished from sight. What he wanted to be a normal morning jog suddenly turned to a competition. 

This much is understandable because back on earth he was the star of the sprinting scene. Curio defeated every person who dared face him and, broke every record on the said field; ones which were also made by him.

With his S class skill active, Curio slowly closed the gap between them. Until, the man in front of him vanished completely. Curio stopped in his tracks surprised with what happened all of a sudden. Then, he felt someone tap his back and say to him:

"You're gonna wake up the whole neighborhood." Curio immediately turned but, saw nobody there, just the wind spiraling on the spot where the person once was. He wanted to go look for the person but unfortunately, he reached the limit of using his S Class skill. All his muscles are now sore and so, Curio has no other choice but to end his jogging session earlier than expected.

On top of a tall tree, the man watched Curio with a playful smile. 'Geez these guys are amateurs.' Were the words running through his head as he remembered the way they acted on their first day. 

He knew they'd be beneficial to his cause. That is why, he decided to attack the general nearest to these humans. He made them avoid at the get go knowing from experience how, transporting to danger never leads to anything good.

Yet he also sent the distress signal. And from his calculations, it would only take the other generals two good days in order to reach where the heroes are. He doesn't plan to kill them of course. He just wants to test how capable they are. 

"Killing monsters is a lot different from killing creatures who could think and feel like us." He continued, wanting to ensure that the humans are capable of taking lives. If not, he'll abandon them altogether and do everything himself.

"Oh mywhat's this?" He continued, feeling a strong gaze from the cabin directed at him. He knew that a skill is involved and, before any information could be taken out of him, he flicked his finger with a burst of mana. Then, he once again vanished.

During breakfast, two members of the Elites had irritated looks on their faces. One is, of course, Curio who just lost to a competition of speed. The second is Amare, a dark toned human who came from Africa. She has curly hairs and a curvy figure which, in no way, compliments her skill set as a scout and archer. On her forehead is a reddish mark she got from the man she tried scouting.

"Hey what's with the gloomy look guys?" Jake aske immediately. He wanted to be on the good side of everyone so that, when its time to defeat Quinn, there'd be those supporting his leadership. 

"None of your business." 

"Meh."

"Hey I was asking nicely!" Jake continued, making Quinn hit his cup with a spoon. 

"We're not supposed to make a scene Jake. Calm down." He said and, proceeded to asking the same question to the two. But all he got were the same answers.

"I saw this guy earlier who was jogging even earlier than I did."

"Now that is a good reason to get pissed off. I mean, who'd want someone jogging earlier than them right?" Jake said sarcastically.

"Idiot. That's not why I got pissed." Curio continued, a remark to witch Jake responded by trying to fight back. This time it is Kaguya reprimanded him and, said how he should listen to the whole story. Just like how everyone didn't want to mess with Quinn, they also had a lot of respect for Kaguya who got powers directly from Nisha.

Curio continued with his explanation. Everyone in the room couldn't believe what they heard. Curio is the fastest in the team. The only reason why Quinn won when they raced was because, the area wasn't a straight path, hindering Curio from dashing to a full force sprint. 

"Maybe you just got past him without knowing." Jake replied.

"I would've also thought of that. But then, something came right after he disappeared. Something that looked a lot like the shadow of someone running." The Elites do not have full knowledge of Mythos. They only know the basics and, those they wanted to know more about. Among them it is only Quinn who has extensive knowledge and, he knew that the shadow might've resulted from a skill.

"I think I understand what Curio is getting at." Quinn said. 

"What do you mean?" Vorst asked, making Quinn begin his explanation.

"On Curio's skill tree, there is a skill that he has yet to attain. One which is also on the S class. This skill allows him to move faster than [Flash Rush] but, has the disadvantage of leaving the caster's shadow along the way." Quinn continued.

"It wouldn't have been enough for him to vanish from my sight. But he did so I'm just at a loss for words." Curio continued, making the whole hall fall silent.

"You mean to say thatin this town there is someone faster than you?" One of them replied.

"Yes." Curio said reluctantly. Admitting that he is inferior to a mortal in mythos. Him who was personally trained by the three major deities, was outran by someone else.

They continued on to Amare's report. With both of these being made, the Elites understood that there is someone dangerously strong looming around them. Quinn liked the idea. He wanted to have a decent challenge presented to him at the start of this journey.

"We have no time to worry about someone whom we can't even catch. Right now, we need to focus on the amin task."

"Are we really going to start with that?" Their healer asked, nervous of the mission Quinn thought of.

"Of course I am." Quinn replied.

"Get yourselves ready. We're going to seal King Glade's transport point."