The Extra's Odyssey

[You have reached Floor 6]

[You have 5Sp/Lvl Talent. Extra stats have been given]

Opening my eyes, I found myself inside a forest.

However, unlike the swamp, it was a dry forest.

The trees in this region were mainly pine and cedar, with some oak here and there. A few of them had already started to shed their leaves. The breeze carried scents that reminded me of cooking meat.

Circulating ether inside my storage ring, I rechecked my supplies and my reward from the 2nd Trial.

A string of notifications suddenly appeared in front of me.

[You have cleared the 1st [Singularity] Trial with remarkable results]

[You are qualified to enter the Hall of Fame]

[Will you like to enter your name in the Hall of Fame?

1. Yes

2. No

Note-Entering the Hall of Fame will provide you a permanent 250% Exp boost inside the Tower]

Reading the message my burrows furrowed.

"Should I agree?"

The only ones on Earth who are climbing the tower in [Singularity] are Leon, and Sword Maiden. The other climbers of [Singularity] have either lost their 3 lives or can't enter the Tower due to several reasons.

'Sword Maiden should be stuck on the 10th Trial. It will take a few years before she gains enough strength to clear the Trial, and reenters. Leon will also take a few months before challenging the 3rd Trial.'

Without being in [Singularity] Trials themselves, others can't check the rankings.

I made my decision.

The 250% Exp boost was too good to ignore!

[Please enter a name you want to be recorded in the Hall of Fame]

"Name?"

I was about to choose Mr. Pepe, but ultimately I rethought my decision.

"It wouldn't hurt to be careful. I should choose another name."

A smile crept on my face and I typed a new alias.

Tap- Tap- Tap-

"And, enter!"

[Are you sure you want to choose this name?]

"Yes"

[Are you sure you want to choose this name?]

"Of course"

[Are you sure you want to choose this name?!]

"Absolutely"

[Change it!]

"No"

[CHANGE IT!]

"Of course not~ This is why you should be hospitable to your guests~"

Frustration oozed from the messages. Inside the Tower, Administrator is responsible for system messages, not the System.

I could picture Administrator being irritated because of me. It only made me chuckle more.

Who told you to treat me coldly! Muhahahaha!

[You have entered Hall of Fame for 'Top 10 achievers in 1st [Singularity] Trial]

[Please make new feats to get more benefits]

"Thank you, Administrator"

Seeing as how she didn't say 'Good Luck', I knew she was annoyed.

Chuckling, I jumped to my feet.

'I was inside the Trial for 26 days, it should amount to 25 hours outside the Trial'

"It has only been a day, huh. I guess I'll have to wait for a day or two for Katrina and Henry to complete the Trial"

I began fighting the monsters and stacking Exp.

? It was after fighting for 6 hours that an idea came to me.

'Wouldn't the monsters won't be able to sense ether if I use [Zero]?'

It was tiring to fight monsters non-stop even though most of my stats were used to increase the ether reserves.

Wrapping a thick layer of [Zero] around my core, I wandered around.

This time, the number of monsters I encountered was a lot less.

'It works!'

Sigh

That's one problem solved.

With the monster encounter rate decreased, the burden decreased by a lot.

The 6th floor had a large area and a larger number of monsters, but it wasn't much difficult without encountering a monster every 10 minutes.

For obvious reasons, I did not go all out while clearing the monsters.

I did not know from where the shadow was watching me. It was entirely possible that it had cleared the trial at a swift pace and was now observing me.

A day later, I saw a beacon of light shooting into the sky.

"Henry"

With swift steps, I proceeded to the pillar of light. It took me 3 hours to cover the distance.

"You're here! We were waiting for you!"

Henry waved at me. Smiling, I waved back.

Behind him, Katrina was also present.

Her hair had completely become aquamarine, along with her eyes.

She was covered in dust and her clothes were rags. She looked like a beggar.

However, something about her was different.

Her eyes, as she looked at me, were clear and confident.

'Something changed'

"You wouldn't believe it, I cleared [Hard] in 23 hours! And Katrina cleared [Normal] in 28 hours even though she isn't a combatant!"

Henry suddenly spoke and laughed.

His clothes were also dirty and he looked exhausted.

My brows jumped at his words.

"That's fast"

Henry laughed even more.

The average time to clear a [Hard] Trial was around 2-3 days. He had completed the trial in one day, and it was an impressive feat given that a higher number of Cadets also fail every year.

Katrina, on the other hand, took 12 hours more than average, but it was also a wonderful result. Again, many combat department Cadets fail to clear Trials, so for Katrina, who was a non-combat type alchemist, it was a big achievement.

"Thanks! What about you, though? You look completely fine. Did you get an easy Trial?"

"The first thing I did after reaching Floor 6 was to change"

I shrugged.

My clothes were in pristine condition. But my body wasn't.

Other than the scars I got in Underworld, I had a lot of white stretch marks running all over my body. These stretch marks formed because of the high amount of strain my body had to go through when I change my direction while 'flying'. It didn't help that during my fight with Sea Overlord, I went overboard with my speed while flying, ultimately pushing my body beyond its limit.

It was thanks to my stigma that I could hide all the scars and stretch marks.

'Well, the stretch marks would disappear with time'

We talked a bit and rested.

Apparently, Henry met Katrina after a few minutes she reached Floor 6. Henry had created a pillar after an hour of that.

Before we moved, Henry also changed. He hadn't done so before, as he didn't want to let his guard down even for a moment inside the dungeon.

Katrina refused to change.

She was fidgeting a lot less than before entering the Trial, but she couldn't ignore the fact that some shadow might peek at her.

[Congratulations, you have killed Lvl10 Wind Deer. You have gained 1500exp]

[The Floor 2 boss has been defeated]

[Passageway to Floor 3 will be opened for 6 hours]

We swiftly moved to the boss's location and defeated it relatively easily.

With each floor, we were returning to how our bodies were outside the Tower, and this made fighting more easier as we were more accustomed to our original stat distribution.

"U-uhm"

We were descending the stairs when Katrina quietly pulled the helm of my shirt.

"Do you want to say something?"

She looked at me for a few seconds and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Will you help me?"

"Yes, didn't I already agree to this?"

Seeing how comfortable she saw, it was clear that the shadow wasn't here. Thus, I didn't want to put an unnecessary burden on her by giving an ambiguous answer.

"I see"

Katrina mumbled while looking down.

"We should move"

Before I could question her strange actions, she stepped in front of me and descended the stairs.

Shaking my head, I went back to what I was thinking earlier.

'What do you think about the plan?'

(I don't think the shadow can escape alive)

"I know, right?"

Realizing that I hated being played with. I had decided to act like I wanted to.

My first goal was to eliminate the one tailing me.

"It's going to be fun!"