As Ronan was about to step into the gate, not wanting to waste a single moment before seeing what new challenges awaited him, Florence placed a hand on his arm. "What about the pillar? Will it be safe? The rest of those opportunists might be weak cowards, but they'd jump at the opportunity to steal it from you," she said, giving the people hanging around the edge of the room a filthy glare.

"Damn, there really is no love lost between Rockmore's people," he snorted. "I'm sure it will be fine. Maybe. I can just kill them and take it back if that happens." Shrugging, he slipped out of her soft grip and entered the gate.

The sensation was nothing like travelling between tutorial stages. Instead of being pulled through a void, Ronan simply felt a brief tingle running through his body before his surroundings changed.

He found himself in a stone brick room, with a hole in the ceiling that let the sunlight through. Whether it was a real sun or not was up for debate, but it illuminated the place well enough.

There were benches carved into the stone around the edges of the room and even a circular table in the middle. All of it seemed to be carved from the surroundings, even the "tiled" floors and "brick" walls.

More interestingly, there was a system message floating above the centre of the table from the moment he walked in. Rather than being 'attached' to Ronan, it seemed to have the circular furniture as its anchor point.

He walked towards it, hearing more footsteps behind him as he did. "Woah, that felt really weird." Florence's exclamation was followed by a few more as the rest of his faction members entered the room.

When he reached the message, Ronan started to read. The others followed shortly after, but he was too focused on the contents to notice.

[Faction - Chronos]

[Gate Details]

Gate tier: I

Participants: 8/25

Time until start: 14 Minutes, 36 Seconds

Gate type: TBA

There wasn't much new information given. They'd already known about the timer thanks to the pre-gate warning. The difficulty tier was nice to know, but didn't actually tell him much about what to expect, other than it would be the easiest gate they could encounter.

The last person to enter came through a moment later. Nigel had a nervous expression on his face, eyes darting around the room. He seemed relieved when he realised it was just a waiting room.

"Now that we're all here, should we just get this over with. I don't see a reason to wait around," Ronan said.

Most were in agreement. They had already made the decision to enter the gate, so starting it wasn't a problem. If anything, waiting here for fourteen minutes would only make them more nervous about what was to come.

You are about to start the gate prematurely. Are you sure you wish to do this?

Yes, obviously…

Gate has begun!

Gate type will now be selected at random!

Ronan was frozen to the spot, much like he was when picking a class. He couldn't even blink. A system screen appeared in front of him, but it was more of a list than a message.

Wave Survival

Dungeon

Labyrinth

Conquest

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Dungeon Race

Within moments of the list appearing it started to spin as though it were a fruit machine. The five gate types sped up until they were just a blur before his eyes. Ronan could guess at what most of them meant, but as was always the case with the system, there were likely features he would never expect.

After ten seconds of spinning, the gacha that would decide how they faced death began to slow. The 'type' that was in the centre of the list would glow until it was shoved out by the next. It hovered on dungeon race for a tense moment, until it flicked upwards and was replaced by wave survival.

Gate type has been set to 'Wave Survival'!

Prepare for transport!

The message told him to prepare, but Ronan only had enough time to blink and twitch a finger as his body was unfrozen before he was suddenly standing at the top of a grassy hill. The space they stood on was roughly flat, with enough space for all nine of them to stand and have space to swing a weapon and then some.

The hill had a steep slope towards the peak, not enough to prevent a person—or monster—from walking up it, but enough that it would be a struggle to do so while trying to attack their group. It flattened out towards the base of the hill, where an endless plain of grass stretched as far as they could see.

Above them, a yellow sun burned brightly in the sky. The heat beat down on them, a little too intense to be comfortable, but not oppressive.

Welcome, challengers, to this wave survival gate, tier I difficulty!

You will be assaulted by 10 waves of monsters, each stronger and larger than the last, until you either die or emerge victorious. For those mighty challengers who make it to the end, great rewards await! For those who are too weak and fall at the claws and blades of their foes, the cold embrace of death is yours to sink into…

Wave 1 will begin in 10…

9…

"Well, fuck. Get ready everyone. Just keep killing monsters until we win. If you need help just shout!" Ronan yelled. He wasn't sure whether the monsters would be far too weak for him, given the difficulty of the gate and that it only needed common keys to summon, or if it would be scaled based on the levels of the challengers.

If it was the latter, then his allies would be royally screwed. If it was the former he would end up being bored. At the end of the day more rewards were more rewards, whatever the case.

Ronan knew none of their deaths would be permanent. Not to mention, they were currently allies, but all of these people had been part of the group trying to kill him when Rockmore attacked the tower.

While that may have been under coercion, and they didn't seem to have any lingering loyalty to the fake aristocrat, that didn't mean he could just sweep it under the rug. He was a generally forgiving person, but not a naive idiot.

Everyone pulled out their weapons. A couple had swords, a few spears, one even had a shield and hammer. Only one seemed to be some sort of mage, or perhaps they simply hadn't received a drop.

"Do any of you need a weapon? I have loads that I'm not using," Ronan offered, realising that might hold some of his allies back. They couldn't all sweep through their foes the way he could, hoovering up a metric shit-ton of loot.

Of the three who didn't have a visible weapon, one shook his head and pulled his jacket to one side, revealing an array of daggers and knives tucked into his belt. "I took the mage class, so I'm mostly a magic user, but I'll take a sword in case I run out of mana," another said.

"I'm crap with my hands. Just give me something I can smash monsters with," the other said, shrugging.

Ronan tossed them both what they asked for, then turned to the knife guy. "I have more knives if you run out. The same goes for all of you. If you need a weapon just shout."

The round of nods came at the same moment the timer ran out. As soon as it did, shadows started to appear on the horizon. They rapidly grew bigger, a wave of monsters approaching from the distance.

Wave 1 has started!

Wave 2 will spawn in 10 Minutes!

9:59…

Fuck my life. As if it couldn't get any worse. "Let's make sure we don't leave any stragglers! This will get real bad, real fast if we can't clear the waves in time," Ronan shouted at the others. He was confident in his own skills, but with how many enemies he could see, strength alone wouldn't cut it.

There was no response. All of them had determined expressions on their faces, weapons of choice clutched tightly in hand. As the enemies drew nearer, Ronan was able to make out what they were.

Ants.

Hundreds of ants. They were about the size of a small dog, like a chihuahua or a jack russell. He hoped they didn't pack the same violent aggression as those little demons, but he doubted he would be so fortunate.

As the wave of ants drew even closer, reaching the base of their hill, he was able to see the tags floating above their heads. Having hundreds of them overlaid was disorienting, obstructing his vision.

[Worker Ant - Lv.5]

[Worker Ant - Lv.5]

…

All of them were the same level. Ridiculously low and likely weak, but a horde was strong not because of the strength of its individual members, but by virtue of its enormous size. He willed the system to hide the tags, and to his relief, it complied.

Left only with the seemingly endless carpet of insects in front of him, it was time for Ronan to do what he did best. Kill a fuckload of monsters.

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