“Ugh, why now of all times,” Lauren cursed while rubbing her eyes as she tumbled out of her tent.

“Get ready to fight,”

“Didn’t you say it was a non-combat event?”

“Well, not anymore,” Zyrus spoke as he looked around the desert. He wasn’t sure of the reason, but his instincts were warning him of an ominous presence nearby.

And he was correct.

BOOOM

All of a sudden, a giant pyramid surged out from the center of the desert. Everyone stared wide eyed at the emerging structure. The intense vibrations of the earth were strong enough to make every scale of Zyrus tremble, so it went without saying how others were faring.

Things became even more absurd as even before they registered the new sight, they were teleported to the Pyramid’s entrance.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Lauren?”

“Kyle!”

It took a moment before everyone registered their surroundings. Every player who was on this desert was dragged to this place.

“As I thought, you guys were in the event as well.” Zyrus’s eyes swept over Jacob, Shi kun, and the group of 300 players were also summoned at the base of this gigantic pyramid.

“Nice to meet you again.”

“Indeed, you’ve gotten quite strong in the meantime,” Zyrus bumped his fist with Kyle as he observed him with curiosity. Just the mana coming off of him was strong enough to put him on the same level as Jacob.

“I got a unique item, and a pretty good skill as well.”

“I see. Is that her pet?”

“Yeah,” Kyle sighed as he looked at Lauren who was hugging a ten foot tall bear. The white furred monstrosity didn’t look anything like a pet.

Although Zyrus was curious about how they managed to tame a field boss; or why they named him ‘Pouka’ of all things, he didn’t have the leisure to catch up with them.

“Will you follow me?”

“Of course,” Kyle smiled and accepted his request without hesitation. Along with the new addition of a hundred bears, Zyrus had a total of 800 subordinates under his command.

“Does anyone know what this is?” Ria asked as she pointed at the pyramid.

“No idea. Why does it say the final event though? Wasn’t there only one?”

“Yeah, we had to kill plants all day.”

“Plants?”

“Did you guys have different events?” Zyrus raised his brows as he heard Jacob’s question. This could be a valuable hint as to what lay ahead of them.

“We protected a temple from salamanders to get blessings.”

“I burned some snakes.”

Zyrus heard everyone’s explanation and came up with a conclusion: All of them had different events that were suitable for their personal development. Once they finished an area, they could go to a different one and play the same event.

He was quite curious as following the same logic, this pyramid should have something that was beneficial for all of them.

“Well then, let’s go in,” Zyrus declared with a spear in hand. A few words from him and Ria were enough to arrange their troop of 800.

Bears and rats walked in front along with the goblin riders, followed by the humans’ organized teams.

Zyrus walked at the front and made his way to the towering Pyramid. The closer he went the more grand and mysterious the structure seemed. Every block of the pyramid was engraved with unknown, tadpole-like characters.

“Wait for a moment,” he held up his hand as he arrived at the foot of the pyramid. In front of him was a stairway that was glowing with ivory light, making it out of sync. It was clearly a structure made from marble.

ClackClack*

Zyrus climbed with steady, measured steps and seeing that there were no issues, he called over the others as well. After climbing a hundred steps the players were now standing in front of a golden gate. The plaza in front was wide enough to accommodate all of them.

“Do we head in?”

“No point in dallying,” Zyrus answered Ria and walked towards the doors which were many times taller than him.

As expected, another message rang out when his hand touched the door.

[Ding! You have reached the Pyramid of Tsaatan]

[Would you like to enter?]

Yes/no

 

“Get ready.”

“ “Yes Your Majesty.” ”

Mirroring the player’s voice Zyrus clicked ‘Yes’ without further ado.

Creack

The massive gate opened in the next instance. At the same time, a surge of dense mana flowed out from within the pyramid.

Zyrus breathed in the wave of mana and observed the magnificent stairs that were leading downwards. The mana wave had left behind some golden motes of light that floated in the air. It was due to them brightening the passageway that others were able to see what was down below.

Clack

Zyrus’s sense of unease was getting stronger with every step. Despite the mythical environment he didn’t believe that this place was harmless. He activated his Eye of Annihilation, but it too failed to detect anything abnormal.

After heading down another fifty steps Zyrus came across an intersection. In front of him was a massive chamber filled with statues of nomadic people.

“This is rather unexpected…”

“Yeah, it’s like someone swapped the interior of the pyramid with a shamanic tribe.”

Zyrus couldn’t help but nod at Ria and Kyle’s remark. The statues and the totems they worshipped seemed out of place with the surroundings. For now though, his attention was focused on the two paths that led above and below respectively.

Zyrus walked ahead and touched the barrier that shrouded the stairs leading upwards.

[You have discovered an event ground!]

[Entry limit: 400]

On the other side, Ria also saw the same message as she touched the barrier that blocked the way below.

“Looks like we’ll have to split up.”

“Indeed.” Zyrus nodded as he looked at the ceiling of the chamber. Along with the golden motes of light, there were antique chandeliers hanging on the circular dome.

By now he had a vague idea as to why his senses were warning him of something ominous.

‘It’s like a dungeon,’ Zyrus came to a plausible conclusion as he carefully ruminated over the scenes he had seen so far. Pyramid, a nomadic tribe that practiced shamanism, and now these chandeliers that resembled the ones in the Palace of Versailles.

It was as if someone had picked up fragments of important structures from Earth’s culture in different time periods and stuck them together.

“How do you plan to divide the forces?” Ria approached Zyrus along with the other crown holders.

“I’ll take the rats and goblins to go downwards, you guys go up,” Zyrus addressed the group in front of him and continued,

“Also, save as much of your SP as you can. It’ll be helpful later on.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just use it and improve our strength?” Jacob asked in confusion as he looked at Zyrus.

“You’re not wrong in your thinking. However, if you want to obtain new achievements and break past the limits of your skills, then you’ll have to challenge enemies stronger than yourself. Only by fighting against enemies that force you to bring out your full potential would you progress by leaps and bounds. However, one wrong judgment, and you’ll die.”

“…”

“Do you think I’m contradicting myself? Maybe. When you take a risk, sometimes it won’t work out in your favor. The enemy you thought was slightly stronger than yourself, might be much more powerful than your calculation. What will you do then? Die?”

“You mean we should only use them in life-and-death situations?”

“Not necessarily. If you can amass more than 10 SP then go ahead and use them as you please. That saved stats might give you the agility needed to dodge a critical hit, give you the strength to deal the final blow, give the vitality to recover from grave injuries, and so on.”

“I see,” Jacob nodded in agreement as he thought things over. He had experienced it firsthand afterall.

“Well then, wait for me after you clear the area.” Zyrus waved his hand and left with the Rats and the goblin riders.

It was time to figure out the secrets that lay beneath this pyramid.

…

The passageway was longer than Zyrus had expected. Even after walking for half an hour there was no exit in sight.

The only good thing about these monotonous stairs was that they were wider than before. Two rows of ten goblin riders were able to follow Zyrus with ease. On the other hand, the burrow rats and scavenger rats formed their teams of twenty to survey the area.

The ground was reinforced with mana, and as such, the burrow rat’s earth movement was restricted in range. Apart from a couple of valuable minerals there was nothing much to be salvaged in the area.

After what seemed like an eternity of descending the stairs, a change in environment finally took place. The temperature went down all of a sudden, and the glimmering motes of light lessened as well.

“Get ready,” Zyrus commanded his troops to get into a battle formation. The scouting teams returned and took their place in the middle of the scavenger rats.

Zyrus ordered the scavenger rat king to protect the burrow rats; only sawtooth rats were suited for a frontal assault. He walked forward in an arrow formation with the bloodspine spear in hand, while dozens of goblin riders flanked his sides with their taut bows.

Their wariness wasn’t unfounded as they encountered their first enemies after descending another hundred steps.

 

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