Secret Regrets

The third floor, it was not one where outstanding achievements could be made. As it was only an individual trail. One where both Elliane and I had to split up in order to conquer.

And even then it was a simple arena battle, one where you were pit against hundreds of monsters. Each of them stronger than the last.

Yet they were not strong enough to fell me, I had taken most of them down with one swing. Even the stronger ones from the later stages were nothing more than fodder for my rapidly growing skill.

Even the strongest monster, the final boss if you will, was only half as strong as the one I had to survive against in the first floor.

Honestly it was quite a pity, as there was nothing to make outstanding achievements with. No matter how you look at it.

Every person was given ten waves with increasing difficulty, and because of that there was no way to stand out.

The fourth floor was much the same, except that it was some sort of maze. And that you were allowed some companions, meaning that Elliane and I challenged it together.

The fourth floor was actually quite annoying. There were so many dead ends, so many weak monster's that seemed to only be there to slow you down.

That floor had taken a grand total of four days to clear. And not even because of its difficulty but because we both had terrible senses of direction.

Over the time that we had been in the fourth, we had encountered dead end after dead end. And traps after traps.

It was so exhausting but it was over now. As we stood at the final line we took the final steps and completed the floor.

I wasn't ashamed to admit that I jumped for joy, it was just so frustrating.

But now it was time for the fifth floor. A major jump in difficulty.

And as our hands touched the altar, transporting us to the fifth, I couldn't help but feel nervous at the unknown ahead of us.

Would it be something annoying like the first, easy as the third, or almost impossible in its difficulty like something we had never seen.

…

The white light that signified our transit into the fifth floor overtook our visions. Yet by this time, after all the numerous times this had happened, I was not surprised nor even startled by it.

It was a known quantity, one that I had grown used to.

Yet what I was not used to was where we had been transported to. There was no immediate danger, no unknown scenery telling us to go and find the exit.

No, it was a giant banquet hall. It looked to be miles wide, with tables and food everywhere. And if I looked closely I could see private areas that you could rent for some points if the signs were to be believed.

Yet even with all of this space most if not everything was filled, at least in the immediate vicinity. As no matter where I looked, all I could see was people. There must have been thousands of them, each one of them sitting at a table either by themselves or with company.

[10294/100000]

I startled, so caught up in my observation that I had failed to notice the small screen that had popped up in the corner of my eye.

'That… that couldn't be right' I furled my eyebrows, piecing together the puzzle pieces.

A hundred thousand people, and only over ten percent here. Was that why there were so many accommodations, it was so that while we were waiting for the rest to come that we would just wait patiently.

"This…" She whispered, gripping to me as we made our way to an empty table. It had taken a while but after passing a certain number of people the tables seemed to just appear and disappear. As if they had a mind of their own, one that I couldn't help but want to study.

But as I was sat down by Ellaine, I couldn't help but turn my attention to her.

"Nia gave me information for this trial." She plainly stated, surprising me.

"Really?" I asked, incredulous. For what it was worth I didn't really think that bad of Nia but her penchant for not handing out information was quite annoying.

And for her to give Ellaine this information either meant that it was so inconsequential that we could find it anywhere or that it was important enough that we actually needed it.

"Yes, though it wasn't much. She did warn me that this trial would happen over a time period of three months and that in that time period we would need to not only survive but search for something of importance."

I nodded along, taking in the importance of the information. I looked at the number of people, a hundred thousand. And we would need to search for some object against them all.

Using that number I could genuinely conclude that there would be robbery allowed. Otherwise it would be quite an easy trial.

Meaning that the true challenge was not finding the objects but keeping hold of them.

I looked over and Ellaine was nodding as if she could hear my thoughts.

"Yes, it is most likely as you thought, the only challenge would be to keep hold of the items. But that is not all. Nia did not state it directly but by her body language I could tell that she regretted something here. From what she had said this place was truly massive, which could only mean that there must have been some opportunity that she had only found out about later."

"That could be, or she just didn't get the results that she wanted. I mean let's be real, while yes there may be some hidden piece but that is pure speculation, the reason could and usually is mostly mundane."

She nodded and leaned in further.

"Yes, but I choose to believe my instinct and it is telling me that there is something of importance in this trial. Something even Nia looks back on in regret."