144 Struggling

The system pushed Scarlet Sunset back as it welcomed another guest into the machine.

This time Nimble Rod walked up and put his hand on the handprint when it said "STRENGTH" on the sign.

His strength appeared as the number 82.

These machines had one number built inside. That number is the highest value which determines what number would show up at the end of the test. They could modify the machine to change the max value stat to test different leveled people.

Assuming that the highest value was 1000 for an easier time when calculating, and a player had 500 strength when placing his hand on the handprint, he would get the number 50 from the system.

When the system figures out that the stat amount of the player is less than the highest, it places the number it got from the player and sets it on top of 1000 to find the percentage between them.

The percentage was the number that the system would give the player. 500 above 1000 is 0.5 which is 50%.

The method was the same for all the attributes, not just strength.

If the user's strength value was higher than 1,000, then they would get the automatic 100 without calculation.

Nimble Rod did the other tests. These were all the results at the end.

Strength: 82.

Agility: 72.

Vitality: 69.

Spirit: 65.

Intelligence: 65.

Nimble Rod was average in most of his stats. He placed his free attribute points Strength and some other stats which caused him to be near equal in most stats.

Flower Queen did her tests.

Strength: 84.

Agility: 100.

Vitality: 31.

Spirit: 41.

Intelligence: 60.

She based her stats on the build of an assassin; proficient in strength and agility. Her spirit and vitality were low because she didn't need to increase those stats.

An assassin didn't need vitality; it was a bonus for them in case the situation grew dire. If an assassin couldn't kill the person in one hit, then they were a failure.

Emile went last.

Strength: 100.

Agility: 81.

Vitality: 90.

Spirit: 85.

Intelligence: 91.

Emile's number excelled above the rest. There was one thing about the numbers that confused him. How was he faster than Flower Queen during their races, but had a lower Agility than her?

It was Emile's Void-Steps he was getting close to mastery. Even though Emile had a limited amount of Agility, the Void-Steps allowed him to use the full potential of his Agility which turned out to be faster than Flower Queen.

It was like two different cars.

One car could travel at a max of 20 MPH. While the other could travel at a max of 25 MPH.

Someone locked the second car's max speed behind modifications, so it couldn't go at its full speed. The true max speed of the second car became 15 MPH.

Now when the cars speed up to their max for a race, the first car would be faster since it had the higher MPH than the second cars "max speed."

The car scenario was happening between Emile and Lily. If Lily learned a movement skill that could use her speed efficiently, then she could win the races with ease.

[Assigning enemies that correspond with the player's strength levels. Most skills cannot be used during the fight. Good luck]

When the system hoped for good luck, they knew it was going to be challenging.

They sectioned the party off into four different categories. The system wrote their player names on the gate.

"I think we enter the gates with our names on it," Emile said.

"Why do these machines exist in the Alchemist Guild?" Nimble Rod asked. It used the power of the system to defend the bottom floor. No wonder it was an SS ranked difficulty.

"They wanted to make it challenging for anyone to visit the bottom of the guild," Scarlet Sunset replied. She walked into her gate. The system teleported her into an alternate dimension with her and another mob.

If they banned all skills, then the players who were mage orientated couldn't use their skills. They would turn into a headless chicken without the ability to do anything other than struggle.

She could use her wind blasts as attacks. Other than that, they blocked everything else.

For Emile, the Fireball, Water Sphere, and Mudball were unlocked.

The system allows the user to use the basic attacking methods for each element.

Emile entered his room, after seeing Scarlet Sunset enter hers. These rooms would test the skill of the player more than the stats. They used the stats to get a benchmark.

Emile encountered a monster with speed. It was exploiting his weakness.

Prototype: Alpha C4T63

Great Chief Ranked Monster

HP:1/1

Atk: 1

MAtk: 0

Agility: 750

All Emile need to do was land one hit on the boss and it would fall. How hard would that be? Emile thought.

He cast his fireball at the monster. As he expected, the monster dodged his attack. It attacked him dealing one damage to Emile. The boss continued attacking with vigor. Emile would slash at the boss, but he would always hit the air.

Even horizontal sweeps didn't work since the boss would go behind his back and attack him. He continued getting hit by the boss without being able to do anything.

Emile felt frustrated, as he continued missing the attacks. Since they were in an alternate dimension, the curse meter didn't increase from these emotions.

Emile calmed himself down by breathing in and out. He had to act calm if he wanted to stand a chance against the boss. He closed his eyes to use his other senses.

He tried to sense the boss. It didn't work. He would hear light sounds, but that didn't help him predict the next move of the boss. The other sense were useless for the boss.

Emile opened his eyes, his mind circulating with great speed; stumped at the problem. Emile didn't give up. He continued taking one damage after another.

He focused, concentrated, and directed every ounce of his energy into the mob's movement. Those three words needed to be repeated to show how high Emile's levels of concentration reached.

Emile noticed that the only way for him to hit the monster is by using prediction. He failed countless times when slashing his sword out.

But, after the 50th miss, give or take a few, something clicked inside Emile's mind. Things fell into place in his mind. The boss will attack the lower left shoulder. His gut was telling himself that the boss would attack from that spot.

Emile moved his sword towards the direction even before the monster was there.

The mob wasn't intelligent and ran into the sword moving at a snail's pace when compared to its own speed. It died in the one instant of contact it had with the sword, and Emile gave out a breath of relief.

The system teleported him out of the gate and allowed him to descend the stairs once more to the final floor. He waited for his party members who were busy challenging their respective gates.

Scarlet Sunset faced a mob that attacked in close range distance and did lots of damages. She had to be creative with her wind spell. She used it to push herself away from the boss. It was a new trick she learned by fighting a mob at close distance.

The game also limited the amount of space she could move to make it even harder for her. She conserved her wind and learned to use the wind to push people certain distances.

She took a few hits to understand the method of beating the boss. If it wasn't for her brain working hard to figure out how to defeat the boss without dying, then she wouldn't have completed it.

Scarlet Sunset appeared outside of the gate after killing her monster and saw Emile waiting for the others.

Flower Queen faced a slow boss with lots of health and health regeneration. She had to attack at faster intervals to counterattack the damage dealt and the damage healed. The system made it so she barely damaged the boss by attacking it continuously. She took an insane amount of stamina for her to defeat the boss.

When she appeared out of the gate, she fell straight unconscious. The game logged her out to get rest. Emile was on the verge of tiredness from thinking and concentrating too much. He wanted to log out and sleep.

Nimble Rod faced a monster with stats that were close together like Nimble Rod's except that it had better stats than him.

He played cautiously and defended when he needed to defend and attacked whenever he saw an opening. If he let his guard drop, he would get hit without a shred of a doubt.

Nimble Rod struggled through victory as well. The entire party won their designated battles, each with struggles and hardships. They walked down the last flight of stairs.