Run or die

Awakening from his slumber, Frederick found himself inside a hall illuminated by countless flying lights. It was remarkably similar to the passageways of the first stage's maze, except for numerous blue luminous lights flying around.

These lights looked almost alive; their movement seemed erratic yet deliberate. They would fly about erratically until suddenly coming together into one large swarm whereupon each individual flew away again randomly.

As he slowly got up, Frederick blinked away the remnants of a deep sleep, his body stiff and aching from the intense cold. The harsh conditions had taken their toll, leaving parts of his body deadly pale and others swollen with some skin peeling off. Despite this, the fact that there was no irreversible damage reassured him as he evaluated his physical state.

Promptly pulling out a precious portion of unknown meat from his bag, he then started to devour it. Taking a small bite from the jerky, he chewed on it for some time before swallowing. It was so dry it felt like eating paper, not to mention how bland and hard it was to eat. However, this was the best choice for sustenance as Frederick needed something to restore his nutrients while resting his body for the next stage.

'I just noticed that... Increasing perception stat also enhanced my taste buds. I don't know if this is a good thing.' thought Frederick. 

Looking back at the dark veil, he shook his head before taking another bite of the jerky. 'Shame that I cannot take any corpse part of the 2nd stage guardian'. To be exact, the veil to the third stage seems to even stop the carcass of the stage's guardian from leaving so he did not bother trying again.

'More importantly ...'

<Congratulations 2 on reaching level 4. Please assign your free points to a stat>

- Constitution + ( 10 -> 11)

- Mind + ( 11 -> 12)

- Perception +( 12 -> 13)

- Dexterity + ( 12 -> 13)

Slaying the second-stage guardian earned him two full levels! Defeating the first guardian had brought him to the brink of level 3, and the second guardian provided just enough to push him directly to level 4.

Killing monsters seemed an easier way to get experience points compared to farming candidates since some of them could have peculiar and unpredictable authority in addition to little experience. However, this was only true at the start. As they became stronger, killing them would yield a lot more than slaying a local.

Without any hesitation, he directly increased his mind stat. With a pleasant feeling of his mind getting sharper, Frederick nodded with a weird smile as he gazed at his stats. Augmenting his stats was his only comfort since he was sent to the Main Hub World.

Even though a higher constitution stat would undoubtedly benefit him in the upcoming stage, he believed he could manage without it.

Finishing his jerky and drinking a few mouthfuls of water and blood freshly obtained from the first guardian, he slowly stood up and stretched his body before starting to exercise while ignoring the cold feeling. The last part of this place would require a lot of physical effort, so he needed to spend some time healing and increasing his stamina.

It is reasonable to think that he could have trained his body before going inside the realm of Dyrroth, but he could not for a simple reason: Food.

He only had enough food for a few days at most, and training takes a lot of food. If he tried to increase his stamina before going inside this realm, then he would be in a situation where he does not have enough food to afford a slow recovery like he is doing right now.

In this situation, he would have to forcefully push his body to progress if he didn't want to starve. By training here, he could take his time to recuperate from the second stage and increase his stamina at the same time.

Furthermore, he possessed a secret weapon: Blood Dominion. Using his authority to stimulate his blood circulation system, he could push his body into a state of exceptionally rapid recovery by accelerating his metabolism. Again, this required a lot of food and would leave some scars afterward.

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A few days quickly passed. Frederick's routine focused mostly on increasing his stamina. After every meal, he would exercise vigorously, sometimes to the point of exhaustion due to high-intensity workouts.

On top of his training, he often slept to accelerate his recovery. If he felt that his body was about to give out completely because of fatigue poisons accumulating within his muscles, he would carefully use Blood Dominion to forcefully get rid of every waste produced by his muscles.

His strength grew rapidly thanks to those efforts, but at the same time, his resources were thinning at a rapid pace.

Thankfully, he had an unlimited supply of water at his disposal, as he could just melt some ice from the second stage if he needed to drink. Moreover, the cold did help his body!

He did not know this before, but cold temperatures seemed to somehow relieve some muscle pain. So he would occasionally go through the veil and exercise here for a few minutes before going back.

Finally, after having depleted his resources, he decided that he was ready to continue his way and hopefully complete this side story this time. Although his constitution stat did not increase, he knew that time and resources were too scarce for him to grow as he would've liked.

'Talking about increasing stats, I should've been more careful before forging Blood Dominion.' Although this authority gave him an extremely potent power, it also prevented him from re-entering Ascendia, a realm where he could effortlessly enhance his perception and dexterity stats.

Had he known, he would have refrained from forging Blood Dominion prematurely and instead focused on boosting his perception and dexterity first. Despite the possibility of multiple deaths, resource scarcity wouldn't have been an issue in the modern world like Ascendia.

It was pretty ironic as Forgotten Times is supposed to prevent him from making any mistakes as he can just to change the past.

'Is that even possible to remove a forged authority?'

As he geared up to face the final stage, he opted to abandon his recently acquired fur clothes, bag, and empty bottles. While these items would likely prove beneficial later on, carrying them would be too cumbersome and impede his progress in the last stage.

Strolling through the corridors for a few minutes, one would quickly observe its emptiness. There were no monsters, traps, puzzles, or anything else to be found except cold stone floors and blue lights flying around.

While walking, Frederick was not in a hurry as he calmly went through the corridor, which seemed to increase exponentially in size. Soon, he could not even see the ceiling anymore.

After approximately 30 minutes of walking, he reached the beginning of the next stage—a colossal door. The towering metal gate spanned a width of 50 meters (164 feet), adorned with intricate carvings resembling animals. Adjacent to the door, two large blue lanterns were positioned on either side.

Taking a step forward, he slowly approached the door and lightly touched the surface. The moment his hand brushed the cold iron, several metallic sounds echoed somewhere inside. These sounds were very similar to gears working together.

After a few seconds of mechanical clicking noises, the two blue lanterns lit up brightly before slowly dimming until they returned to normal. Finally, the enormous gates started to gradually open with a screeching sound of metal grinding against itself as a sculpture gradually emerged from the ground out of nowhere.

The statue was enormous, at least as big as the door itself. It had a worm-like shape with a giant hole in its middle and countless small holes all over its body. Furthermore, it was made from a material similar to steel yet extremely soft like rubber. However, its most distinguishing feature was its pair of large eyes that had an unnatural blue glint to them. Its gaze seemed to be fixed on Frederick, completely ignoring everything else.

Without even looking behind him, Frederick hastily went through the door and started to run toward the unknown. Looking around, there was only a long and dark tunnel leading into darkness without end.

Not even a minute after he entered the gate, he felt a tremor that almost made him lose balance followed by a deafening thud that echoed across the tunnel. Then came the roar. A deep rumbling sound that shook the tunnel to its core. The roar was so loud that Frederick could feel the vibrations in his bones.

He glanced back and saw something that astonished him the first time. The statue of the giant worm was chasing after him. Its eyes were glowing blue, illuminating the dark tunnel. Its sharp teeth were exposed as it roared once again.

From Frederick's point of view, it looked like a living crusher who wanted nothing more than to transform him into a meatpaste. Thankfully, this beast did not possess monstrous speed or acceleration and would not be able to catch up to Frederick... As long as he kept running.

That was why Frederick trained his stamina. Right now, it didn't matter how much sleep or food he lacked. Nothing was more important than running. Because the instant he stops...