Chapter 27- Lyda Strike

Zach dashed at the horde of the 50 goblin kings with nothing but a sword in his hand, even though he knew he couldn't do anything.

Suddenly, a bright light shined from under the horde, and all the 50 goblin kings were obliterated into pieces.

[Floor 20 has been cleared!]

"H..uh?"

Aurora was sitting on her knees with her head lowered on the floor.

'What just happened?'

Zach rushed to Aurora and asked with a concerned look on his face: "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah. I still have 10 HP left."

"Then you are not okay!" Zach shouted.

Aurora stood up and let out a weary sigh. She then yawned and said, "No need to worry. I don't feel any pain whatsoever."

"What was that just now?" Zach asked with a mixed expression on his face.

"That was my sword art skill— Lyda strike. It allows me to strike infinitely for 1 second, and each strike deals 100000 DMG," Aurora answered honestly. 

Here, infinite means not limited, non-finite. She still has to strike (move her hand and use her strength) to deal the DMG. If she activates the skill and doesn't strike, then the skill will deal 0 DMG. 

"Then you should have used it before!" Zach exclaimed and groaned. His heart was still beating fast because of what had happened just now.

"This skill has a 6-hour cooldown, so I only use it when it's an emergency." She looked at Zach with an anxious look on her face and asked, "What about you? Are you okay?"

"Don't worry about me."

After a brief moment, she exhaled sharply and said, "Shall we go back now?"

'What should I do?' Zach wondered. 'Aurora is down to 10 HP, so I can't let her in danger anymore. But…' Zach had only 100 minutes left to finish his quest.

"What would happen if I failed to finish the quest?" Zach asked Aurora in a gentle voice.

"If there is no penalty mentioned, then nothing should happen. You will get a new quest after that," Aurora answered.

'Should? So she is not sure.' After thinking for a while, Zach placed his hand on Aurora's shoulder and asked her to go back: "You should retreat. I will clear some more floors."

The reward for completing the quest was 500 shop points, which was enough to summon a magic shop. The appearance of the magic shop was already rare enough, and Zach didn't want to miss the golden chance.

However, he was also exhausted, and it was impossible for him to deal 30000 HP damage in his current state. His MP was 0, and he had no strength left.

"Then I will come with you!" Aurora insisted.

"There is no need. You are currently useless to me, and you will be dead weight," Zach uttered blatantly.

What he said was true, but there were many other ways to say it. He phrased it wrong, and after looking at Aurora's pale face, he regretted saying it.

Aurora lowered her head and started trembling.

'Uh oh. Now she will start crying, and there will be a cliche moment where I will try to comfort her,' Zach sighed inwardly and prepared his comforting speech.

"You are doing the same thing as I did," Aurora uttered in a low voice.

"Huh?"

"I did the same thing yesterday!" She shouted with her eyes full of tears. "Yesterday, when I was transported to this game with my two maids, the black slime told us that if we die in the game, we will die in real life too. Of course, I took it as a prank and went to clear the dungeon to pass the time."

Zach stayed quiet and listened to Aurora's story.

"The first 15 floors were pieces of cake. Then we cleared five more floors. My maids and I were both tired, but I still wanted to proceed further. Then, we cleared five more floors. My maids were exhausted at that point, but I pushed them further."

Aurora sniffed and continued, "We cleared 33 floors. At that point, my maids wanted to go back. I was exhausted too, but we still proceeded further. However, the monsters suddenly got a lot stronger after the 30th floor, or maybe it was because we were tired that they looked strong."

'She is making herself look like a sadist!' Zach thought to himself.

"My maid's top priority was to protect me. On the 34th floor, I made a mistake by going straight for the boss. The minions came to attack me, and my maids died protecting me. However, I wasn't sad because I thought they would simply respawn at the entrance of the town. I somehow managed to clear the 34th floor and retreated."

"I.. I.." Tears came out from Aurora's eyes, and they rolled down her cheeks. She looked into Zach's eyes with her teary eyes and uttered, "I waited for them at the entrance of the town. I stood there for hours, but they never came back. That's when I realized that what the black slime said was true.

'Hours? Wait a minute; the time doesn't match up. I thought about it first, but I assumed she cleared the first 34 floors with her maids, so it was less time-consuming, but that wasn't the case. And now she is saying she waited at the entrance of the town for hours. Does that mean the Gods' impact didn't occur when we logged in, and it happened even before that?' Zach wondered. 'That explains why some of the players we met weren't freaking out like others were.'

"I was devastated, and I didn't know what to do, so I went to the restaurant to eat something," Aurora added.

"..." Zach wanted to comment something, but he held back.

"But a creepy boy picked up on me and started yelling at me to heal him. I was already in a bad mood, so I left."

'That creepy person you are talking about is my friend, but I do agree he is creepy sometimes.'

"On my way, I bought a crepe from the cafe and sat under the gazebo to eat it. I had decided to kill myself after eating the crepe."

*****

Total players in the game 58290.

2840 new players logged in.

1100 players died.