Exactly 5 minutes…
The time Ian took to clear the first floor to the fifth floor of the Spirit Dojo was no more than five minutes .
It was a known thing for such a situation to happen .
It was a matter of course .
In the Spirit Dojo, each level of the opponent that appeared was according to the challenger's level .
The monsters' level of transcendence, which Ian was hunting, was around 13 to 14 so clearing the 5th floor wasn't an easy task .
Tring-!
[You have won against the trainees!]
[You have successfully cleared the 6th floor of the spirit dojo . ]
[You have acquired the item 'Medium Wind essence' . ]
[You have earned 5 points . ]
… Syncopation…
[You have successfully cleared the 7th floor of the Spirit Dojo . ]
[You have successfully cleared the 8th floor of the Spirit dojo . ]
Clearing 8 floors one after the other, Ian could feel the greed rise inside himself the more he kept looking at the dojo .
'The reward is surely great . Maybe I should have come here before going to the Contaminated Mine?'
Ian smiled while thinking about it .
While Ian was busy doing the Spirit Mountain quest, someone had already pre-empted the content there .
Maybe around the first clear, he was thinking that it would have been very rewarding if he came here first .
'Uh, I don't know who was that user who came in here first, but I just hope that they haven't cleared the 15th floor yet . '
Ian's goal and the quest achievement was to defeat the dojo master on the 15th floor .
As much as he wanted to get the 'Gearbox' on the 15th floor, he wanted to get double the reward .
“Huhu . ”
A greedy laugh came out of Ian's mouth .
The thought of clearing the quest and then opening two of the transcendence gearbox made Ian feel so good .
Ian quickly stepped into the gate that would take him to the next floor .
System messages appeared .
Tring-!
[Do you want to challenge the 9th floor of the Spirit Dojo?]
'From the 9th floor, the trainees will be at the same level as me . I need to be a bit more careful . '
Ian nodded to himself .
Ian's form quickly got sucked into the gate .
Wheeeing-!
The gate opened with a low resonance, and the quiet hall was disturbed .
“Huk, huk!”
“Wah, that was close . ”
“Yah, Chesk, we would have almost slipped out of the 13th floor because of your mistakes!”
Ralph's hard voice could be heard all over the place .
One would already know what happened on the 13th floor just by hearing their voices .
“I should have been out if hyung didn't hit that paralysis arrow!”
“I'm sorry . I have been playing for so long that my arms are getting numb . ”
Ralph and the others just cleared the 13the floor . They were gathered in the waiting room, wiping off the sweat from their foreheads .
If they slipped out of the 13th floor instead of reaching the 14th floor, then he would have lost all of his enthusiasm .
Tring-!
[You have successfully cleared the 13th floor of the Spirit Dojo . ]
[Hero score of 13 points has been achieved . ]
[Vitality has been restored . ]
[You have entered the waiting room . ]
Looking at the messages, Ralph just shook his head .
He had seen the same messages a dozen times already .
'Yeah, well, we need to clear the next floor unconditionally this time . We'll have to break through the 14th floor and then find out what is on the 15th floor… I'll clear it at all cost . '
Ralph was adamant and quickly checked his condition .
After entering the waiting room, all of their vitality and skills were reset, but it had become a habit for rankers to just verify and maintain everything .
Ralph looked at it and moved ahead with a firm look .
His whole body had already reached its limit because of being in the tower for three days, but he was still trying to keep himself standing with his mental power .
Tuck- Tuck-!
Ralph, who reached the gate with heavy steps, looked back at his two other party members .
He opened his mouth with a very low voice .
“Well, the spirit of Inisco had just evolved, so let's clear it this time . ”
“Kay, Ralph . ”
“Nice, Hyung . ”
Ralph's gaze went toward Chesk and spoke once more .
“Chesk, if you make such mistakes again, I won't tolerate it . ”
“Okay, I will get myself together . ”
The three men with firm faces alternately stared at each other .
After a while, they were ready to step into the gate .
Swoong-!
The gate began to emanate blue light and started to suck in the three people .
The waiting room once again turned silent after the three left .
Was it around 30 minutes since the party of Ralph had disappeared?
Woong-!
At the gate where they appeared, a new resonating sound came out .
Someone other than Ralph's party had cleared the 13th floor .
Subsequently, the shadow that appeared at the gate mumbled to itself, “Phew, it wasn't so easy . I cleared it all somehow until I get here . ”
Tat- tat-!
The shadow began to walk in a relaxed manner toward the gate .
He was none other than Ian .
Surprisingly, Ian climbed up the 13th floor easily when Ralph's party had to try three times to clear it .
“So I'm going to the last gate before I meet the Dojo master, right?”
After checking his equipment, Ian looked at the gate with his alert eyes .
It took a couple of hours to get to the 13th floor, and it surely was tremendous when compared to the party of Ralph .
“I'm here . ”
Standing in front of the 14th floor, Ian took a step without hesitation .
A system message that Ian wasn't expecting appeared in front of him .
Tring-!
[The other challenger has entered the gate . ]
[You will have to face the other challengers first . ]
[Do you want to proceed with the challenge?]
As soon as he checked the message, Ian smiled .
“Oh ho, looks like I am late?”
Of course, the probability that the challenger was on the 14th floor wasn't excluded .
Ian himself knew that there were other users there .
They probably were the ones who had intercepted the first rewards till the 13th floor .
Ian's head started to work again .
'What should I do? Should I accept the challenge even though I know that it is risky?'
Ian had two options .
First, wait in the so-called waiting room until the challengers complete their fight .
Second, try to know who the challengers were and defeat them first .
Not surprisingly, the second option had a lot of risks .
Challengers entering the 14th floor might have a higher power than Ian .
The odds of having to face a single user one-on-one like Ian was very slim, but it was likely for a party to evade .
No matter how great Ian was, it was arrogant of him to think that he would be able to turn out victorious against two or more rankers of other servers .
Ian's decision was the second option—the risky one .
“Even if there is a risk in it… I think it is a situation that I'll face one way or another . ”
Ian was willing to go ahead with the challenge, even if it meant losing to other challengers .
Even if he was defeated, he would just be pushed out of the dojo .
On the other hand, if he took the risk and accepted the challenge, he would likely get the buff and the reward for the 14th floor .
Ian decided that it was worth a try .
“Kay, let's see what kind of friends are waiting there…”
Ian's eyes started to sparkle as he looked at the series of messages that appeared .
Tring-!
[You have challenged . ]
[To challenge the 14th floor, you must first duel with the challengers on the 14th floor . ]
[A duel with the challengers has been registered . ]
[Moved to the duel room . ]
Ian's vision began to get engulfed with a white light .
Gulp .
In the quiet room, the sound of someone gulping could be heard .
Tension could be felt everywhere .
The four men, confronting the s.p.a.cious room, began to look with keen eyes .
In a duel, all the information of the opponent was covered, so the only thing they knew was their opponent's equipment .
Even their opponent's face was covered with a mask, so even if they had met the person their facing before, they wouldn't be able to recognize them .
'Dammit, this was an important moment…!'
Looking at the man on the other side, Ralph bit his lip .
In fact, this wasn't his first time to partic.i.p.ate in a duel .
They have been in the dojo for three days, and he had met a challenger NPC a few times .
Which was why when he saw the 'Challenger has entered' messages, he wasn't that surprised .
He just felt like he had rotten luck .
'This is the first time for a challenger to come after the 10th floor… Can we win?'
Ralph didn't think that the challenger would be a user .
It wasn't like he wasn't expecting to be faced with a user .
He just thought that if there was a user, he wouldn't show by himself .
For a single user to come up to the place where three people tried hard to go to, no matter how hard Ralph thought about it, that made no sense to him .
He thought it wasn't much of a deal .
If the challenger was a normal user, he would have surely waited for the other ones to complete the floor and then challenge it .
'Yeah, I'm positive about it . Unless that one is a high-leveled NPC, he won't be able to take down three rankers . '
Ralph quickly began to give out orders in the party chat .
Ralph: Let's move slowly and surround him . Chesk, keep your bow ready . If it looks like he will cast magic, shoot him down to cancel his casting .
Chesk: Okay, Ralph .
Inisco: Okay, hyung!
Equipped with a weapon which looked like an Orb, the guy was most likely to be a warlock or a wizard cla.s.s .
For that reason, Ralph thought it would be important to narrow their distance to the opponent .
After narrowing the distance and interrupting their enemy's casting, there was no way they wouldn't be able to kill a wizard with weak tanking abilities .
'We all have low vitality… but if Chesk can manage to cut off the enemy's magic, then it could be a huge problem for him . '
After his calculations, Ralph moved .
In order to not give him the time to cast any magic, he rushed over to him .
But the very next moment .
Ralph couldn't help but panic .
He was holding a fiery longbow in his hands; the man, who was equipped with an orb, now had a bow .
In Ralph's short duration of hesitation, the man already began shooting his arrows without giving a second thought .