Chapter 102 102: Second Place

[<Event Quest Chain! (II): The Outlaw Izanagi Surugi of the Blood Lotus Gang Has become An Infamous Mass Murderer! Find Him And His Gang And End Their Reign Of Terror Over Verdant Viloria And Her Holdings In The West./ Rewards: 5000 Tigons, 10 Silver Prisms, 7% Shares Of Sierra Corp Tax Free, 1 Hero Class Atmospheric Base(Upgradable)>]

Cole stumbled out of the church, he had ignored the notifications for exp and was ignoring the massive level up prompt that was waiting for him. He dragged himself out of the church and right outside to the waiting gazes of aspirants and the locals of this floor. He ignored them, as he kept on pushing himself, moving past the town as they all stared at him in shock, until he was out of Red Salvation and back in front of the camp that was in front of it.

He made his way over to the bounty board, eager to complete it so that at the very least he would be done with all of this gun slinging cowboy bounty hunter bullshit. Besides he was eager to log out and go check out this new base and then maybe get some well needed mental rest, perhaps sleep for twenty four hours or go to a club or something.

[Bounty 08/10(Complete!) <Gold> The Mining Town Of Red Salvation Is Now Under The Harsh Grip Of The Most Notorious Bandit In The Wild West The Sanguine Lotus. Go up against His forces and wrest control of the town back/Condition: This Bounty Can Be Completed With A Party Or Team/ Rewards: 2,000 Gold, 12,000 Exp, +80,000 Exp To Largest Contributor, +100 Gold Per Bandit Killed, +500K Gold for the Person to Slay or Capture Izanagi Surugi of The Blood lotus Gang]

[Bounty 09/10(Complete!)<Silver> The Mayor of Red Salvation Has Been Captured and Locked in the Basement of the Town's Church's Bell tower. Rescue him and return him safely to his family outside the town. / Condition: The Mayor Must Survive/ Rewards:  5000 Exp, 1000 Gold, Cold Silver Spawning Crystal]

[Bounty 10/10(Complete!)<Bronze> Mauricio is an enchanter with a death attribute. He needs ten personal effects taken off the corpses of bandits within the town in order to make enchanted items. / Condition: The Personal effects must be from a dead person… they don't necessarily have to be a bandit. / Rewards: 2000 Exp, 200 Gold]

There was a cascade of light all around him, it shook him a bit as all of the bounties were completed. But just as Cole was glowing a loud gong seemed to resonate in the sky as a world announcement popped up.

[World Announcement! Rank 11 Aspirant Tiana 'Ghost Shadow' Is The first Person To Complete ten Bounties And has Ascended To The next Floor +100K Exp, 1 diamond rank Prism and 10 gold rank prisms!]

Cole had an extremely bitter taste in his mouth when he saw the notification, he knew exactly who this 'Ghost hand' was. The little brat that had backstabbed him back in the first floor and tried to have him turned into some sort of mind controlled cyborg. And in retrospect when he thought about it, he realized whatever the fuck was done to him in the game, would have reflected into the real world, so if perhaps he lost his mind or control of his avatar then he would probably not be himself by now.

It made him absolutely angry, it was one thing for his enemies to throw a wrench in his plans or try to take him out. But it was another thing to become second best to said enemy. Cole would not stand for it no, matter the day or situation… he was going to hunt her down and put an end to her… permanently.

[Aspirant Cole has Completed Ten Bounties, Initiating Ascension to Third Floor In 3…2…1!]

Cole did not even have enough time left to panic as the world seemed to swoon to the side, bend and twist in and out of itself as an intense feeling of vertigo assaulted Cole. Then he found himself laying in a glade, amidst a bed of soft green grass, and the ever elegant chirps of nature.

He looked around, and noticed trees the heights of skyscrapers all around him, and in the glade that he found himself, there was a pair of green pillars. They were covered in moss and were interspaced around the 2 kilometer in circumference glade. This was the third floor, but there was just something about this lace that he really couldn't put his hand on. He had pretty much grown up in the city all his life, and while there were still green places like this on earth, there was a danger in the air.

He ignored the notifications that were pinging in the background and got closer to the edge of the glade where the massive and unidentifiable tree created a vast canopy so vast, barely any light came through the forest. Cole stepped past the glade and into the forest properly, shivering in that second as it seemed as if he had just crossed from a warm sunny day, to an eerie chilly evening.

All of a sudden Cole heard deep clicking sounds, he paused and turned around, watching the glade and making sure his path of retreat had not been tempered with. Cole pulled out blue obsidian… however he realized his gun was not there anymore. In fact even his armored cowboy clothes were gone. All that was left with him was his sword and small daggers that were now hanging in a belt around a pair of course pajama like pants.

Cole was bare chested too. He honestly had no idea what sort of fucked up level was this. This could not be considered a good start, absolutely not, yet here he was dealing with what seems to be the start of some sort of survival game, or something else entirely. Cole had a lot of suspicions about where he was, or what could possibly be the theme of the third floor.

With this much forest, he was hoping this was not some hunger games kind of situation, or perhaps it's some resource gathering, base building survivor theme?. Cole tuned around and looked at the glade, it was pretty much what you would expect from a survival game. But then again this could also be some apocalyptic type situation and there were locals around very much interested in ritual sacrifices, or worse this could be some predator and Hard target kind situation.

All of these scenarios, Cole made sure to assume the worst of his situation, in order to better prepare for whatever is thrown his way. He heard the sounds of clicking again, but this time directly above his head as he looked up, just in time for a monkey like creature with too large a head, six leathery limbs ending in vicious looking claws that could slice and shred through anything in a second.

It leapt at Cole, he jumped back Holding Malachi in one hand and a small throwing dagger in the other. He heard the same click again as suddenly, the same creature burst out of the ground, its body was different though. This time this one looked more like a ghost with segments of bone on its half transparent body.

He moved to the side and slashed downwards on the neck of the beast. Black Malakai went through it with way more ease, but then as he marveled at the ability of his sword, a creature humped across his back and slashed him in the back of his neck. He stumbled forwards, his vision swimming as the entire world around him seemed to start shaking.

The first of the creatures that he had saw leapt across the air and slammed its head into Cole's side. That gave him a brief moment of clarity as he realized that perhaps he had been poisoned. Without any clothes on, and no shoes as he quickly realized he was barefoot, Cole doubted he had any sort of protection. He was quickly used [Shadow Dance] to pop up closer to the glade, he had only taken a few steps out, but he was far enough that it wouldn't have been possible to stumble into the glade the way he just did with how poisoned he was.

However the creature that had head-butted him was still attached to him, biting and scratching and clawing. The glade shook and the soft green grass seemed to glow as they all sharpened and shot themselves out like the spikes of on the back of a porcupine or hedgehog. They stabbed through him but he didn't seem to feel any sort of pain. But for the creature holding on to him, it was something else entirely.

Forget stabbing into it, from the bare minimum of touch alone, the grass burned wherever it was in contact with the creature. In mere seconds the creature evaporated and left behind 3 shiny crystals on the grass. Cole shook his head then fell back, his body paralyzed with his dizziness at an all-time high. He sighed, at least he was back in the glade and safe, perhaps it was time to take a look at the notifications he has been ignoring and understand just what he was dealing with.

The first thing he saw was.

[Welcome to the 3rd floor, the theme for this floor is Pangea]