Infinite Realm

For the first challenge of the Caventry's Main Trials, Sato was to reach the designated spot on the [Staircase of Zolstice] within 48 hours.

During his entire adventure with 'Xue Yan', though it seemed short, Sato had actually spent more than 8 hours of which a majority was spent within the cavern. Now it was almost 12 hours since Sato had walked up the mountain but he was still a bit far from reaching the red stripe on the mountain.

"Huff, Huff, Huff."

Sato dragged his weary body up the mountain. He had been hiking for slightly more than 4 hours now and along the way, Sato had to face a diversity of monsters.

The first section was a bit below 2 kilometres in distance but Sato's stop was around the edge of the second section. This meant that Sato had to traverse at least 2 kilometres before he could say that he had completed the challenge. Since his exit from the cavern, Sato had only walked 500 metres or so. Yes, about 500 metres in 4 hours. That was a very terrible advancing speed.

This couldn't be pinned on Sato for being slow but that he had actually underestimated the pressure of the mountain.

Back when he had exited the cavern and experienced the sharp increase in pressure, Sato could barely handle it. He had originally thought that it was his current exhausted state that made it so but unknown to him, he was wrong. The pressure was already beyond what a normal human body could handle. It was mostly due to the adrenaline that was flowing through him from the chase, that kept Sato going.

After taking a break, Sato was rejuvenated and so, his body could persist better under the pressure but Sato's mistake was in his estimation of how long he could. Sato had initially thought that he could last for at least 3 hours under the pressure and endure only 2 battles before he would be forced to take a break but he didn't factor in the possibility of the pressure increasing or rather, he couldn't. Sato didn't know the laws or physics behind the increase in the burdensome pressure so he couldn't adjust his calculations to fit it.

As Sato progressed, he was initially doing alright and didn't encounter any enemy but as he went further up the mountain, Sato discovered that monsters and other possible existences, weren't the only things he needed to be fearful of. There were array traps up the mountain that attacked him or even trapped him in a different environment, exposing him to unknown dangers. There were also curses that would implant themselves on him, causing Sato to consume more stamina while walking or even just by simply staying still. During the journey, Sato had got caught in one and suffered a doubled consumption in stamina.

Apart from that, Sato had crossed a pressure boundary and as with the others, the pressure increased by 30%. Sato already had difficulties with the pressure as it was, so a 30% increase could only be described as a misery he had to live with.

If that didn't make things bad enough already, Sato encountered some monsters along the way and they weren't just the usual Phantasmal Wolves. There were Twin Beak Hawks, Mirage Vipers, Illusive Crows and Red-Back Bears. Of these monsters, the Twin Beak Hawks and Red Back Bears were actually living creatures unlike the others so killing them rewarded him with experience points and loot. The Illusive Crows hunted in groups just like the Phantasmal Wolves and considering that they attacked from the air, they were much more difficult to handle than their grounded friends. Sato had to avoid them at all cost just as he did with the Twin Beak Hawks since their attack pattern was a hit-and-run tactic and he couldn't fly to retaliate. Despite knowing that they gave out material rewards, Sato didn't want to encounter any Twin Beak Hawk for the same reasons and also because the last time he did so, he almost died.

Having to be wary of these creatures in such a disadvantageous terrain with an overbearing pressure that affected one's body and also formations scattered all over the ground in a random pattern, Sato had to be on high alert all the time and this ended up increasing his stamina consumption. As a result, Sato's progress was slowed as he had to take a 20 minutes break every 30-50 metres.

With all these hindrances along the way, it was quite impressive, in a sense, for Sato to have gone up 500 metres within 4 hours. When added with the 900 metres he had traversed by using the Cavern, Sato had walked a total of 1300 metres or 1.3 kilometres up the mountain. All that was left was about 700 or so metres. If the pressure of the mountain were to be constant, it would take Sato around 8 hours or so to get there. But since that was unrealistic, Sato couldn't be sure of how long it would take him but that didn't make him desist from pushing forward.

'I wonder what other surprises I would find up there.'

Staring at the red band that circled round the mountain, Sato didn't know what more to expect at this point but he resolved himself to proceed onwards.

In current modern era, each VR game always tried to produce a whole new different idea, experience and feeling in order to attract more users. Because of this, one couldn't become a pro gamer just by simply having knowledge of a few gaming tactics. While such tactics would be applicable in cliché scenarios like dungeon runs and monster raids, in events like the Main trials and simple adventure travels, they were either barely useful or utterly useless. Missions like this often relied on the players themselves and not any fanciful knowledge or experience from previous games. It was because of this that Sato had swallowed a loss back at the cavern and even at the Entry trials. Never in his entire 21 years of living would he have expected that his memories could be fashioned against him in such a tactful manner in a VR game.

As for finding one of the causes of his loss, 'Xue Yan', Sato thought it was highly improbable.

If that was a fake then it means that he or she would be far gone by now to who knows where. If it was the original who was possessed, then it was quite possible that Sato would encounter 'her' at the end point.

'In that case, the answer to everything lies above.'

With a determined mind, Sato continued his journey up the mountain. He didn't know how long it would take him to reach there but what he did know was that he would do so, under the remaining 36 hours of time.

Elsewhere...

In the towns of Riverdale, Black Mountain and Salt Springs, the current player population was all hyped up and jittery. While it was true that these towns were always bustling with activities due to the large number of players there, the atmosphere in the towns now were a whole lot different than they usually were. This was because news about the Kobold King's army breaking into the Outer region had spread but that wasn't all.

According to scouts from the various guilds and parties that went in, it took the Kobold King only 30 minutes to blitzkrieg through the 10th, 9th and 8th floors, and this was mostly due to the large expanse of space within each floor otherwise, it would have taken much less time to do so.

With the news of its advancement spreading, players began to wonder whether it would stop anytime soon.. Some even wondered maybe, just maybe, the Kobold King doesn't plan on stopping at Black Grill's Cave.