Episode 309 Hell Tree (3)

As soon as I finished dealing with all the miscellaneous monsters that appeared afterward, a new space appeared.

-Ding!

[You’ve left the ‘Tutorial Zone’ on the 1st basement floor]

[Rewards will be distributed]

[The ‘Main Game’ has begun]

[Entering the ‘Familiar Ground’ on the second floor]

Vikir picks up a tattered piece of parchment that falls in front of him.

-<Return Scroll> / Scroll / Rank: ?

A scroll that allows you to return to the Tutorial Lands for one time only.

The answer to the question ‘Lord, where are you going?’ is written.

※Level will be reset when used

Vikir clutches the scroll, given to him as a reward for clearing the tutorial.

Presumably, this is an item given to all participants that can only be used once, in a moment of crisis.

Next, Vikir descended to the second level of the basement.

The scene was all too familiar.

The Colosseo Academy. This was the interior of the academy he had been living in for the past year.

Lecture halls, training centers, and dormitory buildings rise above the streets below, lined with commercial shops.

The brick-built gardens, street trees lining the streets, plazas and fountains under the central clock tower are still the same.

The problem was that the academy’s facilities were already in ruins. ……

Vikir looked around in silence.

The classrooms, hallways, cafeteria, and other facilities of the academy were as they had been before they were trapped in the tower.

However, there were some parts that were subtly distorted.

For example, the praying angel carved into the fountain had been replaced with a torn to pieces angel, and the pictures symbolizing Lun are all drawn upside down.

What’s more, there’s burning and destruction all around.

It seemed as though time had passed so long that there was a lot of dust.

The perfume shop, which was always bustling with female students, was covered in dust with broken doors and windows, and the sign of a famous restaurant was rusting away.

The stench of rotting meat wafted from inside.

The garbage dump, where the kindly security guard always waved hello, was littered with unidentifiable bloodstains.

Everything is in ruins.

[Amdusias devours parts of the world to feed his Hell Tree. The swallowed world becomes part of the worldview within the tower. Perhaps it has swallowed part of the Colosseo Academy].

Decarabia around his neck spoke for the first time.

Madam Baby also groans as if she is anxious.

Vikir sat down in front of the torn angel statue and waited in silence.

He can’t go any further, though, as a translucent wall blocks his way.

The world devoured by Amdusias seemed to extend only as far as the Academy’s commercial district.

Then.

“……!”

Vikir felt something.

Different students began to walk out from the dormitories, classrooms, and shops in the ruins ahead.

“Holy shit. What kind of world is this?”

“Are we trapped in a dungeon or something?”

“Damn it. I thought that was a fairy earlier.”

“Damn it! Give me back my power, you demon bastards!”

The students of Colosseo Academy slowly made their way through the tutorial and into the main game.

Soon, 108 students were gathered around the central fountain with the torn angel statue.

Some look confused, others calm, as if they’ve already settled in.

Vikir sat still and scanned their faces.

He didn’t recognize any of the familiar faces- Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, Sinclair, Dolores.

Most of them were seniors, with the occasional assistant professor mixed in.

“Most of them are level 1, stats 1-3.

Not surprisingly, the students are level 1.

And stats like strength, agility, and stamina seem to vary from 1 to 3.

Every once in a while, I’d see someone with a stat over 5, but they were few and far between.

‘Compared to my stats, I think the reduction rate is a bit unbalanced.’

However, stats don’t always give a complete picture of a person’s combat power, and there are still Locked stats, so it’s hard to make a judgment based on the status window alone.

Meanwhile.

While Vikir was lost in thought, the students began to explore the ruins of the academy.

Seniors became leaders, sophomores took on middle management, and freshmen took on menial tasks.

The most prominent among them were the aristocratic and baronial students.

“Shit. What the hell is this ruin, let’s try to find something useful.”

“Be careful, that fairy or something might show up again and give us a mission.”

“Let’s grab what we can. Food, weapons, whatever.”

“Ransack! Ransack everything! This place is a ruin anyway! Whoever picks it up first is the owner!”

The students began ransacking the storefronts.

The quick-thinking ones ransacked restaurants and grocery stores for canned goods and water.

But most of the canned goods were gassed up and the water was contaminated.

Unable to find food no matter how hard they searched, the students became desperate and robbed other stores.

Crang!

The aristocratic girl who broke the glass window of one of the shops exclaimed excitedly.

“Wow! Beatrice Newell’s new perfume, it’s a limited edition perfume, and I couldn’t get it because there were no celebrities in the Imperial Capital!”

She sprayed the new perfume liberally over her body and shuddered in ecstasy.

“I was already annoyed by the smell of sweat and blood and rats in the tutorial area, so this is great!”

Meanwhile, the Baronial boy who broke down the store’s door grinned like he’d hit a windfall.

“Wow, this is a tobacco shop, all these fine cigarettes. These are the cigarettes I’ve never smoked because they were too expensive.”

Strangely, although the necessities were gone, the luxuries were left behind.

“Well, maybe it’s to relax before the main game?”

Even students who were not usually interested in perfume or cigarettes flocked to the perfume and cigarette shops as if they could indulge themselves for once.

…… But.

‘They’ll realize soon enough.’

Vikir thought.

This tower is a creation of the demon, inside the body of a plant that grows in hell.

Everything in it is more than just unpleasant, it’s downright malicious.

‘Only luxuries like perfume, tobacco, and cosmetics are left. It must be intentional.’

Suspicious are something to be wary of, but in this tower, they are actually helpful for survival.

Just then.

…Gurgling! Gurgling! Pop!

Something popped out of thin air with an unpleasant noise.

It was a rotten looking piece of meat. It was a fairy, the guide of the tower.

[1 0 8 Par tici pants, Is th is the app eara nce of yo ur cu te fai ry? ]

It was still chattering away in a bizarre tone.

It’s a pity that you’ve become 100 times weaker, but your growth here will remain the same outside, you can acquire talents you weren’t born with, and it’s an opportunity to turn your life around by acquiring unique artifacts……. There were only all kinds of fake comforts and sweet words.

But there was one word at the end of all these premises that quickly shattered the students’ illusions.

[But th at’s a sto ry ab out wh en you le ft the to wer ali ve, rig ht ? ]

If you die or don’t make it out of the tower, you’re done. You will spend the rest of your life here.

In the eerie silence, only the sound of dry swallowing is loud.

At that time, a senior in the upper grades worked hard to muster courage.

“Guys, don’t be afraid, this is an opportunity! If we can get out of the tower, we can become much stronger! Let’s level up a lot here, collect a lot of stats, and get out, because there are some rare items that can be found here!”

This encouraged the other students.

“Oooh, that’s right!”

“Let’s try something!”

“The Demon is alone, let’s go!”

“I’m going to be a hero here and return to my family’s arms!”

“Let the mission begin, you demonic bastard!”

All at once, the morale of the students rose and they began to shout at the fairy.

…… but.

[ Ah hig hig hig? I li ke it, I li ke it, I li ke it so mu ch? Ar e yo u will ing to ta ke on th at chall enge? We ll th en, can we ge t start ed rig ht aw ay ? ]

The fairy was strangely amused by the courageous attitude of the students.

Because there are no lips, drool flows between exposed teeth.

The students were instantly tired of the sight of them clapping it hands so fast, even though it skin was torn and blood and pus were flowing out as it stretched out it’s short hands so long.

Just as the students’ enthusiasm was dying down, the fairy spat out the last line, shaking with joy.

[ The miss ion on the sec ond flo or is sim ple ? ]

At the same time, more than a hundred gaping holes appeared behind the fairy.

An unpleasant sound began to emanate from them.

[grrrr……]

The sound of a ferocious beast growling.

Soon, creatures began to crawl out, flames spewing from their eyes and mouths.

A hundred ‘Hell Hounds’ crawled right out of the oil field.

The fairy watched as the students’ faces contorted in despair and terror, and gave them one final task.

[ St ay ali ve ? ]