Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

[You have entered comb of depraved. Objective- Survive the ten hordes and keep the fireplace ignited. The moment the fireplace goes out, the powerful curse of Ozymandias will activate strengthening all the creatures whose alignment lies with evil].

Right after he read the instructions, the entire hall started trembling. The trial did not even give him enough time to compose himself before creatures that looked like rotten corpses, dropped down from those numerous holes on the wall and immediately started running towards the fireplace and throwing themselves in it.

Looking at this scene, Simon was in a state of daze, trying to understand what these corpses were trying to do. Throwing themselves in the fireplace deliberately… at that moment, he saw the fire in the fireplace flicker and dim a little.

"No way are they trying to…" at this instant, he finally understood what these creatures were trying to do. They were trying to snuff the fire out by piling their bodies on top of the fireplace.

Simon recalled the last few lines of the instruction. [The moment the fireplace goes out, the powerful curse of Ozymandias will activate strengthening all the creatures whose alignment lies with evil].

He did not know what this curse was, but he knew more than to ignore it. Simon ran towards the corpses, took out his Crimson Blazing Flame Blade and started hacking and slashing towards them.

No matter what, he cannot allow the fireplace to go out. This was just the first horde, there were many more to come. After he pushed them away from the fireplace, he took this opportunity to analyse them with his skill.

Race- Common Zombies

Level- 200,

Skills- Insatiate, Super Endurance, Super Strength, Claws, Bite.

The monster this time, was none other than zombies who were supposed to be a low level mob in many of the games from his previous world. However, the ones in front of his were all around level 200 and at a glance, there were more than hundreds of them and that number was still increasing.

What astonished Simon was that even after being slashed in half by his sword, these zombies were still alive. He used Flame magic to burn them although it worked, it took a lot of time for them to succumb to their death. Their HP was just abnormally high.

"It can't be that their weakness is the same in this world too," Simon remarked observing the zombies. This time, instead of targeting their bodies, he used his sword to drill a hole or bisect their head cleanly.

Like a puppet that has lost its string, the zombies immediately stopped moving.

'It's a bit cliché but I guess zombies as a general have the same weakness no matter the world' he thought internally.

Now that Simon knew how to dispose them off quickly, he stood in between them and the fireplace swiftly ending any zombies that came near. Time passed just like that and before Simon knew it, he had defeated more than three hundred of them.

The numbers were too absurd but what was more absurd than it was the fact that it was just the first horde. There was still nine more hordes remaining. While Simon was taking a break to recover his lost strength, from the corner of his eyes he saw the fire of the fireplace dim by a whole lot.

Panicked, he swiftly approached the fireplace only to find that there was nothing wrong with it. Simon carefully observed the fireplace, he was sure that the light of the fireplace had dimmed a little and if to prove him right, it dropped again after a while.

[The second wave will start shortly, timing until it arrives- 30secs].

Right now, he was in no mind to pay attention to the alert that had popped in front of him as all his attention was currently on the fireplace which for some reason, was dimming down.

Was it set like that or was there some reason for it ding out like that? Simon did not know but what he knew was that the fireplace going out was bad news for him. By the time he could think of anything, the thirty seconds had already passed and zombies were starting to drop down from those numerous holes on the wall.

What was different about them was their levels were around 230 and some of them were a little unique with a few more skills.

Feeling the advent of the zombies behind him, Simon turned around. Since he did not know for what reason the fireplace was dimming down, he could only put it aside for now and concentrate on the situation at hand.

In any case, he could think of some solution after he was done with this wave. Just like usual, the numbers in which the zombies arrived was so absurd that for a second Simon thought that they wanted to drown this place with just their numbers alone.

SLASH…SLASH… with every slash from his sword, a head would drop down. The zombies other having a high HP and endurance, were nothing special if their weakness was targeted. They had no techniques whatsoever and weren't using their brain at all.

Disposing them and not allowing them was an easy task or so he thought. However, he couldn't be any more wrong. This time the horde not only consisted of normal zombies there were also some uncommon ones mixed in between.

They wore helmets and gears around their body and moved in a way that was much more agile than the rest. Simon identified a few amongst the crowd and took them out when they approached closer.

While clashing against them he noticed that unlike the rest, they were clearly a little sentient. Others were trying to simply drown him with their numbers, clawing and trying to bite. However, the uncommon ones mixed themselves with the crowd and only attacked when he dropped his guard.

Though that might be the case, dispatching them was still easy for Simon as their level was still not high enough to threaten him. Half an hour later, there were heaps of corpses all around the hall.

Huff…huff...

Simon took deep breaths of air as he sprawled himself near the fireplace, he had a few minutes of window to recover some of his spent energy and prepare himself. This time the second horde consisted of more than five hundred zombies and while it may be true that their levels weren't high enough, they were still a huge pain in the ass when one considers their numbers and the fact that he had to protect the fireplace behind him.

This was still the second horde and the number would keep on increasing. He could feel his mana as well as his stamina depleting at a fast rate after every horde. There was no condition or special effects in this trial, it was simply due to the number of enemies he had to defeat.

Nevertheless, Simon wasn't demoralised, on the contrary, he looked at the fourth trial as a training. He wanted to use this opportunity to learn how to adjust his energy and use only the minimum to defeat the enemies so that by the time the last horde arrives he still had plenty of energy to spend.

The fourth trial was not all bad, although the numbers of the enemy was a problem the fact that they provided a bountiful experience cannot be denied. In just the span of an hour or two, Simon had levelled up by a total of five times.

Though this might be beyond the expectations of the one who set the trial, thanks to the fragment of pride, the experience he got after defeating every zombie was bolstered many times.

Lying on the floor, instead of despairing about the upcoming hordes, Simon couldn't help but have his expectations rise up and his blood boil with exhilaration. If there was anything worrying him, that would be the dimming light of the fireplace.

As Simon was waiting for the next horde to arrive, from the corner of his eyes, he spotted a small crimson bead. Intrigued, he approached the bead and tried inspecting it with his [Analysis] only for his eyes to widen the next second.

That is because the description of the crimson bead said that it was a trial item.

Simon grabbed the bead that was as big as a marble and contemplated. There definitely had to be a reason for the bead to be here and the analysis telling him that it was a trial item further solidified this conjecture of his.

"But what could it be used for? Damn if only the [Analysis] provided a little more information…" Simon cussed, on top of everything, he also had to solve what purpose these beads served.

As he was busy deliberating what it might be, the third wave arrived and just like he had predicted, the numbers and levels in which they appeared were much more higher than before.

The average level of the zombies was around level 250 with many uncommon and special zombies in the mix. Seeing the horde, Simon snapped out of his thoughts and kept the bead in his space ring.

It seemed that it would take some time for him to figure out what it was used for. He propped himself up and engaged his enemies.

SLASH… SLASH even if their levels were higher his [A] tier sword was still able to cleanly bisect their heads. Simon used his sword mastery skill and made short work of them while trying to regulate his energy and keeping his expenditure minimum.

With so many hordes yet to come, he cannot just burn out at the start and has to learn pacing his energy.