Chapter 371: The Practice Trial... Part-3.


    ?


    ''It''s this way...''


    Rio started to follow that strange feeling that was calling him towards itself. It''s as if it had some kind of connection to him.


    Usually such things only happen to ''Protagonist'' type characters; for this to happen with Rio means that this is the result of his own interference with this world.


    It''s the butterfly effect that he created himself.


    ''Well, I kind of already know what it is...''


    Wherever he passed through, the traps got deactivated due to the corruption of miasma, and even the floor and walls became darker than before as the lingering effects of miasmic corruption remained intact even after he left.


    ''I wonder if I can even infiltrate the demon race if I stay in this state... Right now, I don''t look much different than a demon...''


    Rio sighed to himself and took a few turns along the way and while thinking various things in his mind.


    He even searched through all the closed rooms that he came across just in case there were any of the team members stuck there, but all of them were empty, and only one of them had a decayed skeleton sitting inside.


    It likely belonged to someone who identally entered this hidden building and got stuck in the room for a very long time; eventually the other party died fromck of food and stuff.


    Although high-ranking awakeners can survive on mana and don''t need to eat, that closed, small room has a limited amount of mana; once you stay there for too long, you will end up using all of it.


    Then there will be no mana left in the surroundings, and you will eventually starve to death.


    This method is so effective that it can work on everyone at S-rank or below. You just need to confine them in a mana-isted ce for a long time, and the other party will starve to death.


    But you can''t starve SS-rankers; they can draw mana from the void directly, and they also have the ability to open teleportation portals, so it''s pointless to try to confine them in one ce.


    They can easily teleport out of there, and there''s no artifacts or equipment in the current world that are strong enough to block the teleportation ability of SS-rankers.


    Only other SS-rankers can block their fellow SS-rankers teleportation ability.


    ''Fenix and the Dragon King are likely the only two who are able to move freely in this ce without worrying about a single thing...''


    Just when Rio was busy thinking about how amazing it would be to be an SS-ranker, a massive golem appeared in front of him when he turned left on an intersection.


    The golem noticed his presence instantly, and it immediately attacked with its massive right fist.


    ''A golem made out of Adamantine!?''


    Even Rio was shocked to see such a scene. Not to mention the whole building, but even the golems guarding it were built with Adamantine; this situation is simply too absurd.


    Rio didn''t even bother fighting that slow-moving beast; he directly jumped to the side and went inside the hidden room behind the wall.


    The golem''s fist hit ground, and an extremely strong shockwave spread everywhere in the corridor.


    Thankfully, Rio had already dodged the attack, or he would have been smashed into a meat paste by this attack, as even the shadowrobe can''t withstand a full-power attack from a semi- SS rank golem.


    Those spear attacks were targeting only a few specific body parts.


    But the golem''s fist is massive, and if it hits, then Rio''s whole body will get hit by it, and he doesn''t have so much mana to make his whole body immune to that attack.


    Seeing that the attack had failed, the golem started to attack the wall that Rio had passed through to hide, but all it managed to do was create some scratches on the wall and nothing else.


    Rio ignored themotion outside and directly passed through the wall in front of him to go to the next hidden room right ahead of the current one.


    He repeated this process a dozen times and then exited the room and appeared at the end of the same corridor.


    He easily avoided the golem by hopping through the hidden rooms.


    Although this consumed even more mana than he needed to use to dismantle the traps, he had no choice but to resort to this method to avoid that golem.


    ''Is this the first time when I am running away from some enemy? Hmm, maybe I should call it a tactical retreat instead; that sounds much better...''


    Rio shook his head and immediately made his way towards the stairs located at the end of the corridor.


    ''Ah, so this golem was protecting the stairs... No wonder it was located in this ce; it must be the floor guardian or something like that...''


    Rio nced at the number sign hanging on the wall near the stairs and found out that he was on the sixth floor currently.


    He immediately tried to sense the unknown calling again and found that he needed to head to the lower floor to find it.


    Noticing that the golem was running directly towards him from behind, Rio didn''t hesitate much and went downstairs immediately.


    Just when he was half way down, he noticed that another golem was sitting on the lowermost stairs of the staircase, and its back was facing towards Rio right now.


    ''Ugh, so there are two golems protecting the stairs? And why is this golem sitting there like it''s contemting its life choices or something...''


    The golem seemed like a depressed corporate worker who was taking a momentary rest by sitting on a random staircase on his way home.


    ''There''s no going back; it''s do or die now...''


    Rio jumped towards the wall and used his incredible speed to walk on the wall and directly bypassed the golem on the lowest staircase.


    Without him needing to look back, Rio could already feel that the second golem immediately stood up after Rio bypassed it, raised its hand, and was aiming at him.


    ''Don''t tell me this one has ranged attack capabilities-''


    Before Rio could even react, the five fingers of the golem''s hand fired towards him like bullets; expect these bullets were so fast that they distorted the void around them.


    Rio didn''t even bother trying to block them, as he knew it was pointless. He jumped towards the wall to try and enter the hidden room behind it.


    [Darkwing Movement Art!]


    Rio pushed a lot of mana in his legs and tried his best to dodge; thankfully, he barely avoided his head from getting hit by those bullets.


    But just when his whole body was about to pass through the wall, the bullets made a U-turn in the air and hit his right hand that was still out of the wall.


    His right arm was hit by the five bullets in the same ce, and it was forcefully sted off from his elbow along with the sword that he was holding in his hand.


    Blood flowed out of his severed arm like a fountain and painted the floor made up of rare items in dark red.


    Although his arm was bleeding like crazy, Rio''s expression still didn''t change, as he was unable to feel pain in the first ce.


    He de-summoned his sword and re-summoned it so that he wouldn''t need to go outside to grab it, as that would be too dangerous.


    ''Tch, even my healing technique can''t heal such a fatal injury; I need to stop the bleeding... ugh, and it''s been a while since I suffered such a severe injury...''


    Rio sighed to himself and brought out a high-ranking healing potion from his space ring.


    Once he drank the potion, the bleeding stopped, and his severed arm grew back in a matter of


    seconds.


    ''That was very dangerous... If I was even a littlete, those bullet-like fingers would have hit my head instead of my arm... At that point, I would have been dead...''


    Ever since Rio came to this strange ce, he has nearly avoided death so many times that he has even forgotten the count of it.


    This ce is so dangerous that no one at Rank S or below will be able to survive here for long.


    ''Originally, I wasn''t worried about Lia as Kai is with her, but... after seeing these golems... I am not so sure...''


    ''I just hope that she stays put in one ce until I or the SS-rankers find her... that will increase her survival chances more...''


    Aside from her, Link and Sin are the ones who have the lowest chance of survival right now.


    ''Maybe Sin has some lifesaving techniques too, but I am not sure about Link though...'' Right now, Rio is hoping that none of his teammates ends up meeting these golems, or the end result will be very miserable.


    ''Ugh, Fenix and the Dragon King... Both of them are such unreliable people... If it was me who was an SS ranker, I would have already rescued everyone...''


    After shaking his head and calming himself down, Rio chose to follow the same method as


    before.


    He hopped from one hidden room to another to avoid getting attacked by that golem again; this was a much safer method after all.


    In this way, he kept getting more and more closer to his destination, which was calling him towards itself with great enthusiasm now.


    ...


    Author''s Notes!n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    Yo! It''s your beloved author here!


    Question of the day.


    If given the option, whom would you like to stay with during this practice test?


    (You can''t choose Fenix or Idri though...)


    By the way, don''t forget to use those power stones!!