?Kyle's eyebrow twitched when the dwarf told him the side effects of the pill with a bitter expression. Most of the side effects were not serious, except for one. He closed the box and gazed at the sweating dwarf.
"So, after the one-hour time is over, my overall strength will be greatly weakened for an entire day?"
The moment he got a nod from the dwarf, the storage ring and the wooden box vanished from his hands. After all, something was better than nothing.
"Alright, I will help you."
The dwarf watched him with a blank expression. Slowly, Kyle placed the bronze key in his hand and turned away. He so badly wanted to question about the storage ring that contained coins and herbs but who was he kidding? The human was clearly a lot stronger than him. That's why he quietly swallowed his question and after waving at his companions left through the portal.
Kyle stood in the middle of the room and swept his gaze at the other two dwarfs.
"So, who wants to go next?"
After a few minutes, the dwarfs were gone and Kyle finally got a key for himself. He jumped inside the portal ready to see others but instead, he appeared inside an empty round chamber.
"Huh?"
He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought about the last words Jian told him.
"It seems I am the one who got separated."
As if noticing his arrival, a sharp black arrow shot out from the ceiling. However, Kyle noticed with a raised brow, it was extremely slow. He side-stepped and easily avoided the arrow.
"Hmm, that was easy. Now what next-!"
His sentence was cut short because, in the next second, more and more arrows rained down from the ceiling. With a low curse, Kyle ran in the opposite direction to avoid the arrows. They were slow but too many. Moreover, he noticed with a frustrated expression. The speed at which the arrows were fired was increasing with each second.
In the blink of an eye, three hours passed but the arrows raining down at him were never-ending. After two more hours, the whole chamber was filled with arrows and Kyle had to jump around to avoid them.
Beads of sweat trickled down from his forehead and in the middle of his run, he accidentally scratched his leg and cursed loudly.
"Damn it, I am not running anymore!"
With another leap, Kyle's body started floating mid-air. However, instead of stopping the speed at which the arrows were falling increased.
He flew inside the chamber with a dark expression. The ground beneath him was almost black, not in color but due to the amount of arrows raining down from the ceiling.
After another hour, Kyle's whole body was drenched with sweat. His precious set of clothes was gone just like that. Also, he was tired of dodging. With another flip mid-air, Kyle raised his head with a sharp glint.
"I think I should break the walls around me..."
Instantly, ten ice spears emerged around his body but before he could act on his words, the arrows raining from the ceiling stopped abruptly and a round portal appeared in the middle of the chamber.
Kyle raised a mocking eyebrow, and the spears around him vanished. However, deep down, he was already strategizing on how to break through the walls, if the castle dared to send him into another similar chamber.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and jumped inside the portal with a tired expression. His vision blurred for a second but in the next second, he arrived in a vast meadow field. Surprisingly, the air was fresh and quiet. Also, no matter where he looked he was alone. Immediately, Kyle slumped down on the carpet of grass with a sigh.
"Is this a resting area?"
But, how wrong he was. All around him, many glowing white eyes peeked out from the grass, and slowly they started crawling toward him. Kyle's eyes snapped open when he sensed a trickling sensation on his foot.
Startled, he immediately jumped and brushed his foot.
"What the heck!?"
Kyle's eyes widened when he looked at the hundreds of fist-size black insects surrounding him from all directions. Their eyes glowed in a strange white color as they made their way toward him.
With another loud curse, he started floating mid-air.
'I can not believe I have to fight insects! Is this damn treasure island kidding with me?'
Not to mention the fact that he was inside a big open field. There were no ceilings or walls around him. It was just wide open space as far as the eye could see.
Suddenly, Kyle sucked in a deep breath. Now that he was floating, he could see the situation around him more clearly. All around him, thousands of similar insects were crawling in the grass.
"Haha, please tell me this is a joke?"
Kyle's hands turned sweaty as he looked up at the clear sky. He swallowed dryly because even though he was (S-)-Rank, taking care of so many insects was not something he could do in a short amount of time. It would definitely take him days, if not weeks, to handle them all.
'Don't tell me this is a punishment because I tried to break the walls?'
He couldn't help but regret. Regardless, it was too late. With a dejected sigh, he roamed around mid-air and waved his hand to kill the insects with his flames from time to time.
After roaming around for an hour, Kyle was dead tired. Specifically because before he arrived in this field he had to run around a lot. He couldn't help but whisper in his mind for some comfort.
'Hey, Bia? How are you doing?'
After a second, a satisfied sigh sounded inside his head.
-'It's amazing. Why didn't you tell me Yue is such a great cook? The food is tasty. Now, I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with your cooking again.'
-'By the way, where are you and the dwarfs? Only Sia and Jian joined us after a few minutes. Also, the training here wasn't too difficult. We just had to defeat a certain number of monsters, and then an exit appeared out of thin air. But because Jian and the girls were too tired that's why we decided to eat and rest for a while.'
Kyle's eyebrow twitched. Still, he took a deep breath to compose himself and slowly glanced at his luck stat.
'Don't tell me Jian rubbed off his bad luck on me?'
He was contemplating deeply when Bia's next words poured salt on his wounds.
-'Wait wait.. don't tell me you found the treasure room? Damn, I knew it!'
