END Initiated...

"Preparation phase? What are we preparing for?"

"Duh… The real trial obviously. This now is just giving us time to adjust ourselves. Maybe we need to stay here for more than a day too."

This place was much smaller than a regular convenience store, but each of the shelves was packed to the brim. Most with food items. Some of them included camping items and even clothes. Mostly like a typical convenience store you would find in a zombie apocalypse. 

'Is this a hint to something?' Kiel couldn't help but wonder while choosing what he needed.

"Hmm… this is pretty good. You try one too. Here!"

Kiel opened a can filled with lemon juice and gulped it down and passed another to Neel who caught it. The things here were not made out of plastic but something like tin. And without any logos too. 

'Maybe the operators prepared it?'

"Hmm… Nice!" Neel was amazed at Kiel who could think of so many different things and even drink something unknown without caring if there we poison in. Or maybe he was worried about a little loose screw here and there. Not sure, however, how Kiel would take it if he heard that last sentence… 

"Let's hurry up, although there is still time remaining, we can still arrive a little early right?

"Roger that!"

Neel seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself while robbing the store. It seemed that it was the first time he did something like that too. At home, he could get everything he wanted without much effort so this was a fresh experience. 

'This feels quite good. Should I just become a robber at home? 

"Hey you know, these things here are like the products of the West Snow Empire! These juices taste similar. My father had ordered a few for official purposes. I also heard there that empire they had made quite a few such weird things! They even make large steel boats. Father has two of them customised for him. You should come to visit us sometime. I will show you them."

Kiel was meanwhile stuffing his bag with things like canned foods that filled up the shelves and some drinks, and others that were small but packed with energy. He even picked up small cloths and filled his inventory in the badge. Well, there was too much space there, so he didn't mind. There were even a few lighters and tent-like stuff. He packed them too. 

After all, it was his first time using a space attributed object and just watching the things he placed in the bag vanish was quite an odd experience. However, there was an image of it which appeared inside the bag. And when he touched it again the contents reappeared. The whole process was quite intriguing. Kiel had heard about the fame of such objects. But using it real-time was just something else.

"Oh? Such a nation exists here? Sounds quite interesting!" 

Kiel's reaction was quite bland. But he was wondering who this kid's father was to be able to import such things from another unknown company. Kiel, however, noticed that he basically didn't know much about this world. The books he read in the town were basically useless.

He could only sigh. 

"Looks like there is a lot of things to do."

They quickly finished their looting in about ten minutes and went to the stationary store too. This store was quite different. There were weapons and stuff here, which was quite odd. However, when Kiel touched one of them, a system prompt came that he had to use survival points to take stuff from here. Kiel was quite frustrated in this regard. 

Although he had some points, he didn't want to waste it here. He, however, did need a weapon. And the appearance of this store affirmed his earlier suspicion. He could guess the other kids would also experience something similar.

Looking everywhere he found a few decent swords and glaives. But most of them cost 50 survival points or higher and didn't even seem like any magic tool. 

"Looks like I can't help but spend my hard-earned cash."

So Kiel chose a pair of decent metallic gloves which even had inbuilt little daggers, for about 55 points. There was a bow with arrows too. However, it cost 75 survival points and he had to buy arrows separately. So Kiel could only let it go. Kiel could take other weapons like a sword or a spear. However, he was not sure if those things required maintenance which would be impossible in this place. Kiel could be wrong too. But who was there to judge him? The little greenwood beside him who could still be wearing diapers?

However, when he saw the uninterested gaze of the kid beside him and remembered the cool looking axe of his, Kiel wondered if he should just loot this guy and be done with it?

Neel, however, felt a chill run down his spine. He looked around but there was no danger nearby. "Strange? Am I hallucinating?"

 Soon they left the corridor for good, going to the huge stadium in high spirits. And as they came straight near to it, the stadium in front of them looked so huge that they felt like little ants. 

It was so huge that they felt going around it would take about a whole day and they still may not make a round trip around it. Kiel couldn't even see the half curvature of it. It was so enormous that what once felt like a hollow structure encompassing a field, now more like a solid architecture wonder which could make its way into the Seven Wonders of Earth.  

The duo slowly stepped inside the almost dark building, adjusting their eyesight to match the dark in the process. But regardless one couldn't deny the spookiness of the place.

"Is this the place?" 

"I think so?" 

"Then why is the mission not completed?" 

"Hmm maybe because it's still not over? Remember the destination was the second floor." Kiel shrugged off. How could he know?

"Maybe?" 

As they walked further in, what came across them was a huge staircase. However, the odd thing was instead of leading upstairs, it was leading downstairs.

And as they inched closer and closer, a faint rusty iron stench drifted among their nostrils. 

"You know this place gives me the creeps for some reason. Let's quicken our pace to get out of here fast."

Kiel could not agree more with Neel. This place even gave him chills. Even his instincts were hyped up here. It was like something around here… well, Kiel could even sense what he was feeling.

"But is it really the way to the second floor? Shouldn't we go up?"

Neel looked confused at the gloomy stairway which seemed to be leading towards a bottomless pit.

"Who knows? Maybe second is just a relative term. It may mean the bas.e.m.e.nt after all. At this point, I am not even sure. It thought this was a stadium… "

Kiel was not sure anymore. The system was only great at mapping horizontal distances and natural distances. Mapping the structures of manmade structures was still not possible with the current version of the System Map. And the map provided by the guide, just makes everything outside. 

"Anyway let's get going we have only about fifty minutes remaining"

"Oh ok!"

As they began climbing down the stairs slowly, the surrounding seemed to be turning darker by the minute. The darkness was obviously spooky enough to keep them on high alert. However, there were no traps along the way. 

Kiel checked the map at the right corner of his vision one more time as they quickly mounted down the staircase. At least he knew the way around and wouldn't dive into walls.

Kiel noticed the roof above them and couldn't help but frown. It seemed to be going down with them as the distance between the floor step below and the roof was constant even if they moved down. Looks like it was meant to restrict their movement. And it didn't take them much before reaching down as their destination came into view with a sudden burst of light. What greeted them at the end of the stairs was a huge blue-grey coloured door. The door seemed to be unusually thick.

"Dude what is this? The door is so freaking huge?" Neel asked while squinting his eyes.

"You ask me but whom do I ask?… maybe we could find a switch somewhere to open it?" Kiel thought a little before replying. 

<45minutes remaining>

Looking at the time, Kiel tilted his head before drawing out a little rock from his badge and tossed it at the door. 

BANG!

Kiel waited for a moment but nothing happened. Only the sharp noise of the rock hitting the door. 

"Looks like there is no trap!"

Finding nothing, unusual Kiel stepped forward and reached out to touch the door to examine it. However, just as he took one more step, an arrow came hurling from inside the door straight away aiming straight at his c.h.e.s.t. 

It was so sudden that although Kiel was highly alert, he could not even dodge it. He was too close to the door. 

Neel was taken aback from the sudden shot. And his eyes closed automatically.

*Pew* 

The arrow was about to pierce his c.h.e.s.t straight away. Kiel knew he couldn't dodge the arrow. However, he was not one to give up. With just a thought, Kiel allowed the gravity around him to pull him to his right. But he still couldn't dodge the arrow fully as it slid past his left shoulder leaving a little gash on it.

Opening his eyes Neel was stunned. The arrow was lodged on the ground behind him as cold sweat dipped him from his forehead. It didn't even reach his heart. 

'Huh, he dodged it?'

Neel wanted to know how Kiel was. But before he could ask, another two arrows gushed forward.  This time one was even aiming for it. However, this time both of them were ready.

Kiel saw the arrow aimed at his forehead the next moment he dodged an arrow. But this time he didn't dodge it. He simply tilted his head and dodged it. However, it was not the last. Another two arrows come straight aiming at his two shoulders. If he dodged to either side, he would still be hit by the other one. Kiel could not help but frown. But he still was calm. 

The next moment, he simply extended his hands. The arrows suddenly slowed down and he caught both of them and was about to throw them. But decided against it and kept them. The arrows had no poison luckily as he saw them and confirmed with Azrael(system if you all forgot).

But he couldn't relax yet. But even after waiting for a minute nothing happened. Kiel turned his head to look at his other teammate and noticed a wooden porcupine. 

"Pfft, dude you look like a wooden porcupine. " Hearing the comment Neel couldn't help but pout. But he was glad to notice that Kiel was unharmed.

Kiel couldn't help but chuckle at the funny scene. He just waved his hand and the arrows dislodged them from the wooden frame and flew into his hands. 

Kiel kept them and then the next moment he walked his careful steps while signalling Neel to stay alert. This time, however, no more arrows appeared. He soon reached the door, scrutinised it for a few seconds and then touched it to find any clue. However, it seems there was no need to be too careful as a prompt appeared in his mind.

<New user recorded. 

Reward: 250 survival points. Please proceed to the waiting room.>

The moment the familiar notification rang across his ears, Kiel found his hand to pass through the door. 

"What the hell just happened? Dude you crossed it?"

Kiel was whitely intrigued by what just happened. So he didn't pay attention to Neel's rant who seemed to be stunned as well.

Allowing his hands to pass through a door was quite an odd phenomenon. The next thing he did was walk himself into the wall. I know it sounded white absurd but you could say as expected, he found himself on the other side of the door.

<Beep… Participant Kiel Dmitriev is the third to reach the second level of the Dungeon Tower.

Congratulations!

Time taken: 134 minutes>

Seeing Kiel pass through the metallic door, Neel was full of all types of questions. He too tried to pass through the door as Kiel did previously.

Thud!

However, when he tried he was slammed straight to the door. 

"The f.u.c.k!"

On the other side, Kiel was confused too as he tried to pass through the door again. However this time he felt the door was as solid as possible. 

"This is quite strange? Actually, forget it. Is this phase-shifting magic?"

<Beep… A new user is requiring permission to be granted access to the door. Would you like to transfer ownership of the door?>