Too Stubborn to Die

Book 4: Chapter 39

The great centaur Borgok Corg stood on one of the runes in their team’s castle, fueling their crystal with his own mana.

A warlord on his world, Borgok Corg had slain many and forced hordes under his mighty hooves, but despite all of his achievements, he now felt so small.

It had only been an hour or so ago that he had ordered a change of positions. After crushing the previous wave, only to turn around and see that their crystal had gone dark, a fury had been lit within him

All they had to do was keep the crystal alight, and yet they continued to fail him. And so, he took over the job himself. Later, punishment could be dealt out for their failure.

But already, he tensed up, gritting his teeth as he tried to force his mana to cycle through his body faster. Had he underestimated them? Was he wrong? Was keeping this stupid crystal alight harder than it seemed?

Borgok Corg huffed and stamped his hooves against the ground angrily. No, there was no way such a thing would defeat him. He was the centaur warlord, the great king of kings who had spread his empire across the plains, dealing out death to any who might try to stand in his way.

And yet, none of that seemed to matter. As if mocking him, a crystal in the distance had remained lit the entire time. It infuriated him, and he snorted and shook with anger.

This was his dungeon to win, and yet, their crystal had barely counted down a little more than three hours after all this time, as it was constantly going out.

It was an embarrassment. According to the rankings, he was the third strongest in their cluster, and even that hadn’t been good enough for his liking. He had endeavoured to fix that, and leave this dungeon number one… but now…

It was truly unacceptable.

But no amount of outrage could deny reality. Another pulse from the crystal struck him as it pulled relentlessly on his mana. His muscular body flexed, and he balled his fists as he refused to give in to it, but it was just so damn heavy.

How? How could anybody resist such a thing for so long? It was incomprehensible.

But it wasn’t as if Borgok Corg didn’t know his adversaries. He had seen them back in the trials. He knew all too well who Aaron Dober was and the incredible feats he had achieved. But he had underestimated him… he had believed that his ability to persevere through the trials was what made him so good at them, but now he had the painful realization that perhaps there was more to it than that.

Nonetheless, he was not about to give up. If he couldn’t beat these people, what chance would he stand against somebody like Mo’han Khan?

The centaur warlord dug deep. He had a goal, and he was determined to see it through. He would prove that his post-trial growth was beyond the others, and he would challenge Mo’han Khan to a duel and prove himself.

He would take his bow, shoot the massive asura down, and claim his throne in their sector.

But even as he dreamed of grandeur, he felt the growing strain and was forced to uncork a mana potion. He wanted to save his potion supply for serious encounters, but there was no choice. He wouldn’t allow them to lose here, and less than a minute after downing the first, he was drinking another.

His gaze swept across the other eleven, helping him power the crystal. They were wavering. Exhausted and rotating with one another as they took breaks to recover.

And worst of all, the waves were getting stronger, and the cries of their companions beyond the wall were getting louder.

Borgok Corg gritted his teeth. If the waves kept getting stronger, he might be forced to fight and return to their defenses. And that would leave powering the crystal to these weaklings…

It was a truly terrible predicament they found themselves in, and all they could do was hold on and hope.

Terry Cadillac

Funganoid warriors exploded into chunks of fibrous mushroom as Terry whizzed through the battlefield, roaring up a storm as he crashed straight through his enemies, never stopping for more than a second.

But it wasn’t the weak mushroom minions that Terry was running down that were to be feared.

They had just reached the final stage of the fifth wave, and the Funganoid King appeared—a gigantic mushroom man who stood several stories tall. The mushroom regent waved his massive hands, and a combination of deadly, toxic spores and quickly growing fungi spores shot out. The battlefield was covered in the green, toxic haze that forced several fighters back, coughing and draining their health after only spending a couple of seconds in the fumes.

As the growing spores scattered across the ground, they quickly enlarged and grew into new funganoid warriors, who immediately joined the fray.

The newly born fungaloid warriors didn’t last long. Terry shot around at tremendous speed, taking out the warriors faster than they could react. As their bodies exploded on impact, he created a clear path for heavy hitters in their team, like Erdek and Soohyun, to launch their attacks at the funganoid king in the rear.

The difficulty of the waves was growing at a rather rapid speed, but since only Aaron was feeding the crystal, the rest of them could all work together, taking out the monsters hell-bent on their destruction.

And with each passing second, their victory seemed more and more likely. Nonetheless, there could be little doubt that the difficulty had spiked tremendously on the fifth wave, which left an ominous promise for what the sixth wave and beyond might be like.

As the battle raged on, Terry smashed through another formation of fungaloid warriors and glanced back at their castle.

They were fighting well, and he was proud of his team. Even the females were surprisingly strong, he thought. But in truth, he knew that their success was all thanks to him.

It was becoming obvious that this floor was not a cake walk. Not even close. It was becoming deadly serious how difficult it really was, but thanks to Aaron, their crystal had been lit the entire time, and their timer hadn’t stopped once since he took over.

Terry glanced across at the other castles in the distance and their flickering crystals. Some even went completely dark for several long seconds, and he spotted a few that had been out for minutes before lighting back up again for several seconds.

I almost feel bad for those soy boys. They’re clearly not going to make it.

He had no idea exactly how many groups from their cluster were making it through this floor and onto the next. But he had a good feeling that there would be considerably less than he originally thought.

Terry chuckled. The dungeon had already proven to be funner than he had expected.

Red Song

The spear priestess flashed forward with incredible speed, swirling around in a dance of action that looked so graceful one could forget the true deadliness of it. As she moved around the battlefield in mesmerising fashion, her red robes fluttering about like ribbons, her spear darted out hundreds of times every second.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelBin; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It was as much a spectacle as it was deadly, and her attacks effortlessly picked apart the funganoid warriors around her as she moved toward the mushroom king.

And yet, despite the fact that the enemy boss was about to fall, a deep scowl was etched into her soft features. It was because an uncomfortable reality had dawned upon her during the fight on this floor.

Although she ruled a sizable faction and had many followers, she had gotten used to not relying upon anybody. At least, not any that would consider themselves her equal.

But her disdain for the cyclops went far beyond that. It was everything about him. His walk, his smartass attitude, and most of all, his indifference to her goals.

And yet, it was that smart-mouthed cyclops she was forced to work with. He had countered her every step of the way and was precisely the reason she was failing to achieve what she had set out to. He had even gone as far as to slaughter a good deal of her most loyal followers just before the dungeon.

But as much as she wanted to strike him down here and now, she had no choice but to stay her blade. It was the dungeon’s fault. It had leveled a painful truth at her.

She simply wasn’t going to reach the end of the dungeon—not without teamwork.

Red Song hissed through gritted teeth as she landed a serious blow against the funganoid king, tearing open a massive wound.

I have no choice! I can’t fail Lenriel!

Another powerful blow struck down, ripping a limb entirely off the massive mushroom.

She was enraged as a memory dear to her played through her thoughts. She remembered bowing before Lenriel, surrounded by others who had been blessed by the great god.

He was beautiful. The true image of what a god should be. And she desired him far more than she should. And it was for that reason she couldn’t stomach the thought of losing. Of failing him.

His promise had been clear to his followers. Win the tournament, and win a place by his side.

And Red Song was not about to let some other follower of Lenriel take her rightful place at his side.

Her scowl bent deeper, creasing lines into her perfectly soft skin as she pushed herself harder. She hated that she had been put into such a predicament. But if winning relied upon working with the deviant that was Voidrin, then she would have to swallow her pride, because her future depended upon it, her future beside Lenriel.

Exploding into a furious array of action, she landed several more powerful strikes against the fungaloid king, and it was torn into shreds.

This was her dungeon to win, and she didn’t care how strong the other groups were. She wasn’t going to lose.

It was already bad enough that, thanks to Voidrin, she had failed to conquer her world in Lenriel’s name, and she wouldn’t fail a second time.

Mo’han

Mo’han’s followers had tried to convince him that they could handle the pull of the crystal. They wanted to serve and let him gain experience from the monster waves.

Unfortunately, they had proven somewhat ineffective. Although, if he was completely honest, the asuras among his group were still outperforming the other teams in their cluster. But that wasn’t quite good enough, and he was sick of seeing their crystal flicker while he fought. Besides, the monster waves had proven somewhat disappointing by Mo’han standards, and he had grown bored of the slaughter.

Not that powering the crystal looked particularly entertaining. But he didn’t just want to win. He wanted to smash this challenge. To perform as well as they possibly could.

That was what Aaron would do, after all. And the thought of the little human inspired him. He couldn’t slack off. Not knowing his friend was no doubt out there stubbornly pushing his limits.

“REST! Soothe yourselves, my companions!” He roared and pounded his chest as he took over one of the runes and started to power the crystal with his own mana. “Mo’han Khan has this handled!”

Energy rippled out of Mo’han’s seemingly endless reserves, and the crystal actually seemed to glow brighter, even as his followers got up and took a break from their runes.

This was the power of the great asura, and their crystal wouldn’t flicker with him in control.

“HAHA! That’s better!”

Knowing he was pushing them to finish as quickly as possible was good, but fueling the crystal got boring quickly. He needed a game or something.

Mo’han snapped his large, purple fingers, calling over a couple of his followers to entertain him as he waited for the timer to tick down.

“Oh, what a drag.”

Aaron

Aaron had been going back and forth through the different types of mana control as he sat cross-legged with a calm expression. He knew there was more to mana control than what he had discovered already, and he wanted to know all of the possibilities there were.

Who knew what opportunities were lying just out of his purview? Or how they might assist his development. And Aaron was determined to answer those questions.

But despite all his efforts, he felt relaxed. Over the last few hours, he had found his zen. Cycling mana and feeding the crystal was actually quite relaxing now that he found his pacing. He ate, he cycled, and he powered his mana into the crystal.

The draw of the crystal was still powerful, but he had found a rhythm to it, and with that, he could relax.

In fact, since finding the perfect pacing to keep the thing charged, he had gotten so relaxed he had actually had a quick nap, but was awoken by his belly rumbling as the crystal had drained him dry.

Still, as important as his gains and insights were, it was rather nice to be able to relax and take a short moment off.

Ah, that’s better. I feel… centered.

A gentle smile appeared on his calm, half-lidded face, and he curiously opened the timer again.

“Oh, look at that. How nice.”

Time until floor completion 4:11:28

It wasn’t long now until the floor would be completed. And he somewhat reluctantly decided to push himself again to focus on his mana.

A part of him felt too calm to even bother, but he figured he'd better take advantage of the situation and do his best to force out another insight into his mana control before the floor was completed.

Aaron’s eyes fluttered shut, and he focused once more. His hands and toes were still busy cooking away, and his mouth was absently chewing as he fed himself, mind elsewhere.

But as the hours went by, no remarkable insights were to be found. He knew he was close, but it seemed that he needed further thought on the matter, and he checked his notifications as he finished cooking a couple of stews, mushrooms, and various meats.

“Nice. That’s a decent variety of snacks I’ve got.”

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Experience rewarded for discovering a recipe!

Ding!

[ Ogre Gastronomist ] has LEVELED UP!

91 → 94

Aaron smiled. He couldn’t complain about gains. The recipes themselves were basic and nothing worth worrying about. But that wasn’t a problem. He was happy just to get the experience and the levels. After all, he could feel the mismatch in energy between his Profession, his Class, and his race. His Profession was lagging, and it needed a bump, even if the Skill unlocks were subpar.

For now, he really just wanted to push his Profession to D-grade as soon as possible. And if it came with poor Skills, he could work on replacing them later.

And while he was fairly certain that there were plenty of other rankers who had lacking Professions, Aaron wasn’t interested in being part of the mediocrity. He wanted to be great, and he wanted to make sure that his Profession kept pace.

Time until floor completion 0:07:41

Aaron nodded as he checked the time. The floor was almost complete, and that meant

“Bloody banger.”

He still had his two Skill purchases from his Profession, and the moment the timer ran out, he planned to use them. As he rathered not have his focus split while making such decisions.

But as the timer ticked closer, he figured he ought to send a message beforehand. After all, the System might drag them away from the floor once it was complete.

Aaron Dober: @Voidrin Vox@Elmira Ferara, How are you two going? Guess what? We’re about to finish. Got seven minutes left on the timer.

Voidrin Vox: @Aaron Dober, You what?!...

Aaron Dober: @Voidrin Vox, Huh? Something wrong?

Elmira Ferara: @Aaron Dober, You’re finishing already, Aaron? It would have been nice to finish at the same time. Oh well, we’ve still got four hours on ours.

Voidrin Vox: @Elmira Ferara, Four hours? You’re bullshit, aren’t you?! Y’know, maybe I can believe Aaron is almost finished. That asshole as a way of defying all logic. But there’s no way you only have four hours left on your timer!

Elmira Ferara:@Voidrin Vox, Dunno what to tell you, Voidrin, but it’s true.

Aaron Dober: @Voidrin Vox, Wait, how much time do you have left, Voidrin?

Voidrin Vox: @Aaron Dober, That’s not important! What’s important is that I’m going to embarrass all of you on the next floor! You’d best watch out for old Voidrin!