[STT] Chapter 70: Strange Figure (Patreon)

Killing three monkeys later, Ben finally understood why Alice had called [Ignition Step] an incredibly strong skill to get this early. Honestly, he felt as though she'd undersold this skill!

Spending the last half hour blazing through the woods, he made a straight line toward that beam in the distance. He just blitzed past the trees and smashed through a few more shadow monkeys along the way to gather essence. And it gave him plenty of time to train his shiny new movement skill on the fly.

Practicing between kills, he quickly learned that braking with [Ignition Step] was ridiculously hard. He had already flattened himself against a tree once, so he wasn't eager to repeat the experience. So he basically had to do some strange shenanigans to bleed off the insane momentum before stopping.

It was totally a spatial skill disguised as a fire affinity skill, making him all the more weirded out, wondering just what the hell the system was about. It literally just let him "jump" spatially from one point to the next.

And the craziest thing was that with every single jump he chained together, he felt like he accelerated even faster.

This is awesome.

It was, indeed, awesome.

Laughing like a maniac, he bounced off a massive boulder and shot forward like a rocket. It was incredibly exhilarating to just bypass the physical limits of his legs and essentially teleport-dash through the forest.

Not to mention he was racking up monster kills without even slowing down!

But it wasn't all just fun and games. He had to keep his [Focus] running at maximum capacity the entire time.

Juggling the crazy amounts of information required to use this skill and, more importantly, not slam into another tree, he kept his mind firmly locked onto [Ignition Step] so he didn't mess it up and accidentally splatter himself.

[Lurker] helped him vanish into the shadows as he made way toward the distant pillar of light, but he still had [Mana Sonar] up to track whatever had been hunting him for a while.

So he just kept his senses sweeping outward waiting for it to slip up.

When he caught a dagger thud against a tree trunk just beside him he recognized the blade as a teleport anchor, having fought this exact type of tricky monkey before.

Not this time.

All this time, he had a [Mana Cannon] ready and his staff in hand. It was actually pretty good practice to keep the mana condensed and to keep the [Mana Cannon] under control without letting it out for so long.

All the while changing his [Mana Sonar] frequency as he went. The monkey followed and kept bothering him unworried, and that was perfect. Ben needed it lazy. He swept the area until he finally detected the hidden stalker when the frequency clicked.

Ping.

Finding the creature teleporting and keeping up with him directly above him, he detonated an [Ignition Step] and instantly appeared overhead. And chaining a second [Ignition Step] to accelerate his momentum, he aimed his staff downward.

Leveling his weapon at the surprised monster, he detonated a [Mana Cannon] before it could even blink.

All that preparation and catching the enemy entirely off guard killed it in an  instant.

When he landed smoothly back on the ground, he let out a highly satisfied breath.

Too easy.

A new notification confirmed his kill.

[Tier 2 Shadow Monkey slain. Essence gained.]

The notification reminded him he'd been ignoring his notifications for a while because of the monkey chasing him, so he happily reviewed the pile of skill progress he'd ignored.

[Mana Cannon Lvl 9 > Lvl 10]

[Ignition Step Lvl 2 > Lvl 3]

[Mana Sonar Lvl 15 > Lvl 16]

So much progress!

It was truly incredible! He was going to be Tier 2 before he knew it. Not to mentioned, he'd just dealt with a Tier 2 monster as if it were nothing! How nice was that?

Well... he had to admit his speed might have had a lot to do with it, but he didn't think it was all that.

And who was he to complain? He was fine with being overpowered for once.

Having never felt like this before, he was having a ball!

Dashing across the landscape with some serious confidence and a new sense of power, he quickly reached the last mile of his journey before the pillar of light. Then he came to a stop to be safe.

Keeping [Lurker] active, he moved more cautiously through the forest just in case, but with [Mana Sonar] sweeping the area, it didn't seem like there was anything about that was going to jump him.

The forest opened up to an absolutely beautiful clearing, and he couldn't believe his eyes.

It was as if the area was in an entirely different world. The giant beam of light shooting toward the sky looked like it'd been crafted with magic. But the most striking thing was that the center of the clearing was perfectly round, as if the entire spot had been cut away like a slice from a pie.

But the most important part was that the trees in this region were a lot taller than any he'd seen before. They towered over everything else around.

Ben glanced at them with admiration until his eyes fell onto his friends. Alice and Ethan were there, Alice sitting looking bored as Ethan searched around the beam of light.

He made his way toward them as quickly as he could. He was just about to call them when Alice noticed him and waved him down, a huge grin on her face. He waved back.

"Give me good news," he said the moment he was in earshot.

"Well," Ethan replied, "We've found something very, very interesting."

He didn't like the tone of his voice. But before he could ask, Alice stood and pointed at the beam of light.

"So it looks like we have the guardian here!"

That... was not what he was expecting to hear.

She must have seen the look on his face because she laughed. "Yeah, guardians can come in many shapes and forms, and this one is apparently a beam. Not sure how to challenge it yet, though."

Well... he was kind of disappointed he didn't get to fight anything, but he couldn't complain. It certainly wasn't what he was expecting when he had come all this way, but at least they'd be able to get out soon.

"Well, I'd say you don't know how to challenge it," Ethan said with a smug look, "I've got an idea."

Alice rolled her eyes. "And what's that?"

Ben crossed his arms and looked between the two of them, interested to see where this was going. He knew Ethan probably had a good answer—

"I just need to walk into the beam," Ethan said with a smile.

Ben blinked. Alice blinked.

"That's your plan?" she said with an exasperated tone.

"Yes, I don't know why you're giving me that face. It's a perfectly good plan."

"It's a terrible plan!"

"It's a better plan than yours," he retorted.

"Which is what exactly?"

He shrugged. "To sit here and do nothing." He gave her a look. "We both know you don't have any ideas, so we might as well use mine."

Ben stared at the two of them with an amused look as they bickered. Their bickering, however, came to an end when he stepped forward.

"I'll do it," he said.

They both looked at him like he was crazy. Ethan's eyes grew wide while Alice looked at him with a serious expression.

"I'll step into it."

He just hoped there wouldn't be any bad surprises in there.

It'll probably be fine…

Passing through the blinding curtain of light felt like stepping through a wall of water. But that strange sensation vanished the moment his vision completely whited out. Blinking away the harsh glare, he found himself pitched into an endless sea of absolute blackness.

And he was completely weightless.

Floating in the middle of a void, he thrashed around for a second trying to find his footing. Bracing himself for some kind of sudden monster ambush, he readied his staff and swept his [Mana Sonar] outward.

But the pulse just kept going and going without bouncing off a single physical object. He was entirely alone in the dark.

Suddenly his stomach lurched right up into his throat. Gravity suddenly remembered how to do its job and yanked him straight downward.

He just landed on his feet and found himself standing on absolutely nothing.

He didn't even have time to process the weird physics before the space directly in front of him rippled. Materializing out of thin air, a plain wooden chair popped into existence a few feet away. And right on top of it sat a very strange figure.

Looking the guy up and down, Ben noticed a pair of piercing eyes staring back at him. The figure looked entirely too comfortable just sitting there in a featureless void.

"Hello there, Benjamin. It is so nice to meet you. I must say, it is surprising to be assigned a Candidate so young by the system."

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