Chapter 288: Literal Hell

Ben’s expression became more serious as he spoke, "A problem appeared in the cities, since too many people gather together in such areas. Dead souls start appearing there, and they can drain the life force of living people. If they absorb enough, they can eventually become something called Wraiths."

Alex frowned slightly as he listened. Ben had already told him that the situation in Easy Difficulty was worse than they had expected, but this was far beyond what Alex had imagined.

"What happens if someone encounters one of these dead souls?"

"They are extremely difficult to kill unless you have a Priest with you. From what we managed to learn, normal attacks are mostly useless against them, and even stronger people can have trouble dealing with them. The only reliable method is to stay inside buildings protected by runes that have been inscribed into them," Ben answered.

Ben continued, "We had to pay a lot of money to stay inside proper inns that had those protections. The people who control those places know how dangerous the dead souls are, so they charge quite a lot for anyone who wants to stay there during the night."

Alex remained silent for a moment. That was a lot to unpack, so he decided to ask about each part separately rather than trying to understand everything at once. "When you say areas with a high concentration of people, do you mean this only happens when there are a lot of people gathered together? Or can it also happen in areas with large numbers of monsters?"

"It only happens in areas with intelligent species. I couldn’t understand all the details because of the language issue, but I’m certain they won’t appear in places occupied only by monsters. As long as there aren’t intelligent species gathering in large numbers, there shouldn’t be a problem," Ben replied.

Alex nodded slowly before asking the question that actually mattered to him. "These dead souls... are they intelligent? Can we communicate with them?"

"No, they’re mindless monsters," Ben said. His answer was simple, but it immediately killed the faint hope that had appeared in Alex’s heart.

Alex kept his expression calm and simply nodded. If these dead souls had retained their intelligence, there might have been some possibility of communicating with them, but that possibility was gone now. He decided not to dwell on it and moved on to another matter.

"You said the runes protect the buildings. Can you get them? I mean the design of the runes themselves, not necessarily the actual materials."

"I’ll try to see if I can get them. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll ask around and see what information I can find," Ben answered.

Alex nodded before turning toward the next issue. "Alright, then I have two more things I want you to check. First, what about the portals? Do they have them in Easy Difficulty, and can we connect those portals to the ones on Earth? Secondly, I need to you check if there is information on how to reset one’s Species Level so that they can absorb better Gene Potentials."

Ben nodded. "Yes, we do have portals in easy difficulty. Actually, the officials in the area gathered us together and explained that the portals can be connected to the portals in our world. They also confirmed that we can bring more Ascendants through them. However, they won’t give us access to the portals for free. The officials said they will sell the portals after a week through an auction."

Alex finally received confirmation of something he had been hoping to hear for a long time. The number of Ascendants in each difficulty could be replenished, which meant they weren’t permanently limited to the people who had survived the initial assessment. That was good news, and honestly, it was even better than he had expected.

If they could bring more Ascendants into the different difficulties, they could prepare for the second assessment. However, the actions of the Land of Origin were still difficult for Alex to accept.

His logical mind understood what they were doing. They weren’t responsible for helping Earth, and from their perspective, selling something valuable through an auction was simply another way to make money. Still, they were willing to sell access to something that could save thousands, if not tens of thousands, of lives, and that told Alex a lot about what kind of place the Land of Origin was.

It was a brutal world where life could be worth less than currency.

’Well, even in our world, life can be worth less than currency.’

There was one major difference, though. Power. In the Land of Origin, Ascendants could continue growing stronger until they reached a level where other people had no choice but to follow their words unless they wanted to be crushed.

Alex once again confirmed his goal of becoming stronger. If he eventually reached a very high level, and could enter the Easy Difficulty, he would use force to obtain the things he needed if there was no other option, because if the people there were willing to behave this way, he saw no reason why he had to remain completely passive.

Honestly, Alex understood that the people of the Land of Origin weren’t technically doing anything wrong. They were simply taking advantage of an opportunity and using their position to earn as much as possible, but his mood was already worse because of everything that had happened with his mother. Knowing that someone could place money above thousands of lives only made those emotions harder to ignore.

Sighing inwardly, Alex looked at Ben. "Alright, then I’ll get you materials from High Rank species. I don’t know how much they’ll be worth, but I’ll try to get as many as possible for the auction."

Ben’s eyes widened. "You hunted a High Rank species already?"

Alex nodded, and Ben, Edward, Kevin, and Robert all looked at him in surprise. They had known that Alex was strong, but hearing that he had already hunted a High Rank species clearly made it difficult for them to understand how quickly he was progressing.

Robert eventually let out a quiet sigh and shook his head with a wry smile. "The more I hear about what you’ve been doing, the harder it is for me to believe that I was friends with someone as amazing as you."

Alex ignored the comment, since he did not know how to respond to that, and turned his attention back toward Ben. "Keep the second thing I mentioned in mind as well. I need you to find out whether there’s any information about resetting someone’s Species Level so they can absorb better Gene Potentials."

Ben nodded. "I’ll ask about it. If there is any information available, I’ll try to bring it back."

Alex nodded before asking another question. "What about Normal Difficulty and Hard Difficulty? What happened there?"

"In Normal Difficulty, the monsters became more frenzied and stronger during the night. It seems the change was different from what happened in Easy Difficulty, but it still made surviving after dark much harder," Ben explained.

He continued. "Hard Difficulty was even worse because the environment itself became extremely lethal. People in deserts found the temperature dropping to freezing levels during the night, while those in marshlands discovered that the air had become poisonous. Different regions were affected in different ways, but almost everywhere became more dangerous."

Alex nodded as he considered the information. The assessment wasn’t simply increasing the strength of monsters; it seemed that each difficulty had its own method of making survival harder, and the higher the difficulty became, the more difficult it was to rely on familiar methods of survival.

Kevin had been listening quietly until then, but he finally looked toward Alex with a serious expression. "What happened in Hell Difficulty?"

"The light disappeared, and even the light we produced couldn’t illuminate the area properly because the third moon in the sky was absorbing it. Then the water level started rising so quickly that it felt as though the entire island was sinking. We were also attacked by a marine Mid Rank species monster that was about the size of the Wild Orcs, along with countless other monsters," Alex explained.

He added, "After reaching high ground, we had to choose between endlessly fighting monsters until we were exhausted to death or raiding a Mid Rank species dungeon. We chose the dungeon, and after clearing it, we encountered a High Rank species monster."

This time, Ben, Edward, Kevin, and Robert all stared at Alex with their mouths slightly open. None of them seemed to know how they were supposed to react after hearing what had happened in Hell Difficulty.

"What the hell? That place really is hell. Even just one of those things sounds like a nightmare," Robert finally said with a stunned expression.

Edward sighed and shook his head. "Hearing all of that really explains why our difficulty is called Easy. Compared to what you experienced, our situation really isn’t that bad."

Kevin looked at Alex with a complicated expression before quietly asking, "So... how many casualties did you have?"

The others also looked toward Alex after hearing the question. Judging from their expressions, they had already assumed that Alex’s group must have lost a significant number of people after going through so many dangerous situations.

"None," Alex answered calmly.

Kevin blinked, and stared at him in confusion, as though he wasn’t sure whether he had heard the answer correctly. After a moment, he finally asked, "Didn’t you just say that you lost your vision, were attacked by marine monsters larger than buildings, entered a Mid Rank dungeon, and then encountered a High Rank monster after leaving it? How were there no casualty after all of that?"

..

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