Chapter 306: Second Assessment

Alex nodded before explaining his reasoning. "I believe the second Assessment might happen in seven days, and if we fail it, the situation could become much worse. We probably won’t be able to bring more Ascenders to Hell Difficulty unless we conquer a portal, and failing the Assessment could cause more monsters to appear on Earth, leading to more deaths and leaving us with fewer people who can become Ascenders."

Yulia frowned slightly as she considered his explanation. "But why do you think the second Assessment will happen in seven days rather than two weeks or a month?"

Alex looked around at everyone, noticing that the others were equally curious about his reasoning. However, before he could answer, he noticed Matthew’s eyes widening slightly, and Joseph soon displayed a similar reaction as they began connecting the pieces themselves.

"The System seems to prefer rounded numbers. When it first announced its arrival, we were given five minutes before the apocalypse began, and afterward, we received five minutes to choose our difficulty and Class, followed by another five minutes with our guide. The first Assessment also began twelve hours after the apocalypse started, and the required number of survivors for each difficulty was one million," Alex explained.

He paused briefly before continuing, making sure everyone understood what he was getting at. "The System doesn’t seem to choose arbitrary numbers like seven minutes, eleven hours, or 934,241 survivors when setting its major rules. Instead, it seems to favor numbers that people commonly consider significant or complete, so I suspect the second Assessment will happen after seven days, ten days, one month, or three months."

"That’s... quite a wild guess," Yulia admitted, although she no longer sounded as dismissive as before.

"But it’s a logical deduction based on the information we have," Joseph replied, nodding thoughtfully. "We don’t know how the System operates, but Alex has identified a pattern in its previous decisions, and I think we should take that possibility seriously."

"I agree with Joseph. We can’t afford to assume that we have plenty of time when the consequences of being wrong could be disastrous," Matthew added.

"So, we have seven days to prepare, and we might need to conquer the portal even earlier than that, so that we have enough time to bring Ascendant to Hell Difficulty," Emma groaned. After thinking about it for a moment, she sighed and added, "I hope those Mountain Spiders taste good, because if we’re going to risk our lives fighting something that dangerous, I want the meat to be worth the trouble."

"Let’s worry about the Kraken Dungeon first. It contains High Rank Species monsters, and we don’t know how long it’ll take us to defeat them or how much stronger we’ll become in the process," Matthew said with an amused smile.

"Oh, Krakens taste good!" Emma replied immediately, apparently satisfied with the suggestion.

Alex wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry at their conversation, so he simply shook his head and stood up. "I’m going to the top of the mountain, so you should all return to the Badger Dungeon and wait there. You can come back later, after I’ve finished hunting the monster."

"What monst— Ah!" Matthew began before suddenly understanding what Alex meant. He nodded. "Got it."

"What monster?" Emma asked.

"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" Joseph asked.

"Yes, I’m sure. If we want to enter the Sunken Vault Dungeon of krakens’ tomorrow, I need to become strong enough to handle this much on my own, and I can’t afford to waste the remaining time," Alex replied.

"Hey, what monster are we talking about here?" Emma asked again.

"If the fight becomes too dangerous, call us immediately, and we’ll come to help you," Yulia added. She didn’t seem entirely comfortable with his decision, but she understood why he wanted to become stronger as quickly as possible.

"You’re all ignoring me on purpose now, aren’t you?" Emma pouted, earning several chuckles from the others.

Afterward, the group settled down and began discussing their techniques, spells, Blessings, and Curses, hoping to identify ways to improve their combat abilities before entering the Kraken Dungeon. Samuel still refused to explain how his Blessing allowed him to control space, but Daniel was more willing to discuss his Technique for releasing an arc of Aura.

Daniel explained that Aura was relatively easy to control and could temper the body, allowing its user to improve their physical abilities and stats quite quickly. However, its greatest disadvantage was that it couldn’t remain stable for long after leaving the body, causing projected Aura to weaken rapidly before eventually dispersing.

His Class allowed him to overcome some of those limitations and perform an Aura Slash, but even then, the attack lasted less than three seconds and required considerable preparation. Other people would find the Technique even more difficult to use without possessing a similar Class, so Alex suggested that they focus on improving their existing abilities rather than attempting to copy Techniques they couldn’t properly control.

The discussion continued for some time, with everyone sharing whatever information they could about their abilities. Once they had finished eating and exchanging ideas, Alex finally left the group and began walking toward the mountain where he intended to train.

When he reached the top, he carefully examined the surrounding area, searching for any sign of the Star Plum Arasia fruit described in the Rune Compendium. He didn’t know what it looked like, but since the book had provided so many details about its properties and the conditions required for its appearance without describing its appearance itself, he suspected that identifying it wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

’The fruit should appear here either today or within the next few days, so I need to keep an eye on the area while preparing for the Basilisk to arrive,’ Alex thought.

This was the same mountain where the Stone Basilisk’s egg and one of its parents had died, and Alex was certain that the surviving parent would eventually return. During their previous encounter, he had nearly died fighting a Basilisk that was already on the verge of death, and he knew that facing a fully rested and uninjured one would be considerably more dangerous.

Under normal circumstances, Alex might have postponed such a dangerous battle until he had grown stronger, but their situation no longer allowed him that luxury. With the possibility of the second Assessment looming over them and the portal still guarded by four Mountain Spiders, he couldn’t afford to wait for the perfect opportunity.

He took a deep breath and began preparing for the fight, determined to make the most of the time they had left. If he wanted everyone to survive the challenges ahead, he would have to become stronger, even if doing so meant risking his life against a powerful enemy.

He felt a strange mixture of emotions as he stood on the mountain, knowing that he was about to kill the surviving member of the Basilisk family. He couldn’t tell whether it was guilt, but the thought made him somewhat uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, he had no intention of changing his decision, because the Basilisk would kill him without hesitation if their positions were reversed. This place was a jungle where powerful creatures hunted weaker ones to survive, and Alex had no intention of becoming someone else’s prey.

He took several more deep breaths before activating his Advanced Battle Instincts Spell and gradually increasing its power to the maximum, then overloading it. His surroundings slowly became dull as his mind concentrated entirely on the task at hand, until everything except mana seemed to disappear from his awareness.

..

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