Chapter 569: The Situation Is Getting Out of Control

"I've never felt such chilling evil before," the man said with a slight grin after the three of them had locked the window and returned to their hiding place beneath the bed.

Now it was impossible for anyone outside to enter the house through that window.

Not that the members of the third group should have been trying to get inside in the first place. Their task had been to distract the giants and inform the other trial takers of the plan.

They had clearly failed.

Judging by the sheer number of trial takers desperately jumping from the roof in panic, the giants had prepared this assault with frightening precision. Kill notifications poured in one after another.

Fortunately, their hiding place inside the house was currently one of the safest locations imaginable. None of the giants even considered checking the rooms on the first floor. Even if one eventually did, they now had several escape routes.

During the past few hours, Thalion's two companions had dug three tunnels leading down to the ground floor. One connected to the kitchen, while the other two emerged inside the living room. They weren't completely finished yet. A thin layer of wall still separated each tunnel from its destination, allowing them to remain hidden until the last possible moment.

"Do you think we received an exceptionally difficult version of the third system event?" Thalion wondered aloud. "I can't believe E-grades are supposed to survive against these giants."

"It has to be," the insectoid woman replied. "Otherwise, the death toll during this system event would be unimaginably high."

"No," the man interrupted in a know-it-all tone. "Every system event has to be the same. Anything else would be completely unfair."

As though someone had been listening to their conversation, another system notification appeared.

175 trial takers have been slain by the giants

The giants gain increased agility and perception until the end of the trial

A new buff will now be granted every ten kills

This trial is unique and the only one of its kind for participants who previously placed first in a system event

"Did the administrator just answer our question?" the man asked, completely bewildered.

His surprise was immediately drowned out by the insectoid woman's outburst.

"The stupid giants get another buff every ten kills? That can't be good."

Thalion silently agreed.

This was becoming increasingly grim. If the slaughter continued at the current pace, only a tiny fraction of the trial takers who had entered the game would survive.

The three of them remained beneath the bed as the hours slowly passed.

There was little left to do.

Every so often, Thalion used the Specter of the Eternal Dream to inspect the living room and kitchen.

The giants still hadn't realized that the stew contained no blood.

Occasionally, they tossed another dead trial taker into the cauldron, but every opportunity Thalion got, he secretly drained every drop of blood from the mixture before it could accumulate.

More than five hours had passed by now. The stew should have been finished long ago, yet none of the giants had even tasted it once.

Thalion guessed they were saving it for the final phase of the trial.

He had also scouted the outside of the house to see whether anyone had continued digging tunnels from the exterior walls.

No one had.

The surviving trial takers were all hiding among the carnivorous plants, scattering the moment a giant approached.

To make hunting easier, the giants had begun carrying enormous nets attached to long poles.

Even so, the remaining trial takers refused to die easily.

Thalion watched a silver werewolf evade a giant's net and grasping hands for over ten minutes before finally escaping.

The surviving D-grades had gradually adapted to the giants' hunting methods, and even the giants were beginning to struggle to catch them on their own.

For Thalion, that was perfect.

The more time the giants needed to kill the trial takers outside, the greater Thalion's chances of surviving became. As long as hundreds of participants were still running through the garden, the giants had no reason to search the first floor.

Every half hour, several giants climbed the massive ladders back onto the roof to hunt the trial takers who had retreated there to escape both the giants and the monstrous cat-dog roaming the garden. After witnessing what had happened earlier, however, no one dared enter the chimney anymore, even though Thalion had already disarmed the traps and all but one giant had left the house.

This chapter is published by its author on the NovelPhoenix site, but the version here was copied without permission.

The giant responsible for brewing the stew occasionally stopped stirring the cauldron to patrol the house, but it never ventured onto the first floor or into the cellar.

As the hours passed, the number of surviving trial takers steadily declined, making it painfully obvious that the giants were growing stronger with every ten kills.

After eighteen hours of the first trial, more than two hundred participants had already lost their lives.

The giants were finding it much harder to secure kills than they had at the beginning, but that was about to change.

Thalion frequently used the Specter of the Eternal Dream to monitor the kitchen. By now, the giants had attempted to drink the stew several times, yet it still failed to produce any effect.

An especially massive giant with a flattened nose and two missing teeth had repeatedly roared at the cook in frustration. Since then, the giant tending the cauldron hadn't left it even once.

More and more dead trial takers were being thrown into the stew, and for the first time, Thalion saw no way to interfere.

The giants knew someone had been sabotaging their potion.

He simply couldn't get close enough anymore.

He had even attempted to approach from below by guiding the specter through the floor and directly into the cauldron. It had accomplished nothing. The moment the specter touched the metal of the pot, it was instantly destroyed.

The stew wasn't the only growing problem.

By now, most of the surviving trial takers had realized that the traps inside the house had been disabled. Growing increasingly desperate, many began entering the house again.

It was an incredibly risky decision, but the remaining survivors were either chosen or exceptionally capable fighters.

As a result, more and more trial takers abandoned the garden and sought refuge inside the building instead.

Naturally, the giants noticed.

With the stew nearing completion, the final hours of the trial promised to be anything but pleasant.

Other than sabotaging the potion whenever an opportunity presented itself, there was little for Thalion to do.

While his companions continued digging additional tunnels in preparation for the inevitable confrontation, he could do little besides waiting.

Looking back, taking the risk of infiltrating the house early had unquestionably been the right decision.

Eventually, several trial takers attempted to enter through the windows from outside.

One particularly powerful chosen solved the problem by smashing part of a window frame apart with an unbelievably ferocious punch.

That marked the end of their peaceful hiding place.

Everyone outside had witnessed the opening, and many who had grown tired of endlessly fleeing through the garden decided that hiding inside the house was now the safer option.

It didn't take long before windows in the neighboring rooms were shattered as well.

It was only a matter of time before someone discovered the carefully prepared tunnel network.

"No way!" one of the newcomers exclaimed loudly after finding the three of them sitting beneath the bed. "You three have been relaxing in here while we were risking our lives outside. Couldn't you have told someone?"

The man looked human at first glance, but his bright green eyes each possessed two irises, and his massive build rivaled that of an ogre.

His expression could only be described as wicked.

"Really?" the insectoid woman hissed. "Why exactly should we risk our lives to tell you anything? Anyone capable of counting should have figured out that most of the giants were outside. Was that the priceless information you were looking for?"

Thalion suspected she was a chosen as well.

The fact that both of them had begun releasing their auras—while the newcomer's was clearly the stronger of the two—did little to improve the situation.

"If more people keep entering the house," Thalion interrupted calmly, "it'll soon become even more dangerous than the garden. The tunnels we created to connect the rooms won't be enough, if too many people start using them."

That fnally drew the broad-shouldered chosen's attention toward him.

"Ah, the famous Thalion." The broad-shouldered chosen smiled coldly. "I can't believe a weakling like you managed to win two system events. My patron told me I'd receive a handsome reward if I were the one to snap your neck."

For a brief moment, Thalion considered interrupting the man's monologue by dashing forward and cutting off his head with Saranya.

He dismissed the thought almost immediately.

When it came to raw combat ability, this chosen clearly surpassed him. The difference between an E-grade and a D-grade wasn't something Thalion could simply ignore, especially when facing a chosen.

"Now that you're standing right in front of me," the man continued, "I, Bartivel, chosen of Hargud the Slaughterer, see no reason to let you leave this room alive."

Every instinct screamed at Thalion to run.

His title warned him that Bartivel was moments away from attacking.

Fortunately, more trial takers entered the room at that exact moment.

"Hey, Bartivel! Have you completely lost your mind?" a woman with blazing red hair shouted. "The giants will be here the moment they sense your aura."

"Ah, Minerva. Good to see you again." Bartivel smirked. "I thought one of the giants had eaten you the last time."

Despite his mocking tone, he withdrew his aura.

Minerva's sharp eyes immediately swept across the room. It took her only a few seconds to notice the hidden tunnels.

"Nicely done," she said with genuine admiration. "Connecting the rooms with tunnels was a clever idea."

"It won't stay useful if too many people come inside," the man who had helped dig the tunnels replied. "We've been sabotaging the giants' potion throughout the entire trial, but now they're guarding it too closely."

For a brief moment, Thalion considered pointing out that creating the tunnel network had been his idea and that he alone had prevented the potion from being completed.

He ultimately remained silent.

"Splendid," Minerva muttered. "I thought they'd already finished the potion, considering how often they've been returning to the kitchen."

She looked around the room before smiling.

"Since you've had plenty of time to prepare all of this, how about we exchange information? I'll tell you everything that's been happening in the garden, and in return, you explain what happened inside the house. I heard the giants filled it with traps."

Minerva had to be one of the stronger chosen.

Even Bartivel kept his aura restrained and quietly stepped away from Thalion.

You're lucky I'm not a D-grade, Thalion thought.

Otherwise, you'd already be dead.

Outwardly, however, he remained perfectly calm, carefully suppressing every trace of killing intent.

To be fair, even if his expression betrayed him, no one would have noticed beneath his mask.

"Sure," the insectoid woman replied with a friendly smile, seemingly relieved to be speaking with someone more reasonable. "We connected every room on the first floor with tunnels and dug several passages leading down into the living room and kitchen."

Thalion, however, had an entirely different opinion of Minerva.

His title warned him that she was lying through her teeth.

Every sentence she spoke about the situation outside, especially her explanations about the garden and ways to evade the giants' monstrous pet, was false.

In hindsight, Thalion should have expected as much.

To expose her, one only had to glance at Bartivel's face.