Grand Endless Grassland (4)

At first, he was overwhelmed, by the sudden influx of information. But it didn't take him long to figure out, how to filter the information, thus reducing the strain on his brain.

He didn't need to know every detail, but only the rough outlines. For monsters that were more than enough to detect them and for herbs, it was enough to determine if he should check in more detail.

Now that he was able to sense his surroundings, his speed once again increased. Although he didn't avoid the wolves he found, he was prepared for them before they could attack him. This meant that he had now a much easier time one-shotting them.

Like this, he slowly made his way forward. One wolf became two wolves and then three wolves. Finally, each group had at least five wolves and sometimes even seven.

While he was easily able to handle the groups of three or fewer wolves when he got to the groups of more than that, he started to have to exert all his skill to handle them. While fighting, he slowly fell into a trance. His moves became instinctually, greatly reducing his reaction time.

This way, he fought his way closer to the target of the floor.

He didn't know how much time had passed, or how many wolves he had killed when an alert broke him out of his trance.

<< You have reached the first checkpoint. All team members can now choose to leave the floor at any time they want. >>

Surprised, Ivan looked around.

In front of him stood a gray stone statue of a wolf, just like the ones he had killed all the time. Red veins were going through the statue, most of them were a vibrant blood red, while the others were less vibrant, or even gray, with only a slight tinge of red differentiation them from the rest of the statue.

"This must be the checkpoint.", Ivan murmured, "But what do these veins mean?"

There was no explanation for them, so Ivan could only ignore them for now.

He took a look at the time and found that it was nearly midnight. "Damn, did so much time really pass?", he asked in shock. Just to start cursing after the implications sank in.

Although others could take care of Jane, he had wanted to go home and play with her. Because it was the first time her mother had left her alone, it wouldn't be good, if her father didn't come home in time as well.

"Let's check on the others and then hurry home.", he decided. Although it was way past sleeping time for Jane, he wasn't sure if she had already gone to bed, or if she was waiting for him, "I hope Celine or Lucia have managed to get her to sleep."

He used the System to contact the other in the group.

The others had stayed close to the platform. There they would only meet lone wolves, which they could defeat in their groups of two. This way each of them had helped slay at least twenty wolves, which was much more than they had ever expected.

The only problem was, that there was still no way to leave the floor and none of them was willing to die just yet. Although there was no connection to the outside, their parents knew that they were going to train in the Training Dungeon. And since it was well known, that one couldn't really die in it, they wouldn't be too worried.

None of the members of the group was the kind to stupidly throw away their life again and again, as some people did. The biggest danger for people fighting in the Training Dungeon was to go crazy.

While one couldn't die, continued torture or repeated deaths could screw with one's mind. Luckily, enemies, that would torture one were only possible in floors higher than 100. And if one got repeatedly killed, then one could only blame oneself. If an enemy is impossible to defeat, then one should know when to stop and come back after some more training.

Since getting killed would enable one to respawn in the entrance hall, there was no reason to experience death after death.

Another big problem they had was the mental pressure. Although the platform seemed safe from the wolves, that wasn't sure. Thus they had to constantly be on the lookout for wolves to attack them. Together with the physical strain from fighting so many monsters, this served to exhaust them even more.

It had been more than two hours that they had left the platform. If not for Ivan still running around in this grassland, they would have already gone out and suicided while fighting some wolves. Killing themselves was never an option for them, although that may be less painful.

Now they were just sitting on the platform, with one person standing guard, while waiting for Ivan to come back.

But instead of him coming back, they received a notification from the System.

<< A member of your team has reached the first checkpoint. All team members can now choose to leave the floor at any time they want. >>

Together with the notification, an icon appeared on their HUD. It looked like a door and when concentrating on it one would get the information that through activating it one would be teleported to the entrance hall of the dungeon.

When the notification appeared the group spontaneously broke out in loud cheers. It was clear, that Ivan had somehow managed to reach the first checkpoint. And unlike usually or reported by other teams, it seemed like one member reaching the checkpoint was enough to allow everyone on the team to leave the floor.

Of course, leaving the floor would mean forfeiting any progress they may have made. But that was of no consideration for them. The progress wasn't much anyway and it was more important to recuperate and relax for a bit.

"Let's contact Ivan and then leave.", Lars said excitedly.

The others too urged Tina to contact Ivan. Everyone was very eager to finally leave.

Before Tina could contact Ivan, he contacted her instead. "Wow, Ivan. I didn't expect you could reach the checkpoint solo. How did you do that?"

Hearing her question, the others stared at her with anger. How could she waste time with this question? There was enough time to ask it later. For now, it was imperative to get out of here.

Luckily, Ivan wasn't in the mood to talk about it either. Especially since he couldn't remember everything either. Instead, he directly asked, "Anyone wants to stay here or should we leave?"

It had never been a question for anyone in the group, to leave alone, while others stayed. They were a team and as such, they would leave as a team as well.

"Of course we want to leave!", everyone exclaimed.

"Great, then let's get out of it." Without any hesitation, everyone used the teleport to leave the floor.

At nearly the same time, the members of the group appeared in the entrance hall. Besides Ivan everyone let themselves fall to the floor.

"Damn, this was torture.", Tom groaned. He who usually didn't have to do direct fighting had to tank for his sister. As a priest, he had some skills that would make it easier for him to take an attack than Tina, so per default, he had become the tank in their two-man group.

Susan wasn't in a much better state. True, she was much better in defending than Tom, but she didn't have his healing spells. Although Tom had healed her whenever they met at the platform until then she had to bear the pain.

Looking at everyone on the floor, Ivan smiled slightly, instantly getting glares in response.

"What are you looking at? Isn't all this your fault.", Tina angrily said.

Ivan just shrugged and responded, "How so? We all choose Nightmare Mode together, so you can't put the fault onto me. And besides, if I didn't reach the checkpoint, how would you have gotten out in such a comfortable way?"

"Right, shouldn't you be even more exhausted than us?", having realized that Ivan was still standing there with ease, Susan asked in surprise.

"It's not the first time I had to be wary for a long time. You get used to it and learn to relax whenever possible. In truth, it is possible to be alert for a long time if you train it. The main point is to know when to relax and what to relax. For example, you can close your eyes and instead use your ears, if your eyes get too strained. In most cases, there is no sense to have all your senses on full alert. By rotating them, it can massively reduce the strain on them as well as the brain. After all the different parts of the brain are used to analyze the input from your senses."